With assistance from the property manager and his pass key, Travis followed the two FBI agents into the missing supervisor’s apartment. The main room was cold and nearly completely dark with only the minimal external daylight permeating through the thick curtains. However a faint illumination of an electrical light source could be seen coming from somewhere around the corner to the left, so before turning on additional lighting, one of the two agents asked the property manager, “What’s over that way?”

“That’s the kitchen and a small eating area.”

After instructing Travis and the property manager to retreat a few paces into the hallway and not touch a thing while doing so, the agent moved cautiously in the direction of the kitchen with his Glock sidearm drawn. Then he called out, “This is the FBI, is anyone there?”

Not a sound was heard in reply, and he soon knew the reason why. Peering around the corner, he could see a motionless body slumped into an open refrigerator with a large pool of blood, other liquids, and various spoiling foods on the surrounding vinyl flooring. There were pieces of glass from bottles of beer and egg shells within the mix too, as several of each had broken when falling from the dislodged shelves. While his partner provided cover from behind, the agent flicked on the light switch for the kitchen and dining areas to ascertain if anyone else may have met with a similar fate. Then with that area secure from threat, he and his partner began a systematic sweep of the entire apartment. Upon completion they asked Travis to once again not touch anything while in the apartment, but they needed him to re-enter and identify the only body, alive or dead, that had been found.

That process only took a few seconds, as the victim’s body had fallen forward in such a way as to see one entire side of the man’s face. With a quick look Travis said, “Yep, that’s him. There’s no doubt about it. Now aside from the obvious answer of him being shot and killed, what do you think happened?”

“We don’t know at this time sir, but this man’s demise may help to support your theory about the helicopter. His obvious murder suggests a possible connection between him and the helicopter that was parked at your airfield on Friday night. It would appear, at least preliminarily, that he was killed by someone that he didn’t suspect would do so.”

“Why do you say that?”

“His body position mainly. The man was obviously shot in the back twice while attempting to get something out of the refrigerator, but a person wouldn’t be doing that if they felt any danger. If I had to guess, I’d say that he was killed by someone that he had invited into the apartment. And whoever that shooter was, they made sure of his death by putting one more bullet into the base of his skull. This has the look and feel of a deliberate hit that was probably done to keep him quiet about something, and that something may have been his knowledge of what transpired on Friday night.”

“Alright, I can follow that. But if that’s true, then what happens next?”

“I will call the field office in a moment to initiate an investigation into this entire situation. It will begin almost immediately, and will include interviews with others who were on duty in the control tower Friday night. One or more of them may have noticed something that could help.”

Less than an hour later, a forensic team from the FBI was dusting the apartment for fingerprints, and checking for hairs or any other evidence that could help to solve the mystery. Although many things were ultimately discovered with regard to his less than sterile existence, there was nothing that would reveal the identity of the dead man’s short term guest during the first hour of November fourteenth. Courtney was careful during her brief moments in the apartment, and as she had been expertly trained to do so, was quick and clean with her post murderous departure from the scene. Using her own handkerchief when turning down the thermostat to slow her victims decay and minimize the smell that would arise from it, Courtney assured that she would leave no fingerprints on that wall component or any of the light switches when darkening the apartment. Then by placing the cloth back into her purse next to her silenced weapon after closing the locked front door behind her, she had effectively become a ghost.