"First, what's this stolen airplane about?"
"I'll bring Rosalyne Wilson's exclusive article with us, for now, I'm so thankful your father-in-law took you flying with him."
"Maybe you should stay here, Charlie. You are in no condition to travel."
"I'm in much better condition to travel, than I'd be watching you leave without me."
Chapter 30
I ran downstairs to book airline tickets for Charlie and me to Belize. I was filled with guilt; Charlie was in no shape to travel, in no shape to chase McBride and Scott all over Belize and the guilt of pulling him into this with my selfish focus on Sandy's father staying in her life. I wanted to stop and tell Linda and Sandy we couldn't help this time, not because of a lack of desire, but rather the obvious, Charlie would endure substantially more pain; pain, I knew with complete certainty that if I was suffering, he'd forbid our going.
I looked up from my computer screen and saw Agent Gordon standing there in the office doorway. "Charlie sent me down, Jenny. He's packing a bag and wanted me to tell you he's going with or without you."
"He knew I'd hesitate, with his injury."
She moved into the office and stood beside my desk. "I think that’s exactly what he thought, and I for one, think you two have already done too much here, risked too much."
"That's the real question, Debbie. If we could have done something and didn't, then we'd need to accept responsibility for the outcome." I turned back to the computer screen. "The last flight to Dallas that would connect to Belize tonight leaves San Jose in two hours. We'd never make that, maybe I'm being told to wait?"
"If you two are going to this extreme for the Richards, the least I can do is get you to San Jose, sirens blearing if need be."
I booked the flights and Special Agent Debbie Gordon did exactly that, got us to the passenger unloading area at San Jose Airport in record time. From the rear seat of the FBI Crown Vic, Charlie and I swayed back and forth along the way, zigzagging through traffic, and took real delight from Debbie's smile in the rear-view mirror, a toothpaste selling smile, a confirmation she enjoyed being our team player. If that wasn't enough, Agent Baker met us at the curb in one of those electric carts to ease our journey to the gate, and somehow, he'd managed an upgrade to first class seating that I'd wanted to book, but it was unavailable online.
*****
I'd had in my mind, it would be a small airport, a few old and battered taxis at the curb, unshaven native drivers biding for your dollars for a ride into town, but our landing approach showed Philips S.W. Goldson International Airport in Belize was everything but that. The terminal was under construction, doubling its size and just west of it was Belize City, also showing major resort and hotel construction along the coastline. The aerial view before landing suggested we were entering into paradise for all the wrong reasons. We'd left one last voice message on Don Richards' phone as United Airlines was closing the doors on our flight out of Dallas/Ft. Worth.
We'd breezed through customs with our carry-on luggage, beside the tourists there for the right reasons. Well, breezed through officially, although Charlie, feeling better, was still not walking at a fast pace. Charlie shared with me the story of the stolen airplane in China, but more importantly for us now, that we had used a local PI there. It seemed a good idea here as well, as hopes for that unshaven native taxi driver in the old battered car that would recognize and direct us to McBride and Scott, faded quickly. Charlie was renting us a car and I turned on my phone looking for a message from Don and to check in with Special Agent Baker.
"Jenny, we've got a real break here. Security cameras caught McBride and Scott in the gate area for United's flight 238 to Dallas/Ft. worth out of Los Angeles. The only thing we can figure is McBride spotted Agent Banks and his family there, panicked and we have them exiting the airport separately."
"If they were booked on that flight, what names were they using?"
"Five people had tickets on that flight that didn't board the plane; we're checking those names now."
"If they didn't get out on the earlier flight, maybe we beat them here to Belize?"
"Well, none of the five passengers were booked through to Belize. If they have bogus passports, they didn't want to show them in Los Angeles, figuring if Belize was their destination, they'd ticket that in Dallas."
"Charlie is holding keys to our rental car. Email us the names when you determine the ones used, that will help us a great deal."
"Jenny, you've got to remember who we're dealing with here, a twenty-five year experienced FBI agent, two or three aliases wouldn't be out of reach for him."
"Has Don Richards called in?"
"Not to me, Gordon is with his family and nothing from her either."
"Oh, thanks for the up-grade to first class, Agent Baker that was a very pleasant surprise."
"Least I could do, I'll be in touch when we know more." When he'd disconnected the call I checked for email or voice messages before putting my phone away.
"That sounded promising," Charlie said.
"The camera caught them in the gate area, but they didn't get on the plane. Baker will have names for us soon. No word from Don from home or on my phone. Check yours, Charlie."
He pulled his phone out, waited for it to connect and then shook his head. "Nothing from Don. We can only hope he at least heard our message that there is a solid warrant for Scott, and she would be arrested here."
"With his intent to eliminate Scott and her threats to Sandy, he may have tossed the phone to start covering his tracks, Charlie."
"Every rental car company I've heard of is here, but let's see if Don rented a car, see if our PI certs pull any influence here."
We turned from leaving the airport and went back to the long string of rental car desks. English, being the official language there was a blessing as we worked our way through the rental agencies. Budget had Don Richards in a Blue Nissan sedan and they'd provided the license number for us. There wasn't a hotel listed for him, like Charlie and I we hadn't picked one yet, but every little leads helps. Budget did offer us something else, apparently the local hotels teamed up with each of the rental car companies with discounts. Our discounted hotels from Avis were different than those offer by Budget, we'd check those Budget hotels in the morning. It was late in the evening there and getting settled in at a hotel was our priority. I called home as Charlie drove us to a hotel and I was still being passed around at Watson Manor on Julia's phone when he pulled into the parking lot.
"Everyone sends their love and thanks, Charlie," I ended the call. "Emily is disappointed this trip didn't fall under father-daughter time."
"Tell her next time. No, I'll tell her. When I'm in better shape, Jenny, we'll bring Emily and Maddy here."
"Better shape and for a better reason."
"Oh, our reason for being here is good, just not the best." We had a late dinner in a restaurant beside our hotel and had no trouble falling asleep in our room that night.
I was bringing Charlie a cup of coffee from the four cup coffee maker in our room the next morning when his phone rang. He answered it by hitting the speaker button.
"Hope I didn't wake you two this morning," Baker said.
"Must be the air here, Baker, best night sleep I've had for a while. What's the word?"
"We cleared every name but two, Thomas Winters and a Rebecca Townsend, different seat rows so there is no indication they were even traveling together, but both passports cleared customs last night in Belize on a flight from Mexico City. Nothing for either name in the States - phony travel documents. We also show no property ownership in Belize for Henry McBride or Brittney Scott. We'll run these new names when the offices open in Belize, but we're thinking they are using names we don't have yet for them."
"We can assume that they are here now at least," Charlie said. "We should have sat in the airport watching for them when we knew they'd missed the earlier flight."
"They followed you by five hours, Charlie. It wa
sn't a miss by minutes."
"So you didn't have those names posted in customs here?"
"Calling those names into customs was when I'd found out they'd already entered Belize."
"With lack of anything better, we'll drop the names along with the photos we have here, anything else?"
"In the office, McBride first mentioned Belize about five years back and had mentioned it as his destination for the following four years, a cover as he'd done when he was in San Jose. We're looking at similar stolen information during his past vacations, but the point being, he may have made a legitimate trip to Belize, fallen in love with it, then started with this sideline, information theft, to support a dream there. He didn't buy property that first year or we'd have his name in the records. He's created an alias after that first visit to Belize for holding both the property there and money generated from theft. I'm told by Walter Price, black market sales of the design he was after was worth between three to five mil."
"So if McBride has done this before, and we don't know that this time wasn't his first time, we won't find them in a two room shack is what you're suggesting," I said.
"Five acres with two of them right on the coast is about five hundred grand, just doubling that, say one mil, you've got a palace to watch those waves hit your shoreline."
"I don't know if that really helps," Charlie said. "Like Jenny said, what do we have to support he's done this theft before and has those funds to spend?"
"Little things, he'd be a major fool to flaunt wealth he couldn't justify. His house for instance, strictly a middle class neighborhood he could afford. McBride moved in three years ago, but what people don't know or see on the surface is that there is no mortgage on that house, no car loans or credit owed on anything for the past four years."
"I'll buy your suspicions and we'll look at better properties, purchased within the last four years by Americans."
"Charlie, you can't assume even American. Thomas Winters' passport was Canadian and Rebecca Townsend's was British."
"Keep digging, Baker, this is looking like an overwhelming task. Jenny and I will feel lucky if we can just find Don at this point."
"Baker, we have a few places to look for Don this morning, hotel discounts from Budget where he rented a car, but if you tap into his credit cards you should be able to find him for us," I said.
"I'm on it." He disconnected the call.
"Charlie, Brittney was pretty sloppy sending that voice message from the airport. In fact her public profile on that internet site is how we located and tied her to McBride. I don't think McBride knows she has it and she'd be chomping at the bit to flaunt photos from that deck overlooking the ocean to her old friends."
"That, my dear, could be as valuable as the address." I really love it when Charlie appreciates my lucky thoughts as brilliance.
Chapter 31
The country of Belize is approximately the size of the state of Massachusetts. In Central Belize, south of Belize City is the large city of Dangriga along the coast. A few miles north of Dangriga's civic center along a dirt road that was once envisioned to be paved, was the start of a resort area. Before it's time, many had concluded, because it preceded the current growth of the tourist industry in Belize. The Beach Front Hotel, was a two story, ten large suite hotel on four acres with beach front access, and had been vacantly held by the bank for three years when Thomas Langford purchased it, four years prior. Over those four years, maintaining this dream for early retirement, he'd kept away and in the states generating income for the ongoing remodeling and building the retirement fund to comfortably call this home.
He'd expected a large final bankroll to be added to his nest egg and even the pension from the FBI, but interest alone on that nest egg exceeded the lost pension. There was no evidence in his home or office back in the states that this place existed and during the remodeling of it, he'd only seen emailed photos of the progress, photos dumped immediately following his viewing and returned approval. Brittney, now Rebecca, (Becky) Langford on paper only, was not aware it existed until he told her it was their destination after the last job they were planning.
Walking through the remodeled hotel, converted into a mini mansion, Thomas felt a definite positive shift in Becky's attitude that made bringing her there more palatable, maybe there was hope.
"After that long dusty road trip, I had no idea it'd be this glorious, Hen … Tom. I promise I'll get it right.""Henry McBride and Brittney Scott are gone," Thomas said. "We need to become, Thomas and Rebecca Langford. If we travel, we'll get additional passports; the ones that brought us here were a one way ticket and already destroyed. We'll need to keep Langford off of everybody's radar for several years. It's just Tom and Becky, barefoot and carefree." He took her hand and led her through the glass paned French doors onto the second story balcony. "Soon, Becky that new dock will have our boat tied to it."
"I've always dreamed of living on the ocean and this is way beyond anything …I'll make you glad you've included me, Tom. Are we safe here?"
"The last loose end is the rental car, but everyone is looking for McBride and Scott. I used Thomas Winter's Canadian passport and driver's license to rent the car. Nobody is looking for it, especially coming in from Mexico City. It was too late to purchase our new car last night, but we'll do that today, buy our car, stock the house with food and go sightseeing. How does that sound?"
"I'll be showered and dressed in twenty minutes, Tom Langford."
*****
Charlie and Jenny made an early morning pass through the discounted hotels and resorts on the list provided by Budget where Don Richards rented his car. They decided to have breakfast at the last resort on the list after not spotting Don's car at any of the listed places.
"I'll admit the roads aren't great, Charlie, but I'm thinking we got scammed into a 4-wheel drive Jeep upgrade."
"We haven't left the city yet. McBride will be in a remote place, not downtown somewhere, Jenny. His departure was planned, but became urgent. We know they are here as," he paused to look at his notes. "Thomas Winters and Rebecca Townsend, we should make another pass with the rental car agents."
"Good point, maybe check limo services also. I checked before we left the hotel, no activity on Brittney's internet site."
"Why the hell doesn't Don call us back!" Charlie asked.
"There's always the possibility he lost his phone, but I'd understand him not wanting to be distracted with a pleading call to come home from Linda and Sandy. If McBride and Brittney had left that message about Emily or Maddy?"
"I'd have his same crazed focus to deliver their death wish, personally. If he'd lost his phone, he might still think we all believe he's visiting his brother."
"Don's not in trouble unless he finds them first, Charlie. Preventing that is our primary concern; finding McBride first. Second is spending our time looking for Don."
"I agree with that, we'll finish breakfast and start with the rental cars."
They returned to the airport and parked in the short term parking lot closest to the terminal and started with the first car rental agency that happened to be the same one they used the night before, Avis.
"Hello Mr. Watson, is there a problem with your rental?"
"No, not at all. I am surprised you remembered us though."
"It was only last night and we did speak twice. Did you find your friend?"
"No yet, thanks, but looking for friends are why we're back." Jenny handed Charlie the photo of Henry McBride. "Did you see Thomas Winters here last night?" he asked setting the photo and his PI License on the counter.
The agent turned to his computer. "Let me check for you … Yes, here it is. A Chrysler, black … one day rental."
"So it's due back today?" Jenny asked.
"Technically, not until this evening. He can always just phone us for an extension, though."
"A local address listed?" Charlie asked.
"Undecided, is all I have."
"Thank you very much,
" Charlie said, picked up the photo, his PI license, and he and Jenny moved to a bench where they could watch the counter. Jenny pulled out a real estate magazine that had been left for distribution in their hotel to map their next destinations. The rental agent approached them thirty minutes later.
"Are you waiting here for Mr. Winters?" he asked them.
"Yes," Jenny said. "It's the only place we know he will be. Did he call to extend?"
"No, but he wouldn't come back to the desk. Our cars are returned in the same lot where you picked up your Jeep, Ms. Watson."
"Of course, we missed that," Charlie said, getting to his feet. "We can't thank you enough!" They moved quickly to the exit and boarded the next Avis Shuttle to the rental lot fifteen minutes later. On the ride over Charlie took her hand. "Jenny, we need to be careful here, they know who we are, what we look like."
"I had the same thought, but unless the Avis fleet of black Chryslers is great, we don't need to get real close."
"From here, they'll need a cab. Maybe we should wait at the cab stand for them."
"We have phones, Charlie. I can go back on the shuttle so we have both places covered, less conspicuous as individuals."
"I'd rather we stayed together, but you make sense. If I can't get back in time, follow them in the next cab and I'll catch up in the Jeep. Promise me, you won't follow them on foot, Jenny!"
"I promise, call me when they check in. Charlie I have a better idea. You go back on the shuttle and I'll wait here, because I can run like hell back to the taxi stand and you can't."
Charlie handed her the keys to the Jeep and she got off of the shuttle at the Avis Office where another shuttle had just left. Two people got on the shuttle with Charlie for a ride back to the terminal, neither was McBride or Brittney. She walked past the front doors and down the side of the building where the cars were being returned. It was a small scale operation and five cars were moving on the check in, vacuuming and washing line. Jenny moved quickly to the woman closing the door on the last car in line.
Watson Manor My Journey Home (Watson Manor Mystery Series Book 4) Page 17