She didn’t say this to Chief, though.Clearly, he held some affection for Thomas.She didn’t want to beat him over the head with the possibility that he was a killer.
“Can you determine what records each subordinate of yours has accessed?”Jessica asked.
Chief’s shoulders slumped further.“Yes,” he admitted.“Since we’re accessing people’s proprietary information, we’re required—or rather, the VA is required—to record each time an individual’s personal information is accessed.”
Faith gave him a sympathetic smile.“Can we take a look at those records?”
Chief nodded, no longer able to meet their eyes.He opened the staff door to the records office, and the three agents followed him inside.Turk, sensing Chief’s anxiety, trotted up to him and nuzzled his thigh.
Chief reached down and petted him absently.“There’s only four of us here.Me, Thomas, Julie, and Carrie Ann.You’ll see our initials next to the records we’ve accessed.Since Thomas isn’t here, you can use his workstation.You’ll see it.It’s the empty one in the back room.I’ll give you my login information so you can pull up the search history.”
He led the three agents to the back.The small office contained three small desks, two of which were occupied by younger women in civilian clothing, probably volunteers or civilian contractors.The women stopped talking and stared at the FBI agents with wide eyes.Chief smiled and explained, “These agents need to check our records for something.I’m giving them access to Thomas’s computer for the day.”
“Is that dog friendly?”one of the girls asked.
“Carrie, stop!”the other one said, flushing a little.“You can’t pet service dogs.”
Faith smiled.“He’s friendly, and you can pet him if you want.He likes attention.”
Turk wagged his tail eagerly and immediately plopped himself in between the two women, who both began gushing over him.Chief smiled at the trio, but the pained look hadn’t left his eyes.A part of Faith hoped that Thomas wasn’t their killer so she wouldn’t have to break Chief’s heart.
Most of Faith wanted this case to be over before anyone else died.
Chief typed his username and passcode into the computer and Faith took a seat.Jessica stood behind her with the list of dog tags open on her cell phone.Faith recognized the impatience and the desperation in her partner’s body language.
“Fingers crossed, “she said.
The search history for records was predictably enormous.One hundred thirteen searches in the past week alone.Actually, for a VA office the size of this one, that wasn’t too bad.It just meant a lot of tedious time spent identifying which searches Thomas made and determining if they matched the dog tags.
As a matter of fact, that didn’t take long at all.Within ten minutes, Jessica had confirmed matches to all forty names on the dog tags.There was no need to dig deeper to look for a personal connection.There was no doubt now that Thomas Garrett had obtained the records of every fallen servicemember printed on the dog tags.
“Playing devil’s advocate here,” Jessica said.“Could there be a benign reason he searched for all of these names?”
“Possibly,” Faith allowed, “but some of these people died twenty years ago.People search for older records from time to time, but it’s highly coincidental for all forty of the names on our dog tags to be part of one records officer’s search history within a week of the murders.Also…”
She clicked on one of the searches.It pulled up an expanded page listing the requestor’s information and providing a link to any records.Like most places, calls to the VA’s office were recorded.
“There’s no link to a phone call, and Thomas Garrett is the requestor.”She closed the page and opened another.“Same with this one.I’m not going to go through all forty right now, but I think you get the picture.”
“Yep.Okay.Let’s go talk to this guy.”
They closed the computer and returned to the front desk.The women mourned Turk’s departure and grinned at Faith, probably to compliment her about her dog.They stopped when they saw Faith’s expression.Carrie glanced pensively at Thomas’s computer.Faith felt a little sorry for them.It was difficult to believe that their coworker could be a murderer.
Innocent until proven guilty,Faith reminded herself.
Chief wore a forlorn expression when he saw them.“Found something, huh?”
“I’m afraid so,” Faith said.“He searched for all forty of the names printed on the dog tags found at the crime scene within the past week.None of the searches were prompted by an external request.”
Chief sighed and rubbed his eyes.“Gosh darn it.Pardon my language.”
“No need to apologize,” Jessica replied gently.
“Poor guy,” Chief lamented.“I know you might not think so, but I’ve gotten to know him.He’s a sweet person.He’s just got some bitterness, but a lot of people struggle with that, especially in the military.He’s been taking an art class ever since they reported his letters…” He stopped himself, pressing his lips together and lowering his head.
“Letters?”Faith prodded.
Chief released another heavy sigh.“He was so angry about the war.He always asked why God would allow that kind of tragedy to happen.Why He would allow so much hate in this world.He used to write letters to chaplains asking them to explain that.A few months ago, one of those chaplains reported the letter to the VA.It was…”
