John: The Senior Killer

by Robert C. Waggoner

  Billy broke his concentration saying, “Boss the garage is as clean as the rest of the house save an old push mower without a handle.”

  Have the FBI check on all the storage units with his picture and find out where he stored his clothes and other things like pictures. I don’t think he filled a dumpster, but took the easy way out and rented a storage unit for a year or more.”

  Sujin came and told him she was finished and Billy was helping Mike in the kitchen going through the utensils and cupboards.”

  “I’m going to walk around the house and look it over with Rocky.”

  “I’ll wait here for you and see what the FBI comes up with as they are now ripping out the toilet and bathroom sink looking for hair samples for DNA.” Brad nodded and left with Rocky by the front door stopping long enough to peer into the empty garage. Something caught his eye in one corner and he walked in looking like Sherlock Holmes on a case. In the corner a pile of sawdust stood all by itself. Brad looked the rest of the garage over and became curious why this one small pile of sawdust was left when the rest of the garage had been, what looked like a vacuumed cleaner had been used. Agent Jones saw him and with gloved hands and a knife scraped the pile into a brown pocket envelope. He sealed it and wrote the appropriate notation. Brad squatted down and picked some of the pile up in his hand and stood up. He went to the side window for a better look and sure enough, it was a pile of sawdust. But why did he leave it and nothing else. Maybe he wanted us to find it and that would keep us busy guessing why he left it. Brad dropped the sawdust and left to walk down the side of the house. There was nothing but dead flowers and brown grass surrounding the house. Nothing unusual and Brad made his way back to the front of the house. Sujin was standing on the walkway under a big old elm tree. It was warm for her after being on the coast for the last four months. She had grown used to the coastal weather and didn’t much like this heat at all. Brad walked up to her and said, “Let’s fly back home and see what we can figure out about this guy.” She nodded her agreement and Brad left to tell Steve and Jake his plan to take his team back to Oregon to work on finding where this guy might strike again. Nobody argued with him. Jake was happy to see him go and Wendy stood looking like she missed the bus. Brad walked up to her and said, “Wendy if you want to you’re welcome to join our team at my house. It is up to you.”

  Wendy nodded her agreement and left to tell Jake her plan to go with Brad. Jake could have cared less, but as he was the special agent in charge of this case, she knew to report to him.

  An hour later they were flying back up the coast to Oregon and entrench themselves in the most baffling case to date

  Chapter 5

  The ‘Batt Team’ euphemistically known by in certain circles of the government was built on stamina and perseverance. This was evident by the plane ride up the coast. Steve and Wendy were both sleeping and the team was fully awake doing what they do best: working. Billy at his laptop; Sujin at her laptop, doing what she did best: digging for information that might lead to a clue where this madman might strike next; Brad with his map studying each kill site looking for a needle in a haystack. Math, the answer to all questions, lay before him. The formula is all he needed. Mike did his best work analyzing where he had been, what he saw, what he heard and Brad had told him to try and understand why the house was empty save the books and kitchen stuff. He’d also told him after the FBI had looked for clues and fingerprints to have the books sent to Oregon.

  The plane landed in the dead of night to the calm after the storm, but just a pause as another one lurked just over the horizon. Mike took his car to Port Orford to check in at home and Steve took his car and the rest of them piled into a van for the trip to Bandon.

  Sandy was happy they were home and didn’t pay much attention to the newcomer in Wendy. Rocky would have told her to be aware if there was any danger, but he renewed his love with a standoff stance while she played the role of female making sounds of love and happiness by dancing around. Earie had the welcome mat out and hot bowls of noodles sat on the low table for the hungry team and guests. The smell of onion and garlic rising off the noodles made all mouths water with hunger.

  Wendy was totally impressed by what she could see and what she imagined the house and grounds looked like in the daylight. So sterile, but so homey she thought. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. But what felt like independence of the team members, but yet a bond made it all feel warm and comfortable. No evidence of touching or hugs upon returning, but just an order of business and the comforts of home. The look and aroma of the noodles made her want to sit down and eat, as Sujin led her downstairs to her bedroom where she could freshen up. Billy and Steve followed them down to their respective rooms and a few minutes later all were sitting on the floor sucking up a homemade U-dong, a Korean noodle soup. To Wendy it tasted wonderful and she was impressed with the surroundings having peeked into the computer room and wondered what the other rooms looked like. Her room was austere but comfortable. She thought she would enjoy staying here and maybe she would even learn something.

  Earlier she had received a document on her laptop one paragraph long about her inquiry about who Brad Pratt was and is. Sitting at the table eating this wonderful food she gazed at him thinking about what the document said. He was an Oxford scholar and after graduation entered the Navy. After retiring six years ago it was vague about what he was doing at the present time. In it was nothing about his personal life or why he had retired early when she knew he was supposed to be a career man following a long line of military men such as his retired father who was a general up until a few years ago. Vague was not the word she thought about, secrecy was more like it. Why I need to know, she thought, it seems like he knows more than he is letting on. How to crack that knowledge base was her intention. Must be careful as if I come on too strong or too curious he will clam up tight and like a fool I will have lost his confidence. No doubt he was held in high esteem in some circles and Jake knew more than she did about this strange and powerful team of seemingly misfits.

  Then there was his Korean wife. Where did he meet her and how does she fit into this team. She hadn’t heard her say ten words since she met her. But she always noticed the two of them looking at each other like telepathy was going on between them. She moved like a cat. No sound and fluidity marked her movements. Watch and learn she heard her father say. There is nothing worse than a person putting their nose where it doesn’t belong. Gain their confidence and tread lightly. She liked Mike, but he was gone and who knows when he will return. Then there was Billy who had gobbled down the noodles and ran outside with a pack of smokes to satisfy his habit. She didn’t see him so strange once she got by his dress and habits. Kind of typical of a computer nerd, she thought while she fought the spicy taste and rank smell of kimchee.

  Brad broke the silence by saying that we should all retire for the night and get together at six in the morning. Wendy thought that a good idea and thanked them for a lovely dinner and went to her room. Looking at the wall clock it said close to one am. After the bathroom and putting on her nightdress, she peeked out the curtains and saw Brad sitting on a small sofa reading some papers. Doesn’t ever sleep she wondered. And his dog is always next to him as her eyes closed and the next thing she realized it was six am. She never slept so well and she remembered there wasn’t a sound after she went to bed: total silence. A little scary, but when she dressed in casual clothes climbing the stairs and looking out the tinted windows as daylight was just breaking, she relaxed when Steve came up alongside her and said, “Sleep well?”

  “Never better and why would anyone live in DC when you could live here,” she answered with an obvious rhetorical question.

  “Wendy, it wasn’t by chance you were chosen for this job. Brad asked for you special. He thinks you can be a real help with this difficult case we are on.”

  Wendy was shocked and still looking out the window which now had streams of water from a soundless rain running down the window s
aid, “How did he know or how does he know me?”

  “Honestly speaking he was given a list of profilers and liked what he read about you I guess.”

  At that moment Brad came through the door with one of his dogs. Both stopped on the entry way and Brad stripped down to his running shorts. He toweled off his dog and walked to the stairs.

  Wendy had a first look at his body. When he walked it seemed he floated on air. Legs were well muscled, but not overly so. It was the same with his arms and shoulders, powerful but not bulging. His body seemed hairless, but that was not unusual for blondes. Some of her friends would say he had a wedge of a body. Wendy felt an electric current run through her body and especially the sensitive areas. Her thoughts were interrupted by Sujin coming through the door. She too stripped down to shorts and a wet T-shirt, following her husband down the stairs.

  Wendy said to Steve with a look of curiosity, “Don’t they ever sleep?”

  Steve with a small grin said, “Not much. I would guess a couple hours a night is all. Something to do with Eastern religion, but as I’m a complete neophyte about that discipline, your guess is as good as mine. I will say that I’ve never seen him or her tired. And believe me, I’ve had occasion to witness when he had operated in the field for four days straight without any sleep or rest.”

  Wendy looked back at the view now that daylight gave her an outline of the coming day. She saw what appeared as sand dunes running to south and the Pacific Ocean is beating the beach with large waves of the storm in progress. No way did she want to be out there in this weather. She was a city girl and didn’t like the rain. The smell of breakfast cooking with Earie working mostly soundless in the kitchen drew her away from the view. She was starving and wanted a cup of coffee in the worst way. Earie must have sensed the need for both Steve and Wendy as she placed two mugs of steaming coffee on the old wood table by the window. Steve took her by the arm and both sat at the table sipping fresh coffee.

  Billy came up looking like he just crawled out of bed, but then he always looked that way. He almost ran into the door while fumbling for his smokes. Rocky was hot on his heels and wanted to play. The door faced east so the weather was hardly noticed when the door opened or closed. Sujin had turned off the security at the door, but the outside was always on. Brad had informed Wendy about the ground security and to not go outside without either Sujin or him with her. She took the warning seriously and had no need to venture out in this weather.

  Breakfast was fish soup and Korean pancakes. Wendy wasn’t much of a fish lover, but hungry was the better part of valor and she dug in with relish. She found the taste excellent and sheepishly wondered what was for lunch.

  After breakfast Brad suggested they have a meeting in the basement to discuss the case. Almost on cue the high sound of someone coming denoted the arrival of Mike. Wendy was amazed how well it worked. Mike declined breakfast and made for the stairs saying hi and good morning to all. Billy was standing in the kitchen wolfing down an egg sandwich and milk. He ran back to the door for a last minute smoke and once all were in place around the glass top coffee table, the discussion at first surrounded the contents of the kitchen from the house of John.

  Mike said, “We all know the questions, but what are the answers. He cleaned out the house save the kitchen and books.” He’d made an easy to read list of the inventory and had passed around to all a copy. “Let’s go around the room after a minute and see what pops out of the box.”

  After a few minutes Billy offered, “If it had been me I wouldn’t take condiments and pancake mix with me either. That tells me he left it to confuse us and to stall for time frustrating the investigators.”

  Brad looked up and said with his usual soft spoken voice, “Maybe that is the case Billy, but let’s look a little deeper than what is on the surface. What do you do with condiments and such things? You mix them to make something is what you do. Now he is mixing up an alphabet soup. We need to take a first letter of each item and see what we come up with.” Billy was scrambling for his laptop and decided that was not what he needed and left for the computer room.

  Brad continued by pointing out, “B for baking soda: Barstow; C for cookie: for Cantil; S for salt: Santa Clarita; N for nuts: Needles; and so on.”

  Wendy thought this was so off the wall she almost laughed. Steve sensed her thoughts and gave her a glare that would have devastated her in grad school. She was smarter than that and gave herself a verbal warning to listen with an open mind.

  Brad went on to say, “If we look at the size of the area he used for the two letters A and N, then follow that with the next two sites further north to connect the C, something tells me he didn’t follow his plan of making the ‘Catch me if you can logical or symmetrical. If you follow Sac and add Bishop then connect the line to Baker a nice C is visible. However, if you make a C out of Bakersfield to Bishop to Baker you have again a C. In addition you have the three C’s.” A frown on his face was felt by all at the meeting. Steve thought this was way over his head and excused himself to make a phone call. Wendy had to use the bathroom, but was afraid to leave.

  Billy came back in with a random list of words three pages long. Sujin took a look and left to the computer room without a word. Mike changed the subject to the books. Everyone looked at their copy of the list of books and magazines found in the John house. Mike keyed in on one book he found as an anomaly to the rest of the books. He said, “This book about raising pigs is totally alien to the rest of them and to my thinking why would a guy have a book about raising pigs when you live in a city?”

  Wendy was looking over the list and was now starting to get in on the feel of things. Her brain was starting to gear up and forget about the deeper thoughts and think about what is staring you in the face. Pigs, why the hell would he have a book about pigs? She blurted out, as all heads turned towards her, “Maybe in his history, that is family history, pigs were raised by a relative.”

  Brad said, “I like it and Mike run this guy’s genealogy through Utah and see what comes up” Wendy looked pleased as punch and Brad gave her a small smile. Only the two of them were left sitting around the table and she took the opportunity to excuse herself for a bathroom run.

  Steve, meanwhile, in his bedroom was talking to Jake in Sacramento. Jake was telling him they found his car and were dismantling it piece by piece. He told Steve they were phoned by long term parking at the airport after a description of it with the two letters was sent out to places where he might park or hide the car. Steve asked, “Has he been identified by anyone at the airport?”

  “No, I doubt if we will get an ID as he uses so many disguises.”

  “Fine, Brad wants those books up here soonest Jake, so please double your efforts on them and send by first light tomorrow.” That was an order and not a request as Jake took it.

  “That will be done and is there anything more,” he asked sarcastically.

  “Not for now, but find that storage locker and if you need more men, call me on my cell phone and I will have fifty there by nightfall,” he hung up without waiting for a response. Damn him, Steve thought. We need team players and not a guy like Jake who resents anyone stepping onto his patch.

  He’d just got off the phone with Washington and reported to his superior that this case could be a long and difficult one to solve. His boss didn’t want to hear it, but softly said he knew what they were up against. He’d asked Steve if he needed anything to help them along the way and Steve replied that he was going to walk the beach and pray for the second time in his life. His boss asked when the first time was and he responded by saying when he was in church the last time getting married. He’d asked God to never let his dick grow soft. His boss laughed so hard he had to hang up. Steve cracked a big smile, but as usual no one saw it. He decided he would go for that walk on the beach.

  Wendy was coming out of her room when he saw her. He asked her if she wanted a walk on the beach and she looked doubtful knowing she would get wet and probably sand in her
shoes. He saw her reluctance and quickly said there are some beach combing clothes if you like. She had a small smile that acknowledged an agreement to his suggestion. Ten minutes later they were headed down the trail with Rocky as their guide. Brad had sent Rocky just in case and Wendy asked what the just in case meant a Brad only smiled.

  Wendy looked like a professional beach comber in her yellow rain coat with a large rain hat on, knee boots that fit perfectly, and lined pockets to keep her hands warm. Keeping her legs warm was a pair of nylon pants that was waterproof. Once they hit the beach from the trail, the sand firmed up and the going was easy. The rain and wind whipped her face, but it felt good. The smell of salt and seaweed filled her nose. On the sea stacks as they passed by sat hundreds of sea gulls waiting out the storm. The tide was out so they could pass by and see hundreds of thousands of black muscles hanging from the rocks along with starfish interspersed giving a rainbow color to an otherwise black background. Having never seen this before Wendy moved closer to look at the hanging muscles with long hair like things hanging all over them. She was afraid to touch them and reached out tentatively to touch a starfish. They were tough skinned and rough to touch. She turned to say something to Steve, but realized the roar of the ocean and wind would only carry her voice a short ways. She closed her mouth and they continued up the beach toward the jetty.

  Wendy felt the wind and rain on her left side as they walked north to the jetty. Steve had his hands buried in his pockets of his Burberry. A brightly colored yellow rain hat with a neck strap made him look like a comic book character in his big black boots strolling up the beach. An hour later she loved the walking. She held her head high and the salt air refreshed her body and brain. As they neared the jetty she could see the waves crashing into the giant rocks that protected the entrance to the harbor. The spray was flying high into the air from the waves and wind. She’d never witnessed such a sight and was mesmerized by the picture as she drew closer to the jetty. By now she could see the outline of some people walking on top of the rocks and when she was close enough to see them, she spotted Brad standing next to the seashore hatless wearing a blue Gore-Tex coat. How did he know we would this way she thought? He was alone as they climbed the small bank to the parking lot. Few cars were there as the tourist season was long gone and the sight of a storm to the locals was nothing to them.