by Jack Ford
‘He absolutely is. And luckily for me, our government has continued to let the industry and technology evolve beyond what even I imagined. It’s big business. And there’s no escaping, and there’s definitely no hiding, whether you’re driving or just walking about. They make millions of dollars in toll road journeys, and from speed cameras. Even big gas stations have got on the bandwagon, scanning cars before the pump will even turn on. And now it’s all linked up to police computers, which trawl for stolen cars, known felons, even terrorists. And all that data is bundled, analyzed, and sold on. Though there are still some people who think we’re back in the nineties, and they can beat the system by spraying hair spray on the license plate to cause a glare, thinking that the camera can’t read it. It used to work, but not anymore.’
Picking up a previous point, Maddie asked, ‘Sold on? What’s the point of that?’
Turning his slim, five-foot-three frame towards her, Jeb crossed his legs. ‘Money, of course. Specialized companies call it mining the data. You know, to predict their customers’ behavior. From tracking where folk live, where they work, where they shop. And from that they learn where to place advertising. It’s market research and crime prevention all in one.’
Cooper said, ‘I know the hair spray trick doesn’t work anymore, but if people wanted to hide, couldn’t they just change the font on the plate? Move the spacing around, splatter mud on it? Or even put a false plate on that’s the same as an identical model car?’
‘It’s difficult because what the police are doing is crunching the data from all the public and private camera systems almost in real time. Taking readings from all over America. If there are two identical plates in two different places it shows up. The text recognition software can accommodate all state license plate fonts, and foreign ones too. If there are any plates it can’t read, it sends a photo to a police officer or a guy like me who looks at it to try and interpret the picture. One of the best things I love about the technology is it helps with child abductions, especially when they try to cross state lines with the kid.’
‘That’s what you specialize in, isn’t it?’ Maddie said.
‘Yes I do. Parents come to me as well as going to the police. In particular, when the kid’s older. Often the cops may not act straight away if the child’s older, but often time is of the essence. The technology really makes it difficult to go anywhere without, as Coop says, Big Brother watching. So, unfortunately for the guy you’re looking for, but fortunately for you, there was little he could do to stop me following his journey… So what he does is keep heading east on I-10, then turns onto the I-75 southbound, almost as far as Port Charlotte, where I lose him. Or rather he stops there for about seven hours to do whatever it is he’s doing, because the next day at around 0500 hours the National Data Computer picks him up again, travelling the same route but in reverse. Heading back north, then northeast, back through Cottonwood, Alabama. Again the car drops off the radar for a couple of hours.’
‘And this place in Cottonwood he went back to, is that roughly the place where this whole journey started?’ Cooper asked.
‘I’d say so. He was probably in that area for a couple of hours as we don’t have anything till later. But what he was doing is anybody’s guess.’
Cooper looked at Maddie. ‘That would give whoever it was plenty of time to take the Senator back to his house before he left the area… What were his next movements, Jeb?’
‘Well, after the time spent back in Cottonwood, he cuts across country. Must have taken all kinds of back roads through the east part of Alabama, because it’s only later when I pick him up, but just in a few places which are big enough to have the ALPR cameras. The time signal on these sightings show he’s making good time. Driving quite fast, and not likely to have stopped anywhere for long, maybe only just long enough to buy gas and eat. He makes it to route I-65, because then he shows up on every camera through Nashville and Louisville, before driving along the I-64 into West Virginia, until he comes off the interstate at Sissonville, a small town with one gas station… And this is where your guy stops. Probably running real low after that long drive. And now here’s the really good news. We lose the trail completely.’
‘How is that good news?’ Cooper said.
‘Well, he’s driven non-stop through three states to get there. Gone cross country to mask his route, then buys gas at a small station which did – but maybe looked like it wouldn’t – have cameras. You know, old school: guy comes out to fill up the car for you, checks the oil, chews his tobacco, says have a nice day and you drive off in a dust cloud out the other side of the classic one horse town… Except he doesn’t.’
‘Doesn’t what?’
‘Doesn’t leave town. Never even makes it into the center of town. The ALPR camera on the main street is a modern camera but it doesn’t register him. Nor does he go back to the interstate, where he would be picked up at the junction he came off at.’
‘Maybe the camera missed him?’
‘Maybe Coop, but he isn’t picked up anywhere else on the network at all, not even the interstate routes, not that day, nor any day since.’
‘So what are you saying? He’s parked up at the gas station and caught the bus home?’
Jeb smiled. ‘That’s a possibility, though he’d have to walk quite a way. There’s no bus stations or stops in that area. But of course he could’ve hitched a ride, or been picked up by somebody else. But even if he did get a ride out of there, my point is the car’s still somewhere in that area. I did a check, and there aren’t any reports of abandoned cars in that town. The place is so small it was real easy to find out.’
‘I’m still waiting for the good news,’ Maddie said.
Jeb Anderson chuckled. Span his monitor around so they could all see it clearly.
‘Here, look at this…’ He traced his finger along the circuitous route, all the way from Port Charlotte in Florida, back though Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and into West Virginia. ‘Your guy’s driven all this way. No real stops. No sleep…’ Then zooming the map in to show interstate 77, along with the small gas station just off the intersection, Jeb tapped his finger on the glass screen. ‘He comes off right here. And like I say, he buys gas but doesn’t get back on the interstate, otherwise he’d be picked up by the cameras, and like I also said, he never makes into the town, otherwise he’d be picked up by the camera there. The area is surrounded by just countryside. Only a few little roads with small shacks and houses set back into the trees and a river runs through. It’s real private. Real quiet. The only way to drive cross-country, avoiding cameras, would be going east to a place called Aarons, but that road has been closed for years due to landslides from aggressive forestry back in the nineties. Apparently, it’s too expensive to fix an unstable mud road, that was only built for forestry vehicles, which ironically caused it to wash away the hillside in the first place.’
‘But what does all that mean for us?’
‘It means, Coop, your guy either drove 1500 miles just to dump his car in some random wood in Virginia, or he and his car are still hiding out there. Somewhere off… ’ Jeb paused. Leant forward to read the tiny text on the zoomed-in map. ‘… Grape Vine Road. I think that’s where your car is. Somewhere in that square mile. In fact, I’m one hundred percent sure it is.’
‘You’re a star,’ Cooper said.
‘Well, I’m hoping to be.’
WEST VIRGINIA, USA
79
Ke3 Ra1
Virginia had always held a place in Cooper’s heart. A place he often escaped to when he wanted to lie low. A place of beauty and warmth but as his foot fell down into another grass-covered hole, twisting and biting at his ankle, he wondered whether a review was needed.
The long rushes of dry yellow grass hit and twisted around Cooper’s middle. To the right of him he could see Maddie and to the left of him, where the undergrowth was even higher, all that could be seen was Rosedale’s cowboy hat, looking like it was just floating along.<
br />
‘Hey, Rosedale, see anything?’
‘No, and I think we better head north up towards those trees. We’ve already found a whole lot of nothing. We’ve nearly covered the whole square mile.’
Cooper was tired and grateful that one side of the long straight road was a large wide river. Bridgeless. Which was good because it meant the only real place the car could’ve been dumped was the south side. The side they were on. Though Maddie had put forward the idea of the car having been dumped in the river. And it sure as hell looked deep enough. But the way he felt at the moment, there was no way he was buckling and dressing down and diving in anywhere. Least of all some muddy-ass river. If Maddie wanted to go swimming, she could be his guest.
‘Hey, Maddie, Rosedale and I are going to head up to the trees.’
‘Good idea. If anybody gets lost the signal here seems surprisingly good, but maybe it’d be wise to try to keep in shouting distance… See you on the other side.’
Dark and deep and far into the woods they ventured, which made Cora pop into Cooper’s mind. He knew she’d love it here. Imaging herself entering a world of fairy tale, where elves and goblins lived and played. As usual, the thought of his daughter began to have a tightening effect on his chest. Made it hurt to breathe and slowed his pace, so he pushed her out of his head and instead let the heavy silence engulf him, which was only broken on occasion by the call of Maddie or Rosedale.
A few minutes later, not being able to see anybody, Cooper hoped nobody could see him, and as such he quickly popped a pill before shouting out to Maddie, ‘Hey, Maddie? Are you okay? Maddie?’
‘I think I see something.’
‘Okay, stay where you are. I’ll come… Rosedale! Rosedale!’
‘I’m right here, sugar.’
Cooper – not one to jump – jumped.
He turned to see Rosedale leaning on the tree, an unlit cigar in his mouth.
‘Jesus, Rosedale, do you have to creep up on people like that? You gave me a fright.’
‘I bet I did… Want some water with that? Help it go down better?’
Cooper rolled his tongue to the right. To the left. Clenched his teeth. Clenched his jaw. ‘Why don’t we just go and see what Maddie’s found?’
‘I thought she was supposed to be handing those out to you? Does she know you’ve got another supply?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I’m talking about how once again you’re not to be trusted.’
‘Just leave it, okay?’
‘You haven’t answered my question. Does she know? She trusted you.’
Cooper came to an abrupt halt. He turned. Hurt and angry. ‘And I trusted her not to sleep with the first cowboy she came across. But hey, we live and learn, Rosedale, we live and learn.’
‘Tom! Rosedale! Over there… ’ Maddie stood in a small clearing fifty meters away, pointing.
Cooper looked around and shrugged. He spoke warmly. ‘You have to help me out here. What am I supposed to be looking at? The scrub?’
‘It’s not a scrub… Look.’ Purposefully, Maddie walked up to the large, dark-leafed bush in question, and with ease began to pull away large branches, to reveal a mound of green tarpaulin. She lifted up an edge of the fabric.
‘Gentleman, this here is our car.’
Rosedale walked across to Maddie, pulling off the rest of the tarpaulin to uncover the car. Taking out his handkerchief he opened the driver’s door, looked in and opened up the glove compartment. He then carefully examined the side door pockets, as well as checking to see if there were any hidden compartments in any of the panels.
‘Nothing here, not that I expected there to be anything.’
‘Down that path there’s a wooden shack,’ said Maddie. ‘We should go and have a look at it.’
Automatically, Rosedale drew his 38 S&W special, followed by Maddie and Cooper who each drew their weapons with a silence and a matter-of-factness that only mavens could have.
‘Come on, I’ll lead. Maddie, I think it’d be a good idea for you to take the rear if you don’t mind. Thomas here isn’t feeling his best, and I’d rather have someone more on the ball watching my back, if that’s all the same with you.’
Not waiting for a reply, Rosedale crouched down and crept along through the dry undergrowth, carefully moving in a zigzag direction he crept along just off the path, heading down towards the shack.
With brambles and thorns and spikes and bristles dragging at his clothes, he stopped and leant on a tree. He turned to Maddie and mouthed to her to go round the other side of the cabin, then in a whisper he said, ‘No you don’t, Thomas, you stay here. Maddie and I have got this.’
‘I’m fine.’
Rosedale hard-stared Cooper. ‘Then you can be fine here… I mean it.’
Whereupon Rosedale took the safety off his gun, and the hat from his head, and began to run.
He kept low.
Moved and weaved until he sidled up to the end of the shack.
Leant forward.
Craned his head around the corner.
Saw nothing. Moved closer. Moved down and under the shack’s broken window.
And hunkering his body he darted along the front of the shack. Edging now. Real slow. Breathing. Keeping his gun tight against his chest. And standing motionless for a moment, he listened. Nothing apart from the silence. Then deliberately, cautiously, Rosedale reached out his hand and with the tips of his fingers touched and pushed the door of the shack, which creaked and moaned on hinges as it swung open.
Moving his lips he counted down…
Three.
Two.
One…
…then ran and spun round into the well of the door, his gun ready and pointed. Finger hovering and twitching over the trigger…
But he stared ahead and almost immediately began to lower his gun, slipping it back into his shoulder holster, and in the doorway of the wooden shack, in the darkness of the woods, Rosedale pulled his shirt up and over his nose. ‘Maddie! Maddie!’
Within a few seconds, Maddie appeared from round the back, gun held in both hands, and like Rosedale a few moments before had it pointed and ready to go.
‘I think I’ve found our guy. Problem is, somebody found him before we did.’
Maddie walked up to where Rosedale was standing, her eyes following his stare.
‘Jesus,’ she said. ‘He’s been shot.’
80
Kf4 Ke7
The smell was overpowering, but she’d smelt worse. A hell of a lot worse. But it still took concentration, along with deep, hard swallows, to not hurl up this morning’s strawberry smoothie and pancakes. The dead she could cope with, but the rotting, putrid aroma of a corpse in the Virginia heat on a full stomach pushed the hardiest of limits.
The shack was simple. One living-cum-kitchen-cumdining room, with a fold-out sofa bed taking center space, which held the rigor-mortised body.
‘How do we know this is even our guy? I know everything points to it, but we did only manage to get the briefest of looks at him from the bank’s CCTV footage, and we need to be really sure. Granted, his hair looks the same color, but then so does half of America’s.’
Rosedale, who’d been meticulously looking, but being careful not to touch anything, nodded.
‘I say circumstance says it is, but I reckon if I can find the keys for that car, then likelihood is this is definitely our man. Place is pretty sparse, and I’ve looked everywhere apart from that cupboard, which is locked, but I really don’t want to start smashing it open… Have you got a manicure file?’
‘Are you kidding?’
‘No. I don’t think it’d be sensible to bust the lock. We want to leave the place as untouched as we can. Not a good idea to have any trace of us here.’
Maddie tilted her head. ‘I don’t mean the cupboard. I mean the manicure. What episode of Charlie’s Angels have you stepped out of, Rosedale? Do I look like I carry around a manicure?’
‘Just thou
ght you might have one in your purse in your back pack.’
‘Not now. Not never.’
Rosedale shrugged. ‘Maybe you should.’
Maddie blinked and gave a crooked smile. ‘Maybe I should carry a manicure? Seriously, Rosedale… You know what, maybe you should.’
He looked at Maddie incredulously. ‘I do. Usually. But it was a strange thing that happened. I was…’
Maddie cut in. ‘Stop. Save me the details… Here, try this instead…’
Expertly and swiftly Maddie began to dismantle her Smith &Wesson M&P. First removing the magazine. Checked there was nothing in the chamber. Gave the grip frame tool a quarter turn and twisted and pulled to remove a thin, two-inch-long pin spike of metal. She said, ‘Will this do you?’
He shrugged, unimpressed. ‘I guess so, but I’d rather have the file.’
*
With Rosedale now attempting to open the cupboard with as little damage as possible, Maddie turned to Cooper, who’d now joined them. ‘What puzzles me, Tom, is the fact that there’s nothing here. No photos. No letters. No keepsakes. There’s nothing personal.’
‘Guy obviously likes to keep it simple.’
‘I don’t know. There’s simple and then there’s secretive.’
‘And Thomas would know all about that,’ Rosedale said.
Maddie turned her back, preferring the sight of the corpse to having to deal with the ongoing hostilities. She carefully picked up and pulled up the bed sheet which was covering the body.
The waft from the sheets exaggerated the smell and this time the deep breath and the swallows almost didn’t make a difference. Almost. But she bent over with her hands on her knees, trying to compose herself. As she did, she closed her eyes, but immediately opened them as a thought came to her. ‘You know what I think? I think that body and perhaps this whole place has been washed down with bleach. I can smell it.’