168 (28)

Jebediah ground his knee into Michelle’s back. “That’s good, but I think you can to better” he said, as he pulled the knife out of the wall, only to jab it back in even closer to Michelle’s face. He wrenched her arm even tighter as she screamed even louder, in defiance of the pain her throat was starting to feel.

***

Jeremiah stood behind Phil, and Phil violently shook around in his chair. The rope was starting to wear through his shirt, and where it met his bare arms the burns had already begun. Each scream seemed to make him more frantic. Jeremiah simply stood there, occasionally quipping “Anything you want to say, this is the time.”

***

Mokoto heard the screams, but they weren’t registering with her mind. She was lost in a long kiss with Bob, and her hands were caressing his head and back, even trying to slip under the ropes. Bob heard the screams, and he knew what was happening was wrong, really wrong. At the same time, he was in no position to stop, and his willingness to stop was in question.

***

A red Pontiac had pulled up behind the abandoned pawn shop.  As lightning flashed in the distance, the man behind the wheel kept typing.  He smiled and looked outside.  His diligent hacking into Aberdeen’s power grid had paid off, as the lights went out for blocks around.  He didn’t have much time, so he folded the computer closed, and exited the car so quietly the sound of distant thunder and the increasing wind were enough to keep even a trained ear from hearing the man, even as he pulled a gun out of his jacket.

***

The pawn shop was cast into a sudden blackness, as all the lights died. Jebediah lifted his knee from Michelle’s back, and took two steps backward. “Stay here…do not move…”

***

Jeremiah’s world went totally black, and with a swift kick he tipped over Phil’s chair. Phil landed head first, and as the chair tipped onto its side, he heard Jeremiah open the door and slam it behind him.

***

The darkness excited Mokoto for a moment, but then the reality of the situation set in. She stood up and grabbed her jacket. As she pulled it on, she heard commotion from the main room of the shop, along with a door quickly opening, then nothing. “Stay here” she said, as she slowly opened the door and closed it behind her.

“Not like I’m going anywhere” Bob muttered.

Mokoto slowly crouched low to the ground.  She knew she had to see what was going on, but she moved slowly towards the exit and stopped for a moment.

***

The back door of the shop swung open. The sights of the gun lined up on the female figure heading out the backdoor. The trigger pulled back, and soon the body slumped over. The leather jacket didn’t have the usual high collar. “Mokoto, your fashion sense is changing” a voice said.  The man walked past the crumpled female form, which was now atop two crumpled male bodies.

***

Bob heard the door open, and then just one set of footsteps. The footsteps got closer and closer, until the footsteps were behind him. “Is this where you give up and kill me?” he asked. He heard nothing, but he felt a tugging at the ropes holding him to the chair. Then, the ropes simply gave way. Bob rubbed his wrists and heard someone leave the room. Bob’s first instinct was to run for the door, but something told him he couldn’t just leave.  Of course Bob thought as he felt for a wall, then felt around the room until he found the shelves, and then his jacket and lucky sunglasses.  After all this, I’m not going to lose them Bob thought as he felt for the door.  His eyes were adjusting to the darkness, but there wasn’t much to see.  He knew he had to find Phil, and soon.  He felt around the wall he was near, and followed it until it disappeared, and Bob about fell face first onto the floor.  With no warning, the lights came back on.  Bob saw a man wearing night vision goggles working on Phil’s ropes.  Phil had tears running down his face, and his head was against the wall.  “What the hell is going on here?” Bob said, dropping his jacket.  He raised his hands as if to fight, but the man in goggles straightened up as the ropes around Phil cascaded down to the floor.  The man reached up and pulled off his goggles.

“Just relax…I can explain everything…” came a familiar voice.

Bob’s jaw dropped, along with his arms.  “Jer?”

167 (27)

Dean Palluck walked out of the hotel into the evening air.  He could smell the rain moving in, and he saw some flashes in the sky to the West.  “Is that a bad storm heading our way?”

“No warnings yet sir” came the voice from the car.  Dean looked into the car, and saw his young officer looking eager to continue the investigation.

“Well, keep me posted.  I…” Dean’s voice trailed off as a black Crown Victoria pulled into the parking lot at a rapid pace.  The car lurched to a stop, and the door flew open.  A tall Native American man in a black suit popped out in less than a second after the car stopped.

“Who’s in charge here?”

“That would be me” Palluck said.  His hand slowly drifted towards his sidearm.

“Iron-Horse, F.B.I.  I’m here to get your progress on the search for Anderton and Fulton.”  Clayton flipped open his I.D. as he spoke, his face showing no sense of humor or patience.

Dean’s hand relaxed as she looked at the I.D.  “Well, you’re not the fed I was expecting, but your paperwork looks legit.  I’d tell you where they were but we don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Look, their hotel room is here.  We found evidence that puts them here.  We just don’t have them.  They wandered off before we got the call to be here.”

“Any sign of them?”

“The Millstone had a waitress who though she recognized them.  She said they left with a blond woman in a blue car.  She didn’t know the make or model.”

“Well, it’s a start.  Have the other agents arrived yet?”

“Nope, but your plane is ready.”

“Excuse me?”

“Your plane.  The plane to take these two yay-hoos to D.C. for interrogation, or ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ or whatever you guys do nowadays.”

“Right right” Clayton said, hoping he hadn’t tipped his hand too far.

***

Will was watching the conversation from the car.  Clayton told him to stay in the car while he handled talking to the Aberdeen PD.  He just kept staring at 6th Avenue, watching all the cars going by.  He chuckled a bit at a near accident, but his laughter soon stopped.  A black Jetta was wailing on the horn, and the driver looked towards the police car at the Super 8 ever so briefly.  The look was long enough for Will, who recognized Laura Black.  Will slid over to the driver’s side and dropped the car into reverse.

***

“…and that’s where we’re at now.  You didn’t tell me you brought a partner.”

“Partner?”  Clayton asked.  Dean pointed towards where Clayton had parked, and Clayton saw his car pulling onto 6th Avenue with a slight squeal of the tires.  He pulled out his cell phone and shook his head.  He didn’t hear the other black sedan pulling into the lot as he scrolled through contacts.  “Right, my partner.  He’s quite the prankster.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” Clayton heard from behind.  He turned and saw Agents Garrett and Lewis walking towards him from their black car.  Clayton slid his phone back into his pocket and furled his brow.

165 (25)

The black Crown Victoria shot past the welcome sign on US-281.  “Well, we’re here, now what?” Will asked in the middle of a yawn.

“Now we try to get to the local police before Garrett and Lewis.  I want those two and any information they might have about Mr. Dinkley.”

“Yeah…Dinkley.  So, where are we taking them to?”

“Excuse me?”

“You know…we find these two, then what?”

“Well, I can probably interrogate them here.  I’m sure Aberdeen has adequate facilities.”

“Then?”

Clayton started slowing down as he drove deeper into the city.  “Then?”

“Yeah,  you interrogate them here…then what?”

Clayton shook his head.  “What are you getting at?”

“I want to know when I get them for questioning about the murder of Jeff Stevens.”

“Stevens?  I thought they linked Laura Black’s gun to the scene.”

“The scene is still the apartment that Dinkley had been living in.  I want to talk to them.”

“Fine.”

“Fine?”

Clayton slowed to a stop at a red light.  “Fine.  I just want to ask them questions for the Dinkley case.  He’s long gone by now if he’s still alive.  After that, he’s all yours.  I’ll even give the three of you a ride back to Sioux Falls.”

“Wait…you think Dinkley is dead…or alive?”

“Honestly, I think he’s dead now.  Remember that patch I found on the back of the medical examiner?  Combine that with the exploding car at your police station, and I’m sure he’s gone now.  Some people deal in stolen identities, and if they don’t get exactly what they’re looking for, things can get a bit on the violent side.  He must have sold some bad papers to someone who needed them, and then the someones who fronted the money must have came looking for him.”  The light changed to green, and Clayton drove forward.  “At least, I hope.”

“You hope?”

“There’s one other possibility, but the less said the better.”

“Yeah” said Will, wondering if in fact that was the best advice.

***

The black Jetta shot past a town called Bath, and next would be Aberdeen.  She saw the blips on her phone’s display getting bigger, and the blips were also not only getting closer, they weren’t moving.  Suddenly, the blips disappeared, and the phone’s default ringtone sounded all around the car.  She didn’t even need to see the XXX-YYY-ZZZZ number to know who was calling.  She put the phone to her ear and pressed the green button.  “How did you get this number?”

“Laura, please…how long have you worked for me?”  The voice was familiar and distorted, but not angry.

“Maybe too long.”

“Listen, I’m sorry things went down the way they did.  It’s not like you’ve always been the one stuck in this fashion?  Remember New York?  Or Portland?  Or Salt Lake City?”

“None of those involved Mokoto.  I know you favor her and her work.”

“She has been mostly predictable and always accountable.  She has yet to fail me.”

“You also keep around J & J, and they’re not exactly precise.”

“Sometimes you need a heavier touch.”

“That heavy touch broke my cover!  I could have gotten a lot more intel!”

“Please, don’t talk like that over a cell phone.”

“No problem” Laura’s thumb pressed the end call button, and soon she had the blips back on her phone’s display.

164 (24)

Bob’s mouth was slowly tasting a lot better, but he could smell the vomit that only came forth a few minutes ago.  Bob had been punched in the stomach before, and he had thrown up before, but never had he thrown up from a punch to the stomach.  The door opened slowly, and Mokoto walked in.  She was holding her jacket over her shoulder, and she dropped it on the floor after she closed the door.  “Say” Bob said, feeling like a man with nothing to lose, “why did you pal give me gum after punching my lunch back up?”  Mokoto looked at the puddle on the floor then at Bob.

“Because, we don’t like to interrogate people with bad breath.”

A scream rang out throughout the building.  Bob looked at a far wall, then back to Mokoto.  “What the hell?  Is…is that Michelle?  Look, she has nothing to do with this!”

“I know Bob, I know.  If it was up to me we’d just wear you and Phil down, but my associates…well, I only can control them and their impatience so much.  I’m afraid it just makes the most sense to start with Michelle.”

“Why?” Bob asked as he struggled against his ropes for the first time since being tied up.

“Her suffering impacts Phil, and Phil’s suffering impacts you.”

“I swear to you, I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING.  Please…just please…let Phil and Michelle go.  PLEASE!!”

Mokoto walked closer and closer.  “I’d like that Bob, I really would.  I’d be fine with letting all of you go.  There’s no reason for anyone else to die tonight.”

“Die?   You…you’d kill her just to get this stupid information?”

“It’s not stupid information.  It’s very important information.  My employer only deals in the best.”

“I DON’T HAVE YOUR DAMN INFORMATION.  JER NEVER GAVE ME ANYTHING!”

“He gave you friendship.  Gerrard didn’t give his friendship to just anyone.”

“He said I reminded him of a younger version of himself, without his past life.”

Mokoto stopped dead in her tracks.  “I never noticed, but you do look like him.”

“He and I were called brothers on more than one occasion at the bars.”

Mokoto walked behind him slowly.  “Did you two hit the bars a lot?”

“Yeah…like every Friday.”

“Was Jer a real ladies man?”

“Yeah, he rarely went home alone, or left alone.  He told me he didn’t like bringing girls back to his ap-”

“Shut the hell up” Mokoto said, the anger in her voice clearly audible.  The room fell silent for a few seconds, then another scream caused Bob to struggle against his ropes once again.  “What kind of girls did he go for?”

Bob was thrown by the question, but he tried to answer it.  “Blonds usually…sometimes a brunette…a redhead only on special occasions…”

“Any Asian girls?”

“Asian?  No…not that I can think of.  The Asian pool in Sioux Falls isn’t too big.”

“What about you?” Mokoto said, as she stood in front of him.

“I took what I could get, which was often but not as often as Jer.”

“What do you prefer?”

“Prefer?”

“You’re a man, you have a preference.”

“Well…uh…”

“Just spit it out.  If you could date any type of girl, what would she look like.”

“Honestly…she’d look like you, minus the guns and the trying to kill me parts.”

Mokoto smiled.  She took a step forward and stretched her leg out to Bob’s side.  As Bob watched, Mokoto slowly straddled him and sat on his lap.  Her arms went behind his head and she leaned into him.  “Like me, huh?”

“Yeah…I’ve never actually hooked up with an Asian girl.”

“If circumstances were different, this might be your luckiest unlucky day.”  Her face got closer to Bob’s and her arms were tightening.  Bob heard another scream, and his head craned towards it.  Mokoto’s hands straighted Bob’s face back to hers.  She pressed her lips to his, and kissed him passionately.  Bob’s eyes closed, and his and nothing else seemed to matter for the moment, as he kissed her back for all he was worth.

163 (23)

Michelle felt her wrists slip out of the ropes and the ropes around her torso were loosening.  She still had no idea what to do once she was free, and now she had other problems.  The door started to open.  She quickly grabbed the slack ropes and twisted them in her hands, making them look taught.  She knew that Mokoto had tied her up, so if she was coming she’d have to act quickly.  Instead, one of the two men walked in, and Michelle’s sense of relief was tempered by still not knowing how to get out of this mess.

“Michelle Whiteman?”

“You people seem to know everything.”

“We know enough” the man said, as he walked up to the extra chair.  He took his jacket off and hung it on the back.  His black t-shirt was tight, and his shoulder gun holster was perfectly in place.  He turned and walked back to the door, and Michelle heard the familiar sound of a door locking.  The man walked back and pulled his gun out out of his holster.  He slowly removed the magazine, and sat the gun on the chair.  He then slid the chair to the door, wedging it under the doorknob.  He walked back to Michelle, who was scared and confused by this turn of events.

“Are you going to kill me?” Michelle asked.  Her voice was trembling, and her hands were shaking, causing the rope she was holding to almost start giving her rope burns.

“Kill you?  No.  At least, not yet.  Right now I have no plans to kill you.  But don’t be relieved.”  He reached into his back pocket and pulled something out.  Michelle couldn’t see what it was, but she heard the click and saw the blade catch the light from the room’s only light source.

“Are…are you going…are you going to…r…r…” Michelle’s voice was trembling even more, and she was paralyzed with dread.

“No” the man said.  “That isn’t part of the plan.  I’m not a monster.”

“What…are you…then?”  Michelle was finding it hard to concentrate on words as Jebediah took another step closer.

“I’m just doing my job.  I’m paid very well to get results, but right now, we’re not getting them.”

“I don’t know anything!  I don’t… please…”

“We know you don’t know anything.  The problem is that Phil might, and Bob certainly does.  Phil cares what happens to you, and Bob cares what happens to Phil.”  Jebediah started walking to the back of the chair, and MIchelle knew it was now or never.  She let go of the ropes and shot up out of her chair.  She stumbled forward and the door seemed almost in reach.  She never heard Jebediah take two quick steps, and grab a handful of her hair.  He pulled her back close and wrapped his other forearm around her neck.  MIchelle saw the hand holding a knife close to her face, and it was all she could do not to cry.  Jebediah steered her towards a wall and put his other hand on the small of her back.  He let go and shoved her face first to the floor.  She threw her arms out to stop her fall, and she found herself on all fours.  Jebediah grabbed her left arm and wrenched it behind her back.  His knee shoved her forward, and her cheek hit the wall hard.  His other arm jabbed the knife into the wall, less than an inch from her eyes.  She felt his hot breath in her ear, and the order couldn’t have been more clear.  “Start screaming now, or I’ll give you a reason to start.”

162 (22)

Just a year ago, the room Jeremiah, Jebediah and Mokoto were meeting in held a variety of appliances, video games, guitars and broken dreams.  Now, it held nothing but dust, empty shelves, and three people who briefly stopped and exchanged glances.  In total silence, Jeremiah nodded and walked towards a door.  As he opened it, he spit the toothpick in his mouth off to the side, and placed a new one in his mouth.  He swung open a door, and looked in at the man sitting under a lone light-bulb.  “Hello Phil” Jeremiah said, as he walked towards the empty chair in front of Phil.  Phil said nothing, and barely looked up to acknowledge Jeremiah’s entrance.  “Do you know why I’m here?”

“The information Jer has” Phil muttered under his breath.

“Not exactly.  The information Gerrard…Jer, had.”  Jeremiah spun the chair around and sat, with the backrest facing Phil.  He rested his folded arms on the chair back, while Phil looked his way but not at him, choosing instead to make eye contact with the floral print on the old chair.

“Right…he’s dead and nobody here killed him.”

“That’s right.  Total accident.”

“Why am I still having a hard time believing that?”

“Well, in your defense, we haven’t been exactly friendly, and it is odd that we popped into your life at this point in time, but consider that we want something that only Jer, and maybe Bob, knew the whereabouts of.”

“That makes sense.”

“It does, doesn’t it?”  Jeremiah’s big, wide smile beamed from ear to ear.  Phil looked at his face, then he went back to the floral print on the old kitchen chair.

“Is this the part where you tell me about Jer and Mokoto?”

Jeremiah’s smile vanished almost instantly.  “Now why would I do that?”

“Your pal seemed to like to talk about it, and Mokoto confirmed much of what he said.”

“Did they also tell you that Gerrard was one cold blooded S.O.B.?”  Phil looked up with one eye, keeping the sore side of his face at an angle not as easily hittable.  “Maybe they also forgot to mention that if Gerrard was alive and here and still working with us, you’d either be dead or wishing you were?  Did they mention all the people he killed?”

“No” Phil said.  His voice remained quiet, but it displayed a lot of curiosity in just one word.

“Well, then you don’t know it all.  Gerrard was a friend.  He was a colleague, and he was not a man to be messed with.  I get the impression you all thought he was just some coffee slinger with a weekend job meant to get with girls?”

“He was a good poker player, if that matters.”

Jeremiah lurched to a standing position and kicked his chair across the room.  Phil’s eyes went from a look of fear to a look of total fear.  Jeremiah grabbed Phil’s shirt collar and got right in his face.  Then, he started laughing.  Phil’s eyes didn’t change, but Jeremiah began smiling again.  “You see, you’re too worried about us hurting you to be useful.  All I had to do was act like you were insulting Gerrard’s memory and you were about to lock up on me.”  Jeremiah let go and walked to the back of the chair.  He grabbed the back of the chair, and he drug it across the room.

“What…what are you doing?”

“Well Phil, violence against you isn’t working.  In this next room, my friend Jebediah is about to see if violence against Michelle works on you.  I just want to make sure you can hear the screams.”

161 (21)

“I just called in our info. The state patrol has our info, and we have clearance to proceed at top speed” Garrett said, as he both closed his phone and mashed the gas pedal to the floor. He glanced over at Lewis, who was on her phone and nodding, the way she always did when she was being briefed over the phone. Garrett turned his attention back to the long stretch of South Dakota highway. He glanced over at Lewis again, and noticed her red hair was starting to fall out of her haphazard mess of pins. A stray strand was falling around her neck, and another was resting on her glasses. Garrett turned back to the road, and the stars that were starting to come out. He glanced again, and saw Lewis rest her right elbow on the part of the car door that met the window. His eye drifted to the buttons that weren’t done around her chest, and he caught a glimpse of white skin and black lace. His eyes snapped back to the road, where the white and yellow lines looked like they were years overdue for new paint. His mind was losing focus on the case, and was drifting back to five years ago. It was his first field assignment, and he met Alison Lewis for the first time at an airport before they flew to Houston. The investigation of a few people at NASA was wrapped up the day they got there, but they had one night at the hotel booked and no flight until the next day. A few hours after finding the hotel bar, Lewis had told him that due to budget cuts, they had to share a room. Garrett’s skepticism was verified when he heard Lewis say “Only one bed…must have been an error by the staff…”

“I said, are you listening?”

Garrett’s mind dissolved back to the road. “Sorry, what?”

“I was telling you I talked to the Aberdeen police. Try and keep your mind more on the road than Houston. You are going 120 after all.”

“How…how did…”

“Women’s intuition. Anyway, the police went into their room, and they weren’t there. They did find some clothes that had been worn, and some Kmart receipts in the garbage. The front desk woman had a vague description of their new clothes, and she saw them looking at some local menus, so they left to eat. That was long enough ago that they should have been back, so the police are going around the nearby eateries in hopes of some info.”

“If we hadn’t stopped to help that patrolman…”

“Don’t sweat it. Based on the time the hotel worker gave, we would have been too late anyway.”

Then, almost in unison, their cell phones made their telltale text message sounds. Garrett flipped open his phone, then Lewis opened hers. The closed them in unison.

“New orders” Garrett said.

“Yes” Lewis said, as she started trying to tune in a radio station. The black sedan zoomed across the asphalt path on the prairie, zipping past a sign that said told them Groton was fifteen miles away.

160 (20)

“What town is that over there?” Clayton asked without even turning his head. “I might as well ask, since you’ve been staring out the window since whenever ago.”

“It’s Mellette. You just blew past the sign.”

“Do you know anything about the town?”

“Can’t say that I do.”

“I always wonder about these small towns I zip past. Each one must have some kind of story. Are you from a small town?”

“Well, that depends. Do you call Brookings a small town?”

“When I was growing up, no. Now…maybe a small city? I mean, if I call Brookings a small town, what to I call Millford?”

“Mellette.”

“Whatever.”

Will rubbed his eyes. “Why are you bringing this up? You didn’t want to talk most of the last bunch of miles.”

“I’m getting a little sleepy, and I need to keep you awake.”

“Misery loves company.”

“Something like that.” Clayton was shaken a bit more awake by the sudden ringing of Will’s cell phone.

“That’s interesting.”

“What ring is that?”

“That’s my ring for numbers I don’t know. It’s a Sioux Falls number, no name.”

“You should let it go to your voice mail.”

Will looked at Clayton, then at his phone. “What if it’s Tina’s doctor?”

“It isn’t. Trust me.”

“I can’t take that chance Clayton. You’re due to be wrong one of these days.”

“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Hmph.” Will flipped open his phone and put it to his ear. “Hello?”

“HETFIELD! So NICE of you to ANSWER YOUR DAMN PHONE!” Captain Hale’s voice was so loud that Clayton heard it loud and clear. He smirked and shook his head, while Will switched the phone from one ear to the other.

“Sorry sir…I’ve been resting and, you know…relaxing.”

“Don’t make me have Felix trace his cell phone back to you. I’ll triangulate your ass. You’re with that F.B.I. agent on some damn fool trip to Aberdeen.”

“Let me talk to him” said Clayton. Will passed the phone to Clayton. “Captain, this is Agent Iron-Horse. I accept f-”

“Excuse me, but I was talking to William Hetfield. Are you William Hetfield?”

“No, but I-”

“Put him back on.”

“I talked him i-”

“PUT him back on.”

“This was a-”

“ARE YOU DEAF? PUT HETFIELD BACK ON THE DAMN PHONE!”

Clayton slowly handed the phone back to Will. “I think you’d better take this.” Will gritted his teeth and lowered the volume on his phone.

“Sir I w-”

“Just shut it for a second. Is the volume on your phone turned low?”

“Yes.”

“Is the earpiece as far away from him as possible?”

Will switched ears and bent towards the passenger window. “Yes” he said, in a voice that fit a man being scolded better than a man following orders.

“I just got off the phone with the Aberdeen police. They won’t tell me what the feds are going to do with Anderton and Fulton. If you find them, you bring them back here by any means necessary. I will not have anyone who can help with the Stevens case hauled away to some governmental lock up. Do you get me? Any means necessary.”

“I understand.”

“Good. Now hang up the phone and keep acting like Mr. Fed’s best friend.”

“Yes sir” Will said, but Hale had hung up before he’d finished.

159 (19)

Dean Palluck didn’t want to take the call, but he was in charge of the raid, so it was his call to take. He sat on the empty bed and put his hear to the phone. “This is Palluck, who am I speaking to?”

“This is Captain Hale of the Sioux Falls Police Department.”

“Captain Hale? Sioux Falls?”

“Is there a problem?”

“No…just…the way my men have been passing the phone…I was guessing you were the feds.”

“I’m most certainly not a fed, I can assure you of that. What did the feds tell you?”

Dean pushed his hat back and rubbed his temples. “I’m not at liberty to discuss that. They told us to move in and hold the two men until their agents got here, and that’s all I’m required to tell you.”

“There was more?”

Palluck thought back to the instructions he’d received from the C.I.A. He wanted to tell Hale about the rest, but he didn’t trust the phone lines. Dale wasn’t even sure he what he would tell Hale if they were in the same room. “Again, I’m not at liberty to discuss what may or may not have been said.”

“Dammit, I want to talk to your supervisor!”

“Right now, in this town, I’m the supervisor, and when mine gets back from his weekend trip to the Black Hills he’ll tell you the same thing. We are not at liberty to discuss anything involved with the apprehension of Phillip Anderton or Robert Fulton.”

“I want those men! They might know something about an officer of ours who was gunned down!”

Palluck sighed. “Look, if it was up to me, I’d bag and tag these two and send them your way. The point is moot anyway. They aren’t here, and one of my men is at the Millstone restaurant. One of the hotel workers thought they saw them heading across the street and walking towards it. If anyone at the Millstone spotted them, I’ll let you know. I am authorized to let you know when we have them, but after that you’ll have to call the C.I.A., or their field agents with the N.R.O. or the N.G.A.”

“You’re damn right I will.” Hale hung up, and Dean slowly closed the phone.

“What was that about?”

Dean looked at the other officer in the room. “Just some friends in Sioux Falls who aren’t happy with us at the moment.”

“Are we really not supposed to tell them about handing those two over to the feds for questioning?”

“They know that. They just don’t want SooFoo to know about the plane waiting at the airport that’s going to take them to D.C.”

***

Elaine slid another handful of cigarettes into the rack. The door made a familiar noise, but she didn’t turn around. She took another handful as she heard footsteps walk to the cooler, and then towards the register. She stepped down from the step-ladder and saw a woman with black pants, a black tank top, and large cell-phone looking device. “Gas on three” she said, not taking her eyes off her phone, or MP3 player, or whatever it was.

“Anything else?” Elaine was trying to get a look at the device, but she couldn’t see the screen.

“Just the gas and the Coke. Say, what can you tell me about Aberdeen?”

Elaine wasn’t sure what to make of the question. It wasn’t often somebody popped into Groton and displayed no knowledge of the larger city to the West. “What do you want to know” Elaine asked as she started making change for the cash that the woman had tossed on the counter.

“Anything and everything.”

158 (18)

Mokoto heard Phil laughing before she entered the room.  Jebediah didn’t tell her why Phil was laughing, but she didn’t care.    She closed the door behind her and Phil didn’t even look up.  “Hello Phil” she said, walking up slowly to the laughing man tied to a chair.  Phil looked up.  He had tears running down his cheeks, and for a moment Mokoto wasn’t sure if he was just laughing.

“Oh, it’s you.  What happened to the other guy?”

“He’s talking to Bob right now.  He’s probably doing things to him you wish you could do.”

“Hmph.  You need Bob alive, and right now I don’t.”

“I still remember you two hiding in the shower in Sioux Falls.  You didn’t look like enemies then.”

“You found the letter, and he confessed to hiding it.  Oh, thanks for opening it by the way.”

“No problem.  It led me here.”

“You really thought we were coming here?  We came here as a total accident.”

“Maybe.”

Phil straightened up from his slouched posture and followed her with his eyes as she paced in front of him.  “Maybe?  Like hell.  We got tossed into a boxcar by a senile old man who said it was the best way out of town.  I jump-we jumped out of a moving train and it happened to be in Aberdeen.”

“We?  You started to say I.  I think you knew what town you were in and decided to jump for it.”

“That doesn’t change the fact we had no idea we were coming here in the first place.  The only reason you caught us was pure, dumb luck.”

“You saw a chance to reach out to Michelle and you went for it.”

“Maybe I did make the decision to jump here.  It didn’t change the fact she hated me when I got here, and now I’m more pissed at Bob than I ever have been, and you’re only here by some weird twist of luck.”

“First off, it was a total hunch.  Don’t underestimate a woman’s hunch again.  Second, Bob thought he was doing the right thing.”

“Like shooting that cop was the right thing.”

“It’s my job.  I had to keep the police out of it.  We need the information Jer had.”

“You mean Gerrard?  Your old paramour?”

Mokoto stopped pacing.  “Is that what Jebediah told you?”

“He told me a bit about you two.  It must have hurt.  Jer always seemed like the kind of guy who would pull something.”

Mokoto looked away towards a far wall.  “Gerrard and I were in love, just like you and Michelle were.  Things happen, just like to you and Michelle.  She needed space and room to grow.  In a way, you were the lucky one.  Jer just got what he wanted from me and left.”

“What he wanted?”

“Gerrard and I took the information for our boss, and then he ran away with it.  When I find it, it will be the equivalent of you getting that letter.  It’s my closure.”

“Did…did…”

“I didn’t kill him Phil.  None of us did.  I don’t plan on killing you, or Michelle, or even Bob.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“It shouldn’t be that reassuring.  Jeremiah and Jebediah would rather tie up loose ends than let bygones be bygones.  I’m in charge here, but who’s to say I’m going to stick around.”

Phil wasn’t laughing anymore.  Mokoto walked towards the door. “Mokoto!”  Mokoto turned and looked at Phil, who looked down, and muttered in a quiet voice.  “Thanks for giving me the letter.”

Phil didn’t see Mokoto smile as she left the room.