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A meeting was in process as they walked in. Blake, Taylor, Shelley, Peter, and Mary were gathered around the big screen. Tony shouted, “What, no welcome for the returning heroes?”
Blake stood and walked toward them. “Glad you’re back! I guess we can put another case to bed.”
“It was easy,” Wayne said, “once you knew what you were looking for. Great job, Shelley! The FBI sends their thanks. What are you guys up to?”
Blake turned to the screen. “Peter was filling us in on the June Killer and what he and his computer have been up to.”
Tony pulled out a chair and winked at Peter. “Don’t let us be a party pooper. Tell us what you’ve got, son.”
Peter cleared his throat. “The only lead we have is that a man wearing a baseball cap has shown up in every town where signature murders were committed. This man knows where the cameras are and keeps his head down. He changes clothes and sometimes changes hats. This would fool any of us, because a lot of people in bus stations wear a baseball cap. Nevertheless, the computer is able to pick him out each time.”
Shelley frowned and raised her palms. “I don’t see how that’s going to help us catch this guy.”
Peter continued as though Shelley hadn’t spoken. “The computer, for reasons unknown to me, has picked Cary, North Carolina, as a likely starting point. It may be Cary or a small town around there, but the same bus line serves that entire area. The computer has mapped out three routes. We can’t start in Cary, because it would be to0 easy to miss him, but we can start at the next major city on each of the three routes.”
Peter tapped his keyboard and soon three live feeds of bus station waiting rooms were displayed on the big screen. “There will be a team in each of these waiting rooms. When the computer spots our killer, we’ll relay that information to the team there, who will arrest him.”
Taylor downed the last of his beer. “It sounds too damn easy to me. You’ve placed a lot of faith in that computer – a lot more than I have.”
Blake emitted a grunt. “If you have a better plan, I’m all ears.”
Tony walked over to the bar and got a beer. “We do like we have always done. We wait for the next murder and then we chase the S.O.B. until we catch him.”
Taylor objected to that: “We’re hoping to end the killing by catching him before he kills again. However, if that fails, we will chase the S.O.B. until we catch him!”
Tony raised his beer into the air. “That’s a plan I can get behind.”
Blake signaled for quiet. “With Bobby Lee gone, we’re down a man. I don’t want to bring new people on board right in the middle of this case, so Shelley,” Blake said, addressing her, “Taylor will be teaming up with you, and, Mary, you and I will be the third team.”
Mary couldn’t stop her head from shaking nervously. “I don’t go into the field! You promised I wouldn’t be going into the field!”
Blake shook his head. “I didn’t promise anything. I said your talent was better used here than in the field. But now I need you to go with me. We need Peter here with the computer or I’d take him.”
Mary mouthed something under her breath, then blurted out, “Does Ms. Warner know you’re going back into the field? She said she would fire you and close down the unit before she would let you work out of the office again.”
Blake stood up. “The party is over. Everybody go home and have a good weekend. I’ll see you Monday morning, when we’ll all be assigned the cities we’ll be stationed in. Also, to answer Mary’s question: this is the killer of Ms. Warner’s son. Everybody will be expected to pull his or her weight in this case…and I mean everybody.”
Tony was heading to the door when Blake called him back. “Tony, you can’t be riding that motorcycle. If you’re stopped and they run the V.I.N. number, it would look bad for the entire unit.”
Through a window, Tony could see the Indian parked outside, and a tear almost came to his eye. “It doesn’t have a V.I.N. number. It has a government identification number.”
Blake’s eyes got large as he started in disbelief at his brother. “Wow, I wonder how many red flags that would set off. Park it in the kitchen until we come up with a plan to deal with it.”
Tony looked around and realized Wayne was gone. “I don’t have any other ride.”
Blake patted him on the back. “Bring the bike inside. You can come and spend the weekend at the lake with me. We’ll get drunk, cook out, and fish for two days.”
Tony called Wayne and told him where he would be. After picking up steaks, two bottles of booze, a case of beer, and junk food, he and Blake headed to Arkabutla Lake.
In a short time, they were down by the water’s edge kicked back in a couple of Adirondack chairs. Their poles were stuck in the ground and both of them were nursing beers when company suddenly arrived.
Wayne had spread the word that there was a cookout party at Blake’s. Peter and Mary declined, but Wayne and Taylor and Shelley had come prepared with cooler, piles of food, and lawn chairs. The quiet weekend was over before it had started.
| Copyright © 2019, 2020 by Ed Rogers |
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