by Mike Ryan
“Where do we go from here?”
Bridge took a few seconds to think about it. “We need to dig deep. Deep into Gary Abbott’s background. If he really wasn’t an agent and they were just using him to facilitate information quietly, there should be some trails we can follow. He wouldn’t be good enough to cover everything up.”
“Unless they wiped everything away.”
“Let’s get Eric in on this. Maybe he can tell us something.”
“What about Chris?” Nicole asked. “Should we tell him his brother was involved with the CIA or wait?”
“I think the sooner we tell him what’s going on the better it’ll be. For him.”
Nicole agreed. “Yeah. If he knows what he’s up against, maybe he’ll be a little more cautious about what he does. Like breaking into houses.”
“That’s the hope. If not… if not, he’ll end up where his brother is.”
6
With Bridge and Nicole back at the hotel, he immediately called Chris Abbott to let him know his brother was into some other things, things he couldn’t explain, and things Abbott wouldn’t understand. While Bridge was on the phone with him, Nicole called their trusty FBI friend Eric Happ, putting him on the video line.
“Oh no, it’s been a few weeks,” Happ said. “What do you want?”
“Can’t a girl just call to say hi to her friend?”
“I think you used that line on me for the model kidnapping case.”
“I did?”
“Pretty sure.”
“Oh. I’m gonna have to start working on new material.”
Happ laughed. “Probably would be a good idea. ‘Cause every time you come at me with the same line, I automatically know what you want.”
“I’ll work on it.”
“At least keep me guessing for a few minutes.”
“Noted.”
“So what do you want? Luke making you do his dirty work? Figured I’d have a harder time saying no to you?”
Nicole looked toward the hallway, but Bridge was in the bedroom and out of sight. “Uh, no, he’s just… busy with someone else.”
“Oh, you have competition now?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. He knows I would kill anyone else who even looked at him.”
Happ laughed again. “So what’s up?”
“We caught… something. It’s a big one.”
“Uh oh.”
“Yeah. I think we might be dealing with some… agencies on this one.”
“As in ours?”
“Or those similar to yours.”
“You talking about your former friends and colleagues?”
Nicole nodded. “Yeah.”
“So what are you coming to me for? You guys are still tight with them, aren’t you?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say tight. It’s not adversarial. Even so, what can I do?”
“We would like to know if you have anything on a guy named Gary Abbott,” Nicole said.
“Agent?”
“Well, he’s dead now. Been that way for a year.”
“I don’t understand.”
Nicole then went over the entire case with him to catch him up. After getting the full rundown, Happ sighed and shook his head.
“I don’t know if I wanna be messing around with this thing.”
“C’mon, Eric, he’s not an agent. At least as far as we know. He’s a dead U.S. citizen who has a brother that wants answers. I mean, he’s been gone for a year and the police have nothing.”
“You think they got pressured not to look into it?”
Nicole shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they really had no leads and had nowhere to go. But if that’s the case, that points to people even higher up who know how to avoid these kinds of things.”
“Nic, I know you and Luke mean well with these things, and I’m usually always right there to support you…”
“But?”
“But if this thing leads up to somewhere that it shouldn’t… you could be walking into you don’t even know what.”
“I know.”
“If, just for the sake of argument, this guy really was killed by the CIA, in this country, you know what kind of shit-storm you’re going to create?”
Nicole sighed. “I know. But if he wasn’t, then we’ll have let a killer go scot-free.”
“You guys are just compelled to look into this, aren’t you?”
Nicole nodded. “We are.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Me too.”
“And I hope you’re prepared for whatever happens as a result of it.”
“We are.”
“All right. Well, I guess give me some time to look into it, and I’ll get back to you.”
“Thanks, Eric. You’re the best.”
“I know. It’s nice hearing you say it though.”
After getting off the line with Happ, Nicole went back to work on the computer, trying to dig up as much information as she could on Abbott. Then, whenever Happ got back to her, she could compare what he had against what she had and see if there were any discrepancies or something new that she either overlooked or didn’t have access to, which was always possible when looking into someone who had done business with the government. About twenty minutes later, she looked over and saw Bridge coming out of the bedroom. He had his hands on his head, puffing air through his lips, and he looked stressed..
“Didn’t go so well?” Nicole asked.
Bridge came into the living room, plopped down in a chair, and rubbed the top of his head. “Uh, well, I guess it went OK.”
“Doesn’t look it.”
“Well, explaining that your brother was secretly doing business with the CIA has a tendency to… uh, well… it tends to be hard to understand and accept.”
“I can understand that.”
“And when everything you say tends to create even more questions with no answers, it can be overwhelming.”
“For him or for you?”
“Both.”
Nicole went back to working on the computer, but after a couple of minutes, stopped typing and turned back to her boyfriend. “What’s your gut say on this?”
Bridge thought for a few seconds, taking a few deep breaths before answering. “Honestly, my gut says that I don’t think the agency is involved in his killing. I just… if he’s a natural salesman who goes overseas a lot, if the agency wanted to do him in, they probably could have done it a lot easier, without so many questions, and without anyone really looking into it in a foreign country. It would have been easier to explain. You know, he got mugged, went to a wrong part of town, car accident, whatever. And nobody probably would’ve thought twice about it. But if you kill him here, people like PIs, or us, start looking into things, and you’ve got a mess on your hands.”
Nicole agreed. “It would be easier to kill him over there.”
“Yeah, so, it doesn’t make sense to do it here if that’s what their intentions were.”
“Maybe they were caught off guard by his murder as much as everyone else was, and whatever they were working on, they had to distance themselves from it for whatever reason.”
“That would make sense. At least as much as anything else at this point.”
“And that’s not even taking Bevell into account yet,” Nicole said. “Where’s he?”
“I can tell you where he probably is, but you wouldn’t like it.”
“At the bottom of a hole?”
“Question is, whose hole? The agency’s or whoever killed Abbott?”
“Assuming it’s not one and the same.”
“Yeah.” Bridge let out a few more sighs, hating the case with each second that passed. Even still, he was involved now. He wasn’t giving up on it.
“I guess it could be worse.”
“No, it couldn’t.”
“Could be in Mexico.”
“To be honest, and I know this is gonna shock you, but I think I’d rather be there right now.”
/> Nicole pulled her head back like she was shocked. “No, you didn’t.”
“Oh, I did.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I did.”
“You know, I’m gonna remind you of that the next time we have to go back there.”
“Hopefully there won’t be a next time.”
“There’s always a next time.”
“No, there’s not.”
“Always is a next time. For everything.”
“I disagree.”
“Name something,” Nicole said.
“If you’re already dead, there’s no next time. Unless, of course, they dig up your body and start shooting you again. Though I guess technically you’re still dead from the first time, so you still can’t be killed again. Right?”
“Funny.”
“Well, I was just saying.”
“How ‘bout if you say something intelligent about this case?”
“Eh, can’t help you with that one. You talk to Eric?”
“Yeah, he’s gonna look into it and get back to us. What do you wanna do next?”
“Well, we already know that Abbott was working with the agency, right? So I don’t think it’d do much good to retrace his steps from the first time that happened up to now, would it?” Bridge said.
“I dunno. Maybe.”
“It’d probably be better to work backwards, wouldn’t it? Figure out what he’d been doing recently and go from there. Because whatever happened to him, I think it’s safe to say it’s because of whatever he was doing recently and not something he was working on three years ago. If that was the case, he would have been killed then.”
“Makes sense. Should we try to simultaneously work on finding the PI too?”
Bridge got up and went over to the table, picking up Bevell’s planner. There were a few leads in there he wanted to check out. There were a couple of names, dates, and times in the couple of days leading up to his disappearance that Bridge wanted to look into.
“I’ll look into this stuff,” Bridge said, holding up the planner. “You keep on Abbott.”
“You gonna check that stuff out alone?”
Bridge shrugged. “What could possibly happen?”
“You really need an answer to that?”
“Uh, no.”
They spent two more hours working, with Nicole trying to piece together every little detail of Abbott’s life in the months leading up to his death. Bridge tried to figure out who the names were in Bevell’s planner. There were two names on it, but he didn’t think they went together. They could have been first or last names, though one sounded more like a nickname. One was Kenny. The other was Stash. Bridge’s concentration was broken when his phone started ringing again. He wasn’t sure if he should have been happy or not to see Happ’s name on his screen.
“Hey, Happy, what’s up?”
“Nicole told me about the case you guys are on.”
“Yeah?”
“She mentioned something about a PI that went missing.”
“Yeah?”
“A guy named Bevell? Is that right?”
“Right so far.”
“Darren Bevell?”
“That’s him.”
“Well, he’s not missing anymore.”
“Oh. He turned up?”
“Um, well, sort of. He’s dead.”
“What are the details?”
“Uh, really aren’t any that I can tell so far. Just got word that he was found by the police roughly an hour or two ago.”
“Can’t say that I’m surprised,” Bridge said. “I was figuring this call would come sooner or later.”
“Nicole gave me the details on everything earlier and uh… it’s a little strange.”
“In what way?”
“The police believe that Bevell’s body was moved from wherever he was originally killed to the place where he was dumped.”
“They pretty sure of that?”
“Seem to be,” Happ replied. “There was no blood at the scene. And there’s something else.”
“What’s that?”
“His body was discovered in the same alley that Gary Abbott’s was.”
“Seriously?”
“How’s that for coincidences?”
“Heavy.”
“There’s one more thing,” Happ said.
“What?”
“I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence or not, but…”
“When someone starts a sentence with those words, it’s usually not.”
“Yeah, well, he was killed with two bullets to the chest.”
“And?”
“So was Gary Abbott.”
Bridge let out a loud sigh. “OK.”
“I can already hear the frustration mounting, Luke.”
“Not because of what it is. More like because of what it might be.”
“It’s got agency ties written all over it.”
“Yeah.”
“You think they know what’s going on?” Happ asked.
“That’s my hunch. I’m not sure they’re behind it, but I think they know. Or at least have an idea. Maybe they know who’s behind it and are looking for them too. I don’t know. But I know there’s something going on here. There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark.”
“I hear you.”
“Where does that saying come from anyway?” Bridge asked. “Do you know? Is Denmark a smelly place or something?”
“Uh, no. As far as I know, Denmark’s a beautiful place.”
“Where’s that line come from then?”
“I believe it was a line in a Shakespeare play. Hamlet, I think.”
“Oh. I guess you can tell I’m not a Shakespeare guy then, huh?”
“Yeah, it kind of shows.”
“Hmm. Interesting.”
“Not as interesting as what you got going on right now.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
“You got any other leads?” Happ asked.
“Looking into someone named Kenny and someone named Stash. They were in Bevell’s planner the day before he went missing. I don’t know if they have anything to do with this or not. But I guess it needs checking.”
“Kenny and Stash?”
“Yeah, you know them?”
“Not offhand, but I can do some checking on my end too.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that.”
“No problem. Luke?”
“Yeah?”
“I told Nic earlier, so I guess I’ll tell you now.”
“What’s that?”
“You need to be careful on this.”
“I know.”
“Even if it’s not the agency behind this, then it’s a sure thing they know who is. And if whoever it is is taking people out for whatever reason, it’s also probably a sure thing that you’re now on their radar. And if you’re not yet, the more you dig into it, you will be soon.”
“I know.”
“You be careful.”
Bridge tried to sound more upbeat. “You know me, I’m the agent of caution.”
Happ faked a cough. “Uh, yeah, right. More like the agent of incaution.”
“Is that even a word?”
“Of course it is. You think I’d use a word if it wasn’t one?”
“I dunno. Maybe.”
“It’s a word.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“Can we just stop with the merry-go-round?”
Bridge tried to make light of it, but he appreciated his friend’s words of advice. “I’ll be careful.”
“Good. ‘Cause I’d hate to see your name cross my desk in an unflattering way.”
“You mean there’s been a flattering way?”
“All right, all right, I’m done. Talk to you later.”
The smile from Bridge’s face after teasing his friend was quickly wiped away after he put his phone away and thought of everything that he was just told. Nicole was kind of listening in, though she couldn
’t decipher everything that had gone on. Judging by the look on Bridge’s face, it wasn’t good.
“What’s happened?”
“They found Bevell’s body,” Bridge answered. “Same spot as Abbott’s.”
“Same exact spot?”
“Same spot.”
“Wow. That’s not a coincidence.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Guess we don’t need to bother looking for him anymore.”
“No.” Bridge then looked at the planner again. “But we can find out if these names mean anything.”
“And if they do?”
Bridge looked at the planner again, then his eyes went over to the locked cabinet that he kept his gun in. “Then I’d say business is about to pick up.”
7
Bridge felt his body shake. His eyes flickered, and he saw flashes of light slip through the cracks of the curtains. He turned over on his side, away from the outline of his girlfriend, who was standing next to the bed.
“C’mon, Luke, wake up.”
“Awe, not now, Nic, please. I’m tired.”
“I want you for something.”
“Please, not now. I promise I’ll give it to you later.”
“No, not that. Well, wait, promise?”
“I promise.” Bridge started drifting off to sleep again.
Nicole furiously shook his body to wake him again. “It’s important, Luke.”
“Nic, please. I promise I’ll give it to you later. Twice, if you want.”
“Oooh. That’s nice. Can we do one in the shower?”
“Sure.” Bridge’s voice was groggy. In order to go back to sleep, he would have given in to just about anything at that moment. “Whatever you want.”
“I love it when you’re like this.” Bridge’s eyes closed again, waking up a few seconds later upon feeling his girlfriend’s hands on his shoulder. “Can we get kinky with the second one?”
“Fine. Whatever you want. Just let me go back to sleep.”
“What about on the kitchen counter or something?”
“Uh… whatever. Just let me sleep.”
Nicole was happy with the bargaining session, though it really wasn’t what she came in there for. But it was a win all the same. She thought about continuing to try to get Bridge up, but she didn’t want to seem like she had tricked him into giving her their later love-making sessions. So she left the room for five minutes. It was just long enough for him to feel like he went back to sleep for a while. She came back in and lightly shook her boyfriend’s body. Bridge started to stir again.
