Day 119 - The Agent

 The Agent

 Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

Something bad happened here was the understatement of the century, but Sonny couldn’t help thinking it all the same. When he arrived, the police stopped his at the compound gate – no cars in or out. There were bodies starting out the outer wall spread out as one approached the main buildings. There were more around each building – the main house, the guest house, security office, workers chambers and more. There had been a war here, a range of nationalities and races. It was unclear who survived or which faction had come out on top. One thing that had already been determined – Mr. Amer the owner of the property was dead, shot in the head in his dining room. The room was in shambles, bodyguards executed, and signs of struggles, fist fights and more. Mr. Amer’s nephew was dead by his uncle’s side, shot in the face at near point-blank range.

Something very bad indeed.

Sonny was not here to determine who had killed who. He was not here because of his forensics knowledge or understanding of the gangs or mafioso families in the city. Sonny had been alerted because a year ago he had worked undercover to bring down a group of pirates who were kidnapping and ransoming off rich elites off the coast of Java near Bali. During that case he had become an expert on tattoos of the gang and had begun tracing their links to other criminal organizations of the region. When one of those tattoos had begun appearing again, Sonny had been alerted and was on the next plane. He was here as a courtesy. This was not his district; these were not his people. He had no authority. But his expertise was appreciated and if it helped prevent more bloodshed, it was welcomed. Sonny was unsure how identifying international cartels would help prevent the next crime or track down any of the surviving participants, but he was happy to try. Perhaps if the dead were over representative of faction, the remaining bodies might indicate the victorious gang, and perhaps their tattoos could give a direction for the investigation to take.

Before Sonny had even begun, word came in of another massacre at the offices of Jon Quer, a business associate of Mr. Amer’s family. The plot thickens, as they say, or perhaps it meant a dash more clarity. If Quer and Amer were both eliminated, perhaps their business associations also had dipped into the illegal sorts and they had made the wrong acquaintances. And maybe both were eliminated by the same people at the same time for the same reasons.

Sonny needed to see both scenes and perform his own documentation and comparisons. It was going to be a long day with one location, let alone two. He would have to speed up his own process and trust the officers here to document everything well enough if he was to spend time across the city as well. He hated it and wondered what would be lost in the shuffle, but he reminded himself this wasn’t his department, city, or even country. He was here as an advisor, and if things were missed, it was not a comment on him or his job performance. It was their responsibility, not his. Telling himself that did not put his mind at ease.

Sonny tried to remember the names of all the business men who had been funding the kidnappers he had dealt with before. He had never heard the names Quer or Amer before not but it was worth looking into them to see of the networks interconnected somewhere. His mind was slipping, it had only been a year ago and already the names were fading. He’d have to check his files. He was so worried about these police missing something, but what would he miss if he didn’t get his act together?

Long day ahead? Well, more like the beginning of a lot of long long days, he thought to himself. Something like this wasn’t going to be settled quickly.