TCK

K0

One summer head up the Big Muddy to St. Louis and hang a left. Now you’re on the Missouri, the longest river in North America. Go upriver past Sioux City, Iowa and hang a left again on the Niobrara River. Head west until you’re walking in a dry river bed. You missed it. Back up. The Squaw River is a shorter tributary of the Niobrara, yet it has a year-round flow despite winding across the most arid grasslands of the high plains. Bison used to reliably congregate at the edge of the Squaw River to drink, and the hunters of The People knew it. On a ridge above Headwater is a pillar of rock carved by wind to look like an Indian woman carrying a papoose in her papoose, hence the name Squaw River. Just west of town the river bends around the south and west flanks of Green Dome and pours from an underground cistern. Headwater is where the river begins, but it’s also where the railroad and pavement ends. Other than a few dirt roads and old wagon tracks, the land north, west and south of town is literally the biggest void in the lower forty-eight states. Headwater has nothing for tourists, even when it wasn’t wartime and there were tourists to be had. The view from the top of Green Dome was out over thirty-five miles of nothing. If you were from out of town it must have meant you were there to get hitched and your extended family put you up. Special Agent Mark Felt drove to the strip of land where Hoover told him the FBI had dropped a trailer. It was unoccupied. Felt let himself in using a spare key he had obtained from the Wichita field office. The kitchen was still a kitchen, but the living room was a workspace. He checked the trailer’s two bedrooms and saw they contained two cots apiece. So the trailer could sleep four agents. Before anyone else arrived he shat, showered, and shaved to make himself presentable once again after two days and two nights on the road. When he was finished Felt was still alone in the trailer, so he helped himself to files stacked on the desks. One of them, with brittle yellowed paper that Felt instinctively handled with great care, was a report on the final days of Fort Price. The report contained pages from the commanding officer’s journal and testimony of the six surviving soldiers, including one who had been captured and maimed. Felt stopped reading the Fort Price file when he heard the sound of a vehicle’s tires crunching up to the FBI trailer. Felt had already met Clyde Tolson at the handshaking ceremony the previous year when Hoover inspected his graduating class but this fellow wasn’t he. When the agent came in Felt thought the man looked more movie gangster than g-man, investigatee more than investigator, and somewhat later he learned he was one of the very few liberal Democrats to be accepted into the Bureau. “Are you William Mark Felt?” the newcomer asked. Felt, who had been sitting ramrod straight in his chair, now stood ramrod straight on his feet and extended his hand. ‘Just Mark Felt, please.’ And the newcomer remarked on their mutual good fortune, as he was Bill Sullivan, and two Williams would have been confusing. Sullivan approached the desk to see what Felt had been reading, amused by Mark’s body language which seemed to dare him to say something derogatory about the presumption. “Ah yes, Cowboys and Indians,” he said when he saw the material a bit closer. “How far did you get?” “The Indians dropped a couple cows,” Felt replied, “and the Cowboys dropped a couple Indians. If you hadn’t shown up, Bill, I’m sure I would have plowed my way through to the part where the US Army lost their fort. A lifetime ago. Is this one of Tolson’s special projects?” K1 “DECON,” Sullivan said. “Domestic Enemies Containment, Observation, and Neutralization. I’m sure the Director told you this was Special Projects but my advice to you is to play along with Special Agent in Charge Tolson on this. At least until you break the murder case.” Felt silently absorbed this and nodded once, clearly accepting the advice. He donned his overcoat and said, “Where is Tolson, by the way? I’ve only just arrived from the San Antonio office and the Director gave me almost nothing in the way of a briefing before I departed.” “Tolson is waiting for you at what qualifies for a hospital in this tiny hamlet,” Sullivan said. “It’s practically a one-room log cabin. He’s with Dr. Ian Trochmann. I’ll take you there, but I won’t be staying. I’m still looking for a fugitive, one Sofie Krause.” As Sullivan drove Mark Felt to the hospital to take over the investigation Felt said, “You got me wondering why Tolson gives a damn about the Army losing a fort way back when.” Sullivan shrugged, because the report was incomplete and he truly didn’t know. “I guess it was like the little brother to Custer’s Last Stand. One thing that really strikes me about the Indian wars was how the Indians gave as well as they got. We only beat them with numbers.” “Numbers, time, and the fact that they weren’t really as blood-thirsty as people make them out to be. Did you ever hear of something they did called ‘counting coup’? No? It was the wartime equivalent of touch football. They went to war like we go to ball games.” “Oh, there you are Felt,” SAIC Clyde Tolson said when they reached the town’s little hospital. Felt remembered his oblong face and searing gaze from last year at Quantico when he inspected the graduating class 15 with Director Hoover. The sheriff was also there and Sullivan made the introduction, “Special Agent Mark Felt, this is Sheriff Roddy Walker.” Mark decided to hit the ground running. As he shook Roddy’s hand he looked at his watch and said, “Sheriff, it’s quarter of four and I am assuming responsibility for this investigation. The Bureau expects your full cooperation and coercion is never my preference.” “Special Agent Felt, this department will pull out every stop to cooperate with your investigation. But I just wonder, why start now? A few years ago there was another murder over the state line. My father reported it up to the Bureau but he was told to handle it locally.” Felt said, “I don’t know the particulars of your father’s case. In this one the deceased is already involved in a DECON investigation by Special Agent in Charge Tolson, and whoever perpetrated the crime arranged her corpse in a way that deliberately goaded the Director.” Tolson appeared pleased by Felt’s can-do attitude and that he didn’t need to be reminded of his preferred term for the Special Projects section. He suspected Sullivan was instrumental there. Sheriff Roddy introduced another man, still wearing scrubs, as Dr. Wahkan. And still another man was also donning scrubs. He was introduced as Dr. Ian Trochmann, part of Tolson’s DECON project, preparing to perform the autopsy all over again for the federal side of the house. Roddy said he didn’t think there would be much of the girl left after that. K2 Dr. Wahkan removed his gloves in a careful, clever way that avoided any contact with his skin and started to remove his overgarment, knowing that he was finished. He began, ‘The deceased was a Caucasian female. The deceased is known from her appearance to be one Kimberly Anne Zinter of Headwater, seventeen years of age, high school student and a vocalist in the church choir. Fingerprints were taken.” Looking at the sheriff he also said, “The next-of-kin have been notified. The deceased has been dead for approximately eighteen hours with little evident decay as she was discovered outdoors in sub-freezing weather. I counted thirteen deep knife wounds to the chest. Six of these wounds pierced the heart and were the proximate cause of death. The actual cause of death was exsanguination, or in layman’s terms, the deceased bled out. The size of each wound suggests something larger than a pocket knife but smaller than a hunting knife.” “Please get to the good part, Doctor,” said Tolson, visibly agitated. Dr. Wahkan sighed and got to it. ‘Protruding through the scalp in the top of the head of the deceased are two small structures of white bone and cartilage resembling horns.” Roddy Walker paced over to Kim’s body and took a look at the bone cup himself, once again, and feigned surprise. And once again he said, ‘I’ll be damned.’ Tolson regretted that Sheriff Walker couldn’t be sliced out of the loop like the deputies and the nurse had been. “Have you ever seen the like before, Doctor Wahkan?” Wahkan said, ‘Last May this girl’s mother brought her to me. Her friend Sofie came in too, accompanied by both parents. The skin was not broken at the time. The girls only had two bumps on their heads. Their folks didn’t like what I said so they went to another doctor in a neighboring state for a second opinion.” “What did you tell them, Doc?” Tolson asked. ‘That it was just a tick bite? Did you even take X-rays? We both know you did not. That leads me to believe you have seen these horns before, perhaps many times before. Doctor Wahkan, is that, in fact, the case?” After considering his reply, Doctor Wahkan said, “If I answer one way, I’m lying to a federal agent, which is a crime. And if I answer another way, I’m breaking doctor-patient confidentiality. So you will understand my position when I don’t speak of this to you at all.” “You should be more worried about losing your license to practice medicine after failing to help me shut down what could very well be an infectious outbreak.” “Special Agent Tolson,” growled Wahkan, “if you truly believed the girl was contagious you wouldn’t even be in the same building with her body.” To this Clyde had nothing more to say. Dr. Trochmann flashed a raised eyebrow and wry smile at Tolson, as if to say, He’s got you. “Excuse me, sir,” said Felt, “but do you think this girl’s horns or bone cysts or whatever it is will have any bearing on the murder investigation?” K3 “The horns and how the girl got them is part of a DECON investigation in Headwater. Her murder complicates things somewhat. It becomes a Bureau case, but we’re not currently set up to carry it out. So I put in a call to the Director, and here you are. There is another young lady with the same symptons, a Miss Krause, and I presume she’s still alive and hiding somewhere in this very, very small town. So, Special Agent Sullivan, I thank you for fetching Special Agent Felt, but you know what, and you know when.” “I do indeed, sir,” said Sullivan. He put on his gray fedora, tipping it to the sheriff, the two doctors, and Felt as he made his farewell. The DECON doctor took up an electric reciprocating saw and began to separate Kim’s head from her body, heedless of the storm of blood and gristle that he unleashed or the loud objections of Wahkan. Sheriff Walker found a sudden need to be outside and Sullivan followed him. On the way out they heard Dr. Wahkan said, “Agent Tolson, my prayer is that you find whatever you are looking for quickly, and never again return to Headwater. Not even uncivilized men treat their dead in this manner.” A few moments later Dr. Wahkan howled an objection that could be heard even outside the clinic. Sheriff Walker heard Special Agent Mark Felt’s stomach growl and guessed the man might not have eaten since breakfast. He invited Felt to dine out. Felt heartily agreed, so long as the sheriff remembered not to talk about the case in the restaurant. That gave Roddy very little time to bring Felt up to speed. He decided on Bea’s Chicken Inn only five blocks east of the hospital. Headwater wasn’t large. Roddy took him over in the half-ton truck and along the way Felt invited him to spill what he had uncovered up to that point. Roddy said, “We have what is very likely the murder weapon, and it has fingerprints. We have many photographs of the scene with tire and boot marks in snow. That house coming up is the home of the deceased. I made contact with her twin sister there, one Robyn Zinter, who is not a resident of Headwater. She already knew Kim was dead and described circumstances of that death. I didn’t bring her in because I knew this was going to be the Bureau’s case from the gitgo, and also because some of the things she said were pretty crazy.” “After we eat I want you to bring this Robyn Zinter in for questioning at the station. Let me talk to her. Let’s see how crazy she is then.” Bea’s Chicken Inn was kitty-corner to Robyn’s house. When Roddy pulled into the parking lot he gave Felt one more item from the case. “I wanted to let you know we have a lead on the owner of the murder weapon. My deputies will move tomorrow unless you call it off.” “Why would I do that?” “The source of the lead was the aforementioned Miss Robyn Zinter. But the lead is too good to risk passing up.” “Do you think she’s indulging in misdirection, sheriff?” “I can’t figure her out at all. She expresses zero sorrow for her sister. None. If I understood her correctly, Agent Felt, this Robyn is not choked up over her sister’s death because she K4 thinks she’s somehow a copy of her sister made just before she was murdered. She’s intelli- gent and sweet but half the things that come out of her mouth make no sense at all.” “I can’t wait to meet her,” he said. “But first, Bea’s Chicken Inn, you say? Did you know I haven’t had a bite since early this morning in Witchita?” “Then you’re in luck, Agent Felt, homestyle fried chicken is Bea’s forte. When I heard you were coming I thought I would put Headwater’s best foot forward.” When they went inside and were seated Roddy remarked that the place was much less busy that it used to be on weeknights. “Coal was the mainstay of the town and that’s drying up.” Felt said, “I heard wartime meat rationing will start in a month or two.” Roddy nodded. “Places like this won’t close up, but they’ll have to collect ration cards from customers and put them all together to get resupplied. I suppose it’ll be even less crowded then.” He shrugged. “Tell me about yourself, Agent Felt. Why did you choose the FBI?” “I have a law degree,’ Felt said, ‘and I was leaning toward the intersection of business and government, but the war intervened. In wartime our country becomes, temporarily, a military dictatorship with all hands on deck. So as with your coal miners here my work dried up.” “Your education was not criminal law?” “Well, make no mistake, I was immersed in criminal law at Quantico. But the crimes that draw my attention don’t happen in towns like Headwater. I want to go after spies.” The waitress came to take their order. She took the menus but left the two silver half-dollar coins that had been on the table when the men were seated. “The people who ate at this table before us were from the Red Wing of the Church,” Roddy said confidently. “How do you know?” He gestured at the two coins. “Those half-dollars. 1942. The mint mark should be D for Denver, but they’ll both be O be- cause the die was worn and nobody caught it in time. Mark Felt looked at both coins and confirmed that Roddy’s guess was true. “How strange. But what’s the connection to the Red Wing?” “There’s a fellow I know here who runs a pawn shop, he brought these to my attention. Normally a mint mark of O would make these collectible. This fellow looked into it and found out the Denver Mint had struck about a hundred of these flawed fifty-cent pieces before their quality control spotted the problem and halted the run. But there are many more than a hundred of them circulating here in Headwater. Everywhere you go in Headwater you’ll see them, always from the Red Wing, usually retirees living on social security, this old fellow gets a tube for his radio at the hardware store and leaves some half-dollars, that old K5 lady gets her hair done and leaves another stack.” “Do you think somebody in Headwater is actually counterfeiting coins?” “If they are, Agent Felt, I really don’t see how they would profit by it. If you melt a silver half-dollar down all you get is a half-dollar’s worth of raw silver bullion. “But Pawn Shop Guy says the little O under ‘In God We Trust’ makes it collectible.” “Sure, if there was only a hundred of them. There’s probably a hundred thousand of them now and they’re breeding. I chalk it down to one of the many unexplained things about this town.” “Just before we met I was reading about Chief Wanica and a boy named Tashunka who somehow fought off a half-dozen armed men.” Roddy was tempted to tell Felt the same Tashunka found the deceased, but that would break Felt’s rule: it was germaine to the case. The waitress arrived with their food. The sheriff withheld his reply until after they were served. Then he said, “My guess is Special Agent in Charge Tolson is running that particular mystery to ground. But I don’t want to break your rule and talk about active cases while we’re eating.” They stopped conversing and ate while Mark Felt expressed his appreciation for the food with grunts and eyebrow gestures. After a time Roddy asked, “How many spies have you caught, Agent Felt?” “None so far,” Mark admitted. “I’ve only been with the Bureau for one year. Half of ’42 was spent at the Academy and in DC, and for the rest of the year I was in Texas in hot field offices doing little more than interviewing references people had listed when they applied for government jobs. Hardly the exciting life of a g-man that I envisioned.” “How’s the pay?” “About sixty a week.” “Not shabby at all, Special Agent Felt.” “What is shabby is having to pick up and move every few months. My wife Audrey and I were in the middle of another move to DC so I could catch spies like I wanted, but I got diverted here.” “How long have you been married?” “Just four years, Sheriff Walker. The Director moves agents around for no better reason than to ‘toughen them up’ as he puts it, and he will never understand the toll it takes on the families of those agents. But somehow my beautiful girl still puts up with me.” K6 At the sheriff’s station the deputies, Roddy Walker, and even Special Agent Mark Felt donned gloves before the knife holder was removed from the grocery bag. Photographs were taken. One blade was removed and photographed next to the tagged murder weapon for comparison. The knife handles were not identical, but that was to be expected in a hand-crafted set. Everything was dusted for fingerprints and photographed as well. Felt began to interrogate the deputies as though he were some pricey city lawyer Bergin might retain. “Are you sure this came from Mr. Bergin’s house, Deputy?” “I counted four stops after I got in the truck. There are three houses between the Bergin place and where I crawled inside.” “But did you actually see that you were in front of his house?” “No, Agent Felt. I was inside the garbage truck.” Deputy Bill shook his head when Felt glanced at him. He had also been well out of sight. “But the driver of the garbage truck and the pick-up man both said they saw Paul Bergin throw this bag in his trash can just before they picked it up,” he said. When Agent Felt absorbed all this he looked simultaneously pleased and troubled. “Sheriff Walker, I’m pleasantly surprised by what you’ve managed to get so far, but I wonder if you do see the glaring hole in our case?” Walker nodded. “I do, Special Agent Felt.” “I can give you their names if you wish, Agent Felt,” said Bill “The trash men were deputized for this operation just like the Sheriff told us to do. That gives them legal standing. ” “It also gives them elevated responsibility, Bill,” said Roddy, “and I hope you explained that to them when you swore them in.” Deputy Bob said, “If it’s any help, right after the Bergin stop the guy driving the truck immediately took me around the corner and three blocks away to meet up with Bill out of sight. They knew what we were after. This bag came from the Bergin house, no doubt about it.” That made Felt relax a bit. He said, “I think we’re ready to see Judge Porter. We might have just enough now to fingerprint both Mr. and Mrs. Bergin.” Sheriff Walker approached a large cork board to look at photographs pinned thereupon. “And if his boots and tires match what we posted here, Special Agent Felt, then we will have a little bit more than just enough.’ Felt nodded with obvious pleasure. But the homicide investigation experienced the first headwinds from Judge Karl Porter when he declined to allow the sheriff to bring the Bergins to the station for fingerprints or Robyn for questioning. The judge mused, aloud, that the case was becoming a fishing expedition. If Special Agent Mark Felt was disappointed it didn’t K7 show. “Let’s go visit the Bergin place anyway,” he told the Sheriff outside the courthouse. “I want to see if I can shake something loose.” “Do you want Bob and Bill to tag along?” “No, I need them to make a phone call. Tell your men to get the number of Bergin’s plates, then have them go up to the temple and take photographs of his tire treads.” “Oh, we already have Bergin’s plate number on file,” Roddy said. “He doesn’t think the wartime speed limit of 35 miles per hour applies to church deacons.” Agent Felt smiled in admiration. “Sheriff, this is one of the smallest towns I’ve ever seen, but the way you run your department is a G-man’s dream.” When they arrived at Bergin’s home Mark Felt took copious notes beginning with the fact that no vehicle was present. And Felt thought the most striking thing about the woman who answered the door was how singularly unattractive she was. If she hadn’t worn a dress Mark might have thought Deacon Paul himself was standing there. He cleared his throat and identified himself and Sheriff Walker. “Yes?” she snapped. “How may I help you?” “Is Mr. Bergin at home?” She shook her head. “Paul works at the Temple. I’m his wife Ruth.” “Perhaps you can help after all, Mrs. Bergin. It seems a young woman was attacked with a knife recently.” “Good God, is she well?” “It’s hard to say at this point,” said Felt. ‘What I can tell you is that we think we found the knife that was used in the attack. It has a unique wooden handle. It’s hand-crafted, you see. Only a very few sets were sold, Ruth, and we think you might have one of them.” Ruth gasped. “You can’t think that I, that Paul did this.” “Not at all ma’am. A criminal investigation is much like tracing out every rabbit trail even when they just come to a dead end. If you show us your own kitchen knife set then the sheriff and I will back out of this rabbit trail and be on our way.” “We never bought our knife block,” Ruth said. ‘It was made by Owen Bergin when Headwater was first settled and has passed down from father to son ever since.” Felt made a note of that on his pad, then broke into a smile. He said, “You see, Sheriff? I knew we must be wasting our time.” “I’m sorry, Ma’am,” said Sheriff Walker, “but we had to be sure. Still, do you mind if we take one little peek at what you do have?” K8 Mark Felt admired how Roddy caught his little game and slid right into his role without clashing gears. And Ruth went inside to fetch it. The fact that Ruth didn’t know she was missing her knife set was recorded in Felt’s notebook. As he expected, she returned empty-handed and Felt recorded that too, not so much that he didn’t know it, but for the affidavit he would have the sheriff type up for Judge Porter. “I don’t understand,” Ruth said. “I used a knife from the block just this morning when I made breakfast for Paul and the children, but now everything is gone.” “Oh no, Ruth, that’s just what I didn’t want to hear,” Roddy said “But I’m sure there’s a good explanation.” “Ruth, do you mind if the sheriff and I come in so all the heat in your house doesn’t escape through the front door?” She thought about that for longer than Felt liked but in the end Ruth nodded and opened her screen door to let them in. She asked them to sit on a couch. Roddy thought Ruth’s home was very similar to Kim Zinter’s place in size and design but different in almost every other way. There were no decorations at all, no paintings, no rugs, not even a single knick-knack. Only two books were in sight, a Bible and the Green Book. There was another difference: when he visited Robyn she was playing music, but here it was silent. No record collection and no Victrola to play them on. Roddy marvelled how religious folk were so keen on a life in the hereafter when their life here on Earth was so miserable, by choice. “I see you don’t have a radio, Mrs. Bergin.” “There’s only one station in town, Sheriff, and more often than not they play race records. Paul says that’s the devil’s own music. Why, even the children in the Temple high school are playing that garbage if you can imagine.” “The girl who was attacked sang in the Temple school band,” revealed Felt. “Do you know somebody who might have stabbed her because she sang race music?” Ruth’s eyes said yes but she shook her head no. “It was very generous of you to allow us to come indoors, Ruth,” he said. “I have no right to ask this of you, and don’t believe for an instant that we really think you attacked the girl, but if I could just get one print of your thumb I could compare it to what we found on the knife and completely eliminate you as a suspect in this case.” The sheriff had to restrain himself from whistling in admiration at Agent Felt’s performance, it was so beautifully done. Ruth would be thinking of self-preservation in the face of her own husband framing her for the crime. And Roddy thought that wasn’t far from the truth. “Will you have to take me down to the station for a thumbprint?”

“Not at all,” said Felt, and he used his pencil to make a thick dark spot on a page in his notebook. “Are you right or left handed?” “Right, of course,” Ruth said, as though southpaws were somehow cursed by God. And so with Ruth Bergin fully and freely willing, Special Agent Mark Felt rubbed her right thumb in the spot of graphite, then flipped to a fresh page in his notebook and rolled her thumb across it to get a perfect print. He dared not close the book until it was lacquered. “This schoolgirl who was attacked, she was Erik Zinter’s kid, wasn’t she?” Felt stood up from the couch still holding his notebook carefully open. He said, “I’ve been careful not to say too much and upset you, Mrs. Bergin.” “I suppose it couldn’t be helped,” she sniffed. Sheriff Walker scrambled to his feet at that remark and politely asked Ruth what she meant by making it. She said, “I think only a believer would fully understand me, but Erik was putting our most holy relic to common purposes. Digging coal! Our God is a sovereign God.” Roddy made eye contact with Agent Felt, who raised his notebook a bit and shrugged. He already had what he came for. Roddy said, “So God wasn’t content to take Erik’s life for what he did? He had to take the life of his daughter as well?” Ruth was shocked. “She’s dead?” “Yes, Ruth, she’s dead. What a terrible thing for Clara Zinter, don’t you think, losing her entire family? But whoever did it has a death wish. He left the body draped across three states and elevated it to a federal case. It was already the Chair for the killer if I caught him.” Walker repeated that last part. “If I caught him.” “But the Bureau always, always gets its man,” Felt finished. Special Agent in Charge Clyde Tolson was waiting in the second-floor courtroom with Special Agent Sullivan when the sheriff and Felt emerged from the judge’s chambers. “It’s not carte blanche,” said Felt when he handed Tolson the documents, “but it’s the best we could do.” When Tolson finished reading he didn’t seem to be too upset by the limitations imposed by Judge Porter. He said, “Edgar knew what he was doing when he put you on the case. For six months we couldn’t get one foot in the Temple door.” Mark Felt hoped he only heard that wrong. It sounded like Tolson didn’t give two floating turds for the dead girl.