For the Seattle police department, the death of Lionel Ulysses represented a great deal of failure on their part. The man had been wanted for various low level crimes in Seattle, mostly related to drugs, in addition to the murder the FBI wanted him for. The capture of Lionel Ulysses had left the man wounded and it was expected that he'd be transferred into Federal custody once he was ready to be moved. However, with the FBI struggling to explain the tail that was caught on the officer's body cameras when Ulysses was shot, protecting the criminal in his hospital room fell to the Seattle police. And there, they failed to protect him so that he could face justice for the murder of a decorated Marine Corps officer.
That meant that they would need to be on high alert to try and catch the man who murdered Lionel Ulysses in order to make up for it, as all people deserved justice, even murderers. And Lionel Ulysses was the chief suspect in the murder of Jeff Decker, but Agent Green had made it clear to the Seattle PD that what they had didn't show the actual murder and that they'd still needed to interrogate Ulysses to confirm their suspicions that Ulysses had murdered Major Jeff Decker. That made the Seattle PD all the more interested in catching the man who murdered Ulysses, for vigilante murder and thus interfering in what was still an active investigation.
The clues as to who Ulysses murderer ended up coming more by chance than by anything else. One of the Seattle PD's detectives had recognized the sketch of the man that attacked the officer assigned to guard Ulysses based off a chance encounter in a supermarket. It got them the name of Dymixious Drake, which wasn't much, but it was all the Seattle PD had. While Officer Samuels went through with his undercover mission to try and see if one of the major drug kingpins had ordered Ulysses's murder, the rest of the Seattle PD moved toward getting the warrants needed to find and arrest Dymixious, which was difficult in that he didn't live in Seattle's city limits, which meant continued inter-service cooperation.
"We seem to be seeing a lot of each other," Agent Peters of the Seattle FBI Field Office commented to Detectives Watson Holmes and Smith of the Seattle PD.
"Probably because of all chaos that's come out of this case," Detective Smith answered, "first a local drug perp gets wanted by you guys for killing a Marine and now he's dead and the only suspect we have a name to doesn't live in Seattle."
"Which is why we contacted you to get a Federal Warrant and to ask for the right to participate in the search of Dymixious's property," the Seattle police chief spoke from behind his desk.
"And you'll have it," Agent Peters nodded, "Agent Green went back to Washington as his part of the investigation was catching Ulyssess... as was the Moon Lake PD officer that he invited..."
"And with Ulysses dead," Detective Watson Holmes sighed, "both of them were no longer needed for the present case."
Agent Peters nodded and glanced over at a wall clock before looking to the two officers, "Will you want additional backup before we go? I have a team ready that will be heading there and if we're to arrive on time to execute the warrant, we need to go now."
"We should be fine," Detective Smith sighed heavily, "as if this guy knows we're after him... all we'll get is an empty house or no one we can arrest."
"How did you figure out the exact address so quickly?" the Seattle Police Chief asked, "our knowledge on this guy is pretty vague and due to chance... The guy supposedly talked a bit about where he lived..."
Agent Peters shrugged at that, "Our local director apparently had a few favors owed from the Department of Commerce. We got special access to their online census data based on the needs of law enforcement, and there only to the file on the Drake family. That data can't go to court, but it at least gave us an address."
The Seattle officers all shrugged. Eventually the Police Chief spoke, "Well, if it catches a murderer and ultimately keeps our streets clean... then there is no difficulty."
Agent Peters nodded and then departed with the two detectives following her.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In the expectation of finding the residence either empty or without anyone who could be arrested there proved to be correct. The compound carried a very odd feeling about it. It was a feeling that was reminiscent of some various anti-government anarchist or various Neo-Nazi compounds that had been investigated and closed down due to criminal actions of its members. It was largely a collection of cabins and mobile homes with a chain-link fence running around the compound, and it was isolated in a fairly thick portion of coniferous trees at the end of a meandering dirt road that there was barely any sign of where dirt road was. On top of it, they had an older looking man who insisted on being present and demanding they had no right to be there, despite the warrants that Agent Peters presented.
"Well... there's no sign of him here," Detective Watson Holmes grumbled, "The older guy is a bit of an irritant, and I'd guess is an older relative, but he doesn't match the composite sketch."
"That sort of thing always comes pretty common when dealing with guys who decide to live in such isolation," Agent Peters said with a sigh, "they want to be in private and don't like being interfered with. They're ultimately the same sort of people that think they have the right to do whatever they wish, even if what they do violates the law."
"The bigger problem is that there doesn't seem to be any sign of him returning any time soon," Detective Smith commented as he came out of a mobile home, "as his closets and dressers are pretty bare... though he may also have a female accomplice."
"Accomplice?" Agent Peters gasped.
"There was some woman's clothing in there and there are a few photographs as well," Detective Smith spoke, "the guy is married... and I'd think with a child on the way."
Agent Peters watched the other detective sigh and shake his head. Clearly the fact that they couldn't find their target at present was frustrating, particularly for a department that had been trying to catch Lionel Ulysses for drugs and failed to do so until recently.
"Hopefully he has more common sense than his father," Agent Peter commented when cries of "Agent Peters" came echoing through the compound.
They turned to see another FBI agent running up with a plastic bag filled with some yellowish-white liquid. The agent handed it to Agent Peters who took the bag and held it up.
"What is it?" Agent Peters asked.
"We don't know," the agent reported, "but it's part of something that's in a huge old oil drum in that cabin over there." The agent paused to point to the cabin he'd just come from. "It's somewhat sticky and doesn't smell good by any means. We got it into the bag here to send off to a lab."
"You think it's poison?" Detective Smith wondered.
"It doesn't smell like any sort of food product," the agent answered, "and since the old guy won't explain anything... we can't tell what it is."
"Hopefully the labs identify it, then," Agent Peters commented.
"Though we'd need to recheck the coroner's report," Detective Watson Holmes said slowly, "I don't think that Ulysses was poisoned. I thought it said he was smothered."
"I thought it said it was poison," Detective Smith commented.
"If it was, than we've possibly found the agent used to kill Lionel Ulysses," Agent Peters said with a small smile and a sense of optimism, "and if it is poison... we have another thing to ask the father or Dymixious on... WHY does he have an oil drum full of some poisonous toxin?"
The two detectives nodded in agreement to that, however, the agent that had brought the bag up wasn't exactly finished.
"That's not all," the agent reported.
"What is it?" Detective Smith asked.
"Well..." the agent spoke, "You'd best come and see."
Agent Peters looked to Detectives Smith and Watson Holmes, who looked just as curious as Agent Peters. The three of them followed the agent to the cabin. They found its interior space to been limited to a pair of rooms. One looked like a primitive chemistry lab with the oil drums filled with more the yellowish-white liquid that had been presented to Agent Peters. But that ultimately wasn't the big thing. The big thing was what decorated the second room. The room had now furniture and in that sort of thing was rather barren. Two sets of blankets hung over the windows, but that wasn't all that they had to deal with. Across all the walls were various photographs and listed names. Many were dated pictures, but they were there. Most were police mug shots but others were simple newspaper photographs. Many had a thick red lines in a capital "X" crossing out the photographs. It was almost as if the person in the photograph was dead, which only served to raise more questions.
"We looked at this... and well... it means that this Dymixious or his father could be potential serial killers," the agent spoke, "the father described it as research into law enforcement, but even people that study law enforcement as a hobby wouldn't do this. We've found no books on police units or on the FBI's cases. Just these photos."
"Collect all all of them," Agent Peters commented, "We'll run them and put them through the face recognition software that we have, see what turns up..."
"And you'll share it with us, right?" Detective Smith asked.
"Of course," Agent Peters nodded, "but I'd thought you'd be there with us when we get it and then put together our case for an arrest warrant and extradition to Seattle."
"And another manhunt begins," Detective Watson Holmes said with a sigh.