“Thanks, buddy. And thanks for always being there for me.”
Snead wasn’t good with sappy stuff so he hung up instead of replying to Dix.
Dix checked his phone to see if the connection went dead, and realized he probably was being a little too dramatic with Snead. Man, this case is really getting to me, he thought.
*******
Dix sat in his car and tried to track down Sergeant Frazier. He hoped Frazier would have some leads for him to chase down.
Frazier answered his phone on the third ring. “Hey Dix, what’s up?”
Dix detected the man seemed a little down still. “Buddy, I’m really sorry about your man. Anything I can do to make things better?” He wanted to help, but he also felt it was better to keep working to find the killer than to stand by and wait for her to strike again.
“Yup, catch the assholes responsible… and make them pay.” Frazier was not a fan of the criminal justice system and he felt the only way to deal with the animals that had killed three of his co-workers was to treat them like savage beasts. He wanted personally to kill them, whether it was with his bullets or bare hands.
Dix nodded. “I’m with you. You want to meet up and get me up to speed? We’ve got a lot of work to do and the clock is ticking. You hear anything about the lady you shot?”
“No. We checked every hospital and veterinary clinic to see if someone came in with bullet wounds, but so far nothing. I’m confident she was hit, saw the blood myself.”
Dix raised an eyebrow and considered Frazier’s statement. “We have any informants who know the location of any safe houses close by?”
Frazier slapped his knee and shook his head for not thinking of it himself. “Dix, you’re brilliant. I know two informants who just may know of a place she could have gone. We’ve always heard of safe houses in our town, even ones that could provide medical attention for the right price. I’m going to make some calls and I’ll call you right back.”
“Sounds good.” He thought about the evidence they had so far. “Can you pick me up so I can look at some of the evidence when you get a chance?”
“Will do, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” answered Frazier.
Dix began picking apart mentally what he’d seen already so far: the keys, cash, identification cards, cell phone, female shooter who was also an assassin, and a connection to Canada. Somewhere in these clues was something he was missing to help further the case. He shook his head and frowned. He wondered if he’d be able to figure it all out before an attempt was made on Petersen’s life. He vowed to push himself harder than he’d ever worked before until the case was closed and Petersen was safe.
Chapter 24:
Marie woke up in a panic, frazzled from a nightmare she’d just had. She looked around the room and remembered she’d been shot. She glanced down as the pain throbbed in her elbow and forearm. The bandage appeared full of blood, but it looked like a professional had wrapped it. Oh shit, she thought. Marie instantly assumed she was in a hospital, the last place she wanted to be. She frantically looked around for an exit and noticed the room looked like a hospital room, but more homely. The room had patterned curtains, a love seat, and pictures on the wall. She began to calm down considerably as she realized she was at a safe house, a rather sophisticated one, instead of a hospital. She chuckled trying to remember how exactly she made it to the house.
Bits and pieces of her killing the undercover cop began to filter into her mind. She cursed herself for getting shot, and for being seen by another officer as she made her getaway. Marie wondered if Blass knew the current situation, and whether he’d look at it as a success or a failure. She glanced to her right and saw her personal belongings, her trusty firearm with silencer, a cell phone, and a change of clothes.
Marie pushed herself up and grimaced. Although the pain was high in her arm, she could function. She slowly got dressed and used the bathroom. As she reached for her cell phone to call her lover and boss, Blass slowly walked into the room wearing a robe and a smile.
Marie slightly blushed. “Hey handsome, I was just about to call you.” She noticed Blass had a positive aura about him, and wondered why he was so happy. She also noticed she’d been heavily medicated and could feel the effects working on her body.
“I know, baby.” He motioned to the love chair. “Have a seat, I’m almost done making your breakfast.”
Marie raised an eyebrow. “Hold on, what’s this all about?” Maybe he’s pleased with my work and he’ll finally let me be a partner.
Blass had been working on a master plan in his head—one that could cost Marie her life, but allow him to have his way with Bill Dix. But for now, he needed to get Marie off her game a little. He realized earlier he was falling for her, but while she was being worked on, he went back and forth in his head what was more important—her life or capturing Bill Dix.
“Well, one, I’m very impressed with your work on the undercover agent.” He sat down and hugged her. “And two, I’ve decided I need a partner if I’m going to continue to grow.”
Marie’s eyes lit up and she embraced him hard. “Are you shitting me?”
He smiled and shook his head. “Would I lie to you?”
“You better not be! This is great, babe. I’m not going to let you down.” Marie caressed Blass under his robe. She was extremely excited and turned on and wanted to make love to him.
He was aroused and eager to take her as well.
The couple rolled about the safe house floor and made love like animals. Afterwards, they ate a cold breakfast and made love again.
Marie had killed for him and would take a bullet for him. She worked for years to prove her worth and now Blass finally let her into his underworld. It was a dream come true for her and she wore it on her face as she beamed.
Blass, too, was happy, but there was more business to attend to. He looked into her eyes. “You’ve got one down, and one to go. I need Bill Dix’s partner killed. He’s a loose end for us, and I think it will push Dix over the edge. That will hopefully cause him to make a mistake. I’d love to grab one of generation’s greatest detectives and torture him.”
Marie pursed her lips and grunted. “Wait, you want to grab him, not kill him?”
“Of course. Killing him would not be a challenge for you, but I want to grab him, interrogate him, torture him, and then send him in pieces to his family.” Blass paced the room as he said this. He clenched his fists and breathed heavily. It was a side to him Marie had never seen.
“And you think taking out the other cop will lure Dix out?” Marie asked. She wondered what exactly about Dix had made Blass so angry and driven him to destroy him.
“Precisely, babe. I’ve no doubt somewhere along the line either you indirectly, or your two idiot brothers, left something behind for Dix to chew on. I guarantee we are only a few steps ahead of him right now and I would wager he’s protecting his partner now too. I’m going to need you to take out Dix’s partner while I work on kidnapping Dix.” He looked at her matter-of-factly.
Marie shook her head. “No way! You can’t get personally involved. What if you get caught, or worse, Dix or someone else catches or kills you before you’re successful?”
Blass chuckled. “Not going to happen. I like how you’re thinking, but in order for this to work, I’ll need to be involved.” Blass was consumed by Bill Dix. He idolized the man, yet wanted to make him pay for getting involved with his enterprise. He had respect for Dix, but ultimately there wasn’t a cop in the world worth keeping alive in his book.
Marie continued. “What’s your beef with the guy anyway? Let’s just kill him and move on.”
Blass considered Marie’s question. Mostly he just loathed cops and he felt he could really make a name for himself, not just in Canada, but internationally, if he captured the illustrious Bill Dix. “He’s the best of the best on the law side, and I’m the best of the best on the criminal side. It’s a game of chess that excites me to no end. I pull this off, and I�
�ll go down as the greatest criminal mind in Canada, the United States, maybe even the whole world.” He paused for a second looking out the window. “Plus, did I mention how I just fucking hate cops?”
Marie figured further prodding about the subject wouldn’t do much and decided to let it go. She’d go along with Blass’s plans. “Ok, I’ll get his partner. When do you want this done, and do you have any info on his location yet?” She needed time to recuperate as her recent injuries made it difficult to use her arm and leg fully. She could fight through it, but it would be much better to heal for a few days before getting into another risky situation.
Blass tossed Marie a manila envelope. “Yup, it’s all in there. He’s at one of two hospitals, there’s people watching him, possibly even Dix, and you’ve got forty-eight hours to check everything in the file.” He kissed her on the head. “I’ll call you when I need him eliminated.”
Blass grabbed his personal items and left the safe house in a rush. Marie dumped the contents of the manila envelope on a coffee table. She stared at all of it for a few minutes. She wondered if she’d bitten off more than she could handle. Oh Marie, why are you always trying to impress him? When are you ever going to learn?
Chapter 25:
Dix met up with Sergeant Frazier and they hit the ground running. Frazier explained to Dix that the money found in the burned vehicle safe was a dead end. Numerous banks and casinos used the same band so tracing where it came from would take months and probably reveal nothing useful.
Frazier’s eyes lit up based on what he was going to share next. “Dix, check these out.” He handed Dix some photographs. “So near as we can tell, the two men from the Range Rover have been positively identified as brothers out of Canada. It appears they’re well known criminals, and have been wanted by Canadian authorities for years."
Dix examined the photos and tried to compare the faces to the ones he saw the day before damaged by the vehicle fire. The fact they were identified by dental records made it almost impossible for Frazier to have things wrong here. “Wow, I guess the Canadians will be happy to hear they can mark two off their wanted lists.”
Frazier chuckled. “That’s not all, buddy. According to the people my detectives talked to, the two guys have a sister.”
Dix instantly thought of the female driver involved when Peterson was shot and wondered if it was the same woman who killed the undercover officer. “You think she’s our missing suspect?”
“I sure do. Without a doubt, flip to the back, it’s her latest photo. It’s the girl all right.”
Dix studied the photo. “You think she could be the Praying Mantis too?”
“Yup. Our people are saying the photo you have there is the Praying Mantis and she’s our murderer. Her name is Marie Roy. She’s brutal, a stone cold killer. And she’s fearless. I sent another officer to sit with Petersen until we can nab her.”
Dix looked at the photo again. He saw pain, anger, and fierceness in the woman’s eyes. He wondered how she became who she was.
Dix whistled and caught himself biting his nails while shaking his head. I’ve got to stop chewing my damn nails. He looked at Frazier. “We need to grab her. I think she’s working for someone. I also think maybe she killed her two brothers. Whatever she’s up to, it isn’t good and we need to grab her ASAP.”
“I’ve got everyone working on finding her. There’s no doubt she won’t go down without a fight. We will try to capture her, but based on everything she’s caused, I can’t guarantee she won’t be killed first by law enforcement.”
Dix looked up at Frazier when he finished his statement. He understood the local officers would want revenge and would likely shoot and kill Marie Roy if they ever got the opportunity to do so.
“My guys worked on the cell phone and keys from the Range Rover,” Frazier continued. “The keys are melted and gave us nothing. They got the phone to power on, but that’s about it.”
Dix was well known for his knowledge of cell phone forensics. He’d used a single cell phone to take down an entire operation in Miami years ago when he’d learned that cell phones contained data and information that could greatly enhance an investigator’s ability to crack cases. He was itching to get a shot at the cell phone himself.
“Can I mess with the phone back at your office?” he asked Frazier. “I think I have a few tricks I can use to get the data from it.”
“Certainly. Maybe there will be something useful in it. We don’t have much else right now, so while everyone’s looking for Marie Roy, we can go back and work on the phone.”
Dix and Frazier headed back to the police department. On the way, Dix spoke to his wife and Petersen and gave them the update. Dix cautioned Petersen about Marie Roy, sent her photo to him via text, and asked that Petersen and Michelle keep their heads on a swivel. If Marie Roy wasn’t dead, she’d be coming for Petersen regardless of who was protecting him.
*******
Frazier led Dix through several doors until finally escorting him to the forensic lab located inside the police department’s main building.
Dix whistled. “Wow, you guys have some high-tech equipment. Is that a Cellebrite over there?” He pointed to a small device in the corner of the room.
One of the technical officers looked up from a laptop. He noticed Frazier had no idea what the stranger had just asked him. “It sure is, with the latest update, I can get into thousands of phones with it.”
Frazier looked at the group in the room. “My apologies everyone, this is Bill Dix. He’s helping us with the Mantis case and would like to take a look at the cell phone from the Range Rover.”
Dix shook the young analyst’s hand. “Bill.” He shot the kid a smile. “Nice to meet you.”
“Hello, my name is Pierre.” He motioned to the recovered cell phone. “I’ll show you the phone, but it’s pretty much a goner.”
Dix walked over to see the pieces of the phone scattered on the workbench. He quickly noticed it was a phone utilizing a SIM card, which made him believe it was a phone that had GPS capabilities. Based on current agreements with cell phone providers, Dix knew GSM devices, as long as the GPS function was on, could be tracked through GPS coordinates. Let’s hope this thing will power up long enough for me to get something useful, including the phone number. He could do quite a bit with a little luck if the device cooperated.
With quickness and precision, Dix put the phone back together and took an SD card from a nearby phone and slid it in the appropriate slot. He hoped the phone would try to download the SD card and give him a chance for the Cellebrite machine to do the rest. Dix already knew the phone type. He didn’t have to search through all of the cords in front of him to connect the phone to the Cellebrite software; he needed a “100.” He grabbed the correct cord, worked his way through the cell phone forensic device, and tried to power on the phone. Pierre and Frazier watched with great interest. Dix hit the power button and nothing happened. A collective sigh was heard in the room.
Dix did not give up. He showed Pierre how to get more power to the phone with an extra charged phone battery, and how to get it to power on by bypassing the home switch.
“Jesus, Bill, I would never have thought of doing that. How do you know this stuff?” Pierre scratched his head.
Dix chuckled and kept working on the phone. It finally powered on. Dix worked frantically to extract data before it shut down again. He quickly looked for the cell phone number through the settings on the phone and initiated a logical extraction with the Cellebrite device. He’d rather have a physical extraction of the phone, but he was pretty sure he didn’t have enough time for one. A few anxious minutes later and Dix had the last known coordinates of the phone, one text message, and the phone number for the device. He and the others in the room felt a certain bit of excitement.
The last coordinates for the phone placed it within six meters of an apartment complex on the outskirts of Pahrump.
He’d received a call during the time he was tinkering with t
he cell phone advising him that his team from Florida had landed and were already briefed on the case. Dix dialed the team leader and sent his team to start looking into the apartment complex in Pahrump.
Meanwhile, Dix cut and pasted the text message into a word document, made the text larger, printed out some copies, and passed them around to the remaining agents and analysts in the room. The text was to a foreign phone number and read:
“She lands in an hour. Take her out prior to Mr. Laurin showing up. We’ve got 100k ready to transfer.”
Most of the people in the room weren’t really sure what the message meant, but it appeared likely that it was a planned murder on a female target for one hundred thousand dollars.
Dix and Frazier looked at each other and smiled.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Dix asked Frasier.
He laughed. “I think the two brothers we found in the Range Rover were trying to have their sister whacked. She found out and killed them first.”
“Yeah, I think that sounds about right, which we kind of already suspected anyway. I’m more interested in who Mr. Laurin is.” Dix wondered about the man and how he fit in the case. He stiffened up and grinned while considering the Mantis’s ability to continually outsmart anyone who crossed her path. He wondered if she survived the shootout or had succumbed to her injuries. His intuition led him to believe she somehow survived. He frowned thinking that if she did survive, she’d make every effort to find Petersen. Dix asked a couple of his guys to check on the name Laurin in Canada and the United States, specifically men with criminal histories. This left Dix and the analysts the phone number to play with.
Dix cranked out a search warrant for the phone, got it signed by a local judge, and sent it to the phone company. He called to confirm the company received the search warrant and used a little of his charm to get his request to the top of the pile.
An hour later, Frazier received an email response from the phone company regarding Dix’s search warrant. According to the phone company, the phone’s subscriber was a Robert Laurin of RL Associates, Toronto, Canada. Dix immediately called his men working the Laurin angle and updated them of the discovery.
Sin City Assassin (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 3) Page 9