Chapter 18 — The Line of Duty
Dan sat in the living room of his apartment filling out paperwork. He mostly ignored the preacher strutting around and waving his arms on the TV, just enjoying the sound of another voice in the room. He was startled when he heard the door to his apartment open. Looking up he saw Sam carrying a bag of groceries. “What the hell, Sam? That door was locked.”
“Yeah. I had a copy of your key made. I thought it would be simpler for both of us that way.”
She proceeded into the kitchen. “I hope you like hamburgers and corn on the cob. I haven’t had home cooking for a long time, and I need to catch up.”
Dan didn’t like raising his voice to talk to someone in another room, so he returned to his paperwork. He wanted to have everything filled out when he went back to work tomorrow.
In time Sam came out and sat next to him on the couch. “I have some interesting news to share with you," she said. I have definitively confirmed that Frank Amman was the agent I was after and that Kim had no idea what was going on. I know what his assignments were and who he was working for. Of course, none of this does Kim much good now.”
“No," Dan said, mostly concentrating on his paperwork. “It doesn’t do much good now. You’ve already done your worst.”
“Look, Dan," she said, finally getting tired of the needling. “I know I fucked up, okay? You don’t have to take every single fucking opportunity to remind me.”
When Dan just grunted, Sam leaned over to see what had so much of his attention. “Changing the beneficiary on your life insurance to Kim?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Are you sleeping with her now?” she asked, without a bit of judgment in her voice.
“No.”
She turned her head to stare at Dan, hoping for eye contact. “Are you planning on sleeping with her soon?”
“No.”
Sam leaned back and thought about the situation. “Does your insurance policy pay double if you’re killed in the line of duty?”
Dan finally turned to look at her. “Yes. And there is a federal death compensation package, too, but we may need to be married for that. I’ll have to check. I wasn’t going to go there.”
“Yeah," said Sam. “I suppose it would be difficult to marry her without her knowing about it.”
Dan leaned back on the couch and stared at the paperwork on the coffee table. “Exactly.”
“Why didn’t Kim sue the government or something?” asked Sam. “She must have had a case.”
“You were an unhinged psychotic with no traceable connection to any government agency. Then you went missing and presumed dead. She didn’t have a chance to sue anyone.”
Sam tilted her head back and closed her eyes for a few moments. “Okay, Dan. If this is how you are going to fix things, then you can needle me as much as you want. I think there are probably better approaches, but I’m not going to try and tell you what to do.”
“Well, if you want to stay then we need to call someone at Homeland and let them know what’s going on here. I need them to talk to me, on the record, about how to deal with you. I can’t afford to put my benefits in jeopardy. Either that or you can leave after dinner and I’ll wait until tomorrow morning before I call someone.”
Sam had already decided it was time to call Agent Kehm. It turned out that he had told her the truth about Kim Ammar and the Chaplain, and she wanted to see if her disappearing act had screwed up the immunity deal. She took out her exercise routine paper, tore off an unused corner, and decoded Kehm’s numbers on it. “Here, Dan. These are phone numbers for FBI Special Agent Bob Kehm. The top one is his office and the bottom one is his 24/7 cell. He was one of the agents that extracted me last year. Will he do?”
Sam watched Dan take the paper and put it in his shirt pocket. “Could you go ahead and call now, on speakerphone," she said. “I’d like to know as soon as possible if I need to disappear. You may have to cook your own burgers tonight.”
Dan pulled the numbers out of his pocket, picked up his phone, dialed the cell number, and thumbed the speaker-phone icon. After four rings the phone was answered. “Hello," said Dan. “This is Detective Dan Slater of the Milford Police Department. I was asked to call this number. To whom am I speaking?”
“Detective Slater. I guess I’m not entirely surprised to hear from you. This is Special Agent Bob Kehm of the FBI.”
“Agent Kehm. I may call you at your office Monday to confirm we had this conversation.”
“Yes, of course," Kehm said. “I could be anyone. But let’s say, for now, that I am who I say I am. What can I do for you?”
Dan looked at Sam, then back to the phone. “A mutual acquaintance of ours gave me this number to call. She is in town doing research, and I wanted to understand the legal implications of my interacting with her.”
“Well, Detective, I am not a lawyer and do not feel empowered to give you legal advice. But perhaps if you rephrase the question, I can be more forthcoming.”
“Okay, Bob, let’s pretend that I know where Sam is. Are you going to ask me to divulge that information to you?”
“No," said Kehm. “Not at this time. I am not aware of what she has been up to for the last several days but based on the information available to me as of the date of my last meeting with her, I am not compelled to track her down. Nor am I compelled to hold anyone criminally liable for interacting with her. There are some mighty unhappy people around here right now, but having people mad at you is not the same as criminal liability.”
Sam leaned forward. “Bob, this is Sam. I checked out everything you said to me and it looks like you were telling the truth. By the way, I have discovered additional information about the Ammar case. It could maybe be helpful to you in the future.
“Hello, Sam," said Kehm. “Yeah. The Ammar case is closed, but the additional information may prove to be valuable in other investigations.”
“Right. Is it okay for me to send it through Detective Slater? I’ve been out of the loop for a while on secure digital transmissions”.
“Sure. That would be fine. By the way, you have definitely made an enemy of Agent Black. You didn’t sign any contract so there isn’t much he can do legally, but he’ll probably come after you if he gets the chance. Keep your head down and do not be as forthcoming with other federal agents as you were just now with me.”
“So, there are no warrants out for me?” she asked.
There was a pause on the phone before Kehm responded. “Detective Slater. Are you aware of any kidnapping, torture, or other acts of gross misconduct that Sam may have perpetrated in the last week?”
“No, sir," replied Dan, looking at Jim’s gun and wallet on the table. “In fact, I can state unequivocally that I am not aware of any acts done by Sam that I wouldn’t have done myself in similar circumstances.”
Bob wondered what Dan meant by that but decided not to pursue it. He trusted the Detective’s judgment. “Then there are no active warrants that I am aware of relating to prior acts. Or, at least there will be none as of noon tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Bob. I do appreciate what you’ve done for me," said Sam.
“It’s okay, soldier," he replied. “One more thing. This is very important, and I’ll probably call Dan’s captain about it when we get more details. We’ve picked up some rumblings that there may be a terrorist attack somewhere in Southwest Ohio later in the week. We don’t know what it’s going to be, but it’s supposed to be something we haven’t seen before. Since you’re in the area, maybe you could keep your eyes and ears open for me.”
Sam’s ears perked up and her Spidey-senses came online. “No problem, Bob. I’ll let you know if I find out anything.”
“Listen, Sam. I’d like to stay in touch with you. Maybe I can even find a position for you as an instructor if you’re willing to move into training.”
“I’ll consider that. In the meantime, we’ll use the Detective as our communication conduit, if that’s okay. At least until I have time to set up my own secure communication channel.”
“Are you thinking of going the independent contractor route, Sam?” asked Bob.
“It’s a possibility," she replied. “I think I got so wrapped up in being part of a team that I lost track of ‘me.’ I made it easy for people to take advantage of me. It’s time for me to start taking responsibility for myself.”