by Rick Murcer
Manny squeezed his phone harder, standing in the prison’s waiting room. “It’s a matter of national security, right? Did you tell your boss that?”
“Of course. But it’s not going to happen like you want. Come on, Manny . . . she’s a convicted serial killer. You get that.”
“Was, Josh. Damn it, was.”
“Lots of experts agree with you that she’s no longer a public threat, but some don’t. Besides, you know how it is when you ask the Bureau, the CIA, and Homeland Security to do something together that they’ve never done before. It takes time. Period. They want to take it slow with her. She’ll have to prove herself.”
He fought the urge to go off, knowing it wouldn’t make things any better. Manny exhaled. “What about this carte blanche access to whatever we need to solve cases?”
“Even carte blanche has a limit, Manny, contrary to popular opinion. We have to think of something else until or if she’s released,” said Josh.
“Final answer?”
“Yes. Nothing I can do.”
“Okay, but I think this is bullshit, in this day and age, when politicians get away with felonies every week.”
“Politics? Now? Come on, Williams.”
“Just showing the irony here. Let me think about this.”
Sophie nudged him as they stood inside the warden’s plush office, looking out the huge picture window. “If it’s a no-go to get her out right now, then ask him if we can set up a couple of computers for Anna with unlimited access to everything Dough Boy has.”
“Did you hear that, Josh?”
“Yeah, I did. I’m sure I can at least make that happen. Especially since she’s had some freedom in that respect anyway. We’ll also get her into one of the offices on the warden’s wing so she can set up. I’ll call him in a minute. He won’t be our number one fan regarding this. I’ll also have a couple agents drive in from the Denver office to stand watch over her. I don’t want the warden to use his guards for that kind of thing.”
“Okay. And as far as the warden, we can’t make everyone happy, can we? I want her to have unlimited cell phone clearance too,” said Manny.
“I don’t see a problem with that either.”
Sophie clapped her hands. “About time something went our way on this one.”
“True,” said Manny.
There was brief silence as he heard Josh take a breath.
“What?”
“Nothing. I just want to make sure you’re positive this is a good thing. Both of you. I’ll say it again. It’s not like Anna knocked over a grocery story with a water pistol.”
“We’re sure. I’ll take full responsibility for this. If that’s what you need.”
Josh laughed. “Your workaholic butt always takes responsibility, but we’ll bear this one together. All three of us. I’ll make some calls then let the warden know.
“On a side note, we still don’t have much to go on here. I’m waiting for Chloe and Alex to finish their work. I will say that they believe it’s the woman who shot Brooks. I, oh, wait, I’m getting a call from Barb. Get your asses to work. I need ten minutes to make this happen.”
Josh hung up.
Manny stuffed the phone in his pocket. He felt a little better. It wasn’t like having Anna right at his side, where he could read her body language, but this arrangement would have to suffice for now. And, like it or not, he did understand the reasons for not releasing her, but someday, it would happen. And he’d be there with open arms.
“I’m going to pee and get a candy bar, then we can go see your buddy, the warden.”
“I don’t think we’ll be pen pals after this one,” said Manny.
A few minutes later, Sophie reappeared, finishing a chocolate bar the size of a Buick. “Okay. I’m ready.”
“You should be.”
“Don’t give me shit. I have needs.”
“I see that. Let’s get this rolling.”
“I’m with you,” said Sophie.
They exited the mahogany door and were admitted into the administration wing. The warden, Robert Massey, a tall, distinguished man with graying temples and a cleft chin, awaited them.
“I got the call from your boss, and then mine. I’m going on record as hating this idea. She should be in her cell. What do you want?” he asked, an air of distrust in his question.
Manny stepped in front of him. “Listen. I get you don’t like this. I suppose I wouldn’t either, given your position, but we know what we’re doing.”
He shrugged. “You’re right; I don’t celebrate the fact that she’s killed men in horrible ways. Not to mention, I’ve seen a few of these psychos in my time and know just how deceptive they can be. I’m not nearly as trusting as you regarding this miracle metamorphosis she’s apparently undergone.” The warden raised his hands in apparent surrender. “But, as you say, you know what you’re doing. So again, tell me what we can do for you.”
Manny and Sophie explained in detail what they needed.
Massey sighed. “I have an empty office overlooking the south wall. It has a two-month-old desktop with all the latest bells and whistles, according to our IT gal, including a twenty-five-inch monitor. I can have one of our laptops added to the mix if you want. We’ve got new iPhones for emergencies. She can use one of them.”
“That will be fine. I suspect she’ll want to have two computers to work from. I’ll also need to have every restriction released from your IT security in terms of accessing databases and websites.”
Massey’s frown grew. Manny could see that his rope was near the axiomatic end.
“That makes me extremely uncomfortable, agents.”
“Why?” asked Sophie. “Porn issues?”
The warden didn’t smile. “That’s possible, but we have extremely sensitive information regarding the facility’s inmates, past and present. She’s still an inmate, and no matter what you think, I don’t deem her as trustworthy, or that trust you have for her as a priority, especially given what’s stored in our system.”
Manny felt his own patience slip. He sensed the clock ticking more than saw it. His next step put him face to face with Massey.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about your concerns regarding your damned search histories or even what dirty little secrets you may have hidden in your system. This woman can help us find a potential threat to the people of this nation. That’s our damned priority, got it?”
The warden never flinched, but it was obvious his anger was reaching a boiling point. Manny watched as he struggled to keep control, then did. “I understand. Just know if any shit hits the fan, political or otherwise, it’s all on you and your agency. I’ll be covering this facility’s ass by posting guards at the outside of her, even with your agents being on the inside, until I get the word to put her back. I’m not jeopardizing the security of this facility for some potential threat that you can’t even verify.”
He reached for the phone on the nearest desk and hit the intercom. “Lois, come in here and help these Feds. Give them whatever the hell they want, and get me two guards just starting their shifts to bring Ruiz up here.”
He then stormed toward his office. At the door, he spun around and pointed a finger at Manny. “You better make sure this works, Agent.” He slammed his door.
Sophie looked at Manny and offered a smirk. “Damn. You sure know how to win friends and influence important people, Williams.”
“Yeah, or just maybe that boy’s underwear is too tight. Either way, Anna’s on her way up here. We need to get her hooked up, and now. She has to get to work on the whys and whos and wheres—”
His mind locked up the next word he was going to speak. He swore.
He’d missed details and concepts a time or two over the years. But he was pressing hard to think of a time he’d assumed something so basic, so elementary in police work.
“What’s the matter, Williams? You look a little pale,” said Sophie, concern obvious in her question.
“In all of t
his data analysis hype, that would help identify potential candidates, we never went back to the most basic question. We just assumed.”
“What is that?” she asked, a scowl painted across her face.
“I have to make a call.”
“Okay, but what’s going on, Williams?”
He shook his head. “Sophie. We spent a lot of time on why and who, but never really spent time on where the terrorists might truly attack.”
CHAPTER-32
Sitting at the small desk, he glanced at the hotel room’s clock. It displayed 8:45. He returned his attention to his Cajun shrimp entrée from the Red Fish Grill. The head chef deserved every penny of his salary and maybe more. The spice was right, and the shrimp perfect.
On top of that, the restaurant’s famous double-chocolate bread pudding dessert, its incomparable aroma flooding the room, was patiently waiting for him to finish his shrimp. It wouldn’t be long.
It was an interesting thread of words that had entered his thoughts.
Rhodes looked over his shoulder at the ornately decorated king-sized bed. There would be no Lucretia, with all of her assorted appetites, wrecking his sleep pattern tonight. Never again, as a matter of fact. The brief, but real tinge of loneliness and remorse reminded him of what he’d done. Then the emotion was gone.
His sheer will and purpose made that kind of compartmentalization relatively easy. Lucretia’s elimination was simply the latest in a long line of sacrifices he’d endured to reach this point in his journey.
Pushing the plate aside, he opened the dessert container, the white and dark chocolate still warm, and then poured them skillfully over the bread pudding covered with melting ice cream. He devoured it all, right down to the last morsel.
Rarely had he gone this long without a good meal, especially in the Big Easy. He’d had a busy two days, however, so it was understandable.
He rose from his chair and sauntered over to the window, the Superdome clearly in his sights two blocks over. The city was still beautiful, even with the adaption of modern architecture and technology. What was the old saying? “You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” He supposed that was true for cities as well. New Orleans would never rival New York in size, but held its own special niche for travelers.
New York. Things should be gearing up there about now.
He smiled at that.
“More than normal,” he whispered.
Rhodes stripped off his clothes, turned down the sheet, and crawled into bed, his mind winding down as he did. He’d need a few hours of rest tonight. He wouldn’t get much over the next twenty or so hours.
Then again, he wouldn’t need much.
CHAPTER-33
The jet ride back to New Orleans had been relatively quiet, and now they taxied along the tarmac.
Manny glanced at Sophie. He’d managed a few minutes of sleep, but this woman was in full-bore REM mode. The stress of events in her life and the long day had finally caught up to her. The sleep would do her good.
But his brief nap wouldn’t cut it for long. After the next meeting with his team, they would all have to get some serious rest. Everyone was running on empty. They wouldn’t be able to function without a few hours in the sack. With the exception of one.
Anna wouldn’t sleep, as her prison history indicated. The woman was borderline “non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome,” according to the prison’s records. Maybe that, or, as he knew, the gifted needed less sleep. Or she’d be too excited to sleep.
Regardless of the reason, he suspected she’d be researching every conceivable Internet avenue involving the parameters that he and Alex had given her.
They were particularly interested in likely locations for a terrorist attack that would do the most damage in and around New Orleans, if that were truly the target area. He shook his head. Was there even an intended attack? Was this just circumstantial bullshit?
There is a target, though, isn’t there?
The murders in the warehouse weren’t anything but a setup by the killers. That was a fact in his mind.
He felt his heart grow sick. He’d never had so many questions without answers in any investigation.
The jet stopped in front of a mobile stairway. He felt Sophie’s hand on his arm. “Wow, I must have gone out for a while.”
“You did. Don’t worry, I won’t tell people about your walrus imitation when you snore.”
“Bite me, Williams. I’m a lady and don’t snore. Get me?”
He laughed. “You’re right. What was I thinking? I guess the video on my phone is a complete lie, right?”
She stood, then bent close to his face, fire in her eyes. “Listen, Agent. If there is a video—if you were actually able to figure out how to do one—it had better be gone from your damned phone before we get to the hotel’s conference room. Do you understand?”
“Why, yes. I think you’ve made yourself perfectly clear,” he said, raising his eyebrows in mock fear.
“Good, now get your tight ass off this heifer. I’ve got to pee before we get to the SUV.”
“Okay, but why don’t you use the jet’s restroom?”
“It too small for my taste. Let’s go.”
Twenty minutes later, they were on the way to the five-star hotel conference room Josh had booked on Canal Street. They drove in silence for another fifteen minutes, the long day catching up with them even more.
Still, Manny ran the details over in his head, again. Could there have been a stranger day and a half in this new world they’d chosen to work and live in? Six deaths brought them here to New Orleans with no real affirmation as to why, other than the identity of five of the victims and their histories. Throw in an attack on their lives, breaking the team up then putting it back together, and an assault on a detective whose husband had been one of the victims. Then a quick flight to Colorado to recruit a brilliant ex-serial killer to help sort out cyber information that had once sent her careening into the very darkest realms of human nature. And they weren’t done yet.
Yep, a good night’s sleep sounded really incredible.
As they exited the highway, Manny felt Sophie’s eyes on him.
“What?”
“Can she do this? I mean, really do this?”
“Anna? Yes, she can. She understands that world and its way of doing business. If you mean, once she’s free, will she revert back to the killing machine she once was? No. Unless she’s done the most complete snow job ever recorded, which isn’t truly a possibility in my mind, I’d say she’s good to go.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t so sure until this last trip. The girl has a heart and saw my pain,” she said softly.
“She did. Not exactly a trait of an active serial killer.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Sophie turned on Canal and then pulled in front of the eight-story hotel displaying some New Orleans fabled architecture, including iron-railed balconies decorated with beautiful flowers and plants. Even at ten thirty, the lights along the street and on other buildings helped to provide a clear view.
“Pretty place,” said Sophie.
“It is.”
She jumped out of the SUV, motioning for Manny to get it in gear. “Okay, the scenic tour is over. Now let’s get something else to eat and get this meeting going. Dough Boy’s email said they had something to discuss, and we have to find out what happened to those weirdos who attacked us.”
“Wait. You’re hungry again? You just ate on the jet.”
“Yeah, but now I need dessert and maybe another sandwich. Being back in the saddle has made me hungry.”
He shrugged. His partner had lost weight after Dean’s death, so it was good to see her take another step away from that hell.
“Sounds like a plan. Josh probably has that handled. Let’s get inside.”
Walking past the valet’s desk, she flipped the keys to the attendant. “That’s a government vehicle; behave your ass when driving it.”
The young lady frowned, then smiled. “Yes ma’am. I surely will.”
Manny and Sophie entered the hotel, banked left down the wide hallway. Josh was standing outside the door with Chloe on one side, Belle on the other. Their conversation was animated, to say the least.
“. . . I don’t give a shit about all that,” Josh was saying. “You’ve got a job to do and you need her help to do it.”
“You can’t just pull rank like that,” said Belle. “I thought we were in this together. All of us.”
“That girl has it right, don’t ya know,” said Chloe, arms folded across her breasts in one of those poses that made even Manny uncomfortable.
Belle shifted her weight, throwing her hands in the air. “Why would you do this?”
“Whoa. What’s going on?” asked Manny.
Josh exhaled, then started to speak.
Chloe raised her hand. “Wait.”
She then wrapped her arms around Manny’s neck and kissed him. Then she pulled him closer and kissed him again.
Her full lips were warm and full of that electricity the two of them had experienced from the beginning. It was difficult for his thoughts not to run to later when they’d be in the hotel room, together and alone. He wasn’t going to get as much sleep as he’d thought.
“I missed you too,” he whispered.
“You did. I can tell. But that kiss was so I wouldn’t kick the hell out of your friend,” she said, glaring at Josh.
“Thank God,” said Sophie. “I thought I was going to have to send you two to your room early.”
“Still might have to,” said Chloe, a wry smile contrasting the subtle anger in her eyes.
“That aside, what’s going on?” asked Manny.
“Let’s go back inside the conference room,” said Josh.
They filed in behind him. Manny closed the door and saw Alex, Braxton, and Barb sitting around the large round table. None of them were wearing what he’d call a positive expression.
“Hey, Manny and Sophie, good to see you,” said Alex, giving a wave with his prosthetic. “Forgive me for not getting up. I’m tired and the weight of the bullshit that never stops coming is keeping me in my chair.”
