Chapter 12 ~ Connecting The Dots

“In the time of darkest defeat, victory may be nearest” 
~Willam McKinley~

Daniel’s Point of view 

We got to the station and hurried to my dad's office. Valery was waiting for us. 

“Pezol and Loko, won’t be coming in yet, I redirected them all to go look for Swanson.” She was talking about four members of my Dads team. I’ve met all of them before when they’ve joined us for food. Diego Perez and Oliver White are seasoned cops who have been on the team for years. Depending on the situation they go by either their last names or first names sometimes even their pet names Olli and Pez, Which is why Val refers to them as Pezol as a team. I’m used to that from the army. 

Loko is what Val calls Erin Long and Becky Korff who are young cops fresh out of the akademy. They may be young but they’re witty and touch, super-smart girls with a speciality in criminal investigation.

Val had printed out the email already several copies and we each read one. I sat right on top of her desk half falling at the computer nearly knocking one of the screens to the floor. Yeah, I probably shouldn't have driven. Valery said I smelled like someone poured a bottle of vodka over me and handed me a large mug of coffee telling me to snap out of it or go home. I found a better place to sit and while Dad walked anxiously in circles she sat down behind her screens awaiting further news. 

“911 has the call, he’s doing it” Valerie informed. Our people have the location and are on the way to find him. I’ve got both units on the line, talk to them.” My dad was quick to grab the headset and started barking out orders. 

“Perez and White, I need you to be prepared, it’s probably gonna be good. The Feds are on the way too but you will arrive first.  I want you to secure the location before they get there. As soon as they arrive, let them take over. But I’d like you to be present when they seal the evidence. When that’s done I need you back here

LoKo I prefer you go straight to Stockwell’s house, he’s on the list and I need you to detain him but not bring him in, that might compromise the case. I want you to take orders from the FBI about what to do with him. They will be in charge of the investigation.  We can’t involve anyone from outside this group. We can’t trust anyone yet.” 

“Valerie, get in touch with our FBI contacts and brief them and get us backup we can trust, and get protection for Mr. Swanson’s family.”  It’s a good thing Valery is used to him. 

A few minutes later Samantha Kowalski, Larry Hanson arrived. It was my first time meeting them. They were briefed about the situation.  

“Mother of God…” Larry and Samantha repeated in tandem as they read the printout. “Holy …. Even the chief is on the list!”  

“That’s right, not a word of that is leaving this group,” my dad added, “It seems the members of the local police up there in Butler are on the list too. We don’t know who can be trusted so we’re not involving them yet . No one besides us and the FBI folks can know we’re on to them. Officially we’re traveling north because of an accident on I-79. 

They all got to work, it was impressive to watch. If only the case wasn’t so tragic.

One by one the rest of the team had arrived. Olli and Perez came in first, they were understandably shaken by what they had found. Swanson had been very successful in his suicide attempt. 

Then Erin and Becky arrived, they had successfully managed to arrest Stockwell who played innocent and truly surprised that he had to be taken in. He had declared with a suspiciously positive attitude how happy he was to assist with every aspect of the investigation. They had given him over to the FBI before coming to the station. 

Anita arrived last despite her now infamous fast driving. Only about 40 minutes had passed since we’d first talked on the phone.  

Everything was coming together now. With the new set of information they had been able to connect the dots to find what they had been looking for for months. They worked fast and what they found was alarming. 

Joan Kinney was indeed listed as the mother of a Brian Kinney and married to a Jack Kinney. They have an eighteen year old daughter who is married and living in Cleveland with her young son. The Kinneys were farmers in Butler County about an hour north of Pittsburgh. According to the public registry they had beside their son Brian and Joan’s much younger sister, five foster kids living on the farm. The monthly visit reports stated everything was good. It was a clean loving Christian home and the children were doing well at school. But when we looked into the school registry, we found none of the kids were registered in school, according to the school registry the family had moved to Cleveland before the start of the school year to help the young mother. However the state of Pennsylvania was still paying Jack unemployment benefits, and Joan was receiving payments for the care of five children and one disabled adult. Needless to say this didn’t add up. We knew we’d have to be going immediately to the farm to have a look for ourselves. 

A few minutes later we were on our way to Butler county. Valery stayed behind to manage the operation.  Little did we know how much time was working against us at that moment.