THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

Walt Rogers abruptly turned away from the closed faces of his two colleagues. He realized he was teetering on the edge of insane rage. He’d just chewed Sven and Harris out for not reading his mind. He pasted a blatantly false smile on his red face and turned slowly back to the two men.
“Hey, guys, I’m sorry I jumped your asses about letting these people get away. I’m a little tense and something else is bothering me right now. Give me a phone. I think something’s wrong with mine.”
Walt punched in the number of his cell phone and listened to the sound of ringing. The phone in his other hand neither rang nor vibrated. Walt leaned back to throw the phone out into the middle of the parking lot but Harris snatched it just before Walt threw it. He slid it into his pocket and said,
“Maybe it can be traced. I’ll turn it in soon. When was it switched? That’s the place to start looking.”
Walt nodded grimly and thought hard about his last day. Then he slapped the breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small white business card.
“Lady in the bar at LAX. Drinking wine right next to me. We talked while we waited for our flights. After I landed here, my speed dial wouldn’t work. I just thought the phone was screwed up. It never occurred to me that she’d switched phones on me. I’ll keep your phone for now.”
Walt clapped both men on the shoulder and walked them to their car. Evening was closing in over the city of Chicago and the street lamps left big pools of yellow light along the street. Cars flashed in and out of the bright circles. One of the men shivered in the wind blowing straight off Lake Michigan.
Sven turned up the collar of his coat and asked, “What do we do next, Walt? Check out Dr. Wolfe’s apartment or check out the airports?”
Walt contemplated the shivering men and decided. “Harris, drop that phone off and then try the good doctor’s apartment. If she answers the door, ask her if she’s heard from any of her old friends from the laser project. She’ll probably slam the door in your face, but we’ll know where she is. Sven, you follow me to the office of that scientific journal, okay? I swear that van had something to do with Dr. Wolfe’s disappearance.”
Sven and Harris sketched quick salutes and wheeled around in unison. They drove quickly away from the campus. Walt dropped into the driver’s seat of his car and pulled out the borrowed phone.
“Tom, this is Walt. First, get me a new phone with a new number. Don’t leave any more messages on the other number. Somebody switched phones on me at the LA airport. I took Harris’s phone for now. Second, I need an address for the Journal of Applied Physics, the name of whoever runs it, and his home address. I think he helped the Wolfe woman get away from us. Call Sven and give him the addresses too. Thanks.”
An hour later, Walt studied the front door of a small three-story office building. The lights in the tiny lobby shone out into the darkness. Walt looked down at the floor and walked inside. He raised his eyes fleetingly to read the building directory. Then he took the stairs up to the third floor. Only one office seemed to be occupied at this time of the evening. Walt slipped silently past the door of Lamprey and Morey, Attorneys-at-Law. No lights shone through the frosted glass in the Journal’s door. Walt knocked softly and then pulled a small leather wallet out of his pocket. He selected a thin strip of metal and slid it between the door and the jamb. His fingers worked quickly and the door popped open with a small sigh of escaping air. Walt slid around the door and carefully closed it behind him. He pulled out a penlight and flashed it around. Untidy stacks of bound magazines lined the walls. An old metal desk sat in one corner of the front office next to the door to another room.
With two long strides, Walt grabbed the doorknob. Loud voices and slamming doors sent him swiftly into the relative safety of the back office. He turned off his light and watched several shadows pass the outer door on the way to the elevator. Walt waited for the car to grind its way to the top floor and then start its journey back down before he continued his search of the office.
Within an hour, Walt had gone through two desks and one file cabinet. He was trying to get into the computer files when the knob on the front door slowly turned. The cell phone in his pocket vibrated its signal for an incoming call at the same time. Walt quickly raised it to his ear. A thready whisper drifted out of the phone.
“I’m outside the door. Do I come in?” Walt immediately relaxed and flipped the phone closed. He slipped through the dark office and opened the door just enough for Sven to eel his way inside. Walt plucked at the sleeve of his coat and led him into the back office. Sven dropped into the chair in front of the humming computer monitor and placed his fingers on the keyboard.
Fifteen minutes later, he shut down the system and admitted defeat.
“This guy’s too good, Walt. Without his password, I’m up shit creek. Do we take the whole damn thing with us?” “It depends. Was Dr. Wolfe at her apartment?”
“She yelled at us through the door. I left Harris sitting in the car and came over here. How about this guy’s apartment?”
Walt shook his head. “I called his home phone from here and got his machine. I have the feeling he’s skipped. Tom’s checking the airlines for me. He should have something soon. Let’s get the hell out of here before we get caught.”
Walt and Sven met up with Harris just in time for the message from Tom Adams. They now knew Ian Nelms had just flown to Seattle. They were behind in the chase but maybe not too far behind. Next stop for them, Seattle.

Walt stepped out of the Seattle terminal into a bone-chilling rain. The wind from offshore blew the icy drops directly into his face. He ducked his chin into the upturned collar of his coat and peered at the taxis parked in front of him. Sven and Harris cannoned into his back and pushed him under the freezing waterfall running off the building’s roof. Walt threw them a venomous glare and then marched through the downpour to a black SUV with darkly tinted windows. The other two men slid into the back seat while Walt took the front. The driver resignedly watched them shake water all over the interior. With a stony look on his face, he asked,
“Where to, gentlemen? The office or somewhere else?”
Walt deliberately brushed water off his coat toward the driver and said, “Office, son. We need to get this job done quickly. Pick up speed. We’re playing ‘catch-up’ with these people. We’re a day behind them already.”
The driver slowly joined the long ribbon of traffic leaving the airport. He drove sedately through the heavy traffic and refused to exceed the speed limit.
“No, sir, I will not speed through traffic. Weather conditions require a slower speed to ensure our own safety as well as the safety of those other drivers on the road with us.”
“Who the hell taught you to talk like you’re reading from a manual?”
Walt fussed and fumed and threatened without any visible results. The young man at the wheel readily supplied Walt with his name and badge number, but he refused to drive recklessly through the worsening storm. The cold intensified as night closed in around them and ice crept across the bridges and elevated roadways.
When the vehicle slowed below the mandated speed limit, Walt erupted from his forced silence and shouted into the quiet interior of the car.
“Goddammit, man! Now, you’re going below the speed limit. I could walk faster than you’re driving. What the hell kind of agent are you anyway?”
“A live one, sir. We’ll be at the office in about ten or fifteen minutes.”
Walt jumped out the door of the SUV before it came to a halt and both his feet slid out from under him. His eyes widened as he clutched the door to keep from hitting the icy sidewalk with his butt. Sven and Harris carefully stepped out into the night and stood waiting for Walt to shut his door. Just as he reached in to grab his bag, the driver said,
“Have a nice day!”
Walt slammed the door so hard the car rocked a little before it slipped away from the curb, throwing a spray of icy slush on the legs of the three men. If the water hadn’t been so cold, Walt might have surprised a smile on the faces of the other two men. As it was, he brushed past them roughly and pushed angrily through the building doors. Sven and Harris followed in his wake.
Only one man met them in the after hours gloom of the office. Sven and Harris automatically stepped back as Walt swung off his coat and shook water drops all around the room. A tired-looking man of forty-five looked steadily at Walt and brushed the cold water from his suit without looking away. Then he picked up his cup of coffee with his right hand and glanced at the suspiciously blank faces of Sven and Harris.
“Dennis Lofton, here. And you must be Agent Rogers.”
Walt held out his hand but Agent Lofton raised his coffee cup in greeting instead. A grim look passed over Walt’s face when he realized his hand was shaking air. He covered quickly by running his hand through his damp hair. Then he smiled and said,
“That coffee sure looks good. Can you spare us a cup?”
“Uh, actually, this was the last cup in the pot. We’ll get you some when we get dinner. Now , exactly what do you need from us? I’m in the dark about your little job.”
Walt’s eyebrows snapped down into a thick line across his face. He had never been treated so shabbily in all his years with the government. Most people were frightened of his power and were more than happy to help him in any way, especially if it would get rid of him quickly. Something was happening behind the scenes. He shook off his suspicions and asked,
“What information do you have for us? Were you able to meet Ian Nelms’ plane and follow him? Where did he go? Who else was with him? Where is he now?”
Agent Lofton lifted his cup and drank half his coffee before he set the cup on the desk behind him.
“Why don’t you come to my office and I’ll fill you in with what we have.”
He led them down a short hallway and into a small office with only enough room for a desk and a few chairs. Dennis slid easily into the chair behind the desk while Walt dropped into the chair in front of the desk. Sven and Harris leaned in the doorway, distancing themselves even further from Walt.
“Okay, now we can get down to business. One of our men covered the flight from Chicago. He was just a wee bit late getting there, what with the weather and the traffic, you know. Most of the passengers had already left but he did question the flight attendants. Your man was on board. There may also have been two other people accompanying him or he may just have met them on the plane. Another man – younger, very athletic, thick dark hair, lots of energy. There was a woman also – mid-forties, dark, foreign-looking, very calm. They left the plane in a group. According to the airline, the others were M. G. Allen and Martin Graham. Ah, this seems to mean something to you.
“Now, don’t get too excited. We think your man took a taxi and we’ve had men out inquiring into all the fares picked up at the airport around the time the flight landed. We don’t have anything concrete but we will soon. Maybe by morning we’ll have covered all the cab companies. What are your plans until then?”
Walt jerked out of his chair and paced to the door. He turned back to the man behind the desk and asked,
“Just when exactly will we know about the cabs? Okay, find us a room to sleep in then. This is a goddamned waste of time. We’ll need a driver in the morning. Uh, thanks, uh, Dennis for your help.”

Walt Rogers slept very little and woke up feeling tired and heavy-headed. Three cups of coffee did little to dispel the fuzzy feeling in his head. He felt like he’d lost the whole focus of his search. Everywhere he turned, he ran smack into a brick wall. No one seemed to be on his side. God damn it, he was the good guy. Why did everyone just assume the kid was right and he was wrong? Well, he’d just have to change their minds, wouldn’t he? He looked across the table at the men shoveling eggs down their throats. They obviously didn’t have any trouble sleeping. He irritable waved away the waitress when she swooped by with the coffee pot.
“When the hell are we going to get that information from the cab companies?”
Walt stared blearily through the plate glass window at the slate-gray fog covering the town.
“I hope we don’t have to stay here long. I hate this dreary weather!”
Sven and Harris looked at him in surprise. After a quick look out the window and an almost hidden smile at his partner, Sven said,
“Oh, I kinda like the fog. Everything’s so quiet. It’s like being in your own personal world, you know.”
“Bullshit. That mist out there is just messy. Traffic’ll be all screwed up and nobody’ll be where they’re supposed to be, including our driver.”

Rain began to fall just as their driver pulled up in front of the café. It quickly turned into a cloudburst. The driver drove slowly through town until he pulled up in front of the neat small house belonging to a family named Kirk. No lights shone in the windows so Walt sent Harris through the pouring rain to knock on the door. He also checked the houses on both sides before he dashed back to the car and jumped into the back seat.
“Lady at the house next door says the Kirks both work. She works at a hospital somewhere and he works for some car dealer. She just moved in so she doesn’t know them.”
“Call that prick at the office and get him to check them out. We should already have that information. That stupid shit is going to wish he’d never run into me. Before he knows it, he’s going to be sitting in some hut on the Arctic Circle monitoring weather satellites or maybe even something worse.”
The next time Walt stopped the car, a large hospital loomed through the slashing rain. This time all three men rushed into the building and headed for the administrative offices hidden away behind closed doors. Here he ran into another stumbling block. Nobody really cared who he was or what he wanted. They were all too busy to listen. He finally pinned down a woman who decided the quickest way to get rid of him was to give him what he wanted. She ran the name he gave her through her computer and found his quarry. Marina Kirk was a nurse on the pediatric floor of the hospital and she was actually at work, according to the computer. The woman gave Walt sketchy directions to the correct floor and immediately forgot him.
Walt and his two shadows walked out of the elevator on the correct floor and stopped the first person they ran into. The man waved them down the hall to a counter manned by a busy clerk. There, after a close scrutiny of his identification, the clerk pointed out a small woman with dark hair. She wore brightly patterned scrubs with a matching scarf tied on her hair. She pushed a small wheelchair with a young girl in it along the hall. The girl couldn’t have been more than seven years old. She had wildly curling red hair and the freckles on her face stood out in stark contrast to the pallor of her skin. In spite of her illness, she viewed the world with great humor through large bright brown eyes. These eyes focused on the Walt’s shoes and worked their way up his body to his face. Walt held his identification to the woman behind the wheelchair and smiled knowingly at her gasp of surprise. The child glanced quickly at the other two men and then narrowed her concentration on the man in front of her. He leaned over her head and let loose a quick burst of words into the horrified face of the nurse. The child immediately took the side of her nurse and kicked the man in the shins. Then she screamed loudly while the man grabbed his shin and cursed at her. She almost laughed when the man hopped on one leg and knocked his friend into the wall. The man almost fell down but he recovered his balance and glared at the tiny child. The nurse, Marina Kirk, had time to gather her wits and present a controlled face to the three men.
“What are you doing to the child? She is very ill. You can’t just come in here and bump into her wheelchair. Go away while I take care of her. I don’t know who you are or what you want but you shouldn’t be on this floor. Go away.”
Marina turned the chair around but the man grabbed her arm. She tried to shake him off but he held on and whispered into her ear.
“You’re going to have to talk to me sometime, Ms. Kirk. Do we do it here or do we take you down to our office and talk to you there?”
The nurse cast a frightened look up into the implacable face looming over her and shook her head.
“I have to put Emily back to bed. I can’t leave her in the middle of the hall. Wait by the desk and I’ll join you there in a few minutes.”
Walt released her arm and watched her walk shakily down the hallway. She turned into a door and disappeared from sight. After ten minutes he headed down the hall with Sven and Harris in pursuit. At the door of the child’s room, he heard two voices laughing softly. He glanced quickly inside and saw the nurse holding the child’s hand and smoothing her covers. The tension left his shoulders and he leaned against the wall outside the door. Sven touched his arm and pointed to the elevator. The doors had just opened and two security guards marched purposefully toward the three men. Walt muttered under his breath and stood up as the two guards stopped in front of him.
“Excuse me, sir, but do you have business here in the hospital?”
The two guards held their hands on the guns holstered on their hips and stared straight into his eyes. They tensed up and crouched a little when he made a move toward the inside pocket of his jacket. Walt stopped the movement and said,
“Identification in my pocket.”
One of the guards patted the front of his jacket and then gestured for him to pull out the identification. Walt handed it over and tersely explained his mission. He gestured toward the woman who’d appeared in the doorway. The second guard radioed the information in and waited for a response from his boss. He clicked off the radio and said, calmly,
“Ma’am, if you’ll just come with us down to the security office. You gentlemen can follow us and talk to the captain. We have a room you can use to talk with Ms. Kirk. You know, you should have come to us in the first place.”