Kill The President's Women (Joe The Magic Man Series Book 2) (12 page)

Jean had no idea what he was talking about and she didn’t care, as long as he just kept playing with her newly-discovered magic button. She was truly discovering why old man Morgan called it a magic button.

“What’s the King’s Messenger’s way?” she asked, breathless.

“Oh, we’ll have to wait for Steve; it’ll take at least two or more of us to show you that.”

She was rocking back and forth, while moaning wildly with pleasure and she managed to say, “Gosh Steve-e-Joe, you don’t know what you’re doing to me but there’s one thing I can tell you... I’m glad you went crop picking with old man Morgan.”

Joe smiled to himself as he was pumped away slowly; waiting for her to come first just like old man Morgan told him.

Jean woke up bathed heavily in sweat back in her bed. She thought it a little sad that she wasn’t in the bed of an old English inn with Joe. She looked at the clock: it was 4:15 am.

Good, there’s still time,
she thought to herself.

Steve was snoring deeply beside her and she tried to drown out the noise and go back to sleep to re-join Steve-e-Joe on her new adventure. God it was so real, she fell into the part of an 18-year-old English girl so easily. Jean closed her eyes and tried calling Joe’s name.

No reply.

She tried again, several times.

Joe was gone.

*

0630hrs

Alice paced her room restlessly and in a bid to keep herself occupied, she picked up her phone and sent Agent Burrows an SMS, asking her to knock on her door while she was going down for breakfast.

A few minutes before 7 am, Joe popped into her mind.
“Hi!”

Alice jumped as usual when his voice spoke in her head, breaking her thoughts. “Hi Joe,” she replied.

“What’s new, have they caught Kahn’s killer?”

Alice sighed. “Not yet. I just texted Burrows and I don’t think she’s up. And I wouldn’t be either if you didn’t call so early.”

“Damn. Well I had to reach you this early because I’ve got a busy day ahead of me and I don’t know if I’ll be able to get away to call you.”

“A business meeting is it? Is that more important than trying to help the FBI track down a pair of suicide bombers?”

“Wow.”

Realizing she had snapped at him, she immediately felt guilty and apologized. “I’m sorry, Joe. It’s just... I didn’t sleep much last night and I can’t help feeling awful about that boy. If we hadn’t spooked him, he’d still be alive.”

“You can’t blame yourself for that, Alice. The FBI wanted us to help them trace the boy and we did exactly that. So try to think like them right now. They’re probably thinking they’re one step closer to the terrorists by looking for this Ricky fellow. May Kahn RIP, by the way.”

“I guess you’re right,” Alice agreed. “It’s just... being cooped up here isn’t very nice. I know Campbell doesn’t want me tagging along.”

“He’ll be quick enough to ask for your help when he needs it, especially if they find that Ricky guy. Anyway, I’ve got to run. I’ll try and pop back for an update whenever I can, okay?”

“Okay. Later, then.”

Alice watched the morning TV until Burrows knocked on her door. They had breakfast downstairs together and Burrows advised Alice to occupy herself by going sightseeing or shopping. She promised she’d give her a call if anything changed. Alice agreed but the minute Burrows left, she went back to her room and turned on the TV.

At the Field office, Campbell and Burrows checked up the leads the other agents had picked up on the list of suspects named Ricky but nothing positive turned up. It was 9:20 am when a patrol officer called in to report a black SUV with a Pennsylvania GAH number plate, parked in a shopping mall parking lot.

Agent Campbell was up on his feet as soon as he heard it and he yelled out the name of the mall to the office in general, asking, “How do we get there?”

As he grabbed his coat, someone stood up and give him directions.

“Thank you, keep up the good work,” he replied.

Rosemary Burrows followed swiftly and at that point, a vile animosity for Campbell crept into her.
What a douche. He thinks he can come here and take over, simply because Homeland names him as lead detective.

“I don’t suppose we could pick Alice up and take her along?” she suggested aloud to Campbell.

“Why should we? She’d only get in the way.”

“Oh, it’s just that she’d like to feel like a real part of this instead of feeling used.”

“That woman is a distraction to us. We’ll be caught up looking out for her when we should be getting on with our job.”

“We’re probably only going to examine a stolen car that has been abandoned in a car park. Surely she won’t get in our way?”

As Campbell opened his mouth to argue, she interrupted him with a pointed finger at his chest and said, “Why do you think Frank Brubaker paired a hard-nosed detective like you with a profiler with brains like me and then asked us to work with Joe the Magic Man and his assistant Alice?”

He ignored the question pointedly and said, “That woman is only here because we might need the Magic Man’s help.”

“That may be true and I know you’ve made that abundantly clear to her but a team needs to act as a whole and not a combination of individual fragments. What harm could possibly result from letting her tag along and feeling like a full member of the team? You’ve got to give in! Admit it; you were surprised by the way she handled Mr. and Mrs. Woo, her spontaneity when she claimed she was a medium. And she did do alright with the Kahn boy in the poolroom... Think about it.”

“Alright, alright, call her and tell her we’re on our way to pick her up.”

Alice was gladdened immensely once she received the phone call and was told she would soon be picked up. Standing outside her hotel, her heart thumped heavily and adrenaline coursed through her body. She welcomed the rush and likened herself to a fireman immediately after receiving a call.

Alice recalled seeing a random program on TV where the firemen were said to be bored while hanging around waiting for the next call. The moment a call came in, the firemen would kick into gear excitedly and rush headlong into the danger zone.

That was how she felt right now, like she was heading into the danger zone.

In the distance, a car turned the corner dangerously. She smiled as she recognized Campbell’s unorthodox driving. The car stopped in front of her and she dove in the back of the car.

“Hi guys.”

“Hi,” they both replied, Burrows cheerfully and Campbell less so.

“What have we got?”

“Nothing much,” Burrows answered, “but it looks like they’ve dumped the Pennsylvania car in the car park of a mall. And yeah, it’s been confirmed that the car was stolen.”

Burrows then lowered her voice and whispered to Alice “We’re taking you along like you’re part of the team but you are to stay out of the way and just observe, okay?”

“I understand, thank you.” Alice could Campbell’s stern look in the mirror, and she knew at once that it hadn’t been his idea to bring her along.

When they arrived at the mall, a security officer met them at the gate. Agent Campbell rolled down his window, introduced them and stated his business.

“Over on the right,” the guard said to him. “Exactly two rows down and six across. I was the one that called it in.”

Alice smiled, the guard’s description sounded more like a clue to a crossword than instructions to find a car. She saw Campbell looking at his rear mirror and realizing that he was glaring at her, she withdrew into her seat and stopped smiling.

Campbell brought the car to a stop a few yards from the stolen car. A police car was close by and its officers stood around.

Doing nothing,
Campbell thought.

The three of them got out of the car, with the guard hurrying to catch up.

Agent Campbell flashed his badge. “Hi boys, hope you haven’t touched the car?”

They both shook their heads. “No, we knew you guys were looking for it.”

“I want forensics here pronto,” Campbell said to Burrows, “I want them going over this with a fine toothcomb.”

The security guard from the entrance had caught up with them and was slightly out of breath. He said to them, “I noticed the Pennsylvania plates yesterday and I thought to myself that this dude was sure a long way from home. I thought no more about it at the time but this morning when I came back on duty, I noticed it was still here. I figured something must be up, so I called it in.” He said it with pride. “And by the looks of things I did the right thing?”

“You did.” Campbell said. “Have you got security cameras covering this area?”

“Yeah sure, we’ve got cameras everywhere.”

“Good, show us.” Campbell turned to the two officers. “You guys stay here until forensics is done; make sure no one goes near the car until then.”

Alice noticed the two officers stood sullenly with their thumbs stuck in their belts and nodded coldly. Obviously, they didn’t enjoy taking orders from the Feds. She said nothing of her little observation and joined them in following the guard to his office.

The display unit in the guard’s office had twelve small screens, with only three of them showing images of the car park. The first one to catch Alice’s eye was the one standing directly over the two policemen and their car.

Campbell walked up to the display unit and pointed to the screen showing the main gate.

“I want the tape of the car when it arrived in the mall.”

“Okay, officer,” the guard replied.

Campbell looked at Burrows. “How long do you think it will take to get to Woo’s restaurant from here?”

Burrows screwed up her face in thought then said, “Thirty minutes, tops. Especially if the driver’s obeying the speed limit.”

Campbell nodded, agreeing with Burrows’ assessment, then he turned to the guard and tendered an edited version of his former request. “Okay, could you check from around 6:30am yesterday?”

“Sure, officer.”

A certain video file popped up and the guard played it. He fast forwarded it a little until he spotted the car coming into the gates. He froze the video and said triumphantly, “There.”

Campbell nodded. “Good work, my friend.”

While Burrows took down the time in a small note pad, Campbell said. “Now, I want to see this camera’s footage at that time.” He pointed to the screen with the two cops looking bored stiff.

“Alrighty!” the guard said excitedly, “I’ll see what I can do for you, boss.”

Burrows smiled and shook her head while Alice realized that she must have acted like this guard on multiple occasions: eager and overzealous. She sighed at her amateur attitude but unable to hold herself back, she said, “Pity the windows are blacked out, we can’t see how many guys are in the car.”

“We’re about to find out,” Burrows said assuredly.

As Burrows had predicted, their question was soon answered. Up on the screen came the shot of the car being parked. They all watched as only Kahn got out, looked around carefully and walked away.

“Freeze it,” Burrows said and when the guard had done so, she added. “Look, he’s got gloves on so I’m guessing there aren’t going to be any prints in the car.”

Campbell had seen what he wanted so he thanked the guard and beckoned for his team to leave. On the way to the car, he made a phone call. “I want all traffic video and shop CCTV footage from Woo’s restaurant to this shopping mall looked at. Kahn had to stop the car at some point in between to let the two suspects out. We’ve just looked at the video and only the driver got out. Find out where they stopped, get help from all departments and from other precincts if need be. We got to find out if they changed cars or are still here holding up in a different place. We are at the mall presently so we’ll start checking at this end.”

They drove out of the car park and got back on the route to Mr. Woo’s. Many of the parking lots were fully occupied and Campbell gritted his teeth as he searched for a space. As soon as he found a little car exiting one of the lots, he stomped down on the accelerator and the car roared wildly into the free space.

He got down and Burrows and Alice joined him.

“Okay, let’s split up. I’ll take the shops across the street: Burrows, you take Alice with you and see if any of them got CCTV coverage of this street.”

He didn’t wait for any sort of response; he turned and crossed the road.

Alice didn’t know if she was supposed to say anything yet – especially after her last slip – so she was glad when Burrows spoke.

“He’s being an asshole today.”

“Is it because of me?”

Burrows hesitated before answering. “I guess that’s part of it. But then again, generally, he’s an asshole. Plus this case is of the utmost urgency and we seem to be moving slower than we should. She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s frustrating at times... Well let’s take that shop.”

They were just about to go in when Campbell hurried back across the road, calling out to them.

“Get in the car!”

“Something’s up,” Burrows said to Alice and they rushed back to the car.

“They’ve gotten footage from some traffic cameras. They show Kahn pulling up somewhere on this road and helping the suspects get their luggage into another car, a BMW – also with blacked-out windows.”

“I bet it was stolen too,” Burrows said.

“They’re checking the plates out right now so we might as well go back and see what they’ve got.”

Alice sat quietly in the back listening to them.

“Why would they have used a stolen car from Pennsylvania to pick up the two boys and then transport them such a short distance a half hour later to another car?” Campbell asked.

Burrows had no direct answer. “Maybe...” she ventured, “the driver that came down from Pennsylvania didn’t want to go to Mr. Woo’s place because he’s on our records and Mr. Woo or his wife could have easily picked him out of our mugshots. Maybe that’s why they used Kahn, a local boy.”

“Hmm...”

“And that was just an educated guess,” Burrows said

Campbell thought it over. “Could be. But why take the risk of using a car that’s on the stolen list for over a week? They could’ve been pulled over at any time. And look how that security guard spotted it.”