Mid-West Campaign
Session Eleven

Monday, 16 October 2000

Artemis agrees to help Romero, but first there are some loose ends of case BV004 to tie up. Black and Munroe interview Lewis Sneddon-Small. At first Sneddon-Small obeys his lawyer (Stuart Rogers) and doesn't tell the agents anything. In an off-the-record interview, Artemis tells Sneddon-Small that they can provide him with another lawyer if Sneddon-Small is scared. Sneddon-Small breaks down. He is absolutely terrified of his role in things. He will tell the agents everything as long as they get him into the witness protection programme.

Some phone-calls are made and it is agreed. This is the first time a cold case team have put someone into witness protection. It is only permitted because of the evidence that Sneddon-Small promises about Columbian drug dealer Ramirez. Sneddon-Small will be transported from Brownsville to a secure facility in Utah where he will give his evidence and then start a new life. He will travel there with the agents tomorrow.

Timeline note: Artemis Black and Nathan Harlow now travel to Chicago to interview Damian Snapes. These events are chronicled in session 10, and you may follow this link to read about them. Black and Harlow returned to Brownsville late in the evening.

Tuesday, 17 October 2000

With little more to do on case BV004 Artemis and Nathan decide to take a crack at case ES174 - the discovery of the long missing body of a civil rights activist in Estelle, Louisiana. They fly out to New Orleans to check in with the case liaison, Thomas Reismaus. Jane is left alone in Texas, but she doesn't have time to drop everything and go after Apache Joe. She accompanies Lewis Sneddon-Small from Brownsville to the Clement Strong FBI Centre in Utah.

Jane speaks with leading agent Jude Riffington and explains the situation to him. Riffington is surprised, but co-operative. Riffington offers a place in witness protection for anyone else connected with the case. The liaison with the team on the Sneddon-Small cast will be a secret service man called Dave Watkins. Watkins will be the only person to know of Sneddon-Small's new location and identity. If the agents need to speak to Sneddon-Small again after today then they will have to go through Watkins. They gain access to Watkins through Riffington.

After the interview Jane gets a phone call from Roland Whitton at the Quantico labs. He has finally got an 80% match for the plate of the white van that took the stone tablet from the Texas 4 Coffee warehouse. It matches a 1992 GMC courier belonging to an Adam Yoshima. Yoshima has four speeding offences. As Jane is about to go and interview Sneddon-Small she passes the information on to Nathan Harlow who puts out an alert to find the vehicle.

In the interview, Sneddon-Small explains how he was paid by Terri Madison for letting Jesus Martinez's men take artefacts out of the bonded warehouse. He says that Madison didn't want to be a part of it, but she was put under pressure by Martinez. Madison was Fenner's partner in the antiques trade. Fenner was responsible of making the drops at the home of José Martinez Sneddon-Small can prove all this because he kept meticulous records on a CD-ROM concealed in his office.

Sneddon-Small says that on 3 May 1998 he saw Jesus Martinez murder a man called Joseph Tawl. Tawl was a driver on the Brownsville-Dallas leg of the conspiracy, and made the mistake of taking something that didn't belong to him. It was this act beyond all others that frightened Sneddon-Small into keeping quiet and cooperating. His lawyer, Roberts, was paid for by Clive Fenner.

So why were the artefacts stolen in the first place? Apparently, Jesus has a cousin called Ramirez. Ramirez is an infamous drugs baron and a big fan of art. Much of the stolen artefacts were eventually sent to Columbia. Sneddon-Small also says that he also made some money on the side by selling some artefacts that Ramirez didn't want to others. The missing medallion, for example, was sold to Grippee Grenzoli.

The interview concluded, Jane places a call to Special Agent Dwight Hernandez-Brown of the Brownsville FBI. She asks local FBI to retrieve Sneddon-Small's CD-ROM and to arrest Grippee Grenzoli. She also authorises a major SWAT raid on the house of Jesus Martinez looking for artefacts. But Jane's work is not done yet. She flies from Utah to Dallas to interview Terri Madison.

Wednesday, 18 October 2000

Jane's flight touches down in Dallas at 00:30. Very soon after she receives a call from a distraught Artemis Black. He informs her that Harlow and three other FBI agents are dead. He won't give any more details over the phone. Jane is devastated. Harlow was becoming a good friend.

Jane telephones Quantico and demands to speak to Blackthorne. Despite the hour, Joshua is in a meeting and cannot be disturbed. At least he has been released from hospital. She leaves a message that Josh should call her immediately.

Next, Jane telephones Dwight Hernandez-Brown. He is excited and tells her that he raid on the Hernandez mansion went without a hitch. The SWAT team moved in at 19:00 and met with heavy resistance. None of the police were killed. Thirty-seven people were arrested, although Jesus himself was not on the premises at the time. No artefacts were recovered from the mansion, which probably means the stone-slab is in Columbia already. Grenzoli was arrested and the medallion was recovered. Jane cannot summon up the enthusiasm to be pleased about this. She tells Hernandez what happened to Harlow and that she is going to New Orleans. She asks if Hernandez and the other local FBI agents - Julia Makeena (Dallas) and Senior Special Agent Fred Pickman (Houston) - can tidy up case BV004 for evidence response. Hernandez-Brown agrees.

Jane charters a flight to New Orleans arriving at 05:30. On arrival at the airport a package is waiting for her. It contains a petri dish containing the 5 of Spades, 2 of Spades and 3 of Hearts. The bottom half of each card has been sliced into pieces. Realising what this means, she hurries to the scene.

FBI headquarters which is cordoned off and surrounded by police and the press. She heads through and quickly finds Senior Agent Wyatt Wayman who tries to explain what happened. The bodies of Harlow, Agent Kitty and Agent Snift were found cut in two with the stomachs opened and intestines spread out on the ground and chopped up.

The meaning of the Joker's latest macabre package now becomes clear. Jane gives the package she just received to Waymen. He immediately sends it away for analysis. Jane asks about the fourth agent. Waymen says that Agent Merlan was shot, probably by Harlow. Merlan wasn't killed by the Joker, this is why there were only three cards.

Jane arrives at the motel where Black is staying at 07:00. Although sedated Black is still awake and tells Jane everything that happened. Black thinks that the Joker meant everyone to be listening to live jazz, which is why the death took place - listening to recorded music did not cut the mustard. Black says that he doesn't believe this was a deliberate deception on the part of the Joker. The Joker is from a different time, and recorded music would not have occurred to him.

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