From the Devil's Cradle Ch. 01

Jessica laughed, "You are an observant one Mr. Sparks."

"The good cop bad cop routine though," Caleb asked raising an eyebrow. "Does anyone fall for that? You send in the older rough brute to yell and scream, then the beautiful detective comes in to put you at ease."

Jessica felt a little heat in her cheeks as Caleb spoke. She really wished she had bumped into him at the supermarket.

"Why do you talk with me and not Detective Carnes?"

"You carry a conversation, he tries interrogation, not very well, but he tries."

Jessica opened her leather folio and slid two pictures of the deceased on the table to Caleb.

"Interesting."

"Interesting?"

"Exactly as Dick said, no signs of trauma."

"He could have a broken neck; we won't know till the coroner finishes."

"No there is no bruising, and his neck is not limp and is angled normally."

"Maybe someone hit him in the heart hard enough to stop it."

"Again no bruising and the force needed for that... beyond most human's strength."

"How about suffocation," Jessica asked? She knew the answer but was surprised Caleb knew all this from some photos.

"This photo here, his eyes are open. No hemorrhaging in the eyes from lack of oxygen."

"You can tell all that from photos? You sure you were not a cop? Maybe a doctor?"

"No I've seen CSI and The First 48," he smiled.

Jessica could not help but laugh again.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. "Here you go detective, I believe your partner was obsessed with this," Caleb laid the phone on the table and slid it to her.

She laughed; "we still need your fingerprint Caleb."

He smiled inwardly; she'd changed back to Caleb.

"You won't need it," he said.

"Oh?"

Detective Carnes came busting in and took the phone from her. "Richard!"

"Son of a bitch!" Carnes screamed.

"What?"

"He wiped it Jess!" Carnes stormed from the room leaving the phone on the table.

Caleb smiled.

The door opened again almost immediately.

"Caleb are you ok? I am sorry for the delay; from the time I got the notification that you were brought in till I could get here was rather lengthy. I got here as quick as possible."

"I'm fine," Caleb said to the tall gorgeous redhead who had just came through the door.

"You are," Jessica asked? "Counsel for Mr. Sparks?"

Sipping a cup of Starbucks the redhead replied. "Oh no, nothing quite that simple."

"Jess please step out," another man came in. A tall and distinguished looking black man in a well-tailored suit. Caleb picked up still a hint of a dialect in his speech from Nigeria. The man, Caleb would suspect had been educated in the States, maybe born here or spent most of his life here to have lost that much of his accent. The man carried both dignity and respect in his body language. Power and authority exuded from him and he spoke with kindness, yet authority.

"But Chief!"

"Jess"

Detective Mendez hurried to the observation room to watch the show with Carnes through the window.

"Chief of Detectives Marvin Wallace," he said extending his hand to Caleb. "Sir I apologize for any misunderstanding that may have arisen from your voluntarily coming in today."

Caleb took note of his name; he must have changed it to fit more in line with Americans. Shame that he probably done it to be more accepted by his peers, or maybe his parents did if he was born here.

Caleb stood taking his hand. "I would certainly hope you do not keep all your volunteer guests from the men's room or something to drink for nine hours and twenty-four minutes," he said. "Or even you non volunteer guests. Maybe they have more rights than us volunteers. I will unfortunately be speaking to my employer and see if any legal action needs to be designated for my office being brought into this."

"Sir our department and the mayor herself will contact your office to ease any discomfort this caused all involved. Mayor Owens wishes me to convey her deepest apologies for any mistreatment of you., as you say you voluntarily came in today."

"Yet the mayor is not here, she sent you."

"Caleb," the red head said laughing.

"May I speak privately to Detective Mendez, Chief Wallace?"

"Jess," Chief Wallace said looking at the two-way mirror.

She came in "Yes boss?"

"Mr. Sparks the room is yours," Chief Wallace said.

"Would you be so kind Detective," Caleb said offering her to step into the hall with his extended arm?

"What can I do for you Caleb?"

Again he smiled inwardly, "if there is any assistance, I can be of you in this investigation please feel free to call me."

Laughing, "you just reset your phone."

"No as your partner said it has been wiped. I'm sure Kassandra will be taking it with her when she leaves anyway. I shall have another tomorrow."

"Maybe... But what use could you be, you said you were not a cop."

"Caleb's turn now, Touché Jessica, but sometimes an outside ear or eye could be of use, as you said I am observant. Would you please be so kind as to have someone call me a cab, I've had enough police hospitality today."

"I can have a car... Oh... you are right." She walked him upfront to the desk sergeant. "Frank please call a cab for Caleb." They shook hands and Caleb departed through the glass doors to await his cab.

Detective Mendez made it back to where she'd left the Chief and the tall redhead, she now assumed her name was Kassandra.

"I give you my word Miss Anderson, my department will not be picking Mr. Sparks up again in connection with anything."

"That would be best Chief Wallace, rest assured Mr. Sparks is a model citizen and will break no laws. Now if you will excuse me, I must call my superior to report in and my airplane is sitting on the runway waiting."

"This is bullshit Chief;" Carnes was screaming as Jessica approached. "Bullshit!"

"Detective I suggest you walk away while it is still up to you," Kassandra was saying.

"Just who the fuck are you lady?"

"That is above your pay grade and then some."

"Chief!"

"Richard, go while you still have a job," Chief Wallace said. Detective Carnes slunk away making sure anyone in his wake felt his anger.

"If you will excuse me ma'am, I have damage control to do with my own people. My people are excellent at their jobs and this show of force to them will not go over well with them." the Chief said walking away.

"Excuse me," Jessica said to Kassandra. "Just who is Mr. Sparks? I mean he is the coolest customer I've ever met under scrutiny."

"I'm not at liberty to say exactly who he is."

"What can you say?"

"Walk with me Detective?"

"Jessica Mendez."

"Jessica, let's just say the man has been questioned before for a rather lengthy period of time with... One could say some of the more brutal methods."

"Torture!" Jessica asked feeling anger flash in her, that someone had tortured him, then blushed realizing it had come through?

"Ahhh... I see," Kassandra said.

"What?"

"Your interest is not merely professional. I can understand Mr. Sparks... Well he is a most interesting subject. As you say he is one cool customer, not to mention one cool drink of water," she said smiling at Jessica. "He does like strong dark-haired women of the Latin persuasion."

Jessica felt the heat in her cheeks." I..." Forcing herself to regain composure, "Is he capable of murder?"

"Mr. Sparks can take a life as can most men," Kassandra said sipping her coffee.

"Which is not the same thing, Jessica said. So he's maybe CIA, DHS, DDS, some government spook and you are his handler," Jessica asked?

Kassandra laughed, no "Mr. Sparks has never been in the CIA, nor any other law enforcement agency and I'm far from his handler. He is as he says, he works for a publishing company meeting with investors, writers and has written a very well received book from what I understand. While that particular type of fiction is not my cup of tea, I hear it's rather good, my boss loves it and has an autographed copy."

"Uh-huh. So you fly in from Washington to help budding writers as soon as they text you."

"Rest assured Mr. Sparks did not notify me or anyone else when he was brought here. You... Well the police department did when they ran his name. Tell me did he ask you out?"

"Not exactly."

"You should go, he never asks anyone out. Trust me he is not the man you are looking for," Kassandra said heading for the station door. "Well the criminal you are looking for anyway."

Jessica had turned back to head upstairs.

"Tell me detective," Kassandra said stopping at the door, "do you believe in things that go bump in the night?"

Jessica turned at the bottom of the stairs, "only if it's a headboard and I'm in the bed that's making it." Both women laughed. Jessica heading upstairs and Kassandra out to a waiting sedan on her phone.

Inside the sedan she reported to her boss, taken care of Madam President. "Yes ma'am. He's fine. You're welcome... He..."

Jessica made it up to the detective bull pen.

"It's horse shit boss," Carnes was saying as she came up.

"I'm telling each and everyone of you this. We do not have a murder, also this man Sparks better not get a fucking parking ticket from a meter maid. Do I make myself clear? Do I," the Chief almost screamed. Some yes's and nods?

"Just who the fuck is he boss," Carnes asked"

"I have no idea, but I came straight from the mayor's house, he is to be left alone."

"Do you know who Kassandra is," Jessica asked?

"All I know is she was on a plane headed from the White House as the mayor was speaking to the President. She called the Mayor personally not some aid or flunky but The President," Chief Wallace said.

"Military, Detective Jacobs said. He must be military, maybe special operations of some sort, possibly civilian contractor."

"What makes you say that," Jessica asked?

"Both he and the lady said he was never a cop, yet his record has a gap. I flew some missions for spec ops guys when I was a pilot. Did you see the way he wears his watch?"

"Yeah, so he's left-handed," Jessica said.

"Not necessarily. What I mean he wore it face down."

"Yeah so, some folks do that to avoid scratching it"

"True but some long-range shooters do it so they can see their watch without moving their arms only their eyes. We hauled a lot of Spec Ops guys, some of those we hauled were not your normal Spec Ops either."

"What do you mean normal," Jessica asked?

"Well most of the guys talked a lot of shit, laughed, gave us and each other shit. Hung around the planes. Even if they came from another base, you'd see them on base a few days before, sometimes after their missions, buying drinks and such. Carried normal weapons."

"The weird kind wore a mask the whole time. Hard shell masked, well full helmets with tinted lenses, looked armored, you could not tell if they were black, white, brown, Asian, no skin exposed. There uniforms were not standard issue, their body armor damn sure wasn't.

"Only a handful of them came, four at the most for any given time. Many times just one. They never spoke a word either. We took to calling them the 'Zombie Squad,' no body on base had even heard one speak, so people made up stories about them. You know they couldn't speak, had not tongues, no eyes," Jacobs laughed. "Even a few regular Spec Ops and Para Jump guys I got to know cut these guys a wide berth and asked who the fuck they were."

"They would come on base in blacked out SUVs, limo tint, no plates or in blacked out civilian helicopters, no tail numbers on them. There was usually a woman in the front passenger seat of the SUV, could be her. I never got a good look at her. Dark glasses, hair was up, dressed nice from what I could see from the cockpit. Soon as they boarded, and the door closed, her and the SUV would depart base. Even the helicopters had tinted windows where you could not see the pilots. They also never had a return trip to base."

"We dropped them off here or there. Many times they were jumping from so high they wore an oxygen supply. We would be in the civilian air space, flying commercial airplanes sometimes or like FedEx or UPS planes. I even flew a commercial plane full of passengers when one jumped. They had altered the belly of the plane to hold one-man underneath till we were over his area. Had to been freezing in there too, unless they had him some heat somehow."

"Makes sense," Jessica said. "Kassandra said he had endured prolonged interrogation, brutal interrogation. I suspect torture from the way she said it. If he did, I imagine he was laughing at us on the inside with what we were doing."

"Where was all this the middle east Carnes," asked, looking at Jacobs.

"No, let's see... There was Salem Washington, Golden Colorado, even over just a bunch of swamp land in Louisiana. Others somewhere over Germany around Wolfsegg. Northern Switzerland. Several drops in Mexico and South America, Italy and one over the deepest part of Africa, I can't remember off top of my head where, I just remember during our briefing they suggested not crashing. Apparently in that area they were cannibals' and practiced Voodoo."

"Last one I flew was the civilian plane into Moscow, that's the one the guy jumped from the belly of the plane, about four years ago, right before I got out. Places with no known conflict or none involving the U.S."

"You mean we have soldiers operating in North America," Carnes asked astonished.

"Officially it was listed as "Training Missions" on our end. But trust me, you don't want to know the details that keep the blanket of freedom you sleep under pulled tight Rich. Lethal men do lethal things to protect it."

"You haul dangerous men around you know who is going in expecting heat and who isn't, these men went lightly armed, sometimes with weapons I've still never seen other than in their hands. Hell one even carried a Katana sword strapped to him. Never seen any communication devices like normal troops with them either. I got the feeling they expected a one way trip every time they went," Jacobs said.

"One-way trip," Carnes asked?

"They expected to die and not come home, or they had accepted that fate, however you wish to look at it," Jacobs said.

Jessica shivered from the chill across her spine. "Kassandra asked me something odd when she left."

"What," Chief Wallace asked?"

"If I believe in things that go bump in the night."

"Fuck the ghost stories, just more horse shit," Carnes said angrily, she's here to cover up his crime."

"What damn crime," Chief Wallace shouted? "Right now we have a man dead, time of death between 15:00 and 22:00 last night. Official coroner's report came in a few minutes ago, Mr. White died of severe dehydration. The kind that takes days without any fluids to transpire. What you would find if someone was lost in the desert for days. Toxicology report clean. No broken bones. No anything. On top of that there are over thirty witnesses and cameras that put Sparks at work then the party they threw immediately after at their reception hall."

"Come on Chief, that's crazy. Dehydration," Carnes said?

"I agree," Jessica said. "He was at home and had a half bottle of water sitting on the table beside him. He had bottles in the fridge and running water at home."

"I'm telling you that is what the report says," Wallace added. "How the hell could that man who just walked out of here do that. I don't care if he is ex-military, law enforcement or a damn stone-cold serial killer? Unless he is the fucking boogey man, which he isn't. White also had his cock out of his boxers did he suck him off so good that he dehydrated him? Now leave Sparks the fuck alone. I find any one of you question him as a suspect again you better call your union lawyer before you do. Your ass won't be able to get a job parking cars at the hotel."

Jessica's phone rang, "Mendez," she said answering it. "Where? Ok thanks. We have another one boss."

"Another what Jess?"

"Dead man. No signs of trauma found reading a book. Wife just came home and found him dead in the kitchen sitting at the table."

"What book," Carnes asked?

She looked at the Chief then Carnes. "Into the Devil's Cradle, By Roger Dowry or as we know him Caleb Sparks."

"It has to..." Carnes started off.

"You go near him I will lock you up myself Richard," do you understand me?

"Yeah boss."

"I should have never let you talk me into this cockamamie theory to begin with," Wallace said.