The Patrick Bowers Files - 05 - The Queen by Steven James

Author:Steven James [James, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
ISBN: 9780800733032
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2010-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

52

Cassandra joined her team in the basement of the Schoenberg Inn.

Becker, Ted, and Millicent were there, along with the seven team members she’d kept hidden from Chekov.

“As you know,” she began, “the facility has three levels, all underground . . .”

It was possible that Lien-hua’s phone had been compromised, so after making sure the room phone wasn’t bugged, I called Sheriff Tait, brought him up to speed concerning the team’s 9:00 briefing. Then, I phoned Callaway, and right after he answered, Jake showed up at my door. I let him in, and he took a seat near the window.

Callaway hadn’t been able to locate anyone in the area by the name of Kayla Tatum. “I did find out that a Kayla Tatum who lives in Eau Claire didn’t come in for work at the hair salon this morning,” he told me. “Her boss said Miss Tatum didn’t call in sick, just never showed.”

A deep sinking feeling. “Thanks.”

Momentarily after I hung up, Lien-hua and Natasha arrived, and I asked Lien-hua if I could hang on to her phone for the time being. “Just until I get mine back from Sean.”

And until I hear back from Alexei Chekov about a meeting time.

She looked at me oddly. “Sure.”

“All right.” I set her phone on the desk beside me. “What do we know?”

“You were going to tell us why we were searching the motel for Alexei Chekov,” Jake said pointedly.

“In a sec.” Although earlier, while I’d been speaking on the phone with Alexei and then typing up the conversation, there hadn’t been much time for them to work, I said, “Quick update. Tell me what you found.” Being evasive like this wasn’t characteristic of me, and by the looks on their faces I could tell they were surprised, but for the time being they didn’t challenge me.

Natasha went first. “There hasn’t been any chatter regarding terrorist threats concerning our nuclear subs. The DoD is working on the deployment route analysis.”

Jake spoke up. “The profile on Reiser and Basque doesn’t overlap with what we know about Chekov. Lien-hua concurs. Two completely different behavioral and psychological makeups.”

Admittedly the connection had been a long shot.

“We took another look at Reiser’s background, though,” Lien-hua said. “His work history, the locations of the victim residences.” I already knew Reiser had lived in La Crosse, Oshkosh, Superior, and South Chicago before moving to Merrill; some of those locations were near where victims had lived, some were not. She went on, “One of the videos found at his trailer contained news coverage of the murder of Aleste Norkum from WKOW in Madison. But Reiser was living in La Crosse at the time.”

“And we have newspaper clippings from the Rockford Register Star and the Business Courier,” Jake added.

Hmm.

We discussed Reiser briefly, then, switching gears, Lien-hua asked, “Did you set up a visit to the ELF site?”

“Still a few details to nail down.”

“So what about the motel search, Pat?” Natasha cut in. “C’mon. What’s going on?”

It’s time. Let’s see how this goes . .

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