Calling Card Capers

by Dan Kelly

  This last gets a smile from her and she looks up at me and says, “You’d make a good shrink, you know that.”

  This gets a smile from me and I now believe that this lady is going to come through all of this maybe a little emotionally bruised and battered, but still all in one piece. She’s a survivor.

  Looking at Janet she asks, “When do we leave?”

  “How about right now?”

  “Let’s go. Do you serve any liquor on your flight? A good stiff drink would be a blessing about now.”

  Janet says, “I’m afraid not, but we could pick up a bottle of something on the way to the airport to satisfy that tippling urge of yours.”

  “I’m a sipper not a guzzler. Maybe we could find some of those one shot bottles you get on commercial flights. A couple of those would do the trick. Scotch is my poison of choice.”

  One of the security guards who’s been taking all of this in volunteers, “There’s a liquor store here in the mall. They might have something like that.”

  Don thanks the security people for lending a helping hand to Mrs. Aldrich and then, checking one of the mall directories to find out where we have to go, we head out for the liquor store. We find it without any difficulty and it carries the little bottles Mrs. Aldrich described. Scotch, bourbon, rye, vodka, rum gin, they appear to have a large variety of the happy juice and Mrs. Aldrich is a happy shopper when we leave the mall.

  Our luggage joins Don’s in the trunk of his rental and when we all climb in and the doors are shut it’s as if a switch has been thrown. What little there was of small talk on the way to the car ceases and no one says a word all the way to the airport. We’ve all become lost in our thoughts. It is kind of eerie.

  Don’s going to leave us off at the terminal reserved for small non-commercial aircraft where Janet parked her rental and asked that it be refueled and then drive to the car rental place to turn in the car where he’ll hop a shuttle that will take him to the main commercial terminal.

  When we arrive, Don helps the women unload their luggage from the trunk of the car and they go into the terminal. After I grab my luggage I say, “You know, Don, we have more than picking up the Crusader’s trail again to contend with when we get back to D.C. We have to issue a press release exonerating Mrs. Aldrich from any complicity in her husband’s vendetta and we should try to find out who leaked that story to the press. That was a dumb stunt to pull and it could possibly be construed as a criminal act.”

  “I know, I know, but news organizations protect their sources like they were gold, so we’re not going to get any help form them. Unless someone publicly admits to being the source, I don’t think we’ll ever know who did it. We could bring in likely suspects and try to sweat an admission out of them, but whoever did this knows how news organizations operate and won’t be easy to rattle. I think that would just be a waste of time.

  “Besides, I may not have much say in the matter, Chet. I’ll be lucky if I’m not transferred to the same office Piedmont’s being moved to and be back to reporting to him again when the big wigs here about what went down here.”

  “Don’t throw in the towel yet, my friend. Until the axe falls, this Crusader investigation is still yours to lead. We’ve got to keep swinging if we hope to hit anything. I’ll call you tomorrow to knock our heads together to see what shakes loose.”

  “Mrs. Aldrich is right. You’d make a good shrink.”

  He takes off with a little chirp of the tires and I latch onto my luggage and head for the terminal.

  When I walk into the terminal, Janet and Mrs. Aldrich are waiting for me at the door to the parking ramp. Janet says, “I’ve settled up for the fuel and paid the parking fees, so we’re good to go.”

  “Okay, what’s the weather like?”

  “Another storm is building up and headed our way and it’s slightly overcast at Dulles, but we should be on the ground in D. C. before the conditions can become a problem for us.”

  “Let’s not waste any more time talking about them then. Let’s get out of here before they do become a problem.”

  We have a smooth flight most of the way, but about twenty minutes out of Dulles we have to buck a strong headwind and when Janet contacts the Dulles tower for permission to land and get landing instructions she’s told the slight overcast is now a heavy fog and the runway lights are difficult to see.

  I glance over at Janet to see how she is taking the news and she doesn’t appear to be overly concerned. I glance back over my shoulder to see how Mrs. Aldrich is taking the news, but she is sound asleep. Three shots of scotch probably had something to do with that. So, it looks like it’s up to me to do all the worrying.

  When Janet first lines up to the assigned runway we can dimly see the landing lights. As we descend and get closer to the ground they disappear for what I’m beginning to think is going to be forever then just seconds before we touch down we can see them again.

  I must have been holding my breath all the way down because when we are on the ground and taxiing towards the terminal I let out a loud whoosh that starts Janet laughing.

  “Now you know what it’s like to fly on a wing and a prayer like it says in that old song.”

  Still laughing she fesses up by saying, “We were never in any danger. I’ve flown in soup a lot thicker than this lots of times.”

  “Well the only soup I’m familiar with comes in a bowl with a spoon and there’s nothing scary about it. The next time you want to share yours count me out.”

  This starts her laughing again and even Mrs. Aldrich who’s wide awake now joins in.

  After Janet settles up with the plane rental folks she says to Mrs. Aldrich, “Don’t bother looking for a cab. I’ll take you home.”

  “I’m very grateful for your kindness. I’ve never flown in a small plane before. It was a real kick in the pants.”

  We all laugh and then Janet and Mrs. Aldrich head for Janet’s car while I retrieve my cell to call the office to let Felicity know I’m back, to give her an abbreviated version of what happened in Raleigh and to get an update on the latest happenings at Dawson, Inc.

  Since there’s nothing requiring my immediate attention at the office, I head for home and a beer. The last twenty-four hours have been anything but dull and it will be nice to plop into my recliner and relax.

  Chapter 41

  Around eight-thirty as I’m dozing in my recliner Janet calls. Half asleep I mumble, “What’s up?”

  “I think I might know where the Crusader might be heading in the near future.”

  Now I’m fully awake. “How might you know that?”

  “When we got to Katherine’s house, she invited me in for a bite to eat. At first I declined, but she seemed so desperate for company that she didn’t have to explain anything to, so I quickly relented and I’m glad I did.

  “Over some tuna noodle casserole and a few of glasses of chardonnay she talked about a wide range of things, but mostly about her family and in-laws, her marriage and what she, Hank and Junior liked to do on their vacations. This is where the dinner conversation got real interesting. The family liked to travel to places off the American tourist beaten path because they wanted to escape the American Dream for a short while and experience other cultures and people with different backgrounds. As she’s describing some of the places they’ve visited, she suddenly stops talking in mid-sentence and then utters, ‘Oh my god.’

  “I thought she was in pain, was having a heart attack or something, but it wasn’t anything like that. She had suddenly remembered something her husband was muttering in his sleep in the motel last night. She says he talks in his sleep a lot.”

  “Janet, don’t make this an epiphany. Get to the point already.”

  “ Sorry. She said he kept mumbling the name Endora. She thought he was dreaming about a friend of theirs who was named after that witch character on the old TV show Bewitched. But tonight it suddenly dawned on her that he was mumbling Andorra not Endora.”

  “Fascinating,
but so what?”

  “That was my reaction at first too, but then she enlightened me and I now know the answer to the question, What is an Andorra?, if it ever comes up on Jeopardy.”

  “I’m happy for you. Now enlighten me will you?”

  “Chet, Andorra is the name of a small country about one fifth the size of Rhode Island which is squeezed between France and Spain and located in the heart of the Pyrenees Mountains. It is the highest inhabited country in Europe and is noted for its natural hot spas, duty-free shopping, gorgeous scenery and great skiing.

  “What makes it even more attractive for a man like Aldrich is besides having no formal constitution, it has no income tax, no extradition treaty with the U. S., not even a consulate relationship, How about that for a safe haven?”

  “This is very interesting, Janet, but what make you think he might be headed that way and how does Katherine know so much about this country?”

  “She had some travel brochures stored away in a drawer because they were planning to go there when Junior came home on his next leave, but of course he was killed and the trip was forgotten. Katherine thinks he might be planning to go there as kind of a twisted homage to his son.”

  “Hmm, there might be something to this. He’d probably choose to fly directly into Andorra because the sooner he gets there the less chance he has of being recognized by someone. However, he could fly into France or Spain and drive to his destination in Andorra just to shake off anybody trying to track him down. He may be dancing to a different tune than the rest of us, but he’s a wily hoofer. Have you called Don?”

  “No, I wanted to run this by you first. Do you think we’re grasping at straws here?”

  “Probably, but it’s a damn attractive straw. At the moment we are aware of no other avenues of pursuit to explore, so it warrants serious consideration. However, there are a couple of major road blocks to deal with if we go down this road, namely, when should we grasp the straw as we have no idea what Aldrich’s time line is, when he will bolt, and we have no idea about what airport he might choose to go wheels up. The FBI can’t cover all of them 24/7.

  “He’s demonstrated that he’s getting pretty good with disguises and is very adept when it comes to procuring false ID, so it’s going to be very difficult to get him in our cross hairs while he’s in transit. Once he gets into Andorra he’s home free. Even if we knew for certain that his destination was Andorra we’d still be faced with these same obstacles.

  “The FBI might be able to talk the President into sending some of our Special Forces people into the country to kidnap Aldrich and forcibly bring him back to the U. S. since the majority of Aldrich’s victims have been very important people in our government and military, but I’m sure that would not sit well with not only the Andorra government but with many other countries around the world as well. However, the political pressure on the President to do something that will bring the Crusader to justice must be enormous, so he might grant such a request.

  “However, this wouldn’t be a slam dunk either. Although Andorra is a tiny country, there has to be tens of thousands of people living there and that’s a big crowd to get lost in. Janet, what Katherine, has told you may be pointing us in the right direction, but I don’t see how it helps us much. Somehow we’ve got to locate, corner and capture Aldrich before he leaves our soil. If we fail to do this, we’ll probably never see him again.”

  “I like what you said about the President and the Special Forces people. I think we should give Don a call and see what he thinks about it all. I have the means to set up a conference call from my office here at home. It’s not too late to call him now.”

  “Okay, while you’re calling him I’m going to rustle up something to eat. I haven’t eaten anything since our breakfast this morning. As soon as my butt hit the recliner when I got home I was out like a light.”

  “Okay, but make it snappy. If Don answers, it won’t take but a few seconds to set up the conference call.”

  I dash into the kitchen, grab an apple, the can of peanuts Janet left on the counter when she was here yesterday and a bottle of water from the fridge and am back in my recliner in less than thirty seconds, but I needn’t have hurried. When I let Janet know I’m back on the phone, she tells me Don isn’t answering his phone.

  “Okay, when you get into work tomorrow call me and we can do the conferenced call thing then. Have you written your story about what happened in Raleigh yet?

  “I’ve put together a rough draft. I’ll spend the next hour or so editing it until I have something that’s fit to print. How’s your head?”

  “I’ve taken the bandage off. It made me sweat. I’ve got no more headache, but the scalp is sore and it hurts when I raise my eyebrows.”

  “Then don’t raise your eyebrows.”

  “Thank you for that pearl of wisdom. Your sagaciousness astounds me.

  “Good night, Chet.”

  “Good night, Janet.”

  Chapter 42

  When my alarm went off this morning, I didn’t hear it. I’d still be zonked out if the morning sun hadn’t been shining in my eyes through my bedroom window. I normally close the blinds when I go to bed at night, but I neglected to do that last night. I’ve just finished devouring a sausage and triple egg omelet, three pieces of whole wheat toast slathered with apple butter and an eight ounce glass of grapefruit juice and I’m ready to take on the world. When I woke up this morning I was famished because I hadn’t eaten much all day yesterday.

  I’m now sipping on my second cup of coffee contemplating how I want to spend my day. The first thing I want to do is call the President and give him the bad news about what went down in Raleigh yesterday, bring him up to date with what Janet learned from Katherine and get his reaction to using our Special Forces guys to clandestinely enter Andorra and kidnap Aldrich if he is indeed planning to set roots there.

  My contemplation is put on hold as my special cell starts vibrating in my pocket. The man has beaten me to the punch again. “Good morning, Mr. President.”

  “Good morning, Chet. How did it go in Raleigh?”

  “Succinctly sir, it was a disaster.” I then proceed to give him the long version, including all the details, and then conclude with what Janet learned from Mrs. Aldrichs and a summary of our discussion last night. When I brought up the idea of using Special Forces to haul Aldrich’s butt back to our shores, I thought he’d really pop his cork, but the only thing I heard at the other end of the line was a deep sigh.

  I finish with, “I want to give you a heads up, sir. Someone from the FBI may be calling you about this Special Forces idea of ours. Janet Vanderhill will be setting up a conference call between Don Ericson, me and her so we can run this idea by him to get his input. If he thinks it’s something we should pursue, I’m sure he’ll pass the buck onto higher ups to run the idea by you.”

  There is a few seconds delay before he responds. “Chet, this Crusader situation is really getting bizarre. I’ll have to chew on the Special Forces matter for a while. If I decide to give my approval, I’ll do it without discussing it with anyone else. If I touch base to seek the support of anyone in Congress, it will become a political football and nothing good will come from that.”

  “I understand completely, sir.”

  “Good.” Click.