The Gillespie Five (A Political / Conspiracy Novel) - Book 1 (42) (8 page)

Chapter Nine

Alex arrived less than thirty minutes after receiving the call from his brother.  Normally, the drive to his brother’s home in the foothills of southern Denver never failed to slow Alex down, as he admired the seemingly ever changing beauty of the Rocky Mountains.  There were days when he could just gaze out his car window at the passing mountains, fading into seemingly endless layers, and it wouldn’t matter how bad a day he was having or if he was in a hurry.  When you were faced with something so unimaginable in scope and depth and beauty, it was hard to think of mundane things.  Today, however, he barely noticed the view. 

As he pulled into the driveway, he found the front door already open.  Parking the car, he walked inside, only to stop suddenly as he noticed Karen standing for the first time in days.  He noted the healthy color in her face and then looked at his brother, who nodded as if to confirm that what Alex was seeing was real.  He began moving again only when she held out a cup of coffee, which he took without a word, too shocked to say anything.

"Have a seat, Alex.  We've got a bit of a story to tell you and even if we know it’s a bit farfetched, it's a possible lead we didn't have before." 

Karen walked over to where her husband stood and he placed his hand on hers.  He smiled briefly at her.  In that smile, Alex saw the first glimpse of something besides despair.

"Okay, what is it, Ken?  What's this about Tommy?"

Ken took a deep breath, patted his wife's hands and then launched into a story that sounded as if it had come from the latest conspiracy novel.  As he listened, Alex's hope began to fade.  If what Ken was saying
was
true, then either Tommy had done something really wrong or knew someone who had.  And though the FBI might not reach out to the parent's - as Tommy was no longer considered a minor - they probably would have heard
something
by now.  Keeping his face passive, he remained silent until his brother finished his story.

"So, what do you think?" 

"Well, there's always the possibility.  I would need more information."

"Ben has my information, and I’m hoping to hear something from him or Matt soon.  We already have a meeting scheduled with the police commander about what Ben told us, but we thought you would be the one to figure out if there is any validity to his story."

"Well I can ask around.  Normally my office would have been notified about something like this though.  It would help if we had that URL or, better yet, Tommy's computer."

Ken glanced at his wife and Alex watched a look pass between them.  He could see some of the hope beginning to leave their eyes and tried to think of something, anything that would keep that from happening. 

Unconsciously, he had stood and begun pacing, his mind turning over what he had just been told.  Hands shoved deep in his pockets, head down, he started listing off names in his head of who to start calling.  But they wouldn’t get far if they didn’t know what they were looking for.  How was he going to get that with Tommy’s computer missing and having to rely on two scared kids to remember what Tommy had done? 

When the thought finally came, he could have slapped himself.

"Is Tommy's room still taped off?"

"I don't know," Ken replied.  "Probably not, but I can check.  Why?"

"I may have another option besides relying on those kids to remember something.  I just don't know yet.  Can you get me in his room?"

Ken rose, grabbing his keys.  "I can leave now and try to talk to the commander earlier than our scheduled appointment.  Give me a little time and I'll call you to see what they say, but they may not be able to do anything until Monday."

Alex nodded, mentally kicking himself as he followed Ken and Karen out of the house, his mind racing. If it was true, he couldn't imagine what Tommy could have done to bring the FBI down on him.  But, if the police and the school had failed to locate what Alex was going to look for, he might just have a way to find out what Tommy been up to.  He only wished he had remembered it sooner.  They might already know where Tommy was if he had.

Chapter Ten

Tommy looked up as he heard the lock turning. 

Oh, God.  Please, no more.
 

He curled into a tighter ball, in too much pain to even cry.  He had told them everything already, but they kept insisting he was lying.  Another round of coughing caught him, sending pain shooting through his bruised body. 

Please, no more.

The door opened and Tommy tried to rise like the guards expected.  Instead he was seized with uncontrollable shivers.  The guards came toward him and Tommy braced himself for the blow he knew was coming.

"Leave him.  And leave us."  The unfamiliar voice was female.  At least he thought so, but his mind had been playing tricks on him. 

  Tommy opened his eyes.  From his prone position he saw a small woman in a white coat, carrying a bag.  She stood, waiting as the guards hesitantly filed out of the cell, closing the door behind them.  For just a second he thought he'd seen a flash of fear in one of the guard's eyes as he had glanced at the doctor. 

Once the door was firmly shut, the woman made her way to his bedside, setting her bag down on the floor beside his bed.  She had dark blond hair, cut short, and the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen.  He couldn't figure out her age, but from the way she carried herself he figured she must be at least in her late twenties or early thirties.  She smiled at him as he tried to rise.  "You're fine.  Just lay there quietly. My name is Dr. Lyndsay.  How are you feeling?" 

Tommy started to respond when another spasm of coughing took him.  The doctor gently rubbed his back until the coughing subsided and then helped him sit.  Once he seemed steady, she reached in her bag and pulled out a bottle of water.  "They said you weren't feeling well and I think that was an understatement.  Here, drink this.  When you're ready, I'm going to check a few things okay?"

She opened the bottle and helped Tommy drink. When he finished she said, "Now I need you to take off your shirt."

He tried to do as she asked when another coughing fit caught him.  Dr. Lyndsay waited until he stopped and then reached over to help him.  A part of him shied away, embarrassed to need someone's help to undress – especially a strange woman – but he was too weak to give into the embarrassment. 

With his shirt off, Tommy collapsed against the wall behind his bed, exhausted.  He was having a tough time keeping his eyes open as the doctor began methodically checking his pulse, blood pressure, heart beat and breathing, all while keeping up a steady stream of conversation.  He was also finding it difficult to concentrate on her words.  He thought she asked him a question and tried to respond but found his tongue had become too thick.

A sharp prick in his arm was quickly followed by a second and then a third, but he found he really didn't care.  Everything seemed to suddenly be coming from very far away.

Relax.  Just relax.

He wasn't sure if she had spoken or he had thought it, but it sounded like a good idea. 

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Dr. Lyndsay watched, waiting for the kid's breathing to stabilize before giving him the next shot, the one that would bring him to the surface
just
enough to let her do what they had brought her here to do.  As she waited, she took in his bruised body wondering why they always brought her in only
after
they had done something like this.  Brute tactics that they knew rarely worked. 

His breathing steadied and she gave him the shot, hoping it wasn't too late.  If they had managed to break him already, there would be nothing she could to do to help them get the information they wanted.

Chapter Eleven

Alex spent the morning working from home, trying to remain calm as he waited to get access to Tommy’s dorm room.  Two days of waiting hadn’t helped his agitation, and he had found himself reaching more than once for his phone, on the edge of not caring what flags he raised.  But he’d waited.  And waited.

To fill his time, he worked on some long overdue tasks he usually put off.  He also put out a few tentative feelers to see if there had been any recent FBI stings on hackers that, for whatever reason, his team hadn’t been brought in on. 

When his brother finally called, Alex was halfway through a bagel and in the middle of an online conversation with one of his managers.  He left both without hesitation and was already sprinting to his car before he heard more than a ‘hello’ from Ken.  It wasn't until he had pulled out of the parking lot and was on the road that he realized his brother was still talking.

"Alex, did you
hear
me?"

"Sure, Ken.  What did you say?"

He could hear his older brother's sigh over the phone and had to force down the little kid brother's immediate response of satisfaction.  He was more mature than that.
  Most of the time
.

"I
said
that they apparently haven't leased out the room yet and that you can have access to it, but you have to go through their security office and someone there will take you."

"Not a problem."

"For the umpteenth time,
what
are you hoping to find?"

"Let's just say I need time to 'meditate' and see if I can put myself in Tommy's shoes.  I don't care what you tell them, but I need at least fifteen minutes."

"Fine."

Alex could have pulled his own strings to get access to Tommy’s room but that might have raised flags he wasn’t ready to raise yet.  If the FBI did tag Tommy and take his computer, they may not have noticed something that wasn't exactly standard in a dorm room.  Especially if it had been hidden. 

"Have the police said anything else about Ben's story?"

"No."

Alex could hear his brother's frustration.  He still couldn’t believe the police were hesitant to make the connection.  "What about your PI?"

"He hasn’t found anything either, although he’s going to talk to the Bevel family soon.  He still seems skeptical though."

"Ya, but you're
paying
him."

"True.  We'll see.  Whatever you're up to, Alex, I hope it works.  We need to find Tommy."

The sound of despair in Ken's voice shot straight through Alex.  He missed his nephew a great deal but it couldn’t possibly compare to what it must be like for his father.

"I'll do everything I can, bro."

He hung up just as he was pulling into the campus parking lot.  Locating the main administrative building he headed to the security office, only to be greeted by one of the college faculty members who said she would be escorting him instead.

Not wanting to draw undue attention, he asked no questions as he followed her across campus to one of the brown, two-story dorm buildings and up the stairs to the second floor.  When she stopped in front of one of the doors and opened it, he thanked her and asked if he could have a few minutes alone in Tommy’s room.  He schooled his expression into that of a concerned relative as he explained he was hoping that by putting himself in the last place Tommy may have been, he might be able to figure out where he had gone.  He wasn’t sure if she bought his story, but she nodded, giving him a few words of sympathy and then stepped back to let him in.

He waited a moment, taking a quick look around as he listened to her receding footsteps, before heading to a set of built in wall shelves and a small hidden compartment he had helped Tommy build.  He smiled when he removed the cover and found exactly what he was looking for. 

Turning on his phone's wireless option he quickly located the special wireless access point he had acquired for Tommy.  Once connected, he scanned the router.  What he found brought another smile to his face.  "Good job, kid," he said as he began downloading the logs created by a customized program he had also given Tommy.  

The program gave Tommy the ability to accurately log all incoming and outgoing traffic in order to help him on a research paper for one of his forensics/tracing classes.  The software was something Alex's group had designed and wasn't publicly available.  And it would tell him exactly where Tommy had been online the days before he disappeared. 

Once he had completed his download, Alex turned off his phone's wireless, covered the router back up and left.  Nodding at the woman who had let him in, he turned and headed to his car, forwarding the download to his friend and colleague, Jason, along with a cryptic note.

Which one of these doesn't belong?

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Agent Stone watched Alex exit the building before pulling out her cell and placing a call to her supervisor, Special Agent Wilson.

"Someone just came by.  Knew exactly where the router was located."

"Who?"

"The kid's uncle."

"Have we run a background check on him yet?"

"No, just the parents."

"Start a background check.  Let's see where that leads us."

"Should I leave the router?"

"For now.  See what else we catch.  Put a junior agent on watch."

Sighing with relief, she hung up the phone, pulling on the constricting turtle neck she wore.  She was anxious to be out of the dull clothes that faculty people seemed to wear no matter what college campus you visited.  For what seemed like an eternity, she had been stuck here waiting for just this moment and was itching to get back into the field.  Even if it meant doing something as tame as a background check.