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“Then hewasin WITSEC?” asked Sullivan.
Beckett slid a finger over his top lip. “Youconfirmedthe dead guy is Langhorne?”
“Yes. We checked and rechecked. And the FBI sent us a notification as well.”
“Right. All WITSECs are on their database. And if any law enforcement agency sends a print ID request that ends up being a WITSEC, the Bureau gets pinged. They usually let us know, too. They may have, but I’m not necessarily in the loop on that.”
Gibson inwardly cringed.Thank God my cop friend Kate didn’t have to access a Fed database but got Langhorne’s print off a local one.
Beckett said, “Okay, yeah, he was under our protection starting around the time of the mob trials.”
“With his family?” asked Gibson.
“That’s right. His wife, Geraldine, and the two kids.” Beckett took a few moments to read over the file. “They were initially relocated to Eugene, Oregon, about as far away as you can get from New Jersey. Then to Butte, Montana, and finally to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they spent a number of years.”
“Why so many moves?” asked Gibson.
“Not unusual at all. Might have been they suspected someone had found out where they were. Or there was a problem of some kind with the current location. We always err on the side of caution.”
“What’s the process for a WITSEC family?” asked Gibson.
“We determine how many members will be entering the program, adults, children. Then they’re all given a psych evaluation.”
“Why a psych eval?” asked Gibson.
“The transition is not an easy one,” noted Beckett. “So we need to know what mental state they’re all in. You don’t enter WITSEC because your life is a bed of roses, quite the opposite. The program will support them for six months financially. After that, they need to get a job. Now, we do cater to certain requests if feasible.”
“Like what?” she asked.
“Well, I can tell you that we’ve paid for breast implants, face-lifts, and boxing lessons, but that’s atypical.”
“O-kay,” said Gibson slowly.
“The jobs these folks get are usually not going to be high paying. They have no work or credit history. Early on the Marshals Service reached out to the business community and got commitments from over a thousand national businesses to provide jobs to WITSEC members. In the past, we’ve also placed protectees in certain government jobs.”
“Doesn’t that jeopardize their safety?” asked Sullivan.
“We have protocols to prevent that, but I can’t get into them with you. Langhorne was working at a local car dealership in Albuquerque until about twenty years ago.”
“As a salesman?” asked Sullivan.
“No, as a vehicle detailer. Guy liked the details, apparently.”
“A long fall from mob accountant to cleaning cars,” remarked Gibson.
“What happened?” asked Sullivan.
“Langhorne vanished.”
Gibson and Sullivan exchanged glances. She said, “Vanished? Alone, or with his family?”
“Alone. After all those years, maybe he didn’t appreciate the lifestyle or the working-class life that came with it. Or the family he had.”
“Damn,” said Gibson.
“I always thought the guy was odd.”
“Wait, you knew him?” exclaimed Gibson.
