Page 179 of The Fourth Option
“We have identified a person of interest,” he said.
“Yes. I’ve been kept up to speed. Chris Walker.”
“We are close to naming him as a suspect and bringing the media in.”
“What are you waiting on?”
“We don’t have anything that would hold up in court yet.”
“What do you have?”
“Background and circumstantial evidence. As you know, Walker is former CIA and military. U.S. citizen, Oregon resident.”
She raised her finely sculpted eyebrows.
“I also visited a CIA contact, the same guy I worked with on the New Year’s shooting. Turns out that Walker was a friend of the Staub family. Served with the husband, John Staub, in both the SEAL Teams and, later, at the CIA.”
“So, we have a trained killer who just happens to have a personal connection to a local family, running around New Orleans killing cops and blowing things up? What about the theory pointing to the Staubs as part of a drug ring?”
Careful, Stanton reminded himself. Alma’s warnings echoed again.Choose your enemies carefully, darling.
“I don’t have the facts to support that, not yet anyway. But there are certain oddities around the Staub woman’s death.”
“Such as?”
“First, the death of the son, Connor Staub. The investigation moved fast, handled by the COPE unit. No indicators that Connor was a drug user before he was found dead from an OD.”
The revelation didn’t seem to surprise her. “That’s not unusual. A lot of first-time users are dying from fentanyl-laced drugs.”
“Connor’s mother is murdered six weeks later,” Stanton continued. “His room was ransacked, and Ms. Staub was viciously tortured. It was like the kid knew something and was killed for it. And that Ms. Staub knew something too or guarded whatever her son told her.”
“And your person of interest?”
“We are getting closer,” Stanton said, deciding to keep the information about the suspected Travois involvement to himself for now. “Here’s the rub: this cop killer is targeting the very officers assigned to look into the murders of Connor and Leigh Ann Staub.”
“Because he was close with the husband and father, John Staub. But why target the officers trying to bring Leigh Ann’s killers to justice, unless he was part of their drug ring?”
“He may think they are connected. It would not be the first time law enforcement was involved in kickbacks and protection with ties to the drug trade.”
Stanton noted a trace of concern cross her face that was not evident when he entered the room. Was it guilt?
“And the other murders? The house in the Ninth? Dorado? Nectar? Walt Kimbel?” she asked.
“We’re still working on all of that,” Stanton said.
“How much more do you need, Agent Stanton? Walker sounds like he’s part of the drug scene. After taking out a rival gang at the Staubs’, for whatever reason, he went on to shoot up that house in the Ninth, took whatever drugs there were, and is killing the cops closing in on him as a suspect.”
“Then why the bombings at Dorado and Nectar?”
“Find him and ask him. I assume you’ve put a request into the DEA to look into those establishments?”
“Augie Lloyd is working the DEA angle. I’ve been directed to focus on catching Walker.”
Icy nodded, her expression tightening. Her eyes drifted for a moment, as if pondering something just beyond reach. Stanton interpreted her expression as genuine confusion rather than the cold calculation he had expected.
“There’s something else,” he ventured, his long experience with suspects telling him he was at the proper moment. “And I’m afraid this may be uncomfortable for you.”
“I appreciate your candor, Agent Stanton.”
