Carolina Rain (39 page)

Just then, Gavin came around the corner, followed by two CSU techs, including Buzzy Dancer. The look on his face reminded Manny of when they had worked together. His old boss was in full investigative mode
. I
t had been a while since Manny had seen that.
He liked it.

“Good to have you back, Williams. I hope that vacation in North Carolina di
dn’t mess up your
leisurely
-ass
schedule.
”

“We kept his
butt
busy,” said Sophie, pushing between Alex and Dean to stand beside Manny.

“We were all busy. I’ll tell you about
it
a bit later
. Right now,
I need to see that video,” said Manny.

“Don’t you want to know about the finger?” asked Gavin.

“What’s to tell? It’s Max’s, right?”

“How did you know that?” asked Gavin.

“It made sense because of where it was mailed from
. . .
and Chloe told me the skin tone
was
dark.”

“But it could have turned
colors
based on several factors,” said Dean.

“True. But I guess I’ll be more inter
ested in what Alex and Dean fin
d on and in the envelope. The reason it was mailed is
the question
,” said Manny.

“And what, pray tell, would that be?” asked Alex.

“To get us back here.”

“You didn’t mention that when you were cluing us in on what was going on in your house,” said Josh.

“I thought it obvious. What I’m still working through,
however,
and feel free to chime in any time, is why all of this now?
S
tarting
with Garity’s knife, then the
hospital whe
re
I was almost killed
,
again.
The timing of the DVD, the mailing of the finger, the new information about Max’s and Garity’s killer leading to Garcia
,
and his mysterious extra activities
.
I’ll say it again
:
why now?
Throw in
the timing of the oddest set of circumstances surround
ing
a serial killer
, Anna Ruiz,
that we’ve witnessed in this damn
ed
job
, and I’m ready for the funny farm.
”

“You think
the rest of this is
part of something bigger
, though
?
” asked Chloe
, her interest rising
.

“He’s paranoid on this one," said Sophie. “It’s just circumstantial. You know, like full moon stuff. I mean, hell, Dean even wore blue jeans on the trip home instead of paisley bell bottoms. It don’t get much weirder than that.”

“I guess I should feel complimented, sort of,” said Dean
.

“Maybe I
am
paranoid
,” said Manny.
“L
et’s
find out
. Buzzy?”

“Follow, me, Boss,” she said, grinning.
W
earing her pink jeans and matching sweater with a large embroidered “B” outlined in sequins over her
heart
,
she motioned for him to follow
.

The others crow
d
ed around the table at the other end of the kitchen as Buzzy and Man
ny sat down in front of the lap
top. Buzzy hit the
ENTER button and watched as Argyle’s face eventually exploded into reality. It was disturbing. Not only to see him
,
head intact
,
but to
also
think he’d planned this far ahead and pulled it off.
The
silence in the room
said
everyone else was thinking the same
thing
. The
brilliant lunatic
seemed to be eternal.

They watched and listened to the complete message. Manny took some mental notes but
,
with Argyle already dead, he wasn’t concerned with personality so much as information. He would
not
create a message like this without leaving clues to the answer, no matter how subtle. The man had been incapable of thinking differently.

Once
Argyle had
finished, the message box appeared again, ran through its blood red colo
r
scheme
,
then pulsed the time remaining to solve his riddle.

47 HOURS, 28 MINUTES, 15 SECONDS.

With each tick of the second
display
, Manny felt his angst grow.

“Is this for real?”
He looked
at
Buzzy.

“It is. There is a file imbedded under this layer that’s titled HELP. He
has
allowed
us
to see
it in a sub
-
directory
,
but not to access it. I tried everything I know
. H
e’s got it tied to that password sequence
,
and I think even if I could eventually break in, it would wipe out the content. He either had some help or was much more skilled at this junk than
the average person
. He
would have had
to be, you know?
Because
I’m
good
at this.
”

Josh’s phone rang
.
H
e stepped back into the front room to answer it.

“S
ay it is what Argyle says it is. W
hat
do you think that means
, exactly?” asked Sophie.

“It might mean
that
we find out how far his reach extended
,
and
we just might save a life or two,
mainly Manny’s,” said Alex.

“Or
we’re
sen
t
into
one trap after another
,” said Chloe. “His profile isn’t exactly the help
ful
kind. He’d want to make sure, even
after his death
, that his goals were consummated.”

Dean bent closer to the screen and then put his hand on Manny’
s
shoulder. “You
don’
t think it’s any of that, do you?”

The CSI was right. It wasn’t any of those things. “I think it has to do with exposing something, or someone. There’s information in that file that will take us to something we
’
ve not run into before. That I’m sure of.”

“Okay, Paranoid Boy, like what?” asked Sophie.

Exhaling
, Manny spoke. “What if Argyle had been part of something bigger? Remember the shit he took from introducing
the mental health community
to
a different perspective on treating certain dissociative and schizophrenic disorders?
His peers
crucified him and he almost lost his job.
A
couple of years later, we run into Peppercorn
,
a.k.a
,
Eli Jenkins
,
on the cruise ship. Then Argyle disappears for a few months, then he’s back to torment us again, then he allows himself to be caught, then escapes, with help, and then is gone again until he shows up in Ireland where he forces me to kill him. Do you see the pattern?”

“There is a rhythm to it, sort of, but come on, Manny. You can see whatever you want to see in situations like that. If you’re right, that would mean that someone else knew about him, and, for God’s sake, was helping him do what he was doing. That’s just to
o
nuts to
buy into
,” said
Alex
, the nervousness obvious in h
is
voice.

“What
if
he had been part of a study or experiment to expand his theories? What if someone was interested in the idea of influencing another’s thoughts and wanted to see if that c
ould be taken to a higher level?
I mean look at Peppercorn
. A
nd w
e all saw how Argyle was able to influence Max and Garity
. Y
ou’d have to be in the dark ages to not see the reports
and stories
coming from South America regarding
date
-
rape type drugs leading to
supposed
mind
-
control
studies
. Not to mention rumors of that sort of thing
involving
our very own government.”

“Dude, that’s just urban legend,
right?
”
said
Dean.

“Maybe not.
Where there’s smoke
,
there’
s fire
, they say.
”

Josh had come back into the room and was standing with his legs apart, the phone still in his hand.

“I just got a call from the Charlotte
,
North Carolina
,
office. Captain Jeb Tanner was found shot in his car this morning.”

The room went quiet
,
then Manny broke the silence
.

“
Damn it.
I’m sorry to hear that. What happened?”

“He was shot just like Max and Garity. Two to the head. I told them to find Garcia and that he was probably involved. The agent on the other end said no problem
locating him.
Garcia had been
found in a parking lot near Fort Fisher. Dead from a broken neck.”

“What?” said Sophie.

“It seems
Manny might be on to something,”
said Josh, an edge creeping into his voice. “
The death of those two
looks like a cleanup
job
and
,
God knows I saw a few of those when I worked the organized crime unit before coming to the BAU.
Tanner learns about Garcia, Garcia takes him out
,
then whomever Garcia works for cleans up Garcia to close the circle
.
”

“Cleaning up what then? Are you saying there is some government cover
-
up going on here?” asked Alex.

“What I think is that Garcia killed Tanner and then was eliminated himself
. W
hoever killed Garcia doesn’t want to have breakfast with us,” said Josh.

“What the hell does that have to do with Argyle?” asked Gavin.

Manny
s
hrugged. “He wouldn’t be the first on
e
to get caught up in government fundin
g for research to prove his the
ories
. A
nd
,
if I’m right, it explains, at least in part
,
how he did what he did
—
except the psychopath part.”

Chloe was nodding her head. “You believe you’re right, don’t you?”

“I
’m not totally sure
. But
I
think it’s time we g
e
t into that file
to
f
i
nd out,”
Manny said
.

Reaching over to pull the laptop close to him, Manny typed in a
pass
word
.
T
he screen exploded into laughter. Argyle’s laughter.

“Wrong phrase, Agent Williams, you have two more chances.
I wouldn’t screw up again, if I were you.
”

“What the hell did you type in?” asked Sophie. “And how did he know it was you?
”

“Argyle’s name. It made sense, giv
en
who he was
,
and who else would be doing this?”

“Well
,
you better rethink it. You’ve got two more shots,” said Sophie.

“How about Ireland or Galway?” asked Chloe.

“Good thought,” said Manny. “Galway might make sense.”

Just as he began to type, he pulled back and looked at
Sophie
.

“Did you hear what he said? He said I typed in the wrong
phrase
. Not the wrong word, but the wrong phrase,” said Manny
,
his excitement
obvious
.