Kill The President's Women (Joe The Magic Man Series Book 2) (6 page)

His wife didn’t make it; she died in the ambulance on the way to hospital.

When the police arrived, the witnesses gave mixed stories of what had happened. One of them declared that Abel was trying to kill this Russian guy because he was selling guns and that his wife had intervened. When the police had taken a few more statements and many of them seemed to corroborate the notion that the Russian guy at the party was a gunrunner, the police got mighty curious. This was especially because the Russian had disappeared before the police got there.

The police quickly called in the FBI. When the FBI agents asked the witnesses about the Russian, they nearly all said the same story that Abel had said: Alex was selling guns. The FBI promptly put out a search for Alex for he had split after the accident without making a statement. No one seemed to have noticed that Alex had gone into the ambulance with Abel’s wife.

Abel had to be taken to the hospital for he was acting delirious and was a real handful for anybody to contain. The FBI followed Abel to the hospital but they were more concerned in finding Alex than in the state of Abel’s health. Between the drink and drugs Abel had ingested at the party, he was in a critical state. The doctors told the FBI agents that it was unadvisable to question him at the moment but they insisted they would bring a special doctor in to oversee the process and look after him.

A police doctor was ordered to hypnotize Abel so they could ask him questions about the Russian gunrunner. The doctor had to first sedate before attempting to hypnotize him. When Abel was under hypnosis, the FBI threw questions at him. He started to mumble something but before he could make a complete sentence, he fell into a coma.

A few hours later, Abel’s heart stopped and it took the hospital staff a while to bring him back to life. Abel was in a coma for three days after that. When he regained consciousness, the nurse kept repeating to him how lucky he was to be alive.

Abel was remanded in a mental hospital for three months before he was declared fit to go stand trial for killing his wife. He missed his wife so much and felt so guilty; he told the judge that he didn’t care if they gave him the death penalty for he deserved it. His wife’s parents spoke up for him at the trial, saying they knew it was a tragic accident and since they knew that their daughter had been madly in love with Abel, they wouldn’t want to see him punished.

They further said that they had come to terms with losing their daughter and they had forgiven Abel completely. The case was judged as manslaughter and Abel was sentenced to fifteen years at
Lancaster State Prison.

Abel’s gift had started to manifest at the mental hospital. He found he could hear people’s thoughts and he could read the minds of the doctors and nurses. Most of them spoke kind words to each other but Abel could hear their thoughts and so knew they didn’t mean what they were saying.

He had learnt he could visit people in their dreams purely by accident. He had been lying in bed thinking about one of the nurses when he suddenly had a vision of her looking into a mirror combing her hair. Shocked by the vivid image, he opened his eyes and she was gone.

He closed his eyes again, thought about the nurse again and there she was again. He kept his eyes closed and found he could see what she could see. He also knew what she was thinking as she was getting ready to go bed, and by the time she fell asleep, he knew what she was dreaming about. With a little further exploration, he found out he could actively participate in her dream while he was still awake in his bed.

At first the whole thing had scared the life out him for he wasn’t sure what was happening to him. He thought he was going crazy, especially when he heard voices in his head. It didn’t help when he realized that the voices were people’s thoughts and that they weren’t talking to him. He never told anyone about his new-found experience; he surely didn’t want to be locked in the hospital for eternity. Who would believe him anyway?

So instead of seeking help, Abel experimented on the nurse. At first, he visited her every night, and watched as she admired herself in the mirror. He entered her dreams while she slept and he found he could talk to her rather easily. The nurse thought of him as simply a part of her dream and would always talk back to him. He would ask her questions and she would answer truthfully, as if she was hypnotized and under his spell. He had her get up from her bed, put on the light and strip naked in front of the mirror for him, where he could look at her through her eyes. It was almost as if he was in the room with her and he enjoyed it. It freaked him out to think that he had such power over her but he didn’t stop; he lusted for more, telling himself that the power was a gift to him from his near-death experience and he had no choice but to use it.

By the time they sent him to prison, Abel was getting the hang of using his new gift and it came in very handy in handling his prison mates. Abel wasn’t a big bloke and he didn’t like fighting. He knew that if he didn’t use his gift on these prisoners, then he was going to be one of their bitches, his biggest dread. Abel tried to keep to himself, and as he met the prisoners one by one he said “Hi”, got into their minds, then into their dreams and told them all to keep their hands off him. He brainwashed them completely off him, keeping all potential suitors at bay.

His strategy worked very well. In the seven years he spent at Lancaster, he never got into any fight or unwanted encounter. All the guards felt sorry for him and treated him with respect and this was all as a result of the thoughts Abel had planted in their minds. One of the guards who worked at Lancaster was John Timberlake and Abel had discovered Alice by wandering round his mind.

Abel was eventually released for good behavior. His parents picked him up on his release date and they took him back under their wing. They lived in Ventura where they had lived since Abel was a child until he had gotten married and moved out. It was strange living with them again for his mother kept treating him like nothing had changed since he left home, like he was still a teenage boy.

His father wasn’t much better and it bothered Abel. His parents were religious people but they never forced Abel to practice Judaism. Abel believed in God but not as strongly as his family; in fact, his father had described Abel as a modern American Jew and stated that God would come to him when Abel was ready. Abel’s father believed that everything that happened was for a reason and only God knew exactly why. He might have believed that it was God’s plan to have their son come back to live with them but Abel was having none of that. He soon found a place of his own not far away.

Abel
’s old boss was gracious enough to give him back his old job as an architect in his firm. It sounded like a great job but he was only in charge of re-designing roadways that needed repair or designing driveways for houses, nothing as grand as designing new buildings or bridges. But a job was a job, and Abel had to keep a low profile and make a living if he was going to be Joe Mann and help the FBI make the USA a safer place to live.

He didn’t quite believe his gift was God’s doing, but he kept an open mind on that. He was more likely to believe it had arrived by a combination of the shock he felt after the accidental killing of his wife, the overdose of drugs, the near-death experience and the hypnosis he was under before he fell into a coma. He had been under hypnosis throughout the three days he was comatose, and the police doctor had not bothered to snap him out of it.

And so eventually, this gifted man had come to be known as Joe by the FBI but he wasn’t always old Joe in Alice’s dreams, some nights he was young Joe and on this particular night, Joe had work to do: he had to get into the Woo family’s dreams to see if they were hiding anything.

*

The excitement inside Alice Timberlake had built to such a fever pitch that the next morning, she was up bright and early, waiting for Joe to pop into her head. She wondered what Joe had found out, if anything.

After they had left Woo’s restaurant the previous day and safely arrived at the office, Agent Campbell was positive that the Pakistani boy might come back to collect his bond. Agent Burrows disagreed; she believed the terrorist cell would forget the money and stay as far away from the restaurant as possible.

Burrows argued that the Pakistani boy had received orders to get the two terrorists to a safe house as quickly as possible. Whether the safe house was down in New Orleans she didn’t know but she believed that as a member of the cell, he would take his mission seriously and not commit such an error. Campbell had a gut feeling that the Pakistani boy was much too young for such a responsibility, that they were just using him to pay the deposit and pick up the two suspects, and that he wasn’t part of the cell. Therefore, he would be greedy and silly enough to go back for the bond.

Campbell made sure the sketch of the boy, along with a full description of him was sent to all police departments. Campbell was all for conducting an all-out search for the boy around the area so he could tell them where he had dropped them off. Burrows didn’t think it was a bad idea; she simply thought they should wait to hear from Joe as he could save them a lot of leg work.

Alice was reviewing these events in the privacy of her hotel room when, as if on cue, Joe popped into Alice’s mind.

“Knock, knock are you decent?”

Alice jumped as he spoke in her head; she was still startled when it happened. “Joe, I’ve been up for over an hour waiting for you. What did you find out?”

“Morning to you too, and what a lovely morning it is.”

“Sorry, morning Joe, now what did you find out?” Alice was in too much of a hurry for trifles.

“Well the mother and father knew nothing more than what they told the police. Mr. Woo thought that the Pakistani boy was casing his restaurant and was going to rob him; he thought the boy looked shifty. The boy asked to book a room for two of his relatives who were coming to visit him in a couple of days.”
Abel was reading from the notes he had made.
”Mr. Woo didn’t believe him. He told the boy how much he wanted for the deposit and that he also wanted a bond that the boy would have back once the bill was settled and there was no damage done. Mr. Woo thought the boy would go then, but he was shocked when the boy dipped into his pocket and paid him upfront the deposit and the bond”

Alice made notes briskly, in her personal shorthand, to make sure she had it right when she told Burrows and Campbell. “Campbell thinks the Pakistani boy could be a resident of the area and that the cell just used him.”

“Mr. Woo thought the guy was going to rob him, so perhaps he looks more like a gang member than a terrorist. Anyway, the mother didn’t know any more or see anything. When the two boys left they went out the side door, and a big, black car was parked out on the main road; she only saw the side of the car. But the good news is the boy.”

“He saw the car?” Alice asked excitedly.

“I got into Kim’s mind and asked him what he knew. He heard the banging on the side door and thought at first it was a delivery, until he heard his father knocking on the door of their guests. He got up to listen, thinking it was strange for the two guests to be picked up so early so he went and had a look out his window. He saw a black SUV with black windows. The Pakistani boy slung a suitcase in the back, told the guests to get in quick and he drove off. But the good news is, I had him take a look at the car again to see if he could see the number plates. There was a wooden post blocking a part of the plate but it was definitely a Pennsylvania plate and the first three letters are GAH.”

“Oh my God!” Alice screamed. “Campbell will be over the moon with this when I tell him.”

Alice made to leave, hurriedly putting her notes together. Then she stopped abruptly and asked, “Is there anymore?”

“Nah... Besides I think we’ve earned our corn with that number plate, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yes, yes! You’re a genius, Joe. I’m off to find Campbell and Burrows; are you coming with me?”

It hit her – after the words had left her mouth – that she had just invited Joe to stay in her mind. She felt strange and slightly silly so she began to say, “Look, Joe...”

I’ll pop back in and you can give me an update later, I have things to do so you go spread the good word.”

Abel had to go work, and it would be difficult for him to have the privacy and time to close his eyes to make contact with Alice so he couldn’t tell her exactly when he’d be able to contact her.

“Okay, then. Catch you later,” Alice said.

“Later.”

Alice picked up the phone and dialed Burrows even though she was only in the next room. “Are you up?”

Burrows frowned at the clock; it was 6:55 and she had set her alarm for 7:00 so she couldn’t be too mad. “I am now,” she said, rolling out of bed and disabling the alarm. “You sound excited, what’s up?”

“Joe’s got part of the number plate of the car,” Alice said hurriedly. “It’s a Pennsylvania plate; the boy Kim saw the car out front.”

“Holy shit, this is the kind of thing I was hoping Joe could do.” Burrows was wide awake now; every trace of sleep had instantly vanished from her now-blazing eyes. “Have you had breakfast yet?”

“No, I haven’t been up real long,” Alice lied.

“Good. We’ll have breakfast in 10 minutes and I’ll call Agent Campbell to come join us.”

Campbell had been up even earlier than Alice and so he had had breakfast. He had just walked into the FBI’s Cisco field office when Burrows’ phone call came in. Elated, he said he’d join them and then drove a little too fast to the hotel which was only a short distance away. He marched into the restaurant, pulled a chair out and with not so much as a “Good morning, ladies”, he said to Alice, “What exactly did Joe find out?”

Burrows thought to herself,
This Campbell man truly is crazy.

Alice took her note
book out carefully – as if it would make the story more authentic – and told him that Mr. Woo thought the Pakistani boy could be a gang member. She then told him, just as she had written it down, what the boy Kim had seen from his bedroom window.