by Ty Patterson
Glorious vistas sped by, lost on Zeb, who was thinking about those who moved in shadows and killed from those shadows.
A thought struck him and he called Broker again.
‘Zeb, at this rate, you’ll finish your speaking quota for the year pretty early.’ He chuckled when he heard silence from Zeb’s end.
‘Where are the others?’ Zeb asked him. The others were Bwana, Roger, Chloe and Bear. The four of them along with Zeb and Broker were the Warriors. All of them were former Special Forces, except Broker, who had been a Ranger, and Chloe, who had served in the 82nd Airborne.
‘Everyone is between missions. Clare hasn’t found us anything yet. Chloe and Bear are in Canada, in Toronto. Chloe is taking part in some kind of marathon.’ Chloe loved running and ran 10Ks on the days she took it easy. Bear, her partner, ex- Special Forces, was hard as granite, but drew the line at running. ‘There’s a reason the good Lord made man invent wheels,’ he always said. They were the best close-protection pair Zeb had come across. They also had other skills.
Bwana and Roger had served together and found camaraderie in each other that ran deep and silent, it continued when they had left the Army. ‘Bwana’s in Tennessee. His dad’s ill – lung cancer and – he’s spending some time at home. Roger’s in Texas. Probably chasing some skirt. You need them?’
Zeb shook his head, then realized Broker couldn’t see. ‘Nope. Just wanted to know where they were. Let me know how it goes with Bwana’s dad.’
He passed a slew of cop cars heading the other way, their lights flashing. Kelly, acting on his call.
‘Can you get prints off this?’ He handed Perez’s phone to Kelly.
They were in a small room in the Town Hall, just the four of them, Kelly, the twins, and Zeb. Kelly had promised him the room wasn’t recorded. Kelly had updated them on what the cops had found at the RV. Which wasn’t much. His forensic guys were still at the site, but they hadn’t come across any convenient note which stated why they were interested in the Petersen twins.
His bushy eyebrows came together as he studied the phone lying on the table between them. He frowned. ‘This is evidence that you’ve picked up from the crime scene. Don’t make life difficult for me.’
The I can make it difficult for you was loud and unspoken.
Zeb shrugged. He had been threatened by many, and as threats went, this didn’t even rank on his scale. ‘You got an anonymous tip about the body. You got another tip about the phone.’
The frown disappeared as Kelly considered it, accepted it, and leaned forward to pick up the phone.
‘Don’t touch it.’
The call came an hour later. By then Kelly had grown increasingly grumpy at Zeb’s refusal to explain what they were waiting for.
Zeb lifted a hand to silence him, and with a glove-clad finger, accepted the call after it rang four times. He pressed another button, the speaker.
There was dead air for some time, and then a voice came on.
‘Is this the bodyguard?’
The voice had no accent, the diction clear.
Zeb didn’t answer. The voice waited a beat and carried on. ‘We just wanted to talk to the women. Ask them some questions. You could have minded your own business and things would’ve been just fine. But you had to play the hero, didn’t you?’
Zeb still didn’t answer. He leaned back in his chair, knowing how this call would take shape. He looked at the wall behind Kelly and the women. The wall was bare, painted, not wallpapered, and he occupied himself by working out how many layers of paint had gone on it.
Two at the most. These are town offices; they need to be functional, not luxurious.
He switched his attention to the phone when the voice called out. ‘Hello? Are you there, Mr. Bodyguard?’
‘Yeah.’
‘That’s it? That’s all you have to say? No threats? No I’ll-hunt-you-down messages to me?’ The voice chuckled.
‘Nope. You made the call. Say your piece.’
‘Give us the girls. We can arrange a time and a place for the transfer; then you can go your way and we go ours.’
‘Not going to happen.’
The voice lost its mocking tone, became hard. ‘Friend. You don’t know who you’re dealing with. You have no idea who you’re up against. You don’t want me hunting you, bud. That’ll end only one way. Life will be simpler for you if you do what I said and walk away.’
Zeb leaned forward. ‘You’re a small-time hood with delusions of being someone bigger. You probably are the leader of those fake federal agents. You and your men are actually not as good as you think you are. Probably you’ve started realizing that. For one, your men should have finished me off at the RV before I entered it. Your second mistake was making this call.’
There was a stunned silence in the room, a silence echoed by the voice.
‘You–’ the voice began.
Zeb cut him off. ‘Shut up. You’re done talking. That thing you said about hunting me? Get off the phone. Start hunting me.’
He cut the phone and pushed it to a shocked Kelly.
‘I know what you’re going to say. That you could have tracked that call. You couldn’t. That was an Internet call, one of those voice over IP calls. That guy on the phone – I meant what I said. He’s a glorified hood, but that doesn’t mean he’s stupid.’
Kelly swallowed his words. ‘How did you know the call would come?’
‘I didn’t. I was going to call the wait off if it hadn’t happened in a couple of hours.’
‘But you were expecting the call, weren’t you?’ Beth protested. ‘And how did you know it would come now? Not earlier?’
‘Yeah. That phone was left on the body for a reason, for it to be picked up. And about the timing of the call – I removed the battery on the phone as soon as I grabbed it. I inserted the battery just before meeting Kelly. I’m sure there will be several missed calls in the call history.’
Meghan tapped buttons on the phone with a pen and nodded when she saw the call log. ‘All from an unknown number. These must be from before you removed the battery.’
Zeb looked at Kelly. ‘I think the only prints you’ll find on that phone are Perez’s. He’s dead, so those prints will lead us nowhere. Call history and message history might have something, but I’m not betting on it.’
Kelly headed to the door and yelled at someone. A fresh-faced cop came, slightly out of breath. When Kelly yelled, things happened and people moved. He took the phone from Kelly, bagged it and, after a lot of nodding, disappeared.
Kelly turned back, his hands on his hips. ‘Why did they call you, though? Beats me.’
Zeb watched the twins, saw the light spark in Beth’s eyes and then in Meghan’s. Smart. Scarily smart. They’re able to connect dots and think steps ahead. Broker will like these two.
‘They don’t know who Zeb is and they want to find out?’ Beth said tentatively and added more confidently when she saw Zeb’s reaction. ‘That and also if a threat can scare him, then grabbing us will be easier.’
‘You’ve got it. I’m an unknown quantity that they want to get a handle on.’
He turned to Kelly. ‘Perez? How senior was he in the gang?’
Kelly had shared the gang’s structure, history and activities with them earlier. He disappeared and came back with head and profile shots of the gang members. ‘Growing fast, ruthless, started off as meth peddlers but now muscling in on other activities, mostly prostitution, drugs and extortion.’ He grunted. ‘Compared to other organized gangs in the country, these guys would be small time, operating within the state limits.
‘Perez was number two. The guy Zeb killed at the park was the number three. The gang boss is a piece of shit called Tom Cargill, who goes by the name Snake. Snake because he’s got their tattoos all over him. He’s done time once for drug dealing, and slipped back to a life of crime as soon as he got out. He’s wanted here in Wyoming for assault, for dealing in controlled substances, for illegal possession of firearms,
hate crimes… his rap sheet runs to more than a few pages.’
‘Do you think that was Cargill?’ Zeb asked him even though he knew the answer.
Kelly snorted. ‘Nope. Not unless Cargill got an infusion of brains. While Snake runs a statewide gang, he doesn’t have it in him to bust prisoners out of a county jail. We know he’s in Cheyenne, most of his gang is, but haven’t been able to pin him down.’
Meghan looked at Cargill’s photo. He was bald, a tiny snake etched on his forehead, its forked tongue red and bright. She imagined the tongue moved whenever he creased his forehead.
A thought struck her. ‘Any bodies found in Cheyenne? If these guys are cleaning up, they might have left bodies behind.’
Kelly chuckled. ‘Bud would’ve been proud of you two. He was a danged good detective, and it looks like that has rubbed off on you. Nope. No bodies found. If they have been erased, then they’ve disposed of the bodies some other way.’
He snapped his fingers as he remembered something. ‘Oh yeah. My memory must be deserting me. Foley called, was inquiring about the two of you. He said he would be glad to help you in any way he could and left a number for you to call.’
Zeb had been leaning back in his chair, eyes closed, his mind a blank, allowing the jigsaw pieces to fall their own way. His eyes flew open at the mention of the name.
‘Foley? Who’s he?’
Meghan answered. ‘Jack Foley. He was in the SWAT team along with Dad.’
‘Where’s he now, and why would he call after all this time?’
He straightened in his chair when he saw the three of them regarding him in silence.
Kelly held out a hand and straightened a finger. ‘There’s no great coincidence to his call if that’s what you’re leading to. He’s in regular contact with Peregrine; every couple of weeks they make calls to each other. This call happened to be one of those regular how-ya-doing calls. Peregrine mentioned the twins, and that’s how he extended the offer of help. I’d do the same if I was in his position.’
He extended his second finger. ‘Speaking of his position, Zeb, haven’t you heard of that name? Jack Foley?’
When Zeb continued looking blankly at him, he rolled his eyes and looked at the twins. ‘You’ve spent a few more days with him. Is he always this disinterested? Totally unaware of what happens in the world?’
Beth’s eyes twinkled. ‘It’s not as if we’re best buddies, but we’ve come to learn how he operates. He never follows news, never watches TV, or goes on the internet, that kinda stuff. He reckons someone will tell him the news if something happens.’
Zeb cleared his throat, reminding them he was still in the room.
Meghan rolled her eyes. ‘I told you about the rest of the SWAT team, Zeb. Foley, Suiter, Taggart, McBride and Jordan.’
Beth’s smile grew wider. ‘We never got around to telling you about Foley, though.’
‘Taggart was with Dad in that room, and it was Taggart who took out the shooters, but it was Foley who caught the media attention. He was the third to enter the room, but for reasons best known to the media, he became the star. The media attention he got rivaled the amount we got. Interviews, book deals, movie deals, all that shit. He quit SWAT soon after, went around the country on talk shows, got a reputation for being a tough, no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is cop, wrote a couple of books on the incident – after getting our permission – and drifted into politics.’
‘Where’s he now?’ Zeb repeated.
‘He’s in Washington, D.C, a Special Advisor in the Department of Homeland Security. He’s a bright, fast rising star in that jungle.’
‘Six years is a very short time to get that position, isn’t it?’
Kelly replied patiently, ‘Not when you come from a very influential political family and your dad is a senator, and your granddad was one as well. When you're that well connected, have a backstory as good as Foley’s, have just become a hero, and have movie-star looks… well, very little is out of reach for you.’
‘How is it that the three of them ended in D.C. with political careers?’
Kelly looked at him bemusedly. ‘Zeb, those three were always going to end up in politics. All three of them come from political families, very wealthy families, and SWAT was a stepping stone to their ambitions.’ He held a hand up defensively. ‘They were good cops and made a good SWAT team, but heck, we all knew they would serve a few years and get into politics.’
Beth chimed in. ‘Taggart's and Suiter’s families are no less well connected than Foley’s. Taggart’s father is a senior advisor to the Secretary of State; his grandfather was a senator. Suiter’s father is a congressman.’
‘How did Taggart and Foley end up in the same department?’
Meghan replied patiently. They were fast learning that there were times when Zeb had to be educated in matters of the real world. ‘The two of them were very close. Rumors are that Foley pulled Taggart in, but you never know, do you?’
Zeb dismissed all of them from his mind. More politicians. He had come across enough of them. He flowed out of his chair, signaling they were done.
‘You didn’t share your numbers, did you?’ he asked Meghan.
She looked at him scornfully. ‘Zeb, is your memory shot to pieces? You took the batteries out of our phones, and for all I know, you trashed them.’
‘You’re resourceful women. It wouldn’t surprise me if you’d bought batteries from a store when I was away.’
She cursed him under her breath and marched out, Beth following her like a shadow.
He looked around at Kelly, who was trying hard to keep a straight face. ‘You aren’t around women a lot, are you? It shows. Now look at me. My wife and two daughters have thoroughly trained me.’
He followed Zeb out, stopping him with an arm to the elbow.
‘You’ll share?’
Zeb nodded, knowing Kelly meant any information Zeb or Broker came up with. ‘All of it might not be admissible.’
Broker’s information was often obtained by means that no court viewed tolerantly.
‘Let me handle that.’ He looked at the women in the back of Zeb’s SUV. ‘I owe Bud a lot. His daughters mean a lot to me. I’m not sure if they told you. They’re my goddaughters.’
Blue eyes swung to Zeb, cold fire burning in them. ‘If you don’t get them, I will.’
‘What now?’ Beth demanded when he pulled out of the parking lot.
‘I don’t do hiding. Not for long spells. Now we go after them.’
Chapter 9
Broker’s package had arrived when they reached the hotel. Zeb ripped it open and handed the Kevlar vests to the women and showed them how to operate the satellite phones, Tasers, and headsets.
‘Now on, this will be the only way you communicate. These things have global coverage, are encrypted, and have all sorts of fancy stuff in them that makes the calls difficult to trace and the phones to locate.’
Meghan fingered the vests, then disappeared in the bathroom and reappeared minutes later, buttoning her loose shirt. ‘It fits. A bit tight, and a bit uncomfortable, but it’s okay.’
She looked at Beth, who was fiddling with the phones and the headsets.
‘Zeb, we’re pretty good for money. We never discussed your help, your services, all this.’ She waved a hand around, indicating all the kit. ‘We should talk–’
She fumbled and stopped, and her face turned red when Zeb continued gazing at her. She ducked, letting her hair fall over her face like a curtain.
‘If all this is just so that you can cop a feel, you’d better think again, buddy,’ she mumbled, to cover her embarrassment.
Zeb didn’t know what to say and kept quiet. There was a time when he would’ve known, when conversation came easily to him. Stop.
His phone rang, at the right time, preventing further awkwardness.
Broker’s baritone boomed out, ‘Got something for you. I’ve sent a lot of stuff to Meg’s email. Profiles of the gang, a listing of their sightings, v
arious haunts they’ve been known to frequent, that kind of stuff. Now here’s the interesting bit. I hacked into that phone’s location history, and one address jumped out. A neighborhood in Cheyenne. I did some research’ – by research, Broker usually meant hacking – ‘and found another phone listed to that address, and that phone has been moving ever since you found your dead man. But that phone then got attached to a rental apartment in an upmarket neighborhood in Cheyenne.’
‘Cargill. He knows Perez is dead. Suspects the cleanup gang will come after him and has acquired a new hideout.’
‘Exactement.’ Zeb could visualize Broker smiling broadly as he tipped his chair back in his apartment in New York, crossed his Louboutin shoes, and toasted silently with a mug of Jura-made coffee.
Broker had expensive tastes.
Broker went quiet for a moment, and they could hear liquid being poured. ‘Zeb, is the phone on speaker?’
‘Yeah.’
Meg looked up from her laptop and shouted from across the room, ‘If it concerns us, we want to know.’
There was an indistinct sound from Broker. It sounded like a muffled curse.
He chose his words carefully. ‘There’s chatter in some forums about a pair of women being sought. There are no details, just some guys talking, one of them saying he knows some guys who’re desperately looking for a pair of women in Wyoming. Did Kelly say anything?’
Zeb was watching the twins from the corner of his eye. They exchanged glances. Beth’s face went pale, and then her chin thrust out, and she disappeared in his bathroom and reappeared wearing the vest.
‘Nope. But he’s behind the curve, so maybe he will once they catch up.’ Zeb wasn’t surprised at Broker’s find. It was one of the possible moves by a group that was getting just a little desperate and had resources to deploy.
Broker changed the topic. ‘Have you worked out how those guys evaded your radar? I’ve never known you to not sense someone’s presence.’ Zeb had told Broker how the two shooters had caught him unawares at the RV.
‘Nope. Still figuring it out.’