by Robin Mahle
“Yeah, I’m here. You know, there was someone hanging around. I told him he had to leave and started walking across the street to get him clear. Hell, we hadn’t even cleared the scene yet and this guy just leaned up against his car across the street. And you know, he looked like a fed. I brushed it off because of all the shit we were dealing with but, yeah, I guess I did see someone out of place.”
Walsh raised his lips into a crooked smile. “Any chance you can find security footage from the station that might show this person?”
“Probably. But I gotta tell you, with hunting down King, I don’t think I can pull…”
“It’s for someone we both know,” Walsh cut in. “I can’t tell you who. Not yet. But I need to protect this person. And I need your help to do it.”
His sigh was audible. “Let me see what I can do. I can probably ask one of the local guys to check it out. I’ll just say it’s part of the search.”
“Thank you,” Walsh replied.
“Someday, you’d better tell me what this was all about,” Tillis said.
“I will.” Walsh ended the call and for a moment, forgot why he was out here. “Oh shit.” He dialed another number. “Hey, it’s Walsh. Listen, can you dig up any more vital records for Al and Grace Monahan? Death certs if they exist.”
“You need it now?” the man on the end of the line asked.
“I do. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. I can hang on,” Walsh replied.
“Okay. Give me a minute.”
Walsh listened as the man typed on his computer. His thoughts raged on at the idea these guys, Quinn’s guys, were watching Kate. He knew Nick had to put an end to this, but that wasn’t going to be easy for him. Nick was driven to the truth and especially when it involved Kate. In his heart, Walsh knew that Nick wouldn’t give up until he made Quinn and the others pay for what they had threatened to do to Kate. The question remained, what would be the price?
“Okay, I think I got it for you.”
“Are they both deceased?” Walsh was jolted back into the moment.
“Al Monahan died in 2014. Grace Monahan is still living,” he replied.
Walsh cast up his gaze. “And when did Ellen King die?”
“Hang on.” He typed again but came back quickly. “2019.”
“Okay. Thanks, man. Send me the certs via email, would you?” Walsh asked.
“You got it.”
He ended the call and returned inside. “The grandfather is dead. Grandma’s still alive and kicking.”
Kate exhaled sharply. “Finally. Let’s find out what property she owns.”
Surrey rubbed his smooth chin. “Assessor records should show that. I’d like to get my hands on her social security number too. The more details we can gather, the better our odds of finding King.”
Walsh picked up his phone again. “On it.”
Nick returned to his apartment. He paced the room with his phone in his hand, waiting for the call from Bryce. It had been more than an hour since he reached out and still nothing.
He finally returned to the sofa with a bottle of water in his hands. Walsh hadn’t gotten back to him and neither had Bryce. His nerves were shot and for the first time in a long time, the thought of having a drink crossed his mind.
“Stop.” He rubbed his forehead as if to scrub away the idea. Nick glanced into the kitchen. Kate wasn’t a big drinker, but there was always a bottle or two of wine in the fridge. No hard liquor. No Jack Daniels, which was Nick’s favorite. Jack had seen him through a lot of situations in the past.
Powerless to take his eyes off the refrigerator, he could almost taste the wine on his lips. The light acidic burn on his tongue. His hands rubbed hard against his thighs until he finally pushed off the couch. Standing in the middle of the living room, Nick continued to stare into the kitchen. “I just need to calm my nerves.” He closed his eyes. “Famous last words of every alcoholic before going on a bender.” Nick took a few steps closer and reached the breakfast counter. He moved into the kitchen and stood in front of the fridge, his fingers wrapping around the handle. When he pulled it open, his phone rang in his pocket. Nick let go of the door and answered the call. “Holy shit, Bryce. I’ve been waiting to hear from you.”
“Sorry about that,” Bryce replied. “Hey, are you sitting down? Cause if you’re not, you should be.”
27
Inside the PivoTech retail store, Danny perched on the stool at the customer help station. Through the front window, a streetlamp burned in the empty parking lot. The large sign at the entrance illuminated. He set his gaze to the window and thought about Mel and how she was doing with Grandma Grace.
There had been a reason why Danny hadn’t been back to see the old lady since his mom died. As a kid, their mother would take them to the cottage. He had some fond memories, but most were of the many arguments his mom got into with her parents, until Grandpa finally died. How they had insisted his father wouldn’t have left if she’d only let Mel be taken into a home sooner. That his mom had no idea how to take care of Mel. And how without a man to care for them, she would always struggle. Danny scoffed. He was young at the time, but remembered Mel crying a lot.
The thought of leaving his sister there sickened him. But out of the two evils, Grandma was the lesser. And who knew? Maybe there was still a shot for Danny to see this through to the other side. He could do what he set out to do, go and get Mel and drive the hell out of the state before anyone knew what he’d done. Maybe.
Danny returned his attention to the computer in front of him. He knew how to penetrate the firewalls that protected the company’s servers and easily slipped into the files he needed. Not only his customer files, which were accessed with his own credentials, but the files of everyone who had purchased or otherwise utilized PivoTech’s services at any time in the last 12 months. Anything before that was archived at corporate. Names, addresses, credit card information. It was all there and ripe for the picking.
Danny had cut a deal in a place filled with threatening people and dangerous ideas. Few knew how to access this place, but for him, it had been child’s play. While he had to learn his way around the system, there were plenty of people who helped him cultivate the knowledge necessary to reach his goals. Now, he looked to them again, but nothing in this life was free. Danny knew that better than most. Still, these people would protect him because he knew who they were too, and he had become just as dangerous.
His codename was Kingmaker and information was his currency. The trade-off had benefited both parties. They got financial data on his clients. He learned how to hurt those clients.
Kingmaker took screen shots of the data and through a series of backdoor commands, logged into the group where he’d struck the deal. He sent the message to Dante358. “No doubt you’ve seen what I can do. I’m not finished yet. Need to make them suffer. Six? Timers, Different locations. Need spotter. NAME YOUR PRICE.”
Dante358 knew more about the city than anyone. And he knew explosives. Danny didn’t know what he did for a living outside the web, but he suspected Dante358 was an insider at the city government level. Danny could do the dirty work, but he needed a strategy. He needed someone who knew where the police were, where to make the most of his efforts. And he was willing to hand over the financial lives of the people on the screen.
Duncan stood from the table and rubbed her eyes. “I need some water. Anyone want anything?” A few mutters of “no thanks” sounded as she walked out. Duncan continued out into the hall and toward the kitchen. As she reached the breakroom, her phone buzzed with an incoming call. “Duncan, here.”
“Are you in front of a computer?” Agent Villanova asked.
“No.” She turned and started to jog back toward the room. “What did you find?”
“I’m sending it to you now. I got a hit on red-flagged language in a chat room. Don’t know for sure, but it could be your guy or someone talking about him.”
Duncan hurried back inside. “Where at? What sit
e?” She returned to the chair and pulled the laptop in front of her while Fisher looked on with curiosity.
“I’m sending you the details now. Like I said, I can’t be sure but…”
“Thank you. I’ll take a look.” Duncan ended the call.
“What was that about?” Fisher asked.
“Villanova thinks he picked up someone either talking about King or King himself. He’s sending me the logs now and the site of the chat room.”
Kate perked up at attention. “If he’s online, is it possible to find out where he is? He must have an IP address.”
“I don’t know. Let me see what he’s sending first.” Duncan waited until the email appeared. She opened the log and cast the image onto the wall monitor. “This is it.”
“It looks like a bunch of code,” Surrey replied. “I don’t know that much about this stuff.”
“Luckily, I do.” Duncan stood again and walked to the monitor. “This here, these are the flagged words. That’s how our guys know when there’s chatter. They key in parameters that cue up certain language.” She continued to peer at the screen. “I see the website. But I don’t know how to access the dark web.”
“Can your guy help?” Fisher asked. “This could be happening in real-time. We might have a shot at finding him.”
She picked up her phone and returned to her chair. “Hey, it’s me again. I think you could be right. Can you walk me through how to access this site?” She nodded. “Great. No, I’m ready when you are.”
The rest of the team huddled around Duncan. Kate stood nearby and nudged Surrey. “Until we get confirmation of the property records, this might be it.”
“Fingers crossed it’s that easy,” Surrey replied.
Walsh heard his phone in his pocket and glanced at the caller ID. “Damn. Bad timing, man.” He rejected the call.
Kate peered at him. “You okay?”
“Yeah. It’s nothing.”
Duncan keyed in the commands. “Okay. I’m there. What’s next?” She nodded and kept typing. “Yeah, I see that on the screen. Oh, this is it. I’m in. What do I do now? Yeah, okay. Thanks.” She ended the call. “He’s going to monitor things on his end, but he says if that’s our guy, he can locate his IP address if he isn’t using an onion router. I won’t bore you with the complexities of all that. Point being, if he’s using a proxy server, all bets are off.”
“So even if we determine Danny King is active on this site, we most likely won’t get a location on him,” Surrey replied.
“But we might learn what he has planned,” Kate added.
“Agreed.” Duncan peered at the screen. “I’ll put this on the wall so you guys can have a better look.”
Kate walked toward the front of the room. “And this is in real-time?”
“This is happening now.” Duncan scanned the content. “I’m trying to see which one of these guys is Danny King.”
“That has to be him.” Kate pointed to the monitor. “Kingmaker. Original. Look at his comments.”
Fisher approached the front of the room and stood next to Kate. “Yep, gotta be our guy. This is Danny, the Kingmaker.”
Nick stood on his balcony and leaned over the railing. He gazed out over the bay and the waters glistening under the light of the moon. The soft breeze gently rocked his moored boat that he couldn’t remember having taken out in a while.
Walsh wasn’t answering his phone and the last thing he wanted was to tell Kate what he had learned. What they had was real. According to Bryce out of the Boston field office, Richard Lehmann’s belongings had been accessed by his ASAC. No doubt, to relay information to Quinn and Coletta and all the people working to protect top brass at the Bureau.
The phone was signed out almost immediately upon the arrival of Lehmann’s body. He also learned that the Boston ASAC spoke to George Lehmann. It made sense now. Whoever had sent the message knew about the phrase Kate used, See you again. She’d told George Lehmann about it while in his captivity.
“Damn it.” Nick pushed off the railing and returned inside. He had to try him one more time. “Come on, Walsh. I need you to answer, buddy.” When he picked up, Nick prepared to speak, but was cut off.
“Scarborough, I’m sorry about earlier. Things are moving fast around here. I just got a call from Tillis. He found what you were looking for. I’m sending it to you now. Look at it. I’ll wait.”
Nick waited for the message to arrive. “Okay. I got it.” He played the video and spotted the man standing in front of a car. “Son of a bitch.” He returned the phone to his ear. “Then it’s true.”
“What are you talking about?” Walsh asked.
“What Bryce said. He got back to me, which was why I called you earlier. Walsh, that’s the ASAC of the Boston field office. According to Bryce, he was the one who signed out Richard Lehmann’s phone, among other things. Bryce found an original copy of the evidence log. Someone had erased the ASAC’s name. Guess that’s how they handle things in their circle. Just pretend it never existed. George Lehmann helped him to gain entry into the phone and when he did, he found audio recordings of conversations between the brothers. It’s proof, Walsh. Proof that Richard Lehmann had nothing to do with the murders. It was all planned by George Lehmann after Kate broke free from him.”
“Revenge?” Walsh looked back at Kate before walking out into the hall.
“That’s what it looked like. It was a set up and I think Richard Lehmann believed he’d be released, which of course, didn’t happen.”
“I can’t believe this.” Walsh paced the hall. “So then Quinn used the Boston ASAC to get information against Kate because they knew we were close to learning about Carol Whitman’s father.”
“I don’t know how the connection was made to the Boston ASAC. I’m assuming it’s because Quinn knew him from his time there. Still, it makes me wonder if Quinn had been aware of the investigation.”
“Like he’d been monitoring Kate?” Walsh asked.
“Has to be. He was just waiting for an opportunity and when one presented itself, he went after it.”
“So this ASAC who was at the train station, is he still here? Are we being followed?” Walsh pressed on.
“That’s the other thing. I could be off base, but after learning all this, I don’t think I am,” Nick began. “It’s possible that the investigation has been sabotaged by Quinn’s people. The bomb at the train station, that wasn’t the bomber’s M.O., was it?”
“Not his M.O., but the IEDs were the same,” Walsh said. “Scarborough, are you trying to tell me that this insider group, who’s looking to keep us quiet, might’ve planted the devices?”
“No one was killed, were they?” Scarborough asked.
“A few minor injuries.” Walsh lowered his gaze. “Son of a bitch. That means someone on the inside here knew what we were looking at. I’ve talked to these guys. No way they have a mole.”
“Someone said something, Walsh. And now you have to find the bomber. But you also have to look out for whatever this group decides to do next.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that?” Walsh asked.
“I don’t know. But if you don’t, there’s no telling what steps they’ll take.” He paused for a moment. “Levi, you can’t let Kate out of your sight. She’s not safe.”
As night settled over the city, Danny was ready. He switched off the computer and started toward the back again, turning off the lights along the way. No one would know he had been there because on his way out, he stopped into the security room and erased the footage for the past few hours. It had taken time to pull it all together, but he was ready. As he walked to the door, he reset the alarm and left the building.
His car was cast in darkness with the nearest light about 100 feet away. The advice had been given and the price had been paid. A lot of people were about to have their identities stolen and Danny couldn’t have cared less. Imagine a computer retailer being hacked. He laughed at the irony.
Danny opened the trunk
of his car and pulled back the blanket. Everything was there.
He surveyed the dark and empty lot before slipping behind the wheel of his car. The entire plan would take roughly two hours. It would be decided then whether he would go back to see Mel. Everything hinged on his plan going off without a hitch. Maybe, though, he would call her just to hear her voice again.
“Hey, sis. It’s me. How you doing?”
“I’m getting bored. Grandma made me eat something gross.”
“Can’t be any worse than that food they served you at the home.”
“I guess not. When are you coming back? Are we staying here?” Mel asked.
“How’s Grandma been treating you? Has she asked you anything about me?”
“Like what?”
“Oh, nothing. Listen, I just wanted you to know how much I love you, Mel. I don’t say it often and I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry Mom’s gone. And I’m sorry for not taking care of you the way I should have.”
“What’s wrong, Danny? You sound sad.”
“No. I’m okay. I’ll be back soon, don’t worry about that. Just watch a movie and I’ll be there before you know it. Then we can figure out what to do after that.”
“Okay.”
“I have to go.” Danny ended the call and closed his eyes. On opening them again, he cleared his throat and wiped his eyes. “It’s time.”
Walsh returned to the ops room where the team waited to learn if an IP address could be located. The online conversation had been saved and they knew King’s plot to plant six bombs and where those bombs would be placed. Now, all they had to do was capture Danny at one of those locations.
“Tillis is on his way back and Stallard is heading this way too.” Fisher returned his phone to his pocket. “That means, we’ll be splitting up and heading out. We’ll keep eyes out for King at each of the locations. The cops will stay out of sight as much as possible and Tillis’s team will take the lead.
