At least a dozen agents gathered in the large conference room in our downtown headquarters. The air in that room was heavy with solemn silence. We had to figure out the connection between Curt, J.T., and the psychos who’d murdered Curt and were still holding J.T. and Julie hostage. We had sleepless nights and busy days ahead of us, and we didn’t know what state of mind those individuals were in. Would they lose their patience, and would J.T. and his sister endure the same fate as Curt? There had to be something important going on that caused them to spring into action at that particular time.
Spelling and SSA Hopkins each took a corner at the head of the table nearest the back wall.
Agent Hopkins stood and held his closed fist against his mouth. He cleared his throat and began. “Most of you at this table knew Curt personally and, in one way or another, treated him like family. He worked at this location for nine years, and four years prior to that at the North Chicago field office. I can only thank God he wasn’t married and didn’t have children.” Hopkins smiled thoughtfully and took a second to compose himself. “No encumbrances, Curt and J.T. always said. It was a standing joke between them. That’s why those two made such good partners, and now one is dead and the other is missing.”
I wiped my eyes, which were beginning to blur. I remembered our team joking about that on the first day I met them. That was the reason Spelling assigned me to J.T. Neither of us had encumbrances. I glanced up, and Cam, Maria, and Val were staring at me.
Hopkins sighed deeply before continuing. “He had a mother who depended greatly on him. She hasn’t been told yet, but in all probability, I’ll be taking a drive to Waukegan tomorrow to tell her face-to-face that her son is dead. We need to find the connection. Somebody wants something that Curt and J.T. knew about or worked on together. There would be no other reason to kidnap both of them. Apparently, Curt wouldn’t give them whatever they wanted, and he died because of it.”
Spelling took over. “What we need is every case that Curt and J.T. worked on together. I realize that’s a daunting task and it’s going to take time, but we need to start at the beginning. Curt and J.T. were partners between 2011 and early 2016 when our team split off and moved the Serial Crimes Unit to Glendale. Curt stayed behind because of his mom, and J.T. gained a new unencumbered partner in Jade.” Spelling gave me a weak smile.
My voice caught in my throat. “May I say something?”
“Go ahead,” Spelling said.
“I think that because five years of working together is a lot of case files to go through, we should focus on the most notorious criminals, the ones with an ax to grind and who likely ended up dead due to a gun fight or who are in prison. The families could be seeking revenge.”
“True,” Cam added, “but J.T. and Curt haven’t been partners for a year. There had to be a trigger for the person calling the shots to suddenly come out of the shadows.”
Hopkins took his turn. “Okay, let’s begin with the cases that Curt and J.T. were primaries on. They led the investigation and most likely made the arrest themselves. Also, focus on anybody who was personally shot or sent to prison by either of them. Those files should hold us over until morning.” He jerked his head at Agent Lewis. “Bill, start making calls. I want every agent who doesn’t need eight hours of sleep to get down here immediately. Let’s get started. Agent Pearson?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Show Agent Monroe where we keep the files that Curt and J.T. worked on between 2011 and 2016. Bring all of them in here, and we’ll begin. I’ll get Maureen to start a few pots of coffee. We have a long night ahead.”
Joe from the tech department knocked on the door. I was shocked to see him still at work.
“Sirs?”
“Go ahead, Joe,” Hopkins said.
“I was able to pick up camera footage of the van for three blocks, and then it disappeared into a residential area. There aren’t any cameras along the streets in that quadrant.”
“Anything that stood out?”
“Nothing that will help us. I didn’t get the driver in any frames, and I didn’t see the plate number since the view was always from the side. All I can say with certainty is that it was a panel van, likely five to eight years old. Nothing else stood out, and I can’t even tell you the make or model. Every other streetlight leading out of downtown was shut off, and still is, due to the energy saving initiative Milwaukee has in place. Also, at that hour, the only places lit up on a weeknight are the bars, which are few and far between in this area of downtown.”
“Let’s get that information on the news, anyway. Somebody’s neighbor may have a black or dark blue panel van. The more eyes helping us look for that vehicle, the better. We find the van, we’ll likely find the people responsible for Curt’s death and J.T. and Julie’s kidnapping,” Hopkins said.
I entered the file room behind Agent Pearson. As we worked our way through the cabinets of archived cases, she explained that she was a recent graduate of the FBI training course in Quantico and hoped one day to be a profiler. I told her about Amber’s aspirations too as we filled a cart with every file folder with J.T. and Curt’s cases between 2011 and 2016. I pushed the cart out of the room and waited as Agent Pearson—or Sandra, as she liked to be called—locked the door at our backs. I wheeled the cart down the hallway and snugged it against the wall just outside the conference room door, then we began placing folders on the table.
“We have five and a half years’ worth of cases. How should we divide these up?” I asked.
Spelling scratched his chin as if in thought. “Let’s go year by year and pull out the folders where serious consequences took place. Don’t forget, agents, these men worked in the Violent Crimes Division. All of the crimes were serious, but not all led to death or a lengthy imprisonment for the offender. Let’s begin with any criminal who died in gunfire then see what their crime was. Maybe we can link that to something current, like an anniversary of their death, if you get my drift. There has to be a trigger. Cam, pull up anyone who was released from prison this year who was incarcerated directly because of an arrest made by J.T., Curt, or both of them.”
We gathered around the table in a somewhat organized state of chaos. Each agent paged through, and stacked, the folders that contained the most violent cases and placed the other folders to the side.
With a pot of coffee at the center of the table and twelve agents digging into the folders, we spent two hours perusing case files. We narrowed the stack, concentrating on only the worst offenders in eleven archived cases. There were three in 2011, two in 2012, one in 2013, three in 2014, two in 2015, and none in 2016.
We would spend the rest of the night trying to connect the dots and figure out how the Pirelli brothers were involved—and who was calling the shots.