Chasing Morgan(10)
“Public consumption, huh. Well, then it breaks down like this. Anthony Delgadillo is an asshole and the public should cheer his arrest. Think the sound-bite guys will play that on the ten o’clock news?”
Agent Davies frowned. “Probably not. Sam, what’s your assessment on the arrest?”
“I completely agree with Tyler. The slimeball is an asshole, and the public should be happy to see him behind bars.”
“All right.” Davies sighed. “You’re both tired and punchy and just want to get out of the office and go home. Sam, I know you miss your wife and baby girl. Tyler, you look like you could use a week’s sleep. Bear with me for a couple of minutes.” He glanced at both men. “Now tell me what you want the director to hear about this high-profile case on the ten o’clock news.”
“Well, there’s a whole other story,” Tyler began. “The director should know that two of his finest agents worked their asses off to bring down a notorious thug, who’s been using the port of San Francisco to traffic prostitutes. The aforementioned slimeball asshole kidnapped, raped, and forced twenty-six women to be his prostitutes, personal playthings, and punching bags. The women from San Francisco were all single women who were snatched from their apartment buildings upon their returning home from work. The women who weren’t abducted from San Francisco were from the Las Vegas and Reno areas. Thanks to Detective Rasmussen and Detective Stewart from San Francisco PD, and with the cooperation of the FBI, the suspect and his accomplices have been arrested. The streets of San Francisco are safe for single, twenty-something females. Since several of the slimeball asshole’s clients are high-profile, wealthy men, the media will make a spectacle out of the case. We’ll have to watch that their names aren’t leaked to the press, but we all know they’ll get hold of the names. Hell, they probably already have them.”
Satisfied with Tyler’s assessment, Agent Davies added, “Don’t forget about Morgan. She nailed this case for us. We’d have never found the guy if it weren’t for her help.”
Tyler didn’t want to bring Morgan into the conversation, especially when they were talking about a press conference. He hated that he had to tell one of the detectives about her because the detective refused to work with them without knowing where Tyler got his leads. He made a judgment call and divulged the fact that Morgan tipped them off to the name of the ship in port.
“Morgan isn’t part of the public consumption part of this conversation. We promised never to put her name out there, or link her with the FBI. If you do, you’re taking a chance she’ll never help us again. She made that very clear. But, yes, without her help, this case was going nowhere fast. Detective Stewart won’t thank us for that. I’d watch him during the press conference. He’s out for the glory. He didn’t like sharing his case with us, or the fact that we used a psychic to solve it.”
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of outing her, or making the FBI look less than reputable by using a psychic to solve our cases. Besides, the only information we have on her is her name. The public wouldn’t be able to find her. You haven’t found her.”
He didn’t need reminding that all his efforts to find her were for naught. The damn woman didn’t want to be found. It nagged him.
“Don’t bet on it. The press can be relentless when they want something uncovered. Besides, we don’t need to know anything about her, except she’s always right. She’s proven herself over the last five years. She has a better track record than any other psychic the agency has ever used. It makes you wonder what she could tell us if she worked more closely with us on our cases.” He thought about it often, which only intensified his irritation with her.
Agent Davies wrapped things up. “Okay, so Morgan is out of the press release. That’s a given. We’ll give the credit to the detectives and the cooperation between the police and FBI on the case. End of story. They’ll have their sound bite, and we can all call it a day. I’ve pretty much got the outline for the charges and the official statement. We’ll take some questions, which I’ll field to the detectives.
“I’m ready to get this over, press conferences and reporters are part of the job, but not my favorite part. Let’s get this done. You guys hang out behind the reporters and keep your mugs off the news.”
Tyler and Sam would rather do their paperwork than go to the press conference. Davies liked having them there in case the facts of the case were presented incorrectly. Davies could find them behind the crowd and confirm or deny whatever the press came up with in the way of facts with a nod from them.