Dead End

He returned with the file and opened it on Mancini’s desk.

“Okay, here’s the list of perso

“How do you know Lowery was murdered?”

“Sir, everyone in this unit knows she was murdered.”

“And you found all three of those items in the McCullum file yesterday? Doesn’t that strike you as odd?” John leaned back in his chair, and Luther could feel his eyes bore through him.

“Yes, of course it does.” Luther nodded calmly. “I was thinking, if someone had gone to the pains to remove the reports in the first place, why didn’t they just destroy them? It makes no sense to hide them in another file, where they could be found, but who knows what this person was thinking? Maybe he’d just stuck them in there to get rid of them when someone else came in the room, and meant to go back to get them… I don’t know. I wasn’t the one who put them in there in the first place. I only found them.”

He flipped open the cover of the file and took out the three documents under discussion. He handed them in turn to Mancini. “Here’s the sketch Lou Raymond made of the scene, showing where everyone was at the time of the shooting. Here’s the report from Melissa Lowery, and the memo to the file from Co

He gave John a minute to look over the documents, then said, “You’ll notice Brendan Shields is not listed on the perso

John studied the sketch.

“Here you see who all went into the building; Lou places them all right here.” Luther pointed to the sketch showing six stick figures representing each of the agents who had gone into the building after Dylan had been shot. “Brendan is not represented on the sketch.”

“So we have one report indicating that Brendan was on the scene, in the building, with a high-powered rifle-despite the fact that his name does not appear on the list of assigned perso

“And, sir, you have the report from Co

“The significance of that is…” John skimmed the report. “Of course. I remember. Co

He stopped in midsentence, took off his glasses, and rubbed his eyes.

“They looked so much alike, even someone in their own family couldn’t tell them apart in the dark.” Luther finished the sentence.

“You seem to be implying that Brendan thought he was killing Co

“I think the evidence could be interpreted that way.”

“Why would Brendan want to kill Co

“I guess you would have to ask Co

“I guess I will.” John nodded. “In the meantime, let’s get back to what happened tonight.”

“Yes, sir. I went to Brendan Shields’s home with the copies I’d made of the reports.”

“Was he expecting you?”

“Well, I’d called him earlier in the afternoon, and-”

“Did you tell him what you’d found?”

“Not in so many words, but I may have implied it. I probably did.” Luther appeared contrite for a moment. “In retrospect, I should have kept my mouth shut about that.”

“What time was that?”

“Late afternoon, early evening. Maybe around six or so.”

John gestured for him to continue.

“Anyway, I called him again, just a few minutes before I arrived. I’d been to his house once before, but wasn’t sure of where to turn off Capital Road. He told me he was just leaving, and that now wasn’t a good time for me to come by. He tried to brush me off, but since I was almost there-”

“Did he give you directions then?”

“No…”

“You said you weren’t sure where you were going. How did you find the house?”

“A lucky guess, I suppose.”

“Lucky for Dr. McCall.” Kimble nodded.

“Yes. Well, I pulled up in front of the house, and I saw Agent Shields exiting the front door with Dr. McCall. He had her by the arm, and it looked as if he was steering her along. I got out of the car and called to him. He turned slightly, and that’s when I saw he had his gun in his right hand.”

“Where was the gun pointed?”

“Square at Dr. McCall’s back.”

“So you did what?”

“I called to him to drop the gun, to let her go. But he sort of pulled her in front of him as he came down the sidewalk. By this time, he had the gun raised and pointed in my direction, and he appeared to be about to fire, so I fired first. There were civilians in the area, the woman next door had started out of her house and went back in-”

“How many shots did you fire?”

“Two.”

“How many shots did Agent Shields fire?”

“None, sir. I shot him before he could fire.”

“And both of your shots struck Agent Shields.”

“Yes, sir.” Luther lowered his voice and tried to appear sorrowful. He gave it his all. “Sir, I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am that this happened. I’ve known Agent Shields for years-God, we worked together-I couldn’t believe what I was seeing in that file. I wanted to talk to him about it, I thought there must be another explanation. That’s why I went there. I wanted him to tell me there was another reason why he’d been in that building before the rest of the team went in, why he was there at all, since he hadn’t been part of that team.” Luther looked up at his boss and said sadly, “I’d tried, but I couldn’t think of one.”

“Why do you suppose Dr. McCall was there?”

“I have no idea, sir. I guess you’ll have to talk to her about that.”

“Oh, I’ll definitely do that.”

“Just out of curiosity, why had you pulled the McCullum file?” John asked.

“Oh. Well, I was looking for the name of a CI that we used in that case. I have another case in Detroit and I could use a little inside information.”

“Did you find it?”

“Yes, thanks. I already put in a call.”

“Good. In the meantime, we owe you a huge thank-you. It appears you may very well have saved Dr. McCall’s life. Of course we need your gun and your badge until the investigation is complete…”

Luther nodded solemnly.

“… and the Director is going to want to talk to you first thing in the morning. He and the Shields brothers-that’s the last generation, Thomas and Frank-go way back. This is going to be very hard on everyone; I’m sure you understand that. But God only knows what might have happened to A

“I only did what any of us would have done, sir.”