The Senator: A Blake Jordan Thriller (19 page)

We heard someone walking into the home so we both let go. Even though Jami had worked for the FBI for a short time, her loyalty was now to DDC. She understood that we had a very short leash and if we were going to find the senator, we’d have to tell the Bureau only what we absolutely had to so they would stay out of our way. A moment later, one of the tactical team agents joined us in the bedroom to talk.

“Landry’s having us take Nazir in. He wants to know what your next steps are.”

“We’re going to stay here. We haven’t finished going through everything, yet.”

“What’s left to search?” the man asked and I saw Jami look at me, wondering how I would answer.

“We gave each room a quick search, but the office is the only room we didn’t really get to go through.”

“Okay, a forensics team will be here shortly, well leave two agents behind to keep both areas secure.”

The agent called for another man who introduced himself and said he would stand by the front door until forensics arrived. They would send a team to turn both homes upside down to look for any evidence. As he left us, Jami turned to me.

“Shouldn’t we be there to question Nazir?”

“No, only intimidation is going to work with him, a threat to his own life, and the FBI won’t go there.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means he’s not going to talk and they won’t be able to make him talk. Not without a lawyer.”

“So that’s it, we just give up?”

“On that lead, yes – it’s a dead-end. We know he’s involved. If I had to guess, it’s through funding.”

“What do you think his motivation was?”

“If he’s truly associated with the JC somehow, then it’s political. They don’t want Keller being elected into office. If he is, they know the money will dry up. We’ll no longer have a president that overrides Congress through executive action. Jim Keller is a smart man, I’m sure he’d put a stop to the military aid under the guise of the foreign countries the JC operates in using the money for basic freedoms and human rights.”

When we were sure that we were alone, Jami and I lifted the mattress one more time. We found a gun, two loaded mags, and a book,
The Catcher in the Rye
. Jami picked it up. “From the library of an assassin.”

Morgan chimed in. “Blake, I finished analyzing that drive. There was extensive research on you and Jami.”

“Me?” Jami asked in disbelief. “What do you mean, what did you find on there?”

“Names, addresses. I see Ben and Gladys Jordan, Maria Jordan – lots on Maria and also Derek Murphy…”

“That’s my ex.”

“Jami, the files associated with you are newer like they looked into you after you got the assignment.”

My first thought when Morgan said this was that there might be a mole inside DDC. Someone working with the kidnapper. “How would this guy get this kind of information? Could someone on the inside be feeding this to him?”

“Not sure, Blake, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to tell you. I’m basically holding the FBI hostage right now while you try to find Keller. I’m not getting any more information from DDC and the FBI is quiet.”

“What do you think this means, Blake?” Jami asked me. I didn’t know. It was obvious that this was personal, that I was a target, but now so was Jami. Someone wanted to know our background, everything that could be found about our past. But why? How would that help them with kidnapping Jim Keller?

“Come on, let’s check out the office before forensics gets here. When they arrive, we’ll tell them about the gun under the mattress. They can dust it for prints, but I’d bet it’s clean. The guy doesn’t make mistakes.”

I led the way and Jami followed. She accidentally dropped the novel that she had been holding onto. I was almost to the next room when I heard Jami call my name from the bedroom. I stopped and turned around and saw her pick up a picture that had fallen out that he had used as a bookmark.
He had made a mistake.

“This must be Victor Perez,” Jami said, holding the picture closer to her eyes. As I approached, she held her hand out and let me take the photo to take a look for myself.

“My God,” I whispered. “Impossible…”

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I know this man. His name isn’t Victor Perez. It’s Marco Lopez. ML – the initials scratched on the pipe.”

“Who’s Marco Lopez?”

I shook my head as I scanned the picture, not believing my eyes. “Marco was an agent at DDC. He was good at what he did, but wasn’t liked much by the other agents. Nobody trusted him and because of that, he became a pariah. As the new agency grew, he expressed interest in moving into a more senior role.” Jami moved closer to me and I held the picture in front of us so that we could look at it together.

“When DDC named you special agent in charge… I’m guessing that didn’t go over too well.”

“No. He was pissed and resigned that same day, didn’t even give notice. First thing I dealt with as SAIC.”

“How does the senator know Lopez?”

“When Keller launched his bid for the presidency, he asked if I could have DDC help with security. I was about to go out of the country, but had Reed put a team together. Reed had Lopez run point.”

“That was when Nazir got arrested by CPD? So Lopez was there that day. Somehow, he and Nazir got together. I want to know why.”

“You and me both,” I said.

“So how did I involved in all of this?”

“I took my time finding the right person to backfill Marco’s job. You were the replacement hire.”

“Great, so I’m on his list. You didn’t have anyone monitor this guy? Find out what happened to him?”

“It didn’t get that far. He died a week later in a car crash. His body was burned beyond recognition.”

Marco had his arm around a woman who I also recognized. “I went to his funeral and she was there,” I said, pointing to the woman in the photo. “His sister Maribel. She was going to nursing school out of state and was just about to graduate. She said she didn’t know how she was going to be able to finish the semester. We tried to comfort her but couldn’t. I didn’t blame her, I would have been a mess, too.”

“I don’t understand. Why would he do all of this?”

“Revenge.”

“That what this is all about? Just because he didn’t get your job? That seems a little crazy”

“I don’t know. It’s the only thing that makes sense right now. Maybe Marco really is involved in the JC and needed the position to help make things happen, to lower the agency’s defenses and influence in the city. Whatever the reason, it feels more personal than that. It’s like he’s trying to show my incompetence, show that I was the wrong choice. This was the biggest assignment that DDC has had to date. Derek is just the backup plan. We need to make sure he’s okay and stays safe until this is all over,” I said and Jami agreed.

“Morgan, we’ve ID’d the kidnapper. It’s Marco Lopez,” I said, still holding the picture in front of me.

“That’s impossible, Blake.”

“It’s him, Morgan. Trust me. I don’t know how he pulled this off, but we’re sure it’s him. Can you get Mallory to send agents to pick up Derek Murphy? We need him kept safe until we can get to Marco.”

“Hold on…” we heard Morgan talking with Agent Mallory. “Yes, he’ll send someone out to get Derek.”

Jami pulled out her phone and started calling her ex and left him a message when he didn’t pick up. She followed up with a text message and waited for him to respond. I walked over and put a hand on her shoulder and then she turned to me and held onto me tightly. I winced at the pain, but hid it from her.

“I’m sure he’s fine, Jami. Mallory’s sending someone there now to pick him up. We have to stay focused.”

Jami let go of me when we heard shouts coming from the hallway. I folded the picture and stuffed it in my back pocket and we asked the agent standing outside of Anita’s door what happened. He said he didn’t know so we walked down the hallway back to Nazir’s when Sandra appeared. “The news is reporting on the kidnapper,” she said and invited Jami and me inside.

“The man who kidnapped the senator, he says he’s going to broadcast the execution tonight! He’s going to kill him on the air!” Sandra said in a loud, raspy voice. I gave Jami a look and she grabbed the remote control and raised the volume on the TV inside Sandra’s home so we could listen to the reporters talking.

“There’s a new video,” Morgan said.

“I know, Jami and I are watching it right now. Can you track the location? Find out where it was filmed?”

“No, Blake. Only if I had the source file and even then I might not be able to do something like that.”

We watched as the CNN reporters talked over the audio and showed a short clip of the killer’s face. As Jami spoke with the older woman, the forensics team arrived. One of the agents walked inside and watched the news report with us. We were being briefed by the media – a very bad sign. Not only did it mean that we didn’t have the latest intel on the situation, it also meant that the public could panic like Sandra. The thought of an execution broadcast in real-time for the entire world to see made me nauseous.

How would he do it? Would he stream it from a cell phone?
That seemed like the only real option to me.

Jami said she was going to hang back with Sandra for a few minutes and I walked back to Anita’s to show the forensics team the gun that we had found. Nazir and his wife had been taken to the FBI’s Chicago field office for questioning so a few of the men went to his home to get started. Only the children remained behind as agents waited on a close family friend of the Nazir’s to arrive and take them home. It was heartbreaking to hear their cries and not know when they would see their parents again.

The forensics guys got to work as cries from the children echoed throughout the hallway. I thought about how this event would probably mess them up for life, if they hadn’t been messed up before. I wondered how exactly their father had been involved. My stab wound started throbbing and I felt the pain come back so I tried to focus my mind on something else.

I turned Anita’s TV on and watched the footage again of Marco. I watched as he spoke into the camera of a cell phone which made me even more convinced that this was how he was going to broadcast the execution in just a little while. He panned over to Keller who was gagged and had his arms tied behind a chair. I hadn’t seen this part of the video on TV a few minutes earlier – that station was probably trying to be sensitive to the situation. I was tired of the censorship. I was tired of how the media tries to spin things depending on their political agendas. The uncut, unedited version I watched was refreshing in a sick and twisted kind of way. When the video ended, I rewound it and watched again.

The second time, I turned the volume all the way down so I could focus only on Marco’s surroundings to see if I could figure out where they were. It looked like he was filming from inside a house. That’s when I noticed something. Fifteen seconds before the video ended, a shadow passed over Marco’s face. I rewound it and confirmed. There was definitely a shadow. Then I played the video a third time with the volume all the way up and my eyes closed and that’s when I noticed something else.

I heard something.

It was a woman’s voice. I heard her say, “shut up” to someone off camera. If she was saying it to Keller, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me because the senator was bound and gagged. It didn’t look like he was trying to make any noise. As I watched again, I noticed his eyes trailing something moving which matched the timing of the shadow.

That was the moment when I realized what was really going on and where Marco Lopez was likely hiding and how I was going to find him. I worried about Jami. Before tonight, I would have set out together with her. This was her assignment and I could use the help, after all. But now I felt like there might be something more growing between us. There was a spark. And I didn’t want her to get hurt by Marco.

Besides, this was between him and me. And I was going to get the son of a bitch.

I needed to find a good excuse to split us up. But before I could come up with one, Jami offered her own. When she joined me at Anita’s place, she looked pale and her body language told me that she was worried.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I’m thinking about Derek. Why wouldn’t he answer his phone? What if something’s wrong?”

“I’m sure there’s a good reason for why he’s not answering.”

“What if there’s not? What if Marco did something to him? What if he took him like Keller?”

I suddenly thought about the woman’s voice. Had she taken Derek? Was Jami onto something? I used this as an open door to ask Morgan a question I was going to ask anyway right before Jami showed up.

“Morgan, can you check and see if you still have access to DDC employee records?”

“Checking… yes, I can access the directory.”

“Good. Send us the emergency contact list – we need an archive version from six months ago.”

“Blake, what are you doing?” Jami asked. “I know Derek’s address. Plus, I haven’t been at DDC that long.”

“You’re right. I’m not thinking clearly,” I lied to her.

“Okay, sent,” we heard Morgan say. I accessed the file until I found what I was looking for.
9405 McCarthy Road in Palos Park.
I stared at the address and started repeating it to myself to memorize it.

“I need to go see Derek, his place isn’t too far away from here – I’ll be right back,” Jami said, removing her earpiece and unplugging her Motorola and placing both in my hand.

I insisted on walking Jami out, telling her that I wanted to know about the conversation she had with Sandra as any information might be helpful. I just needed an excuse to get to the car. We walked across the street and I said I needed to get something out of it. As she adjusted the seat, I pulled the cell phone the FBI had given me out of my back pocket and slid it underneath the passenger seat when she wasn’t looking. Jami promised that she’d be right back. I told her I’d still be here helping the forensics team.

As I watched her drive away, the glow of her brake lights made me realize how late in the day it was.

“Morgan, we’re going off com – we’re headed to Derek Murphy’s place. If you need us, call.”

“Copy, I see you moving.” I still held onto Jami’s earpiece and Motorola. I removed both of mine as well and dumped the equipment in a nearby trashcan on the side of the road where I stood. I was on my own now. No car. No partner. I had less than an hour to find Marco and rescue Jim Keller before the execution.