Sign of the Maker (Boston Crime Thriller Book 4), Brian Shea [free reads .txt] 📗

Acevedo stepped aside and surveyed the scene while one of the men in his entourage took out a digital camera and snapped several photos. Now the parade review he'd given Kelly and Barnes made more sense. He would be using it for a PR push. There was a rumor Acevedo would be making his bid for the top sooner rather than later. Images like this, with him standing on a major scene still smoldering in the backdrop, were the visual imprints that carried a reputation.

"Keep up the fantastic work, everybody. Hopefully, we'll have this guy before long."

Acevedo stepped off with his entourage, returning to the SUVs to prepare for the endless cycle of press briefings sure to follow.

Langston leaned into Kelly. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Kelly followed him out of earshot. He met Barnes’s questioning gaze and offered a silent shrug in return before devoting his attention to Langston. "What's up?"

"Good job getting ahead of this one."

"Not good enough."

"And I'm definitely thinking you're probably right about McLaughlin. It makes the most sense. Hell, it's better than anything I got." Langston removed the surplus of sweat pooling on his mustache with the end of his sleeve.

"Ready to take a harder look at our friend McLaughlin?"

"I'm going to level with you. I already had some guys digging into his financials, into his history. Seeing if what your guy Collins fed us was the truth."

Langston was once again proving to Kelly that Gray had been right about him all along. "And?"

"They've come up with nothing. Absolutely zilch. It's like McLaughlin appeared like magic in '97. There are some references in some of the searches that allude to his Irish upbringing, but nothing of value. No photos or images. It's like there was a period of his life cut clean out. That takes a professional. And a lot of money to pull off an erasure of that magnitude."

"And people just accept that stuff. No one asks?"

"I don't know, maybe no one cared. They were more impressed with his current rise on the political scene and the millions he'd made in the years prior than anything from his childhood."

"There are no financial records, no call lists, no email exchanges amongst the targeted six? Nothing tying McLaughlin to any of them?"

"You still think Collins is telling the truth?"

"I do. To a degree. I guess he's as truthful as any criminal could be. If McLaughlin appeared out of nowhere in 1997, then I think it's safe to say Collins might be right. Proving it will be the hard part."

"I see what you're saying. Makes sense. What doesn't is the fact he was just targeted here."

"Was he?"

"You don't think so?" A flash of the old Langston flickered across the agent's eyes.

"Nope. Let's look at today's events leading up to the bombing. First off, McLaughlin disregarded your warning after four separate bomb attacks. If that's not bad enough, he stuck to his schedule, speaking at a public gathering at arguably one of the top learning institutions in the world. He then got on a mass transit system with thousands of daily commuters, disregarding the safety of any and all who rode. What politician in their right mind would put themselves at risk for us to call him out on it? It would be a press nightmare."

Langston made his best attempt at a smile. "That's true. Unless the secret he was hiding was worth the risk?"

"Exactly. And what threat did he avoid? Was he really targeted at all? I think the reason he kept to the schedule was because he knew about the bomb all along. It'd be one hell of a PR stunt for a top-billed mayoral candidate to barely escape the sights of a terrorist bomber. The headlines practically write themselves."

"The techs on the scene at Downtown Crossing already confirmed the satchel bomb was inert. They said it was a fully functional bomb, but it was missing one thing: a detonator."

"What bombmaker forgets to include a detonator? It was no accident. It was a decoy." Kelly pointed toward the rubble. "A decoy for another diversion."

"Right, but Hodges was the one who convinced his boss to switch schedules."

"I don't think McLaughlin's making bombs in the basement of his multi-million-dollar home. A guy like him hires out for something like that. Wanna bet Hodges is ex-military? Bet if we dig deep enough, we'll find some explosives experience."

"I'll get my guys to start looking into him," Langston said.

"If McLaughlin was with these guys twenty-three years ago, why wait until now? Why wait until he decided to launch a political career?"

"Sounds like he might be trying to erase his past and make himself look like the hero as he does it. Pretty damn genius if you think about it. And, of course, if what we're saying proves true."

"I like where your head's at,” Kelly said. “He erases the others. Makes it look like someone's copycatting Collins. That way if the link is made it looks like Collins is somehow behind it." Kelly knew their theory was paper thin, and without evidence to support it, no prosecutor alive would be willing to take that case. "But what about Collins? He's been talking with us. His risk of exposing McLaughlin's past. Seems like that would make Collins a prime target."

"Correction. He talked with you. If McLaughlin knows Collins, then he probably knows he'd never talk to police. Maybe he figured, even if he does talk, all McLaughlin has to do is deny the rantings of a convicted terrorist."

"But why go through all this?"

"What sells a politician's story better than anything? What do people love in their politicians?"

Kelly thought of some past politicians. "I'd say a war hero?"

"Yes. Politicians need powerful imagery. A mayor standing at the site of a bomb intended for him gives that. The media would eat it up."

"Great theory. Just have to prove it." Kelly looked back toward the latest crime scene, toward Barnes.

“You up for a drive? It's all right. I already cleared it with Halstead.