by Thomas Bloom
Chapter Thirty Eight
After a lot of thought and discussion Dusty and Amanda ended up in a motel about 20 miles south of town and Amanda’s children were farmed out to Amanda’s sister in Chicago. The boys thought the whole thing was a lark and an excuse to skip school. Amanda was distraught at being separated from her children but Dusty convinced her that it was the best of bad alternatives
They had adjoining rooms in the motel but slept in only one. “Sex is one thing but shacking up is another,” Amanda said.
“Hey, I’ll move down the road if you want,” Dusty said. “Wait until this is over and I’d love to make you an honest woman.”
“Hell no, the last thing I want is to be alone. By the way, is that a proposal?”
“Yeah, I guess it was. Pretty lame way to do it, right?”
“I’ll think about it.” Amanda said. “So what do we do next? We can’t live this way indefinitely.”
“We’re in a head game now. We have to outthink him.”
“Okay, smart guy. What’s he going to do next?”
“Let’s try to think like him, which is to say that he’s smart but illogical. He should realize that if he actually killed us both he would bring down on himself the full force of every police agency and sheriff’s department in the state plus the FBI. That’s stupid but consistent with his mental state. He thinks the murders he has already committed fulfil some obligation he had to salvage his honor or his self-esteem. To allow us to catch him after all he’s accomplished would be to negate the fulfillment of his goal. He’s not after us per se; he just wants to preserve his accomplishment. So we have two choices, drop the investigation or find some way to lure him out. I’m bothered by Ed’s analysis that he’s got an inside pipe to our activities. That’s scary. I don’t have a clue who it could be but maybe we could use that against him. Here’s an idea. We find another place like the one he set up for us. Then we pass the word internally that we’re going to check it out. Except this time we set him up.”
“Set him up how?”
“Well, for starters, we put the place under surveillance from day one. Second, we have a team on ready response in the neighborhood. If he shows up we take him down before he knows we’re on to him.”
“That’s going to tie up a lot of people.”
“So, do you want your kids back? Do you want to go home again? Do you want to end the killings? This is serious business. We can’t use half measures.”
“Okay, you’re right. Let’s get started.”
Chapter Thirty Nine
It took two days to find a place. Dusty interviewed two of the postal delivery people that handled the rural routes. One of them suggested an abandoned farm on the eastern side of the county. The home had burned down several years ago and the owners had just abandoned the property. It was on the verge of being auctioned off for past taxes. It had an old barn in the rear of the property plus a couple of utility sheds. It did not abut the river but there was a public access just a half mile down the road. It would do.
Dusty’s deputies worked a three shift schedule—starting at midnight, eight A.M. and four P.M. A brief meeting preceded each shift in order to review issues in progress and any other housekeeping matters. Dusty occasionally attended either the morning or afternoon meeting just to stay in touch with his team. The midnight meeting was run by the senior officer present. The other two meetings were run by his Assistant Chief, Randall Croft. As always, Randall was thorough and businesslike but could go days without cracking a smile. Dusty made it a point to mention during the next day’s meetings that he and Chief Stevens were checking out another potential site on the east side of the county and described it as “the old Watson Place.” He figured that would plant the seed.
Amanda ran a two shift schedule, four twelve hour tours per officer per week—noon to midnight and midnight to noon. She attended the noon pre-shift meeting in her office and made the same announcement and then made sure the officers coming off shift also got the same information.
Dusty had asked Agent Tamourini to use her resources to stake out the property. “There may be someone on our staffs we can’t trust. I need to depend on you for this.”
In her usual taciturn style Tamourini had simply replied “no problem.”
Tamourini arrived with three other agents the next morning. They came in two Suburbans with lots of equipment in both vehicles. “Don’t ask me how we’re going to do this. We’ll put the property under twenty-four by seven surveillance and report anything out of the ordinary to you. We’re good for a week so let’s hope something happens before then. It’s better if no one knows exactly where we are or how we’re doing it.”
“Okay, you have my number. Thank you and thank your boss for making you available.”
Chapter Forty
Well mama we got a situation here. They don’t know that I know what they’re up to. But what to do? I can ignore it or I can take advantage of it. But going after an FBI agent is serious business. If I take out one of them out there will be hell to pay. They will be all over Potawatomie County. But they don’t have a clue about me yet. If I keep them running in circles I’m probably safer than letting them follow up their original investigation. Well you think I’m weak and indecisive. Watch me now.
Chapter Forty One
Dusty had just sat down to a late lunch at Porky’s the next day when he got a call from agent Tamourini. “What’s up, you got something for us?”
“One of my men was just shot. Thank god he was wearing a vest. But he’s got at least a broken rib, maybe worse. It was a sniper shot from the woods adjoining the property. Our cover’s blown so we’re shutting down. I’m going to follow the ambulance to the hospital to see about my man. In the meantime between you and Amanda I want a cordon set up around this property for five hundred yards out in all directions. We need to go through it with a fine tooth comb. I want to meet but not in either of your offices. Can you get us a private room someplace?”
“I’m on it,” Dusty said. “Call me when you’re done at the hospital.”
Dusty called Amanda and they worked out teams for the cordon. Then he reserved a room at a local hotel and waited for Tamourini’s call. An hour and a half later his phone rang. “How’s your man?”
“Two broken ribs and some bruising but he’ll be okay. Where are we meeting?”
A half hour later they sat around a small table in the hotel room. “One of two things,” Tamourini said. “Either one of you leaked or there’s a bug in one of your offices. I want you to clear it for my guys to do a sweep right away.”
“Of course, no problem,” Dusty said and Amanda nodded her agreement. “And I didn’t discuss this with anyone but Amanda and I’m sure she only spoke to me. We may not be the FBI but we’re not dummies either. We did drop the hint we agreed on in our briefings yesterday but there’s hardly been time for that to seep out and for someone to respond unless….”
“Right,” Tamourini said. “Unless it’s someone on the inside. My apologies about the leak. I didn’t mean to imply anything but I’ve been taught to look at every angle. We’re dealing with the worst kind of perp here. He’s smart, capable and absolutely ruthless. He killed three innocent women without leaving a trace of evidence, he killed that poor Mr. Housmann in cold blood, he just missed getting you two by a fluke and now he goes after a federal officer. I don’t know whether to say he’s fearless or just so driven by his obsession that he will do anything. We will get him but the problem is how much damage he will do in the meantime. He will come after any of us should he perceive an opportunity and he will kill any innocent person that gets in his way. I’ve called my boss and he’s sending another eight agents down tomorrow. I don’t want to shove you guys out of the picture but we’d like to set up a command post and direct the investigation from there. One of our agents was attacked and this is now a federal investigation. We do not take attempts on the life of one of people lightly. You two will be in the loop all the way but w
e have superior resources and we need to take advantage of them. Only someone very stupid, very brave or very desperate would do this. I think he’s desperate because he thinks we’re close to sniffing him out. But now we know he’s got a rifle that he can use at long range. That puts us all in danger. He can be several hundred yards away and still try to take one of us out. Here’s the deal. You two should check out of your hotel immediately and find new quarters. We all wear vests at all times. We will establish a command center and all of us will live there and work out of there until we resolve this.”
By late that afternoon four more black Suburbans had arrived with two agents in each car. Again, the rear was filled with equipment and supplies. They paid a small fortune to the owner of a local motel to close down for repairs and take a long vacation. The few occupants were kicked out with their bill waived. The hotel was U-shaped with all the doors facing inward. They had acquired from someplace four horse trailers which they used to close the open end of the motel. When a vehicle needed to leave or enter one of the trailers could be moved back enough to let it in. The officer pulling the trailer was on the inside of the barricade so as not to be exposed... By late that evening all the agents plus Dusty and Amanda were meeting in one of the guest rooms now turned into a command center.
“Here’s what we do next,” Tamourini said. “I want your data base on local suspects brought out here at once. We’ll work the list from here. That’s what seems to have set him off. He must think he’s in that data base somewhere.
“At first light we start to go through the site of the attack. We’re looking for anything. A spent shell casing, a toothpick, a footprint, a thread caught on a bush, anything. We know he was there. If he left the tiniest bit of evidence we need to find it.”
“My Chief Deputy is on duty tonight. I’ll have him run the files out right now,” Dusty said.
“We’ve got one other thing,” Tamourini said. “The bullet that lodged in our agent’s vest has been recovered. We’ve sent it to Washington for further analysis but we think it’s a 30 millimeter Winchester sniper rifle.”
“Can private citizens buy a sniper rifle,” Amanda asked.
“Go to any gun show in the U.S. You pay cash and walk out with it. No record and no trace.”
“Jeez,” Amanda said. “I’m all for the second amendment but sometimes we make it a little too easy. They should at least have to register it.”
“We’ve been trying to shut down the gun show loophole for years,” Tamourini replied. “But the NRA wins every time.”
“What about the sweep tomorrow morning?” Dusty asked. “Aren’t we just making ourselves targets again?”
“Look, we weren’t born yesterday,” Tamourini said. “We will establish a perimeter outside the search site. They will be facing out. Our best hope is that he tries to get in for another shot. We’ve got nine fit officers plus your personnel. We’ll put five of our guys on the outside with one of your people between each of our agents. That gives us a perimeter of ten people. We are using AK-47’s and we’ll supply you with the same. If any of your people have military training we’d like them on the perimeter. We’ll work the inside with teams of two. One of yours with one of ours. We don’t have to cover the whole area. We know within a hundred yards or so where the shot came from. It’s just a painstaking exercise to go over every inch of ground looking for the tiniest clue—one thread, one crumb, one bit of litter. If we got so lucky a discarded cigarette butt. Then we’ve got DNA. Anyone have any questions or suggestions?”
“How about a dog to get his scent?” Amanda asked. “We might be able to follow a trail to where he parked his vehicle. That would give us another site to search.”
“Great idea,” Tamourini said. “Only problem is we don’t have a dog. Can you get one?”
“Actually, I might be able to. I know a guy in Muskegon who raises bloodhounds for police work. He keeps a few of the trained animals for pets and to help with working the new dogs. He occasionally rents them out. Let me call him now. Maybe I can get him here first thing in the morning.”
Chapter Forty Two
They met at 6:00 AM the next morning in the motel’s inner yard. In addition to Dusty and Amanda there was Tamourini, her nine agents plus five each of Dusty’s and Amanda’s officers.
“I have some bad news and some good news officer Donovan. We found a bug in your office last night. It was in the phone receiver. Whoever planted it could hear every conversation in your office and every phone call. There’s no way to trace it. It could be heard by anyone on the right frequency within five hundred yards of your office. And they didn’t have to listen live. They could set up a receiver and a recorder and listen at their leisure.”
“Shit,” Dusty said. “That’s the bad news. What’s the good news?”
“Now we know how he knew. It also marks him as even more capable. This is stuff you can’t buy at Radio Shack. Legally, it’s only obtainable if you’re a law enforcement agency. So how did he get it? We’ll have to work on it. And just as important, how did he get into your office to plant it? That’s a problem but also an opportunity. There can’t be that many people who can walk into your office unnoticed.”
“Well we have forty-five officers, plus a cleaning crew that comes in at night. Plus there’s the occasional repair man for the heating, plumbing, computer system and the phone system. Let’s check out the cleaning crew but that’s a long shot. I think they’re all female. I’ll get all our utility bills for the last two months so we can track down the repair people. What about my officers? Do you want to survey them?”
“Yes, they obviously have access but it’s hard to point the investigation against our own people. We’ll look at them just to cover all the bases but let’s put that at the bottom of the list. What set this guy off was the review you were doing of the entire county population. I think his name may be in there someplace. He apparently thinks it might be.”
Dusty’s phone beeped. It was Randall Croft. “I’m here with the paperwork. Can someone let me in?”
Croft drove in with two large cardboard boxes in his back seat, both full of paper. His eyes bugged out a little as he viewed all the people and vehicles in the courtyard. “Jeez, it looks like we’re going to war.”
“We are,” Dusty said. “All of us against him.”
Chapter Forty Three
Well mama, they think they’ve got the upper hand. But I know what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. And I know they’re planning to search the site tomorrow. They won’t find anything. I was very careful. And I drove all the way to a gun show in Cleveland to get that rifle. I wore sun glasses and a funny hat. No one will remember me and if they do they can’t describe me. I only took one shot and did not clear the chamber—no spent shell casing. Sorry guys. But wait until they see what I have planned for them next.
Chapter Forty Four
They started the search at 8:00 in the morning, as soon as there was enough light to work. The ten unit outer perimeter went out first and once they were situated the search team lined up just inside the outer perimeter. There were ten teams made up of five FBI agents, including Tamourini, each working with a local officer. They had marked out a search area roughly the size of a football field. Four sticks with red tags marked the corners of the area. They then lined up shoulder to shoulder and began to work through the area one step at a time. Each officer wore rubber gloves and carried an evidence bag and a pair of tweezers. Also, each officer had a cell phone with a camera. If they saw anything untoward they were to photograph it before touching it.
Tamourini had advised them to look for anything the tiniest but out of place—a bent blade of grass, a broken twig, a leaf that looked disturbed. Also, look for a perch, someplace to rest a weapon. Snipers did not shoot free style they had a tri-pod or something to rest the gun on. Also, footprints, loose threads or any piece of litter.
They took one step into the perimeter and then bent to examine the ground in front of
them. After each team announced “clear” they moved on for another step. It was slow demanding work and by noon they had covered only half the area. They broke for a quick lunch of sandwiches and chips and then resumed. It was three in the afternoon when one of the officers said “I think I have something.”
A rotting log about eight inches in diameter lay in front of him. There was a small depression on top of the log about a half inch in diameter.
Tamourini came over to examine the find. “It could be a tri-pod depression she announced. “Don’t move any closer. Just see if you can find anything else behind the log.”
“Yeah, here. It could be a heel print.”
“Okay, we need to make a cast of that print. And we need to get some buckets or pails. I want to dig up that entire area and take it to the lab. If he chewed a fingernail I want it. If he spit on the ground I want it. If he pissed I want it. If there’s one thread off his clothes I want it.”
As the crew went to look for containers Amanda’s phone rang. “Hey, it’s Hank Houser. I think I’m here but I can’t get in. Sorry I’m late. I had some car problems.”
Amanda got Tamourini’s attention. “My dog guy is here. Let’s meet him at the gate.”
Houser was in his sixties, grey haired and a little stooped. He walked with a limp. His eyes were clear and alert. Amanda explained the situation to him.
“You realize that by having people all over the area that you’ve tainted the site. My dogs are good but they aren’t magicians. Let me start with this shooting site you’ve found. Maybe we can sort something out. Show me how to get to the spot without going through everyone else’s scent. He was driving a double cab pickup and let two bloodhounds out of the rear seat. He put them on short leashes and put muzzles on both dogs.
