Extreme Heat Warning: A Shallow End Gals Trilogy, Book Two

by Graybosch, Vicki

  Teresa asked, “I see a name. How do I locate without knowing any aura information?”

  Ellen said, “Request locator map on your screen and follow the little yellow dots. See them?”

  Mary yelled, “Oh how cute! A little smiley face that leads us where we need to go.”

  This looks like Pac Man. I wonder if heaven is aware of patent rights. Ellen frowned at me. Just sayin’.

  Ellen rolled her eyes and continued, “Each of you pick a name, locate them, and study their thoughts to determine an aura and whether or not we have to tell Roger about them. You can locate each other just by thought and compare notes. When you are finished, just let me know. I need to wake up Roger. This is going to be another one of those days that mortals remember for a long time.”

  That didn’t sound very good.

  Roger woke to Ellen sitting on his chest softly slapping him. He said, “Good morning”, and looked at the clock. It was 7:00 am. He had overslept. He jumped up and went to the shower; Ellen curled up on his warm pillow. When he was done with his shower and dressed, he noticed Ellen was sitting on the small table next to his laptop. There was a printer/fax machine there. Roger asked Ellen, “Did you get the printer?” She winked and touched the lap top. Roger went over, opened the laptop and saw he had an e-mail from “Spicey’s House of Voodoo”. He was thinking this was a strange start to the day. He hit print and was trying to read the pages as they came off the printer. Ellen started tapping Roger’s phone. “You want me to call Kim? It’s pretty early. You’re going to get me in trouble.” Ellen closed both her eyes. Roger took that as an, “Oh well,” and he dialed Kim.

  Kim answered, “Good Morning.” She sounded cheerful but sleepy. “There are times I don’t like being the only human Mom and Ellen can talk to. Ellen has a lot of information she dictated to me, and I put it in an e-mail to you. She told me not to send it until you called, so here it comes.” Roger pulled the e-mail up, hit print, and started reading. Kim was still on the line.

  Roger said, “Okay, I think I understand this. Talk to you later.” He hung up. He had a bad habit of forgetting to say goodbye. He shrugged his shoulders when he realized he had hung up on Kim, again. He knew she would understand. He placed a call to Paul, “You still in your room or in the restaurant?”

  Paul answered, “I’m already in the restaurant having coffee. What’s up?” Roger told him he would see him in a minute. Roger took the stairs down four flights to save time, found Paul in the restaurant, and gave him the printout of Kim’s e-mail. “Read fast.” Paul read while Roger watched the door in case some of the other guys decided to join them.

  Paul’s eyes opened wide as he read. He returned the page to Roger and said, “We have to find excuses to make these dots connect. It’s like a scavenger hunt list of hints to find Devon.”

  Roger was nodding. “I can make up an excuse to go to that bank, but I can’t ask Ray to trace those cell numbers without a reason. Also, how do we explain going to that drug store and asking about plastic gloves?”

  Paul was nodding, “We can’t show anyone that phone bill to check the numbers because we don’t have the phone bill, right? Or the grocery or jewelry receipts.”

  “Right. I also have an e-mail from “Spicey’s House of Voodoo” with a lot of information on a Bernard Jacobs. I don’t know what that is all about, or who, but Ellen says Spicey thinks the Spirits made her email the information to me. Spicey had gathered it for Tourey.”

  Paul asked, “John Barry’s guy? I wonder what his interest is in Jacobs?”

  Roger answered, “Remember Jeanne told Pablo the swamp man had brought another woman to Mambo?” Paul was nodding, Roger continued, “Ellen told Kim her name is Adele Brown, and Adele’s son is with this Spicey-Voodoo woman. They are going to go report Adele missing this morning at the police department. I think John was planning on being at the PD this morning.”

  Paul looked past Roger, smiled, and said “Well, good morning Dan.” Paul was smiling, and hoped his facial expression looked normal. He felt anything but normal.

  Agent Dan Thor nodded and sat next to Paul at the large table, “Frost, Nelson, and the Manigat twins are joining us. Ray has been hooking up computer stuff and cussing at someone on the phone since six this morning. We already had one delivery of computer junk, and he sent a bunch back. I don’t know how he got someone this early in the day! You can’t walk in that basement anymore. I don’t know about John Barry.”

  Paul said, “I see John now.” He waved him over. Roger’s mind was racing. How could he structure this so Paul and he could discover what they already knew? John sat down, and Pablo and Jeanne walked up to the table. Jeanne sat next to Thor. Roger could see him tense up. Jeanne was stunning, even in old blue jeans and boots. Pablo asked if everyone slept ok and was met with a round of laughter.

  Thor scowled, “Can’t wait to get this day started. It’s already a hundred friggin’ degrees.”

  Paul lowered his head and glanced at Roger. Roger looked at the group, “I’m glad you have all joined Paul and me for breakfast. Hopefully this will be a productive day. We can get some of our planning done now. The paper says it is supposed to get well over a hundred degrees today with high humidity.” Everyone moaned.

  Thor asked, “Does anyone know what they spray on the streets? It smells like lemon puke out there!”

  Jeanne looked at him, “Lovely table talk.” Thor shut up. Pablo smiled. They ate breakfast and exchanged stories of the bayous they had read in the paper.

  Roger placed his credit card in his wallet after paying the waitress and gathered Ray’s to-go order. He noticed two uniformed officers heading for their table. Paul glanced up, “I don’t like this.”

  The tall officer introduced himself and said, “I am looking for SSA Roger Dance?”

  Everyone looked at Roger who said, “I’m Dance.”

  The officer said, “The field office said you were staying here. I have a dead body behind Mickey’s Bar that has a note addressed to you pinned on the chest.”

  Thor cracked a smile, and said, “Well, at least we finished breakfast.”

  Amy had crawled over to the door. She could tell it was a hydraulic lock. Her dad always said that meant there had to be an emergency release. She wouldn’t put it past this damn guy to have it rigged without one though. She was on the floor looking up at the underside of the handle. Sure enough there was a small hole which could be the emergency release. She needed to find something with a long pointed end on it, small enough to go in that hole. She began searching everything. Rebecca was passed out again, and Amy was so drowsy she wasn’t seeing clearly.

  Finally she sat on the bed and tried to wake Rebecca. “Becca, Wake up! Becca!” Rebecca moaned a little, and Amy felt herself going under again.

  Devon tossed in his bed. His head was killing him, and he was hot. He reached over and grabbed the glass of water and gulped it all. He figured he must have caught a virus. He clicked on the camera screen and saw the girls sleeping on the bed. He smiled. They would be there when he felt better. He put his head back on his pillow and fell asleep.

  Jeremiah woke early, drove over to his nephew Alan’s place in Slidell, and convinced him to help take the small refrigerator and heater/fan to Mambo’s. His nephew was an electrician, and Jeremiah wasn’t sure Jeanne knew what she was doing on that generator. Jeanne had told him she worked for the FBI which made him feel better. He had wondered why she carried a gun. He had also watched her practicing with her knife. He was sure whatever monster had harmed her was going to be very sorry.

  Jeremiah and Alan carried the small refrigerator and heater onto the boat, and Alan said, “You know, the only time I ever saw Mambo was when you took me there as a kid after I stole old lady Nelson’s truck.” Jeremiah laughed as he positioned himself to push off into the swamp. Alan continued, “That was an important lesson for me that day. She scared the crap out of me! I still have that amulet. Shit, I think I’m scared to go back! How old is she any
way? She was an old woman back then.” He dug around his neck and pulled a long thin leather strap from under his shirt. “I’ve never broken a law since, and I believe this helped.”

  Jeremiah laughed and said, “What would you say if I told you she was an old woman sixty-five years ago when my dad took me?”

  Alan looked shocked, “How can that be? She’d have to be over a hundred years old!”

  Jeremiah was nodding his head, “My dad got took there too by his dad. Makes ya think, don’t it?”

  Alan spit out, “Now I really don’t want to go!”

  Jeremiah lifted a snake with his paddle and placed it farther from the boat, “We got us a storm coming.” His nostrils flared as he smelled the air. “Best we get this done as fast as we can.” Alan sat on the rail of the boat and watched the wildlife scrutinize their presence. Small flocks of swamp sparrows followed them. Occasionally landed on a cypress tree and watched until they passed, only to fly ahead again and wait.

  Alan asked, “Wasn’t that a water moccasin, cotton mouth, whatever?”

  Jeremiah answered, “Yup.”

  Alan moved in toward the center of the boat, “Those are poisonous!”

  Jeremiah looked up, “Yup, got one on that tree branch there, too.”

  Alan looked over his left shoulder and yelped. “How do you live out here?”

  Jeremiah laughed, “You don’t mess with nature, and you do just fine. Its city folks got no respect for the livin’.” Jeremiah slowly lifted his paddle to move another approaching snake.

  Ellen told us to meet her on the roof of Mickey’s Bar. Okay. We arrived just as Roger and the team walked around the building to the back. Already two agents from the local FBI office and two New Orleans officers on horseback were in the lot. The body of a man was lying in the center of the concrete. We sat along the edge of the roof and watched. We could hear what they were saying and some of what they were thinking. There were so many people now, it was confusing whose thinking we were hearing.

  Roger and Paul reached the body first and looked at each other. Thor walked up and asked, “Isn’t that Mark Mills, the sniper?” Mark Mills, eyes open, had a small red circle directly in the center of his forehead. There wasn’t even any blood showing on his face.

  Roger was putting on plastic gloves and answered, “Yes it is.” Roger crouched down and removed the pin holding the note to Mark Mill’s shirt. He handed the pin to Paul who had put gloves on also and was opening a small evidence bag. Roger held the folded note. The face of the note simply said, SSA Roger Dance. Roger opened it, being careful to only touch the edges. Inside, the note said, “Check pocket.”

  Roger reached into the pants pocket and brought out the two badges of the FBI agents Mills had killed. He clenched them in his hand. Roger’s heart was stirring. He had not had much time to think about the loss of them yesterday. As he clenched the badges they felt as if they were burning. Roger had not even read the report yet. He didn’t know if they had families, he didn’t even know their names. He only knew they had been murdered to give Mark Mills a few more hours of life.

  SSA Frank Mass had not been briefed on yesterday’s events, and his current case had kept him out of the office almost all day yesterday. Last night he had managed to introduce himself to Thor, briefly, but he had needed to leave the center again. He had no idea what Roger’s team was there for, or what was happening now. He walked over to Roger and introduced himself; Frank was the Senior Agent for the New Orleans Center.

  Agent Mass said, “Whatever you need from us, just let me know.” He waved his hand toward the body of Mark Mills, “I’ll have this taken to the medical examiner.”

  Roger said thanks and asked if they could make an appointment to meet later today. Agent Mass gave Roger a card and told him to just call when he was ready. Roger asked him, “Do you know anything about this guy? Ever seen him?”

  Mass said, “Nope. How bad was he?”

  Roger held out the two badges and answered, “This bad.”

  Roger told the team he wanted a brief meeting across the street to get the day started. Roger and Paul stayed behind the group a few steps.

  Paul asked, “What do you think the purpose of the note was?”

  Roger answered, “To let us know he doesn’t need the badges, he’s got something better.”

  Paul thought about it a minute and said, “If he has serious connections, John Barry is eventually going to come in his cross hairs too.”

  Roger nodded, “Exactly what I was thinking.”

  Roger asked Paul, “How should we split everyone up today? I’m hoping I can get some tips from Jeanne that will connect a couple of our ‘dots.’ Go from there. While I’m with Jeanne, can you see how close Ray is to being up and running? And find out what Thor thinks about Pablo. Then we will hand out assignments.”

  Paul asked, “You going to let Jeanne and Pablo stay in this?”

  Roger shrugged, “I think we need them both. I don’t know. What’s your thinking?”

  Paul shrugged, “She seems pretty solid, what I’ve seen. Pablo may have more issues than she does on this. I think they would work it on their own if you told them to back off, and I think Pablo could be a problem.” Roger nodded.

  Inside the Star Ship Roger could hear Ray and Jeanne talking geek talk. He asked Jeanne if she could give him a few minutes. Roger had shut the door to the kitchen area so they could have some privacy. Jeanne told him about her experience with Devon and Patterson. She mentioned that Devon always wore plastic gloves. She told him about staying at Mambo’s, Jeremiah, and the woman Jeremiah found after her. She asked Roger if she could stay on the case. She could help Ray. She understood she could not compromise the task force.

  Roger told her if she helped Ray, any information they discovered could not be acted on by her. Under the circumstances, if they were to go to trial again on Devon and Patterson, her involvement could not influence evidence or results. Jeanne said she understood. Roger said he wanted Jeanne to go with Thor to get the woman at Mambo’s and bring her back. Roger thought Jeanne could solicit the help of Jeremiah and make the woman feel more comfortable. She agreed. Roger told her he was going to talk to Ray a few minutes and would give assignments shortly if she wanted to join the others.

  Roger was shocked when he reached the basement and saw what Ray had set up with the computers. It was very impressive and had two main computer stations. Roger smiled to himself as he waited for Ray to get off the phone. Ray was planning on having Jeanne at that second computer station. Ray turned around and said, “I have a software program that is being downloaded from the Securities and Exchange that will help us sort these bank transactions a lot quicker. Guess what I remembered in my sleep? I moved everything to a cloud!”

  Roger was worried that Ray was still feeling the drugs, “What?”

  Ray laughed at Roger’s expression.

  “Before the bomb! I had moved everything to a data cloud…storage…. never mind, but we have all the information that was at the Virginia lab. And nobody knows! It’s secret! The data cloud has been encrypted, and I have the only password.”

  Roger thought fast, “And very dangerous. Can you keep it secret, and still use it?”

  Ray looked thoughtful, “Depends. Who do I have to keep it secret from?”

  Roger took a leap of faith in Ray, “The FBI and the CIA.”

  Ray looked pale again, “Shit! Let me work on that.”

  Roger turned around before he went upstairs, “Are you sure you are ready for this?”

  Ray smiled, “I know I’m going to regret this, but, bring it on!”

  Roger said, “Okay, first assignment. That five mil transaction yesterday, one of those accounts has to belong to either Devon or Patterson. I need aliases.”

  Ray said, “Got it boss.”

  Roger talked to Thor for a while about Pablo. Thor felt the same way Roger did. Pablo would go off on his own. Might as well keep an eye on him. Roger asked Thor to take Jeanne and go get
the woman at Mambo’s.

  Thor rolled his eyes and scowled, “You know you will have a memorable day when it starts with a Voodoo Queen. I thought you were starting to like me.” Roger smiled.

  When Roger entered the main room, he asked Todd and Pablo if they would go to the local FBI center and work the computers there to find out anything they could about Mathew Core, the history of this building, and any other real estate Core might be involved in. He reminded them there was still an unidentified problem at the center. Roger told them if he and Paul came upon any leads they would be calling.

  Thor interjected, “Expect a few calls.”

  Then Roger looked at Agent Simon Frost and asked if he would look over the results of the Security and Exchange program Ray was running. Roger really needed to tie up the money on this case, and Simon’s forte was following the money. John Barry offered he was going to the local police station to review missing person reports, but if anyone needed him to just call. Roger and Paul looked at each other. The unspoken signal was, “We’ve covered it so far.”

  We had all been listening to the assignments everyone had been given. Ellen said, “I think two of you should go with Thor and Jeanne to Mambo’s, and two of you should go with Roger and Paul. I’m going to try and help John Barry at the police station, and help Nelson and Pablo at the FBI center. We all looked at each other. None of us wanted to go to the swamp again. Ellen frowned, “Fine. You all go to the swamp, and I will call if I need you.” She actually stuck her tongue out at us and disappeared. Really?

  Teresa said, “Guess we are going to the swamp.”

  William Patterson saw rays of morning light flickering through his lashes. It seemed too early to wake up. He thought he might still be dreaming because he felt something surreal about his room. When he opened his eyes, there was a man sitting on the chair in the corner, sipping on something in a mug, staring at him. William bolted upright and said, “Who are you?”