The Killing House

62

The bureaucratic powers working overtime at FBI headquarters had been convinced by its Media Office that it would be wise to get in front of the Malcolm Fletcher story before the story got in front of them. A targeted national media campaign would not only be the best way to spin the story, it would also be the most effective way to flush out the fugitive from hiding.

The Bureau’s top media experts crafted a succinct press release. The terse paragraphs, along with a handful of accompanying colour photographs of the former profiler they had on file, were released to every major newspaper before press time. Then they went to work on devising commercials that would run in heavy saturation on the daytime shows. They had used this same strategy, to great success, to apprehend another fugitive.

The Bureau focused on the surrounding Tri-State area and then shifted its efforts to New England, an area Malcolm Fletcher seemed to favour, based on reported and confirmed sightings. In the past, such an aggressive campaign would take days; now, thanks to the Internet and its high-speed delivery system, the task took only a few hours.

New York, New Jersey, Boston and Connecticut field offices personally hand-delivered media packets to all taxi and rental-car companies, stressing the significant reward being offered for information leading to the former profiler’s capture.

The Bureau knew Ali Karim had been aiding and abetting a fugitive inside his home in Cape May, New Jersey. Agents had found a lead-shielded panic room hidden behind a false-wall installed inside the closet. At some point Malcolm Fletcher had emerged, broken Daniel Jackman’s neck and then, after dressing in the agent’s tactical clothing, thrown Jackman inside the closet. Agents had also discovered Fletcher’s overcoat, shoes and a suit jacket.

The Bureau decided to keep this information from the public. At the moment, Karim was lying in a coma; if the man woke up, they could use it as a bargaining chip to get him to open up about his connection to Fletcher, as little was known about the former profiler’s movements over the past two decades.

The Bureau’s public-relations experts argued that the public would want to know why — and how — the former profiler kept eluding capture. To show that the Bureau’s interest and determination in apprehending one of their own hadn’t lapsed or diminished, it was decided that Alexander Borgia should act as the Bureau’s face. He was a natural choice, they said. Borgia had a commanding voice and, despite his short stature, carried a lot of presence. With significant media training already under his belt, he could handle any question thrown at him and spin it effectively.

Borgia was informed of the Bureau’s decision shortly before midnight: FBI Director Oberst had telephoned him over an encrypted line. They spent much of the conversation discussing the laptop found inside Karim’s well-crafted panic room.

Borgia had examined the computer himself. The security software had not been set to record, and the hard drive contained no video images. Forensic analysis by computer techs from New York’s Evidence Response Team revealed, however, that this was not the case.

Karim had installed motion-activated security cameras inside the fire alarms of his New Jersey home. Once a camera was triggered, it started to record; the video images were temporarily stored on the hard drive. Then, a separate program on the laptop uploaded the video files to a secured FTP site on one of Karim’s servers before erasing them.

Examination of the laptop’s hard drive confirmed that video footage had been captured inside the house during a 48-hour period, uploaded to an FTP site, then downloaded and erased from the server during a single session the previous afternoon, starting at 12.34 p.m. Using sophisticated software, the ERT geeks had discovered the location from which the FTP site had been accessed — a four-unit townhouse in Brooklyn. Malcolm Fletcher hadn’t downloaded the files. There was no way he could have reached the townhouse in time.

Agents forced their way inside the townhouse and found the first three units empty of furniture. The unit on the top floor contained computers and illegal equipment that allowed a user to trace a cellular signal. A forensics team was currently working on processing the rooms for prints, DNA, hair and fibres. New York agents were investigating who owned the Brooklyn building while ERT tried to break into the computers. Everything had been password protected with a sophisticated encryption algorithm. The geeks were working methodically to try to break it, afraid of tripping some sort of digital landmine that would permanently erase or destroy the computer’s hard drive.

Borgia had already interviewed two of the seven employees who regularly worked out of Karim’s Manhattan home. Borgia was more interested in the young woman who had been aboard Karim’s private plane: Emma White. Agents watching Karim’s Manhattan home had spotted the woman and her shock of white hair entering the house at 6.36 a.m. She left at 8.43 — with a package, a large yellow mailer. The three agents who had tailed her had lost her somewhere in the subway system. The woman hadn’t returned to Karim’s home, the Brooklyn townhouse or her apartment.

FBI Director Oberst gave Borgia his personal phone numbers. The Director wanted to be updated every two hours on the progress of the investigation. Neither Oberst nor Borgia discussed what would happen if video footage of a Hostage Rescue Team operator planting a knife at a crime scene made its way on to the news or, worse, the Internet.

The first stop on Borgia’s media blitz was the ABC office building. After his appearance on Good Morning America, he would be shuffled off to do an interview for 60 Minutes. The popular CBS-owned programme agreed to run a profile on Malcolm Fletcher that would air the following Sunday. Borgia’s afternoon would be spent at Fox News. The Bureau’s media experts were currently locked in a heated debate about which Fox News programme had the better ratings.

At 7 a.m., Borgia sat down for his first interview, conducted by the always affable and courteous host Dan Harris. Manhattanites hustling through the cold streets surrounding Times Square saw the interview being played on the massive LED screens prominently displayed on the front of the ABC building.

Borgia sat down looking sharp and confident. His media escorts had prepped him about the importance of body language, and they had provided him with a new wardrobe. The suit-and-tie combination chosen for this interview had colours that, according to extensive research, projected warmth and trust.

High-definition was not kind to Borgia. The pancake makeup gave his skin an unflattering orange tint; it did a poor job at hiding the dark and puffy circles underneath his tired eyes. Despite his exhaustion, Borgia spoke clearly, and well.

‘The task force assigned to find and apprehend Malcolm Fletcher received and acted on a credible tip. I can’t get into specifics about what happened or how he escaped — our investigation is still ongoing — but I can tell you that the evidence we’ve uncovered at this stage suggests that Malcolm Fletcher, in addition to killing one of Ali Karim’s employees, a man named Boyd Paulson, attempted to kill Karim himself before fleeing.’

Dan Harris raised an eyebrow, nodding. ‘I understand he also killed a member of the Hostage Rescue Team.’

‘That’s incorrect. We deployed gas into the house. One of our Hostage Team officers rushed up the steps to the first floor, and, because he couldn’t see clearly, made a wrong turn and fell over a banister. He landed the wrong way and was killed instantly.’ Borgia sighed, then added with real emotion: ‘It was an unfortunate accident, and our thoughts and prayers are with the man’s family.’

‘The victim, Ali Karim, is a well-known security expert and has an office here in New York. Why did Malcolm Fletcher target him?’

‘We haven’t ascertained why Malcolm Fletcher targeted him or his employees,’ Borgia said. ‘Our investigation is in the preliminary stages.’

‘Tell us about Malcolm Fletcher.’

‘He’s not an ordinary criminal. Before he became a federal agent, he trained as a Navy SEAL. He has considerable talents, especially in the area of surveillance and counter-surveillance — training which has assisted him in eluding law enforcement. He’s also a polyglot — he speaks multiple languages, which has allowed him live abroad and blend in without arousing suspicion.’

‘You’ve called him — and I quote — a rare combination of sociopath and psychopath.’

Borgia nodded. ‘Because of his background and training in psychology, he managed to evade detection by our screening process. That gives you an indication of just how highly intelligent he is. People who knew him described him as a loner — and emotionally impenetrable.

‘While he worked as a profiler, he was suspected of murdering mass murderers and serial killers — cases he was working on. When the Bureau discovered what he was doing, we sent three agents to his home to question him.’

‘And what happened?’

‘Fletcher attacked them. One agent is still on life-support.’

‘And the other two agents?’

‘We don’t know what happened to them,’ Borgia said. ‘They disappeared.’

‘And during all these years as a fugitive, what has he been up to, do you know?’

‘Fletcher has become, in his own right, a very dangerous serial killer. As long as he’s out there, no one is safe. We need the public’s help to find him. The federal government is offering a three-million-dollar reward to the person offering information leading to Fletcher’s capture and arrest.’

‘This picture we’re about to show, is it a recent picture?’

‘This is the last picture we have of him. Before Fletcher disappeared, he had taken the extraordinary steps of erasing all information about himself from the Bureau — this happened before computers and databases were as prevalent as they are today. Everything existed on paper.

‘Malcolm Fletcher has one distinguishing characteristic, as you’re about to see,’ Borgia said. ‘One that’s impossible to disguise.’