by D. F. Hart
She stopped and turned back to face him.
“What are we celebrating?”
“The Thompsons,” he grinned. “I put the pencil to it and those sweet souls telling all their friends and relatives about me has netted me almost five thousand dollars in commissions – and that’s just in the last two days. I’ve had eleven other couples set appointments with me over the next two weeks.”
“Wow, babe! That’s amazing!” Lizzie exclaimed as she rushed to hug him.
“I thought so. Now, go get comfy so I can feed you pasta and brag about my day a little bit.”
***
“Hey,” Grant said softly when Kelly answered. “I’m out.”
“Really? That’s great! What happened?”
“Well, it’s a long story. The short version is Agent Thomas found evidence that helps prove someone else is behind all this, so, they let me out. I’m going to keep working with him and do what I can to help catch this guy.”
“Why, honey? You’ve been through enough. Walk away and let them handle it.”
I don’t know how much I should tell her right now, Grant realized. I don’t want to do anything to frighten her – or mess up Agent Thomas’s plans.
“And I will,” he soothed. “But there’s a couple of things I can help with first. The sooner they catch him, the better. You know it and I know it.”
Because if something happened to you, I’d never forgive myself, he added silently.
He paused, then told her, “I don’t know how soon I’m going to be able to get my normal life back, Kelly. But I really want to see you. What’s your work schedule?”
“Actually, I shifted some things around. I work tomorrow, and after that I’m off until Friday July third.”
“So, you can come back down here?”
“You bet I can. I’d already planned on it. I should be there tomorrow night around seven. Where do you want to meet me? Trish’s house?”
***
Later, as she snuggled next to Donny on the couch, Lizzie said, “I was thinking.”
“What about?”
“Marriage. More specifically, weddings, to be honest.”
“Do tell,” he prompted, turning down the volume on the television to give her his undivided attention.
“What would you say to taking an Alaskan cruise and having the captain marry us while we’re on the ship?”
“I would say you give me the dates you’d like to travel, and I can make that happen,” came the reply just before he kissed her.
“I do have one question, though.”
“Lay it on me,” Lizzie told him.
“You’re not going to give me a hard time about using my miles for your airfare anymore, right?”
She laughed. “No. We’re a ‘we’ now, silly.”
“That would be yes,” Donny said softly as he stroked her cheek. “Yes, we are.”
***
Before Nathan had gotten a third of the way into The Three Little Pigs Charlie was sound asleep.
He gently laid his son down, kissed his forehead, and crept out of the room.
“He’s down,” Nathan announced proudly to Bella. “Didn’t take as long as I thought it might. We only got to the house made out of straw this time.”
“He loves that story,” she said with a smile. “I bet it will be the first one he picks up and reads on his own.”
“You think? I was more of a Cat in the Hat kid, myself.”
Bella giggled. “Meanwhile I wore everybody out asking for Beauty and the Beast over and over again.”
She sidled up to him and put her hands on his chest.
“So, Agent Thomas,” she said, “could I interest you in a hot bath?”
“Only if you join me.”
“I believe that can be arranged,” she purred, then gently grabbed his tie and led him down the hallway.
***
The team reassembled as planned the following morning. Joining them was Rick and Grant.
“Okay. Here’s what we know,” Nathan began, and summarized the evidence collected to date, taking great care to keep the bulk of what Bernice had shared to himself.
“Now, we know that whoever our killer is, he’s definitely focused on Grant. The audio and video surveillance devices alone prove that. But taking that next step of killing people Grant comes into contact with, rather than attacking Grant directly, is extremely unusual. Most stalkers focus on their person of interest and only that person, and anyone else hurt or killed along the way is incidental to their primary goal of reaching the object of their obsession. We’re planning to trap this individual, so we need to understand his motivation so that we can best bait our trap. Why target others, when he is clearly obsessed with Grant? Why not go after Grant directly? That’s the big question.”
“The first things that come to my mind are anger and jealousy,” Annie interjected. “He’s pissed at Grant, jealous of him, so he wants to take Grant down.”
“Revenge could be another angle,” Ben pointed out. “This guy has it in his head that Grant wronged him somehow.”
“And he might even be scared to take on Grant directly,” Lizzie added. “Maybe this guy’s more of a passive-aggressive type. You know, one of those that if someone cuts him off on the freeway he won’t yell or honk his horn, but he will follow them and wait for them to park and walk away and then key their car’s paint.”
“But here’s the thing - I honestly can’t think of a single person I could have wronged or made angry in some way,” Grant revealed. “Not to this level. I mean, I did break Jeremiah Bortac’s nose when Dad died, but that was after Ed and Stella had been killed.”
All eyes turned to him.
“He was my dad’s boss, and he came to the hospital worried about his precious delivery route, and I knocked him on his ass,” Grant explained, with fire in his eyes. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s directly responsible for my father’s death. He worked him into the ground.”
Can’t say I blame you, dude, Lizzie thought to herself.
She leaned forward.
“Keep in mind, Grant. It’s perception. You probably didn’t do anything to this man. But obviously someone who would kill complete strangers over some sort of grudge, real or imagined, has issues,” Lizzie told him. “It’s likely that reality for this person is altered a great deal.”
“It’s probable,” Nathan agreed. “Therefore, we need to plan with the built-in assumption that this individual is highly volatile and dangerous. I would much, much rather execute Plan A, where we find his home base and take him into custody there to lessen the chances of collateral damage. But if we can’t manage that, then we’ll have to move to Plan B - apprehend him at the Fourth of July events going on up at Fort Richardson. Which means Annie takes Kelly’s place as a tour guide, wearing a blond wig – and a bulletproof vest under her uniform top.”
Annie nodded her agreement. “Happy to do it if it takes this jackass down.”
“About that,” Grant said. “I talked to Kelly last night. I wasn’t sure how much detail to go into, so, I just let her know I was out, and that I was helping you. Then I worked the conversation around to her schedule. She’s traded days with people. She’s working today, and then she’s off until Friday. She’s driving down here to Aunt Trish’s house tonight.”
“I will be taking you to Joe and Trish’s house this evening, and you and I will bring all of them up to speed at the same time,” Nathan told him. “I don’t want to get too far into the details with them, but they will need to have a general idea of what’s coming. And I’ll need for Kelly and your mom to stay put where Joe can keep them safe until I tell them it’s okay to leave. Fair enough?”
Grant nodded. “I completely agree.”
Rick’s phone chimed. “That’s the signal. Program’s done. I need to get down to the lab, plant the vine.”
“Go,” Nathan urged. “I’ll catch you up later.”
“I’ll be back,” Rick called out as he snatche
d another donut then hustled to the elevator.
“Okay,” Nathan paused for a drink of coffee. “Let me share what I’ve come up with for each plan, and let’s round table them, get any kinks worked out, make sure they’re solid. I don’t think we’ll have more than one chance to capture this guy.”
***
The meeting adjourned at eleven a.m. for an extended lunch break.
“Everyone be back here at one, ready to keep going,” Nathan directed. “Stepping away for two hours then coming back to it should help us see any holes we need to fill in.”
He went to his office briefly to check his emails and was just about to step out again when his phone rang.
“Yes, sir,” he said to the Director. “Yes, sir, I believe those files will be invaluable in our efforts to apprehend the suspect. Yes, sir, I’m on my way.”
He poked his head back in the conference room.
“Lizzie, Rick, can you take Grant to lunch? I need to speak with the Director for a bit. I’ll meet you there.”
“Usual place?”
“Yep.”
***
After waiting for twenty minutes for Nathan, Lizzie, Rick, and Grant gave up and ordered.
“They have really good chicken fried steak here,” Lizzie told the writer. “Matter of fact, my very first meal with Donny was right here in this restaurant.”
“I did not know that, Liz. That’s sweet,” Rick said.
Grant looked puzzled. “How do you two know each other?”
“Well,” Lizzie said, “Rick is engaged to Nathan’s sister, who just happens to be my best friend.”
“Ah, that explains it, then,” Grant murmured.
“Explains what?” Nathan asked as he joined them at the table.
“The camaraderie you have going here,” Grant clarified. “You all don’t just work together; you have friendships and genuinely care about each other. It shows.”
“It helps make the team stronger, in my opinion,” Lizzie observed. “You have people around you that actually do have your back. It matters.”
***
That evening Nathan and Grant walked up the front steps and knocked on Trish’s door.
“Hey, Aunt Ish,” Grant said as he walked in and was immediately rushed by Trish, Bernice, and Kelly for a group hug.
“Hey, Nathan,” Joe called out as he approached. “Good to see you both. Get yourself in here. I assume you’re going to tell us what the hell’s going on?”
***
Three pale, wide-eyed faces stared back at Nathan twenty minutes later. Joe sat off to the side wearing a grim expression.
“Is this safe?” Bernice asked. “How much danger will he be in?”
“I’m going to try to keep the level as low as I can,” Nathan told her. “If we can find his nest, Grant won’t even have to be there. We can take him there and not put anyone at all at risk other than my team.”
“But if not,” Joe interjected, “you’re gonna have to draw him out.”
Nathan nodded. “Everything we’ve found out so far leads me to believe he’ll show up at Fort Richardson and try to harm Kelly.”
He looked directly at her.
“That’s why one of my agents will take your place for the weekend, just in case,” he told her.
“I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me,” she protested. “I can do this. Let me help.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t allow that,” left Nathan’s lips at the same time Grant said, “No way in hell, honey.”
“You can’t tell me what to do,” she said quietly to Grant.
“You’re right, I can’t. But I can and will tell you that if anything happened to you it would crush me. Please, Kelly, please agree to stay out of this.”
She gazed into his worried eyes.
“Okay,” she told him, and squeezed his hand. “Okay.”
Then Kelly turned and looked at Nathan.
“But I insist on doing one thing.”
“And that is?”
“I’ll need to make some flash cards for your agent. There’s a lot she will need to know about Fort Richardson.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The next morning Rick raced through Nathan’s office door.
“I’ve got a location,” he announced, and handed Nathan a slip of paper. “And I went ahead and drilled down into who owns the place and got a name for you.”
“Yes!” Nathan immediately picked up his desk phone to inform the Director.
“I was just about to call you,” the Director said. “I pushed your request through personally and was able to get those files you wanted. They’re ready to pick up.”
“I’m on my way to get them, then,” Nathan answered. “And our IT efforts paid off. We have a name and a location, sir.”
“I suppose it goes without saying that you need to make damn sure that name is the right one, Agent Thomas,” the Director intoned. “The last thing we need is to descend on the wrong house.”
“Sir, I already planned to cross-check what we’ve found against those files.”
“Keep me posted.”
Nathan hung up and grinned at Rick. “It’s coming together. With a little luck, we can catch this guy using Plan A.”
***
By eleven a.m. Nathan Thomas was sitting in the conference room with Lizzie, Annie, and Ben.
“What we’re about to review doesn’t leave this room,” he told his team. “Need to know only, and no one else needs to know. Got it?”
They all nodded.
“I need you each to take a folder,” he directed, tapping the stack in front of him. “Skim them, see if anything in them lines up with our suspect. If they do, set them in the middle of the table. With all of us working this, we should be able to parse out possibilities fairly quickly.”
Each of them took a folder and began skimming the contents.
“This one doesn’t pertain to our case,” Lizzie said almost immediately, and pointed to one page when Nathan raised an eyebrow.
“Yep, you’re right. Grab another one.”
“I.... I need to take a moment. I’ll be right back,” Annie said, her eyes welling with tears. She stood and walked briskly out of the room.
“Some of this... it’s tough to read, boss,” Ben murmured.
“I agree,” Nathan answered. “But we don’t have a choice. Our killer is somewhere in these files.”
“Man,” Lizzie blew out a deep breath and rubbed her eyes. “This is over the top. No wonder they sealed these.”
Annie returned a few minutes later, pale but composed, and resumed her seat at the table.
In an hour’s time, they’d sorted through the folders and retained three that most closely matched their suspect.
“Run these down,” Nathan told his team. “Anything at all you can find out about them, as quickly as possible. Rick has pinpointed the location for us, and he’s found who that property is registered to. We’ve got to have a match before I can go get arrest and search warrants.”
***
After some consideration, he’d opted to stick to his original plan rather than try to take Kelly Moore for his own.
Shame, really. But killing her will hurt him far worse than just stealing her away ever could. Especially when I leave enough clues that lead right to his doorstep.
The only thing standing in his way was his doctor’s mandate about lifting more than four pounds. He’d tested that limit a couple of times over the first few weeks and had immediately regretted his decision to push the envelope.
He nodded as his doctor spoke, then asked, “I’m supposed to hang out with some friends this weekend at the lake, doc. Am I going to be able to fish at all?”
The physician considered it, and answered, “If you’re careful about it, yes. I still don’t want you lifting anything really heavy, but you’re healing nicely. I’d say we can increase the weight to ten pounds or so.”
Sweet, he thought. Because the Winchester only weighs nine a
nd a half. I’m back in business.
Happy Fourth of July, indeed.
The doctor still speaking to him attributed his patient’s smile to the eased physical restrictions.
“I’m glad I was able to give you good news. So, that’s it for now. Let’s follow up in two weeks, shall we?”
He nodded again as the doctor left the exam room.
“I’ve got some serious planning to do,” he murmured as he pulled his shirt back on, “and only two days to do it if I want to be up there by Thursday.”
***
“Boss,” Ben called out to Nathan in the hall.
“Be right there.”
A few minutes later Nathan walked to Ben’s desk.
“We can rule this one out, boss,” Ben relayed. “He died in a drunk driving accident four years ago.”
“Noted. Annie, how is yours coming along?”
“I’m following up, but all indications are he moved overseas last summer, Nathan.”
“No trips back to the States?”
“None.”
“Guys,” Lizzie motioned to them, “I’ve got it. Come look at this.”
Nathan led the way over to her desk and his eyebrows raised when she showed them what she’d just pieced together.
“We found him,” Nathan said triumphantly.
“Here’s his address of record,” Lizzie revealed, and printed it off. “He’s not listed as the property owner, so, he’s probably renting it.”
“Give me everything you’ve got, Lizzie, so I can get it in front of the Director and try to get warrants in motion. The festivities at Fort Richardson kick off in four days. We’re running out of time.”
“Annie,” Nathan said, “I need you to go visit with Kelly. Get acquainted and start learning as much as you can from her about being a tour guide at Fort Richardson.””
“You think we’ll have to go to Plan B?”
Nathan’s jaw set. “If we can’t get warrants before Wednesday morning, yes. And I don’t know if we can. The Director’s already pulled two strings to get things done quickly. I don’t think we’ll be that lucky with a third one.”
***
When Wednesday morning came and went with no warrants coming through, Nathan sighed and said, “Okay, guys. I’m sending you up to Jacksboro as a group this afternoon, and I’m sending Grant back with you. Three cars for the trip up – Grant’s, Kelly’s, and an unmarked unit. I’ll stay here, for now, in case the warrant comes through, and if we capture him down here, I’ll let you know. Everyone remember the plan?”
