Wounded Falcon: Brotherhood Protectors World Page 5
“This is an internal investigation,” Rice said. “Agent Andrews is not under arrest. He is currently . . . in the field . . . on assignment.”
“We’d like to begin, please,” Summer Rose said.
“That suits me as well,” Rice agreed. “Agent Love?”
Special Agent Julie Love turned to face Lindsay, who was seated across from her. The FBI Investigator was in her late thirties or early forties, with medium-length sandy-brown hair, a light complexion and a smattering of freckles across her cheekbones. She was well-built. She wore a professional dark suit. She obviously worked hard to maintain an athletic build. No makeup, Lindsay noticed. None needed.
“Ms. Vanderbilt, this is an informal interview. You are not currently under investigation.”
Summer Rose made note of Agent Love’s use of the word, ‘currently,’ meant as intimidation, no doubt.
“Then why is she being questioned?” Summer Rose replied.
“We are seeking information regarding an ongoing investigation into one of our agents, Jim Andrews, but you already knew that.”
“What is the nature of this investigation?” Summer Rose asked.
“That’s classified,” Kelsey answered.
Robert Kelsey was a tall, gangly man in his late-forties, Lindsay noted. His suit was right out of the FBI apparel playbook, though it looked to be a size or two too large for his frame. He was balding with a smattering of short, wispy black hair on the top, thicker on the sides.
“Jim Andrews is a fine man,” Lindsay said. “He wouldn’t do anything wrong.”
“May I call you Lindsay?” Love asked, ignoring her last remark.
“Yes.”
“You’re married, I see. What is your husband’s name?”
“Matty. Mathias Yellow Wolf.”
“But you still go by Vanderbilt, is that correct?”
“Yes, I do.”
“How well do you know Special Agent Andrews?” Love asked.
“Pretty well, I guess,” Lindsay replied. “He was assigned to my kidnapping case when I was sixteen. I’ve seen him several times since. More recently, he helped a friend of mine, Ska Long Ghost, when she was being threatened and harassed by her former drug dealer.”
“We know all about that,” Love said.
“Then you know what a great man Andrews is.”
Love did not respond to the comment.
“So, you first met Jim Andrews years ago when you were only sixteen-years-old. That’s about nine years ago, is that right?” Love asked.
“Yes.”
“You’d been kidnapped,” Love continued. “That must have been a harrowing experience.”
“It was,” she admitted.
“Tell me about it,” Love requested.
“Well, I was visiting home from school,” Lindsay began.
“You were going to school in England, correct?” Love interjected.
“Yes.”
“And you lived with both your parents in Los Angeles?”
“That’s right.”
“Yet, you stopped in Chicago? Why?”
“I told my mom I was visiting a girlfriend,” Lindsay said, “but really I was visiting my boyfriend at the time.”
“Go on,” Love urged, “what happened?”
“After I got off the plane in Chicago, two men followed me to the train station in a van. One of the men jumped out of the vehicle, slipped a bag over my head and dragged me into the van.”
“And that man was . . .?”
“Jackson,” she clarified.
Love looked down at her papers, looking confused, “Who?”
Summer Rose chimed in, “Ms. Vanderbilt is referring to John Rainhorse. ‘Jackson’ is a nickname.”
“I see,” Love acknowledged. “This is a nickname you gave to him, am I correct?”
“Yes.”
“Do you always give endearing nicknames to men who have violently taken you by force and hurt you?”
“No, of course not,” Lindsay rebutted. “Rainhorse did take me by force, true, but he never hurt me. As it turned out, the man who hired him to kidnap me, a man named Barnabas Quince, lied to him. Barnabas told Jackson . . . uh, Rainhorse, that he was after ransom money and would release me, but he never intended to let me go.”
“Go on. What happened next?”
“Jackson saved my life,” Lindsay continued. “His partner in the kidnapping tried to rape me and Jackson . . . well, he . . .”
“Killed the man,” Love finished. “Jingles, I believe, was the man’s name.”
“That’s right. After Jackson found out that Barnabas intended to murder me when the ransom was collected. At that point, he put me in his car and drove me home at great risk to his own life. Barnabas’ men came after us hard. It was only by the grace of god, we made it. Rainhorse nearly died. In fact, we thought he was dead.”
“And that’s when Special Agent Andrews got involved?”
“Correct. My step-father, Sam Steele, called the FBI when he realized I was missing. It was Jim who was assigned to the case.”
“Jim?”
“Yes, Jim.”
“Do you always call FBI Agents by their first name?”
“No, just Jim.”
“So, Andrews led the FBI team in the investigation to find you?”
“That’s right.”
“As I read the report it sounds like Barnabas Quince’s men found you before the FBI got there. It appears quite the shootout took place.”
“It was horrible,” Lindsay recalled. “I was certain I was going to die.”
“But Rainhorse saved you once again.”
“He did.”
“When Andrews arrived, Rainhorse was gone, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Lindsay, I’m confused by something,” Love said, flipping through the pages in front of her. “Maybe you can clarify this for me. According to your own statement at the time, and according to the statement given by your step-father, Sam Steele, Rainhorse was very badly wounded. In fact, according to the statement made by Sam Steele, he claimed to have checked Rainhorse’s vital signs and declared the man was dead.”
“Well, I think it’s pretty obvious by now that he didn’t die,” Lindsay said.
“Yes. He got away,” Love commented, “but a man who was that wounded had to have help.”
“I’m sure he did.”
“My question is . . . who helped him?”
Lindsay paused. Love smiled. Her question made Lindsay very uncomfortable and Love could see it in her eyes.
“Lindsay,” Love continued. “Would you like me to repeat the question?”
Summer Rose, too, saw the reaction to the question in Lindsay’s eyes. She decided to step in.
“Agent Love, what does this line of questioning have to do with Agent Andrews?”
Love ignored Summer Rose. Her eyes were fixed on Lindsay.
“Ms. Vanderbilt, did Agent Jim Andrews help Rainhorse get away?”
“No, he didn’t,” Lindsay claimed, clearly shaken.
“Well, then who helped him?”
“He was helped by . . . someone else,” Lindsay said, weakly.
“I’ll repeat my question, Ms. Vanderbilt,” Love said. “Who helped him?”
Lindsay froze; she breathed in and held it.
“I need five minutes alone with my client,” Summer Rose snapped.
Chapter 5
“This is an informal interview, Ms. Red Feather,” Rice argued, “not a deposition. We’ve only been talking for fifteen minutes. We don’t need a break.”
“With all due respect, Director Rice, Lindsay Vanderbilt is here as a courtesy. If you want us to remain, you’ll give me five minutes to confer with her.”
Kelsey rolled his eyes in disgust.
“Very well, we’ll leave,” Rice grumbled, pushing back from the table.
“No, we’ll step outside,” Summer Rose insisted. “I need to use the restroom anyway. Come on Lindsay.”
“Seco
nd door on your right,” Love said.
Agent Love stared at Lindsay as she and Summer Rose left the room. Once in the restroom, Summer Rose verified no one else was present and spoke.
“What happened back there?” she asked.
“Why are we talking in the restroom?” Lindsay asked.
“It’s the only place I’m certain we can talk without being watched or listened to.”
“What are you trying to hide? Did Andrews really help Rainhorse escape?”
“No,” Lindsay said. “Ellie Limberhand helped Jackson.”
“Why can’t you just tell them that?”
“Because I promised Jackson I’d never tell anyone about Ellie Limberhand,” she said. “Ellie has been helping Jackson for many, many years and only a select few know of her existence. Me, you, Red, Matty, Neha and Ska Long Ghost. That’s it.”
“Lindsay, if you don’t answer their questions, two things happen.” Summer Rose explained. “One, the FBI will believe you are lying to cover up what they feel is a fact Andrews did help Rainhorse, and two, they will bring you into whatever investigation is happening more formally.”
“I’m not violating Jackson’s trust,” Lindsay said, “and I’m not throwing Ellie Limberhand to the wolves.”
“Lindsay, you need to reconsider . . .”
“No, Summer Rose, I’m not doing it.”
“Okay, Lindsay, listen to me. I need to tell you something, something very, very secret,” Summer Rose stressed. “You remember I represented Rainhorse to negotiate terms of his prison release when the FBI wanted him to help find Barnabas Quince?”
“Yes,” Lindsay replied. “You negotiated an agreement to have Jackson unconditionally released and to have his criminal record expunged once Quince was captured or killed. What does that have to do with this?”
“A lot, maybe,” Summer Rose said. “Director Rice wanted to renege on that agreement. He wanted Rainhorse killed or imprisoned once the job was done. When it appeared likely that Rainhorse would disappear after the job was done, Rice ordered Andrews to hunt Rainhorse down and Andrews refused to break the agreement. That’s when he was fired.”
“Wait,” Lindsay interjected. “He was actually fired?”
“For about a minute and a half, yes,” Summer Rose said. “I’m getting to what happened. As I said, I was waiting to see Director Rice in the hallway while Andrews was inside his office getting fired. I spoke with Andrews as he left. He told me he’d just been fired and that the FBI was about to renege on their deal with Rainhorse.”
“Oh, Jesus,” Lindsay said. “I had no idea.”
“Well, it turns out that Rainhorse believed all along that the FBI would try to renege on their agreement, so he had a backup plan in place in case it happened.”
“What was it?” Lindsay asked.
“Rainhorse gave me a thumb drive which contained encrypted information on a covert operation called, ‘Wounded Falcon,’” Summer Rose explained.
“What’s ‘Wounded Falcon?’” Lindsay asked.
“I have no idea,” Summer Rose admitted. “It could have been some clandestine operation that went wrong. Rainhorse made me swear to not open the file. I didn’t.”
“But the thumb drive helped?” Lindsay asked.
“When I mentioned ‘Wounded Falcon’ to Director Rice, he damn near pissed himself right then and there. Whatever ‘Wounded Falcon’ was, it was sensitive enough to hold the FBI to its agreement to Rainhorse and to get Andrews’ job back.”
“Holy shit!” Lindsay exclaimed. “That’s incredible, but I still don’t understand what this has to do with who helped Rainhorse escape when he was wounded.”
“I was thinking about it as Agent Love was questioning you,” Summer Rose said. “I think the FBI believes Andrews and Rainhorse are in cahoots and that Andrews now knows all about ‘Wounded Falcon.’”
Lindsay gasped.
“I can see why they might believe that,” Summer Rose continued. “Think about it for a second. First, Andrews was assigned to your kidnapping case. Rainhorse is wounded and disappears right under Andrews’ nose. Second, Rainhorse actually issued instructions to Andrews on what to do and where to be to capture Hank Rattling Thunder and Tony Apollo. Rainhorse also escaped from the FBI while in Andrews’ custody to find and kill Barnabas Quince on his own. Then at the end, information supplied by Rainhorse assures his freedom and assures Andrews got his job back. It’s actually a pretty compelling case.”
“All that happened because Rainhorse is the best at what he does,” Lindsay offered. “It wouldn’t have mattered which agent was on the case.”
“You know that and I know that, but . . .” Summer Rose began.
“The FBI doesn’t believe it,” Lindsay finished.
“Probably not.”
“The FBI thinks Rainhorse and Andrews have been in some secret alignment all along. They already know Rainhorse had information on ‘Wounded Falcon.’ They now think Andrews knows what Rainhorse knows.”
“Does he?”
“I doubt it, I really do. Rainhorse was very guarded about the information on the thumb drive. He wouldn’t even let me see it.”
“So, what do I do?”
“Give them Ellie Limberhand’s name,” Summer Rose proposed. “She’s clean. She won’t give Rainhorse up. Why worry about it? Get the heat off yourself.”
“No. I won’t. It would be a betrayal of Jackson’s trust. I won’t do it.”
“You mean you’d risk submitting yourself to an FBI investigation to protect a man who took off and hasn’t called you in years?”
“I won’t betray Jackson and risk Ellie’s life or freedom in the process,” she reiterated. “Not for you, not for me, not for Andrews. I will not do it.”
Summer Rose sighed, “Okay. I still have one idea to get us out of here with our butts intact, today. I’ll need you to trust me.”
“What do you have in mind?”
Summer Rose told her.
Lindsay nodded, “I’m good with that. Let’s do it.”
“Let’s get back inside.”
Rice, Love and Kelsey all stopped talking the moment Summer Rose and Lindsay came back into the conference room. Agent Love got right to the point, “Are you ready to give me the name of the person who helped Rainhorse?”
“My client has decided to protect the identity of the person who helped Rainhorse,” Summer Rose said. “She will, however, stipulate, under oath, that it was not Agent Jim Andrews.”
“Is that true, Lindsay?” Agent Love asked.
“Yes, it is,” Lindsay assured.
“I think we’re done for the day,” Director Rice interrupted. “I’ve learned what I need to know. I just have one more line of questioning for Ms. Vanderbilt.”
“Go ahead,” Lindsay asked.
“We’ve been trying to reach Mr. Rainhorse,” he explained. “We cannot seem to locate him. Where is he?”
“That’s a good question,” Lindsay replied. “I haven’t seen or talked to him in two years. I don’t know where he is.”
“I find that hard to believe, Ms. Vanderbilt,” Agent Love balked. “You and he were two peas in a pod, joined at the hip, as it were. Your company is named after both of you. You even named your son, Jackie, after him. You really expect us to believe you don’t know where he is?”
“It’s the truth,” Lindsay insisted, “and if you’d done your homework, you’d realize that this is not the first time he took off without a word to me. After my kidnapping, he disappeared. Everyone thought he was dead. He allowed me to believe it. He never contacted me. When no one found his body, I became suspicious. I hired a private investigator to locate him. It took three years for an investigator to find out where he was.”
“This investigator finally found out his location?”
“Yes. Since I had no way to contact him, I traveled to the Ft. Peck Reservation to find him. After Hank Rattling Thunder’s arrest, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. If you guys d
idn’t need him to find Quince, he’d still be rotting in jail, and that’s after he broke up a huge sex and drug trade ring.”
“That’s a little dramatic, Ms. Vanderbilt . . .” Kelsey began. “The man was a killer-for-hire, after all.”
“A reformed killer-for-hire. While he was in prison, he refused to see me or talk to me,” Lindsay continued, ignoring Kelsey’s interruption. “When he killed Barnabas Quince, he went to work for me at my company, the Lindhorse Foundation, for a few months. Then one day, he disappeared like a thief in the night. Haven’t seen or heard from him since. This is not new news, Agent Love.”
Agent Love gave Lindsay a wry grin and glared at her, trying to determine to what degree Lindsay was lying to her. Lindsay did not avert her stare, instead choosing to glare back at her.
After a moment of neither woman breaking eye contact, Director Rice broke the silence, “Well, Ms. Vanderbilt, Ms. Red Feather, thank you for making the trip and coming in, today. You may leave.”
“Good day, Ms. Vanderbilt,” Agent Love added.
Chapter 6
“They’re lying, both of them!” Kelsey exclaimed, after Lindsay and Summer Rose left the room and were out of earshot.
“What exactly did you think they were lying about?” Agent Love asked.
“The Vanderbilt girl knows full well Andrews colluded with Rainhorse to allow him to escape from our agents, and she knows where Rainhorse is now.”
“What do you think, Agent Love?” Rice asked.
“I’m not so sure I agree that she was lying,” she replied. “I was not detecting dishonesty.”
“Are you kidding? She refused to tell you the name of the man who help Rainhorse when he was shot and dying.”
“No one said it was a man,” Love pointed out, “and if Rainhorse was receiving help, Lindsay withholding the name wouldn’t be dishonesty, it would be refusal to cooperate.”
“They were lying,” Kelsey insisted.
“Perhaps. I have a question for both of you,” Love said. “I was going through the reports and transcripts regarding Rainhorse’s escape from FBI custody while under Agent Andrews’ watch.”
“And?” wondered Kelsey.
“Our agency had just negotiated Rainhorse’s release as a . . .” Love shuffled through papers in front of her until she found the right one. She read from the page marked, ‘. . . “A ‘Subject Matter Expert – Consultant.’”