by Rick Murcer
Manny flipped the man on his face, and pulled his arms behind his back.
“Oww. That hurts. Who are you? What the hell are y’all doing?”
“Shut up. We’ll ask the questions. Don’t move your hands, or it’ll be the last thing you do,” said Manny.
“Okay, but I didn’t do nothing,” he answered weakly.
Sophie slapped the back of his head. “Did you hear the man? I think trying to kill thousands of people is something.”
“What?”
Manny stood and straddled the man, his attention focused on the man’s response to Sophie’s statement. He seemed genuinely surprised.
By then, Braxton and Josh had gotten there. With one motion, Braxton lifted the man from the floor and stood him against the wall, holding him as if he were a doll.
Manny studied the man’s face; he resembled the images that Alex had found, yet he didn’t. But that could be because pictures from the security cameras weren’t always great quality. Still, his unease grew.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
Their suspect’s eyes were as wide as saucers. “I wasn’t going to kill no—”
“Answer the question,” said Josh.
“Am-Amos Rivers.”
“What are you doing here, Amos?’ he asked, keeping his voice low.
The man exhaled, trying to calm himself. “I was watching this room for that other man. He gave me two hundred dollars to stay here and bought me food. When you ain’t got no place to go, that seems like a good deal.”
“What other man?”
“I don’t know his name. He was about my size though. He brought me up here through the back door and told me to stay here until eight thirty, then to leave.”
“He didn’t give you a name?”
“He said Rhodes or something. I didn’t care. The streets are a lot harder than that there bed.”
Manny’s uneasiness grew. This smelled bad and felt worse.
“What did he want you to watch?”
“I don’t rightly know. He said I could have that case over there, then he said he had to go, and hit the door.”
Leaning closer, Manny scanned Amos’s face. He did resemble their suspect, right down to the mustache, but his chin was narrower, his eyes deeper set.
By now, that unease had grown to full-blown doubt. This man seemed to be telling the truth.
“What’s in the case?” asked Sophie.
“Just some clothes, and I took a nice pillow. I’ll give it back.”
His worried expression deepened.
“And what the hell did y’all mean when you said ‘kill thousands’? I ain’t killed nothing but a few gators and a lot of bottles my whole life. I hate blood.”
Josh had opened the case. “He’s telling the truth about the clothes and pillow.”
“Okay. Amos. You stay right here with my big friend. We need to check out the rest of your story,” said Manny, his frustration rising.
“Josh, Sophie, let’s go. I’m not feeling real good about this.”
“You mean we might have been tricked here,” said Sophie.
“I don’t know yet.”
Yes, you do, Williams.
Opening the door with the keycard, Manny pulled his weapon and proceeded inside, Sophie and Josh right behind him.
The queen bed was unmade, and there were black Styrofoam food containers on the small table to his left. The odor of spicy food still lingered in the room. The high-backed wooden chair near the table was empty. He could see no one else in the main room.
He bit the inside of his lip so he wouldn’t lose his cool. Sophie stepped around him and moved into the bathroom, gun raised.
No one here but us fools.
“Clear in here,” she said.
Josh dropped to his knees and lifted the sheet on the bed.
“No one could fit under this bed. No one there.”
“Yeah, I think we knew that,” said Manny through his teeth.
“Easy there, Big Boy,” said Sophie. “We’re getting close.”
Looking out the large window, Manny got a glimpse of the New Orleans Superdome peeking out from behind two tall buildings, their lighted signs informing the world what they were about, Mercedes-Benz and all. He felt like they were mocking him. They’d seen what had gone on in this room, and he had no idea what that could mean.
“Close doesn’t get it done here. I hate being steps behind this man. What he’s doing, it just doesn’t fit.”
“With your profile? Hey, you haven’t had a lot of experience with someone like this. We’re all still learning,” said Josh.
“That doesn’t make me feel any better.” He looked around the room one last time. “Okay. Don’t touch anything. We’ll get a forensic crew over here to see what they can find.”
He turned from the window, heading out to speak to Amos Rivers again.
Why were they playing this chess game? Misled again. How had this happened? How did their suspect know they would find him? Furthermore, why all of this? He could have just stayed low-key and out of sight until the ship arrived.
Too many question here. Calm down and concentrate on what you know.
After stepping past Sophie and Josh, Manny reached the hallway just in time to see Braxton put his phone in his back pocket, his hand still on Amos’s chest. Manny didn’t like the look on his face.
“What?”
“After I saw dat you were done wit dat room, I called for backup to take Mister Rivers into custody for more questioning. But I tink he doesn’t know any ting else.”
“You’re right. I don’t think he’s our man. We’ll keep him for a day or two anyway,” said Manny. “So why the look?”
“Alex has been trying to reach you. He says our man was seen by one of dos traffic cameras down by da river near da cruise port.”
CHAPTER-48
Belle looked at her phone, sipped her water, then went back to her phone, the sound of the droning jet in the background.
“What are you so interested in?” asked Chloe.
“Didn’t you get Alex’s email?” asked Belle.
“My phone’s charging in the back.”
“Mine too,” said Barb.
“They got another hit on the unsub at a hotel downtown. It turns out that was a false alarm. Alex says Josh and the team think it was some kind of setup or another misdirection.”
“Why?” asked Chloe.
“The man in the hotel room apparently isn’t our suspect.”
“They know that how?” asked Barb. “These weasels can be tricky.”
“There wasn’t any weapon of mass destruction in the room, and it seems the man was telling the truth about who he is. But the big thing is that Alex got another video hit near the cruise port when our agents were at the hotel.”
“Great. He could be anywhere in that area. When does the ship get to port?” asked Barb.
“Three hours, give or take,” said Belle. Reaching down, she rubbed her knee, all the while rereading Alex’s email. They were still about an hour out from New York and the first real case with her team. She was excited about it, or at least had been.
This new development in New Orleans was gnawing at her. She knew they could use the help of the women in this jet. More than that, she wanted to be there, maybe even needed to be.
“What’s wrong, Belle?” asked Chloe.
“Nothing. We have our orders.”
“But you think we should be in New Orleans.”
“I said that before we left. But Josh made sense, and still does. We should see what’s going on in New York.”
Belle read the email again then put the phone on the seat next to her. This is nuts. We have two profilers and another woman whose very job involved dealing with scum like this guy, and they were in jet going the wrong direction.
Orders are orders.
Except when they weren’t making enough sense on the inside, like now.
“I can’t take this,” said Belle, r
eaching for the intercom button to the cockpit.
“What are you going to do?” asked Chloe, grinning.
“The right thing.”
The co-pilot’s voice rang through the cabin. “Yes, Belle?”
“I don’t care what you have to do with filing a new flight plan or whatever, but get our butts back to New Orleans, now.”
“Is there something wrong? We can pull an emergency route change and stop if there is.”
“There is. Now get us there.”
“Will do. It’ll take about ninety minutes or so once we’re approved.”
“Do it. We have a terrorist to catch.”
“You’re going to get your ass chewed,” said Barb. “But I’m glad you made the call.”
“Getting chewed out might be the worst of our worries,” she said.
A few minutes later, the jet banked right, then right again.
She hoped she was wrong about the worst of their worries. No, she prayed she was.
CHAPTER-49
“Do we have enough people here?’ asked Manny.
“We have all of our folks. Plus twenty-five cruise-ship security people armed with his latest picture. That’s almost forty people. We’ll find him,” Josh said. “I hated telling the cruise people about this situation over the phone, but what else could we do?”
“It’s probably for the best. Sophie and I didn’t have time to meet with them, so this is what we have.”
Standing outside of the Audubon Aquarium, waiting for Sophie, Manny looked across the Mississippi River, then up into the late morning sun, and put on his sunglasses.
There wasn’t a cloud in the bright, blue sky and the eighty-something-degree warmth was most inviting. Again, the contrast between what should be beautiful and relaxing and what was evil and fearful enveloped him.
Of all of the creatures on the planet, only mankind seemed to have that innate ability to screw things up. And right now, this Rhodes, or whoever the hell he was, was doing a great job of it. The ironic thing was that none of the thousands of people at this end of the French Quarter had a clue there could be trouble in paradise. In this case, maybe oblivion was a kinder place to be.
“So we have twenty teams working that grid you organized—good job in twenty minutes, by the way—and they know not to confront him when they see him, right?” Manny asked Josh.
“They’ve been briefed. Even if he’s not carrying any kind of luggage or briefcase. Whatever he stole could probably be carried in his pocket, as risky as that would be for him.”
“I’m not sure he’s worried about risk to himself, especially if he truly realizes the magnitude of what he is about to do. Yet his behavior of trying to mislead and confuse us says differently.”
“But we still don’t know what it is, do we?”
Sophie had emerged from the restroom. “Sorry, guys, really had to drain the bladder. Must be nervous again.”
“You’re sure you’re okay with this search? I get it if you don’t want to do this right now,” said Josh.
“I think so. I talked to Dean in the bathroom. He thinks I need to get back in the saddle. I think he’s right,” she answered. “It’ll help balance the scales if we catch this guy.”
“I like how Dean thinks,” said Manny. “And, Josh, to answer your question, no. We have no idea what it is. I keep hoping we’ll get some info from Anna or our intel people about what he might have. But nothing yet.”
“That knowledge would help narrow down what he’s planning,” said Josh, donning his own sunglasses. “If he has a bio-toxin, then we handle it different than if he has a concentrated explosive like cesium, which explodes in cold water.” Josh shivered then added, “If he got his hands on military-grade material like that . . .” He didn’t finish his statement. He didn’t need to.
“That’s enough of the bedtime stories, Corner. Let’s find this guy,” said Sophie.
“Agreed. I’m hooking up with the security supervisor for Carousel’s port at Iberville and Decatur. You two are starting at Canal, going past the casino, then taking South Peters to Poydras then looping back on Convention Center, right?”
“Got it. Good luck, Josh.”
“You too. We need some here.” He winked at Sophie. “Tell Dean we could use some insight.”
“He knows.”
Josh then turned along the river walk and disappeared around the building.
“Ready?”
“Born ready,” said Manny, adjusting his earpiece. He then turned on the com near his collar. The familiar ambient buzz came into focus.
“Can you hear me now?” said Sophie.
Manny smiled. “I can, smartass.”
“You get what you get.”
“I could have done worse.”
“Don’t forget it.”
Then the two of them circled the building, heading toward the casino up Canal.
They were about a hundred feet from the bright lights announcing the entrance to the casino when Manny noticed the woman in the red dress waving her hands in their direction. She moved in front of the wild stallion fountain and waved again. She then moved higher, to the top step of the marbled stairway leading inside. Manny looked behind them to see who she was waving at. No one was directly behind them nor reacting to her.
“Who the hell is she waving at?” asked Sophie.
“I don’t know. It can’t be us. I don’t—”
Manny froze, grabbing Sophie’s arm. That was no woman.
He recognized the face of the man in the last image Alex had sent them.
CHAPTER-50
The drive had been an arduous one. Eating the way he had, stopping for toilet breaks, and worrying about whether he’d actually have to shoot one or all of them—it all had weighed on him.
But the distant bridge rising over the Mississippi, just past the New Orleans skyline, told him he’d done it. He felt a surge of pride.
This assignment had no doubt been the toughest of his new life. Particularly in light of his cargo.
He glanced to the backseat. Mother and son were still groggy from their last application of sedative. They’d be more alert within the next thirty minutes. All as planned.
That couldn’t be said of Charlie. The young man had napped several times during the long trip, but when the day broke a few hours ago, he’d remained wide awake. He’d had to put him under.
Neither had hardly spoken before that. He’d counted that a blessing and curse. He didn’t dislike the boy. In fact, he had no ill will toward any of them. He’d simply done what was necessary, and profitable. It was the American way. Capitalism at its finest, and in the end, well worth the varied concerns of this journey.
“Where are we?”
The question came from the backseat. Connie Corner was still sluggish, but making the anticipated return trip to coherence.
“I guess it won’t hurt to tell you now.”
He merged left to Interstate 510, then continued.
“We’re in New Orleans.”
“That’s where Josh is,” she answered.
“Correct, my dear. You’re about to reunite with your husband.”
CHAPTER-51
Manny spoke into his mouthpiece. “Josh. He’s at the casino.”
Then he and Sophie took off for the waving man.
“Where did he, she, it, go?” asked Sophie, running beside Manny as they reached the bottom of the marble steps.
“I lost him when he ran behind the fountain.” He stopped and searched, his heart pounding, his eyes scanning for anything red.
Peculiarities weren’t unusual in cities like New Orleans or Las Vegas, but seeing their suspect wearing a dress was at the top of Manny’s list of Weird Occurrences.
They hurried up the twenty steps, Sophie a few feet to his left. They reached the fountain, the fine spray touching his face and arms, feeling cool in the heat.
“Damn, Williams. You sure can pick ’em. I ain’t seen that before.”
“That’s tw
o of us. Go around that way.”
After circling the fountain, they met on the back side.
Nothing.
Only dozens of people walking in and around the square, the buzz of conversation high. No one wearing a red dress.
Another desperate scan of the crowd offered nothing more than a sinking feeling . . . Rhodes had escaped them.
“Inside?” asked Sophie.
“Must be. But I don’t understand that. He obviously drew attention to himself.”
“Yeah, so how did he know who to flag down?” asked Sophie, turning in his direction. “How did he know us?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure. Except to say I’m not that surprised. We’ve not kept a low profile since we got here. Look at what happened at the safe house. I can only say that he had to know that at some point we’d come looking for him down here. Other than that, I don’t know.”
“He could have sent a damn invitation.”
“He did . . . with that image Alex found,” said Manny, his mind racing.
“I’ll give you that. What about the dress? He won’t be wearing that anymore, will he?”
Manny shook his head. “No. We’re being led around by the nose again, so I doubt it.”
“We have to go inside anyway. Plus, they have security cameras in the casino,” said Sophie, heading toward the green revolving door.
Manny started to follow her, then stopped. “Wait.”
“Why?”
“It’s too risky for this guy to go inside. Every exit is probably heavily covered by casino security, who, no doubt, is aware of what he looks like. Josh has plastered his picture all over the security network.”
Sophie raised her hands in frustration. “This is making me nuts. So he didn’t go inside?”
“I wouldn’t have.”
Scanning the area again, he took in the bustling street on the west side, then across the median, hesitated, looked past the colorful trolley car waiting on the track, then to the east side of the street.
He looked back at Sophie, realization flooding his mind. He finally understood where this was heading, he hoped.
