Unfinished Business, page 18
part #17 of Sam Prichard Series
“You said get him down,” Summer said. “I take it you’re worried Gabby might decide to take him out, as well?”
“As soon as she realizes we're coming after her, she's going to want to eliminate any possible witnesses against her. That includes Hickam, and I don’t know who all else. If she gets away, we may play hell getting Hickam to stand trial alive, and we may never be able to nail Jackie Bridges.”
“Jackie? Is she involved in this, too?”
“At this point, all I can say is that it looks that way. For some reason, she's here in New York City, and I sent Denny to try to locate her and figure out what’s going on. It’s beginning to look like she might have been involved with Linden in this thing, and might even be in contact with Hickam. If she were to approach Hickam while you are with him, she's bound to recognize you instantly.”
“If she gets that close, I'm taking her down. I'll have to shut her up before she can say anything to Ben. Don’t worry, though, I can do it without killing her.”
“Yes, but how will you explain turning her over to us? That might cause your prisoner to be a little suspicious, don’t you think?”
“Oh, he won’t know,” Summer said. “I'll just knock her cold and stuff her somewhere, then text you where to pick her up. Trust me, Sam, I can handle it.”
“Okay, I don’t have a lot of choice, anyway. Just watch your back, that’s all I'm saying. Call me if you learn anything more, okay?”
“You know I will. Later.”
She ended the call and stepped out of the bathroom, then laid down beside Hickam. She was tired, and a good night’s sleep was exactly what she needed.
* * * * *
Denny had grabbed his luggage before he left the Marriott, but he had to make a couple of stops before he went to the Hamilton. He drove to the mall Bridget had taken him to and used the same fifth floor walkway to go to the Best Buy store.
A half hour later, armed with new gadgets, he got back to his car and resumed the trip. It took him another half hour to get back to the hotels close to the airport, and then he parked the car in the Hamilton’s parking lot.
He walked into the Hamilton Inn and asked for a room, specifying that he would like to be on the sixth floor. He was handed the key to room 610, then made his way up the elevator and carried his bags inside. He laid them on the bed and then opened the Best Buy bag, retrieving a small device that he carried back to the open door and stuck to its frame.
It was a miniature, motion activated video camera, and it transmitted its image to his cell phone. He aimed it at the door to room 604, then closed his door and went back inside. He kicked off his shoes, laid back on the bed, and waited until the camera signaled motion had been detected.
On the video screen of his phone, he saw a man walk down the hall and into the room across from the one he was watching. He went back to waiting, laying the phone on his chest as he did so. Whenever the camera detected motion, the phone would vibrate, so he relaxed as he waited.
An hour later, after several more people had walked through the hall, he finally saw what he was looking for. A woman who looked like the photo he been shown of Jackie Bridges, but with blonde hair, walked up the hall and stopped at 604. Since she was not carrying a purse, Denny suspected she had simply been down to the restaurant in the lobby for dinner, and kicked himself for not checking there before he came up. She inserted a key card and entered the room, and Denny got off the bed, slipping his shoes back on.
From the same bag, he withdrew two other devices. One of them was actually considered a toy, but it worked, and that was all Denny cared about. He walked out his own door and down to room 604, where he knelt down as if to retie his shoe. As he did so, he inserted the head of the little flexible camera under the door and watched its display.
The woman he had seen was lying on the bed in the room, with her feet dangling off and one arm over her eyes. She appeared to be alone, so he quickly retracted the camera and then pulled the other item out of his pocket. It was also considered a toy, but again, it was one that would do what it was intended to do. A thin, flat item that was two inches long and less than a quarter inch thick, it was designed to be placed somewhere out of sight. Denny pulled off the strip of paper covering the adhesive on its back, slipped it quickly under the door and pressed it to the bottom. There was enough clearance to let it stay there even when the door was opened over the carpet.
It was a micro transmitter, a bug. It was designed for kids who wanted to spy on their siblings, but it worked on Bluetooth technology and had a range of nearly thirty-five feet. Denny got up and went back to his room, took out his phone, and turned on its Bluetooth. It took him only a couple of seconds to locate and pair with the bug, and then he could listen to everything that happened inside room 604.
Which was nothing. From the lack of sound, Denny decided that the woman must be still lying on the bed, so he kicked his shoes back off and got comfortable again.
Fifteen minutes later, he heard the hotel phone ring in 604. He sat up and paid attention as the woman answered the phone.
“Hello? Yes, it’s about time you called. Where have you been, anyway? Well, at least you are here. I'll let you know if I need you for anything. Until then, just stay put.”
She slammed the phone down into its cradle and Denny could hear her humming to herself.
That was an odd call, Denny thought. It definitely makes it sound like she knows something.
He picked up his phone and called Sam.
“Mate,” he said, “I found her, right enough. I'm just down the hall, where I can keep an eye on her. I managed to slip a bug under her door, and just overheard a phone call. Someone rang her, and it sounded like she was telling them to wait until she gets in touch with them about something.”
“Could you tell who it was?” Sam asked. “She might have been talking to Hickam, or possibly even to Gabby. I think we can safely say she's involved in this, somewhere, anyway.”
“Exactly what I thought. How do you want me to play this, Sam?”
“For the moment,” Sam said, “just watch and let me know if she goes anywhere. Follow her if you can, but try not to spook her.”
“Listen, mate, she won’t even see me. I'll keep you posted.”
He cut off the call and sat back, then picked up the remote and turned on the television. He relaxed for a while with a couple of TV programs. He had plugged in his phone to keep it charged while he listened for any activity on the bug, but Jackie was being quiet. He could hear the television in her own room, and grinned when he realized she was watching the same program he was.
Unfortunately, that’s what kept him from noticing when the bug went silent. At about nine, his phone vibrated, and he glanced at the screen to see that Jackie was leaving her room once again. He noticed that she didn’t have a handbag this time, either, so he quickly slipped his shoes on and walked out his own door.
She was waiting for the elevator by the time he got there, so he smiled and nodded, but said nothing. When it opened, he followed her inside and rode down to the lobby, and then started walking toward where the lounge and restaurant were. He let her get a little ahead and then followed as she entered the lounge.
She took a seat at the bar, and Denny took one a few stools away. He could see her easily in the mirror behind the bar, but made a show of paying attention to the redhead that was sitting on the opposite end. Jackie didn’t seem to be paying any attention to him, so he ordered a beer and continued to watch the redhead.
Jackie had ordered a margarita, and seemed to be enjoying it. A man sat on the stool beside hers and tried to strike up a conversation, but she brushed him off politely, claiming that she was waiting for someone. He grinned and moved away, and Denny felt sure that no secret messages had passed between the two of them.
The redhead got up and left, and Denny looked around the bar for someone else to pretend to focus on, but suddenly found himself eye to eye with Jackie. She gave him a slight smile, and he shot one back. When she glanced down at the stool beside her, he took it as an invitation and moved over.
“I don’t think she was your type,” Jackie said. “She looked pretty snooty.”
“Ah, well, snooty is not necessarily a bad thing,” Denny said.
“Oh, you are English?” Jackie asked. “I love your accent.”
“I was born over there,” he said, “but I'm a naturalized American, now. I'm Raymond Wellington.” He extended a hand, and she took it.
“Carolyn Sanders,” Jackie said. “What brings you to New York, Mr. Wellington?”
Denny caught the fake name, but didn’t let any sign of surprise show in his face. “Visiting my mother,” he lied smoothly. “She has a bit of dementia, I’m afraid, and is a resident of an institution in Manhattan. She doesn’t always know who I am, but I feel I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least try.”
Jackie clucked at him. “I'm sorry, that’s so sad,” she said. “I take it there’s no hope for her to get better?”
“No, I’m afraid not. It’s an insidious disease, and doesn’t let go once it gets a hold. She’ll only deteriorate from here on out, but there is still an occasional spark of my old mum in there.”
“Then you are a good son. If I ever had any kids, I would’ve hoped for one like you.” She smiled.
“That is kind,” Denny said. “And you? What dragged you in to the Big Apple?”
“I'm here on business,” Jackie said. “Negotiating a merger between a couple of companies.”
“A negotiator? Sounds like an interesting line of work.”
She grinned at him. “It definitely has its moments,” she said. “Most of the time, though, it’s just sitting around and waiting for someone to do something.”
“Well, forgive me, but that sounds a bit boring. Of course, I don’t have a lot of room to talk. I'm really a procurement clerk for a lumberyard in Newark.”
“Oh, so you could save me money if I needed to build a house?” Jackie gave him a bright smile.
“Well, I could,” Denny said, “provided you want to buy a truckload of everything at once. I’m afraid I deal in large quantities.”
Jackie pursed her lips and looked at him coquettishly. “So, Raymond,” she began, “how did a man who was born in England end up working at a lumberyard in Jersey?”
“It was all because of Mum,” he replied. “Back before she began to fade away, she wanted to come live in the States, so I came along. I started out working as a helper in the yard, and worked my way up.”
“That is actually pretty sweet,” Jackie said. “You left everything you knew, just to be with your mother?”
Denny shrugged. “Well, I’m about all she’s got. Dad passed when I was a lad, and it was just me and Mum. I never knew why, but she always wanted to live over here. We came across on a ship and settled there in Newark, and we just never left.” He rolled his eyes. “Thank my lucky stars I got the job I’ve got,” he went on. “Without that insurance, I’d still be trying to take care of her at home. Let me tell you, that was turning into a nightmare toward the end.”
Jackie’s phone rang at that moment, and she looked at it for a moment before answering.
“Hello? Yes, I got the message. What, now? Well, I suppose I could, if it’s that important. All right, I'll be there in an hour.” She cut off the call and looked at Denny. “Well, it was nice meeting you, Raymond,” she said, “but I’m afraid I’ve got to run. Seems one side of our negotiation might be up to something I need to nip in the bud.”
“Really? Nothing serious, I hope?”
She grinned, and Denny suddenly felt like he was looking into the jaws of death.
“Nothing I can’t put straight pretty quickly. Maybe I'll see you again while you are here. If not, then hope your mom is okay.”
She turned and left, and Denny suddenly wondered if he’d been speaking to the right woman. Jade had described Jackie as being meek and nervous, but this woman struck Denny as a stone cold killer.
14
“Sam Prichard,” Sam said as he answered his phone. “Denny?”
“Sure is, mate,” Denny said. “Listen, I sort of accidentally made contact with the subject, and I'm wondering if I've got the right person. Is Jade handy?”
“Yes, she's here,” Sam said. “You’re on speaker, go ahead.”
“Jade, love, listening to you describe Ms. Bridges, I got the impression she was a bit of a mouse. Was I mistaken?”
Jade’s eyebrows went up. “No, that’s the way she seemed,” she said. “Of course, there’s no telling how much of it was an act. If she's honestly tied up in this thing, I would imagine she was doing a lot of it just for my benefit.”
“Well, tell me this,” Denny went on. “Did anyone do an actual background check on her? Because the woman I've been talking to for the last few minutes is anything but a mouse. A tiger, perhaps, maybe even something more ferocious, but definitely not a mouse.”
Sam looked up at Jade, and she shook her head. “I only went by what was in her personnel file at Web Wide Awards,” she said. “It never occurred to me to run her background at all.”
“Denny, I'll correct that oversight right now,” Sam said. “Are you keeping her in sight?”
“At the moment, I'm following the taxi cab she climbed into,” Denny replied. “I had followed her down to the lounge, and she struck up a conversation with me. We were just talking about nonsense, when she got a call from someone who apparently needed her to come take care of a problem right away. Sam, she told me her name is Carolyn Sanders, and said she's in the city to arrange a merger between two corporations. I don’t know about you, but my gut started doing flip-flops.”
“Yeah,” Sam said. “Mine’s doing a few somersaults of its own. Let me get a background on her and I'll get back to you.”
Sam cut off the call and looked up at Ken. “Do you think there’s any possibility…”
“Run that background,” Ken said. “That is where you start, obviously.”
Sam dialed Indie and put the phone back on speaker so everyone could hear.
“Hey, babe,” Indie said.
“Baby, this is business,” Sam said. “I need you to run as detailed a background check as you can on Jackie Bridges. Everything you can possibly tell me about her. How long will that take?”
“Well, I can give you the basics within a few minutes,” she replied. “Hang on, I just sat down at the computer. I still got a copy of her personnel file, so there’s her social. Feeding all this into Herman now, and I just turned him loose. Shouldn’t be…”
Herman chimed, and then chimed again. Indie took a look at the links that were appearing on her screen, clicking them one by one.
“Okay, Sam? I have a feeling you were already onto this, but Jackie Bridges had absolutely no impact on the world around her until about a year ago. According to her birth certificate and driver’s license, she's in her late thirties, but there is absolutely no record of her other than that before this time last year. Interestingly, that’s when she started working for Web Wide Awards. She’s got two kids, a boy and a girl, seventeen and sixteen respectively.” There was a brief pause. “Sam? I'm looking at a picture of her and her kids, and those young’uns do not look like teenagers to me. I mean, I guess they could be, but to me they look more like early twenties. The girl is a blonde, and the boy seems to like shaving his head.”
“Good grief,” Sam said. “Okay, thanks, babe. That helps a lot, and I'll get back to you in a bit.”
“Sam,” Indie said. “I just checked some of the stuff I got for you earlier, about Gabby? Sam, there aren’t any photos of Gabby, but there’s a couple of descriptions from police officers who are pretty sure they’ve encountered her. Jackie Bridges would fit that description to a T. And she bought three tickets to New York, not just one.”
“Yeah, that’s what I'm thinking,” Sam said. “Is it possible they were planning this operation all the way back to a year ago? That’s the only thing that fits, if she really is Gabby.”
“Sam—just be careful. I love you, call me later when you can.”
“I will. Bye, sweetheart.” Sam cut off the call and looked up at Ken. “I feel like the biggest kind of idiot,” he said.
“Don’t, Sam,” Ken said. “You’re dealing with an absolute professional, here. She was probably sent into deep cover, just to act as a backup for Reynard. Now that he's gone, she's stepping up to the plate.”
“I'm trying to figure out how we can be certain,” Sam said. “She has no idea we're onto her, we could take her down now.”
“You heard your wife,” Ken said. “Jackie bought three tickets. Those so-called kids of hers are probably just another pair of their trainees. We could take her down, but we need to find them, as well.”
“Well, they can’t be too far away,” Sam said. “She's going to want them nearby, where she can put them to work if she needs them.”
He turned to Jade. “You’re a bit of a hacker yourself, right?”
She grinned. “I'm not up to your wife’s caliber,” she said, “but I'm pretty fair. What have you got in mind?”
“Can you get into the Hamilton’s computers, find out if there are any guests that fit the description of the two younger people? Jackie’s kids?”
“I can try, but I’m not sure.”
“Then call Indie and have her do it,” Sam said. “If we can locate them, we can go ahead and move on them all. I would love…”
Sam’s phone rang again suddenly, and he saw that it was Denny calling. “Denny?”
“Sam, I'm following our mystery lady,” Denny said, “and the cab is pulling up to the Westchester Hotel. I think she might be going to see Hickam.”
“Thanks, Denny,” Sam said, and he cut off the call instantly. He dialed Summer’s number and paced limpingly around the room until she answered a few seconds later.
“Hello?” She put an exasperated sound into her voice.
“It’s Sam,” he said quickly. “Gabby is Jackie, and she's pulling up at your hotel right now. We don’t know if she's coming to see him or not, but if she spots you, things are going to get bad.”
