“You’d better be my wife.”
Tanya chuckled. “If I am not, we are both in big trouble.”
She kissed him once more. As soon as the kiss was finished, she smiled.
“The Renault group stopped in Grand Forks. They exited at mile marker 138 and drove east on 32nd Avenue South to a residential neighborhood. I told Vince where they went. He made a call to the local FBI office.”
Tanya paused. “I gave Vince the information as if you had asked me to pass it on to him. I hope I didn’t overstep my authority. You were sleeping soundly, and I didn’t want to wake you.”
She paused once more. A look of concern slowly expanded across her face. Ryce sat up and pulled her close. After a kiss, he took her hand in his.
“My darling, you made the right choice. You know me better than anyone else, so you should be able to make it look like you got it straight from me.”
He laughed. “While John was hiding out here, after his first wife was murdered, Doug and Karen sent emails to people who never knew it wasn’t him writing them. Actually, Marge fell in love with John via emails sent by Karen. So, keep backing me up.”
Tanya wrapped her arms around Ryce and held on. After several minutes, Tanya looked at Ryce.
“How did you know about Doug and Karen sending emails for John?”
Ryce stood, walked to his desk, sat down, and then looked over at Tanya, who was still sitting on the sofa.
“One of the days that Doug was here, we were waiting for the elevator. I asked him about a picture on the wall with John and a woman who looks a lot like Marge. They could be sisters. I even said it looked like John and Marge when they were younger. Doug told me it was John’s first wife, Jill.
“That was when Doug told me John turned control of his company over to him and Karen for three and a half years, but it had to appear John was still running things. If someone called, Karen was to take a message, and respond with an email.
“I did a little research on the Internet about Jill. She was a very interesting woman. And if you put her picture and Marge’s side by side, you can barely tell them apart.”
Ryce glanced at the time displayed on his cell phone. What time did the Renaults arrive in Grand Forks? More importantly, what were they doing in Grand Forks? He began typing on his laptop.
“Do you have the address where the Renaults stopped?”
Tanya stood and walked out of the office. A few minutes later, she returned with a legal pad in her hand.
When Ryce finished tapping on the keyboard, he looked at Tanya. “Do we have anyone listening to the audio?”
Tanya shook her head “yes.” “Two of the agents that are sticking around for two weeks are downloading the MP-3 files and taking notes. I told them to ignore the normal garbage of a road trip.”
Ryce chuckled. “I hope the audio people can give us some idea why they are in Grand Forks. They could be swapping vehicles. They only kept the Lexus for three days. I hope we get something from the audio bug before we lose it. I wonder how many FBI agents they have in Grand Forks. It isn’t a very large place. But, not much is large in North Dakota, except the state.”
Ryce began to laugh. “And they do have a place called Devils Lake. It is a wide spot in the road west of Grand Forks, right next to about twenty lakes. It even has its own Amtrak station. Scott Wall, my roommate, grew up in Devils Lake. The last year I was a Ranger, Scott convinced me to spend two weeks with him at a cabin he owned on a lake he owned. Yes, he owned the cabin and the lake.
“When he mentioned he owned a cabin on the lake, I figured it was maybe one big room, with an outhouse. It was one big room, all right. One big living room, one big dining room, and eight big bedrooms. The place was six thousand square feet, with a three hundred foot long dock going halfway out into the lake. OK, maybe not halfway.”
Ryce sat for a few moments and shook his head. “His family owned the whole lake. And three or four lakes close by. I am not sure, but I think he might have been related to the folks of Wall Drug fame, although Wall Drug is in South Dakota.”
Ryce smiled. “We don’t have many people to wager on where the Renault group is going to eat and sleep tonight. If you just want to use a nap in the afternoon as a wager, perhaps we’ll both win.”
He kissed her. “And, there’s no Waffle House. I hope the cafeteria has something good for lunch today.”
At 2:00 PM Grand Forks time, Ryce’s cell phone began vibrating on his desk. He picked it up, saw that Vince was calling, and pressed the answer button.
“This is Ryce.”
He heard Vince laughing.
“I sure hope so, since I called someone named Ryce.
“The local FBI office put eyes on the Mercedes. I checked the address. The local white pages say it is the home of Glenn and Ruth Redding. I saw on the status board that you had a hit on a Diane Redding. Is that an interesting coincidence? Perhaps not.
“There were two other vehicles in the driveway. I had the local agents stick a tracker under the rear fenders of the other vehicles during the interview. We will have eyes on all of the vehicles. A little bird told me the Renault gang only kept the Lexus for three days. This is the third day with the Mercedes.”
Ryce started to laugh so hard he made his office chair squeak.
“Vince, we had the same idea. The big question now is why Diane is in Grand Forks. The group drove two hundred miles out of their way for something.”
Vince chuckled. “There are six FBI agents watching the house where the Mercedes stopped, a pair for each vehicle. We will know what they do almost before they do it. Before you leave for Seattle, remind me to give you my list of places to visit. I wish I was tagging along with you.”
Ryce looked over at Tanya and told her what Vince had said. Tanya smiled, walked over to Ryce, and sat in his lap.
“So we have some time to waste while we wait for news of the Mercedes. I have a waist you can waste time on.”
She pulled her blouse out of her jeans and placed Ryce’s hand on her tummy.
“Nothing is kicking there yet, but there will be.”
Ryce contemplated other areas he could explore, but was interrupted by his cell phone. It was Matt.
“Hey, Mr Boss Man, our observation team just departed the Great Falls office in the Suburban. Do you have any idea how long they will be near the cabin? I told them to stop on the way and pick up enough food for five days. They are taking the Suburban, the camp trailer, the generator, and the apartment-sized refrigerator. That was a great idea you had suggesting we invest in a decent generator. I will keep you informed.”
Ryce grinned. While he was luxuriating in the jungles of the Philippines, he determined he could exist anywhere with two items: a generator, and a refrigerator. No one was able to discover how he acquired a flatbed trailer, a full-sized refrigerator, and a 4500-watt generator. The refrigerator and generator were permanently installed on the trailer with a large fuel tank. The initial coat of olive-drab paint was soon replaced with camo. The flatbed followed Ryce to Afghanistan, although it had taken more than three months to catch up to him.
Ryce’s base commander in Afghanistan was thrilled when the flatbed was off-loaded from the delivery vehicle. Thrilled until he was informed that the recipient was Captain Dalton. Ryce was quick to allow the base commander the opportunity to install ice trays in the freezer compartment. The base was paying for the fuel.
Ryce was checking car rental offices in Grand Forks when the office door opened and Tanya walked through, followed by Vince. Vince found the nearest office chair and pulled some 3x5-file cards from his pocket. Ryce looked over at Tanya.
“It looks as if those file cards have gotten contagious.”
Vince looked up. “O2 got me hooked on these things. Everything is easy to find. I don’t have to turn on my smart phone and go looking for the right file. My personal smart phone isn’t very smart.”
Vince found what he was searching for on the fifth card.
&
nbsp; “We have been chasing a miss-spelled name. It should be D-i-a-n-n-e, and not D-i-a-n-e. Dianne did not change vehicles at the residence. They are still driving the Mercedes. They left the man in the wheel chair at the house they visited. One of the FBI agents recognized him. He is Frank Redding, the father of Glenn Redding, the owner of the house. The agent recognized Frank because he was on the town council.”
Vince pulled another card from the group.
“Here’s the best part. Frank is a retired Army General. He was at the Pentagon to receive some award a week before the laptops were stolen.”
Ryce looked over at Tanya and then at Vince.
“Frank Redding was a Ranger. I remember the name from one of the parade fields. What the heck is he doing tied up with some laptop thefts?”
Vince chuckled and sorted through his cards. “Glenn Redding is going to lose his house soon. Frank has several investment properties that he took out second mortgages on to try to save Glenn. It didn’t work. Glenn has a business in Grand Forks that is also going into the crapper. Between the two of them, they are close to ten million dollars in debt.”
Ryce shook his head. “A big haul at the Pentagon would go a long way in getting some debts covered.”
Vince pulled another card from the pile. “The lady in the Mercedes is the niece of General Frank. My new FBI buddy in Grand Forks, Jack Taylor, knows all about the Reddings. He almost married Dianne. There were six children at Glenn’s home when the FBI stopped by. Jack thinks that three of them were Dianne’s.”
After shuffling the cards several times, Vince looked at Ryce again. “That seems to be all I have for now. Are you following the audio in the Mercedes?”
Ryce shook his head yes. “We have gotten a few things from it. Everyone is getting really tired of eating in fast food restaurants. A couple of the passengers, we don’t yet have any names, are rather upset with each other.”
Vince stood and walked out the door. Ryce stared at his laptop screen. They had a lot more information about half of the Pentagon thieves. Who were the other two men in the Mercedes? And where were they going next?
Ryce clicked on the Google Maps tab. The laptop screen was just too small. He walked to Suite 423 and disconnected one of the 42 inch monitors.
Tanya rolled an office chair next to Ryce as he connected the monitor to his laptop. She could see the display from across the room, but next to her husband was a nicer location.
Dianne and her two traveling companions could go north or south on I-29. They could also go west on US Highway 2, which would eventually take them to Minot. The only thing Ryce could do was wait until the tracker revealed the direction. He checked the system time. It was almost 4:00 PM. This late in the day, Ryce’s best guess was that Dianne would find a motel in either Grand Forks or Fargo, which was only an hour away. Ryce made a mental wager on Fargo.
Ryce checked his email. He was still waiting for John to provide the access codes to the Air Force service records. He grabbed Tanya and kissed her when he saw an email from John.
The email contained the access codes for both the Air Force and the Marine Corps. Ryce accessed the Air Force database and started the photo comparison program. He hoped it would not take long.
As he waited for a hit, he wondered aloud if anything had been transcribed from the audio bug. He pulled Tanya from her office chair and they walked into the conference room. Three of his agents were wearing headphones and typing furiously. One looked up and pulled off her headphones.
“I always wanted to be a court stenographer. We are close to sending you the transcripts from the drive to Grand Forks. There have been some intriguing conversations. I don’t think the lady was thrilled about driving to Grand Forks.
“We got three names for the men. One is Frank, one is Dennis, and the third man is Sam. Frank lives in Grand Forks, and Frank has a gambling problem. He likes the dice table. That is why they had to bring him back to Grand Forks. The Army flew him first-class to the Pentagon for the award presentation. However, he cashed in the return ticket the government bought for him, and lost all his money in a casino. He went to the casino to try to win enough to pay off his house. It is in foreclosure.
“Somehow, the lady found out Frank was stuck somewhere near the Pentagon and picked him up after they hijacked the laptops. Frank is seriously pissed that they would take government property. The woman told him the only way he could save his business, her cousin’s home, and her investments, was to finish what they had started. He told her he wasn’t going to Montana, and she could just mail him the money. He shut up when she reminded him that his piece of the action was three million dollars.”
Ryce heard the printer in Suite 424 start up. One of the agents listening to the audio pointed in the direction of the printer noise. Tanya strode from the conference room. She returned a few minutes later with several pages in her hand.
She walked up to Ryce and handed him a page. “I was reading the transcript as it was being printed. The audio for the last page was received about five minutes ago. We know where they are going.”
Ryce read the transcript. One of the men, either Dennis or Sam, had declared he wanted to stay in a better hotel. The last one they picked in Fargo had not been very good. And, he was not going back to the Aliens place. The food was out of this world, but it wasn’t a very tasty world.
Tanya giggled. “I know why he didn’t like the Space Aliens Grill and Bar. I checked the ratings on the Internet in the event I wanted to eat there some day. The service sucked, and the food was the pits. One customer even dissed the lighting. I don’t want to go near the place.”
Ryce and Tanya returned to Ryce’s office to wait for the Renaults to find a better place to spend the night. The wager board had been moved to the conference room but had been cleaned. They no longer needed to guess where the laptop thieves were stopping for the night. Besides, it was dinnertime, and Ryce had seen prime rib on the chow hall menu.
Before he walked out of his office with Tanya, Ryce checked the search program he had started on the Air Force service records. The program was still crunching the records. Ryce grimaced. The last time the program took forever, it did not find anything.
Chapter 26
The family section in the chow hall had been reduced to two tables. As he placed his tray on one of the tables, Ryce frowned. He was going to miss this place, although Ramona had assured him that the Annex had a decent cafeteria. But, more than the chow hall, Ryce was going to miss the people he had grown to love.
He looked around the table. He would certainly miss Marge. Shortly after John and Jill were married, Jill had been told she would never have children. She told John she had a friend she thought would be good for a surrogate mother. Only one stipulation: John had better not enjoy having sex with the friend more than with Jill. John had wisely rejected the offer.
He would definitely miss O2. Although he and Ryce were on opposite sides of Afghanistan, O2 had called during a lull in the fighting, to suggest an inter-service wager. For a mere one hundred dollars, Ryce could bet on when the Taliban would hit next. As soon as Ryce agreed to the wager, O2 asked when he could send the money. The Taliban had started shelling his base five minutes before he called.
Ryce frowned again. He was going to miss everyone. Tanya leaned over to ask what was wrong when she saw Ryce’s expression. Ryce replied he would tell her what when they got back to their apartment.
As soon as they walked into the apartment, Tanya wrapped her arms around Ryce.
“OK, what’s going on?”
Ryce looked around the apartment. “I guess I am sad because I am going to miss this place and the people here.”
Tanya gave him a long kiss and then said, “Well, you are the Director of the Joint Border Task Force. You can always move your headquarters here. That would save you getting your butt kicked by Pen. She has all her girls come back to Idaho when they have their babies. She said the last one had to fly from Morocco.”
Ryce
pulled Tanya into his arms, but was rudely interrupted by his cell phone. He checked the ID and pressed the speaker button.
“What do you have, Vince?”
Vince chuckled.
“Wasn’t life much calmer when we didn’t have caller ID? We could get yelled at by a perfect stranger. I got some new stuff for you.
“The Grand Forks FBI followed the Mercedes to the outskirts of Fargo, where the tail was switched to the Fargo FBI office. The Mercedes drove to the rental car line at Hector International Airport. Dianne was let out at the Enterprise rental lot, and one of her companions drove the Mercedes to Hertz.
“As soon as the agents saw that Dianne was renting a car from Enterprise, they contacted the manager. They got the rental sequence slowed down enough to put another tracker and two audio devices into a maroon Dodge Grand Caravan. The Enterprise agent mentioned that the female subject had become very upset when she was that told no dark blue or black Caravans were available.
“The female subject drove to the Mercedes, and the occupants unloaded the vehicle. They then drove to Candlewood Suites and checked in. Two of the FBI agents are parked on them as we speak. I have spent some time in Fargo. There are some nice places to eat near the airport.”
Tanya began to giggle.
“Did I say something funny?” Vince asked.
Tanya giggled some more. “We got the transcripts of the ride from Fargo to Grand Forks. One of the passengers was extremely upset with where they ate last night. He didn’t like the Space Aliens Grill and Bar.”
Laughter was heard over the cell phone. “Well, shucky darn, I guess I am not the only one who didn’t like that place.”
Vince paused for a moment and then continued. “I also got a report from the forensic guys at the FBI. They put names on the other two sets of prints in the car. We knew about Dianne and Frank from my friend, Jack, in the Grand Forks FBI office. The other prints belong to Dennis Blaine and Samuel Karrigan. Dennis and Samuel are two of Frank’s Army buddies. All three joined at the same time, and all three retired at the same time. I have requested the service records of all three men, but Doug said you should be able to pull them up with John’s program.”
The Alberta Connection Page 14
