The Blood Eagle in the Big Easy Read Online Free PDF Page B

my college girlfriend, who hated Smith I might add. We had a baby girl a few years later. She was two when you and I met in Maine.” Sadness overtook the smile and something weighed heavily on his soul.
    “Are you alright?” Sitting my glass down, I listened intently. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want too.” I looked back out at the lake. “I won’t look into it, I promise.”
    Gregory waved his hand dismissively. “I need to tell someone.” His voice was full of emotion. “I haven’t spoken to anyone but my wife about what happened.” He sat up and looked me in the eyes. “In 2005 Smith was transferred to DC where I was stationed. Thanks to that little trip to Maine I was on the fast track for promotions. I was in charge of the SOG for the DC area.” He shrugged at me. “Basicly I had Jones job. I was happy! I had a beautiful wife and a smart, if not sassy, teenage daughter Cassandra.” I could see the sadness move in again. “Smith was in DC transferring a prisoner to WITSEC when I met him in the elevator.”
    “I take it you two took some time to get back in touch with one another at this point?” I asked.
    “He had recently transferred to the DC area from New Hampshire.” Gregory shook his head as he closed his eyes. “I didn’t think much of it at the time. I had him over for dinner several times over the following two years, much to my wife’s displeasure.” Tears formed at the corner of his eyes. “Smith joked a few times about coming to work for me because he was unhappy with the FBI.” He took a deep breath. “I played a hunch and checked with a friend in the Bureau, who let me know he was transferred to the DC office because of rumors in NH about his proclivity for underage girls. The whole thing was swept under the rug since the girl in question died in a car accident before the investigation was complete.”
    I blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
    “You heard correctly. The FBI closed the investigation and shipped him off to DC so they could keep an eye on him.” Gregory took a drink before he steadied his nerves. Anger replaced the sadness. “I immediately cut him out of our lives completely. Cassandra’s teenage angst  was almost more than we could handle and we needed to focus on her. I got word that he was transferred to Arkansas a few months later.” He trembled as emotions swept over him at random. “Then one day I came home to find Cassandra dead in the bathtub with both of her wrists slit. We were devastated.”
    “I’m sorry you’ve lost me.” I confessed. “Are the two connected somehow?”
    Gregory nodded. “I didn’t see it either, until I got home one night and found my wife crying, holding our daughters phone. Cassandra must have sent a hundred texts to Smith begging him not to leave her because she loved him. He didn’t even respond, not even once.”
    “Are you sure? Didn’t you take this to his superiors?” I grasped at something to hold on to.
    “Don’t you think I tried?” Gregory growled. “They questioned him, hell I questioned him and he denied anything inappropriate happened. He said she started texting him after we stopped talking, that he had refused her advances.” He shook with anger as he spoke. “He made my daughter out to be some sort of sex crazed slut that he had to fight off, and that’s why he requested a transfer. To get away from my daughter harassing him.” His mood continued to darken as he spoke. “The thing that infuriates me is that I have an official write up in my file because he pressed charges against me for harassment.”
    I shook my head. “If I get a chance I will bury that asshole.”
    “Get in line!” Gregory growled.
    Thankfully breakfast arrived, diverting our attention for at least a few minutes from the pain of the conversation. I took my time and savored the crab cakes even though my appetite had been somewhat dampened given the circumstances. Gregory held it together better than I would