The Killing House by Chris Mooney Read Free Book Online Page A

what she was doing inside Theresa Herrera's house.'
    'And you don't believe Colorado is up to the task.'
    Karim shrugged. 'Who's to say? You know how it goes with small-town police departments. The best talent moves on to greener and more lucrative pastures, and what's left behind is more often than not a midlevel offering of people who are constantly being threatened by yet another round of budget cuts, bureaucratic red-tape and superiors who are more concerned about advancing up the career ladder than rolling up their sleeves and doing actual work.'
    'Denver is assisting them.'
    'But that will last for only so long. Denver has its own problems, and as for the ATF ... When it comes to bureaucracies, it's been my experience that shit always floats to the top. I saw it happen at the Agency, and I know you witnessed it at the FBI. I've learned not to place my trust in such things.'
    Fletcher drank some of his coffee.
    'Theresa Herrera told me her husband had gone out that night with a friend. Has he shown up?'
    'The police have been unable to locate him,' Karim said. 'At the moment they have him listed as a "person of interest". Until they find him - or what's left of him, if he was inside the house when it exploded - they're obligated to investigate the theory that he planted the bomb, which only benefits us. While they're chasing their straw man, we can pursue this mystery womanwho shot you without them looking over our shoulders.'
    'What can you tell me about Barry Herrera? I assume you conducted a background check.'
    'I always perform a thorough search on anyone looking to hire me.'
    'And?'
    'He's as clean as a whistle,' Karim said. 'The man was born and raised in Montpelier, Vermont, the only child of Marcus and Samantha Herrera. They both died of cancer - the father in 1978, the mother in 1984. Barry attended the local high school, where he excelled in academics and tennis. Brown offered him a scholarship. He graduated summa cum lade and moved on to the BU School of Medicine, where he picked psychiatry as his field of study. From there he, like many doctors, bounced around various public and private hospitals, working mainly with troubled children. In 1989 he met Theresa Henderson, an office assistant at a privately owned clinic in Raleigh, South Carolina. They married in 1993 and moved to Applewood, Colorado, in 1998, when he accepted a job.'
    'And the wife?'
    'Unremarkable. Born Theresa King in Danbury, Connecticut. Went to the public school and local college. Moved with a college friend to South Carolina, met Barry Herrera, married.'
    'How deep did you dig?'
    'As deep as I could,' Karim said. 'A routine background check provides a snapshot - a starting point.The real treasures, as you well know, are locked behind secured databases scattered all across the Internet. I assigned someone else to do the actual data mining. This person is as good with computers as you are.' Then, with a sly grin, Karim added, 'Maybe even better.'
    'Anything jump out?'
    'No. Nothing.'
    'Financials?'
    'Barry made a good living, so the wife stayed at home. They had a reasonable mortgage, which they paid on time every month, along with their credit card and car loans. They invested in their retirement accounts and saved a tidy sum for an emergency. No suspicious payments or withdrawals. They were a boring, upper-middle-class couple living the American dream.'
    'Until someone abducted their son.'
    'Yes,' Karim said sombrely. 'Until that.'
    'Did you meet him?'
    'No. I was scheduled to meet him and his wife yesterday at their home. I never spoke to the man on the phone, only his wife. She was the one who initiated contact.'
    'Did he share his wife's belief that her son was still alive?'
    'She never mentioned anything to the contrary.'
    'What did she say about her husband?'
    'Just that he was busy. That in the last two years he spent more time away from home, burying himself in his work as a child psychiatrist. What happened to their son put a strain