Kill The President's Women (Joe The Magic Man Series Book 2) (21 page)

“Well I hope you have more luck than the police at finding my mother’s killer.” He glared at Burrows. “The police wasted most of their time trying to pin it on me.”

“I’m sure the police did their best, Andrew.” Mrs. Johnson butted in. “They had to ask us all those awkward questions just like they asked everyone up at the golf club about your brother’s murder.”

“Yes dear I know.” he patted his wife’s shoulder, “But it’s been nearly three years and they still haven’t come up with any new evidence.”

Burrows had intended to be quiet and let Alice do things her way but Johnson was getting under her skin. “The case is still open, Mr. Johnson and we’ll never give in. If any new evidence comes in, we’ll work on it straight away. Is there anything you’ve remembered about any of those nights that you forgot to tell us?” Burrows asked with a sharper tone than she intended.

“I don’t like your attitude officer. I think you should leave now,” he said stopping suddenly.

“Andrew, where are your manners?!” Mrs. Johnson asked. “They’re only doing their job.”

Andrew Johnson continued to lead the way to the kitchen, grumbling and when they stepped in, Alice stood still for a moment in the centre of the kitchen with her hands slightly stretched out.

Oh my God, she’s crazy,
Burrows thought.

Alice walked around a little and the Johnsons watched her intently.

Joe, in Alice’s mind, said,
“Okay, we can leave now. But shake hands with the wife, she might know something and might be covering up for him.”

Alice dropped her hands and said, “That’ll be all. Thank you for letting me visit the scene.” She felt awkward calling their kitchen a “scene” but it was what a cop would call it. “I don’t know if I picked up any vibes yet, but we’ll let you know.”

“That’ll be alright,” Mrs. Johnson said.

Mr. Johnson simply nodded.

Alice realized the more she talked, the more unprofessional she sounded and she couldn’t wait to get out of there. “Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson.”

She shook the husband’s hand, then the wife’s. “We’ll be in touch.”

“Yes, we’ll see ourselves out,” Burrows said. “And we will be in touch.”

Back in the car, as Burrows backed it up the driveway, she seemed happy. “That went well,” she said, “I noticed you used your badge to make contact. You just shook hands with them both. That should be enough for Joe, shouldn’t it?”

“Yes, I had my badge in my hand and they touched it, but I felt awful in there like an amateur psychic… or even a quack one. I’m going to have to look more into this psychic stuff if I’m going to use it as a proper excuse”

“You did alright, we were in and out and we don’t care what
they
think, it was mission accomplished as far as
we
are concerned.”

Alice wasn’t feeling as pleased with herself as Burrows was, so to change the topic, she asked, “So what now, shall we get something to eat?”

“Yeah, then back to your hotel. Then we’ve got a long wait until the morning to see what Joe can find out, and hopefully we can nail that irritating son-of-a-bitch.”

“You really don’t like him, do you?”

“He thinks he’s got away with covering up two murders from us, but we’ve got a secret weapon in Joe; nobody can hide anything from Joe.”

Burrows considered the last part of her statement:
Nobody can hide anything from Joe.
It was enough to make her
shudder.

After having a meal together, Burrows dropped Alice off at her hotel where she took a short one-hour nap. On waking up, she decided she’d just watch TV for the rest of the day but hadn’t even made it to the remote control when Burrows phoned her.

“Alice, I’m on my way back to pick you up, we’ve got a long drive to Kansas. “It seems Agent Campbell has found the stolen car, and got a witness that saw another car that might be the one they used on their next part of their journey. Agent Campbell wants Joe to work his magic again and see if the witness saw more than he can remember. So pack your bags, we’ll more than likely be spending the night in Kansas.

It was a long drive over to Kansas and Alice was glad they had the radio on
for eventually, they ran out of things to talk about. Agent Campbell had called them to say he had booked them into a motel, and he gave the name and directions of how to get there. He said it was the nearest place he could find to the witness house.

When they arrived at the motel parking lot, Agent Campbell went straight to Alice
’s side of the car to greet her with a smile; it wasn’t a warm smile, just a polite one. “Mrs. Timberlake, we’re glad to have you here.”

“How nice,” Alice said, no sarcasm intended.

“You don’t know how important it is for Joe to find out more about the car that the witness saw.” Campbell nodded to Burrows over the top of the car as she got out. “The witness has been very helpful but really needs to remember.”

“We’ll try,” Alice said.

Campbell handed Alice the key to her room, and as they walked around the car he gave Agent Burrows hers, without even a “Hi” to greet her. “So Alice, after you dump your stuff, we’ll go and see him straight away.”

Campbell finally spoke to Burrows. “We’ve had agents all over the place going from door to door to see if anyone has seen the car but Mr. Bees is the only one who saw anything and he didn’t come forward straight away; we were practically running out of time.”

Alice hurried along behind them with her overnight case, listening to them. They came to Burrows’ room first and she opened it quickly; as Campbell brought them up to date.

“Okay, leave everything here, and you can sort it out later.” Campbell started to make his way to his car, shouting over his shoulder. “Come on people, let’s move it.”

“Agent Campbell,” Burrows shouted after him, she had had enough of his rushing, “you do realize Joe can’t get any information out of this Mr. Bees until he is asleep.”

“Yes I do, and if we don’t hurry, Mr. Bees would have gone to bed, he’s not a young man and it’s getting late.”

The three of them got into the car without saying another word,
and arrived at Mr. Bee’s place of abode. It took them only three minutes to get there.

“Right Mrs. Timberlake, I’ll introduce you and leave you to do whatever you got to do.”

“I‘d rather you called me Alice.” She could see he was about to go through that argument again but then he stopped and just smiled with a nod. “So, let’s go and see what he’s got to say.”

It had just turned night time
when they knocked on the door and there was a light above the doorpost. They could hear the TV blaring away. They were greeted by a dog barking – a golden Labrador. It rushed to the door, and then Mr. Bees let them in. He told his dog to sit, then offered his guests seats.

Campbell introduced them both to Mr. Bees, and Alice shook his hand while at the same time glad Joe was in her mind at that time.

Joe had been popping in and out of Alice
’s mind for the last hour, saying it was a busy and awkward time for him. Alice still wondered what could be more important than saving the lives of Congresswomen.

Now, as soon as Alice shook hands with Mr. Bees, making sure the badge touched his hand, Joe told Alice he’d contact her early the next morning, and then he jumped into Mr. Bees’ mind.

Mr. Bees was a thin man in his late sixties and lived alone. He settled down in his chair and spoke to Campbell. “I don’t know what I can tell you that I haven’t already told you earlier.”

“I understand, that Mr. Bees,” Campbell nodded in agreement with him, “but Special Agent Burrows is a profiler for the FBI and telling her what you told me could help.”

“Profiler for the FBI, you say.” He patted his dog’s head. “Well I guess someone’s a wanted man.”

Burrows smiled at him. “You could say that. He could help us with our inquiries, is the only thing we can tell you Mr. Bees.”

“Yeah alright, then I’ll tell you what I told this gentleman.” He hiked his thumb at Campbell. “I was walking old Goldie here – like I do most days – up along Coal mine road. I was walking on the lower side and I heard the car radio playing before I looked to see the car through the trees.”

“Can you describe the car for us?” Burrows asked excitedly.

“I think it was a limo. It was white with blacked out windows.”

“I don’t suppose you saw its number plate.”

“Nah… the grass was way too high… And before you ask me, I didn’t get a look at the driver. He was parked with the two front windows open and once he noticed me, he turned away and rolled up his windows; he didn’t wanna be seen. As I strolled past, his phone went off and I heard him say he’d been waiting an hour. I thought he was waiting for some fancy piece and she was late so maybe he was giving her hell for it.”

“Did he speak with an American accent or a foreign accent?” Burrows asked.

“It didn’t sound foreign to me; I’d say he was American.”

Burrows asked, “What was on the radio?”

“Loud music.”

“What kind of… loud music? Country, classical or perhaps Asian music?”

“None of that, it was the local station playing eh… urban pop, I think.”

“Right, carry on Mr. Bees,” Burrows said to him.

“Yeah, well as I said, I took the dog further up the track and we sat for a while, I’d say about fifteen minutes and then made our way back down. I was half expecting to see two cars there – if his girlfriend turned up – since it is a lonely, choosey spot for lovers, if you know what I mean. Anyway I was surprised to see this other car there and the first car gone. I guessed then that they went in his car and maybe left hers. I didn’t think any more of it, until the cops came asking if I had seen anyone acting suspicious or driving a car with blacked out windows.”

“Thank you Mr. Bees, I think that’ll be all.” Burrows got up and shook his hand knowing Alice had made contact with Mr. Bees, and their job was done there.

They all said their thanks, and were soon back in the car, heading for the motel.

“Forensics is all over the car we found and it is the BMW that was stolen in Cisco.” Campbell was talking in a more relaxed mood now. “And they’ve got tire prints from the car our friend back there saw, so let’s hope the tires are an unusual make and narrow down the search for the car we are looking for.”

Burrows had been out of the loop for the last day, and was eager to be brought up to date. She asked, “Is this our only lead presently?”

“Believe it or not, this is it. Frank Brubaker says whatever we need, we should just ask. And I think he’s relying more on Joe finding us more information than he’s letting on,” Campbell said.

They pulled up outside the motel and Campbell turned to Alice. “You’ve got my phone number, I want you to call me as soon as you wake, forget about having a pee first. If Joe can get a number plate or a partial, the sooner we get it in the system the sooner we can catch them before they are lost in New York or D.C – if they aren’t there already.”

“My money is on them being wherever the terrorist cell wants them to be.” Burrows said, getting out the car. “They’ve had too much of a head start on us, they’ve also changed cars in a kind of relay team hoping to throw us off and get those boys unnoticed to their destination. The only thing we got going for us is we’re still on the trail and they may not know we’re on to them.”

“They have to know. They killed young Kahn to shut him up.” Campbell was out of the car by now. “I think I’ll get a room here just in case Joe comes up with something for us. We’ll be able to act on it quicker if we’re all together. Good night, ladies. And Alice… I don’t care if it’s two in the morning; call me.”

“Yes of course I will.” Alice went to bed knowing Joe wouldn’t contact her in the middle of the night. He would reach her early in the morning if it was important but not early enough for Campbell. She was hoping Campbell wouldn’t wake her up at day break expecting news and it took her a long time to sleep off.

Abel Lazarus had a busy night in front of him; they had given Joe a lot of work to do: visit both Mr. Bees and the two Johnsons. So Jean would have to sleep without her dream lover because Alice was right about the case being very important. The arrival of terrorists on American soil was no joke. Abel smiled to himself; he loved playing Joe the dream lover with Jean.

He gave a big sigh, for he would love to be in Jean’s head right now. The 20-year-old beauty queen in real life was almost as innocent as Jean the 17-year-old English farm girl of their nightly dreams. In a way he felt guilty for using her innocence in their dreams, like her young English character being unaware that all girls had a clitoris. But he didn’t feel guilty for shocking her like wh
en she nearly had two big pricks up her ass. He knew Jean wanted to be shocked, scared and fucked in her dreams.

Since he was in Jean’s mind sometimes when she was awake, he read her thoughts and he knew Jean loved her nightly adventures and even looked forward to them more than he did. It was getting harder for Joe – or Steve-e-Joe – to come up with something different each night. The sex part was easy and she expected that, but he knew she craved adventure along with sex with men with big pricks.

Joe would have to fetch more drama into her dreams, and that’s why he had Morris and Johnny have rough sex with her. It had frightened the life out of her when they nearly raped her up the ass and it was all part of the excitement of not knowing what was going to happen next to her. Jean was travelling with an army of soldiers on the march so Joe would have to think of something more frightening or unexpected to happen to her.

Abel was sure Joe would come up with something but not tonight, he had work to do for the FBI and Homeland. The
most important job was Mr. Bees: to get into his dreams and see if Joe could get the number plate of the car that old man Bees saw. It was past midnight, so Abel relaxed in his bed and closed his eyes. First he remembered Alice being introduced to Mr. Bees and how he had popped into his mind back then. It was like leaving a calling card – all he had to do was think of Mr. Bees, and the last moment he had been in his mind.