by Margaret Kay
She heard Brian sigh. “I’m not mad, just disappointed it ended where it did. I want to make love to you, Brielle, but I’ll wait till you’re ready.”
“Did you jackoff in the shower?”
“Yeah, didn’t want to get blue balls, don’t need to be walking around here in pain.”
“I’m sorry, Brian,” was all Brielle could say.
“Don’t be,” he said. “We wait till you’re ready.”
Though in his head he couldn’t come to terms with why she said she wasn’t ready to make love with him. Nor could he understand why she needed to take it slow. They were both consenting adults, and it wasn’t like she was a virgin, waiting for her Prince Charming to come sweep her off her feet. And hell, didn’t she understand how mixed the messages were that she sent wanting to snuggle in bed?
She embraced him, pulling herself up against his strong form. “That felt good, and I did like it.”
“Yeah, it did feel real good,” Sherman confirmed. He stroked over her back and noted that her bra was off. She wore only her t-shirt and panties. Things were moving in the right direction, just too slowly for him. He embraced her more tightly. Then sleep overtook him.
When Brielle woke the next morning, she was alone in the bed. She glanced around the dorm-style room, not really expecting to see Brian. And she did not. She reached over and grabbed her phone from the table that sat between the two twin beds. It was nearly ten a.m. She jumped up and quickly dressed. She again secured her hair in a ponytail.
She entered the bathroom, encountering Danny and Rich within. She wasn’t getting any more comfortable with this coed bathroom arrangement. She put on a pleasant smile and greeted them on her way into the designated female only stall. She joined Rich at the sinks and grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste from the small shelf where everyone was keeping theirs.
“You slept late, must have been really tired,” Rich remarked.
“Yes, I was surprised when I saw the time.” She squeezed the toothpaste tube. “Is there much going on this morning?”
“No, just monitoring the surveillance equipment. This is the boring part, the downtime when we’re just waiting. That’s a lot of what surveillance work is, waiting and watching.”
“I’m especially interested in the surveillance of Sheriff Henderson. After the bullying and all the other crap that he and Deputy Downey have pulled against me since I published that first article on BioDynamix, I so want something damning against him to come to light.”
“Well, we put trackers on both their squad cars, we have Henderson’s phone paired, and I know the digital team is diving so far into his background, there won’t be much we don’t know about him.”
“I hope so,” Brielle said. “Where is Brian this morning?”
“He’s at the table in the lounge, monitoring feed. There’s still some breakfast out in the galley. Doc prepared it this morning, so it’s ultra-healthy. He ran to the local grocery store to get fruit, yogurt, and granola. And I’m pretty sure the omelets he made were made with only the egg whites.” Burke chuckled.
Brielle went to the lounge first to see Brian. He and Gary sat in front of the equipment. “Good morning,” she greeted as she approached.
Brian’s smile as he gazed up at her set her worries that he was mad at her to rest. “Good morning.”
Gary echoed the greeting.
“Anything interesting going on this morning?”
“No, just normal workday stuff. We watched the Parish employees arrive for work at BioDynamix. They parked in that far lot outside the fence and were bussed up to the building, just like you said they were. I’ve never seen a group of people act more like a herd of sheep,” Sherman said. “Just watching them, anyone would agree something is very off.”
Brielle felt almost vindicated that Brian agreed with her. She’d been virtually alone in her suspicion of that place for so long. To have the agreement of her assessments by this group gave her a sense of justification, confirming that she wasn’t paranoid or crazy.
“And Sheriff Henderson finally showed up at the police station at nine-thirty. He left his house at seven but made a stop at a house outside of town belonging to a woman I don’t remember, who’s known as Bitsy Phillips. Tracker on the car had him there for an hour and a half. He took several calls from Downey while he was there, lied and said he was at home.”
Brielle laughed. “Bitsy Phillips? Oh my God! Brothel Bitsy is screwing Sheriff Henderson. That explains a lot.”
“Why don’t I remember her?” Sherman asked.
“I’m glad you didn’t know her. Back when we were coming up, only the lowest-life scum that paid for her services knew her. The last few years, probably because she aged, she became more of the Parish’s madam, who helps arrange a higher-class network of female companionship aimed at the tourists who come in to fish. They get lonely, you know.”
“Yeah, I imagine after handling their fishing rods all day, they want a lovely young lady to handle their personal rods,” Sherman joked.
“The Parish has harsh anti-prostitution laws, but Sheriff Henderson doesn’t enforce many of them, and this explains why,” Brielle said.
“It’s interesting, but it’s not the proof we’re looking for on him,” Sloan said. “So, he’s screwing a whore, big deal. I’d have preferred we recorded a call between him and Spencer at the BioDynamix plant discussing drugs or whatever it is they are up to out there.”
Unfortunately, Brielle had to agree with him. “Has your digital unit dug up anything more?”
“We’re due to have a briefing with them at thirteen hundred this afternoon,” Sloan said. “We’ll find out then. Cooper and Madison will be back by then, they’re just grabbing a few hours nap.”
“Where’s everyone else?” Brielle asked.
“Doc was up all night. He went to bed too after he made breakfast. There’s still some in the kitchen,” Sherman said. “You should grab some.”
“Lambchop, Mother, and Handsome were talking about reacquiring the Sheriff and surveilling him later today. They’re in the galley,” Sloan said.
Brielle was hungry, and she wanted a cup of coffee. “Can I get either of you anything from the galley?”
“Thanks, I’m good,” Sherman said.
“Me too,” Sloan agreed.
Brielle could hear the conversation of the men in the galley as she approached. They were talking about the Sheriff. Their conversation halted when she entered. Danny pointed out where the breakfast foods were in the refrigerator. She’d have to microwave it to reheat if for herself.
“You must have been tired. You slept late,” Mother said.
“Yes, I guess I was,” Brielle admitted.
Lambchop pointed to one of the empty chairs at the table as Brielle lifted her plate and coffee cup from the counter, her eyes on the door. “Join us. We have some questions about the Sheriff and we’re hoping you can help.”
“Sure,” she replied, somewhat hesitantly. She took a sip of her coffee after she was seated.
“When he first started harassing you, did he ever warn you away from BioDynamix?” Mother asked.
“Not in so many words, and never directly. It was implied. He said things like people don’t like you digging into things that are none of your business. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop. Downey was a little more threatening. He forced his way into my house one time and made a point of telling me how flimsy the door and locks were. He said he’d sure hate to get called to the scene and find me hurt or worse.”
The three men exchanged glances. Lambchop shook his head. “Brielle, why didn’t you file a report with state or federal authorities?”
Brielle shrugged. “I guess that never occurred to me. And I didn’t think either one of them would actually hurt me. They’ve pulled me over and pushed their way into my house dozens of times. It got to the point of being more of an annoyance, than making me feel afraid. Besides, it would be my word against theirs.”
&nb
sp; “I think you’ve been very lucky that nothing else happened. I’m glad Sherman found you. If you’d been hiding anywhere other than his boat, we may not be here right now,” Mother said.
“And you might not be either,” Lambchop added.
By the serious looks on all their faces, Brielle knew that they all thought it had been a good possibility that she could have been hurt. “You just never think that someone known to you would hurt you, certainly not law enforcement officers.”
“Statistically speaking, most murder victims are killed by people they know,” Burke said. “Some statistics put it as high as eighty percent.”
“Thanks, that’s comforting,” she said with much sarcasm.
Mike
The briefing at thirteen hundred brought some well-needed updates from the digital unit. Shepherd and Garcia were on the monitor. The team at Port Fourchon was seated in chairs pulled up and clustered near the largest of the monitors on the table.
“Here’s what we dug up on the four owners of record on the Articles of Incorporation for BioDynamix. You all know about Maribel Spencer, the mother of Mike Spencer, both of whom are deceased. I finally found Michael Spencer’s death certificate,” Garcia said. “He drowned at an upstate New York summer camp when he was thirteen. We have no ID on the man who has taken over his identity, yet.”
“FBI ran down Mayor Dwayne Stuart’s brother, Donald. He has never lived or received any other mail at the apartment over the Trenton Gentleman’s Club that Dwayne Stuart owns, until the articles were filed. As far as we can tell, he’s been in California for over two decades, without a single trip back to Trenton. Dwayne Stuart did live and receive all his mail at that address, though, until he moved to Louisiana. There is nothing tying Donald Stuart to any of it,” Shepherd reported. “We believe his name was used fraudulently.”
“A third officer on the corporate filings is Jennifer Brubaker. This appears to be another deceased child identity take over from the Trenton area,” Garcia said. The monitor switched over to display the New Jersey driver’s license for Jennifer Brubaker. She was Asian. “Does she look familiar to any of you?”
They all agreed they had not seen her in the area, but they would remember her. Could she be the link to the Chinese?
“FBI visited the address this license has. She hasn’t lived there in over a year. We’re running her driver’s license photo against the Asian women Brielle’s camera captured. But so far, nothing,” Garcia said.
“The last officer, Keith Louis, is a cousin of Sheriff Henderson, whose W-2’s indicate he worked at one of Stuart’s strip clubs up until the corporate filings. He’s in the wind, don’t have any current employment or housing info on him. The FBI visited his last known address. His landlord said he vacated the premises nearly two years ago,” Shepherd said. His driver’s license photo displayed, dark red hair, receding hairline, glasses over his round face.
“Finally, the first real piece of evidence tying Dwayne Stuart and Sheriff Henderson together,” Sherman remarked aloud. It was what everyone else was thinking.
“The digital team will continue to dig into the finances. And we’ll try to get more on these people we just discussed. Continue your surveillance. We’ll touch bases again tomorrow at seventeen hundred if nothing develops before,” Shepherd ordered. Then the monitor went to a blank blue screen when Shepherd cut the transmission from HQ.
Cooper stood and stretched. “I’m heading back to bed. I’ll take an overnight shift with Doc.” His gaze went to Lambchop. “Wake me if anything comes up.”
Nothing came up. The team continued their surveillance. There was no activity on the cameras that focused on the back of the BioDynamix facility except Spencer taking a few smoke breaks with the Chinese man.
Brielle did enjoy that she and Brian made dinner for everyone that evening. It felt normal working in the kitchen together. Brielle loved to cook, just never had many people to cook for. She and Brian worked together well. They talked a lot about Bobby and Brian’s childhood. Helene Sherman had told Brielle so many stories while she cared for her during her illness.
With so much downtime, Brielle’s thoughts kept focusing on the fact that she’d nearly had sex with Brian the previous evening. She knew that Brian was honorable. She believed him when he said he would make a commitment and stick to it. She wanted to let it go further, but she also knew that her past was holding her back. She decided that she’d really try to let it go a little further and see how comfortable she felt. Brian was a good guy. It wasn’t fair to Brian that the action of two jagoffs were stopping her from trusting him.
That night when they went to bed, Brielle had a headache. No, she really had a headache. Probably because she had spent so much time obsessively thinking about having sex with him. Brian went to Gary and got Tylenol for her. He got her a water bottle and brought them to her in the room. Then he held her and they both fell asleep.
The next morning when Brielle woke, she was again alone in the room. It was ten a.m. She hadn’t slept till ten since college. She ran into Cooper in the bathroom. He was heading to bed. After, she got a cup of coffee and joined Brian and Madison in the lounge.
“Where is everyone?” She asked as she approached.
“Good morning, sleepy head!” Sherman greeted with a crooked smile.
“You shouldn’t let me sleep that long,” she replied.
Madison’s gaze flickered back at her and then reaffixed on the monitors. “You’ve obviously needed it. Don’t feel bad. There’s not much going on here. This is the boring part of surveillance, waiting for something to happen.”
“Mother, Lambchop, and Burke left early to surveil the Sheriff again. They should be back early this afternoon. Doc and Cooper are sleeping, and Sloan went to the store to get us more food. See, you missed nothing,” Sherman said. “Did your headache go away?”
Brielle sipped her coffee. “Yes. It’s gone this morning.”
After she finished her coffee, she took a shower. Then she helped Gary put the groceries away. The others returned after lunch with plans for the three of them to go back out that night to surveil the Sheriff. A call was recorded on his phone that morning to a burner phone that was traced back to a store in New Jersey. He told whoever he spoke with that he’d see them at midnight.
Shortly thereafter, Brielle headed back into the galley to get another cup of coffee. She glanced out the window and her breath caught in her chest when she saw the man who stood less than seventeen feet from the window talking with one of the Coast Guard people. Brielle crouched down fast, so that she was no longer visible in the window. Her shaking hand removed her phone from her back pocket. She dialed Brian. Thankfully, he answered on the first ring.
“What’s the matter?”
“He’s here, that man that Gary took the picture of, who was watching us in New Orleans. He’s right outside this galley window, talking with one of the Coast Guard people.”
“You’re hidden?”
“Of course, I am.”
“We’re on it. Stay where you are.” He disconnected the call and then relayed the issue to the others in the room.
“He hasn’t seen those of us who were in New York,” Lambchop said. “Mother and Handsome, you both go outside and get eyes on this guy. Watch him and follow him, but do not engage if you can avoid it. I’ll go to the galley and get Brielle out when it’s safe to.”
Sherman didn’t like that he couldn’t do anything to help, but Lambchop was right, it was best that anyone who had been in Louisiana and had been seen, stay out of sight. “Madison, do we have any surveillance that could have this fucker on it?” Sherman asked.
Madison clicked over her keyboard. “The Coast Guard gave me access to their exterior security cams. Let’s see if I can get him on a camera or two.” She clicked through several camera feeds before the one that showed their mystery man and the Coast Guard officer displayed on her monitor. “Got him.”
Through their comms they heard Mother’s voice
. “We’ve got him in sight. Handsome passed and is about fifty yards ahead of them, sitting in one of the vehicles, watching. I can’t hear the conversation, but we can get that from the Coast Guard personnel once they separate.”
“I don’t like this. He could be spilling everything he knows about us,” Sherman said nervously. “Lambchop, is Brielle okay?” He hadn’t brought her back yet. Sherman was getting antsy.
“Affirmative, she’s hidden. Our man is in a position to see right in this window. I don’t dare move her yet.”
“The conversation ended. Coast Guard man is heading back around the building towards the entrance. Someone needs to intercept him,” Mother said.
“I’ve got him,” Sherman said. At least he could do this to help. He hated standing around doing nothing. He headed to the door from their secure area that led into the entryway into the facility. The man in a coast guard flight suit that he had observed on the monitor, talking with blond-boy, was just entering from outside. “Hey, were you just talking to a civilian with spiked up blond hair around the corner, in front of the windows to the galley.”