I shook my head. “No clue.”
“How are you so sure this is an inside job?”
“I’m not 100%, but it makes sense. I mean, we’re talking about WITSEC, the US Marshals. They’ve never had a witness harmed under their protection, at least not ones who played by the rules and followed procedures. They’re damn good. Barely anyone, including yourself, knew where Stanley was being housed. Only someone on the inside would know that information.”
Karla paced a few steps. “So you’re saying the inside man is a compromised marshal or someone dirty on our end?”
“Likely our end,” I said. “And if it’s on our end, it has to be at Hornsby’s level or higher.”
She stopped pacing. “No way.”
“Has to be, Karla.” I held out my hands. “Think about it. You didn’t even know where Stanley was being taken, and you’re the lead investigator.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Who do we trust then? Who do we call?”
The only person I could think to trust was Frank, but if I called Frank...
Karla’s cell suddenly vibrated in her left hand. She glanced down. “It says private.”
I waved for the cell. She tossed it at me.
“Stanley?” I said.
Some gasping on the other end, then the kid said, “Agent Chase?”
“You okay?”
“You saved my life.” I heard him swallow. “Got me out just in time.”
“What about the explosion, Stanley?”
“Air from the blast rushed out the front door and knocked me over. The cell flew out of my hand and blew the battery out.”
“Where are you now?”
“A couple blocks away. I went back to the house.”
I scoffed into the phone. “You did what?”
“Had to, Agent Chase. Had to get my backpack and see if my laptop was still intact.”
“That’s crazy, Stanley. Listen to me, you can’t trust anyone. You have to—”
“It’s intact, it’s fine. The explosion spared the bedrooms.”
“What?”
He cleared his throat. “My laptop, Agent Chase. Everything is okay.”
“Stanley, just tell me where you are. Karla and I will come get you.”
“You just told me not to trust anyone.”
“Anyone but us.”
A pause. “I only trust you, Agent Chase.”
“Good,” I said. “So you can trust my judgment. Now tell me where you are. Are you still in LA County?”
“Is the cell you’re using encrypted? Is it a snapcell?”
Not having a clue about these things, I pulled the cell away and asked Karla, “Is this is a snapcell?”
“A what?” she said.
“We don’t know, Stanley.”
“If you don’t know,” he said, “then it isn’t. Is the phone STE encrypted?”
I repeated that to Karla and she shook her head.
“Nope.”
“Is it at least STU-III encrypted?”
I rolled my eyes and asked Karla. She shook her head again.
“No, Stanley, apparently the cell isn’t encrypted at all. Do you really think Karla’s cell is tapped?”
He sighed. “You tap landlines, Agent Chase, not cellphones. Cells are digital wireless signals. You don’t tap the cell because it isn’t wired to anything. This conversation is out there right now, over the airwaves. You just need to know how to grab it.”
“Enough, Stanley.”
“I’m not telling you my location, not over an unencrypted cell. You just told me not to trust anyone, which means you don’t trust anyone. Which means you think someone in the government is corrupt, and that person could easily be monitoring Karla’s cell. Trust me, I know these things. It’s why I use a snapcell. It has one of the highest levels of encryption these days.”
“How about you call me on the motel phone? Is that being tapped? I just checked in today.”
“You never know. How about we meet up somewhere?”
“Where? And how are you going to get there?”
“I’ll text you a location. Delete the text as soon as you see it. I’ll take a cab there.”
“How long will it take you?”
“I’ll be there within the hour. It will probably take you about twenty minutes to get there.”
“Send the text.” I hung up and tossed the cell to Karla. “We’re on the move as soon as we get a text from Stanley. Write down the address and then delete the text.” I walked over to the bed and slid the Weatherby case out.
“What’s that?” Karla asked.
“A little insurance, in case things get hairy. Can I drive?”
Karla sighed, then flipped me the keys. I jammed out of the room. On my way out, I almost knocked over a man standing in front of the motel door preparing to knock. One glance at the man and I immediately wished I’d bowled him over.
Dr. Frances Julian gathered himself and extended his hand. “Garrison.”
You’re kidding me. I ran both hands over my head. This guy, right now? How did people know where I was staying? Just when I thought the situation couldn’t get worse, Gina popped up behind the little man.
“It was his idea, Garrison.” She pointed accusingly at Jules. “He thought we should all meet up and talk about stuff. He insisted we come.”
I addressed Gina. “How on earth did you know I was staying here?”
She pointed toward the motel office. “The check-in guy is good friends with Stuart Feldman. He called Stuart and—”
I held up my hand. “I get it.”
Doc Jules stepped toward me. “It would be good to process our emotions, Garrison. I think it would be highly beneficial to us all to clear the air, so to speak. What do you say?”
“What do I say? I say you better step back, right now, Doc. I don’t trust myself.”
Since I didn’t want to publicly threaten him, I turned just enough for him to glimpse the Model 500 in the back of my pants. The sight of the Smith & Wesson alone was threatening.
“My, Garrison, this is—”
He swallowed and didn’t finish the sentence. It was the first time I’d seen my former therapist at a loss for words, but he cleared his throat and quickly recovered. “This is good, very good, raw emotion, true to the heart. We’re already making progress. How about we sit and open up some more? I’ll mediate.”
Mediate? I stepped back and turned away. How can the source of the problem be the mediator? I took a moment to breathe. Sensing I was about to blow, Karla swept in and grabbed me by the waist. She prodded me toward the Ford.
“We have somewhere to be,” Karla said.
“Understandable,” Jules said. “You need more time, Garrison. I can empathize. I can see how the situation between Gina and me may be construed, how it could possibly portray my actions in a less than flattering light. There’s a perfectly good explanation. It’s not what it seems.”
I turned back. “So you, my ex-therapist, aren’t dating my ex-wife?”
“We’re just friends,” he said.
Gina slugged him on his right shoulder.
“Let me be more precise: Friends who are in the process of exploring one another.”
Gina sighed. Karla rolled her eyes.
I pointed at Jules and bit my lip. Karla pried the rifle case from my hand, then pushed my arm down. For good measure, I withdrew the gun and gave it to her as well. I walked over to Jules. Because I was afraid of an accidental strangling, I put my hands behind my back.
“This is the last time I ever want to see you. Understand, Doc?”
Jules shuffled back a step, not saying a word.
I stepped forward and put my finger on his chest. “Hang out with Gina for as much and as long as you like; what do I care? But I’ll be watching you, and if I see that you’ve been around my son, laid eyes on him, for that matter, I’ll report you to whatever professional association you’re registered with. I’ll contact the ethics board or whatever board
I have to. I’ll make sure everyone’s in the loop about you dating my ex-wife just months after our mandatory treatment period has ended. If they don’t reprimand you or take away your license, I’ll go to the press.”
As I leaned in, Jules stepped back.
I grabbed the back of his head and forced him close so the ladies didn’t hear. “Truthfully, I won’t go to the press. I’ll take matters into my own hands, Motel 7 style. You remember that story, don’t you?”
Doc Jules was the only one who knew the real story. During one of our last therapy sessions, I made the mistake of opening up and telling him all about it.
He swallowed and nodded.
I relaxed my grip on his head, then walked backwards to the Ford. I turned and faced Karla and handed her the keys. “You’d better drive. I may run them both over.”
CHAPTER 16
The text came through just as Karla and I got into the Ford. I memorized the address, then deleted the text. Karla used her phone to pull up the location, then handed me the phone to navigate. We didn’t talk for the first few minutes of our drive. Every so often I pointed in the direction Karla needed to turn. Since the window was rolled down, the wind cooled my face a little. It did nothing for my internal rage, however. I gripped my left knee so hard it hurt.
Karla glanced over. “That was awkward. Sorry you had to go through that.”
I started to say something, but Karla politely waved me off. “I got the gist of the story, no need to say anything else. You’re a better person than me, that’s for sure. I would’ve kicked him in the groin.”
“I should’ve decked him, at least drilled him in the gut with my knee. Right?”
“You did the smart thing, with next week’s hearing and all.”
I shook my head. “I’m screwed at the hearing, no chance. I should’ve clobbered him.”
“Don’t say that.” She looked me in the eye. “We’re going to figure this out and buy you some redemption.”
I looked away. “Wouldn’t that be nice.”
A few minutes later, I pointed and said, “Ahead is the location, it’s a 7-Eleven, drive past it and make a left at the next cross street. We’ll watch from a distance.”
Karla followed my direction and parked the Ford on a cross street about 100 meters from the store. She turned off the car and pulled out her pistol, a Colt Delta Elite. She chambered a round, then holstered it. I was impressed with her choice of semi-automatic.
I scanned the area for a moment, then turned to Karla. “I’m talking hypothetically here, but let’s say you break up with a guy on close to mutual terms. It was fairly amicable and there wasn’t too much drama involved. Do you think your ex would ever do something like Gina did? Go and date someone like that, someone you spent a year telling your innermost thoughts to? It’s cruel, vindictive, and plain unethical. Right?”
Karla cleared her throat. “It’s bad, really bad actually. On both of their behalfs. Look at your therapist, how could he possibly think that it’s okay to date your ex? I don’t get it.”
“They’re a real pair. I guess they’re meant for each other. And, believe me, I don’t care that they’re dating, seriously. It’s my son and his exposure to all this that’s killing me. I have to get him back.”
We scanned the area in silence for a minute.
“So what are we doing here, Chase?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean physically here.”
“Physically?”
Karla laughed. “Physically in this spot, I mean, parked down the street from the 7-Eleven.”
“Oh, right.” My face flushed. “Well, I don’t want to wait out front of the store. I think we need to hang back and see if the kid’s being tailed.”
She nodded. “What’s our next move once we actually get Stanley?”
“What do you think?”
“The way I see it, it’s complicated. If someone’s dirty in the Bureau, then I don’t want to waltz into the LA field office with Stanley at my side. I don’t want to take him there and jeopardize his safety. What about you?”
“Same. If I come in with Stanley, Frank will be on the phone to Hornsby in a second, no matter what I tell Frank. It would only be a matter of time before the kid’s dead.”
She looked at me. “We go it alone, then? Don’t tell anyone we have the kid?”
I nodded. “It’s our only choice, to see this through to the end. Until I’m dead, or Stanley’s dead, or you’re dead, or we’re all dead.”
“Or until we figure this out.”
“Seriously, Karla, you don’t have to do this. You have a husband and a bright career ahead. I’d understand if you bailed out.”
She turned as red as Kowalski. “Not a chance in hell you’re getting me off this, Chase.”
“Alright, then.” I climbed out of the Ford. “I’m going to wait in the alley between the two buildings directly across from the 7-Eleven. Once I’m positive Stanley wasn’t tailed, I’ll bring him back here.”
“Where do we go from there?”
“I have an idea. I need to work out the details in my head.”
After Karla nodded, I closed the door and made my way to the alley. By the time I was in position, it was thirty-eight minutes since Stanley had called. Eleven minutes later, after I’d worked out the details of my plan, Stanley’s taxi rolled into the 7-Eleven parking lot. The kid hopped out. His head bobbed around, searching for me. While he headed into the store, I stayed put and watched passing cars.
Stanley took up a position by the front window of the store. After five minutes I felt confident he hadn’t been tailed, so I headed across the street. Stanley scooted out of the store when he saw me. His left shoulder and arm were in a sling, and he had on a backpack.
He held out his right hand. “Am I glad to see you, Agent Chase.”
I shook his hand. “I’m glad you’re okay. Let’s get out of here.”
I led him back to the Ford. He skipped along beside me. His excitement was downright annoying.
When we got to the car, Stanley blurted, “Shotgun.” He grabbed the passenger door handle. I politely pushed him out of the way and climbed into the front seat.
Stanley slipped into the back and took a seat in the middle. He leaned forward and exchanged words with Karla.
Sensing his excitement and energy flowing up front, I snapped a look over my shoulder. “Alright, kid, what’s going on?”
“What do you mean?” He pushed up his glasses.
“This giddy-like-a-schoolgirl thing.”
“I’m just excited, Agent Chase.”
“You’re excited?” I turned all the way around in the seat. “What do you have to be excited about? Excited that a house blew up? That maybe some US Marshals are dead? Maybe an innocent nurse, too?”
Stanley blinked and sat back, clearly deflated. “I don’t think the nurse or marshals were in the house when it went up.”
Karla turned to face Stanley. “This is serious, Stanley, you need to sit back and think hard about this situation. People may be dead, and more people could die, including yourself, if we don’t figure this out soon. We need to know everything.”
“Believe me,” he said, whining. “I’ve told you both everything. I wish I had more to tell.”
Karla and I stared at Stanley. Stanley blinked and stared back. After a moment, he whipped out his phone and started texting.
“Who are you texting now?” I asked.
He didn’t respond.
I reached over and tried to grab his phone, but Stanley was quick. He pulled his phone away and said, “My dad, Agent Chase. He needs to know I’m okay.”
Karla changed the subject. “We can go back to my place until we figure out what our next move is.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t want to bring anybody else into this.”
Stanley piped up. “What about my place? We can go there.”
“We’re going to the wharf,” I said. “I have a plan; I think it’s our
best option. But it’s risky, real risky.”
I directed Karla to the Long Beach wharf. It was just south of downtown and slightly east of the city’s harbor. Karla drove the Ford into a large parking structure across from the wharf. Not many cars were there since it was nine at night. We wound our way to the top floor and parked in a darkened area. The parking structure overlooked the waterfront.
Karla shut off the Ford. “So what’s the plan?”
I cleared my throat. “What if we use Stanley as bait, to draw out the inside man? What do you think?”
Karla looked straight out the window for a moment, then back to me. “I think it’s risky, like you said. Why don’t we slow down a little and come up with something less drastic?”
“We could, but I think moving fast serves us best.”
“What do you mean?”
“Stanley was supposed to die in the safe house explosion, but he didn’t. The inside man screwed up and will want to fix the mistake. And he’ll want to do the job quickly, especially if he finds out that Stanley is in a dark, nearly deserted place like the wharf.”
“Maybe,” Karla said. “What about Stanley? You think he’s up for being bait?”
A snort came from the back seat.
I glanced back at the kid. “You alright with the plan?”
“Sure.” He pushed up his glasses. “As long as I get a gun.”
“What are the details?” Karla asked. “How do we make sure the kid is safe?”
“Seriously,” Stanley said. “Do I get a gun?”
I turned to Karla. “You’re going to call Hornsby and tell him you have Stanley.”
She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say a word.
I continued. “Tell him you’re down here at the wharf, but don’t tell him where exactly. If he presses for a location, get panicky, tell him you think there’s somebody corrupt in the Bureau intent on killing Stanley. Really sell it. Tell him you don’t want to talk over the phone about the exact location. If he keeps pressing for a location, ratchet up the tension. Tell him you’re scared and fear for your life. If you have to, cut the call short and leave him hanging.”
Karla nodded. “I think I follow. Talk to me more about the logic.”
The Greatest Good Page 13