“When there was no apparent cause of death with these couples,” Wesley said, “one had to wonder if they were being murdered without the use of weapons. Strangulation, for example. Or even if their throats were cut, this is associated with guerrilla warfare, taking out an enemy swiftly and in silence. You cut through his airway and he’s not going to be making any noise.”
“But Deborah Harvey was shot,” I said.
“With an automatic or semiautomatic weapon,” Wesley replied. “Either a pistol or something like an Uzi. The ammunition uncommon, associated with law enforcement, mercenary soldiers, people whose targets are human beings. You don’t associate exploding bullets or Hydra-Shok ammo with deer hunting.”
Pausing, he added, “I would think this gives you a better idea why we don’t want Pat Harvey cognizant of the type of weapon and ammunition that was used on her daughter.”
“What about the threats Mrs. Harvey mentioned in her press conference?” I asked.
“That is true,” Wesley said. “Not long after she was appointed National Drug Policy Director, someone did send communications threatening her and her family. It isn’t true that the Bureau didn’t take them seriously. She’s been threatened before and we’ve always taken it seriously. We have an idea who’s behind the more recent threats and don’t believe they’re related to Deborah’s homicide.”
“Mrs. Harvey also implicated a ‘federal agency,'” I said. “Was she referring to the CIA? Is she aware of what you’ve just told me?”
“That concerns me,” Wesley admitted. “She’s made comments to suggest she has an idea, and what she said in the press conference only increases my anxiety. She might have been referring to the CIA. Then again, maybe she wasn’t. But she has a formidable network. For one thing, she has access to CIA information, providing it’s relevant to the drug trade. More worrisome is that she’s dose friends with an ex-United Nations ambassador who is a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Members of the board are entitled to top secret intelligence briefings on any subject at any time. The board knows what’s going on, Kay. It’s possible Mrs. Harvey knows everything.”
“So she’s set up Martha Mitchell-style?”
I asked. “To make sure she comes off as irrational, unreliable, so that no one takes her seriously, so that if she does blow the lid, no one will believe her?”
Wesley was running his thumb around the rim of his glass. “It’s unfortunate. She’s been uncontrollable, uncooperative. And the irony is, we want to know who murdered her daughter more than she does, for obvious reasons. We’re doing everything within our power, have mobilized everything we can think of to find this individual – or individuals.”.
“What you’re telling me seems patently inconsistent with your earlier suggestion that Deborah Harvey and Fred Cheney may have been a paid hit, Benton,” I said angrily. “Or was that just a lot of smoke you were blowing out to hide the Bureau’s real fears?”
“I don’t know if they were a paid hit,” he said grimly.
“Frankly, there’s so little we really know. Their murders could be political, as I’ve already explained. But if we’re dealing with a CIA officer gone haywire, someone like that, the cases of the five couples may, in fact, be connected, may be serial killings.”
“It could be an example of escalation,” Mark offered. “Pat Harvey’s been in the news a lot, especially over the past year. If we’re looking for a CIA officer who’s practicing homicidal maneuvers, he may have decided to target a presidential appointee’s daughter.”
“Thus adding to the excitement, the risk,” Wesley explained. “And making the kill similar to the sorts of operations you associate with Central America, the Middle East, political neutralizations. Assassinations, in other words.”
“It’s my understanding that the CIA is not supposed to be in the business of assassinations, not since the Ford administration,” I said. “In fact, the CIA’s not even supposed to engage in coup attempts in which a foreign leader is in danger of being killed.”
“That’s correct,” Mark replied. “The CIA’s not supposed to be in that business. American soldiers in Vietnam weren’t supposed to kill civilians. And cops aren’t supposed to use excessive force on suspects and prisoners. When it’s all reduced to individuals, sometimes things get out of control. Rules get broken.”