Celebrity Skin: Field Report 4

Special Agent Brown was whisked back to Atlanta in a chartered jet as soon as reports from Porterdale were received. Privately, the FBI agents were not at all surprised by the events that had unfolded. They had entertained significant doubts about the wisdom of leaving the Federal investigation in the hands of the ATF. The doubts seemed to be justified, notwithstanding the ATF's protestations that they had tried a "softly-softly" approach in order to avoid a confrontation.
The next few days passed very slowly for Special Agent Muller. Captain Kerr and Agent Davis were both rushed to hospital from the trailer park, and were not available to explain the situation until late the next day. Special Agent Muller had to face the media, and the wrath of both Lt.Astrand and his own superiors, alone. In addition, the ATF and Atlanta PD were contacted by lawyers acting for the Johnson family, the Porterdale Trailer Park, several residents of the Porterdale Trailer Park, and the Newton County Police Department (whose insurers are refusing to pay for repairs to the cruiser that Special Agent Muller "borrowed").

Much of Agent Schuster's time was taken up with examining the human remains recovered from the trailer fire. There were two sets of adult remains and one body of a child recovered from inside the shell of the trailer, and another two male corpses found approximately ten metres away.
The remains recovered from the trailer itself were little more than scraps of bone, since the fire burned extremely hot for almost thirty minutes. It is impossible to be totally sure of the sex of any of these vicims, although there is a strong liklihood that both adults were female. Dental records give further information and the adults have been preliminarily identified as Sherri Johnson and Susan McCall, and it is inferred that the child was Jason Johnson.
More controversially, one of the other bodies has been identified as Cpl Owen, while the other remains unknown. Both were extensively damaged by the third Claymore mine explosion, and one of the two was decapitated by the blast. Several sections of the lower jaw were not recovered, and it is this body which has been identified as that of Owen, based upon the fact that he was wearing army boots and a military issue t-shirt. Owen has no history of dental work, which matches this corpse. In addition, a Barrett Light-50 rifle was found close to the body, and this weapon has been identified as the one which was used to fire upon Muller, Kerr and Davis.
Special Agent Muller has objected to this identification strenuously, arguing that Cpl Owen laid out the mines himself, and is unlikely to have crawled a metre in front of one. He also argues that both of these bodies were members of the unidentified group from the white van, who independantly attacked Owen's trailer and started the whole sad series of events. In rebuttal, Lt Astrand and Muller's superiors point out that there is absolutely no sign of this group, and that the final, unidentified body is almost certainly that of a trailer park resident. This theory is suppported by the trailer park visitor-registration list, which shows that there are twenty-six people supposedly living in the park who police have not been able to speak to. Lt Astrand points out that there was a great deal of coming and going through the park gate between the time the shooting started and the police arriving in sufficient numbers to secure the scene.

Over the next two days there were few developments. Captain Kerr and Agent Davis were airlifted to hospital from the trailer park, Kerr underwent surgery to remove a number of bomb fragments, while Davis' broken ribs were set and he was admitted for observation. Special Agent Muller spent much of the next few days writing reports on the incident for the Atlanta PD, for the ATF, and for the FBI. Special Agent Brown continued investigating the events at the trailer park, concentrating on the "third group" in the white van: he was unable to find any witnesses to their presence. Agent Schuster assisted the Atlanta Medical Examiner's staff autopsy and study the five bodies.

After 24-hours Capt.Kerr was moved from intensive care to the post-op recovery ward, and pronounced free of any danger. Agent Davis, heavily tanked on painkillers, was permitted to leave the hospital and return to the hotel for rest. Special Agent Muller was summoned to Washington overnight to brief his superiors on events at Porterdale. He returned tight-lipped.

The next day Special Agent Brown, Agents Davis and Schuster began to investigate Susan McCall, the kidnap victim. They hoped to discover something about her that might have lead to Owen's actions. They started by interviewing the security guards involved in the gunfight when she was abducted. They learned little from these men, except that many other medical staff had been leaving the building at about the same time. From a police interview with a storeowner down the street from the hospital, it became clear that Owen had been waiting near the hospital for almost half an hour before he kidnapped nurse McCall. From this information the agents concluded that nurse McCall was specifically targetted by Owen.
Further interviews with nurse McCall's supervisor and coleagues revealed that she was a highly professional and extremely well respected member of her profession, but a woman with no close friends. Several Doctors told how they used nurse McCall as a hired theatre nurse when performing operations on private patients, and it became clear that nurse McCall had a respectable income above her hospital salary.
To conclude their investigation into nurse McCall the agents obtained keys to her apartment , and accompanied by two officers from the Atlanta PD, searched it for any connection to Owen or to the Skinner. Their first impression was of wealth: a great deal of money has been spent on the apartment and its furnishings. All the fittings are new, as is the widescreen TV, the sound system and kitchen fittings. The apartment was largely free of personal items, however: there were no photographs, letters, fiction, no magazines under the coffeee table or cartoons clipped to the refrigerator. On the other hand, there are two 6' bookshelves full of nursing manuals.
Nurse McCall's financial records were found in a file box in one of the bookshelves. It is clear to casual reading that she was spending cash almost as fast as she was earning it, and had only a few hundred dollars in reserve. The records are complete, and detail the source of her income (the hospital and her freelance work) and that she regularly spent it all.
There were no signs of any significant relationships in her life: no lovers, family, or even old school friends.
The first discovery of anything unusual was made by Agent Schuster, who looked through the refrigerator and found a new box of emergency adrenaline syrettes (24) in the vegetable crisper. These are prepackaged, one-use syringes designed to be used for advanced emergency first aid. They are not commonly needed in a burns ward or by a nurse assisting a plastic surgeon...
This discovery was followed moments later by a set of three unlabelled Yale keys in nurse McCall's bedside drawer. These do not match the apartment locks and are not the same pattern as the locks in the hospital. Prompted by these unexpected discoveries the police searched the apartment again, much more thoroughly, but did not find any further surprises.

Their interest piqued, the agents returned to Atlanta PD headquarters to discuss the new information with Lt.Astrand. This discussion looked set to turn into a full-scale review of the entire case when Special Agent Muller's cellphone began ringing. He answered to hear the sound of heavy, trained breathing and a rythmic thumping. Special Agent Muller was able to retrieve the number that was calling, and Lt.Astrand contacted the telephone company to determine where the call was originating. Meanwhile the cellphone went silent, although the line was still open. At the same time someone could be heard picking up the telephone at the other end: "Hello, I seah hello, is anyone theah?", Lt.Astrand reported the origin of the call: Capt.Kerr's room at Atlanta Memorial Hospital.