State Dept., SLS Grade 2 (Senior Level Service = pay levels above GS-15) = $273,000/year.

Michael Justman, Ph.D., is the victim whose murder Manning and I are being sent now to investigate.

“What was the last project Justman was working on?” Manning asks me now. “What the hell does a deputy assistant undersecretary do anyway?”

I tell him I haven’t been able to get a definitive answer to either question. No one in the State Department will go on record, except to say that Justman’s last assignment was classified. His most recent overseas trip on official business, according to the Washington Post, was to Tbilisi, Georgia, with additional stops in Ingushetia and Azerbaijan.

“Russia?”

“Backyard. I’ll follow up.”

Manning absorbs this. “Victim Number One . . . Davis . . . was involved in what? The oil pipeline from—”

“Baku to Ceyhan. Georgia, Turkey, southern Caucasus.”

Nathan Davis is the first homicide victim in this file jacket, murdered in Manhattan nine days ago, killer’s MO identical to the Michael Justman homicide.

VICTIM #1

Davis, Nathan J. 47, married, 4 children.

Born “Natan Orlovsky” in Russian Crimea.

NYU, Philosophy, Asian Studies, ’07; Duke Law, ’10.

CEO, The Davis Group, investment banker. Hedge fund. 17 years.

Davis Building, 63 Broad Street, NY, NY 10004.

Net worth $9.7 billion. 64th richest American. Philanthropist, conservationist. Founded “Street Smarts” educ. trust, sponsors 6 academies for poor kids in NE, budgets $670M/yr. Founded Aegis Maritime Wildlife Conservancy, budget $260M/yr.

Manning’s military service was as an infantry sergeant, E-5/0311, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2004–5. He served with 3/7 [Third Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment] in Fallujah and Ramadi. His methodology for police work mirrors the Marine Corps’ protocol for operational orders, meaning that at the top of the page, above “objective,” comes “commander’s intent.”

Manning’s objective now is:

IDENTIFY ALL CDs BETWEEN VICTIMS 1 AND 2

His intent is different—and of a superior order:

ESTABLISH A MOTIVE. WHY WOULD KILLER

SPECIFICALLY SELECT VICTIM 1 AND VICTIM 2?

CD means common denominator. In Manning’s lexicon this connotes not just social, political, or religious links but any association, however remote, that could conceivably tie the two men together. “Did they know each other in college, the army, postgrad? Did they compete in sports? Did they sleep with the same woman (or man)? Were they sued by the same litigant? Did their wives know each other? Did their goldfish know each other? Are they brothers, for Christ’s sake?”

There are old-school detectives, and then there is Manning. He’s a troglodyte, a Neanderthal. I know next to nothing about his personal history, other than the fact that he came out of a twelve-month leave of absence following a family tragedy two weeks before I was assigned to work with him.