The Alberta Connection (18 page)

“The agents from Billings and Great Falls who
are going to Monroe will be let loose tomorrow. They will be going
back to Montana to pack all their stuff. The agents who are staying
in Great Falls will go back with them, and just stay.

“And that is all I know at this moment,
except that dessert is on the way over.”

He pointed at a cart which one of the servers
was pushing and got another round of applause.

As they walked into their temporary
apartment, Ryce looked at Tanya and softly said. “I think I will
miss this place.”

Tanya took his hand and led him into the
bedroom.

5:30 AM arrived exceptionally early. Ryce had
forgotten to set the alarm, but woke up anyway. He climbed out of
bed and walked into the bathroom. Tanya was standing at the sink,
looking at a small white object in her right hand. She started
jumping around, while chanting “Yes, yes, yes.” Ryce just stared at
her and thought “she looks lovely in a bathrobe.”

Tanya spun and threw her arms around Ryce.
“You did it. I think I am pregnant. However, it’s really iffy this
early. I am not sure how much I trust these early detectors.”

She gave him a long wet kiss, dropped her
bathrobe on the floor, and stepped into the shower. Ryce followed
her through the shower door and wrapped his arms around her.

When they walked back into the bedroom, Tanya
pushed Ryce onto the bed and crawled next to him.

“Honey, this is one of the four best days of
my life. The other three will be the next three babies we have.
Right after the top four, number five was when we got married.
That’s pretty good. You are part of the top five days of my
life.”

John was waiting with Phil when Ryce and
Tanya arrived in Suite 425. He pulled some papers out of a manila
folder and slid them across the desk to Ryce.

“That’s a list of the people you have here.
Phil is flying the Montana people back home today. He needs to know
who is staying in Montana and who is just going back to get ready
to move to Washington.

“I can give them four days to get ready, then
Phil will go back, pick them up, and deliver them to you in Monroe.
I have already alerted the movers that we have a large group to
move.

“Go over the lists and make some notes. The
more you can plan now, the fewer bumps we will have when we start
the move.”

Phil got in the last words. “Have everyone
going to Montana at the airport by 11:30 AM. We go wheels up in the
BBJ at 12:00.”

As soon as John and Phil walked through the
door, Tanya got up and closed it. She walked back to Ryce, took his
hand, and placed it on her tummy.

“We’re going to have a bump here soon.”

After Ryce kissed her, they walked to Suite
424, where Ryce announced he would like everyone to meet in the
conference room. He only hoped there was enough room.

As he waited for stragglers, he looked
around.

“I need three volunteers that are going to
Monroe who would like to stay here at the Ranch for about two
weeks. You will be the eyes and ears of the JBTF until we get set
up at the Annex. You will be cut loose in about an hour to go to
your apartments or homes to meet with the movers. You can choose to
have your vehicles trucked out to the Annex, or you can drive them
out later.

“We should have everything in place when we
get to our new digs. Doug is supplementing the existing technical
crew with a few people from here. They should be able to set up all
the workstations. There is an apartment building on the Annex
grounds with enough empty apartments to house everyone.

“The group going back to Montana must be at
the airport no later than 11:30 AM. There are a ton of things
happening there. Get your itinerary from Tanya.

“You all have my cell phone number. Just call
if you have questions. If you were assigned a laptop, take it with
you. OK, all Ranch staff get the heck out of here. And Montana
staff, do what you want until 11:30.”

Ryce looked out over his group and started
applauding. The group soon joined in. He was genuinely pleased with
the people he had working for him. He took Tanya’s hand and walked
to his office.

If the Renault Gang continued driving west on
I-94, they could be in his hometown of Billings, MT, in two days at
their normal travel speed. What was their destination? Ryce dearly
needed someone watching the cabin when the Renault group got close.
Just in case the cabin was where the Renaults were going.

Ryce flipped open his cell phone and dialed
Matt. “Hey, Matt, where are you located?”

Ryce laughed and then replied, “So it won’t
take you any time to get to my office.”

Matt walked through the door as Ryce flipped
his cell phone closed.

“Matt, can you send a team up to the cabin as
soon as you land in Great Falls? I know you are only going to Great
Falls to train your replacement, and then you will fly out to the
Annex. When we get done with all the transfers, you will have nine
agents in the Great Falls office.”

Matt thought for a moment. “Sure, I can
assign someone now, and when we touch down in Great Falls, they can
be on the way to the cabin.”

Ryce smiled and then said, “I don’t know that
the Renault Gang is even going to the cabin. I just want to cover
all the bases. I do not know how, when, or where they will try to
cross the border. I think Russ Long and Terry Maywood would be
acceptable.”

Matt thought for a couple minutes. “I’ll
agree with Russ, but I think Damien Phillips would be better than
Terry.”

Ryce chuckled. “Good call. Observation only.
They can park on the access road and fish for a few days. All they
will do is watch who drives down the road in the direction of the
cabin. Right now, the Renault group is still in the Mercedes. If
they change vehicles, I will let you know as soon as I know. Be
safe.”

Matt walked out of the office.

Tanya stood up, closed the door, walked over,
and sat in Ryce’s lap.

“Have you ever been to Seattle? I have always
wanted to see the Space Needle. My dad was there during World War
II. He used to talk about a seafood restaurant called Ivar’s Acres
of Clams. I want to ride the Monorail. I want to walk through Pike
Place Market. Then I want to pick an apple right off a tree in
Wenatchee.”

She pulled Ryce’s head to hers and gave him a
long kiss. About halfway through a tremendously exciting kiss,
someone knocked on the office door.

“The Renault Gang is moving.”

When Ryce and Tanya walked into the
conference room, one of the remaining agents looked up and waved
them over. The GPS transmitter was reporting that Diane was driving
north on I-29. Ryce spun and quickly returned to his office. What
was going on?

Ryce checked Google Maps. Grand Forks was
about an hour’s drive from Fargo, and the border was an hour’s
drive past Grand Forks. Something was going to happen in the next
two hours. Ryce checked the time on his cell phone, set the alarm,
and stretched out on his office sofa.

Chapter 25

Ryce was awakened
by a kiss. He wrapped his arms around the owner of the lips and
held tight.

“You’d better be my wife.”

Tanya chuckled. “If I am not, we are both in
big trouble.”

She kissed him once more. As soon as the kiss
was finished, she smiled.

“The Renault group stopped in Grand Forks.
They exited at mile marker 138 and drove east on 32nd Avenue South
to a residential neighborhood. I told Vince where they went. He
made a call to the local FBI office.”

Tanya paused. “I gave Vince the information
as if you had asked me to pass it on to him. I hope I didn’t
overstep my authority. You were sleeping soundly, and I didn’t want
to wake you.”

She paused once more. A look of concern
slowly expanded across her face. Ryce sat up and pulled her close.
After a kiss, he took her hand in his.

“My darling, you made the right choice. You
know me better than anyone else, so you should be able to make it
look like you got it straight from me.”

He laughed. “While John was hiding out here,
after his first wife was murdered, Doug and Karen sent emails to
people who never knew it wasn’t him writing them. Actually, Marge
fell in love with John via emails sent by Karen. So, keep backing
me up.”

Tanya wrapped her arms around Ryce and held
on. After several minutes, Tanya looked at Ryce.

“How did you know about Doug and Karen
sending emails for John?”

Ryce stood, walked to his desk, sat down, and
then looked over at Tanya, who was still sitting on the sofa.

“One of the days that Doug was here, we were
waiting for the elevator. I asked him about a picture on the wall
with John and a woman who looks a lot like Marge. They could be
sisters. I even said it looked like John and Marge when they were
younger. Doug told me it was John’s first wife, Jill.

“That was when Doug told me John turned
control of his company over to him and Karen for three and a half
years, but it had to appear John was still running things. If
someone called, Karen was to take a message, and respond with an
email.

“I did a little research on the Internet
about Jill. She was a very interesting woman. And if you put her
picture and Marge’s side by side, you can barely tell them
apart.”

Ryce glanced at the time displayed on his
cell phone. What time did the Renaults arrive in Grand Forks? More
importantly, what were they doing in Grand Forks? He began typing
on his laptop.

“Do you have the address where the Renaults
stopped?”

Tanya stood and walked out of the office. A
few minutes later, she returned with a legal pad in her hand.

When Ryce finished tapping on the keyboard,
he looked at Tanya. “Do we have anyone listening to the audio?”

Tanya shook her head “yes.” “Two of the
agents that are sticking around for two weeks are downloading the
MP-3 files and taking notes. I told them to ignore the normal
garbage of a road trip.”

Ryce chuckled. “I hope the audio people can
give us some idea why they are in Grand Forks. They could be
swapping vehicles. They only kept the Lexus for three days. I hope
we get something from the audio bug before we lose it. I wonder how
many FBI agents they have in Grand Forks. It isn’t a very large
place. But, not much is large in North Dakota, except the
state.”

Ryce began to laugh. “And they do have a
place called Devils Lake. It is a wide spot in the road west of
Grand Forks, right next to about twenty lakes. It even has its own
Amtrak station. Scott Wall, my roommate, grew up in Devils Lake.
The last year I was a Ranger, Scott convinced me to spend two weeks
with him at a cabin he owned on a lake he owned. Yes, he owned the
cabin and the lake.

“When he mentioned he owned a cabin on the
lake, I figured it was maybe one big room, with an outhouse. It was
one big room, all right. One big living room, one big dining room,
and eight big bedrooms. The place was six thousand square feet,
with a three hundred foot long dock going halfway out into the
lake. OK, maybe not halfway.”

Ryce sat for a few moments and shook his
head. “His family owned the whole lake. And three or four lakes
close by. I am not sure, but I think he might have been related to
the folks of Wall Drug fame, although Wall Drug is in South
Dakota.”

Ryce smiled. “We don’t have many people to
wager on where the Renault group is going to eat and sleep tonight.
If you just want to use a nap in the afternoon as a wager, perhaps
we’ll both win.”

He kissed her. “And, there’s no Waffle House.
I hope the cafeteria has something good for lunch today.”

At 2:00 PM Grand Forks time, Ryce’s cell
phone began vibrating on his desk. He picked it up, saw that Vince
was calling, and pressed the answer button.

“This is Ryce.”

He heard Vince laughing.

“I sure hope so, since I called someone named
Ryce.

“The local FBI office put eyes on the
Mercedes. I checked the address. The local white pages say it is
the home of Glenn and Ruth Redding. I saw on the status board that
you had a hit on a Diane Redding. Is that an interesting
coincidence? Perhaps not.

“There were two other vehicles in the
driveway. I had the local agents stick a tracker under the rear
fenders of the other vehicles during the interview. We will have
eyes on all of the vehicles. A little bird told me the Renault gang
only kept the Lexus for three days. This is the third day with the
Mercedes.”

Ryce started to laugh so hard he made his
office chair squeak.

“Vince, we had the same idea. The big
question now is why Diane is in Grand Forks. The group drove two
hundred miles out of their way for something.”

Vince chuckled. “There are six FBI agents
watching the house where the Mercedes stopped, a pair for each
vehicle. We will know what they do almost before they do it. Before
you leave for Seattle, remind me to give you my list of places to
visit. I wish I was tagging along with you.”

Ryce looked over at Tanya and told her what
Vince had said. Tanya smiled, walked over to Ryce, and sat in his
lap.

“So we have some time to waste while we wait
for news of the Mercedes. I have a waist you can waste time
on.”

She pulled her blouse out of her jeans and
placed Ryce’s hand on her tummy.

“Nothing is kicking there yet, but there will
be.”

Ryce contemplated other areas he could
explore, but was interrupted by his cell phone. It was Matt.

“Hey, Mr Boss Man, our observation team just
departed the Great Falls office in the Suburban. Do you have any
idea how long they will be near the cabin? I told them to stop on
the way and pick up enough food for five days. They are taking the
Suburban, the camp trailer, the generator, and the apartment-sized
refrigerator. That was a great idea you had suggesting we invest in
a decent generator. I will keep you informed.”