Get Out Of My Dreams

by Allan J. Lewis

  “Later. Let’s think about this Jessica Palmer case, right now. You said John wants to help out––it’s Friday tomorrow, right? Phone Burrows and see if she can arrange a meeting with the girl on Saturday afternoon. You and John can get there Friday night, and you can show me the location. We’ll work out a plan from there.”

  “I’m sure it will be all right with John, but I don’t know if Burrows will agree.” Alice could feel the adrenaline surging through her body at the possibility of working on another case. “But, what about Mike? We can’t be in two places at the same time.”

  “Give Mike the report tomorrow, and tell him I won’t be around for a couple of days. Family problems, tell him.”

  “Right … so I’ll see what Burrows says, shall I?” Alice asked eagerly.

  “Yeah; meanwhile, I’ll pop over and see how Barbara is doing. Make sure she’s coping after having all those men fussing over her last night in her fantasy … see you.”

  “Yeah, see you…” Did all seven dwarfs bed Barbara? Alice wondered.

  ~

  Burrows was pleased to hear from Alice, as Alice brought her up to date on what was happening with Joe and Agent Jones in the drug case. Burrows went about arranging a meeting for Joe with the blind girl and her mother. She told Alice she’d get back to her when it was sorted out.

  Alice had a lot to do if she and John were going away for a night or two. There were the letters she had to sort out for the newspaper, and Joe wanted a report written out for Mike. And, what will I wear? Her mind was in a whirl when Joe popped back in.

  “Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” Alice jumped, not expecting Joe to return so soon. As her nerves settled, she played along with him.

  “Ma.”

  “Ma, who?”

  “Magic Man, of course.”

  “You sound in a good mood?”

  “Go and have a look out your window and see who’s coming out of Barbara’s house––quick!”

  “Cops, I bet?” Alice asked, as she strained her eyes from behind her curtains.

  “It’s the FBI, and no other than our old friends, Special Agents Jefferson and Smith.”

  “So the FBI is still interested in you?”

  “It looks that way. Jefferson told her the same story about me, as he told you––that her visitor was the Magic Man, not an intruder. He told her that I’m a threat to this country and had to be caught, and he wanted her help to catch me. She told them one hell of a story, too.”

  “About you, or the dream she had?”

  “The dream. It was some fairy tale, the way she told it, too. Agent Smith must have written two pages to get it all down.”

  “Rather her than me; I could never explain having supper with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

  Joe thought he detected a hint of jealousy. “Oh, we didn’t use that story, she picked another one.”

  Alice was tempted to ask which one Barbara had picked, but didn’t. “They all end the same. Anyway, ready to do up this report for Mike?”

  “Yes, you are right, business first. What did Burrows say?”

  “She’s on it and will call back later. Now, this report for Mike?”

  “Before we do the report, we need to talk about something. I got into Jefferson’s mind to see why the FBI was still interested in the Magic Man.”

  “What did you find out?”

  “Jefferson wants to be the one who catches me. His boss told him I’m a top priority—the orders came down from Homeland Security, not the FBI.”

  “Oh, Joe, I’m sorry. I thought you would be all right now that you’re willing to help them.” Alice was both sad and angry at the same time. “I’ll phone Burrows and give her a piece of my mind. They can’t treat you like this.”

  “Burrows is just a profiler working for them—a little fish––same goes for Mike and his team. I don’t think they know that I’m still on Homeland’s most wanted list.”

  “Shit! This is not fair!” Alice was fuming and felt betrayed by the FBI. “It’s a good job you set a trap for them with Barbara. They’ve proved you right by sending Jefferson to investigate you.” Her angry thoughts carried to Joe. “And, I bet if you were to go into that betting shop to see Lomas, they would be waiting for you when you came out, and shoot you on the spot. They can’t let you get into their minds, they are afraid of your power.” Alice slammed down the pen she’d been holding. “They’re using you, the bastards! They’re all the same … cops … the FBI … you can’t trust any of them.”

  Joe thought that being shot on the spot was a bit overdramatic, but he was sure, at the very least, they wanted him in custody to find out what powers he actually had.

  “Yes, I guess you are right, Alice, but they don’t know that we know they are still after me. So we’ll play along, and try and stay one step ahead of them. Agreed?”

  “You are still willing to work with them? Shouldn’t you go into hiding?”

  “Hey, four guys raped Jessica Palmer and blinded her; we don’t want them to get away with it, or hurt some other girl, now, do we?”

  “No, of course not, but I thought now that you knew they were still trying to find you, you’d move on. No one would blame you.”

  “What, and turn down all that money they’ve promised us?” Joe felt the excitement return to Alice. “What do you say, partner? Let’s go and catch us some bad guys. Oh, since it’s driving you crazy what book Barbara picked, it was ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Or was it, THE THREE MUSKETEERS? Catch you later.”

  “What?” Alice knew he was teasing her when she heard him laugh. Then he was gone, and her mind was hers again.

  Chapter25

  John was like a big kid when Alice told him that Joe wanted them down in Moreno Valley to help out in the Jessica Palmer case. John couldn’t wait to start; they were going to case the

  joint for Joe. He had the maps out to see the best route to take, and to make a quick getaway just in case the Feds tried to catch Joe. Alice had to calm him down. She told him they were only going to look the place over, to find a location for Joe to accidently bump into the girl.

  Alice also had the task of telling Mike that Joe didn’t like the idea of going into the shop to meet Lomas. He still wanted to keep his identity a secret. Joe had picked his own location to meet Lomas, and had already gotten into Lomas’ mind and found out the needed information. Alice knew Mike would blow his top when he heard that Joe had done it his way, again, and disobeyed Mike’s orders.

  Alice met Mike in the same parking lot they had met in before, and handed over her report. As she expected, Mike told her off for Joe working on his own without backup, and told her to make sure Joe got the message because he couldn’t be responsible for his safety if Joe wouldn’t follow the rules.

  Joe was, once again, in Mike’s mind as he lectured Alice. He was looking for any hint that Mike knew it was a trap. All Mike was worried about, though, was that Joe was an amateur who was going to fuck up months of surveillance work.

  ~

  Agent Jefferson had emailed his report about Barbara Hodges to the FBI’s head office. Within minutes a copy was in Homeland Security’s office, addressed to the attention of Frank Brubaker.

  As soon as Brubaker entered the building on Friday morning, his assistant had Jefferson’s report in his hand and followed him into his office.

  “Boss, you’ve got to read this. The Magic Man has struck again, he’s had another woman.” “Well, I’m not surprised about that.” He took his coat off and put it on a coat hanger. “But, I am surprised we’ve found out about it.”

  “Oh, he wanted us to find out about it, it’s the same MO as the Timberlake woman.” He held out the report. “And, you’re not going to believe this, but it’s on the same street as the Timberlake woman, just a few houses down.”

  Brubaker’s secretary came in and put Frank’s regular morning cup of coffee down on his desk, and left without so much as a “good morning.”

  “Boss, I think he’s playi
ng with us; why else would he let us know he’s still up to his old games?”

  “Okay, read me the report while I sort out my mail.” Frank took a sip of his coffee, and noticed the report was a few pages thick. “Better yet, just give me the main details.”

  “Right. Well, her name is Barbara Hodges,” he perused the report, “she’s Caucasian, married, but her husband is in the armed forces, and is overseas. She’s 25, no kids, and she lives on her own when her husband is away. She phoned the police yesterday morning to report that someone had hypnotized her, and made her open the door to him.”

  “Hang on––she knew someone hypnotized her?”

  “That’s what it says here.” He went on: “She went to bed like she usually does, but when she woke up in the morning she was sleeping downstairs on the sofa.” He looked up from the report. “She still had her pajamas on, but her panties were folded on top of her slippers.”

  Frank smiled at him over the top of his cup. “That sounds familiar. Let me guess, she doesn’t remember opening the front door for anyone, or having sex with the Magic Man.”

  His assistant smiled back. “Yes she does––in her dream. She opened the door of the inn and she had sex, not only with one man, but with a few of them.” His smile turned to a laugh. “She said she dreamt that she had to help the Three Musketeers save France from England.”

  Frank raised his eyebrows. “You are kidding me, right?”

  “You should read this for yourself.” He held the file up. “It could be a best seller.”

  “She said she had sex with the Three Musketeers?” Frank had to laugh. “If I remember rightly, there were four of them in the story,” he added sarcastically.

  “Yes, and in her story she had sex with the four of them, the Cardinal of France, and her Uncle Joe.” He saw the look of shock and bewilderment cross Frank’s face as he read on. “Her Uncle Joe was the landlord of the inn they were all stopping at.”

  “And this woman, Hodges,” began Brubaker, “she remembers the dream in detail? And is willing to make a fool of herself by telling us all about it?”

  “Yeah, boss.” He looked through the report and carried on: “She starts off her story saying that she was sleeping in the same room as her uncle at the inn when someone threw a pebble at the window. They got out of their beds to see who it was. They were facing each other, and she said her uncle’s nightshirt was way up his body, and he had a huge erection. Her uncle told her it was nothing she hadn’t seen before, and she needed to get used to it.”

  Frank leaned forward with a quizzical frown. “She told the police that?” He shook his head in disbelief. “Why would she want to go into so much detail? Is she a nutcase?”

  His assistant shrugged and went on: “It was the Cardinal of France who threw the pebble at the window. He wanted to see if the Queen of France was there, and he wanted Barbara’s help to stop the Queen from passing information on to the English.”

  “Enough. I know the story.” Brubaker snatched the report from his hand. “What I need to know is why did the Magic Man want her to tell us this story? It’s obvious, while under hypnosis, he told her to tell us that story.” He waved the report in the air. “No woman would volunteer so much information, even if they were pissed out of their heads. They would rather die than tell a story like that. I’ll bet she was still under hypnosis when she made that statement.”

  “Of course,” the assistant swallowed hard. He cursed himself for not thinking of that; he’d been too carried away with the erotic story. “He made her report it; he’s playing with us, sir.” “Damn right he is, and I bet the description that woman gave of Uncle Joe is the same the Timberlakes provided of Old Joe, the prison officer.” He was still waving the report in the air: “I want that profiler, Burrows, to read this report––see what this guy is trying to tell us through Hodge’s dreams. Or, not telling us. And I want her update on the Magic Man today. I want it on my desk this afternoon! You tell her it’s urgent.”

  Frank wanted his task force to have the latest on the Magic Man, to know what to expect, and who to look out for if they were going to catch him when he went to the betting shop. He wanted his men updated with the Magic Man’s profile before the Magic Man contacted Gerald Lomas. So far, they had no idea what he looked like.

  Frank picked up the report on his desk and read it. It was like some erotic adult story. He was sure he’d seen an old X-rated Musketeers’ film. He was sure he remembered it, especially the part where Barbara Hodges said she had to give the Queen a massage and ended up in bed with the Queen, making love to her. Yes, that’s it! Frank thought. That porn star, Jeremy, or someone like that, he was in it, and this report was like reading from that film script. That’s it––the Magic Man is using his victims to act out porn films with him. That’s how he gets his kicks. He gets his women to play a sexy role while he plays the hero and gets all the girls he wants.

  His assistant broke his thoughts. “Boss, more bad news, the Magic Man has already contacted Gerald Lomas. He didn’t tell the narcotic boys he was doing it, he just went and did it his way.” He tossed Agent Jones’ report on Brubaker’s desk.

  Frank had a blank expression on his face as he took it in. After a short while, he said, “I bet that pissed the narc’ boys off— it definitely shit on our plans!”

  “Should we call our surveillance team back in? They’ve had nothing to report about the betting shop.”

  “No, tell them to stand down; we might still need them if Narcotics gets more work for the Magic Man.” Frank looked at the report his assistant had tossed on his desk. “Is there anything to help us with the Magic Man in there?”

  “No, but it sure as hell will help Jones’ team. The Magic Man found out four bank account numbers, three in the Cayman Islands, one of which he says belongs to a Columbian drug baron. He’s got a load of other names in California, as well.”

  “How the hell did he get all that?” Brubaker pondered. “They’ll probably miss him if we take him out.” He picked the report up and just glanced at it. “The better the Magic Man does for the FBI, the more he’ll get to trust them. And I hope he’ll let his guard down, and that’s when we’ll strike.” He tossed it back on his desk, knowing Mike Jones’ team was the best chance he’d have to catch the Magic Man. “Let’s have a look at the map.”

  Frank walked out of his office and into the command room. On one of the walls, there was a map of California. A little flag was pinned in one part of L.A. with the word narcotics division written on it. In another part, where Lancaster was, there was a flag with Alice Timberlake written on it. Frank was glad to see someone had pinned next to it a flag with Barbara Hodges’ name on it. “Have we got surveillance on Hodges’ house?”

  “They are doing it as we speak, sir.”

  “Good. If she so much as breaks wind or talks in her sleep, I want to hear about it. Bug every room.” Frank smiled. “You never know, the Three Musketeers, or her Uncle Joe, might come calling again––hopefully, in person.”

  “You don’t think the Magic Man will visit her in person, do you?”

  They were studying the map. “Do you think he called to the Hodges woman’s house last night?” Frank asked casually.

  “I wouldn’t have thought so, sir. Not with it being so close to the Timberlake’s house.” He gave Brubaker a sideway glance. “But, I also think it would be more fun being Uncle Joe in person, rather than being him in her dreams.”

  Brubaker had to smile. “If we are to believe what the Magic Man told that Alice woman, that he’s never physically had sex with any of his victims, then no, he wasn’t there last night. But, put it this way––if any red-blooded man could hypnotize a woman to get out of bed and let them into her house, and then erase her memory of what happened––could you see any man settling for an erotic dream when he could have the real deal?”

  “Not unless he’s wheelchair bound!”

  “Exactly,” Frank nodded, “and come to think about it, in her story s
he said her Uncle Joe had a huge erection. That story he let us in on is to throw us off; he’s trying to confuse us more than we already are.”

  “Yes sir. He’s making us think he’s up and about actively, when he could be in a wheelchair or getting about with a cane.”

  Frank felt a little buzz of excitement. “Yeah, he wants us to think he’s like this Uncle Joe; that’s why she remembers the story in so much detail. He’s using her. He wants us to think he’s a little old man with a big cock. He’s more likely to be tall with a little cock he can’t use.” There was a new energy in his voice. That’s what this little escapade with the Hodges woman was all about. “Get the boys in L.A. to go over the surveillance tapes of the area around that betting shop, and see how many people in wheelchairs went in the shop, or were around that area.”

  Frank was still looking at the map when one of his juniors called him.

  “Sir, FBI head office is on line two for you!”

  He took the call, smiled, and with his newfound vigor, he shouted to his team: “Listen up guys! We’ve just been informed the Magic Man is going to be in Moreno Valley tomorrow afternoon.” Frank went to the map and pointed out the area. “He’s with the FBI on a rape case, and is going to try to hypnotize one of the victims at her house.” He looked around the room and he couldn’t hide his excitement. “I want a team there, in place, when he comes out of the girl’s house. I want him to have an accident soon after. I want to hear he’s in a body bag on the bottom of the ocean.”

  “We’ve got Special Agent Leroy Reed and his team in Moreno Valley, sir!” one of his juniors yelled out.

  “Good, fill him in.”

  Frank’s assistant came up to him. “May I ask how we know he’s helping out in Moreno Valley? Shouldn’t he be helping Agent Jones?”

  “It looks like our Special Agent Burrows has asked this Joe, as she calls him, to help out with a rape case the FBI is working on. There’s a gang of four teenagers going around dragging young women off the street, blindfolding them, raping them, and then letting them go. One of the rapes went wrong, and the girl got a look at them.” He threw his hands in the air. “For some reason, the guys decided it would be better to poke her eyes out, than to kill her.”