by Mike Ryan
“We found Bodie Dermott’s body,” Nicole said. “You know, the guy’s room that you’re staying in.”
“What?”
“That’s right. He was dead.”
“What?” Berkampf’s mouth fell open. “No way. That can’t be right.”
Bridge showed him a picture of Dermott’s body, which he took before they left. “It’s right. He’s dead.”
“Awe, man, that’s a bummer. Nobody was supposed to get hurt. That’s what they kept saying. They just wanted this guy’s money.”
“Well, they took a little bit more than that. Now they took his life.”
“I can’t believe it.”
“Well, you better. Because you know what that means?”
“I’m off the hook?”
“No, it means you’re not chum in the water.”
“What?”
“Means you’re gonna help us.”
“I already did.”
“No, now you’re gonna help us meet these guys, these partners of yours.”
“No, I can’t do that.”
Nicole walked over and smacked Berkampf in the face. “You can and you will. Or you’ll go to jail, here in Mexico, for the next fifty years for the death of Bodie Dermott.”
“But I didn’t do it.”
“Doesn’t matter. You think they’ll care about that? You were seen leaving the airport with him, you’re staying in his hotel room, and you had the address of the place he was murdered at. Sounds like an open and shut case to me.”
“Awe, man, I’ve really stepped into one, haven’t I?”
Bridge nodded. “You have. Unless you help us. And we may be persuaded to look the other way and not mention your name anywhere to anybody.”
“You would?”
“If you help us find them.”
Berkampf sighed and flipped his lips together. “Man, I don’t like this at all.”
“You don’t have to. You just have to do it. And you will. Now.”
12
Berkampf handed his phone over to Bridge, who immediately started scrolling through it. There wasn’t a text message to be found. He looked through the phone contacts. There weren’t any.
“How were you guys communicating?” Bridge asked. “Telepathy?”
“Is that the, uhh, the mind thing?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. No. We told each other to erase all texts and phone calls after we’re done. You know, in case we’re caught.”
“Thanks. I kinda figured that. Did you call them after we left earlier?”
“What? No. Of course not. That’d only make them mad if they knew I sent you to the spot.”
“So why would they kill Dermott?” Nicole asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t them.”
“Really? Who else would it be?”
“Nobody was supposed to get hurt. They just wanted to keep taking that guy’s money.”
“Were they actually going to exchange Ava this time or were they going to keep stringing Dermott along for more money?” Bridge asked.
“I dunno. They kept arguing about it.”
“Who was?”
“Derek and Diego. Derek wanted to keep it going a few more times, thought we could get a lot more money out of it.”
“Diego didn’t?”
“He just wanted to get it over with and get out.”
“Where do you come in?”
“I don’t, man. Listen, I just do what they tell me. I’m not involved in any decision making or anything. They tell me where to go and what to do, and I do it. Simple as that.”
“Where are they right now?”
“Beats me. I assumed they were at that house you went to.”
“Wait a minute,” Nicole said. “If you’re supposed to get money, they’re gonna have to give you your share of it soon, right?”
“Yeah.”
“They should be contacting you soon, shouldn’t they?”
“Yeah.”
Nicole looked at her partner. “Then we don’t have to risk anything by having him contact them. They’ll do it for us.”
“Yeah, but what if they decided to cut this weasel out of the picture?” Bridge replied.
“Oh.” Nicole looked at their prisoner. “Good point. I probably would have.”
“Hey,” Berkampf said. “I resent that.”
“No offense. You’re just not essential.”
“Oh. No problem.”
Nicole rolled her eyes. How anybody could rely on this guy was beyond her. “They must have another location where they’re keeping Ava. They’re not going back to that house with a body in it.”
“How ‘bout it?” Bridge asked. “Where else could they be staying?”
“No idea, dudes,” Berkampf said, before glancing at Nicole. “And dudettes. If they got a spot, they didn’t tell me.”
Nicole shook her head. “Like I said. Non-essential.”
“OK, so here’s what we’re gonna do,” Bridge said. “You’re gonna contact one of them and ask about your payment.”
“Do I really?”
“Yes. You really.”
“Man, this is not gonna end well, is it?”
“If you play this right, you might be the only one who gets out of it alive.”
“Really?”
Bridge nodded and winked at him. “You’ll be the smart one.”
Berkampf smiled. “Yeah. I’m the smart one.”
Bridge looked at his girlfriend and shrugged. “But listen, if you tell them something else, like that we’re here, or warn them, I’m just gonna put a bullet in your head and move on, got it? Then you’ll be the first one dead.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it. Not an interesting proposition at all.”
“I didn’t think so either.”
Berkampf took a deep breath and held his hand out. “All right, man, let’s do this. Let’s get this party started.” Bridge handed him his phone. “Hey, does this mean I won’t get a share of the money?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Man, that sucks. I was really looking forward to that money too. I had plans for it, you know?”
“Such as?”
“Well, it depends on how much they were gonna give me.”
“You don’t even know how much you were getting?” Nicole asked.
“Nah. They said they’d give me a good amount. Maybe five, maybe ten grand.”
Nicole looked at the back of his head and made a face, throwing her arms up at the same time. Who did a job like this without knowing how much they were going to make?
“So what were you gonna do with it?” Bridge asked.
“I dunno, I was still contemplating.”
“You just said…” Bridge then waved his hand at him. “Oh never mind. Just send the message.”
“What do you want me to say? And to who?”
“Well, which one do you usually talk to?”
“It’s usually Derek.”
“Then send it to him.”
“What should I say?”
“Just tell him you were wondering about when you were gonna get paid. Say it in your own way, of course.”
“You got it.” Berkampf then started sending the message.
“Yo D. Can’t really stay in this hotel room too much longer, man. Starting to get nervous. When am I getting my cut?”
He passed the phone back to Bridge. “There you go. All sent.”
Bridge read the message. “Good. Let’s see how long it takes to get an answer.”
“Shouldn’t be long. Derek usually responds quickly.”
As they waited for an answer from Hatch, Nicole went over to Bridge. “We should call Eric and let him know. That way he can start notifying people.” Bridge nodded. “I’ll do it.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. I’m the one that brought us this.”
“Don’t do that, Nic. You brought us the case, but what happens while we’re on it isn’t on you. I’m the one who t
ook us to a different country before we knew what was happening.”
“I guess we can both feel responsible together.” Bridge nodded again.
Nicole went into the bedroom as she called Happ, who picked up after the third ring.
“How’s things going?” Happ asked.
“Uh, could be better.”
Happ could hear the sorrowful tone in her voice and immediately knew something was wrong. “What’s wrong? Find the girl?”
“No. No, not yet.”
“What is it?”
“It’s Bodie Dermott. He’s dead.”
“What? How?”
“I don’t know. We were able to track him down to some little run-down shack just outside of Monterrey. When we got there, he was dead.”
“How?”
“Two bullet holes in his chest.”
“Oh man. What about his daughter?”
“Still no sign of her.”
“Bad news all around.”
“Yeah. We’re still looking.”
“Who killed him?”
“We don’t know yet. We’re assuming one of the kidnappers, but we’re just guessing at this point.”
“What do you need?”
“We’ll send you a picture of him for confirmation, but I guess if you wanna start making notifications? We’ve already anonymously called the police here to tell them about the body.”
“You didn’t stick around?”
“You know how Luke is down here. Plus, it would be hours of us talking to people with Ava still out there.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
“Just wanted to let you know that way if you could coordinate with the Mexican government to return his body home.” An idea then popped into Nicole’s head. “You know, when you talk to the Mexican government, if you could possibly mention that you think Diego Andujar might be involved, maybe we could get a better lead on him and where he is.”
“Might help.”
“Just maybe. We’ve got Anson Berkampf here in a hotel room. We’re trying to use him to meet with the rest of them to get their position, but we’re not sure yet if it’ll work.”
“I’ll get right on it.”
“Thanks, Eric.”
“You guys be safe down there, OK?”
“Yep.”
“Hit me up if you need anything else.”
“We will.”
Nicole then went back into the main room where Bridge was still watching over Berkampf, who looked bored out of his mind.
“You think we could order a pizza?” Berkampf asked.
Nicole put her hand on Bridge’s back. “He’s working on it. He’ll also check to see if local authorities can lend a hand in finding Diego.” Bridge made a face, as if he didn’t believe there was a chance of that happening. “They might. Just have some faith.”
“You do know where I am right now, right? Faith isn’t exactly something I have a lot of down here.”
“Just try. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“Yeah, I have nothing but luck when I’m down here. Bad luck.”
Nicole was going to respond and ask him to think more positively, but figured it would be a wasted effort. There was nothing she could say that would change his mind. They’d just go round and round for a few minutes, telling each other the same thing.
“It’s been a few minutes,” Nicole said. “Maybe they’re cutting this guy out of the picture.”
“Hey, Derek would not do that to me,” Berkampf said. “Diego might. But not Derek. He’s a good dude.”
Bridge raised his eyebrows. They must have had different definitions of good dudes. His didn’t include kidnappers, but maybe he was behind with the times. “Good dudes don’t kidnap young girls and kill their fathers.”
“Hey, I don’t know what happened there, but I doubt Derek did it.”
“Why’s that?”
“He’s not really the violent type. If anyone did it, it was probably Diego. Or that other guy he was with.”
“What other guy?”
“You know, the one driving the car from the airport. The one I didn’t know the name of. He looked a little scary.”
“Scary how?”
“Just scary. Looked mean.”
“He talk at all?”
“Nah. Didn’t need to with that ugly face of his.”
“What’d he look like?”
“I dunno. Just a guy.”
“Real helpful,” Bridge said. “Was he white, black, Latino, red hair, mustache, an eye patch, what?”
“Oh. Looked Mexican. Big guy. Probably like two hundred and fifty pounds. Had a closely shaved mohawk. Just that strip of hair down the middle and on the back.”
“I know what it is.”
“Any other marks?”
“Didn’t really study him or anything. I was instructed to keep my eyes on Dermott as we drove. That’s what I did. Then they dropped me off here and said they were going to that place I told you about. And that’s it.”
“How long are we gonna wait?” Nicole asked.
Bridge shrugged. “‘Till we have a better lead.”
“What if it takes a while?”
“Then we’ll have to figure out how to speed things up. We’ll get there.”
“Hope it’s soon.”
“One way or another… it’ll come soon enough.”
13
An hour had passed since Berkampf sent Hatch the text message. Bridge and Nicole got tired of waiting and wound up taking seats. Berkampf didn’t seem as worried about it and kept watching TV.
“You know, daytime TV is as bad here as it is in the States,” Bridge said. “Must be a generally accepted practice everywhere.”
“I’m getting antsy,” Nicole replied.
“I’m shocked.”
“I mean, if he’s not responding, maybe we should just move on and try something else.”
“Let’s give it a little longer.”
“How much longer?”
Bridge shrugged. “Until I think it’s time.”
Nicole grunted. “I hate waiting.”
“Really? Didn’t know that.”
“You want me to send him another message?” Berkampf asked.
“Maybe we should,” Nicole said.
Bridge was ambivalent and threw his hands up. If it made her feel better and calmed her down, he was OK with it. He grabbed the phone and tossed it to Berkampf again.
“Same thing?” Berkampf asked.
“Basically.”
Berkampf started texting. “Derek, everything cool, man? I don’t really want to stay in this hotel much longer. When can I get my cut so I can jet?” There you go. He tossed the phone back to Bridge. “I’m getting good at this.”
“You’re a natural, kid.”
“Hope we get a better response from this one,” Nicole said. “Or any response.”
Bridge sat back and stared at the TV, not really nervous. He believed a response would come soon enough. He doubted they would blow Berkampf off completely. He didn’t want to say this in front of him, but Bridge thought it was more likely that they would kill him before they blew him off. Blowing him off meant he could have loose lips and say something they wouldn’t want him to. If they killed him, like they did with Dermott, they wouldn’t have those same fears. And now Bridge knew they were capable of taking things that far. Now that he was thinking of it, Bridge wondered if that was what the issue was now. Maybe Hatch and Andujar were thinking of a way to get rid of Berkampf. That would explain not talking to him yet. They were figuring out the best way to kill him.
Luckily, they wouldn’t have to wonder about it much longer. About five minutes later, the text they were expecting finally came in. When the text ringer went off on Berkampf’s phone, Bridge eagerly picked it up and read the message.
“Sorry it took so long to get back to you. We had to pick up and move to a different place. I’ll have Diego come pick you up now.”
The look on Bridge’s face indica
ted it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. Nicole came over and read the message.
“I would have preferred he just said a spot to meet,” Bridge said.
“Wait, they’re coming to get me?” Berkampf asked.
“You got it, junior.”
“Is that good?”
“Well, now we’ll have to follow you.”
“Oh. Is that good?”
“Never mind.”
“Just text him back and ask for an address to meet,” Nicole said. “Maybe he’ll go for it.”
Bridge tilted his head, thinking it was unlikely, but it was worth a shot anyway. He started texting. “Hey man, don’t go out of your way for me. Just let me know where you’re at and I’ll come right now.”
He got a response right away. “How you getting here without a car?”
“I’ll rent one. I still got Dermott’s credit card.”
“No. Don’t want anything linking that to us. Plus, I don’t want anyone knowing where you’re going. Just sit tight. Diego will be there in 20.”
“OK.”
Bridge looked up at the ceiling. “He didn’t go for it.”
“We’ll just have to follow then,” Nicole said.
“They’re gonna be looking for us.”
“Won’t be the first time. We’ve done it before.”
“I was just hoping for the easier way.”
“Doesn’t usually work that way for us.” Nicole then turned her head as if she were thinking about something. Bridge noticed.
“What is it?”
“We can’t be up here when Diego comes.”
“Yeah?”
“So if we’re downstairs and we see when they get here, I can put a tracking device on their car. Then I can monitor where they’re going on my tablet.”
“So we won’t need to follow so closely and risk being spotted.”
Nicole smiled. “Exactly.”
“You’re brilliant.”
“I do my best.”
“Yo, what’s that mean for me?” Berkampf asked.
“Nothing,” Bridge answered. “You just do exactly what they tell you. Don’t act like anything’s different. Act like we don’t exist. You never met us, don’t know we’re here.”
“But I do.”
“Listen, if you tell them about us, they’re gonna blow your head off. Understand? So if you think warning them about us is gonna help you, it’s not. They’re just gonna assume you’re a liability and you’re gonna be found lying face down somewhere like Bodie Dermott.”