Page 67 of Flash and Bang
“It seems so,” Snow replied.
They walked farther down the row of photos, noting the Reverend James Elroy speaking at several different events, even a KKK rally in Detroit in the late 70s. Jarrett watched as Thayne stepped closer to examine the dates on some of the photos.
“Where did you find all of this?” he asked.
“Believe it or not, a lot of it was stored in theMason’s garage in boxes pushed up into the rafters but some of it we found on the Masons’ computer,” Snow replied.
“So where’s the reverend now?” Jarrett asked.
Snow stopped and turned to them. “We can’t find any trace of him after 2013. He stopped doing speeches and public appearances and he even stopped preaching to his small, but from what we can tell, loyal congregation.”
“So the voice changer we heard on the video short on their computer might not have been the Reverend James Elroy at all,” Thayne said. “Maybe he’s dead. He would be quite old.”
“We are having it analyzed to try to strip away the filter it was put through but as best we can tell, it’s not a male voice at all.”
“What?” Jarrett asked. “Fuck. I bet it’s Mary Mason’s voice. You know, continuing her father’s legacy in his absence.”
“It’s possible. Hell, anything’s possible,” Snow said.
“What do you want to bet the old man got sick and she had him locked away someplace,” Thayne said.
“Or better still, buried him in the vegetablegarden when he died of natural causes. Of course, she may have killed him with a hammer too,” Jarrett said, shaking his head.
“We don’t have any evidence of that and there’s no death certificate. We’re still searching to see if he’s in a hospital or retirement center somewhere, but so far, we’ve been unsuccessful. And, if he’s at a facility under a different name, there’s little chance we’ll ever find him. We’ll try but that doesn’t mean he will turn up,” Snow added.
“So, it seems this guy isn’t who we’re looking for at the moment. We should probably concentrate on Mary Mason, right?” Thayne asked.
Snow nodded. “That’s what we’ve been pursuing and that’s why this office looks like we’re mobilizing an army. We found a list of leaders of other militias across the nation along with their members who are going to participate in the attacks.”
“You’re kidding,” Jarrett said.
“Right? Convenient, huh? No one ever said Mason was very smart. This just proves how arrogant and stupid these people really are. Let me show you the calendar of events we found on Mason’s computer.” He walked over to the wall where a map of the United States had been taped up. Two agentswere sticking pins into various cities, referring to several pages they had stapled together and were holding in their hands.
“May I see that for a second?” he asked one of the agents. The woman nodded and handed him the stapled papers. Snow held it out to show Jarrett and Thayne. “As best we can tell, the Freedom Brigade has partnered with other militias planning attacks in all these cities across the nation.” Snow tapped the map on the wall.
“What? I thought these militia types were seriously territorial and self-contained,” Jarrett said. “Isn’t it unusual for these groups to join forces? I thought the whole philosophy behind the militia was to be a group of citizen soldiers out to defend against what they perceive is the federal government’s tyranny or some shit. They’re supposed to not trust outsiders and they have a reputation for not even trusting each other. That’s why some live in fenced-off self-contained communes like cult members, right? I would guess that includes other militias.”
Snow chuckled. “Yeah, a lot of these groups are just that—taking up arms against what they perceive is government corruption—and somehow protecting individual freedom, thus the Freedom Brigade’s moniker. The problem here is…” He turned back to the board and pointed at all the pins. “The Brigade’s website content somehow connected with kooks all over the country. All these are planned attacks.”
“How many is that?” Jarrett asked, counting pins. The extent of the militia’s reach was mind-boggling.
“Twenty-one,” Snow replied.
Most of the cities were in the South and all of them were major metropolitan areas. Three in Texas including Dallas/Forth Worth, Austin, and Corpus Christi, three in Arizona including Phoenix, Tempe, and Flagstaff, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and the rest peppered throughout Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, and Kentucky. There was even one in Montana and of course Wichita, Kansas, where the militia seemed to have its roots.
“I don’t get what the goal is here,” Thayne said, staring at the wall the same way Jarrett was. He looked over to Jarrett and Snow. “Is it to just maim and hurt people attending fireworks demonstrations or is it some show of strength?”
“Hell, we can’t figure it out,” Snow said. “We’ve got our cyber-crimes division analyzing the speeches which were posted on the Mason’s computer.The amount of hate the speakers, primarily Greg Mason, spew in the speeches they give at the podium, is mind-boggling. He and others pepper their speeches with bible verses and preach about the “end times” stating that the United States is in a moral decline and that the leadership must be overthrown so that the common man can run the country. In one of Greg Mason’s speeches he says that this nation needs to be washed in the blood of Jesus and purified by fire.”
“The same stuff as the fire and brimstone from the notes left in Chinatown and Miramar,” Thayne said. He frowned at Jarrett, looking as bleak as Jarrett felt.
“So basically he’s a treasonous anarchist nutjob preaching that the only way to save the country is to overthrow the government and burn the unbelievers,” Jarrett concluded.
Snow nodded, looking grim. “Pretty much.”
Jarrett glanced at Thayne. “Fuck me,” he drawled.
“You two stumbled on a major domestic terrorism plot and it’s a damn good thing you did,” Snow said. “We wanted the ATF in on this, which is why SAC Stanger is sending more agents from your office to come along on the raid.”