by Glenn Rogers
"That would be helpful," I said. "Work multiple tracks simultaneously."
Branch must have felt like she needed to contribute. "Time is of the essence," she said. "The more time goes by, the less the likelihood there is of getting her back."
"Shut up, detective,” Frank barked, “or go wait in the car."
For a brief moment, Branch looked crushed, almost like a little girl. But she sucked it up. She folded her arms across her chest and nodded.
"It's all right, Frank," I said, trying to remain calm myself. "If this were a typical abduction, she'd be right."
"Why do you think it's not typical?" she asked.
She had guts to ask the question given the way Frank had just bitten her head off.
"Because this is not a kidnapping for ransom," I said. "Whoever took her did it for revenge."
"How can you be sure?" she asked.
"What is it, detective," Frank growled, "that you don't understand about shut up?"
"I'm sorry, Sir," she said. "But if I'm going to be part of this investigation, I need to be able to participate. And I need to understand the thinking of the lead investigator, which it appears is going to be Mr. Badger."
"It's okay, Frank," I said, before he lowered the boom. "She's right." Then to her, I said, "Please, call me Jake."
She didn't say anything.
"She can't make a meaningful contribution," I said, "if she doesn't understand what we're doing and why. Besides," I added, "I like her. She's got spunk."
She glared at me impatiently, as if she thought I was patronizing her. Then she said, "You still didn't answer my question."
Frank was not happy with her, so I spoke up. "I don't think it's a kidnapping for ransom because there's no money to be had. Kidnappers don't just take people randomly. They select a target where there's the possibility of a substantial payday." As I said that, though, I was thinking about the nine hundred thousand dollar fee Monica had just earned a few weeks earlier in the recovery of an Andy Warhol painting worth ninety million. But I decided to stay on the track I was on. "This isn't about a ransom. Given who Monica is, there's a greater likelihood that this is retaliation for something she did, a case she solved that involved a lot of money, or where someone went to jail, or died. In the last few weeks, she’s killed several people. Some of them were powerful people."
"I understand what you're saying. I just don't see any evidence that points in that direction."
Frank jumped in. "It's a logical deduction detective. A hunch, if you will. A lot of cases have been solved on the basis of a hunch."
Frank seemed to have calmed down a bit.
She took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes, Sir."
"Okay then," Alex said. "Frank, you and Detective Branch will follow up on the Esposito angle while Jake and I go through Monica's case files."
Chapter 2
Late Monday Morning
Alex and I drove to Monica's office. Alex didn’t say much. He knew I was worried about Monica. Who could have taken her? Where’d they take her? Had they hurt her? Would they contact anyone? If their motive was revenge for something she had done, they wouldn’t contact anyone. They’d just do whatever they were going to do. We had to discover who had taken her and find them before they had time to carry out their plan.
When we got to the business complex where Monica had her office, we went to the building manager’s office. Alex explained that there was an ongoing FBI investigation involving the disappearance of Monica Nolan. The manager, a young woman in her late twenties, was only too happy to cooperate. She opened Monica's office and provided us with a key so we could come and go if need be. She also volunteered that she was unaware of anything inappropriate occurring in or around Ms. Nolan’s office. We thanked her and she went away, leaving us to the task at hand.
Alex went straight to the file cabinets. I took Monica's iPhone out of my pocket, and called her mother’s cell. I didn't want to make the call, but someone needed to. I didn't want it to be the FBI or LAPD. When I was an agent, I’d had to make some of those kinds of calls. I wanted this one to be more personal.
"Hello.” The voice was friendly.
"Hello. Mrs. Nolan?"
"Yes."
"This is Jake Badger. I’m a friend of Monica's."
"Oh, yes. Mr. Badger. Monica has told me about you. How are you doing? I hope you are recovering. You gave her quite a scare."
"Uh, yes, ma'am. I’m fine. Monica took good care of me. She’s probably the reason I'm still here."
"According to her, you're the reason she's still here. She says you took a bullet for her."
"She’d have done the same for me. We care about each other a great deal."
"That's good to hear, Mr. Badger. Very good to hear."
"Please, call me Jake."
"All right, Jake. And you should call me Patty."
"Okay." I swallowed and then went on. "Um, I'm wondering if you've heard from Monica in the past twenty-four hours."
"No. Why? Is everything all right?"
I took a deep breath. "Well, actually, no, it's not. It appears that Monica is missing."
"Oh, my Lord," she said, the shock evident in her voice.
"The FBI and the LAPD are working together to locate her," I said.
Fighting through the fear, she said, "What can I do to help?"
"The most important thing you can do is call immediately if she calls you or if anyone else contacts you about her."
"What's your number?"
I gave it to her.
"If I hear from her," she said, "or from anyone else about her, I'll call."
"Thank you, Patty."
It was evident from the way her voice trembled that she was fighting back the tears. She asked, "Why would someone do this? We don't have any money."
"I don't think this is about money,” I said. “I think this may have to do with one of Monica's cases."
"Revenge?" Patty asked.
Smart lady. She connected the dots quickly. "Maybe," I said. "We're looking into it."
"Will you keep us informed?" she asked, her voice filled with fear.
"Of course."
Losing the battle against the tears, she sobbed, "Please find my little girl."
"We'll find her,” I said. “I promise.” I don’t normally make promises like that, but these were not normal circumstances.
After I disconnected, Alex asked, "That Monica's phone?"
Alex rarely overlooked a detail. He had asked his forensic people if her cell phone was in her purse. It hadn't been.
"Yeah," I said.
"We gonna be able to go through it?" He was now at Monica's computer.
"Yeah. Soon as I get her contacts list downloaded."
He nodded. He wasn’t going to harass me about having taken the phone.
"Her paper files are well-organized," he said, as he continued to type. "But I suspect she may have a lot of her files stored electronically. Which do you want to take, the file cabinet or the computer?"
"You're the computer expert," I said. "I'll take the file cabinet."
Eventually, we'd move the files and the computer to FBI offices. But we wanted to get started immediately, so we jumped right in.
It only took Alex a few minutes to bypass Monica's security and access her files. He said he'd have to show her how to beef it up a bit. I went through the hard files, making notes as I went, looking for people who might hold a grudge. Alex began a similar list from her computer files. After an hour we had a combined list of two persons of interest. Not a lot to work with. Most of Monica’s cases had been background checks, investigating insurance claims, recovering stolen property and such. Not a lot of stuff that causes people to seek revenge against the investigator.
The one I found had to do with a college that had hired Monica to investigate sexual harassment charges. This had been a year and a half ago. Evidently, one of the professors, a guy name Jonathan Cary, who had just received tenure, had been accused of
sexual harassment by two of his female students. According to the young women, Cary had suggested that he could guarantee them an A in the course in exchange for sexual favors. There was evidence that the charges were true. Evidently other young women, when interviewed by Monica, told a similar story. The professor was fired. He'd been very angry, accusing Monica of manufacturing evidence, extorting testimony, and so forth. This had ruined his career and he vowed revenge.
Bingo. Candidate number one.
Alex found candidate number two in one of Monica's computer files. This one was more recent, eight weeks ago, and I knew about the case. Monica had been working on the recovery of a stolen Andy Warhol painting valued at ninety million dollars. The thieves wanted to ransom it for a paltry ten million. The insurance company had hired Monica to handle the exchange. They offered her ten thousand for the job. She, however, wanted to recover the painting and collect the ten percent recovery fee. She had asked me to provide backup during the recovery, which the bad guys, Edward Benson, James Benson, and Richard Colette, thought was simply an exchange. They made the mistake of underestimating her. Happens a lot when guys get a look at her. During the recovery, two of the thieves were shot and killed—Richard Colette by me, Edward Benson by Monica. Edward was James' older brother. James saw Monica shoot Edward. James vowed he’d get her. He was in prison, but his cousin, Kyle Dell, had just been released three weeks ago from the same prison where James would be spending the next ten years. According the file, Monica had been monitoring the situation and was aware of the Kyle's recent release.
I needed to talk to Kyle Dell as well as Jonathan Cary.
*****
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