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Celebrity Skin: Field Report 2Please note: the following is fiction, and should
not be interpreted as anything other than a shocking story. Some readers
may be upset by the content: this is not my intention, and so I ask
visitors to use their discretion before reading on.
Day two of the Atlanta Skinner
investigation commenced with Special Agent Brown catching a dawn flight to
Washington DC: a number of urgent matters have come up in relation to
other open cases. Agents Schuster and Davis were also up before dawn, he
to make use of the hotel's weight-training facilities, while she went
running. The morning was fresh and cool, with constant light rain.
Agent Muller was awoken at 7.15 by knocking on his door: it was Capt.
Peter Kerr, USACIC. Over a hastily-oredered breakfast Muller filled in the
details. Schuster and Davis arrived while they were on their second cup of
coffee.
It was agreed that the investigation should proceed on two fronts:
- The Atlanta PD would continue its investigation of the various UNSUB
victims and Kathy Manasis, assisted wherever required by Federal
Agencies. As a matter of urgency they would concentrate on development
of any further evidence from Manasis' body, and on finding witnesses to
her abduction.
- The interagency taskforce would concentrate on areas where
specialist expertise would be of assistance: tracing the armaments found
in the trunk of Adolph McKerath's car, forensics, "profiling" the
killer, investigation of the Georgia State Militia (including McKerath's
ex-wife Katherine Block and his daughter Leanne) and development of any
leads arising from investigation of McKerath's telephone records,
financial statements and his computer.
The team made their
way to Atlanta PD Headquarters, where they were given a precis of
information gathered by the police detectives. There was little of note.
While Agent Schuster made enquiries at the Medical Examiner's Office,
Special Agent Muller arranged for McKerath's computer to be examined by an
expert supplied by the Atlanta PD: Sgt Duc Tran. Sgt Tran was completely
confident in his ability to access the computer: the few security measures
McKerath employed were not implemented properly, and it was easy to
recover passwords. He set up in a conference room opening off the main
incident room (this room had already been set up for use by the Federal
Agents). The computer was still configured with the Windows default
settings, and so Tran was able to summarise its contents in only a few
minutes: McKerath had compiled a huge folder of e-mail, and a vast
collection of files downloaded from the internet. These were bundled into
half-a-dozen chaotic files:
- Farm: Documents and e-mail focussing on basic, self-sufficient
agriculture.
- Freedom: A comprehensive survey of "survivalist" literature, coupled
with more mundane information for outdoorsmen.
- Friends: A large collection of mail, news and site references for
far right groups and individuals, especially the GCM and other militia
organisations. Detailed were sources of arms and materiel, sites of
"encampments", financial dealings and sources of revenue. Special Agent
Muller arranged to have this copied:Tran began immediately.
- Government: References (including staff lists) for over a doxen
State and Federal bodies, from the ATF and FBI through to Georgia State
Fisheries and the local Sheriff's Dept. There were also extracts from
anti-government sites and news posts. There was a relatively small
collection of mail to and from office holders.
- Gothic: The smallest folder, containing only a few files; all refer
to a large leather-bound book referred to as The Gothic. The
files indicate that The Gothic was auctioned in Paris, in 1992,
and sold to an American. There was a blurry jpeg from the auction
catelogue. Email in the folder showed that McKerath was trying to find
this book as "a favour to our longtime friends". By far the largest file
in the folder was a complete list of clinical staff employed in
Atlanta's public hospitals. The smallest file was a Word document
containing less than a line: NASA guy? The dotcer? Skinning? hors
possible. Speak with traditionalists: Ring
- History: Correspondence, saved articles and web references for
history of the Americas (both North and South), with emphasis on United
States history (especially the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement).
- Patriot: Mostly saved news files, but with a small amount of e-mail,
this folder is collected information concerning criminal prosecutions of
modern American freedom fighters, such as David Koresh and the
Unabomber.
- Southern: The second smallest folder, this was concerned with south
and central American history, especially the struggle between the far
right and far left.
Agent Schuster re-examined the photographs taken inside and around the
car, and together with Assistant ME John McAvoy came to the rather
uncomfortable conclusion that McKerath almost certainly drove himself to
the place where he was found dead, after he had been skinned. The
team studied the pictures again, and also reached the conclusion that it
was probable that another vehicle had driven in behind McKerath, and then
driven away. Lt Astrand sent a forensic team to search the site again for
any evidence of a second vehicle. Given the highly precarious load in the
car's trunk (100mm mortar bombs, fused and lying loose) Agent Davis
suggested that perhaps these might have been placed in the car at the same
time. No one could decide on a plausible reason for this, although Agent
Schuster suggested that they might be intended as a booby trap.
Little more being found on the computer or in the crime scene photos,
the team decided to return to their hotel for a strategy meeting and for
lunch. Sgt Tran stayed behind with e delivery pizza, copying McKerath's
files to Special Agent Muller's laptop. As they were leaving Sgt
Heineman caught them in the hallway and advised them that a press
conference had been scheduled for 4pm: Special Agent Muller, as the senior
agent, should be prepared to take questions. Muller pointed out (rather
heatedly) that it is Sgt Heineman's job to deal with the press, and that
the team have better things to do with their time. Agents Muller,
Schuster and Davis caught the lift down to the lobby where they were
assailed by a phalanx of media. The police were of little assistance, and
tempers were frayed by the time they pushed their way through the crowd to
the desk. They decided to take the stairs to the basement, and managed to
evade the media that way. As they walked into the carpark, two things
happened: Special Agent Muller's cellphone rang, and with chirping tyres
and roaring engine a white van sped through the gateway. It had gone from
sight by the time they reached their car. The call on Special Agent
Muller's cellphone was from Special Agent in Charge Nathan Mitchell, who
tore a strip off Muller for failure to deal with the media. Special Agent
Muller started to object but was overridden. Agent Davis agreed to write a
statement Muller could present, and remembering the crowd of reporters in
the lobby, he started up the stairs to the sixth floor, ringing for a
pizza as he went. Agents Muller and Schuster looked around for Capt.Kerr,
who had disappeared around the time Sgt Heineman appeared upstairs, then
drove back to the hotel for lunch. Capt.Kerr had no desire to appear on
TV, so he slipped into the stairwell as soon as he saw Sgt Heineman. He
walked the six flights down to the lobby, meeting no-one en-route,
although he was delayed for a minute by a wave of dizziness. He went to
the evidence locker where he checked the disposition of the mortar, shells
and the sniper-rifle. The property officer seemed disinclined to help him,
and suspicious of his Army ID: distracted by an argument with the
policeman Kerr was smacked in the face when an evidence locker stuck, then
jerked open. Capt.Kerr left, slipping through the crowd in the foyer,
downstairs to the garage. While in the stairwell his nose started bleeding
heavily, no doubt due to the bump it received earlier. When he reached the
carpark he had to step smartly to avoid being clipped by a fast moving
white van that sped through the garage to park near the
elevator. Thinking nothing of the incident, he drove to the hotel. Even
so, he arrived some time after Agents Muller and Schuster had ordered and
received their lunch. Agent Schuster was concerned that Capt.Kerr seemed
confused, and had spots of blood on his shirt. He explained how he hit his
nose, but could not explain why he was a full half-hour behind
them. They did not complete their lunch. A minute after Capt.Kerr
arrived Special Agent Muller received another call on his cellphone: this
time it was Lt.Astrand, advising that Agent Davis had been found having
some kind of seizure in the stairwell. They rushed back to Police
Headquarters. Agent Davis was conscious but groggy, lying on a couch in
Lt.Astrand's office. A paramedic pronounced him healthy, except for a bump
on the head where he had fallen on the stairs. He had collapsed on the
sixth floor landing, almost adjacent to the room where Sgt Tran was
working on the computer. Suspecting the worst, all four ran to the
incident room: all seemed as before, although the venetian blinds on the
conference room windows were closed, as was the door. When they burst in,
Sgt Tran was collapsed over the computer keyboard, which was saturated
with his blood: copious amounts had bled from his nose and ears. He was
not breathing, but retained a slight pulse. While Lt.Astrand called for an
ambulance and Capt.Kerr looked at the computer, Agents Schuster and Muller
began rescuscitation: they were able to resore Tran's brathing with little
difficulty, but he was deeply comatose. Capt.Kerr found that both
McKerath's PC and Muller's laptop had been opened and their hard-drives
removed (Muller's laptop was broken open with a screwdriver). Printouts of
files were also missing. The police working in the adjacent room, which is
the only way to access the conference room, are mystified as to how anyone
passed them without notice. Agent Schuster travelled in the ambulance
with Tran: he arrived at hospital within 10 minutes of being found, but
there was zero activity on his EEG. He is currently attached to life
support.
This ends the second Field Report. Please feel free to send any comments about the story so far, or
about this site.
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© Rob Shankly 1998
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