John Depp Special Agent. Book I: Deadly Pride

Chapter 6: Cold Cases and New Cases

The following morning, John woke up, prepared breakfast, fed Duke, and let him run in the garden for a while. As he always did upon returning from an undercover op, he called his friend and mentor, Robert.Robert asked him about the op and his life. John told him everything. Robert expressed his sympathy about his imminent divorce even though he had never liked Amy for John.Robert reminded John it had been a long time since he'd been in Austin and asked him to go and spend some time there. Robert told him he would be needing his help. A lot had happened in Austin too. Three serial killers were on the loose and as always, the "Fibbies" were making his life a living hell. He had taken charge of the three cases but used the Rangers as liaisons to the community since Texans prefer to speak to the Rangers instead of the FBI. John chucked, he asked Robert if the problem was working with the Fibbies or working with his nemesis Agent Clint Eastwood. Robert said that there was no difference since the Fibbies and Agent Eastwood were the same. He could never understand the need to use the Rangers' offices whenever they took a case from them since the FBI had offices in Austin. He thought that Eastwood was behind that just to piss him off.Before ending the call, John asked Robert to send copies of everything he had on every murder, including tapes of family and witnesses' statements. He promised he would look into it. He went to the garage where he met Morgan. That day they didn't carpool because Morgan was expected in Court to testify.John and Duke went to the Hoover building and parked the car. Not very far away, Deputy Director Baldwin was in his car giving some advice to his daughter. They saw John getting out of the car followed by his dog. He was dressed informally. Father and daughter stayed in the car. Alec was there just to drop Ireland because he had an important meeting in the White House. They kissed goodbye when they heard the screech of a car stopping near John. Like a madman, William got out of the car. Duke barked at him. John ordered Duke to keep quiet and decided to go into the office ignoring William's presence.Alec and Ireland got out of the car. Alec shouted. Both William and John stopped in their tracks and waited for Alec. Alec kissed Ireland goodbye and told her to get inside. She greeted her uncle and her chief and walked inside."I thought I was clear when I told you to stay away from Agent Depp," Alec remarked angrily."I do not accept his demands!" William spat.John shook hands with Alec, and then Alec looked at his younger brother and spoke to him, "I also thought it was clear that you had no say in this. John and I reached this agreement, I discussed it with Dad and we both agreed this is for the best. So you now have two options: 1- accept what John and I agreed on or 2- reject our proposal, go to court, drag our family to public scrutiny, and have an internal investigation that will certainly lead to your dismissal from the FBI and several years in jail. It's up to you. But whatever you choose I am ordering you as your superior and as your older brother to stay away from Agent Depp. Am I making myself clear or do I need to send you an official memo?"William looked at John and said in a very bad manner, "Haven't I already told you not to bring your dog to the office?"John frowned and then calmly answered, "Oh, I thought you told Senior Special Agent Depp, subordinate; not Senior Special Agent Depp, Chief of the Cold-Case Department who doesn't need to follow any of your orders...""I am still your superior.""According to regulation, every department director is independent. You can give only general guidance."William looked at Alec for help, "See! He doesn't respect any regulations. He will probably break the smoke detectors in his office to be able to smoke too! Tell him! Tell him he cannot bring that flee bag into the office!"When Alec was about to speak, John raised his hand to let him know he wanted to answer William. Alec nodded. John then said in a calm, very articulated way, "This isn't a dog. This is a trained officer of the United States Army and won more medals than the ones you stole from me. If you have any problem, write an internal memo stating what your problem is against Officer Duke. But bear in mind that this officer was welcomed in the White House, invited into the Oval Office, and received his last commendation from the president himself. I think you have never met the president, have you?" John mocked William, "Well, this dog even got a picture with the president that made front page news in the Washington Post. If you need clearance for him, I can talk to have the president's authorization. Now, if you don't have anything intelligent to say, I have a lot of cases to solve." He looked at both men and smiled, "Goodbye, gentlemen." He turned around and walked into the building followed closely by Duke."Can you believe this asshole?" William asked Alec, "He is a menace!""Will, I will say this once because it breaks my heart to acknowledge this. Truth be told, I wished he was my brother instead of you! Even Dad, who doesn't know him in person likes him better. Have a nice day little brother. I need to go to the White House..." Alec thought for a moment, laughed, and said, "There's a picture of the president, his dog, and John's dog on the presidential desk! I think John is in it too. I think I will use John and Duke as an icebreaker in today's meeting with the President!" Alec turned and headed to his car. William stayed behind, he was fuming!In the Cold-Case Department, agents continued to upload case information into the database. John entered the office greeted his agents, poured himself a cup of coffee, and headed into his office. Since it was a glass office, he could see everything that went on, in the department, and his agents could see what happened in John's office unless he closed the blinds. John put his cup of coffee on his desk, took off his jacket, and pulled up the sleeves of his white shirt. He was also wearing a black vest and blue jeans. The female agents couldn't take their eyes off him.John sat down at his desk and opened his mail. He received an email from Robert. He opened it and started printing the adjoined files. It seemed that Robert came short when he described the situations he had in hand. While he was printing all the files, John called Robert and asked him to send him a list of all the victims from each case, the date of the murders, and the location where the bodies were found and/or killed. Robert told him he would have his assistant send him that information right away and that he could call her directly since he had informed her that John was on the case and that she should grant him access to anything he needed. Then they ended the call. John arranged all the files and separated them into three piles according to the serial killer who allegedly committed the crimes. Then he read the files one by one and took notes. He received another email with the information he had requested. He printed it.By noon, he took some files with him and told his agents that he would be having lunch on the roof of the building in case they needed to talk to him. One of the agents asked him why he was going to the roof. John said that he needed to smoke. He and Duke left the department and went to the roof. They ate quietly while John kept on reading the files and taking notes. After lunch, he rolled a cigarette and smoked peacefully.He returned to his office and went on reading the files. Upon finishing the first pile, he took the pictures of each victim and stuck them on the wall with adhesive tape, he stepped out of his office and asked if one of the agents could get him some board markers, green, red, blue, and black. One of his agents gave him the markers. When he was about to go back into his office another agent asked for his help because he didn't know how to sort out some of the evidence in his case to upload it into the database. John walked to his desk and looked at the evidence, he explained to the agent what to do and asked him if he needed anything else. He shook his head. John looked at the rest and asked them if anyone had any doubt, everyone seemed to be doing fine. John told them to call him if they had any doubts or needed help. He went into his office and wrote the names of the victims and the date of death under each picture. With another marker, he described the MO of the killer. With another color, he wrote the similarities between the victims. By 5 o'clock he had three walls of his offices with pictures of the victims of each serial killer with their names and date of death under them, the details on the MO, and the similarities between the victims of each case.His agents were too busy doing their work and didn't pay attention to what John was doing. When it was time to leave, everyone cleared their desks put all the evidence back in the boxes, and put those boxes back on the shelves. It was then they realized that John was working on an active case instead of uploading information on the case he had been working on the previous day.John got out of his office to get a box to put all the files in so he could take them home and go on working on them. Normally the agents could not take the files home, but since these were not FBI cases, well, they were FBI cases. Cases they took from the Rangers, and John was working with the Rangers' files. Robert had this particular habit of copying everything before handing a case to the Fibbies. John put the files in the box and as he was walking out of his office. He said goodbye to his agents and congratulated them on their hard work.He walked out of the building followed by Duke. He put the box in the trunk of his Mustang and then drove away. He went to a market to buy some groceries on his way home. When he got home, he put away the groceries, took the box in, and then played with Duke in the garden for a while. Then he called Morgan and told him to join him for dinner. He prepared dinner. Morgan and John talked about these cases during dinner. Then Morgan said goodbye and went home. John read his notes. There was something about these cases that bothered him. He rolled a cigarette, lit it, poured himself a glass of bourbon, and sat on the couch to smoke and drink while he thought about these cases.At Baldwin's residence, Ireland couldn't stop talking about John. He was a living legend in the FBI. Alec realized he didn't know much about his career. Alec and his father listened to Ireland, who knew more about John than they did. She talked about the mystery case he was working on. She said that the glass walls of his office were all covered with pictures and his notes on the case. It was evident that Ireland was impressed by John's work. In just one day's work, he had organized at least 12 murders. This piqued Alec's interest. He had to discuss some details about their agreement with him. It was a great opportunity to take a peak on his work.