I took route 46 over to Pacific Coast Highway and headed north marveling at the coastal scenery, wondering if the new planet would furnish mankind with such splendor. At Castroville I crossed over to the 101 to speed up my return. I was home before three, having picked up all the ingredients for chili, one of Maggie’s favorites and something I could cook with my eyes closed.
I showered and made tea. I had two hours before Maggie and Adam arrived so I asked Sally to join me and update what was happening on the other side of the country.
“Pippa’s pissed,” she said. “I think she expected you to go and see her.”
“Tomorrow, she’ll get over it.” Why did Sally bring up Pippa first? Women, she definitely had a few of their traits.
“Alberton sent three more emails from Pippa’s computer. Each one a little more subservient. He wants you to meet him again and the last one was almost a begging letter.”
“Yea, well, screw him!”
“Would you like me to tell him that?”
“No! Ignore him for now. What’s the FBI doing with all that stuff I sent them?”
“They are stunned. Lambert is piecemealing the work out all over country. They are just starting to pull in the perps. The enslaved children are the priority and a few have already been found. The press doesn’t know which way to turn, it’s headline news on every channel. Oh, Maggie sent a text, she’s had to cancel because of the work load, so your fault.”
“Oh, crap!” I didn’t know what to think. “I’ve got two pounds of mince.”
“Maybe the girlfriend can come?”
I beamed at Sally, any chance she gets.
Sally send Maggie a text, ‘no problem, I saw the news, what’s happening?’
I retreated to the kitchen and cut the mincemeat into two pieces. Half I left out, the rest I stuffed into a zip-lock bag and put it in freezer. I planned to make chili anyway.
I ignored Sally and turned on CNN. The picture showed a police officer leading a man in handcuffs into a police station. The voice over said it was Syracuse, New York and the man ‘s name was Leonard Keifer. He was being arrested on child kidnapping, rape in the third degree and a list of other offenses, which the reporter said he’d already admitted to. The picture went back to four people in the studio. An attorney was saying that so far twenty-three children had been found across the country, most of them were on a missing child list. It was the largest sting by law enforcement of this kind. The head reporter then butted in to add that there had been no information from the FBI, who had initiated the sting, about numbers or how they had gathered so much information.
I turned the volume down and asked Sally. “How are the FBI planning to explain this?”
“Lambert met with the Director and he asked her the same question. All she’s come up with is to lie. You know, months of painstaking work, hundreds of agents, bla bla bla.”
“What did he say?”
“He didn’t say yes or no, just said they needed to find you.”
“It won’t fly. If they know a child has been kidnapped for sexual abuse, they wouldn’t wait. There’s almost certainly no connection from one case to another.”
“He said that, also.”
“Should be interesting. Did those guys in Virginia Beach make the news?”
“That was earlier, they’ve moved on to the child abuse cases.”
“More public interest,” I said, “what about the serial killers?”
“Too busy with the children and kidnappings. Lambert has informed the teams working the cases for the five she was aware of, they are planning arrests in the next few days, when they have the back-up. The other two cases need a lot of work.”
“Did the Brits respond?”
“Nothing. They’re taking their time. The Home Secretary brought in the Chief Commissioner, he’s dealing with the list. They only have seven children kidnaped and held for sex abuse. They’re gathering data on the perps and most should be picked up tomorrow. The Home Secretary was blatantly honest with the Commissioner, told him the intel was from the man with wings, who calls himself Jo-el. He asked how you knew and she just said, she hadn’t got a clue. They were skeptical at first, the Commissioner had just one case reviewed initially, which took most of the day. Of course your allegations turned out to be accurate, so they’re working the other cases during the night and expect to arrest the men tomorrow. The Home Secretary is being briefed in the morning, it’s night in London right now. The British media hasn’t got word of that first case yet, they’re covering the US situation.”
“Should be a big day over there tomorrow.”
“What’s your next plan?”
“I need to see how this pans out, both with the police and the media. Maybe I’ll pick another couple of countries.”
It all seemed to be heading in the right direction. Maybe the direct approach, meeting with the FBI and CIA wasn’t a good idea. The media reaction would be fascinating, but that would take a few days.
I headed to the kitchen and spent the next thirty odd minutes preparing chili from a packet, with a few extra ingredients like tabasco and extra cumin. I opened a good bottle of Merlot, which was soon half empty. I’d had a restful and successful day.
Saturday morning was raining again, with brighter weather forecast late in the day. A text from Jimmy inquired if I was riding on Sunday. I replied that I was going to be out of town for a month, he said, ‘have fun’.
Sally informed me that Pippa had taken Billy to a small park to play on the apparatus and swings, she was still being watched. I planned to go and see her later. Check-in time at the cottage in Rodanthe was three, I’d told the local contact I would be there around five and that lady said she’d meet me at the cottage with the keys, so I had a few hours. I packed a case with food stuff and booze. My plan was to bounce to a car rental place at Norfolk airport and then drive down to Rodanthe, which I thought would take about two hours.
About an hour before I was planning to leave Sally said that Pippa was back at her condo making lunch for Billy. She also told me that the FBI had drilled holes into Pippa’s condo on both sides while she was out and could now see inside and hear everything said.
“Shit! What can you do about that?” I asked Sally.
“Simple. I can destroy the equipment, or I could place something over the camera and play some loud music. Whatever.”
“What are they planning?”
“If you turn up they’re going to raid the place.”
“Is there a team ready?”
“Yep, they commandeered the condo next door.”
“Damn, if I bounce her out of there, they’ll know it was me. Does she know what they’ve done?”
“She knows she’s being watched, but she doesn’t know about the camera and listening device. Also, she’s unaware they’ve got a team right next door.”
“How do the team expect to capture me?”
Sally grinned, “They have tear gas and a drug dart that they hope will work.”
“Will it?”
“No! Your shield will protect you from the dart. I’d have to get you out of there if they use gas.”
“I can’t breathe independently of gas?”
“No, you need oxygen, where are you going to get that from?”
“I could go with a hologram like I did in the Hangar?”
“Yep, that would work, but no kissy, kissy with the girlfriend.”
I ignored Sally’s snide comment but could see the problem. “Okay, here’s what I want to do. I’ll go in for five minutes and explain to Pippa what’s happening. Let’s go with blocking the camera now and see if that causes a stir?”