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“To see two trusted FBI agents who will have that guarantee and take you into protective custody,” Garcia said.
“FBI? Are you insane?” Zelda Dobson spat. “You do know who’s behind this, don’t you?”
“We do. Multi-agency task force, remember? You have to trust us.”
“At this point I don’t seem to have a choice. I’m warning you if you get me killed, I will haunt you for the rest of your lives.” Dobson said it with a serious tone of voice.
They met the two FBI Agents that Shepherd had arranged with Leonard Whiting to take custody of Zelda Dobson at a Starbucks an hour from her office. Garcia took pictures of her written statement and sent them to HQ. After the meeting, Garcia turned the engine of the car over. He turned to Laura Lee rather than putting the car in gear.
“You went off script.”
“It worked, didn’t it?”
“You weren’t supposed to tell her all the facts you said you knew, especially the sketchy financials.”
“It worked, didn’t it?” she repeated.
“It could have been a catastrophic mistake,” he said. “Shepherd had to scramble to make arrangements.” He pulled his comms from his ear.
Laura Lee hadn’t seen that he was wearing them. Did that mean HQ was listening in on the entire conversation with Dobson? “I went with my gut instinct,” Laura Lee said. “And it worked. We left with not only confirmation but more information than we knew when we walked in there. And now we have two women who will go on the record about what West did and is still doing.”
Garcia shifted to drive and pulled out of the parking lot. “Jessica Lansing is in the hospital in critical condition. She overdosed last night. When she didn’t show up to her office today, they sent someone by for a well-being check and they found her.”
“How do you know?” she asked, horrified to hear their visit had caused Jessica Lansing to try to kill herself.
“Dupont told me through comms while we were in with Dobson.”
How had he not reacted upon hearing that news? From past experience, Laura Lee wasn’t sure if she admired and respected Garcia and the other Operators with how they could remain unemotional while doing their jobs or if it scared the crap out of her to consider what they were capable of. She had seen Garcia with his wife and son at Shepherd’s wedding, so she knew he was capable of emotion, which before then, except for an occasional rant of expletives, she hadn’t seen much emotion from him.
“I’d like to talk with her and try to get her on our side,” Laura Lee said. “She needs to know that we have two women that are willing to go on the record.”
“If she wakes up, we can try to arrange that. We proceed with the plan and go to Fort Jackson to speak with Captain Burnside first.”
“Can we at least get our people to guard Jessica Lansing so that when she wakes up, they can’t get to her?”
“Shepherd’s already ahead of you. He’s arranged with Whiting to have a couple of FBI agents stationed at the hospital.”
Lima
During the flight to South Carolina, they went over the plan for when they met with Captain Burnside on a video call with Shepherd and Dupont. They had been given authorization to land at the North Air Force Auxiliary Field about an hour south of Fort Jackson. There, they would be lent a vehicle to drive to Fort Jackson. A meeting for them with Captain Burnside was scheduled. Shepherd was preparing to leave to catch his hop to the West Coast so he could drop in on Major Canfield that evening.
“We get one chance at this, so make it count. We don’t want a confession out of her, yet. We want to spook her into calling West as soon as you leave her office. Everything is set up to record their conversation if she calls from her desk phone or cell phone,” Shepherd said. “So, give her enough to know we’re suspicious, but not enough to let her know we have facts or corroborating witnesses. Let her think you’re there on a fishing expedition.”
After the call was ended, Laura Lee and Garcia went over it again. “I promise I’ll stay on script this time,” she said. “I know we’re not going for a confession like we were with Zelda Dobson.” She was actually annoyed that he felt he had to make sure she understood the goal of the visit after they’d just gone over it with Shepherd.
“It’s not a matter of staying on script,” Garcia said. “What we need to pull off is a delicate balance of giving just the right amount of the right information while playing our angle with the unspoken the right way. Remember, communication is also nonverbal. What she perceives will go a long way to influence what she gives up. It’s something that comes with experience in the field, reading your target. It’s experience you don’t have.”
“Oh,” she said. She couldn’t argue with that. No, she didn’t have experience in the field like he did.
“I’m not knocking you,” he added. “I’m trying to prepare you.”
“I get it. I’m sorry,” she apologized.
They went over it again. Laura Lee felt prepared for all contingencies by the time they landed in South Carolina. Which was good because they had no opportunity to discuss it further as a driver was assigned to escort them from the Air Force base onto the Army base and directly to Captain Burnside’s office.
“Come,” a southern accented voice called from behind the closed office door after her male secretary knocked.
He opened the door. “Ma’am, your off-base appointment is here.”
