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FBI Salt Lake City field office

The FBI Salt Lake City field office is the medium-sized local Bureau office where the task force picks up the case file on Sherman Ranch before heading to Ballard.
Type Organization (FBI field office)
Aliases Salt Lake City field office
Parent agency FBI
Members Carl Gardner; Philip Bishop; Shelly (staff); an unnamed secretary
Status Last visited in Walkers 02; mentioned in Walkers 03
First appearance Walkers 02

Overview

The office is medium-sized compared with the one in D.C. Big Bill set one condition for the Utah trip: stop here for case files on earlier reports from the area, and work with the local FBI (Walkers 02). The team flew in, picked up a rented 1990 Plymouth Voyager at the airport and drove to the office; the field office itself lent them nothing. A secretary confirmed that Big Bill had phoned ahead and sent them to a second-floor conference room. See Plymouth Voyager.

Members

  • Carl Gardner. Short, heavy and hearty, with a big personality. He thumps shoulders, calls people "son", prefers Leno to Letterman, dislikes Clinton, and recognized Dick Baxter as "the fella who spied on Clinton". He had heard of Kurt's CIA branch, UTAW, as the "explode the cigars" outfit.
  • Philip Bishop. Gardner's tall, thin, silent partner. He stiffened at Huell's "So, Mormons, am I right?" and four minutes of sweaty silence followed.
  • Shelly. Staff voice on the intercom, called when Gardner needs another drinking-fountain test kit.

History

The briefing (Walkers 02)

Gardner's rundown covered four earlier reports: a Native American former Army Ranger on the ranch who said he shot a snooper by the barn (no physical evidence), a young woman who saw her dead mother (they checked for twins), cattle mutilation blamed on lightning, and informal reports of lights and lost time that Gardner put down to drinking (Walkers 02). He added that "the billionaire" tenant "skeeves me the hell out", and after stepping out to find the name said it was Robert Bigelow, a real estate baron whose security man had fired the shot. He gave the team a copy of the case file, to be checked back in when they leave.

The conference-room corkboard of yarn and Post-its was not about the ranch. It concerned a separate local case, "a drinking fountain pervert", over live sperm in public water. Gardner offered tips: Bigelow's Budget Suites of America hotels, a "friend of Bonaparte" discount at a nearby gas station, and Utah food such as funeral potatoes, dirty soda and Jell-O salad. See Ballard water contamination.

Later mentions (Walkers 03)

In Walkers 03 Asked whether the task force has "men on" the town's water problem, Dante recalls that the FBI does: "we talked to the guys that were investigating; that was their little corkboard with the thread and whatnot."

Trivia

  • The table ran a gag about dentists' conferences bumping the team out of hotels, and Dante (as Kurt) asked before the meeting whether the agents were "a bunch of narcs" (Walkers 02).

Appearances