Agent Campbell had leaned closer to take a look at the badge when Alice had first pulled it out but he stepped back when she said Joe could use the badge to make contact.
“Do you want to touch it, sir?”Alice said, unable to resist the tease.
“Don’t try to be funny Alice,” came the stiff reply.
Agent Campbell picked up a car key from his desk and turned to Agent Burrows. “We’ve got a new car assigned to us so let’s get this show on the road.”
Alice and Agent Burrows fell in step behind him. “Alice, you didn’t tell me that Joe had posted you that badge,” Burrows said, almost accusingly.
“No, I’m sorry... Joe asked me not to tell anyone and he asked me to burn the envelope for he knew what you’d do. Being the great agent you are, you’d be interested in tracing the envelope.”
Burrows had no answer to that, she just smiled and nodded.
The badge story was another little lie that Alice had to tell John as well as the FBI. She and Joe had come up with that story as an explanation of how Joe was working his magic. The CIA was really keen on finding out and so the badge story had been concocted to throw them off.
In the drugs case they had worked on, Alice handed over a video that Joe had supposedly handled to the drug lord and that’s how they had claimed Joe worked his magic on the drug lord. The FBI seemed to buy it and so that type of misleading act had been faithfully maintained. So at the moment, Alice was in possession of an old army badge that she had bought at her neighbor’s garage sale. Hopefully, the FBI would continue to believe what they were being fed, that Joe worked through some kind of token. Alice had said to Joe that it was a totally silly idea but funny enough, neither Agent Burrows nor Agent Campbell questioned it.
Alice thought about her lies and cover-ups for Joe throughout most of the drive to the restaurant. Neither Agent Campbell nor Agent Burrows said much so she had her thoughts to herself.
Ten minutes before they arrived at the restaurant, Joe popped back into Alice’s mind.
“What have I missed and where are we going?”
Alice was in the back of the car, and she knew Joe could see right through her eyes. She turned from staring out the window to look at the two agents so Joe could see for himself. She then proceeded to fill him in on what had happened so far, talking to him telepathically and not murmuring a word. Alice was getting used to having a conversation with someone verbally, while talking to Joe in her head at the same time.
They pulled up outside the restaurant and Alice saw it was located in a neat three-storey building.
“I guess the room they stayed in is up there,” Burrows said, as she looked the place over. At Burrows’ comment, they all looked up briefly and then walked into the restaurant.
“Ah... Please come in and take a seat,” the waitress welcomed them with a broad smile.
Agent Campbell showed his badge immediately. “FBI, we’d like to speak to the owners, please.”
The smile disappeared from the waitress’ face just as quickly as it had appeared and she bowed and went to the back of the restaurant to fetch someone. An Asian man who looked about 40, came out slowly, wiping his hands on a towel.
“Is this about the two men that stopped here?” he spoke very good English with a hint of an American accent.
“It is,” Campbell said, flashing his badge again. “We’ve got a few questions to ask you and your wife if that’s okay”
The owner was obviously displeased especially as the four customers he had in his restaurant stared uncomfortably at the FBI Agents. “You better come back here,” he said, and led them through to the kitchen, where his wife’s face immediately took on the same displeased expression once she saw them.
“More questions?” she asked as she stopped slicing the tomatoes in front of her. “We’ve told the other detectives all we know.”
“We’d like you to go over it one more time for us,” Agent Campbell said politely and held the sketch out to her. “You said the man who paid for the room is a Pakistani but this sketch doesn’t look very much like a Pakistani to me.”
“I am not sitting down with another sketch artist!” she said, slamming down her knife, “That drawing is as I remember him.”
There was a young boy of about fourteen washing dishes behind her, he turned to her and said, “Mam, take it easy. They just want to ask you again, that’s all.”
His father pointed to the door. “Haven’t you got homework to do?”
The boy bowed and was about to leave the kitchen when Alice stopped him. “Were you here when the two Algerians arrived?”
He looked at his father before he spoke. “I saw them but I didn’t speak to them.”
Alice put her hand in her pocket, pulled out the old army badge and started to play with it. “What’s your name, son?”
“Kim. Kim Woo.”
“How old are you, Kim?” Alice was rubbing the badge with her thumb, as if trying to polish it.
“I’m 14, officer.”
“Oh, I’m not an FBI agent.” Alice said, handing the badge to the boy. “I’m a medium, a kind of psychic; I help to find missing persons.”
The mother gave a gasp of shock, Joe giggled in Alice’s head and both Burrows and Campbell looked at her in disbelief; they weren’t sure they had heard her right but they let her go on.
“Could you read what’s written on the back of that badge for me, Kim?” Alice asked softly.
Kim turned it over and read it. “Lies can get you killed.”
Kim’s mother snatched the badge off Kim and handed it back to Alice. “He didn’t see anything Miss, he was asleep.”
“Oh really?” Alice asked with a friendly smile.
“My son sleeps in the front,” the father said to Alice. “The two guests had a room on the top floor at the back. He couldn’t have seen a thing.”
Alice, with her eyes still on Mr. Woo, asked the boy, “Is that right, Kim?”
“I didn’t get up... It was too early for me so I went back to sleep.”
“So you did hear them then?”Alice turned to look at him, still playing with the badge.
“I heard the banging on the side door and thought it was deliveries.”
Alice turned back to Mr. Woo. “Mr. Woo, we really need your help. It’s important that we find the two young men that stayed here.”
“They are terrorists, aren’t they?”Mr. Woo asked.
The question came out of the blue, and caught Alice by surprise. “Why do you ask that?” she asked in return.
“The FBI chases terrorists, serial killers and kidnappers, right? Now they’ve got you helping them. A medium helping the FBI?”
Alice wasn’t sure how to answer him, so she handed him the badge. “Mr. Woo, this is an old army badge that my grandfather gave to me just before he died.”
Mr. Woo took the badge and studied it. As far as Alice was concerned, it was mission accomplished; the three of them had touched the badge. She saw a slight smile appear on Burrows’ face, so she went on with the act. “My grandfather was a U.S. Marshall and a psychic just like me. He used to chase criminals and he told me that this badge used to help him catch criminals. He once told me that if ever I needed his help with the spirit world I was to hold that badge and think of him and he would be here for me.”
Mr. Woo quickly handed back the badge. “Look, we had never seen the Pakistani boy until he came to pay the deposit for the rooms. The only other time we saw him was when he woke us up to take the two Algerians away.” He was shaking his head and talking fast. “Honest, we don’t know who those people are, we have nothing to do with them and if the Pakistani comes back for the bond he paid, I’ll give it back and tell him never to come here again. I will have nothing to do with him and I won’t let him in my….”
“Hang on!” Agent Campbell interrupted him. “You think this Pakistani boy will come back to collect his bond?”
“It’s not much
, but I’m sure the boy will be quick enough to claim anything back.”
“Well if he does, I want you to call me right away,” – Campbell reached in his pocket for his card – “and if you can keep him occupied until an officer comes we will be more than grateful.” He smiled and handed his card to him.
“I will not put my family in danger, sir. If he comes back, I will pay him and send him on his way. Then I will phone you.”
Agent Burrows tried to convince him that he would be helping them by delaying him. She suggested that Mr. Woo could give the boy a meal to keep him there and he would be well rewarded.
Joe had been in Alice’s mind all the while they had been talking and he said to her. “Well done kid, you did really well there. I’ve got into their minds so I shouldn’t have a problem getting into their dreams tonight. I’ve got to run now... I’ll try and get back to you later. If not, be up early in the morning and I’ll contact you about seven.”
They all thanked the Woo family and exited the restaurant. As soon as they got into the car, Burrows burst out laughing. “What was all that bullshit about you being a medium?”
Alice had to laugh as well. “I just wanted them to touch the badge so I thought I’d try and be like that medium on TV and say I was just helping the FBI.”
“Well it seemed to work.” Agent Burrows laughed again. “They believed you and you nearly convinced me.” Burrows looked at the stern face of Agent Campbell. “What do you think? Did Alice do well in there?”
“I think we’ve got to find this Pakistani boy, and get Joe to find out what the boy knows.”
Agent Burrows leaned back in her seat, sighing at how much of a straight jacket Campbell was.
*
The Magic Man was the name the FBI had given him because in her sexual dreams he had played the part of old Joe, a prison officer who worked with her husband. Agent Burrows had said the FBI probably wouldn’t pay someone called “the Magic Man” for his services so Burrows came up with the name “Joe Mann and partner, Criminal Investigators.”
Abel Lazarus smiled at the names they had given him; he actually fancied the name, Joe. Abel knew there were still people in the Pentagon that wanted him dead, that didn’t know he loved his country as much as they did. Someone with powers such as Abel’s was simply seen as a threat.
For Abel to stay one step ahead of them, he would have to lie to them and spy on them. Abel had already told the FBI a pack of lies through messages in Alice’s dreams. He told them that he was married with children and that he had a grandchild; he had to lie to them to protect his true identity as the FBI put a profile together of who to look for.
Abel’s wife had died in a nasty accident eight years ago, and he hadn’t forgiven himself. Abel didn’t have any children and he wasn’t an old man like he wanted the FBI to think. He would be forty in the coming year and his father hadn’t died when he was a young boy like he had told the FBI. His father and mother were very alive.
Abel had to live two lives: the true one of Abel Lazarus, a quiet architect working for L.A. roadways and the make-believe life of Joe the Magic Man. To make things even more difficult for Abel, his character Joe also had another life to live with a sexual addiction of invading people’s dreams and it was an addiction he wasn’t ready to give up.
The FBI had asked Alice if she would try to find out who the Magic Man was and where he lived. Abel found that out when he was in Alice’s dreams and he had told Alice parts about his past that he had made up just to waste the FBIs time. He had later asked Alice to trust him, be his friend and not question his identity. He had confided in her that he had to lie about who he was and where he lived to throw the FBI off his tracks and keep them guessing. He wanted Alice to think of him as old Joe in his mid-sixties, not as the thirty-nine-year old Jewish boy, Abel Lazarus.
Abel found out through Alice’s dreams that Special Agent Rosemary Burrows was a profiler trying to put together a profile for him. It was easy to know what the profile consisted of – all he had to do was be in Alice’s mind when Agent Burrows sent for her. Abel could jump from one mind to the other. How he could do that was a mystery to him but he accepted it as part of his gift, and once he had been in someone’s mind before, all he had to do to get back in their minds, was close his eyes and concentrate on that person then call their name in his thoughts and he’d be back in their minds as easily as if he had phoned them.
He found out that Burrows was genuine when she wanted him on her team. What Abel didn’t like was the implication that Burrows and Alice were being used by Frank Brubaker to catch the Magic Man. Abel knew the only way this team was going to work was if there was trust on both sides, and that meant finding out if Frank Brubaker wanted him on his team or simply wanted him dead. To do that he had to get in Frank’s head and he did this when Agent Burrows met with Frank. As easily as he had always done, he popped from one mind to the other while they were talking, knowing he would be in Frank’s dream that night to see what Frank had planned for him.
Abel did get into Frank’s dream that night and he found the information he was seeking. He then made Frank get up and write a letter to himself on behalf of the Magic Man. Abel sniggered when he remembered how Frank had nearly gotten a heart attack at the realization that the Magic Man had been in his head.
Since then, the only message he had gotten from the FBI was a heads-up that they were to start work on cold cases. Alice had subsequently been sent their first cold case file to look over and so Abel took that to mean that Frank hadn’t resigned after the dream visit and that he was willing to work with “Joe Mann and partner”.
Abel had read the cold case file with Alice and was waiting to see how Burrows wanted to work it but on his next visit to Alice’s mind she told him they were to forget the case. It turned out the FBI needed their help in stopping two terrorists from killing congresswomen.
Abel knew the task at hand was something really big, and he took a deep breath as he realized what was being asked of him. His country wanted him to use his gift to help stop a disaster. Is this why I was given these powers, to read minds, to get into people’s dreams, hypnotize them and get the truth out of them? It suddenly seemed his gift was given to him for a higher calling but Abel would gladly give the gift back if he could only have his wife back.
*
Just over eight-years-ago, Abel and his wife had attended a beach party with some of their friends. One of those friends went by a Russian name: Alex Kokorin. Although Alex was born in the US, when people heard his name they looked at him with mostly-unveiled surprise, shock even. Alex, being a playful person by nature, often took advantage of their suspicions and put on a Russian accent, while pretending to be with the Russian Mafia
At this particular party, Abel had actively participated in playing the joke with Alex. He went around whispering to people that didn’t know him, that Alex was a gunrunner for the Russian Mafia. At that same party, Abel also tried taking an E-pill for the first time and so it seemed that that party was filled with multiple crazy decisions.
That was the start of Abel’s down fall, the prank backfired on him.
Abel, in front of about twenty witnesses, grabbed a metal barbeque skewer and challenged his Russian friend to a fencing duel, proclaiming he was the best fencer in the world and he didn’t like spies. Abel’s wife thought he was just playing around so she grabbed another skewer, stepped in front of Alex Kokorin and accepted Abel’s challenge. She wasn’t aware that her husband was out of his mind with drugs and so she lightly began to fence with him.
With the intoxication he felt steadily clouding his brain, Abel overzealously ran at his wife with the skewer and it went straight through her eye and into her brain. Abel went on challenging the rest of his friends, oblivious to the atrocity he had just committed, and they had to overpower him to stop him.
His wife didn’t make it; she died in the ambulance on the way to hospital.
When the police arr
ived, the witnesses gave mixed stories of what had happened. One of them declared that Abel was trying to kill this Russian guy because he was selling guns and that his wife had intervened. When the police had taken a few more statements and many of them seemed to corroborate the notion that the Russian guy at the party was a gunrunner, the police got mighty curious. This was especially because the Russian had disappeared before the police got there.
The police quickly called in the FBI. When the FBI agents asked the witnesses about the Russian, they nearly all said the same story that Abel had said: Alex was selling guns. The FBI promptly put out a search for Alex for he had split after the accident without making a statement. No one seemed to have noticed that Alex had gone into the ambulance with Abel’s wife.
Abel had to be taken to the hospital for he was acting delirious and was a real handful for anybody to contain. The FBI followed Abel to the hospital but they were more concerned in finding Alex than in the state of Abel’s health. Between the drink and drugs Abel had ingested at the party, he was in a critical state. The doctors told the FBI agents that it was unadvisable to question him at the moment but they insisted they would bring a special doctor in to oversee the process and look after him.
A police doctor was ordered to hypnotize Abel so they could ask him questions about the Russian gunrunner. The doctor had to first sedate before attempting to hypnotize him. When Abel was under hypnosis, the FBI threw questions at him. He started to mumble something but before he could make a complete sentence, he fell into a coma.
A few hours later, Abel’s heart stopped and it took the hospital staff a while to bring him back to life. Abel was in a coma for three days after that. When he regained consciousness, the nurse kept repeating to him how lucky he was to be alive.
Kill The President's Women (Joe The Magic Man Series Book 2) Page 4
