by J. C. Fields
***
Bishop paid for another day at the motel as he waited to hear from Reggie. It was close to 9 in the evening when his cell phone vibrated. Glancing at the caller ID, he accepted the call. “What’d you find?”
“I found him. In the morgue.”
Bishop was silent for a moment. “Go on.”
“The body was found Tuesday morning, no ID, and a bullet hole just above his right eyebrow. They have him listed as John Doe.”
“Did you identify him?”
“Hell no! You think I’m stupid? I gave the morgue attendant two hundred bucks, told him I was looking for my missing brother. By the way, you owe me fifty two hundred.”
“Fine. Where did they find him?”
“You’re going to love this.” The voice on the other end of the call laughed. “The body was sitting in a bus stop across the street from City Hall and the police department in downtown Kansas City.”
Bishop did not find any humor in this fact. “Was he killed there?”
“No, police report says he was killed elsewhere and moved to the bench. No one saw anything. Time of death was somewhere around midnight the previous night. Lots of security cameras around. Police are scratching their heads; all the cameras have a ten-minute gap around 3 a.m.”
“What about the FBI agent?”
“No idea. He wasn’t mentioned.”
“Damn. How did they find Amal so fast?”
“Was that his name?”
“Don’t worry about it. I need you to find someone else.”
“Sure, for another five thousand.”
Bishop was silent for a long while. “Fine.”
“Who am I looking for?”
“An FBI agent named Sean Kruger.”
“How do you spell it?”
Bishop spelled the name. “Try to find out where he is and get back to me.”
“It may take a few days.”
“Yes, yes, yes. Just find him.”
After the call ended, Bishop let out a long breath. He doubted Kruger would take his family back to their house. He would find someplace safe and out of the way. If anyone could find the place, Reggie would.
In the meantime, he needed a place to stay for a while. The perfect solution presented itself that evening as he ate dinner in a restaurant next to the hotel.
***
Rosie Singleton lived in a small cookie-cutter ranch-style home in Hallsville, MO, twenty-two miles north of Columbia. Life had slapped her in the face more times than it had patted her on the back. Now in her mid-forties, twice divorced from abusive husbands, childless, and working at a dead-end job with the city of Columbia, she still shared a smile with everyone. Another attribute passed on to her from her mother was a natural high metabolism, which kept her relatively slim. Her hair was prematurely gray, but still dark brown, thanks to a box of Miss Clairol purchased each month at a Columbia Walmart.
She kept her hair shoulder length and straight, sometimes pulled it back in a ponytail, sometimes not. Her face was oblong, with a small nose supporting black-rimmed glasses in front of hazel eyes. Her father was half Cherokee, which gave her an exotic skin tone. Combined with her five-foot-eight-inch height, getting attention from men was not a problem. Having to deal with the attention was.
One of her favorite activities was meeting several girl friends on Tuesday and Thursdays for dinner at a local Country Kitchen close to her office. It was Thursday, so the four friends sat in a booth laughing and sharing the latest gossip.
Randolph Bishop was eating at a table next to them.
“I’ve been saving for this vacation for five years,” Rosie announced as the laugher subsided from one of Betty’s jokes. Betty was several years older than Rosie and her best friend.
“You’ve been talking about it for at least ten, girlfriend,” Betty sat next to Rosie and put a hand on her arm. “Aren’t you scared to take a cruise by yourself?”
Shaking her head, Rosie straightened in her chair. “Nah. It’s a Christian-based cruise for singles only. I’m hoping the men aren’t too religious, if you know what I mean.”
All the girls laughed again.
Rosie continued, “Besides, once the cruise is over, I’ll never have to see them again.”
More laughter.
“When do you leave?” another friend asked.
“I have to drive to St. Louis in the morning to catch a Southwest flight to Houston. I’ll be gone for two whole weeks.” Rosie smiled. “I’ve never taken two weeks at a time before. I figure one week of cruising, then another week to recuperate.”
They all laughed again.
Randolph Bishop heard every word the booth full of middle-aged women said. He lingered at his table staring at his cell phone until they were done. When they started splitting up their bill, he stood and walked to the cashier to pay his check. He waited in his new SUV and watched until Rosie Singleton walked to her car. After she waved to her friends, she opened the door of her Honda Civic, sat down, and drove out of the restaurant parking lot. Fifteen seconds later a white Chevy Equinox followed.
Chapter 33
Springfield, MO
Kruger and Knoll followed JR down the stairs to the second floor and to a cubicle where Joseph stood. He smiled. “Good to see you this morning, Sean.”
“Thanks for everyone’s help last night.”
“Our pleasure.”
JR positioned himself in front of a dual set of computer screens, using a mouse to click on an icon on the screen. “Listen to this.”
“My man in Kansas City may have been compromised.”
“He hasn’t called me, if that’s what you’re referring to. Where is he?”
“My friend, how can I continue to trust your judgment in these matters? You owe our organization millions of your American dollars, yet you have delivered nothing. What am I to do?”
“What you were supposed to do was refer me to someone competent.”
There was a lengthy moment of silence, Kruger started to say something, but JR raised his index finger and said, “Wait.”
“Your problem, not mine. We have spent a lot of time and money to get you back to the United States. Yet you continue to push back about paying your debt.”
“I will provide the funds we discussed. You are the one who recommended Amal. How do I know he hasn’t used the woman for his own pleasure and killed her?”
“He is a loyal member of our society. He is disciplined. And if he has, Allah have mercy.”
“Yeah, well, how come your loyal member hasn’t checked in for over twenty-four hours?”
“As I mentioned earlier, he may have been compromised.”
“I need this meddlesome FBI agent out of the way. The woman and child were to be used as bait. With them, he would have walked into my trap. Now I’m left with one conclusion. The person you recommended screwed up.”
“Pay your debt, Mr. Bishop. If you don’t… Our reach is long, and you will have nowhere to hide.”
“Yeah, yeah, so you’ve told me…”
The conversation stopped.
Joseph crossed his arms over his chest. “NSA?”
JR nodded. “I found the number on the SIM card from the kidnapper’s phone. Both numbers for Bishop and the man in Thailand were previously unknown to me. They’re using different burner phones on almost every call.”
“How are they communicating the numbers to call?” Kruger asked.
“Don’t know, haven’t figured that out yet.”
Kruger started pacing. “At least we have the answers to a lot of questions about Bishop.”
Joseph nodded. “He was sent here to raise money to pay a debt of some kind.”
Shaking his head, Kruger stopped and looked at Joseph. “No, I think he’s running a scam on them. He needed help getting back into the states. His ego is such, he figured once he was here, he could outsmart them. He’d buy another identity, one they don’t know about, and disappear again.”
“Do you have
a recording of the call to Amal from Thailand?”
JR smiled. “It’s in Thai, but I’ve run it through a translation program, so it’s going to sound mechanical. I’ll play the pertinent parts.” His hand moved the mouse until it was hovering over another icon on the computer screen and he clicked it.
“Do you still work for the property management company?”
“Yes.”
“Good. There is a man, his name is Bishop, he has job for you.”
“What is job?”
“He needs you to take a woman and a child from an address in Overland Park and keep them at one of those rental houses you work on.”
“How long do I keep them?”
“A few days.”
“Then what?”
“Use your imagination.”
“Ahhh… How much do I get paid?”
“You will need to negotiate with Bishop. I am a mere functionary getting you and him together. He will have all the details.”
Kruger sat down. “He had no intention of letting them go.”
Joseph looked at his old friend. “You didn’t think he would, did you?”
“No. I knew he wouldn’t.” Kruger frowned. “JR, did you find any of the calls between Bishop and Amal?”
“Nope, the only recordings I have access within the NSA system are foreign to domestic and domestic to foreign. They say they don’t record domestic calls.” A smirk appeared. “Right…”
Sandy Knoll crossed his arms over his wide chest. “We’re wasting time. Where’s Bishop?”
Kruger hid his smile with a hand while Joseph’s eyes showed agreement.
Oblivious to Knoll’s frustration, JR replied, “Glad you asked. Bishop’s phone is still in the Columbia area. At least it was until a while ago. The phone he used to talk to Thailand is dark, which means he’s destroyed it, or taken the battery out.”
Kruger’s eyes widened, and he stood up. “He’s still in Columbia?”
Knoll placed his hand on Kruger’s shoulder. “My men are still there. Brian and Michelle are under their protection and safe.”
JR was typing on his keyboard, his head staring at only one screen. “All the phones I know about are dark. I’m having them pinged every five minutes. But none are showing active. He could be anywhere.”
Taking a deep breath, Kruger pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and walked away from the cubicle. Joseph followed.
With the cell phone against his ear, he was silent waiting for his call to be completed.
“Alan, it’s Sean.”
“Any word on Bishop?”
“No, nothing concrete. We think he’s in the Columbia, Missouri area. Can you ask the KC office to have them notify the Columbia PD to be on the lookout for stolen cars and missing women?”
“I’ll have them send a couple of agents over for a few days.”
“It could be nothing, Alan. He may be long gone.”
“Do you want to take that chance?”
“No.”
“I’ll call you when they have someone there.”
Kruger ended the call and looked at Joseph. “I feel like I’m spinning my wheels. Bishop’s out there somewhere just beyond our reach. I’m worried some poor soul is going to pay for our incompetence with their life.”
“Maybe not.”
Kruger gave Joseph a scornful look. “You and I both know he’s going to hold up somewhere. For how long, who knows? If we don’t have some kind of contact with him in the next few days, someone will be dead, and it will be my fault.”
***
Rosie Singleton didn’t drive to St. Louis on Friday morning. She couldn’t. She was tied up. Each of her arms and legs were tied to one of the four cherry wood posts on the bedframe she inherited from her grandmother. Her left eye was swollen, turning black and blue from the first blow Randolph Bishop landed as she opened the door the previous evening. Subsequent strikes with a belt on her body had left welts and a few cuts. She was naked, except for her panties and a strip of duct tape across her mouth.
Bishop stood at the bottom on the bed looking at the partially conscious woman. The smile on his face grew as he used a pair of scissors to cut away Rosie’s underpants. Once they were off, he unzipped his pants and climbed onto the bed. Rosie suddenly realized what was going to happen, stared at him, and tried to scream.
***
JR stared at the computer screens without blinking for fifteen minutes. Mia stood behind him rubbing his shoulders. “You’re awful tense, JR.”
He nodded.
“How long are you going to stare at it?”
“All night, if I have to.”
“Again, what are you looking for?”
“Bishop’s left a trail somewhere. There has to be some trace of him. It’s not possible in this day and age to do anything and not leave an electronic crumb.”
Mia continued to rub his shoulders. “How’s he getting around?”
“Rental.”
“If he’s in Columbia, could you check to see if someone has turned in a rental in the past couple of days from, let’s say, out in the west?”
JR whipped around and stared at Mia. “Most rentals are local, returned to the location it was rented from.” He returned to the computer keyboard and started typing furiously, the shoulder rub forgotten.
***
An hour later, Kruger, Joseph, and Sandy Knoll stood behind JR as he explained the files on the computer screen. “After searching one-way rentals made over the past six days, I came across this one in Columbia.” He pointed to the left screen. “A Gary Yates returned, without prior approval from the rental company, a Dodge Charger rented in Phoenix, Arizona, to the Hertz counter in Columbia. The Charger was rented two days before Bishop’s Jeep was found stripped and abandoned. There is a note by the rental agent. The renter did not complain about the stiff fine he paid and then walked to the taxi queue and left via a cab.”
Kruger murmured, “Huh.”
Knoll leaned over to look at the file closer. “What are the odds?”
JR tapped a few more keys and pointed to another file. “This is the paperwork sent to the Jefferson City office of the Missouri Department of Revenue by Joe Maxim’s Ford in Columbia. Gary Yates paid ninety-nine hundred dollars, cash, for a white 2012 Chevrolet Equinox the next day.”
“It’s him, JR.”
“I would agree.”
“But where is he now?” asked Sandy.
JR held up a finger and smiled. “There is a hotel next to the car lot. I hacked into their registration system and guess what?”
“Gary Yates was registered,” Kruger folded his arms across his chest.
JR nodded. “Checked out this morning.”
Kruger turned away from the group and stared out one of the windows close to the cubicle. After several minutes, he turned back and put his hands on his hips.
Joseph spoke first. “I’ve seen that look before. What are you thinking, Sean.”
All three of the other men in the room looked at Kruger.
“In the late nineties, Chevrolet started putting On-Star service on their vehicles. Now the units are standard equipment. On-Star has many functions, but one of the main functions is to provide hands-free GPS directions to drivers. To do that, the On-Star system has to…”
“…Know where the vehicle is at all the times,” JR finished, his eyes widening.
Kruger nodded.
Without another word, JR turned back to his computer and started doing what he did best—hacking into a corporate server.
***
An hour later, the four men sat in JR’s conference room. JR turned his laptop so the rest of the group could see a map on the screen. He pointed to a dot north of Columbia, in a small town labeled Hallsville.
“That is the current location of the Equinox purchased by Gary Yates. According to the Boone County Assessor’s office, the house at that location is owned by a woman named Rosie Singleton. Rosie works for the City of Columbia as an admin for th
e City Attorney. Mia called the office and asked for her. She was told Rosie was on vacation for the next two weeks.” JR looked at each of the men seated at the conference table. “I would say she’s in trouble.”
Knoll stood up and left the conference room.
Kruger stood as well. “I’ve got my go-bag in the car, Steph and Kristin are safe here. I’m going to Columbia, and hopefully, I can stop this psychopath from killing again.”
JR looked up at him. “I’m going, too.”
Kruger stared at his friend. “We need you here for the information.”
JR pointed at the laptops. “They’re portable, Sean.”
Kruger looked at Joseph, who nodded. “I’ll stay here. Besides, I’m getting too old for this stuff.”
Knoll stuck his head back into the room. “I’ve pulled three of the six guys I have in Columbia heading toward the house. They’ll put it under surveillance until I get there.”
“JR and I are going. You can follow me with your Denali; we’ll need your equipment. I’ll call a buddy of mine with the Highway Patrol and clear the way. He might even provide an escort.”
Knoll smiled, nodded, and headed toward the stairs.
Kruger turned to JR. “Go pack something fast.”
JR nodded toward a backpack in the corner of the conference room. “Already did.”
***
“We think we’ve found Bishop.”
Stephanie stood staring at her husband, her arms crossed over her chest, frowning. She started to say something, but hesitated.
“Did you hear me?”
She nodded, but dipped her eyes and studied the carpet. “I heard you.” She paused for a few moments. “But… I don’t want you going.”
Kruger took a breath and tilted his head slightly to the left. “Really. Why?”
She shook her head, “Not sure. I want Bishop out of our lives. But…”
The silence made Kruger shiver. “What are you concerned about, Steph?”
