by Mike Ryan
“You all right?”
Bridge tried to stand up straighter to stretch his back out. “I’ll survive.”
Since Nicole was checking out the desk, Bridge figured he’d try his luck in the filing cabinet. After a few minutes, Nicole sighed.
“What’s wrong?”
“It just…” Nicole sighed again. “I just… I don’t know what’s important and what’s not. There are names and dates and places and… and I don’t know what any of it pertains to. Considering we’re on the clock here and can’t stay here all night, I’d say this is probably a worthless endeavor.”
Bridge glanced at his girlfriend and winced as a shot of pain went up his spine. He then looked around the room and saw a backpack on the floor. He then went over to it and picked it up.
“You know what, let’s start shoving everything in here, and we can look at it later.”
“That’s a good idea,” Nicole said. “Then we can take our time with it.”
Bridge started to lean over to pick up some papers on the floor, but made a groan. Bending over was a problem for him at the moment. Nicole came over to prevent him from hurting himself more.
“Here, I’ll get this stuff. You go over to the cabinet and start taking stuff out of there. That way you can stand up.”
As Bridge walked back over to the cabinet, he saw another backpack nestled in between the file cabinet and a table that was next to it. He gingerly bent over and picked it up to start shoving papers and folders from the file cabinet inside it. Within a few minutes, they had every piece of paper and file folder that was in the room inside a backpack.
“Ready?” Nicole asked.
“Pfft. Am I ready? I’ve never been readier.”
Nicole smiled. She took her backpack and put it on her shoulder, then she took the backpack from Bridge and slung it over the other shoulder. “You need me to put you on my back, too?”
“Is that another dirty comment?”
Nicole laughed. “Could be.”
They started to walk out of the house, with Bridge feeling a little better. At least he didn’t need help walking. As they got to the kitchen, they stopped upon seeing a bright light. It was coming from the back of the house where they came in. Nicole looked at Bridge to see what he wanted to do. He wanted to split up and pointed for her to go behind the kitchen table, while he went back to the living room, ducking behind the corner of the wall.
After a few more seconds, the light got a little brighter. It was obviously a flashlight that was coming toward them. Bridge and Nicole waited silently and out of sight, until the man, or men, got closer. Then they’d spring a surprise on them. They patiently waited until the person came into view. It was only one man. It could’ve been the same person they’d run into before for all they knew. Maybe he wanted a rematch. The man, in dark attire, passed through the kitchen. It looked like he was on the way to the office as well. He seemed to know the way.
As the man passed the corner of the wall that led into the living room, Bridge jumped out and grabbed him by the neck and shoulders and wrestled him to the ground. The man tried to put up a fight, though grappling wasn’t really his specialty. Bridge easily got the upper hand and wound up sitting on top of the man, straddling his waist. Bridge reached his arm back and was about to deliver a knockout-type blow, but then heard the man beg for him to let up.
“No! Please!”
It was a familiar voice. An unmistakable one. One that Bridge could never mistake for anyone else. It was one that Nicole had heard from the kitchen as well. She ran over to the light and turned it on. With his vision clear, Bridge looked down at Abbott’s face and relaxed his arm. He got off him and helped him to his feet. Abbott put his hand on his heart to signify his discomfort with the whole situation.
“You wanna tell me what you’re doing here?” Bridge asked.
Abbott cleared his throat. “Well, um, I came here because, well, you know, Bevell’s been missing, and I wanted to try to find a few clues.”
“Isn’t that what you hired us for?”
“Well, I wasn’t sure if you were doing other things and…”
“You know this is breaking and entering, right?”
“Um, well…”
“You could be arrested for this.”
“Wait, isn’t that what you’re doing here?”
“Not the same thing,” Bridge replied. “We’re professionals. We do this for a living. We’re trained to take risks. We know how to do these things properly. You don’t.”
Abbott scrunched his eyebrows together, looking at some of the bumps and bruises on Bridge’s face. As Nicole came closer, he noticed the same on hers.
“Why do you guys look like that?”
“That’s another reason why you don’t do things like this,” Bridge said. “You never know who you’ll run into. We ran into a friend who was here before us.”
“Who was he?”
“Damned if I know.”
“Looks like he worked you over.”
“You don’t say.”
“We should go,” Nicole said, still mindful of any other visitors.
“What exactly were you hoping to find?” Bridge asked.
“Honestly, I’m not sure. I was hoping to find something that would jump out at me.”
“Well, you accomplished that one.”
“Other than you, I mean.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t get here twenty minutes ago and find that other guy before we did. Otherwise you’d be joining your brother right now.”
“I just didn’t think it would be a problem.”
“Leave the investigative work to us. That’s what you’re paying us for, right?”
“Right.”
“We should go,” Nicole said.
Bridge looked back at her and nodded. He put his hand on Abbott’s shoulder. “C’mon. We need to get out of here.”
“Did you get a chance to search?” Abbott asked.
Nicole held up the two backpacks. “We sometimes take our work home with us.”
“Oh.” They began walking through the back of the house again. “Did you find anything yet?”
“Other than a big guy with a big fist?” Bridge replied. “No. But we’ve got a lot of stuff to sort through. So we’re gonna do that while you go home and stay out of it. Right?”
Abbott sighed. “I guess so.”
“Chris?”
“Fine. I’ll go home and wait for you to call me.”
“Much better.”
They walked out of the house without any further incident. Still on the lookout for any signs of trouble, they walked around the side of the house and down the street back to their cars. Abbott was parked in the opposite direction. About halfway to his car, Bridge’s eyes happened to look further down the street. It must have been a flickering light that caught his attention. He only saw it for half a second. Maybe it was the light from a cigarette being lit. Maybe it was the light from a phone being turned on. Maybe it was something else entirely. But he saw it.
Bridge knew where the light had come from, and there was a car parked there, but it was too dark to see any of the occupants. He kept his head looking straight ahead so whoever was in the car didn’t know he was on to them. He nudged Nicole in the arm.
“There’s a car up ahead. About thirty yards away. Don’t make any sudden movements.”
“Who you think it is?” Nicole asked.
“Don’t know. Could be anybody, I suppose.”
“You don’t think cops would be watching the house, do you?”
“Tough to say. Maybe it’s our friend from earlier. Just stay sharp.”
They walked a little further, almost to Abbott’s vehicle, when Bridge noticed the car make a sharp and sudden turn out of its parking space. The car roared ahead toward them, speeding up to get closer to them.
“Get down!” Bridge yelled.
He pushed Abbott over, using his own car as cover, while also getting behind it. Nicole dove to t
he ground as well. Just as they hit the pavement, bullets ripped through the air from an automatic rifle. It was a tense few seconds as Abbott’s car became riddled with bullet holes. Glass from the windows shattered. Then the other car sped off into the night. Bridge peeked his head around the front wheel of Abbott’s car to make sure no one else was there, even though he heard the tires squealing as it left the scene. He then poked his head above the hood, making sure there wasn’t a second car in the area that was supposed to finish the job. Seeing nothing that looked like a threat, he turned back around to make sure the others were OK.
Bridge noticed a bunch of glass on top of Nicole. “You OK?”
She gingerly got up, brushing the small pieces of glass off her body. “Yeah. I’m good.”
Bridge then looked to Abbott. “How ‘bout you?”
Abbott sat up. “I think I’m fine.” He then looked at his car and sighed. “Look at my car. Why’d they have to do that?”
“You’re lucky the car’s the only thing that’s got holes in it.”
Bridge glanced back to his girlfriend, who looked troubled. She was just staring out into the darkness.
“What is it?”
“Just seems convenient,” Nicole said.
“How’s that?”
“They would’ve had a better, unobstructed view of us if they did it sooner. They had plenty of time. But they waited until we were almost at the car.”
“Like they wanted us to take cover.”
Nicole nodded. “I’m not sure they wanted to kill us. Seemed more like a message to me.”
“What kind of message?” Abbott asked.
“The kind that suggests we might be stepping on some wrong toes,” Bridge answered.
“This was a warning,” Nicole said.
“Who would do that?” Abbott asked.
“People who are very dangerous,” Bridge replied.
“What’s it all mean?”
“It means someone doesn’t want us looking into this.”
“Again, who would do that?”
“Someone who’s got connections.”
“So what are we gonna do?”
“You’re gonna go home and get your car fixed.”
“And you?”
“I’m gonna keep looking into it.”
“Even after this?”
“I don’t scare easily,” Bridge said. “When people want me to do something, I generally tend to do the opposite. I don’t like being threatened. And I don’t respond well to scare tactics. If someone wants a fight with me… then they’re gonna get one.”
4
Bridge and Nicole spent most of the next day holed up in their hotel room. They had papers sprawled all over the place. On the kitchen table, on the floor, on the couches, the living room table, everywhere. They were putting papers into different piles, things they might need to look at further, things that piqued their interest, things that seemed like they had no bearing on anything, and plenty of things that they weren’t sure about either way.
Bridge got up from the table to take a break, walking to the refrigerator to get a drink. He moved his arm and shoulder around, still feeling the effects from the previous night’s encounter with the man dressed in black.
“My back’s still killing me. I don’t know how those wrestlers do it.”
“What’s that?”
“They get thrown through tables and chairs and off the mat a million times, and they keep coming back for more day after day.”
“Well, they’re trained in that sort of thing.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Bridge let out a small groan as he stretched his back. “Hope I don’t run into that guy again anytime soon.”
“Why? Don’t think you can take him?”
“I can take him.”
“Your face says otherwise.”
“Yeah, well, maybe next time I’ll shoot first and kick his ass afterwards.”
“That’s cheating.”
“All’s fair in love and war, right?” Bridge leaned up against the counter and made a few more moans and groans.
“Something wrong?”
“No. It’s just that we’ve been looking at this stuff for four hours straight and haven’t found anything yet.”
“Anything conclusive. There’s plenty that might have some meaning. We just don’t know if it does yet. There’s obviously something here somewhere.”
“What makes you think that?”
“If there wasn’t, why else would that other guy have been there? He must’ve known there was something that would incriminate somebody.”
“Maybe he just thought there was. Or making sure there wasn’t. He might not have known for sure either.”
“Considering the bullets that came flying afterwards, I tend to think there’s something here.”
After consuming his soda, Bridge went back to the table and started sorting through documents and case files. Another hour went by before they finally found something. As soon as Bridge saw the address, something clicked in his mind. He held the paper out in front of him and stared at it for a solid two minutes. Nicole eventually noticed that he hadn’t moved in a while.
“What is it?” Bridge was so focused on what was on the paper that he didn’t even hear her voice. She finally put her hand on his forearm to break his concentration. “Luke?”
Feeling her touch finally snapped him from his stare. “Huh?”
“What is it?”
Bridge glanced at her and handed over the paper. Looking at him strangely, she took the paper and read it. It immediately rang a few bells for her too, but not in the same way as her boyfriend.
“You know what this is?”
“Yes,” Bridge answered.
“I can’t place it. But it looks… familiar for some reason. Like I’ve…”
“Been there before?”
“Or have seen it somewhere before,” Nicole said.
“Probably because you have.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a CIA station here in New York.”
“That’s where I’ve seen it. I remember sending a few reports to this address before.”
“I’ve been there,” Bridge said. “I used to get missions from there, debriefings after assignments, things like that.”
“But you worked out of…”
“Well, that was before then. Before I met you. But this was one of my first assignments… working out of there.”
“How would Bevell get this address? Why would he have it?”
“That’s the million-dollar question.”
“The CIA somehow ties into this?”
Bridge stared at her. “Certainly looks like it’s heading that way.”
“But how?”
“Unless Abbott was an agent. Either for us or for someone else.”
Nicole raised her eyebrows and nodded. “And if someone found that out, or someone who’s connected to the agency…”
“They didn’t want anyone digging further into Gary Abbott’s murder and took him out too. Tie off loose ends.”
“How far is this gonna go? And how far are we gonna take it?”
“As far as the clues lead us.”
Nicole made a face like she wasn’t especially pleased to follow him in that direction. “I dunno, Luke. I mean, we left the CIA on great terms; they’ve given us no issues when we left or since then. I really don’t want to make enemies with them if this is somehow tied directly to them.”
“Who’s the one who continuously tells me to help the people that need help? Even if it doesn’t exactly coincide with our mission statement.”
“Now you’re gonna use my own words against me?”
Bridge laughed. “You’ve used them against me long enough.”
“They can make things difficult for us if we don’t do this right.”
“I think we’ve built up enough goodwill over the years helping to do some of their dirty work that it shouldn’t blow up over this.”
�
�Depending on what we uncover.”
Bridge sighed. “Yeah.”
They looked through some other papers, though none of them ever got to the level of interest as the one with the CIA address. Bridge eventually went back to it, holding it in front of him as he stared at it.
“You know, staring at it isn’t going to suddenly bring you an answer,” Nicole said.
“It might.”
“We need to find something else that ties this together.”
As Bridge stared at the address, he thought of another way to get the answers they needed. And a lot faster than what they were doing now. He finally put the paper down and looked at Nicole.
“Or we can just speed things up.”
“How do you plan to do that?” Nicole asked.
Bridge tapped on the paper with his index finger. “Talk with the man that runs this.”
Nicole leaned back, surprised to hear him say it. “I dunno, Luke.”
“Is there ever a better way at getting to the heart of a matter than by going right to the top?”
“Even if they’re involved, they’re unlikely to tell you anything.”
“If there’s one thing I learned when I worked there, it’s that it’s not always about what they say. Sometimes it’s about what they don’t.”
“It might put a target on you.”
“After last night, I’d say the target’s already been painted on my back.”
Nicole wiped her face. “You sure this is a good idea?”
“No.” Bridge smiled. “But I think wherever this case is taking us… we’ll get there a lot faster.”
“I’m not sure I’m liking this.”
“You’re the one who begged me to take this case.”
“Well, that was when I thought it was a simple murder. Besides, when do you ever listen to me?”
“I always listen to you. Especially when you start… doing things.”
“Well, maybe you should start learning some willpower to resist me.”
Bridge looked at her and smiled. “Impossible.” He then leaned over and gave her a kiss. “I could never resist you.”
“Except you did for a while.”
“And you broke me down.”