THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

On the drive back to their motel in Dallas, Deakin flipped through all the high school annuals he’d found in the boxes his grandfather had brought. Just before they’d driven away, Wayne had pulled a notebook from his pocket and handed it to Deakin.
“These are all the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the family. When I get back home, I’m going to call them all and tell them about you. That way, you can call any of us if you ever need any help. At the back is a list of Alex’s friends. Fran told me some of the names and I asked my other sons too. I don’t know where any of these people are now but they might could help you.”
Then Wayne pulled out a small pocket camera and stepped back from Deakin. He took four or five quick shots of the boy and a few shots of Deakin and Eden together.
“I can’t walk away from here without something, Deakin. If I never see you again, at least I’ll have a few pictures to help me remember.”
Deakin walked up to the elderly man and put his arms around him. “Thanks for everything, Wayne. I am so glad we found you and you didn’t chase us away. Don’t worry about us. Eden and I can take care of ourselves and we’ll get back to you when we can.”
Then he walked quickly to the car so Wayne wouldn’t see the tears in his eyes. Eden kissed Wayne on his cheek and whispered in his ear.
“We’ll be all right, really we will. We probably won’t call until this is all over. We don’t want anyone connecting us with your family. It’s enough for Deakin to know he does have someone to belong to. Take care.”
Eden jumped into the car with Deakin and drove out of the small town. Deakin had leaned into the small backseat and pulled open one of the boxes. Dust filled the inside of the car and Eden opened all the windows.
“Well, we know where those boxes have been for the last fifteen years. Garage dust is definitely nasty stuff. What’s in there?”
A muffled voice answered her. “Books, mostly. Down at the bottom are some spiral notebooks full of handwritten equations. It’ll take some time to go through those. The school annuals aren’t in this box. I’m opening the other box. Get ready for another blast of dust.”
Surprisingly, this box had been dusted. The top book had been cleaned but the rest of the box was covered in soft brown dust. Deakin picked it up and read the title of the book. It was a hardback copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. He flipped through the pages and money fell into his lap. He went through the book page by page and came up with fifty twenty-dollar bills. Eden glanced at the money in his lap and asked,
“Present from your grandfather?”
Deakin nodded without looking at her face and stuck the money into the glove box. The next book held pictures of the Kimbrough family. He flipped through the recent ones and studied the older ones taken when the children had been younger. Deakin picked out several pictures of his father. Names and dates had been written on the backs of all the pictures. He put them all aside for later and reached into the box again. This time he pulled out a high school annual and opened it where a piece of paper marked a page. The same picture of his father looked out from a host of other pictures. The piece of paper said only “Alex’s senior year.” Deakin opened his grandfather’s notebook and read through the list of Alex’s friends. He looked each one up in the book and studied each picture. Then he read all the notes written by his classmates. Some of them were nothing more than children’s poetry on the order of “Alex and Dana sitting in a tree”. Dana’s name had not appeared on the list in the notebook. Deakin searched through the book one more time and found the picture of a studious brown-haired girl named Dana Sterling. At the back of the book, he also found a page of neat writing signed by Dana. It didn’t make much sense to him but Eden might understand it. Deakin added her name to the list and looked for messages from the other names.
“These names probably don’t mean anything. If they knew something and they still lived in town, then something would have filtered back to my grandparents. We’ll keep the list but I don’t see any reason to call them now.”
Eden nodded in agreement and drove swiftly and carefully through the thick traffic. She wove from lane to lane and constantly checked her rearview mirrors. She finally pulled into the parking lot of their new motel and scanned the cars already parked. She left Deakin in the car while she checked their room. Then she leaned over the railing and waved him upstairs. He brought the two boxes with him and dumped them on the floor. Eden quickly emptied them while Deakin worked his magic on the Internet. She sorted the books into categories and flipped through the pages of each one. The math books all had notations in the margins but none of them made any sense to Eden.
After a time she realized she was the only one making any noise in the room and she glanced at Deakin. He sat totally still and stared at the small screen of the computer. She quietly crawled across the floor and knelt next to his chair. Her eyes were on a level with the keyboard and she looked up to read the words on the screen. After the first few words, her brain shut down and she had to shake her head to make it work again. Then she started over at the top.
Helena Rimchova Kimbrough – born in former Soviet Union – sent to UCLA in 1978 to study mathematics under Dr. Evan Phillips – still seems to be at UCLA - Also part of group working with Dr. Phillips – Andy Yang, Mala Goswami, Alex Kimbrough, Marianne Wolfe, Daniel Rivers, and Dr. Gretchen Falk
Dr. Phillips still at UCLA – Yang at Los Alamos – Goswami now called Allen and is head of math dept at Stanford – Kimbrough in New York - no mention of Rivers anywhere – will keep looking
Wolfe at UChicago – Falk retired and writing textbooks – lives in Sedona, AZ
More info as soon as possible

Eden reached up with one finger and saved the information. She typed in a two-word question and sent it back. “Which Kimbrough?” Then she closed the connection and stood up. She reached over Deakin’s shoulder and searched for the UCLA website. She entered her student id # and waited impatiently for the entire website to download. Deakin slowly came to life and his fingers took over for Eden’s. He clicked on the icon for faculty and leaned back to wait.
“I didn’t know you went to UCLA. What’re you studying?”
“It doesn’t matter. I was getting ready to change anyway.”
“Come on, Eden, tell me.”
“Okay, I was planning to be a lawyer. I have since decided I’d rather be just about anything but a lawyer. I guess that’s why I decided to come with you. It put off that decision for another day or maybe even another life. Thanks, Deakin. You really came to my rescue too.”
Deakin shot her a quick smile and scrolled down the faculty list. He easily found Dr. Evan Phillips but there was no listing for a Kimbrough or a Rimchova. He then scrolled through the entire faculty of the math department looking for an Alex or Helena. No luck there either.
“I’m sure your friend has already checked this list out. He’s still trying to find out more. Let’s not give anyone our address just yet. Let’s skip talking to your ex-father. I think we should head west again. Sedona is only a couple of hours north of Phoenix. We could talk to this Dr. Falk who lives there. Maybe she can give us some help.”
Deakin looked back at Eden and watched her repack the books into the boxes. “Okay, but leave those spiral notebooks out. I want to look at them again.”
Eden nodded and shoved the boxes closer to the door. “What do we do with these boxes?”
“Take them with us. We can’t just throw them away, you know. Do we leave now or in the morning?”
“Early in the morning. We need a good night’s sleep.”
Deakin returned to the screen of the computer and checked to see if more information had arrived. He sat at the keyboard of the small computer most of the night. When he realized it was after 5:00, he shut down the computer and took a long shower. Then he sat in a chair and watched Eden sleep until the alarm sounded at 6:00.
She returned from the shower and found him sitting in the same chair. “What’s happened? Did you get some more news?”
He nodded his head and stood up. He gathered up the boxes of books and carried them out the door. He had already stowed them in the small trunk when Eden carried down the rest of their luggage. Deakin stowed the computer in the back seat and curled himself up in the passenger seat while Eden turned in the keys and paid for their room. Then she drove slowly through the parking lot and out to the nearest highway. Traffic was already thick and moving slowly but she made it through before any traffic jams stopped them from leaving town. She passed quite a few restaurants but she told her stomach to keep quiet. Deakin slept in the seat next to her until she decided she was starving and pulled into a Denny’s in Waco. She’d been driving for two hours and needed a pit stop too. She poked Deakin awake and prodded him in the direction of the restaurant’s front door. He peeled off to the restroom and left her to get a table.
They ate their eggs and pancakes in silence and left as soon as they’d finished. When Eden walked up to the car, Deakin sat in the driver’s seat so she walked around the car and got in. “I’m awake now and I would like to drive for a while. I promise I’ll be careful. Anyway, I need the practice.”
Eden watched him closely as he drove onto the highway and then relaxed when he settled into a smooth speed slightly under the speed limit. After a boring thirty minutes of farmland flashing past her window, Eden slipped into an uneasy doze. She woke when the car slowed down and Deakin pulled into a roadside park.
“Where are we? What time is it?”
“Don’t worry, Eden, there’s nothing wrong with the car. I just thought of something important I need to do. You want to get out and walk around a little while I power up the computer?”
Eden opened her door but then a frown creased her forehead. “Are you trying to get rid of me? Is there something you don’t want me to know?”
“Well, yes, there is. You’re going to have to know sometime though. My friend is acting kinda weird. He keeps blowing me off and not answering any of my messages.”
“Maybe he’s mad at you ‘cos you left town or something like that. Or maybe he’s too busy to answer you. Or he could be leaving town too. Did you ever think of that?”
Deakin slowly shook his head. “Alden never leaves his place. The other bandits bring him food and stuff but he never leaves. And he’s never off-line. He’s been connected 24/7 for the last two years at least. That’s how long I’ve known about him.”
“Who are the bandits? How does the boss bandit make money if he doesn’t have a job?”
“I never said he didn’t have a job. He has lots of them. He’s a sort of detective agency and he searches for people. Just like he’s been doing for my parents. He charges other people tons of money to sift through the government’s computer files. That’s why he calls his guys ‘bandits.’ They sneak in and steal information without getting caught.”
“Why is he doing it for you? How much is it costing you?”
“I already paid him. I had to work for him for a year before he’d do it. I ran all his errands and collected the money he made. In return, he gave me a place to stay, a computer to use, and the eventual use of his contacts. It was a trade I was happy to make.”
“Did the man in the alley who was hitting you have anything to do with this Alden?”
“Oh, no, that was Joey. He was mad at me ‘cos I wouldn’t ever trick for him? He thinks he could make a lot of money off me. Usually I don’t go to that part of town just because of Joey. I had just delivered an envelope to one of Alden’s customers and Joey showed up.”
All this time, Deakin had been clicking the keys on the computer but there was no answer from his friend Alden.
“Maybe he’s mad at you. You did disappear without a word. Did you run off with some of his money?”
Deakin shook his head. “No, I was delivering, not picking up when Joey showed up. Anyway, I’m not the only guy who lives with Alden. There are at least three or four bandits hanging around his place. After we stop in Arizona, I need to get back to LA. I’m worried about Alden.”