The Assassin's Trail by J.C. Fields Page A

Director Stumpf will brief you on what we currently know, and then we will hear any updates you might have. Last we will discuss how to move forward with the investigation. Director Stumpf...”
    Paul Stumpf was in his late 40s. At one time a dedicated marathon runner, he still had the body to show for it. But after having both knees replaced, he was starting to add pounds to his five-feet-eleven frame. His hair was dark brown, perfectly styled, with no noticeable gray. Wireless glasses sat on an unremarkable nose in front of arctic blue eyes. Kruger knew Stumpf from his early career; he considered him a friend and still one of the good guys. On the other hand, Director Wagner was an unknown even though he had met him several times.
    Stumpf started his review. “We have two cases here in the Washington, D.C., area that could be related to this morning’s incident in Kansas City. The profiles of all three victims are too similar to be coincidental. All three have financial ties to the current president’s political party. In addition, all three were active in lobbying for congressional support of Israel. While we do not want to draw conclusions from these facts, it does point us in a particular direction for our investigation. We want to thank Agent Dollar and his team for supplying the name of the KC target. His identification enabled us to reach out to the Secret Service. They are also investigating.”
    Kruger noticed that when Guevara’s name was mentioned, Dollar smiled ever so slightly. The man was amazing. He would take credit for anything that made him look better. So much for being a team player.
    Kruger’s decision to pursue the identity of Guevara’s shadow on his own had been correct. If Dollar knew about it, there would be an instant news conference and the guy would go into hiding.
    Stumpf continued, “A sample of the explosive residue is being flown to our lab here in Washington for analysis. But after reviewing videos from the scene, our explosives experts suspect military grade C4.”
    Wagner said, “Thank you, Director Stumpf. We’ll let the KC team give their report.”
    “Thank you, Director,” said Dollar. “Agent Wright will review our findings.”
    Kruger listened but didn’t hear anything new. In the few hours he had been at the apartment and here in the office, the local team had failed to find anything of significance. Their only new information was identifying the license plate from the van. It had been stolen from a wrecked van in a Montgomery, Alabama, U-Haul parking lot. Unfortunately, two more victims had succumbed to their injuries, making the death toll six. He wondered if one of those was Neil. But he doubted it. Stef would have texted or called him.
    Alan Seltzer took control of the video conference after the KC review. He started by saying, “We will divide responsibilities in the following manner. On-site investigation will continue to be handled by the KC team with Agent Dollar in charge. Profiling will be handled by my office with Agent Kruger as lead, and he will report to me. Agent Dollar will report directly to Paul Stumpf. This will give us a broader view of the whole investigation.”
    While Seltzer continued, Kruger sent a brief text message to Seltzer’s cell phone: “Thanks, I owe you.”
    After Seltzer finished speaking, Kruger watched him as he inconspicuously checked his phone, smiled and nodded.
    The director took control of the meeting again. “Gentlemen, we will consider these incidents to be acts of domestic terror. We will not speculate to the press. Furthermore, we will keep our findings within these walls. Is that understood?”
    Everyone around the table nodded vigorously, except Dollar. He was too busy looking around the room, making sure everyone was agreeing. Kruger nodded, but not to the degree the other agents were nodding. He hated talking to the press and avoided it when he could. People far more important than he were paid to do that.
    As the