"Hold on a minute, sir," the new agent said slowly, "I wasn't finished."
Theodore Green looked over to the newly arrived agent with an eyebrow raised. The investigation had plenty of confusion that was part of it. The MPs at the Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Virginia had been quite cooperative and security footage from the various stop-lights had been given to the FBI to try and help find out who could have killed a rather fit Marine Corps officer, but that wasn't the only thing that they could do. He'd come from Washington DC, where the FBI was headquartered to Quantico to check on the site, in case there was something that might give some clue.
The Marine Corps dogs had tracked the believed murderer, who had climbed a fence to a spot in the grass where Jeff Decker was shot and then ran to the street before heading up a couple of blocks and then ultimately climbing over another fence and then leaving the area and heading almost immediately for a river. It had made trying to get a name for the suspect being tough to get to a point where they could track that suspect down. Now after getting a report, the agent reporting a lead was urging not to wait.
"Not finished?" Theodore Green spoke, "There's more? Come on... if we know where he is, we know WHO he is and can get a guy who killed a Marine off the streets."
The agent answered, "Yes, we've got a lead and yes we do now know WHO we're looking for... but it isn't so simple, sir. If you can come back to Washington, I can show you what we've found. It'll help."
Theodore sighed and turned to the couple other agents that were there. They had been looking for anything that might lead to where to find the guy, but hadn't found much. The murder sight was in an area that wasn't as developed on the base with enough trees in the area to allow people to hide, though Theodore figured this was a means as part of the training for Marine Corps officers in some areas, or providing some seclusion for the base from the rest of the city of Quantico. Given what they knew about Jeff Decker, they assumed that whoever murdered him had been capable of physically overpowering him. They found nothing of that. There was no fight scene , and the only blood they had found had been Jeff's, which indicated that his death had been quick. The only thing they found had been signs that the area where the murder sight was was that the suspect had been setting up some primitive meth lab hidden in the trees. It didn't help their investigation beyond potential charges to add to the crook's record.
"Fine... we'll head back to Washington," Theodore said with a heavy sigh, and then commanded to the other agents, "but this better be good."
"It is, sir," the newly arrived agent spoke.
"We can close things here, sir," one of the other agents said slowly, "I think we've gotten everything that we're going to get from this place."
Theodore nodded and began to follow the newly arrived agent.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Later that afternoon, they had returned to the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington DC. and were now making their way into a small conference room where the agent who had reported the "break" in the case, a rather mousy looking man, who looked more like a college professor than a stereotypical FBI agent stood with a woman in rather bright colored clothing. The woman was hooking up a laptop to a series of wires that lead to a image projector suspended from the ceiling of the conference room.
"Okay Agents Jasper... Luvstruuk... what did you get?" Theodore spoke, "And what makes it that we can't get to where our suspect might be?"
The female agent, Julie Luvstruuk was the one who answered as she turned on the projector which brought up an image of what was on the screen. It was an MP3 file that they had gotten from security camera footage that they had gotten from the Marines in Quantico as part of the investigation.
"You tasked us with cleaning up the security footage from the Marines," Agent Luvstruuk said slowly, "and it took a bit to get some of the images sharpened... but I did and we are ready."
She then pressed play, and Theodore watched as they watched the footage. It started at Jeff Decker jogging on the sidewalk in sweatpants and a sweatshirt with the word MARINES written in black across his chest.
"Okay, this was the start of the supposed altercation," Agent Luvstruuk narrated, "we see Major Decker, jogging at night... odd, but hey, the sidewalk is lit and perhaps he'd been busy... anyway, we see him approach this three way intersection here. He comes... and then stops, looks to his left and the field and ultimately the murder scene..."
"Which we can't see," Theodore reminded her.
"Of course, sir, but he apparently DID see something and moved to investigate it," the agent that had reported the "break" in the case, Agent Paul Jasper, answered, "Maybe he even saw this meth lab that his killer wanted to set up... and instead of doing the smart thing and phoning the MPs, he rushed to confront the guy."
Agent Luvstruuk then continued the narration, "We see him leave the scene... and the scene is quiet, until..."
They watched as a lone white male drug Jeff Decker's body, a handgun protruding from the back of his pants. The man looked like it was clear that if he had fought Jeff Decker without his gun, the Marine would have wiped the floor with him. He wasn't exactly out of shape, but he definitely lacked Jeff Decker's muscle mass. He briefly looked up at the camera with looked like rather beady looking dark eyes behind a rather narrow nose. One could even describe the man's face as rather rat like in many ways. It was there whee the video was paused.
"From there, you just see our perp go back to the murder site and then pour what he'd been using to make his meth on Jeff Decker's body, return the containers to the murder site," Agent Luvstruuk spoke, "oddly going over the exact same path... which could make him rather focused and methodical. And before he left the scene, he tossed a match onto Jeff Decker's body, igniting the chemicals he'd already poured on him."
Theodore nodded.
"It took me a while to clean up the image to that we have this much detail," Agent Luvstruuk spoke, "and from there I fed the image into our equipment to identify faces and match to those we have warrants for and what major local law enforcement agencies may have warrants for."
"What came back was one Lionel Ulysses," Agent Jasper spoke, "twenty eight years old and with a rather sketchy past."
"Warrants?" Theodore asked.
"Mostly drug related, or suspicions of drug related offenses, in Seattle, Washington, Salem, Oregon, Denver, Colorado, and St. Louis, Missouri," Agent Jasper spoke, "but the only known home address that we have is in Moon Lake, Washington. It's to the northeast of Seattle and in the Cascade Mountains... however, the fact that he has warrants in at least three other cities and was caught on camera in Virginia, which would be a fourth state to the list... pinpointing WHERE he is now would be tough. He may not be in Moon Lake... it could only be the town from where he was born."
At this point, Theodore was thankful for the full report. Jasper and Luvstruuk were both right. He might have been born in Moon Lake, but the various other warrants and the fact that they hadn't found anything that would give any indication as to where their suspect, Lionel Ulysses was. It would mean that they would have their mission drastically expansion of the case and the search they had. They could put out wanted posters now, but that would only be a start and Theodore figured knowing some things about Lionel Ulysses would be helpful, especially with regard to his psychology and mentality. Getting some information on his past would also be helpful, as to know what lead him into the drug offenses that he was wanted for in three states.
"Can you get the case file information from the other police departments?" Theodore asked, "see on how they found or at least tried to?"
"I made the request before I came to get you, sir," Agent Jasper answered, "and I gave them my number and your fax number. So, when they have everything, they'll send it over."
Theodore sighed and nodded, "Okay then. Keep track on that. We'll still want to check with Moon Lake, if he lived there for a time, we might be able to find someone who knows more on his past and can get something more on his psychology."
"So the orders, sir?" one of the other agents asked.
"We'll need to get in contact with the Quantico city police again, and let them know WHO they're looking for and see if they've come up with any other sites where Mr. Ulysses might be operating in in the area... or had been using. Agent Jasper will be in charge of that."
The others nodded.
"He'll also be in charge of getting Mr. Ulysses face out on wanted posters, and if need be, offer a reward," Theodore spoke, "not as big as what was offered for Bin Laden, but still hopefully enough to get someone to get us some more information."
"Right," came the answer.
"In the meantime, I'll head up to Moon Lake and see if I can get any information on Mr. Ulysses' past," Theodore said slowly, "Hopefully the police there are cooperative."
The others nodded. The FBI was the nation's highest and most powerful single law enforcement agency in the US, with regards to its authority. However, it still had to operate within the various rules of jurisdiction. He couldn't go there and arrest someone for a speeding ticket. That would fall to the local police authority, and the FBI could only intervene if the suspected had committed a Federal crime, such as crossing state lines after a crime, carrying stolen goods across state lines, potentially committing acts of terrorism, attacks, assaults, or gun battles with Federal agents, and so on. Jeff Decker's murder would classify as a Federal crime, but unless they knew for sure that Mr. Ulysses was in Moon Lake, they couldn't just move in. They wouldn't have the evidence for a warrant to do that. That would mean that any presence they made into Moon Lake would have to be with the cooperation and potentially even the support of local law enforcement.
"I can get you that," Agent Luvstruuk said and turned to the laptop she had set up. Theodore watched as she ran a basic search for "Moon Lake, Washington State." She eventually got to their home page, which looked rather simple with a page that included the list of the city government leaders. It ran: Martin Stovall, Mayor. Katherine Chambers, Deputy Mayor. Samantha Twist, Town Chancellor. Michael O'Hara, Moon Lake Police Chief.
Theodore noted the police chief's name and the phone number that went under it. He'd be on a flight to Seattle the next morning, but he'd make sure to get a call to Officer O'Hara before he left Washington.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Theodore returned to his apartment late that evening. He had his tickets in order and would be ready to fly out at about 10 AM Eastern Time. He would still have to pack, but that wouldn't be too hard, and with finally getting some real leads into who murdered Jeff Decker and hope for catching him gave hope for justice being done. He moved through his apartment until he came to his bedroom. He quietly opened a side closet door and pulled out a small rolling suitcase to prepare to start packing. He also found the bedroom television on as he set the piece of luggage down on the bed.
"Marci, are you here?" Theodore called, mostly aimed to a nearby bathroom.
"Yeah," came a woman's voice from the bathroom, "I was just putting some towels away."
"You spent all day doing laundry?" Theodore asked.
"No," Marci answered, "I did that before I went to work, got back, put on the news... took a nice cat-nap while the news was on, and just got to putting the stuff away a little while ago."
Theodore nodded and moved to a nearby dresser to collect some socks that he'd need while he was on the west coast.
"Did you have a good day?" Marci asked.
"Yeah," Theodore answered as he placed the socks in his suitcase, "We finally got some leads regarding Major Jeff Decker's killer. Though, I'll need to head out of town for a few days for the next part in our hunt for this guy... getting some background info and so forth."
There was a silence for a few moments.
"You'll be okay without me?" Theodore asked.
His relationship with Marcelline Trent/Green was loving and friendly. They'd met while she was in Law School and he'd just graduated from the FBI academy, which was also in Quantico, Virginia. He was driving along on a trip to the grocery for his apartment at the time, when he came across Marci running out of a house in nothing but her underwear and looking she'd been badly bruised. She was followed by an irate looking man wielding a baseball bat. Theodore made the arrest turned the man over to the Washington DC police and formed a rather soft spot for Marci when she said that the man trying to beat her had been her "boyfriend" and wanted to have sex. When she said "no" one too many times, the guy flipped.
At first Theodore saw himself as protecting Marci and helping her get through law school without further legal problems, but after a year, they began going to dinner. From there, it led to marriage and their fifth anniversary coming up in a few weeks. Their marriage wasn't consummated, but Marci had been loving and Theodore knew there was a good reason why their wedding wasn't consummated.
"Where are you going?" came Marci's voice as she came to the door of the bathroom that she shared with Theodore.
"A little town in Washington called Moon Lake," Theodore began as he looked to the door, "It's... MARCI, why are you like that?!"
Standing there in a black knee length skirt and a button down grey blouse was a beautiful white furred werecat. Her fur was long and had a bit of a fluffy but on her upper chest as her blouse held bits of her fur down, though it got a bit shorter on her head and face, her hands and forearms, and on her digitigrade feet. Her nose was a bright pink and her eyes green with vertical slit pupils, with light blonde hair that framed her head and muzzle with only her white furred triangular ears poking through her hair, the fur on the inside of her ears was just thin enough to see the skin underneath so that they looked almost pinkish in color. Her white tail slowly flicked behind her, and her fur was as pure white as new fallen snow. She was a Turkish Angora based werecat.
"Marci, why are you like that," Theodore said nervously, glancing to the bedroom window over their bed, "Someone may see you!"
"I told you, I took a cat nap," Marci said softly, "very invigorating and I did make sure the window is covered. If anyone sees... all they'd see is an outline, which would only be seen as a suit, not the real me."
"But... if someone finds out about you..." Theodore said slowly.
"Then we can show them how loving we've been, that I've NEVER harmed you in any way," Marci answered, "Hiding may be big... but I can't spend ALL my time in my human form, dear. If we ever find a were that can transform you... you will find that to be the same."
Marci came forward and held Theodore for a few moments and purred as she did so, "I don't want to be discovered... but I can't hide what I am."
"I just don't want to lose you," Theodore answered, "we've grown rather close since we met."
"I will be careful," Marci answered, "and I'll be with you until you grow old... and I'll always love you. Especially with how understanding you've been with me... my being bi... my being capable of turning into a beautiful werecat..."
"You brought out the softy in me," Theodore kissed the pink tip of her nose. "Just promise me you'll be safe and careful while I'm away."
"You'll still call me?" Marci asked.
Theodore nodded.
"Now where did you say you were going?" Marci asked.
"Moon Lake," Theodore answered, "To get some background information on our suspect as he lived there for while and might even have been born there. It may not be much, but it might be the only thing that might let me catch the guy that took the life of a US Marine."
"Moon Lake...Moon Lake, Washington?" Marci asked.
Theodore nodded and noticed that Marci was thinking about something, almost pondering it.
"Is something wrong?" Theodore asked.
"I could have sworn I heard my moms mention it once," Marci answered and then shrugged, "I'll call her sometime tomorrow. I'll let you know if they knows anything."
"Okay," Theodore smiled to her, "now I got to get packing... and make sure our windows are covered if you stay in your feline form. There are plenty of men and a few women who would just love to spy on you... And... you know..."
"We'll find a were species that has male members," Marci assured him, "I'd prefer a were tiger for you... mirrors your desire to protect people, but any were that has male members will do."
With that, Marci headed out while Theodore resumed packing.