The Last Thought of a Beating Heart

THREE

  

 Special Agent Miles Bishop sat at his desk drinking his morning coffee, reviewing reports and paperwork. As a seasoned agent who stuck to his belief system of catching the perpetrator the legal way while keeping blood sucking bull shit attorneys from finding a loophole and set free regardless of the crime committed. He was assigned a fresh from the academy rookie who had never lived away from his parents longer than a few days and that was at summer camp. His fucking luck to a shit fest on a Monday morning, others knew Agent Bishop as the Bad Ass of the Unit. Standing at 6'2" and 180 pounds, he carried himself well. He had been with the unit for twenty-five years and he loved the thrill of the hunt.

Bursting through the doors was his rookie, Mike Jameson, panting and ready to pass out. Agent Bishop looked up at him and said "This better be important for you to be bursting into my office. Didn't anyone teach you any manners?"

"I'm sorry I'm late. I got caught up in traffic and..."

Agent Bishop held up his hand to dismiss him as he continued reading, he looked up from the stack of paperwork.

"If you do it again, I will break you off at the kneecaps, that was in regard to barging into my office. If you are late again, you can just stay home because I don't care how traffic was, leave earlier or move closer to the office, you wet behind the ear's son of a bitch."

As if on cue the phone rang, "Agent Bishop how may I help you? Yes, I'll be right there. What is the address? Thank you so much Bill."

Agent Bishop looked at his rookie and only said, "Grab your gear have a homicide in Pasture Bluff. I hope you aren't squeamish."

Puzzled Agent Jameson asked, "A homicide is a murder, right?"

"No rookie, not when they have been decapitated, gutted, and crucified on steel girders. How's that for just a homicide, dumb shit. Get in the car before I change my mind and run your ass over for asking a stupid question like that."

Before the Agent Jameson could get the door shut, Agent Bishop was pulling into traffic.

Agent Jameson looked stunned as the senior agent sped off into traffic with full lights and sirens going. He looked out the window and began to roll it down.

Agent Bishop looked over at him and said in a stern voice, "Boy you puke in my car you will wash it, wax it, and then you will repeat until I feel like your stank ass stomach contents are gone, or I get tired. Now roll up that window, man up, and get your act together because we're here."

Agent Jameson stood in awe, as he looked upward toward the massive construction of the building walking as in a daze almost tripping on his face through the police tape strung around the front of the building.

"What the hell did I just tell you earlier? Get your ass in gear. We are not on a sightseeing adventure. Grab your shit and come on." Yelled Agent Bishop to his young rookie.

The agents walked in as the spectators outside tried catching glimpses of the disturbances inside. They Continued their trek to the tenth floor; Agent Jameson is panting as he had just run a marathon stopped as he walked into the scene.

"What the...?" trailed off, his voice as he sounded on the edge of nausea.

Looking around at the scene, he has only seen remains on the floor and Agent Bishop stands with his face pale and following the direction of his eyes, Agent Jameson completely understood the extremity of the crime scene.

In one swift movement, Agent Jameson passed out from the shock of the crime scene.

"Special Agent Bishop it looks like your boy couldn't take the heat. Someone grab a shovel and scoop his ass off the floor before he contaminates the scene." Taunted one of the agents.

Agent Bishop waved his hand to remove him from the scene. Shouted to everyone in the room, "I need statements from everyone in the building. I need pictures and sketches of the scene with accurate fingerprinting, well, fuckers you all know the drill. I'm off to pick my rookie off the floor. As soon as you have a positive id, I need to inform the next of kin."

Agent Bishop asks someone to locate the next man in charge under the victim. An anxious police officer jumped on the command to impress the seasoned investigator. Agent Bishop was a stealthy man contrary to his muscular build. He towered over those who dared stand next to him without permission.

A few minutes later Bill entered into a room that looked like a makeshift interrogation room. Agent Bishop sat down at the table across from Bill while looking him in the eyes studying his face and reactions. Bill looked back at him in confusion and fear. Agent Bishop studied Bill until he reached for his coffee cup and took a mighty gulp from it. Sitting it on the table, he looked up and finally spoke to Bill.

"Bill, I understand you were Alexander's right-hand man. Can you tell me the last time you have seen or spoke to him?"

Bill spoke, but with a hint of a quiver in his voice, "The last time I seen Alexander was Friday afternoon when he let us go home early. I tried to call him this morning on both his home and cell phones, but there wasn't an answer, or it just went to voicemail. He was never late so I assumed the worst. His job was his life."

Agent Bishop was busy taking notes, and when he finished, he stated in a cool tone, "Did he have any enemies that you know of or anyone that would want to hurt him in any way."

Bill hesitantly began to speak. "I don't know about any enemies, but he did fire Raymond Jackson last Wednesday. I don't know the details of why, because Alexander always tried to keep problems between him and the employee it involved. They did have words, and it became physical toward Alexander. Raymond threatened Alexander and he was escorted off the property. Other than that, I don't know of anyone else. He wasn't married or seeing anyone, and all his family is from out of state."

"Do you know of any other workplace problems between Alexander and other employees?" asked the agent.

"No, Alexander didn't have any other problems than Raymond. I've worked with him for years and this is the only problem I've known him to have with anyone. It had to be something big, or nothing would've been said to him. Alexander has been always good to everyone, even helping those who needed his help. He only had problems with liars and thieves."

"I think I've got all I need right now, and if you had anything you would like to share give me a call at this number." Agent Bishop said as he handed Bill a business card.

Bill left the room stuffing the card into his wallet. He knew in his heart this was the beginning of something that would haunt them forever, but nothing could be done to finish the contract with the investors and all would be in ruins. Each one of his coworkers was screwed until this investigation was finished.

Agent Bishop sat through three more hours of employee statements; all had variations of the altercation between the victim and Raymond Jackson.

He was gathering the statements together when his wet behind the ear's rookie Agent Jameson walked in with stacks of employee records for the past five years. "Boss what should I do with all these files?"

"What do you think rookie? Get them over to the office. First, though I need you to get the next of kin's numbers, pull up all information you can on a Raymond Jackson, and then we'll hit the stacks of records. Right now, we need to contact the family and get them to come up here to claim the remains. Well, I guess we have a start on this investigation. Let's get to cracking' it."