Mid-West Campaign
Session Fifteen

Wednesday, 8 November 2000

Jane looks at the leads they still have to follow on the Apache Joe case: Is Joe killing the rank and file in a particular order? Are the victims direct descendents of those who died at Eagle Pass? Who is Vitrano and Lavin's contact? Did Crondheim have a contact? What is Apache Joe's obsession with the Texas Rangers?

Joshua and Elise head to Quantico to speak to Eisenstein. From there they will go to Eagle Pass to view the monument. Meanwhile Jane goes through the remainder of Nathan's non-porn files to see if he found out anything else before he died. She finds nothing.

In Quantico the pair meet with Eisenstein who gives them the gen on case BRTS002. The federal vehicle in question was attached to the anti-terrorism unit and was parked very close to a vehicle belonging to a VIP. There were documents inside the federal vehicle that are beyond Blackthorne's clearance level. The agents are not told who the VIP is, and are instructed not to contact the anti-terrorist team in our investigation of the arson.

Blackthorne and Eisenstein now confer privately. Eisenstein switches on a white-noise generator so no-one can eavesdrop. His paranoia is evidently not misplaced, as Eisenstein revealed to Blackthorne that there is a mole in evidence response. Blackthorne says the team has three possible locations where Apache Joe will hit on 4 January 2001. He wants the other two evidence response teams to help us so we can cover all three locations. Eisenstein agrees, but he cannot help the team directly. Blackthorne also speaks to Eisenstein about Harlow. Eisenstein made it clear that he doesn't want the team contacting him every five minutes.

After the meeting Josh texts Harlow. He writes: "Your actions have compromised the bureau - please desist. Only speak to us and we'll try to help you."

Thursday, 9 November 2000

Josh and Elise travel to Eagle Pass. It is two hours by car from the nearest airport. A reproduction of Fort Routt has been constructed in almost the right place, and the battle between the Mexicans and the Texans is re-enacted hourly. The pair copy down all the names from the monument which takes several hours. The list of rank and file is alphabetical divided into regiments. It is soon apparent that Apache Joe is cycling through the regiment. A victim will come from the first regiment, his next victim from the second, the fifth from the first and so on.

They are therefore able to deduce which regiment the next victim will come from. They have narrowed it down to 150 different surnames. Unfortunately for Elise, one of these is "Steiger". Josh and Elise work on reducing that number even further and spend the rest of a very long day visiting libraries and archives in Eagle Pass, Round Rock and Temple. They take this information back to Wichita. Jane has already left for Kirsty's funeral.

Jane is met at the airport in Pecos on Todd. Todd tells her that Vitrano and Lavin are writing off the body of Susan Lomax in Colorado City as completely unconnected to the Apache Joe killings. They think the agents who investigate the body before they got there (Artemis Black and Elise) were a "hoax squad".

Friday, 10 November 2000

Blackthorne and Elise analyse the information they have collected. Comparing the names from the monument with what they already know about Joe's habits they have cut the potential victims to five in Eagle Pass, six in Round Rock and twelve in Temple. However, this list need to be further refined to include 16 and 17 year olds (who wouldn't be on the electoral roll) and exclude all the people who have had children. They contact the local archives for that information, but it will take them a week to get back with it.

In the evening Jane (with Todd in tow) attends Kirsty's funeral. It is a very emotional affair. Jane is called upon to speak but cannot bring herself to say more than a few words. She spends the evening with Kirsty's family.

Saturday, 11 November 2000

Jane Munroe returns to Wichita to find Blackthorne and Elise Steiger still going through the Apache Joe data. Jane lends a hand. A message has come back from the genealogical expert in Chicago. Family trees for Artemis Black, Elise Steiger and Jane Munroe arrive in the mail. It seems that Jane is directly related to Lieutenant James Munroe. This could cut the list of potential victims substantially!

Jane phones the genealogist and gives him the list of twenty-three names retrieved by Elise and Black. She instructs him to find out which of them are related to the those that died at Fort Routt. Jane also says they will feed him more information when they have it.

Sunday, 12 November 2000

The agents have a day off. Joshua Blackthorne inadvertently sees a programme on the Discovery Channel called Discovering Artemis Black. The programme was filmed a week ago, and is a sycophantic look at the work of Artemis Black with special emphasis on his latest book, Victim Schmictim. Blackthorne is outraged. He has always considered Artemis to be a sensationalist crank with no more real talent for psychology than a damp flannel. He telephones the Discovery Channel and demands to know who was responsible for this travesty. They quickly talk him into appearing on a head-to-head discussion with Artemis Black where they can debate their 'different approaches' to psychologist. Josh phones Jane who advises him to take some more of his medication.

Monday, 13 November 2000

The mid-west evidence response team returns to official duties after several weeks on extended medical and compassionate leave. While awaiting further information on the Apache Joe and Joker cases, the team turns its attention to the mounting number of outstanding cases that have built up in the past few weeks.

In a moment of whimsy Jane creates an Artemis Black screensaver using images from yesterday's Discovery Channel special. The entire programme has also been digitised and emailed to Joshua Blackthorne by Todd O'Connell (at Jane's behest). Even the ghost of Nathan Harlow gets in on the act and sends Josh a fax informing him that his honorary degree is being given to Artemis instead. Fortunately Blackthorne takes all this with good humour.

Joshua Blackthorne and agents Jane Munroe and Elise Steiger then convene to assess their current cases. Artemis Black and Elijah Stone are still on sick leave. The last anyone heard from Stone he was in Tahiti. There are eight cases that require attention:

ES174 (body of civil rights activist); FB563 (theft of FBI property); BRTS002 (arson involving a federal vehicle); DVL017 (liaison with Royal Canadian Mounted Police); TL348 (accounting irregularities at Dynamicorp); WNT075 (kidnap victim support); HTS193 (suspected health care fraud); CS1473-IND (academy final year assessment).

It is decided that while there is still a chance of finding the victim alive, the kidnapping case WNT075 must have priority and the three head to Winterset, Iowa. The goal of this mission it to double-check the findings of the original team to make sure no obvious mistakes were made, and to help the family accept that their daughter will probably not be found. However the agents (particularly Jane) hope they are not too late to solve the case and find the girl alive. However, as they read the notes of Special Agent Nathan Trask on the plane, it seems that everything has already been done to find the girl.

The victim is Elayna Lewis (aged 14). She was attending cheerleader practice after school on 18 October 2000. Practice over-ran by an hour so she was walking home late. She was bundled into a van outside a local butchers. The abduction was witnessed by butcher Richard Midden who is taking heavy sedatives to help with bad dreams. He fell asleep after witnessing the abduction and didn't report the matter until the morning. Elayna was reported missing by her father Luke Lewis (the local doctor) at 21:00. Elayna was an only child and had just been given a puppy called Sparky. She was bundled into the back of a van by two men. Midden got a partial plate, but this was determined to be a fake. Despite following numerous leads that also occur to the evidence response agents, Trask found nothing else.

The agents arrive at the airport in Des Moines and speak to Trask and their contact Special Agent Helena Swartzkopt of Victim Assistance. The agents then head to the town. Winterset, Iowa is a town of white-picket fences and tranquillity that is home to 350 people. The community is quite religious. The local church is the Church of the Immaculate Mary. There is something about this place that is immediately comforting. Blackthorne especially finds himself at home here.

Josh goes alone to speak with Luke Lewis. The agent sees the puppy, Sparky, in the garden. It is whining and obviously trying to escape. The doctor fills Josh with every confidence. Josh hates to tell him the reason they are here, and feels he has let the doctor down by giving the news that the FBI are effectively giving up on the case.

Jane and Elise go to visit the butcher Richard Midden, the younger of two Middens who run this establishment. Midden tells them of the abduction, but doesn't really add anything. Trask checked him out thoroughly. Elise (with the help of a passer-by) finds a old tire mark on the road that confirms Midden's version of the kidnapping. Jane's curiosity is piqued by Midden's violent dreams. These are the reason he is taking heavy sedatives. Jane has seem too much over the past few weeks to dismiss this as a coincidence. Could Midden's dreams be relevant? It is certainly something Trask never chased up. Midden won't confide to Jane about his dreams. What they need is a psychologist.

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