Termination Limits: Tom Kintrell Book 1 (Tom Kintrell Thriller Series)

by R. J. O'Rourke

  Kintrell, suppressing the urge to twist Agent Sheady’s head off, simply nodded. “I don’t believe she’s in Pennsylvania.”

  “Why not?” said Sheady.

  “Too many things don’t add up. I’m chasing something down that I found at her residence. When I know more, I’ll let you know,” said Kintrell.

  “Shouldn’t you let the task force know?” said Sheady.

  “It may be nothing and I don’t want to waste anybody’s time. I should know within the hour if it’s solid, then I’ll let everybody know. I gotta go. Catch you later.”

  ***

  Roddy answered on the second ring, “Go ahead, Tom.”

  “Lanny’s been taken by person or persons unknown. I believe it’s our friends that took her. I received a text from Lanny that I believe is either faked or sent under duress. Supposedly, two guys grabbed her, one, a tall guy with blonde hair, and she believes she’s somewhere in Pennsylvania, which again—for reasons that I don’t wish to go into until we’re face-to-face—I don’t believe. The Bureau is concentrating its efforts in the Allentown, PA area because that’s where the text was supposedly sent from. I fed our suspected mole some information that will hopefully force him to make contact with the judge. Are your listeners still in place?”

  “Yeah, and If he uses the SAT phone, we’ll nail him,” said Roddy.

  “Thanks, Roddy, and I know I don’t have to tell you this but the minute you hear anything, let me know,” said Kintrell.

  “Roger that, and just so you know, if he uses the SAT phone, we’ll still get both sides of the conversation, even though encrypted, because we’ll be able to listen to the judge’s side through the bugs on his windows—assuming he takes the call downstairs—and we’ll hear Sheady’s side, through the bug on his phone.”

  “Nice,” said Kintrell. “I think we’re due for some luck.”

  Later, Kintrell met Stryker at Murph’s again. It was New Year’s Eve but still early afternoon, so the place wasn’t raucous yet. As they sat at the bar, Kintrell laid out what he told both Sheady and Roddy.

  “That should force his hand, if he’s our guy,” said Stryker.

  “Any doubts?” asked Kintrell.

  “Just hard to get my head around. You guys, as much as cops like me dislike feds, you’re pretty much on the straight and narrow.”

  “Getting back to Lanny, we had a team track the pizza box to a location on Route 73 in Marlton, hoping they had a security camera. They did and they’re looking at it now. There’s one guy who seems to be doing his best to keep his head down, so we can’t pick up facial features and he’s wearing a hat and dark-tinted glasses. He picked up the pizza at four 4:25 PM. They questioned the guy that handled the counter trade that day and he remembered the guy, because he was wearing gloves when he handed the clerk a twenty-dollar bill. The clerk thinks he’s about five-eight and also thinks the guy may be Hispanic. The guy told him to keep the change. When the clerk thanked him, the guy said what sounded like de nada,” said Kintrell.

  “Huh?” said Stryker.

  “Yeah, I know,” said Kintrell, “Another wrinkle.”

  ***

  The judge took the call at his desk at 3:45 PM.

  “Encrypted?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Report,” said the judge.

  “They think the woman in question is in Pennsylvania somewhere, except for Kintrell. He claims he found something at the woman’s place that might indicate some other location. I get the feeling he somehow knows or suspects she’s in South Jersey.”

  “Any idea what he’s looking into?” asked the judge.

  “No, he said it may be nothing but if he finds something different, he’d let us know, and one other thing judge, I uh, I didn’t sign on to see any agents hurt in this.”

  “Don’t worry, she’ll be released unharmed once she’s served her purpose,” said the judge.

  “And this can’t be traced back to us?” asked Sheady.

  “No, the guys that took her are from New York. They’re pros and also Puerto Rican. The cut out is already on his way back to Puerto Rico and the others don’t know who the cut out is working for. Things are progressing according to plan, Agent Sheady.”

  “Okay, judge, I’ll keep my eyes and ears open.”

  “Good man, and uh, Happy New Year, Agent Sheady.”

  “Thanks, you too, sir.”

  ***

  Kintrell’s phone vibrated. Seeing it was Roddy he almost dropped the phone in his haste to answer it.

  “Go ahead, Roddy,” said Kintrell.

  “We got ‘em,” said Roddy, “We got both sides then synchronized them, so it sounds like one uninterrupted conversation. I’ll play it for you now.”

  After listening, Kintrell said, “Can you e-mail that to me?”

  “Sure. I’ll send it in the next couple minutes.”

  “Thanks, Roddy, I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank you for this,” said Kintrell.

  “Hell, this is fun,” said Roddy, “It’s like I’m operating again. I’d have almost done this for free, ALMOST.”

  After disconnecting the call Kintrell turned to Stryker. “Sheady’s into it up to his eyeballs. Let’s go to my place and work this out.”

  Kintrell lived just off Rittenhouse Square, on Locust Street in Center City.

  When they entered the house, Stryker whistled. “What’s this place worth, Tom?”

  Kintrell, somewhat embarrassed, said, “Maybe a couple mill or so.” Clearly not wanting to talk about it, Kintrell led Stryker towards the back of the house, into a smartly-furnished office.

  “What do you want to drink, Norm?”

  “What are you having?”

  “Glenlivet, rocks,” said Kintrell.

  “Sounds good,” said Stryker.

  After they had their drinks Kintrell seated himself at the desk and brought up his e-mail then clicked on the audio file Roddy had sent. After listening to the tape twice Stryker said, “Wow!”

  “Problem is, none of it’s admissible,” said Kintrell.

  “On the plus side, if the judge is to be believed, they don’t intend to hurt Lanny,” said Stryker.

  “Yeah, sounds like a diversion to keep us away from the original investigation,” said Kintrell.

  “They wouldn’t want to hold her for an extended period of time, so whatever is going to happen is going to happen soon,” said Stryker.

  “If we roust Sheady now, and he doesn’t know where they’re keeping Lanny, we’ve accomplished nothing and we’ve tipped our hand,” said Kintrell.

  “Not necessarily,” said Stryker. “Suppose we confront Sheady and manage to turn him, so he’s working for us. We may be able to find Lanny and get the details on their next operation.”

  “I guess the only problem with that would be if he’s an ideologue, not in it for money. He would just clam up. If he’s in it for the money and he’s looking at a long stay in the cross-bar motel, we may be able to use him. Or plan B, we just beat the living fuck out of him if he clams up,” said Kintrell.

  “Plan B works for me,” said Stryker.

  They massaged the plan for another hour, then hopped into Kintrell’s car and headed for the Residence Inn.

  Chapter 26

  Alvarez called out to her guards, who, unbeknownst to her, were hunched over a laptop watching a rerun of a soccer match from October between Boca Juniors and River Plate of Argentina. Both men were drinking twelve-ounce bottles of Corona beer, sans lime. While one would clap the other would say “Mierda” as the match unfolded.

  Alvarez had worried since she’d been taken that she would be sexually assaulted. She thought if that happened, then they would probably plan on killing her, so she told herself she would go down fighting. Earlier, one of her captors spoon fed her some chili then some water to drink. At that point she needed to go to the bathroom, or she would soil herself. They allowed her to go into the small bathroom of the cabin, but she had to keep the door open.
They cut the plasti-cuffs off her but kept the duct tape covering her eyes. She thought she might have a fighting chance against the two of them if she could see, but certainly not blindfolded.

  After she was finished, they led her back to the bed, again put plastic restraints on her wrists then chained her to the metal frame of the bed. This time when they restrained her wrists, she used all her strength to keep her hands as far apart as she could. Maybe she would be able to sever the plastic by biting on it later that night. If she could free her hands, she could retrieve the small Smith and Wesson strapped above her left ankle. She still couldn’t believe the men hadn’t found the gun when they first took her. Professional criminals but not professional kidnappers. Once she had the gun, the problem would be getting them both at the same time. If she just got one of them while still chained to the bed, she would be a sitting duck for the other one. Have to work the problem … fortunately her hands were now restrained in front of her so the captors could then loop an additional restraint through the wrist restraint, then attach the additional restraint to the metal headboard of the military issue cot she was laying on.

  ***

  Kintrell parked his car in a lot not far from the Residence Inn. He and Stryker then made their way to the lobby of the Inn and took the elevator to Sheady’s floor. Kintrell knocked on the door. As he waited, he nervously looked at his watch as if he was in a hurry.

  “Yes, what is it?” came from behind the door.

  “Is that you George? Is Dixon with you?”

  “No, he’s not, what’s this about?”

  “We’ve been trying to reach him, there’s been a break in the case.” Kintrell looked right and left as he said it as if he didn’t want anyone to hear what he was saying.

  “What break?” said Sheady.

  “Good Christ, Sheady, I shouldn’t be talking about this out in the hallway. If you know where Dixon is, just tell me. I need him now!” Kintrell again looked down at his watch.

  The door started to open. When it was clearly past the security latch, Kintrell hit the door with his shoulder, knocking Sheady ass over tea cup. Both Kintrell and Stryker were on him like lions on a zebra. Kintrell had one hand over Sheady’s mouth, the other pinned Sheady’s right arm to the floor. Stryker pinned Sheady’s left arm to the floor.

  Sheady, terror in his eyes, tried to wriggle free to no avail.

  “Listen to me, asshole, I’m going to remove my hand from your mouth and if you cry out, I’m going to break your fuckin’ nose. Nod your head if you understand,” said Kintrell.

  Sheady, eyes wide, nodded his head.

  Kintrell took his hand from Sheady’s mouth, nodded to Stryker and they both yanked him upright. They escorted him to the couch on the left side of the suite. Sheady glanced from one to the other, calculating.

  “You two just assaulted a federal officer, I’ll have …”

  Stryker, being closer, back handed Sheady and said, “Shut the fuck up dickwad, we know all about you and the judge.”

  “What, what …”

  Stryker leaned in so that his face was six inches from Sheady’s. “I said shut up, I won’t tell you again.”

  Sheady, visibly shaken, kept quiet.

  Kintrell then read Sheady his rights.

  “Like Lieutenant Stryker said, we know about you and the judge. We’ve got you on tape. I know what you’re thinking—that your SAT phone was encrypted—but what you didn’t realize, was that by bugging your phone and the judge’s residence at the same time, we could hear both sides of the conversation.”

  Sheady thought that this might be an elaborate bluff but before he could say anything Kintrell produced his cell phone and replayed the beginning of the conversation to him. Kintrell didn’t let Sheady hear the whole conversation. He could then check what Sheady would tell him, against what they already knew.

  After thinking about it, Sheady said, “Then why haven’t you arrested me, is it because that evidence you have was obtained illegally? If so, nothing on that tape is admissible.” Feeling bolder now Sheady continued, “The worst that can happen to me is possibly dismissal. You on the other hand, will be brought up on charges. Illegal wiretapping a federal judge is a big no-no, Agent Kintrell.”

  Kintrell looked at Stryker, “Gee, he’s really got us there, Norm.”

  They both laughed.

  “Listen you little shit, you don’t understand what’s going on here. If you don’t do exactly what I tell you to do, it’s going to be very unpleasant for you. I could kill you now and no one would be any the wiser. it would also be a simple matter for us to get this tape to the FBI anonymously, and you couldn’t prove that I had anything to do with it. So, you have to make a decision right now.”

  Sheady looked from Kintrell to Stryker. The eyes staring back at him were cold, resolute. At that point he knew he was done.

  “What happens to me after I cooperate?” said Sheady.

  “Like you said, the evidence was obtained illegally, so the DOJ would have a difficult time prosecuting you, but your days at the Bureau are over.”

  After thinking it through, Sheady said, “What do you want me to do?”

  “First, I need you to tell me where they’ve taken Agent Alvarez. Then I need you to tell me who or what the next target is for your co-conspirators,” said Kintrell.

  “I don’t know where they’ve taken her, just somewhere in southern New Jersey.”

  Stryker smacked him on the side of the head again. “Wrong answer.”

  “Listen, Sheady, if you are no use to us then we’re wasting time here, and we have no reason to keep you alive. If I’m you, I think long and hard about what I say next,” said Kintrell.

  “Okay, okay, I don’t know everything. The judge is very security conscious, so he only reveals what he thinks I need to know. I gathered that Agent Alvarez was in fact somewhere in New Jersey, maybe southern New Jersey. And I know he used outside help in taking Alvarez. The guys that took Alvarez are Puerto Ricans out of New York. One of them is already on his way back to Puerto Rico. But I swear, I don’t know where they’re holding her. The guys that took Alvarez are not involved with the other operation. One of the guys that took Alvarez is someone the judge helped in the past.”

  “What do you mean, helped in the past?” said Kintrell.

  “He mentioned in passing that if needed, he had someone who owed him a big favor should the need arise.”

  “Did he mention a name?” said Stryker.

  “No.”

  “What about the next target?” said Kintrell.

  “The only thing I know about that is that it’s going to happen in the next few days. I wasn’t told who or where, and that’s the truth, I swear.”

  “Where does Agent Dixon figure in this?” asked Kintrell.

  “Huh?”

  “Agent Dixon, what’s his involvement?” pressed Kintrell.

  “The only thing Agent Dixon cares about, is how this is going to affect his career. He doesn’t give a shit how many people are killed or what happens to Agent Alvarez for that matter, just how it helps him. He’s basically a pencil pusher. He couldn’t investigate a cheeseburger.”

  “So, he’s not involved at all?” said Stryker, somewhat disappointed.

  “No,” answered Sheady.

  “In the morning, you’re going to call Agent Dixon and tell him you’re deathly ill, that you might have a touch of food poisoning, and that you are going to hang out here for the day, that you’ll check in later. You are not to try to contact the judge to warn him. If you do, we will know, and all bets are off. Oh, and one other thing, Lieutenant Stryker has recorded our conversation with you and since I read you your rights, what you said to us is admissible in a court of law.”

  “But what I said was under duress,” objected Sheady.

  “Well, those parts weren’t recorded, dipshit,” said Stryker.

  “We own you now, Sheady. You will stay in this room till I say different. When and if the judge makes contact, yo
u will give no indication that you’ve been compromised. If you don’t want to spend the rest of your life behind bars, you will do exactly what I say, when I say. Do you understand?” asked Kintrell.

  “Yes, I understand.”

  As they left the Residence Inn, Stryker said, “We’re no closer to finding Alvarez.”

  “I have an idea,” said Kintrell.

  He called his friend in the NSA.

  ***

  “Happy New Year, Chuck!” said Kintrell.

  “Somehow I get the feeling this ain’t a social call,” said Wilkins.

  “Oh ye of little faith,” said Kintrell.

  “What is it this time, Tom?”

  “Just a question to see if what I’m thinking is possible,” said Kintrell.

  “You realize it’s New Year’s Eve, right?” said Wilkins.

  “Well then, perfect timing for you to do a good deed before the year ends,” said Kintrell.

  “You have no shame, Kintrell.”

  “Yeah, that bus left for the coast a long time ago.”

  “What is it?”

  “If you had the number where a call originated, could you trace that call to the location that received it, and if that person at that location immediately placed a call to another location, could you then know where that second location was, and I mean an exact location?”

  “Well, nobody is supposed to know this, but yeah, if the person that received the first call used the same phone to contact the second location,” said Wilkins.

  “This is the reason I asked.” Kintrell related what had happened to Agent Alvarez, and his belief that a certain judge knew her whereabouts. If he could make the judge believe that they were getting close to finding her, maybe the judge would make a call to have his confederates move her, and then they would have her location.

  “I see two problems with that scenario, Tom,” said Wilkins. “What if they move her before you can get to them, and what if they just kill her outright, if she’s still alive?”