by Cat Connor
“Chicky?”
“Check this out, it’s a code.”
We hurried to our car. Conducting a conversation in code is not easy. Conversation has to flow. She wasn’t reading it from anything. She’s not an ex-lover-blackmailer turned crazy bitch. She’s practiced talking like that.
Damn – would be easier with Campbell here. I think he likes codes and ciphers.
“Can you crack it?” Lee asked. “Hang on, look …” He pointed to the second line. “She’s giving a location.”
“We need to work on this. We need her not dead.” A shotgun blast punctuated my words. “That might not be as easy as it sounds.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Do you think that means New York?” I said pointing at the part we thought was a location.
Lee shook his head. “No, but it’s a reference to apples.”
“The Garden of Hesperides. Golden Apples. Greece?”
“Could be,” Lee said but sounded unconvinced.
“Nah. Greece is wrong.”
“Who produces apples?”
“We do. Laptop?”
Lee pulled his laptop from the case by his feet and handed it to me. The waiting for it to fire up involved more patience than I possessed. I opened Wikipedia as soon the browser was running.
Good old Wikipedia.
“Okay. Big apple producers of the world in order, China, us, Iran, Turkey, Russia, Italy, India …”
“I’d say it’s between Iran and Turkey.”
“My money is on Iran.” I slid the laptop onto Lee’s knees and jumped out the car.
I scouted around for Andrews. He wasn’t far away and watching me. I beckoned. He came over. “Problem?”
“You mean besides Fiona and her hostage?”
“Yeah, besides them.”
“She’s been talking to someone, using code. I need to crack the code – and I need her alive, for now.”
“We’re not shooting back here, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“Excellent. You want to start negotiating and try keeping the husband alive while buying me some time?”
“Yeah, why not.” He shrugged. “Got nothing better to do today.”
“I appreciate it.”
Lee and I hunkered down in our car and worked on the code until we thought it started to make sense.
“She’s making plans to leave the country. She’s going to Iran to meet someone,” I said. “She’s meeting whoever is on the other side of this conversation.”
“Fiona is a real sweetheart,” Lee growled.
“I’m thinking this isn’t just about money or diamonds or anything we’ve considered so far. I think this is revenge.”
Lee nodded.
“Revenge is starting to make sense.”
“Hang on. What did Chance say? A twofold situation. Twofold.” And then I realized I’d said it aloud. Lee held his phone in his hand. “There’s no need to make that call,” I said. “No need at all. Nothing is going on here.” I waved my hand in front of my face. “I’m all good. I promise.”
“Chance?”
“I misspoke, can we leave it there?”
“Twofold, you just said Chance said it was twofold … if I let this go, promise it won’t come back and bite me on the ass.”
My fingers crossed. “Of course.” I chewed on my lip. “There is no need to mention this to Kurt, ever.”
“So, tell me, what else did Chance say?”
“I’ll tell you but, you have to stop looking at me like that!”
“Like?”
“Like my head’s about to spin and green vomit is going to spray across the inside of the car.”
“You can see my point though, right?”
I wished I could just shut up. “Would it help to know it wasn’t Chance but Mac being a dick?”
“Yeah. No. Not really.”
His frown deepened. He was going to need Botox if he kept up that level of creasing.
“How about you forget I said it and I try to forget I saw him.” Crap! I did it again. Spat out a big ol’ reminder of my lurking insanity.
“You’ve moved on from seeing Mac in Messenger windows, receiving text messages from him and seeing him in a hotel bathroom. In the last week you shot him while he drank tequila in your living room. Now you’re seeing him as an actor. Any of this bother you?”
“A little bit.”
The spark left his eyes. “When was your last MRI?”
“That’s a mighty serious question.” I stalled because I couldn’t remember. As I drifted back over the last year or so to find the answers I was conscious of Lee talking and I knew it wasn’t to me. Every now and then, I heard shotgun blasts. Nothing much bothered me though. They seemed too far away to be of much concern.
Light shimmered then folded. The world I saw was a storyboard complete with thick black lines surrounding each frame.
My office was right in front of me but the colors were all wrong. They were too simple and flat. I knew it wasn’t right but what was the point fighting my mind now? I walked into the room and closed the door behind me, blocking out all sounds of weapon fire and all the noises associated with the situation outside Sutherland’s house.
His voice surprised me. How I didn’t see him sitting at my desk when I walked in was a mystery. But there he was, Christopher Chance, smiling at me over my computer screen.
“I’m in enough trouble because of you,” I said perching on the edge of my desk and watching my words form within a speech bubble. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know. They’re going to send you for another MRI. Lee thinks you have a brain tumor.” His speech bubble flattened against the background of the frame we occupied.
I looked behind me and saw we’d moved into another frame. The speech bubbles and outline sketches of us remained in the previous frame like a ghostly imprint. I leaned forward but couldn’t see the next frame.
“Great.” I didn’t mean it.
“You needed Campbell … fake name for him at the hospital was a nice touch. Seems like the code is causing issues?”
“Seems like you are a cartoon character.”
“You want my help or not?”
“Sure, what the hell. I’m already in the crapper here.” I watched him with interest. “I think Sutherland is planning to leave the country and go to Iran.”
“Sounds about right. Sutherland, Fiona – whatever you want to call her – wants the diamonds but you are correct in thinking this isn’t just about diamonds. She also wants revenge. She’s not working alone. She’s part of a wider organization. For the last twenty years she’s been involved in fundraising,” he said with a half a smile.
“Charities?”
“As it would seem on the outside but in fact funding militant groups, buying arms.” He was a mine of information. Maybe I didn’t need Campbell at all. Maybe I just needed to rely on the freaky workings of my imagination and whoever was drawing these scenes.
“Any in particular?”
“Any and all that worked with the Irish Republican Army,” he said.
The frame jumped as my new speech bubble grew. “I thought they’d signed a treaty, hung up their bombs?” I said.
“Yeah, because a twenty-five-year civil war, with the ultimate goal to reunite Ireland, is just going to stop?”
Boy, my imagination can give me attitude. “Wasn’t there something signed in 1994, a cease fire? Didn’t the players decide to play like good friends?” My bubble burst, words flew through the air like shrapnel.
He ducked as a word spun by him and lodged in the wall.
“Look closer, Ellie. It never stopped. It’s just been muted. This year there has been a sizeable upswing in violence.”
“So what are you telling me? You need to be clear,” I said.
“Fiona is working with others – worldwide, they are raising funds for terrorist groups. Her husband has no clue.”
“How the fuck do I prove that?”
&nbs
p; “Fast, before you end up in hospital.”
Who knew that Christopher Chance was such a smartass? “Not helping.”
A double-decker bubble filled the top of the frame. “I’ll tell you where to look. You need to get into her financials. She has secret accounts. Some are offshore,” Chance said.
“Swiss?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to need a damn good reason to get a warrant for her financial records.” I thought for a minute. “Great, I already have grounds. She’s shooting at us, holding her husband hostage, and we know she has ties to Maguire, a man that Interpol said has terrorist connections, and she was blackmailing Bleich prior to the killings.”
“There you go. Now do it before Lee freaks out and has Kurt meet you here.”
“Well, no one would be freaking out if you didn’t start popping up and talking to me―”
“It’s what I do, I help people.” A cheeky lopsided smile broke free.
“You’re helping me right into a secure psychiatric facility.”
“Not if you work fast.”
“Yeah, thanks for that. Hope you can break me out once I’m locked up.”
“I’m multi-talented, you’ll be fine. Trust me.”
I stood up and walked back out the door. The bubbles behind me all flattened onto their frames. The colors faded until there was nothing there but black line drawings. It seemed like a good time to use the Synergy in my pocket – just in case the cartoon thing was some new type of migraine.
Lee was still talking to Kurt.
“Hang up,” I said.
Instead, he passed me the phone.
Kurt’s calm voice tickled my ear, “I need you to tell me that you’re okay.”
“Never better.”
“Lee’s worried.”
“I know. I got this. I’m okay.”
“Do you need me out there?”
If I said yes, he’d come. He’d come. Am I okay? I just had a conversation with a fictitious character in comic book format. How okay is that?
“It’ll make Lee feel better if you’re here. Make sure Sam can stay with Carla and help with the car search.”
“Now you’re worrying me.”
“Don’t. I’m okay.”
And I knew he’d be coming under lights and with his siren too. Way to freak everyone out, Ellie. I was surprised that my thoughts didn’t appear in a bubble.
I hung up and called Sandra while I reached for the laptop on Lee’s knee.
“Sandra I need a warrant, I need it fast. I want you to get me access to Fiona Sutherland’s financials, can you do that?”
“Of course. Say the special words …”
“Patriot Act. We suspect Fiona Sutherland has ties to terrorism.”
“Done, I’ll have an electronic version of the warrant sent to your phone within the next five minutes. Meanwhile, I’m sending you everything I have been able to access while we’ve been talking.”
“I owe you,” I said and checked my email for one from Sandra.
“Buy me a bottle of wine and help me drink it,” Sandra replied. “Warrant is on its way.”
I have no idea how she gets things done so fast. Best if I don’t ask. I dropped Lee’s phone into his outstretched hand. “All yours, thanks.”
I started searching through the links that Sandra sent, typing in possible passwords and I didn’t stop or look up until I accessed the financial records Chance told me about. Weird that he didn’t fade to Mac at the end of our conversation. Weird that I didn’t notice it right away. I scoured the records looking for deposits and withdrawals; after about five minutes I saw something.
“Okay, Lee, she’s treasurer for several charities. Large charities. Money is being syphoned from charities to several bank accounts, in small increments. It’s then shifted in larger amounts to various accounts offshore.”
“Good work.”
“Tell that to Chance.”
Shut up, Ellie.
“Jesus, Chicky, Chance again?”
I ignored him. “The diamonds would mean she wouldn’t have to carry on syphoning from charities. They would provide enough funds for whatever terrorist groups she’s been working with for years. More than that though, she could leave with her son and the unknown male she spoke to on the phone and start a whole new life.”
“So why didn’t they? Why not just take the diamonds and run, why all this mess?” Lee said tapping his phone on his leg.
“Because she wanted revenge.” Revenge is a vicious bitch that screws up everything.
“She’s a vengeful ex-lover? Wiping out the family, that’s a special kind of overkill don’t you think?” Lee said.
“Hell, yes. But she is a very vengeful ex-lover who has ties to scarier people.”
“Okay, we established she’s a bitch, but what does this have to do with Director Doyle and Director O’Hare?”
As soon as their names left Lee’s mouth, I knew the connection was Ireland.
“Who planted the bomb in the bullpen?” Lee said, taking his laptop back and tapping on the keys. “Sandra had six names?”
“Yes, that’s what she said. She was running backgrounds.” She was, and yet we had nothing. We were sitting in the dark.
No, really, we were sitting in the dark. When the hell did night fall?
Another gunshot echoed.
“I’ll look into it,” Lee said.
“I’m going to see Andrews. See what you can find. Call me.”
I climbed out the car and walked toward the SWAT truck. Lighting plants were set up, floodlights pointed at the house. The brilliance would blind anyone looking out the windows. It was okay for anyone outside where we were though. Down the street I saw a support truck. The cops who were there from the beginning were having hot drinks and something to eat. They’d rotated with fresh cops. Good to know people were thinking.
I knocked on the SWAT truck door and pulled it open.
Andrews waved me in. He was talking to Sutherland. She was on speaker. I waited in silence, listening to her demands. She wanted to leave the country.
I could arrange that. A smile crept up on me. Damn, I could. I tapped Andrews on the shoulder and mouthed he should accept her demand to leave the country.
He frowned.
I smiled.
He nodded and spoke to Sutherland. It was a short phone call after that. She seemed happy to be able to leave.
When the call went quiet, I sat down next to Andrews.
“I can arrange for her to leave the country … it won’t be quite what she expects once she’s airborne but she’ll be leaving.”
“You sure about this?”
“Oh, yeah. She’s a terrorist. Let me deal with her in time-honored fashion, okay?”
“If you say so, Conway.” He leaned on his elbows. “What about the hostage?”
“He might not make it,” I replied. “Collateral damage.”
You win some, you lose some.
“You’re talking like one of us.” He grinned. “Have you given any thought to joining SWAT three?”
“Lots of thought, and I’m happy at Delta.” I pulled my phone from my pocket and stood up. “I’ll just call and arrange that … flight.”
Extradition.
I stepped down from the truck onto the grass verge and walked away from the police, support personnel, and bystanders. As I walked, it grew darker. The call went well. Tierney wasn’t surprised to hear from me again, nor was he surprised by my solution to the issue of Fiona Sutherland. He asked after Iain Campbell and I lied. The last thing I wanted was Tierney to make Campbell disappear before I had everything he knew. I said he was helping us. We were helping each other.
Tierney put everything in motion. I ran back to my car and asked Lee to pull up the names of everyone in the charities who could access the financial records. He found two people. Within a few minutes, we’d narrowed that to just one – the one Fiona Sutherland called while we were here. The one who spoke to her in cod
e. We got the address.
New York.
I called Caine. Sometimes you need the help of the SAC. I told him we were going after someone from New York and that the arrest must coincide with Sutherland’s extraction. I would call when everything was in position. The crew of the plane Fiona Sutherland was traveling on was a rendition team. I figured I’d be crossing paths with Tim Cosgrove again. My favorite CIA relocation expert.
Before I made my next call, I opened the trunk of the car and found the burn phone I knew was in the first aid kit. We kept burn phone for emergencies. I used that phone to call the hospital just in case Tierney was monitoring my cell phone. If I was him, I would. I wanted to know Campbell’s condition. It wasn’t great. He was in surgery.
From the darkness in front of me, I heard familiar footsteps. I finished my call and threw the burn phone back into the kit as Kurt stepped under the street lamp.
“You okay?” he said.
“Yes.”
“How’s it going here?”
“Pretty good now. Did you find O’Hare?”
“We think so. Sam sent Noel’s team to bring them back.”
“Them?”
“Director Doyle and Noel Gerrard are with O’Hare.”
“Where were they?”
“We think they’re at an embassy.”
Embassy. Sanctuary. “No, they’re not. They’re in a church.”
“Conway? Their cars were at the British embassy.”
I shook my head. “They aren’t. They’re at the National Shrine. Go to the Basilica.”
“Based on what?”
“Sanctuary.”
I turned in time to see Chance running toward me from an open page of a comic book. He ran out of the page and thrust a piece of paper in my hand which read, “Doyle is working with Sutherland.”
“Kurt, I need you to act without argument. Doyle is working with Sutherland.” I looked to Chance for confirmation as I said, “Not Maria Doyle, but Chris Doyle. Director of NCIS, Chris Doyle.”
Chance’s lopsided grin came back. “Now you got it.”
“Ellie, what are you looking at?” Kurt eyes traveled from my face to my hand. I looked down. I thought I was holding a piece of paper but there was nothing there.
“Nothing. Just find Director Doyle.”
That was the connection I couldn’t find and that was why none of it would slot into place. Campbell couldn’t go to Doyle. He knew. Maguire knew Doyle. He’d been in on it with Doyle. And all too ready to lay all the blame for everything on Campbell. Delta’s task was to catch Campbell. I was sure Doyle hoped we’d shoot him, and that would be the end of that. I suppose he didn’t expect his little sister to toss a fuc’n great big wrench in the works by tipping us off to a murder.
