Kill The President's Women (Joe The Magic Man Series Book 2) (7 page)

“This is good work, no doubt, but what was the Pakistani boy doing driving a car with Pennsylvania number plates?”

Burrows shrugged. “I was thinking about that. They could be false ones to throw us off; they could easily have driven a couple of miles down the road and then changed them. Or maybe he bought the car off a dealer that buys cars across the USA and moves them around. There’s a third option. He could be from Pennsylvania; he might have driven all the way down and might be currently taking the brothers back to Pennsylvania.”

Campbell nodded his head in agreement. “It’s a long drive down here from Pennsylvania and the boy paid the deposit two days before the brothers arrived. But... that wouldn’t really be a problem if he knew they were coming well in advance. He could easily have driven down here and waited for their arrival.”

“If you think about it,” Burrows said slowly, “the boy was here before they arrived at the airport but he didn’t pick them up. They used a cab because there’re too many cameras at the airport to hide from, and we would have spotted a Pennsylvania plate real quick.”

Burrows drained her coffee and heard Campbell say, “I’ll get back to our guys with their eyes on the traffic videos and tell them that we’re now on the hunt for a black SUV with Pennsylvania number plates. They’ll have to go over all the videos again; they’re not going to like me for that but it’s gotta be done. And I want them to concentrate on the route from here to Pennsylvania.”

He got up and straightened his jacket, ready to go.

“A bulletin, maybe?” Burrows suggested.

“Definitely. We’ll have to put out a bulletin for the car, just in case it was stolen, until we can trace the owner.”

“There must be thousands of cars with those three letters,” Burrows added as she got up.

Campbell nodded and was about to say something when he saw Alice getting up too. He stretched out his hands to signal her to stay seated. “Mrs. Timberlake, you stay and finish your breakfast. Thank you very much for you and Joe’s help. Tell him we are very grateful and I’m sure when we catch these boys we’ll want your help again.”

Bu
rrows could see the disappointment clearly etched on Alice’s face and she tried to explain. “He’s right Alice; we’ve got a lot of footwork to do now. We’ll more than likely be sent up to Pennsylvania to help start a door to door check on all the owners of a SUV with GAH in their number plate.”

Alice was more than disappointed; she felt like she had been part of the team but now she was being sidelined so easily. She managed to say, “Oh, all right then.”

“Alice, I think you should head back home until we know where our next lead will come from,” Burrows said, patting her shoulder. “We don’t know where or when that will be. But what I do know is, as soon as we find anyone who we think might know anything about our two suspects, we will be requiring you and Joe to work your magic for us.” She gave Alice a small smile. “You can get to play a medium again; you did real well last time.”

“Yeah, could have fooled me,” Campbell said as he motioned to Burrows that it was time to go.

Burrows quickly added, “Our office will arrange your flight back and I’ll keep you updated. At least it will give you a chance to start the writing for your next exclusive story.”

“Yes you do that, let me know what’s going on,” Alice said in a sad tone. She had been so excited a few moments ago, she was actually expecting them to say something like, “Let’s hit the streets!”

She sighed to herself as they walked away, thinking,
I’ve been watching too much damn TV, why would I think the Feds would want me to tag along with them?

As she ordered another coffee, it was a huge effort on her part to prevent her eyes from tearing up.

*

As soon as Agent Burrows and Agent Campbell arrived back at the office, Campbell immediately drafted a report to send to Frank Brubaker, leaving Burrows to put out the bulletin about the partial number of the car.

An hour later, Agent Burrows was making out her report and waiting for orders to fly up to Pennsylvania, when she noticed Agent Campbell on the phone. He was writing something down hurriedly. Lifting his head, he caught her eye and pointed his thumb to the door behind him. Burrows grabbed her coat immediately; she knew it was a lead.

She walked closer and then getting into earshot, she heard him say, “Thank you, sergeant. We’ll be there as quick as we can.”

He grabbed his coat and marched off in long strides, making it hard for Burrows to keep up.

“What have we got?” she asked from behind him.

“Sergeant Pitt thinks the photo sketch looks like some Pakistani kid that works at a garage, washing and valeting cars. The sergeant says the kid cleaned his car only yesterday.”

“I think we should take Alice with us, just in case he’s the one.”

Campbell slowed down a little and then said, “Okay, call her and tell her to get her skates on. We’ll be outside her hotel waiting for her.”

Alice hadn’t been back in her room very long and she was actually considering making notes for her next article when her cell phone buzzed. Her first thoughts were,
It’s the FBI office with my flight information
so she picked up the call and began to say,
“
Hi, that was quick. You haven’t gone and hired a special flight…”

“Alice, a lead has come up,” Burrows interrupted her, “so get yourself out front. We’re stopping at your hotel to pick you up. Move!”

Alice, surprised that a lead had come in so fast, tried to reply that she’d be ready but Burrows had already hung up. The sense of urgency she felt was overwhelming and she stood still for a moment, unsure of what to do. Then the adrenaline kicked in and she leapt to action. She grabbed her note book and shoved it in her coat pocket, put her coat on and ran to the elevator. The excitement was back and she loved it!

Alice only had to wait a minute in front of the hotel before Campbell’s car came screeching to a stop. She was in the car before either of them had a chance to tell her to get in.

“What kept you?” Alice asked sarcastically.

The comment brought a smile to Burrows’ face and she immediately filled Alice in. It was a half hour ride to the precinct and as Campbell took the street corners sharply, he and Burrows weighed their options. Alice’s mind went to John; not quite ten minutes ago, she had been thinking of calling him to tell him that she would be home by the time he got back from work. Now she was off looking for a Pakistani boy.

At the precinct, Sergeant Pitt was already waiting for them. They all shook hands with him and Pitt went over his story again. When he was done, he gave them the address of the garage. They were back in the car in no time and Campbell drove crazily to the garage and pulled into the forecourt. It was a tiny garage that looked like it could be fully staffed and operated by just one man.

“This may be a wild goose chase,” Campbell said, looking the place over, “I can’t see a back exit, so I think I’ll go in alone. You keep your eyes peeled in case I spook him into doing a runner.”

Campbell alighted from the car but he had only taken two steps before a man, the owner presumably, walked out lazily. He was wiping his hands on an oily rag and smiling generously.

“What’s the trouble?” he asked as he looked at the car behind Campbell.

Campbell flashed his badge. “I’m Special Agent Campbell. I’m following a lead and I’m here to ask if you know this boy.” – He showed him the sketch – “I was told he works here washing cars.”

“Kahn, you mean? The artist who did this is crazy,” the man said with a chuckle.

Campbell’s heart skipped a beat. “Is this Kahn?”

The owner looked at the sketch. “Could be, but his hair is flatter than that. Is he in some form of trouble?”

“Is Khan here now?” Campbell asked, disregarding the man’s question.

“No, he only comes in if a customer needs their car cleaned. What’s this about anyway?”

“We just need to ask him a few questions. Have you got an address for him?”

“No, but I’ve got his phone number.”

Campbell’s heart skipped another beat as he tried to stay calm. “That would be very helpful.”

He followed the garage owner into his office and waited impatiently as the man scribbled some digits on a tiny piece of old newspaper.

“There you go.”

“Thank you, sir. I do appreciate it.”

As Campbell walked to the car, he dialed head office. He identified himself, gave his badge number when prompted and then called out Khan’s phone number. “I need the address associated with this number and I want the phone location traced. All the calls that he made or received in the last week should be sent to me ASAP.”

Campbell heard the garage owner speak up from behind him. “I could have told you his full name – if you had asked me. It’s Mohamed Kahn but he likes to be simply called Kahn.”

“Well thank you, you’ve been most helpful,” Campbell said to the man as he hurried to get away, hoping they’d be able to trace the phone in no time

“I think I know where Kahn is right now,” the owner said, as Campbell got to the car door.

Campbell stopped and stared at the man in disbelief. He walked back towards the man, asking, “You do?”

“Yeah, all the spare time he has, he spends at Tommy’s Bar and Pool room. He’s the best pool player around here, if you listen to him.”

“And where is this Tommy’s bar?”

“It’s about 200 yards down the road.” – He pointed – “It’s in the middle of the next block, you can’t miss it.”

“Thank you sir, you’ve been most helpful. Can I rely on you not to call him to tell him we’re looking for him, because if you do we’ll know it was you...”

“Hell no, I got too much work to be calling him.”

“Thank you again, sir.”

As Campbell got back in the car, he saw the excited looks on their faces; apparently they had heard every word.

“Is this our lucky day?” Burrows asked.

“If only everyone was as helpful as that guy...” Campbell sighed as he strapped on his seatbelt.

Campbell drove slowly this time and a short distance away from Tommy’s Bar, he stopped the car and parked on the curb. “I think we had better phone this in,” he said.

Burrows agreed. “We don’t know if this is our guy yet but we have to assume he is.” She turned to Alice. “We could send for backup and take him in for questioning, but the way Homeland sometimes works, they like to keep them under surveillance for a while; that way they can find out more.”

Campbell got out of the car and as he walked in the opposite direction of Tommy’s Bar, he reached for his phone and called it in.

Alice gave a puzzled frown. “Does the FBI usually work with Homeland?”

“On the odd occasion, but the Pentagon is taking this threat seriously after the Boston bombers so all departments are working jointly on it. Including us, as a part of our newly-formed task force.”

Alice felt a little pride in her voice as she asked. “If the boy is in there, do you want me to talk to him so that Joe can get into his dreams tonight?”

“We’ll have to see how Homeland wants to handle it, they might want us to back off and they’ll take it from here.”

“That’s not fair,” Alice said innocently, “it’s your collar; you’ve done all the leg work.”

Burrows smiled at Alice’s attempt to talk cop talk. “That’s how it works sometimes, we do all the work finding the guy then someone else gets all the glory.”

Campbell got back in the car. “Okay, they’ve put a trace on his phone and it’s in this vicinity, so this is how they want it done...”

“When you say “they”, do you mean Frank Brubaker?” The question had left Alice’s lips before she had had the chance to think about it. “Sorry, go on.”

“We are helping Homeland on this case, so Frank Brubaker knows everything that’s going on.” He turned back to Burrows and went on. “They want us to go in there as soon as they’ve got a team covering all exits.” He looked back at Alice. “They do not want us to arrest him, so we are not going to show that we recognize him, we are just going to hopefully spook him into making phone calls and if he leaves the building, he’ll be followed.” He paused for Alice to digest the information, and then went on. “They hope to find out where they’ve taken the two suspects by tracing his phone calls. But they also want you to try and work your thing with that badge, and have Joe to get into his dreams tonight. All we gotta do now is wait until everyone is in place.”

They waited an agonizingly long thirty minutes before they received the go-ahead. Alice was nervous; she had hoped Joe would have contacted her by now.

“Here we go,” Campbell said, as he started the car up and drove it about twenty yards down the road, parking across the road from Tommy’s Bar. “Now remember, if he does a runner, let him go. We just want to scare him and let him know that the FBI is looking for him.”

They all got out of the car and Campbell hoped Alice wouldn’t bungle the whole operation; she looked really shaken.

“Mrs. Timberlake,” he said to her, “just try to relax. Be you and you’ll be fine. Here’s the sketch so you can try to make contact with the boy.”

He showed her the picture and Alice stared at it carefully, then nodded. “I’ve got it.”

“Right, here we go.”

Campbell led the way with Alice right behind him and Burrows bringing up the rear. There was a great, long bar inside with stools lined up along the front. There was only one guy sitting on a stool talking to the bartender. There were two other men playing chess at a table near the front window; they both looked up at the three of them briefly and went back to their game. At the far end of the room, there were two pool tables with six youngsters noisily playing pool.

The bartender walked up to the three of them and said rather rudely, “Can I help you, officer?”

Alice was surprised that he had sniffed them out as Law enforcement. Campbell and Burrows didn’t seem surprised and Campbell flashed his badge. “FBI, Special Agent Campbell.”

He said it loud enough for everyone to hear and without introducing Burrows or Alice, he put his badge away and showed the bartender the sketch. “Have you seen this boy around here?”