Wednesday, October 9
Alice had received all the latest information from Joe before 7:00 am so she called Burrows and asked if she could give her report over breakfast. Burrows agreed.
Campbell was the first to finish his breakfast and couldn’t wait to hear if Joe found out anything. “Well you didn’t call me at night, so I take it Joe didn’t find out much. Or maybe Joe couldn’t make contact with Abdul?”
“He made contact but he didn’t find out much about the whereabouts of the two suspects.” Alice finished chewing her mouthful and swallowed. “But Abdul confessed to the killing of the Pakistani, boy Kahn.”
Burrows nearly choked on a piece of beacon. “He did what?”
Campbell’s jaw dropped and a puzzled frown came on his face. “And Joe didn’t think he should have woken us up to tell us he caught a murderer?”
“Joe said Abdul thinks he’s got away with it so he isn’t going anywhere and Joe can find him anytime he wants to anyway.” Alice tried to relax and explain properly. She had also thought Joe should have woken them with news like that and she paused for Campbell to blow his top.
He didn’t so she went on. “And Joe said the FBI wouldn’t want him under arrest just yet, just in case he could lead us to the terrorist cell that hired him.”
“That’s true.” Campbell nodded. “The shooting isn’t our immediate problem. We could still use it to bring Abdul in for questioning later and use it as a threat for his help if need be.”
Burrows agreed with a nod. “So what else did he find out?”
Alice pulled her note book out. “Joe found out that Abdul doesn’t want to be linked to any Muslim terrorist groups, although he has done a lot of work for them in the past.” Campbell pulled out a pad and jotted down something. “He used to be a dispatch rider on a motor bike, and then a cab driver also working many odd jobs. But he was no bodyguard for those boys, just a driver.” Alice had a sip of her coffee before she went on. “Abdul was called and asked if he could do a Muslim brother a favour without asking questions, and he would be well paid, so he agreed. Someone sent him money and a pack of phones with orders to destroy the phones once he used them. He never met anyone in person; they gave him all his orders over the phone.
Abdul was sent to San Francisco to pick up the two Algerians and hide them until it was safe to fetch them to Missouri. Joe found out Abdul stole that car in Pennsylvania as part of the plan – it had to have blacked out windows and he had to take it to Kahn in Cisco to hide it until they needed it for Kahn to do the pick up.”
“So that’s where Kahn came in,” Campbell said. “The Muslim brother who called is part of the cell and he used Kahn as another pawn.”
Alice went on. “They phoned Abdul to get another car with blacked out windows ready for the return trip and to pay Kahn for the job while watching Kahn closely. So Kahn set everything up with Mr. Woo by paying him in advance. Then he picked up the two suspects and hid them, just on the other side of Cisco to see if the police was following them from the airport. That’s when the police went to Mr. Woo’s and they thought we were on to them so they hid out rather than making a run for it. When Kahn phoned Abdul to tell him we had been to the poolroom asking questions, that’s when Abdul was given the orders to kill Kahn and get out of there.”
“We know by the times on the traffic cameras that they hid out for a day somewhere between Cisco and the first camera sighting of the car.” Campbell shook his head, “I would never have thought they’d stay in Cisco. They wasted a day checking to see if we were on to the boys when they could have been well away.” Campbell grimaced and clenched his teeth in frustration. “We were that close to them,” he thumped the table, “but we’ve spooked them into trying to cover their tracks.”
Burrows sighed. “We’ve got them on tape swapping cars and then they drove a few miles to a hideout instead of making a run for it. They’re either stupid or they thought it was a good idea to throw us off. Or… maybe they weren’t sure about the two brothers and were checking them out before they accepted them into the group. If we had had information from Joe just a day earlier, we would have had them.”
“And perhaps that boy Kahn would still be alive,” Alice said sadly. “And why steal a car up in Pennsylvania and then dump it and steal another one in Cisco with blacked out windows to drive to Kansas? The blacked out windows, I understand, but Abdul could have stolen a car and driven all the way up to New Orleans Street in half the time?”
“I guess they were nervous and thought we were on to them and they’d rather the two boys be caught if we were on to them.” Campbell threw his arms up in the air. “Who knows what they were thinking, I guess this cell doesn’t want us to link them to any suicide bombers, so they think they are covering their tracks. And if we catch these two brothers, we might never find out who and where the terrorist cell is.”
“I’m surprised they haven’t taken Abdul out,” Burrows said. “They still might though… do you think we should have someone keep an eye on him to see who turns up?”
“We’ll pass that on to Control and leave it to them.” Campbell looked back at Alice for her to continue.
“Those two boys nearly didn’t come here.” Alice looked at her notes again from what Joe had found out about them from Abdul. “When they were training in Afghanistan, they nearly joined al-Shabaab.” Alice looked at Campbell and asked. “Who is al-Shabaab?”
“Al-Shabaab is a Somalia branch of al-Qaeda, believed to have a guerrilla army of almost 15,000 fighters. They are a ruthless terror group. According to intelligence, al-Shabaab joined al-Qaeda in 2012 and swore to battle the enemies of Islam, which covers most of the Western world.”
“Wow, well Joe said the boys wanted to come to America to kill the bitches on TV.”
“Pity they didn’t join that army,” Burrows said. “They wouldn’t be our problem now.”
Alice went back to her notes. “Abdul stole another car and made his way to Kansas to meet Alfred hoping that by dumping the car there, they would lose the FBI if they were following them.” Alice stopped. “That’s more or less what we just said… sorry…. Umm, Abdul paid Alfred and got to New Orleans Street. There, the boys split up. Abdul didn’t know the girl that met them but she told the two boys that they had to get rid of the suitcases because the Feds could have put a tracking device in their cases at the airport.”
“If we knew sooner, we would have bugged them.” Campbell’s face showed his frustration. “That’s if it was what Homeland wanted. If not, we could have simply refused them entry and put them back on the plane.”
Alice read on. “Abdul drove to a bus station somewhere in between Kansas and Pennsylvania, where he was met by a middle-aged woman that took the van and the boy and told Abdul to catch a bus home and to keep his mouth shut.”
“We’ll get the boys to go through all the footage of the bus stations on that route.” Campbell said. “Joe really should have told us this last night.”
“Do you want to know the good news?”
“What?” Burrows asked as Campbell raged on.
“Abdul recognized the woman. He had delivered a package to her shop a couple of times a few years ago when he was a dispatch rider. She owns a dry-cleaning business in Washington DC.”
Campbell shot out of his chair. “DC? Did he say where in DC?”
“Abdul couldn’t remember the street, but the name of the establishment is Yasmina’s Drycleaners.”
Campbell grabbed his phone and made his way to the door. Turning on the way, he said to Burrows, “Go over that with her again and see if we missed any angles.”
Alice looked at Burrows, then at her notes. “Joe did say that Abdul didn’t know about New Orleans Street until he got to Kansas, so why they told Mr. Woo they were going to New Orleans is a mystery.”
Burrows shrugged, as if to say. It isn’t important now. “If that Yasmina’s Drycleaners is still there, the FBI will find out about the
business and who Yasmina is. From there, we’ll have a name to work with. Joe really should have woken you up when he found out that woman’s name, you know.”
Alice was getting tired of hearing the same line over and over. She covered her hands with her face and said, “Yeah, but I suppose he had some other business to attend to. You know, maybe he has a life out there? A job?”
Burrows knew Alice most likely said business to mean “Sexual fantasy with someone”. She patted her arm. “Never mind that, you and Joe did well. We know a lot more now thanks to Joe’s dream walking.”
“So what now?” Alice asked, feeling a little glum. “Do I go home or stay here on standby?” She couldn’t help the sarcasm.
“I should think they’ll want us to follow up on this Yasmina, when they find her. Let’s finish our coffee and go see what Agent Campbell has found out.”
Before they had had a chance to drink up, Campbell came hurrying back in and sat down. “As luck would have it, there’s only one Yasmina’s Drycleaners in DC. The owner is Yasmina Omrani – that’s her married name. She’s married to a man named Jamil and Homeland anti-terrorist unit knows about them.” The excitement was back in Campbell’s voice.
“So they could be operating the terrorist cell that intends to use the brothers.” Burrows said.
“Homeland thinks so and they’re trying to trace her now. They want us to go to DC, and if they find her, then they’ll want Joe to get in her dreams and find out where the brothers are and who their targets are.”
“Big ask,” Alice said without thinking, “but I’m sure we can do it.”
“Well I can tell you, that thanks again to Joe,” Campbell said excitedly, “Homeland has got something to work on, and they’re all over this Yasmina woman.”
“Well, we better pack up and move on,” Burrows said, getting up.
Alice felt the excitement slowly rise. “I feel like a bounty hunter.”
“It is kind of what we, as the FBI, do.” Campbell said sarcastically. “Let’s hope we get our men before they get to their targets.”
The drive was long and boring. Campbell and Burrows hardly talked and Alice felt caged and tired. When Joe popped into Alice’s mind for an update, she found she was getting better at this telepathic talking thing for she was able to give him a row over not reaching her straight away without any change in her facial expression.
Joe apologized and they both talked about the case and what they would do next if they were in charge. It broke the boredom for Alice and she had a good time with the conversation, just as if Joe was sitting next to her in the back seat of the car. A few weeks ago, it would have freaked the hell out of her but here she was…
It wasn’t until Joe said, Oh, I like your story in the paper, that she remembered she had meant to buy a paper first thing that morning but had forgotten with all the excitement. She asked Joe if the story was good and remarked that she didn’t know if the story had been released as she wrote it or if it had been edited.
Joe read the headline to her: MAN KILLS TWO OF THE JOHNSON FAMILY TO PAY FOR HIS WIFE’S MEDICAL CARE. He read part of the story to her and then left, saying he would check back later.
Alice smiled to herself; it was a good story.
They quickly found a hotel when they arrived and Campbell and Burrows left Alice in her room waiting for orders, while they retired to their individual rooms. Alice took the time to call John and they talked for about half an hour: about her write up in the papers (but not about the case she was working on), about how much they missed each other and how when the money from the FBI and the papers came in, it’d be worth the agony of not being together.
When she hung up, she stretched on the bed and waited. She expected a phone call to come in, asking her to meet both agents outside but the call didn’t come. Instead, after she had been in the room for a total of an hour, Burrows knocked at her door and Alice got up to let her in.
Burrows, before doing anything else, opened her notepad to help her with the names and then she proceeded to speak. “At the moment, Yasmina Omrani is getting more attention from Homeland than the President is getting from the Secret Service. Yasmina is 39 and she came here from Egypt when she was 8, with her parents. Her father, is Khalid Nassir, Khalid had a job working as a bellboy in one of the big hotels. He could speak three languages so it didn’t take him long to get a job behind the desk. He still works at the same hotel as the manager. We believe he was a hotel manager in Cairo before they came to the US.”
“He’s working for a hotel,” Alice asked a little puzzled, “and yet his daughter has a business here? It’s big isn’t it?... The drycleaner’s, I mean”
“I expect the father helped pay for that business, plus he gets her jobs from his hotel for her dry cleaning and maybe more, who knows.” Burrows turned a page in her book. “Anyway, her father has been on the watch list for a while now. He speaks out against the government at any given opportunity. Yasmina’s husband, Jamil also showed up in our database as a trouble maker.” Burrows put her note book down. “Yasmina has been married to Jamil for 12 years, and he works with her on the pickup and delivery side of the business as a driver. We’ve got an informant at the mosque were they worship at, and Jamil spread the word yesterday that he was going to visit his mother for a couple of weeks.”
“Did his wife go with him?”
“We have no idea, she hasn’t been seen around for about two days.”
“That’s because she went to meet Abdul and take the boy to a safe house,” Alice said, her mind racing away, trying to work it out. “I’m sorry… carry on.”
“Her father Khalid is still at work and we’re monitoring his every move. The NSA is analyzing every phone call, twitter message, e-mail and everything else that has been sent to him at the hotel or house over the last month. They’re doing the same with Yasmina and Jamil.”
“They can do that?”
Burrows went on, sidestepping Alice’s intrusion. “Over the last week or so, Khalid’s cell phone has been fairly quiet, especially to his fellow worshipers. We’re checking them out now.” She tapped Alice on the knee. “So are you ready to move into the hotel that Khalid works, and try and make contact with him? Frank Brubaker wants Joe to find out what he can from Khalid.”
“Hmmm, yes,” Alice was expecting some kind of plan for tonight, but not after being there for just an hour. “I’ve only half unpacked so I’ll just chuck my things back in the case and I’ll be good to go.” Alice asked the question bothering her. “Am I going to be the only in staying at this hotel?”
“Yeah, and we’ve got to come up with a reason why you’re in town; we don’t want to spook him. I should imagine he’d be naturally jumpy if he is involved with his daughter and these two boys.”
“Sightseeing, I could say I’m on holidays.”
“People normally book in advance.”
“Then I’ll call now to see if they’ve got a room,” there was smile that said, “I’m smart too” on Alice’s face. “I’ll say I booked another hotel but spotted an old flame of mine that I didn’t want to meet up with, so I got out quick before he saw me.”
Burrows gave it some thought and decided it was a good cover story if anybody wanted to know why she changed hotels. Not that it was likely to happen fulltime but Alice was getting into her role of spying. Burrows smiled back at her and with a nod, said, “Do it.”
It was getting dark when Alice went up to the front desk; she was attended to by the smartly-dressed young man behind it. He signed her in and had someone take her and her little suitcase to her room, with no fuss at all. Alice wasn’t too worried that Khalid wasn’t at the desk because she was still waiting for Joe to reach her. Burrows had told her that if she had to call anyone, she must do it with her personal cell phone and nothing else. She was also assured that there were two detectives outside and if anything went wrong they would be in, in seconds.
“Knock, knock, anybody home?�
�� Joe sensed her uneasiness as soon as he entered her mind, just before midnight. He tried to relieve some of the tension felt by saying lightheartedly. “Or should I call back later, Miss Medium?”
“Joe, thank God you’re here. I’ve changed hotels, I’m at the hotel where Yasmina’s father, Khalid works and they want you to get into his dreams tonight.”
“And this time, for God’s sake Joe, just go ahead and wake me up,” Alice added. “No matter what time it is, your latest girl will have to dream on her own tonight.” Alice felt awful after she said it but went on quickly. “I’m sure you’ll make it up to her another night. Campbell thinks we’re getting close but running out of time. Jamil, Yasmina’s husband told his friends he’s going away for two weeks, so Campbell thinks he’s gone to join his wife organize the bombings and it will more than likely be at least ten days before he comes back.”
“That’s only a guess, right? If it’s going to be that soon, then it means they’ve got their targets worked out for them.”
“Nobody knows for sure, that’s why they want you to grill this Khalid. He’ll be going off duty at midnight.”
“Yeah okay, so how are you going to make contact with him?
“I was thinking I’d go downstairs to the bar, have a look around and just bump into him like they do in those James Bond movies.”
“Make sure your Martini is shaken, not stirred.”
“What?”
“Never mind, let’s go find him.”
Alice did order a Martini, even though she didn’t get the reference by Joe, and while she was having a look around, she noticed Khalid was behind the desk tapping away on a computer. There were tourist brochures in the foyer just by the desk and Alice walked over to pick two up. Having done that, she sauntered up to the desk.
“Excuse me,” Alice said, waving her brochures.
Khalid got up and faced her with a broad, practiced grin on his face. He put his hands on the counter and leaned over, looking to see which brochures she had picked and expecting a question about them. “Yes Madam, how can I be of service?”
Kill The President's Women (Joe The Magic Man Series Book 2) Page 26
