by Dan Kelly
Janet and I both nod and Janet asks, “When are our bodyguards going to show up?”
“The first team will be here when you show up tomorrow and somebody will be watching your backs from then on until this whole nightmare is over.”
“Let’s hope that won’t be very long.” Pausing and then turning to me she adds, “I could use some liquid courage, Dawson. How about you drop me off at my office and then meet me at Brennan’s over on Courtland? My treat. You’re invited too, Don.”
I accept and Don declines, saying he has to have a final briefing with Piedmont and that will put him in a mood that won’t make for pleasant company. “Janet, you’re not one of his favorite people. As you’ve probably guessed by now, his most favorite person is himself. I’ll have to listen to him bitch about what a bitch you are for who knows how long and then he’ll subject me to a third degree like I was a rookie still wet behind the ears. From the way he’s been talking, it’s apparent to me that he’s hoping the Crusader collar or demise will give him a big boost up the Bureau hierarchy ladder and is going to be a big thorn in my ass until this is a done deal. ”
“Don, Piedmont isn’t Mr. Personality. His attitude is going to have him stepping on toes that shouldn’t be stepped on and he’ll find himself moving the wrong way on that hierarchy ladder. Just hang in there.”
Janet chimed in with, “I agree and if he doesn’t behave himself I’ll give him a little nudge in that direction with some very bad press.”
“Thank you for your support. Now get out of here and have a drink for me.”
We split and when we pulled out of the underground garage the traffic situation had gotten much worse with the added cars of people just getting off work and heading for home. “Janet, there’s got to be some place close by we can hang out until this lightens up some.”
“The only place I know of around here is Denny’s Den over on Churchill Avenue. I haven’t been there in a while. It used to be a great place to grab a bite to eat and wash it down with your choice from a full service bar. They had a limited menu, but the food was good. It had a neighborhood sports bar ambience with TV monitors all over the place for all the games of the season, pools for all the major sports, pinball machines and a pool table.
“That sounds like my kind of hangout. Let’s hang out there for an hour or so, okay?”
“Sure. We might as well sit there as in traffic. I’m going to have to limit myself to one glass of wine though because I still have to clean up a few things at the office.”
“How long will that take you?”
“An hour or so.”
Looking at my watch I say, “It’s a quarter after five. If we hang out at Denny’s Den until say six thirty, the traffic should have thinned out quite a bit by then. I should be dropping you off at your office by seven and you should be on your way home by eight. That’ll give you enough time to get a decent night’s sleep, so you’ll be raring to go at six tomorrow morning.”
“So what are you waiting for? Time’s a wasting.”
Chapter 17
Denny’s Den is still there and after we’ve been seated and Janet has had a chance to look around she says, “It hasn’t changed a bit from what I can see. I used to come here a lot when I was a cub reporter. I met my first congressman over there by that pinball machine. I picked up the scent of a lot of good stories here. A lot of government types used to come in, but they’re as fickle as anyone else and gradually drifted away to other in places around D. C.”
We spend a very pleasant hour eating, sipping on some wine and talking about a lot of different things and we even played some pool. She whipped my butt at three games of nine ball. I’m really getting to like this lady and that’s making me a little nervous as to where this relationship might be heading. Up until now I’ve been a happy and contented bachelor, used to doing things my way when I want to do them and not having to check in with anybody.
When it’s time to leave, I motion to the waiter to bring me the tab and Janet heads to the ladies room. After I pay the tab, I get up and walk over to the rear exit which leads to the parking lot out back where I parked my car and wait for Janet to come out of the ladies room. As I’m looking around at nothing in particular some movement catches my eye over in the bar area. When I look over there, I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Hank Aldrich has just sat down at the bar. He must have sensed someone looking at him as he looks in the mirror behind the bar and when he spots me looking at him his eyes get as big as saucers and he takes off like the proverbial bat out of hell. He is out the front door and gone before I get halfway to the door. For a pot-bellied geek he sure can move.
When Janet comes out of the ladies room, I latch onto her arm and start running for my car. “Hey, what’s the rush? You’re not skipping out without paying our bill are you?”
I quickly tell her about who I just saw and say, “He might still be around here somewhere and maybe if we drive around and check the streets close to the restaurant we might spot him.”
“Okay, then what. As the saying goes ‘This guy is armed and dangerous. Do not approach. Call 911’. What are you going to do if you spot him? Try to run him over?”
“I haven’t gotten that far in my thinking yet. I’m playing this by ear.”
I reach into my center console and withdraw my Glock which I keep fully loaded with one in the chamber and place it between my legs.
“You carry a gun?”
“I’m licensed to carry a concealed weapon and know how to use it if I have to and I’ve had to on a few occasions. I’ll leave you here if you want me to, but I figured the reporter in you would skin me alive if I even suggested it.”
“You argue dirty. Okay, drive on Dirty Harry. Try not to get us killed.”
Using Denny’s Den as the focal point, I drive around the first block and then two blocks from Denny’s in all four directions, then three and so on until I was ten blocks out and coming up with nil.
“Well, it was worth a shot. Since we didn’t spot him on foot anywhere, he either got lucky and hopped a cab right outside the restaurant or had a car parked around the corner from the front door. I noticed some metered parking there when we arrived earlier. Spotting him here dropping in for a drink has me thinking that he might be holed up somewhere close by Denny’s Den or at least somewhere in D. C. Of course, I could be all wet and he’s just in town for another encore.”
The traffic had thinned out quite a bit, but having to deal with traffic lights and moronic drivers I managed to kill close to ninety minutes on a wild goose chase and apologized to Janet for digging into her sack time.
“Hey, even though I was a little scared I’m glad we did what we did. Boy, what a story that would have made if we had seen him and you were able to subdue him or at least corner him until the police arrived. Do you think we should have called Ericson or the police right away instead of trying to find him ourselves? More bodies might have made the difference.”
“I don’t know. If we had waited for help to arrive, if the Crusader was still in the vicinity he probably would have hightailed it before they responded. It was a judgment call and we’ll never know if what we decided to do was the right way to go.”
By the time I get Janet back to her office it’s after eight-thirty and she’s decided to head for home and try to address the things she wanted to clear up at her office from the FBI conference room tomorrow. I drive her to her car and when she’s on her way home I head for home as well. Today is definitely a day I’m going to remember for a while, especially the dinner part.
Tomorrow bodes well for another day to remember. Hopefully, the phones will start ringing off the hook with good leads, I’ll get the chance to talk with Aldrich’s sister and she’ll have something helpful to say and Don will find the perfect stand-in for the Presidential trap. We haven’t had time to focus on developing the kind of trap that will entice the Crusader to make a move on the man, but we’re going to have to make time if this media blitz does what w
e want it to do. Of course, if we get real lucky and get a lead that will enable us to put an end to this guy’s string of vengeful killings we won’t need a trap. Yeah, like that’s likely to happen, but if it does I’ll seriously reconsider playing the lottery and responding to the Publishers Clearing House emails.
Chapter 18
At five forty-five the next morning, Don, Janet and I are standing in front of a TV in the conference room, bagels loaded with cream cheese and coffee in hand waiting for the first BOLO to hit the airwaves. While we’re waiting, Janet and I tell Don about our little escapade with the Crusader.
When we’re finished he says, “I agree with you, Chet. I think he’s probably holed up somewhere in D. C. He’ll most likely stay here until he’s finished what he’s set out to do. While we’re waiting for the curtain to go up on our little one act play, I’d like to share with you two my thoughts on a location for our Crusader trap.”
I say, “The floor is all yours.”
“I believe the ideal setting for a trap would be the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. It definitely will have some symbolic meaning for Aldrich and it’s a place the President visits often, so him going there will not seem unusual and raise any suspicions on Aldrich’s part. I’m thinking of staging a phony interview with media people on the helipad, all of whom will be FBI personnel, and of course Nora Sinclair will be standing just behind the President’s impersonator to intercept the Crusader if he manages to get that close to the man.
“If our media scheme works like we want it to, Aldrich will be hacking into the President’s office computers to try to access the President’s daily calendar so he can look for the ideal place to make his move. We’ll have the Medical Center visit on his schedule with a note stating the visit is to be low key with minimum security and only reporters that the President has a preference for will be allowed to interview him on the helipad at the end of his visit and they won’t be notified until the morning of the day of the visit.
“The impersonator’s disguise will only have to fool the Crusader as everyone else will be in on what’s going down and if anything goes wrong and someone gets hurt we couldn’t be in a better place for medical treatment. How do you two feel about this scenario?”
A nanosecond later I’m saying, “I like it. I like it.”
Janet enthusiastically agrees and then asks, “Can I be one of the reporters? The Crusader knows who I am and my presence would add authenticity to the plot.”
“I thought of that, but after this media blitz is launched you definitely aren’t going to be one of his favorite people and he might decide to try to take you out as well. It would be too dangerous.”
“I could stand in front of the other ‘reporters’ who could be arranged in a semi-circle and they would be a wall of protection and the only thing in front of me would be the impersonator and Nora Sinclair.”
Don thinks about it for a minute and then relents and says, “Okay you’ve made a good point, but you must do exactly what my people tell you to do. If we do anything to tip this nut off that he’s being set up, he’s liable to just start shooting everyone in sight.”
I say, “Now all we have to do is find someone as crazy as or even crazier than the Crusader to play the role of impersonator. That’s not going to be a slam dunk.”
“Oh ye of little faith. We have found the perfect person to play the part. There are people who make a living impersonating celebrities and one of our admins found someone that could pass for his twin, appearance, voice and mannerisms. And the best part, after he was told about what we were up to and the risks involved he said he’d do it gratis if he could use his participation in his future advertising. His name is Andy Barrows and you’ll be meeting him if this media blitz pays off.”
Looking at my watch I see it’s now 6:00 a.m. on the dot. ShowTime!
Fifteen minutes after the blitz is launched the phones start ringing and don’t stop for the entire length of our shift and they are still ringing when we are relieved by the next shift.
We expected some kook calls and we weren’t disappointed, but for the most part we feel the sightings are legitimate. Aldrich has been seen on buses, in fast food places, in a pharmacy, in a mall, in a movie theater and a bunch of other places, but unfortunately too much time has gone by since the sightings for them to be of much help now. One thing we’re feeling more comfortable about is our assumption that the Crusader is holed up in the D. C. area somewhere since all of the sightings have been in the D. C. area. We might be able to ascertain some pattern from the sightings as to where the Crusader might be hanging out, but that’s about it.
I’m still hoping Aldrich’s sister will have something helpful to tell me. She hasn’t called me back, so I’m planning to phone her again from my office when I get there.
When I walk into the office the place is a mad house. There’s got to be twenty bodies roaming around, all jabbering about the media blitz and looking for some inside information because most people by nature are nosy. If someone isn’t on a phone, it’s ringing. Although Janet’s and my names aren’t mentioned in the TV spots, I’m thinking our names are plastered all over the newspapers thanks to Janet’s column and what she’s fed to the other papers.
I manage to tear Felicity away from the lady who owns the building we’re in and ask, “Are we running a sale that you thought you didn’t have to tell me about? Why are all these people here?”
She grabs a copy of today’s Washington Times and points to the article on the front page. Sure enough, Janet has done a terrific job with the BOLO, using all of the right buzz words and she has done her best to make sure she and I get credit for coming up with the idea to bring the general public into the manhunt, knowing full well that in so doing she is making the target on our backs even more vivid to the Crusader. I’m afraid having a bodyguard 24/7 is giving her a false sense of security. I shouldn’t be surprised though. She’s a reporter and probably does see a Pulitzer Prize for journalism in her future if she sticks her neck out far enough.
Felicity says, “People we haven’t heard from or seen in years are calling or showing up to get a first-hand account of what’s going on with the Crusader. When you add in the folks we see and talk with frequently, the situation gets out of control as you can easily see.”
“Well, the publicity is definitely good for business and the Washington Times hierarchy has to be ecstatic over all the attention the paper is getting.”
“That may be, but as far as I’m concerned this is definitely not a Kodak moment, an Excedrin moment would be more like it.”
“Okay, we can’t do anything about the phones ringing off the hook, but we can fib a little and get these folks out of here. Follow me.”
Walking over to the door to the office, I open it and announce, “I’m sorry but I’m going to have to ask everybody to leave as you may be in great danger if you stay. The Crusader is not going to be happy with us for siccing the public on him and he’s shown that there are no holds barred when it comes to extracting revenge. If he decides to show up here to do that and you’re here and in his way, who knows what he might do.”
The office couldn’t have emptied out any quicker if gold was discovered in the parking lot. A couple of minutes later a semblance of order is restored and I head for my desk to call Aldrich’s sister, Dr. Samantha Rutledge. Out of the corner of my eye I catch some movement in the doorway to our break room and when I stop to take a good look I see a man standing there drinking a cup of coffee. I walk over to him and say, “You must have been answering a call of nature and didn’t get the message. It’s not safe for you to be here and, besides, I don’t have a clue who you are and why you’re here in the first place.”
Seconds later I’m standing there with egg on my face as the man shows me his FBI badge and introduces himself. “My name is Ted Brocton and I’ve been assigned to watch your back today.”
