Triple Threat

by Jeffery Deaver

  He said, "I never got the file on this one."

  Don't you read the dailies?

  Dance said, "We didn't either. Everybody assumed the BOL would strike up near San Francisco, that bay, not ours."

  Nichols said, "Who's he?"

  Keplar stared back with amused hostility toward Nichols, who would represent that most pernicious of enemies--the federal government.

  Dance explained his role in the group and what it was believed they'd done here.

  "Any idea exactly what they have in mind?" another agent with Nichols asked.

  "Nothing. So far."

  "There were two of them?" Nichols asked.

  Dance added, "The other's Gabe Paulson." She nodded toward the warehouses some distance away. "He was wounded but I just talked to my associate. It's a minor injury. He can be interrogated."

  Nichols hesitated, looking at the fog coming in fast. "You know, I have to take them, Kathryn." He sounded genuinely regretful at this rank pulling. His glance wafted toward O'Neil, too, though Monterey was pretty far down on the rung in the hierarchy of law enforcement here represented and nobody--even the sheriff himself--expected that the County would snag the bad boys.

  "Sure." Dance glanced toward her watch. "But we haven't got much time. How many interrogators do you have?"

  The agent was hesitating. "Just me for now. We're bringing in somebody from San Francisco. He's good."

  "Bo?"

  "Right."

  "He's good. But--" She tapped her watch. "Let's split them up, Steve. Give me one of them. At least for the time being."

  Nichols shrugged. "I guess."

  Dance said, "Keplar's going to be the trickiest. He's senior in the organization and he's not the least shaken by the collar." She nodded toward the perp, who was lecturing nearby officers relentlessly about the destruction of the Individual by Government--he was supplying the capitalization. "He's going to be trickier to break. Paulson's been wounded and that'll make him more vulnerable." She could see that Nichols was considering this. "I think, our different styles, background, yours and mine, it'd make sense for me to take Keplar, you take Paulson."

  Nichols squinted against some momentary glare as a roll of fog vanished. "Who's Paulson exactly?"

  O'Neil answered. "Seems to be the technician. He'd know about device, if that's what they've planted. Even if he doesn't tell you directly, he could give something away that'd let us figure out what's going on." The Monterey detective wouldn't know exactly why Dance wanted Keplar and not Gabe but he'd picked up on her preference and he was playing along.

  This wasn't completely lost on the FBI agent. Nichols would be considering a lot of things. Did Dance's idea to split up the interrogation make sense? Did she and he indeed have different interrogation styles and background? Also, he'd know that O'Neil and Dance were close and they might be double teaming him in some way, though he might not figure out to what end. He might have thought she was bluffing, hoping that he'd pick Wayne Keplar, because she herself wanted Gabe Paulson for some reason. Or he might have decided that all was good and it made sense for him to take the wounded perp.

  Whatever schematics were drawn in his mind, he debated a long moment and then agreed.

  Dance nodded. "I'll call my associate, have Paulson brought over here."

  She gestured to the two CHP officers towering over Wayne Keplar. He was hoisted to his feet and led to Dance, O'Neil and Nichols. Albert Stemple--who weighed twice what the suspect did--took custody with a no-nonsense grip on the man's scrawny arm.

  Keplar couldn't take his eyes off the FBI agents, "Do you know the five reasons the federal government is a travesty?"

  Dance wanted him to shut up--she was afraid Nichols would change his mind and drag the perp off himself.

  "First, economically. I--"

  "Whatever," Nichols muttered and wandered off to await his own prisoner.

  Dance nodded and Stemple escorted Keplar to a CBI unmarked Dodge and inserted him into the backseat.

  Michael O'Neil would stay to supervise the crime scene here, canvassing for witnesses and searching for evidence--possibly items thrown from the car that might give them more information about the site of the attack.

  As she got into her personal vehicle, a gray Nissan Pathfinder, Dance called to Nichols and O'Neil, "And remember: We have two and a half hours. We've got to move fast."

  She pulled out her phone, briefed TJ Scanlon about Paulson and Nichols and turned on the flashing lights suctioned to her windshield.

  1:52.

  Dance left rubber on the concrete as she sped out of the parking lot.

  Fast...

  # # #

  Albert Stemple was parked outside CBI, looking with some contempt at the press vans that were lolling near the front door. Dance parked behind him. She strode to the Dodge.

  A reporter--a man with an aura of Jude Law, if not the exact looks--pushed to the barricade and thrust a microphone their way.

  "Kathryn! Kathryn Dance! Dan Simmons, The True Story dot com."

  She knew him. A sensationalist reporter who oozed toward the more tawdry aspects of a story like slugs to Dance's doomed vegetable garden.

  Simmons's cameraman, a squat, froggy man with crinkly and unwashed hair, aimed a fancy Sony videocam their way as if about to launch a rocket-propelled grenade.

  "No comment on anything, Dan." She and Stemple shoehorned Wayne Keplar out of the car.

  The reporter ignored her. "Can you give us your name?" Aimed at the suspect.

  Keplar was all too happy to talk. He shouted out, "The Brothers of Liberty," and began a lecturette about how the fourth estate was in the pocket of corporate money and the government.

  "Not all reporters, Wayne," Simmons said. "Not us. We're with you, brother! Keep talking."

  This impressed Keplar.

  "Quiet," Dance muttered, leading him toward the front door.

  "And we're about to strike a blow for freedom!"

  "What are you going to do, Wayne?" Simmons shouted.

  "We have no comment," Dance called.

  "Well, I do. I've only been arrested," Wayne offered energetically, with a smile, ignoring Dance and mugging for the reporter, whose disheveled photographer was shooting away with his fancy digital video camera. "I'm not under a gag order. Freedom of speech! That's what the founders of this country believed in. Even if the people in charge now don't."

  "Let him talk, Agent!" the reporter called.

  "I have no comment at this time."

  Simmons replied, "We don't want your comment, Kathryn. We want Wayne's." He then added, "Were you hurt, Wayne? You're limping."

  "They hurt me in the arrest. That'll be part of the lawsuit."

  He hadn't been limping earlier. Dance tried to keep the disgust off her face.

  "We heard there were other suspects. One's wounded and in FBI custody. The other's at large."

  Police scanners. Dance grimaced. It was illegal to hack cell phones, but anybody could buy a scanner and learn all they wanted to about police operations.

  "Wayne, what do you expect to achieve by what you're doing?"

  "Makin' the people aware of the overbearing government. The disrespect for the people of this great nation and--"

  Dance actually pushed him through the door into the CBI Monterey headquarters, an unimpressive building that resembled one of the insurance agencies or law offices in this business park east of the airport on the way to Salinas, off Highway 68.

  Simmons called, "Kathryn! Agent Dance--"

  The CBI's front door was on a hydraulic closer but she would have slammed it if she could have.

  Dance turned to him. "Wayne, I've read you your rights. You understand you have the right to an attorney. And that anything you say can and will be used against you in court."

  "Yes, ma'am."

  "Do you wish to waive your right to an attorney and to remain silent?"

  "Yup."

  "You understand you can break off our interview a
t any time."

  "I do now. Thanks very much. Informative."

  "Will you tell us where you're planning this attack? Do that and we'll work out a deal."

  "Will you let our founder, Osmond Carter, go free? He's been illegally arrested, in contravention of his basic human rights."

  "We can't do that."

  "Then I think I'm not inclined to tell you what we've got in mind." A grin. "But I'm happy to talk. Always enjoy a good chin-wag with an attractive woman."

  Dance nodded to Stemple, who guided Keplar through the maze of hallways to an interrogation room. She followed. She checked her weapon and took the file that a fellow agent had put together on the suspect. Three pages were in the manila sleeve. That's all? she wondered, flipping open the file and reading the sparse history of Wayne Keplar and the pathetic organization he was sacrificing his life for.

  She paused only once. To glance at her watch and learn that she had only two hours and one minute to stop the attack.

  # # #

  Michael O'Neil was pursuing the case at the crime scene, as he always did: meticulously, patiently.

  If an idea occurred to him, if a clue presented itself, he followed the lead until it paid off or it turned to dust.

  He finished jotting down largely useless observations and impressions of witnesses in front of where the trooper rammed the suspects' car. ("Man, it was totally, like, loud.") The detective felt a coalescing of moisture on his face; that damn Monterey fog--as much a local institution as John Steinbeck, Cannery Row and Langston Hughes. He wiped his face with broad palms. On the water, fishing from his boat, he didn't think anything of the damp air. Now, it was irritating.

  He approached the head of his Forensic Services Unit, a dark-complexioned man, who was of Latino and Scandinavian heritage, Abbott Calderman. The CBI didn't have a crime scene operation and the FBI's closest one was in the San Jose-San Francisco area. The MCSO provided most of the forensics for crimes in this area. Calderman's team was clustered around the still-vaporing Taurus, practically dismantling it, to find clues that could tell them about the impending attack. Officers were also examining, then bagging and tagging, the pocket litter from the two suspects--the police term for wallets, money, receipts, twenty-dollar bills (serial numbers, thanks to ATMs, revealed more than you'd think), sunglasses, keys and the like. These items would be logged and would ultimately end up at the jail where the men would be booked--Salinas--but for now the team would examine the items for information about the "event" Wayne Keplar had so proudly referred to.

  Calderman was speaking to one of his officers, who was swathed in bright blue crime scene overalls, booties and a surgeon's shower cap.

  "Michael," the CS head said, joining the detective. "My folks're going through the car." A glance at the totaled vehicle, air bags deployed. "It's real clean--no motel keys, letters or schematics."

  Rarely were perps discovered with maps in their possession with a red grease pencil X, the legend reading: "Attack here!"

  "We'll know more when we analyze the trace from the tires and the floor of the passenger compartment and the trunk. But they did find something you ought to know about. A thermos of coffee."

  "And it was still hot?"

  "Right." Calderman nodded that O'Neil caught the significance of the discovery. "And no receipts from Starbucks or a place that sells brewed coffee."

  "So they might've stayed the night here somewhere and brewed it this morning."

  "Possibly." Oakland was a long drive. It could take three hours or more. Finding the thermos suggested, though hardly proved, that they'd come down a day or two early to prepare for the attack. This meant there'd probably be a motel nearby, with additional evidence. Though they'd been too smart to keep receipts or reservation records.

  The crime scene head added, "But most important: We found three cups inside. Two in the cup holders in the front seat, one on the floor in the back, and the rear floor was wet with spilled coffee."

  "So, there's a third perp?" O'Neil asked.

  "Looks that way--though the trooper who nailed them didn't see anybody else. Could've been hiding in the back."

  O'Neil considered this and called Oakland PD. He learned that the CI had only heard about Paulson and Keplar, but it was certainly possible he decided to ask someone else along. The snitch had severed all contact with the BOL, worried that by diming out the operation he'd be discovered and killed.

  O'Neil texted Dance and let her know about the third perp, in case this would help in the interrogation. He informed the FBI's Steve Nichols, too.

  He then disconnected and looked over the hundred or so people standing at the yellow police tape gawking at the activity.

  The third perp... Maybe he'd gotten out of the car earlier, after setting up the attack but before the CHP trooper found the suspects.

  Or maybe he'd bailed out here, when the Taurus was momentarily out of sight behind the outlet store.

  O'Neil summoned several other Monterey County officers and a few CHP troopers. They headed behind the long building searching the loading docks--and even in the Dumpsters--for any trace of the third suspect.

  O'Neil hoped they'd be successful. Maybe the perp had bailed because he had particularly sensitive or incriminating information on him. Or he was a local contact who did use credit cards and ATM machines--whose paper trail could steer the police toward the target.

  Or maybe he was the sort who couldn't resist interrogation, perhaps the teenage child of one of the perps. Fanatics like those in the Brothers of Liberty had no compunction about enlisting--and endangering--their children.

  But the search team found no hint that someone had gotten out of the car and fled. The rear of the mall faced a hill of sand, dotted with succulent plants. The area was crowned with a tall chain-link fence, topped with barbed wire. It would have been possible, though challenging, to escape that way, but no footprints in the sand led to the fence. All the loading dock doors were locked and alarmed; he couldn't have gotten into the stores that way.

  O'Neil continued to the far side of the building. He walked there now and noted a Burger King about fifty or sixty feet away. He entered the restaurant, carefully scanning to see if anyone avoided eye contact or, more helpfully, took off quickly.

  None did. But that didn't mean the third perp wasn't here. This happened relatively often. Not because of the adage (which was wrong) about returning to or remaining at the scene of the crime out of a subconscious desire to get caught. No, perps were often arrogant enough to stay around and scope out the nature of the investigation, as well as get the identities of the investigators who were pursuing them--even, in some cases, taking digital pictures to let their friends and fellow gangbangers know who was searching for them.

  In English and Spanish he interviewed the diners, asking if they'd seen anyone get out of the perps' car behind the outlet store. Typical of witnesses, people had seen two cars, three cars, no cars, red Tauruses, blue Camrys, green Chryslers, gray Buicks. No one had seen any passengers exit any vehicles. Finally, though, he had some luck. One woman nodded in answer to his questions. She pulled gaudy eyeglasses out of her blond hair, where they rested like a tiara, and put them on, squinting as she looked over the scene thoughtfully. Pointing with her gigantic soda cup, she indicated a spot behind the stores where she'd noticed a man standing next to a car that could've been blue. She didn't know if he'd gotten out or not. She explained that somebody in the car handed him a blue backpack and he'd left. Her description of the men--one in combat fatigues and one in black cargo pants and a black leather jacket--left no doubt that they were Keplar and Paulson.

  "Did you see where he went?"

  "Toward the parking lot, I guess. I, like, didn't pay much attention." Looking around. Then she stiffened. "Oh..."

  "What?" O'Neil asked.

  "That's him!" she whispered, pointing to a sandy-haired man in jeans and work shirt, with a backpack over his shoulder. Even from this distance, O'Neil could see he was nervou
s, rocking from foot to foot, as he studied the crime scene. He was short, about five three or so, explaining why the trooper might easily miss him in the back of the Taurus.

  O'Neil used his radio to call an MCSO deputy and have her get the woman's particulars. She agreed to stay here until they collared the perp so she could make a formal ID. He then pulled his badge off his neck and slipped it into the pocket of his jacket, which he buttoned, to conceal the Glock.

  He started out of the Burger King.

  "Mister... Detective," the woman called. "One thing....that backpack? You oughta know, when the guy handed it to him, they treated it real careful. I thought maybe it had something breakable in it. But now maybe I'm thinking it could be, you know, dangerous."

  "Thanks."

  It was then that the sandy-haired man glanced toward O'Neil.

  And he understood.

  He eased back into the crowd. Hiking the backpack higher on his shoulder, he turned and began to run, speeding between the buildings to the back of the mall. There he hesitated for only a moment, charged up the sand hill and scaled the six-foot chain-link O'Neil had surveyed earlier, shredding part of his jacket as he deftly vaulted the barbed wire. He sprawled onto the unkempt land on the other side of the fence, also mostly sand. It was a deserted former military base, hundreds of acres.

  O'Neil and two deputies approached the fence. The detective scaled it fast, tearing his shirt and losing some skin on the back of his hand as he crested the barbed wire. He leaped to the sand on the other side. He rolled once, righted himself and drew his gun, anticipating an attack.

  But the perp had disappeared.

  One of the deputies behind him got most of the way up the fence, but lost his grip and fell. He dropped straight down, off balance, and O'Neil heard the pop of his ankle as it broke.

  "Oh," the young man muttered as he looked down at the odd angle. He turned as pale as the fog and passed out.

  The other deputy called for a medic then started up the fence.

  "No!" O'Neil shouted. "Stay there."

  "But--"

  "I'll handle the pursuit. Call a chopper." And he turned, sprinting through the sand and succulents and scrub oak and pine, dodging around dunes and stands of dry trees--behind any one of which an armed suspect could be waiting.