“All right,” I said. “Jake, I want you to fill in Lien-hua with regard to the profiles you’ve been working up for both the Reiser case and the Pickron family’s killer.”
“You think they’re related?”
“I’m not sure how they would be, but I want all the puzzle pieces on the table before we dive headfirst into fitting them together. Talk through what you have on Basque as well. Broad strokes, see if anything overlaps. I know we’re limited on time.”
He looked like he was going to object but remained silent.
“There’s plenty to do,” I said. “I have an idea on how to solve the mystery of how a Ski-Doo 800 XL could travel on a straight course a hundred meters without a rider. Also, I’m going to try to find a way for us to visit the ELF site so we can see if there’s anything there that might lead us to Donnie Pickron or Alexei Chekov. Let’s break, get back together at noon, and see where we’re at.”
Everyone stood.
By now the Advil had kicked in, and although my ankle was still stiff, thankfully, it seemed like putting pressure on it wasn’t going to be as big a deal today as I’d thought it would be when I woke up.
Lien-hua’s phone rang.
At first I thought it might be Angela returning my call, but when Lien-hua answered it, she looked at me quizzically. “It’s for you.”
“Who is it?” I asked her.
She shook her head, held it out to me.
“I’ll bring it by your room when I’m done,” I said.
The three of them left and I spoke into the phone. “Hello?”
“I hope you’re feeling better, Agent Bowers.”
I recognized the faint Russian accent.
Alexei Chekov.
50
Quickly, I evaluated how to respond. From everything I’d seen, this man was a professional, and I doubted gimmicks and games would work with him. I decided on a direct approach: “Where’s the truck driver, Alexei?”
Chekov’s close, he has to be. How else would he know to call this phone just as we finished the meeting?
I looked out the window.
Nothing.
“I regret to tell you that he’s dead.”
My grip on the phone tightened. “I’m coming for you.”
Outside. Maybe he’s in the woods nearby.
Yanking on my coat, I headed for the front door.
“For what it’s worth,” he said, “I truly am sorry for what happened to both him and Ellory.”
It bothered me that Chekov really did sound remorseful. I wanted him to be completely evil, fundamentally different from the rest of us, not a combination of mixed motives, of good and bad. It would have made things so much easier.
Outside now, I carefully studied the windswept landscape. Saw no one. Only the wrath of the storm.
“I have a proposal to make,” he said.
Keep him on the line. Keep this conversation going.
“What proposal is that?” The livid wind cut through my jeans. I used the building to shield me as much as possible as I passed around the corner and scanned the other side of the parking lot. Nothing.
“I would like you to help me find some people. The ones who killed the Pickrons.”
“Good idea. Let’s meet. Have a little chat.”
He pressed on. “In return for my help, you have something that I need.”
First he asks for your help, now he’s promising his?
It didn’t follow, but for the moment I decided to play along. “What do I have that you need?”
“Resources,” he answered vaguely.
I returned to the front of the building but stayed outside to keep the conversation private. “You’re in no position to ask me for anything, Alexei. You killed two people yesterday-or was it three? Did you abduct someone else from the restaurant parking lot where you abandoned the truck?”
A small silence. “I’ll be letting her go. I have no reason to hurt her.”
Sharp anger flared again.
He said “her,” that helps, we can “I think you owe me, Agent Bowers. If I hadn’t called 911, you’d be dead.”
“I’d only be dead because you threw Ellory in the river. I was just trying-”
“To save him. Yes. I know. I was impressed. That’s why I called emergency services for you. But now I’m making you an offer. If you help me stop these people you can save Kayla’s life.”
“Kayla?”
“The woman I took from the restaurant.”
“You just told me you’d let her go, that you had no reason to hurt her. Don’t play me, Alexei. What do you really want here?”
“I don’t kill children. And I don’t kill women.”
“But now you’re threatening to kill Kayla.”
He was quiet.
He’s conflicted. It’s not about the Pickrons or Kayla.
“Prove she’s alive. Let me talk to her.”
After a tight silence I heard a woman gasp, then cry out for help, her voice shrill, desperate. “Help me! He’s-” Then the sounds became muffled, and I pictured him gagging her.
“Oh, I am going to find you, Alexei, and I’m going to-”
“You left your laptop inside. Check your email.”
How is he watching me?!
Promptly returning to the room beside the lobby, I flipped out my laptop and clicked to the secure FBI email server, opened my account, and found a message from Alexei Chekov, identified by name. This guy was unbelievable.
As I opened the file I wondered if he’d sent me pictures of Kayla, but it turned out to be photos of four people I’d never seen.
“Who are they?”
“Members of a group called Eco-Tech.”
“Eco-Tech?” That was the group that had lobbied to have the information about the SSBN sub routes released through the Freedom of Information Act. “People from Eco-Tech are involved in this? How do you know?”
“I met with them. They’re working on a project with someone using the code name Valkyrie. I don’t know who it is, but I want to find out. I have an access code and a phone number I haven’t been able to trace.”
He gave the number to me, and the code Queen 27:21:9. I typed them into a Word doc. “You told me you’d kill Kayla unless I helped you. What are you proposing? Just trace this phone number? Is that what you meant by resources?”
“Help me find Ardis and Lizzie’s killers. Just you. If anyone else comes with you, I’ll disappear and Kayla Tatum will die.”
Of course I wanted to find the killers, but why he would want to find them was a myster They turned him in, Pat, remember? The anonymous call.
“When we find them I will need to deal with them appropriately. That’s part of the deal.”
“Appropriately?” I said.
“Yes.”
“I won’t let you kill them, Alexei. I bring them in. That’s the only way.”
A pause. “I’ll tell you what: if you get to them first and find a way to stop me, then you deserve to win.”
A game?
Is this all a game to him?
This guy wasn’t like any killer I’d ever dealt with before. It didn’t frighten me, but it did fine-tune my focus. Actually, that felt kind of good. “You know that when this is over I’m sending you to prison.”
“I’m experienced at eluding investigators.”
“I’m not your typical investigator.”
A small pause. “I’ll text you with the time and location where we’ll meet. You can have the Bureau look for Valkyrie, but don’t tell your on-site team we’ve spoken. I’ll know if you do.”
How?
How is he watching!
“Agent Bowers, though I do not believe in killing women, I will take Kayla Tatum’s life if I need to. While I am a man of conviction, I am also a man of resolve.”
Before I could reply, he ended the call. A power play.
I pocketed the phone and went directly to my room. After doing a back trace on the call and failing to find either his number or GPS location, I turned to my word processing program. I tend to be pretty good with details, and I typed up the conversation. Even if I didn’t get it word-for-word, I was confident that I was close.
Then I googled Kayla Tatum’s name and found 3,780,000 hits. Only one of the women near the top of the list lived in Wisconsin. I started with her, and after locating her cell number I put a call through to her. When she didn’t answer I left a message for her to call me immediately.