King spoke again. “You’re telling me that an assistant director of the FBI is a serial killer?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you, Dave. Are your people looking for Shelley yet?”
“That’s my call, and I’m not convinced,” King said.
Stone looked at his watch. “She could already be out of the District,” he said. “How long are you going to wait?”
Holly came back into the room. “My people are on it.” She went to Stone’s computer and logged on to the CIA mainframe. “Well, well, look at this,” she said, pushing back from the laptop so the others could see.
Stone and King walked to the computer and watched.
Holly pointed. “We’ve got Sutherlin’s, Kirby’s, and Shelley’s phones at the same point, across the river in Arlington, headed south.”
“They’re all in the same handbag, Dave, and pretty soon Shelley is going to realize that, and she’ll get rid of the phones. You need to catch her while they’re in her possession.”
King stared at the moving display for a moment, then he took out his own phone and made a call. “This is Dave King,” he said. “I want every agent in D.C. and northern Virginia looking for Assistant Director Shelley Bach on a charge of murder. She’s in a silver BMW SUV, in Arlington right now, headed south. When she’s apprehended, it’s very important that you confiscate her handbag immediately. Alert local PDs in the area, as well. Call me immediately when she has been apprehended.” He looked at Stone. “You better be right about this.”
“You better be right about it, too,” Stone said, “or she’ll be gone.”
Holly spoke up. “Uh-oh,” she said.
“What?” Stone asked.
“The cell phones are splitting up. Shelley’s still moving, but the other two have stopped. She’s ditched them.” Holly zoomed in and got a street address.
King got back on the phone. “There are at least two cell phones that have been discarded near this address.” He recited the street and number. “I want every trash can and dumpster near there searched, and when found, the phones are to be treated as evidence.”
They all watched the screen, and a moment later, Shelley’s phone disappeared from it.
“Now she’s ditched her own phone,” Holly said, “or removed the SIM card. Shelley Bach is now wild in the country.”
“Oh, shit,” Dave King said.
“She’s going to ditch her car, too,” Stone said, “if she’s thinking clearly.”
“She is,” Holly said. “She’s over the panic now-ditching the phones shows us that.”
Dino spoke up. “Let’s hope she’s winging it,” he said, “because if she has a plan, we’re fucked.”
“What kind of plan?” Dave King asked.
“Does she have a country place?” Dino asked. “Does she own another car?”
King got back on his phone and started issuing orders again.
“She’s had time to think about this,” Holly said. “If she’s really smart, and I think she is, she has a plan. She has a bolt-hole, and maybe another car, too, not registered in her name. Dave, you should find out who her friends are. If I’m wrong about the bolt-hole, she might go to someone for help.”
King nodded, still talking on the phone.
It was nearly midnight before Dave King and his partner left the suite. There had beenAv>
no further sign of Shelley Bach.
Shortly after he left, the phone rang, and Stone picked it up.
“Hello?”
“This is the White House operator,” a woman’s voice said. “Will you speak to the president?”
“Of course,” Stone said. He heard a click.
“Stone?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Please put Dino on an extension.”
“Yes, sir. Dino, pick up the bedroom phone. Holly, get the other one. Mr. President, we’re all here.”
“Good.”
“I’m on the phone, too,” Kate Lee said.
“I’ve heard from Kerry Smith what’s going on,” the president said.
“We’ve been brought fully up to date,” Kate interjected.
“We both want to thank you for sticking with this until it was resolved,” the president said. “At least, it will be when Shelley Bach is caught.”
“Dino and I jumped to conclusions the last time we all spoke,” Stone said, “and I want to apologize for that.”
“We’ve known Shelley Bach for some years,” the president said, “and of course we’re shocked. The media have already got wind of this, and the press office here is getting calls. I wanted you to know that. I’d appreciate it if you’d refer any questions to Kerry Smith. They’re stunned over there, but it’s their case now, and they should be seen to be handling it.”
“We will refer questions to the FBI with pleasure, Mr. President, and we’ll be out of here tomorrow morning.”
“Have a good flight back, then, and if you’re in Washington again before we’re done here, come and have dinner with us.”
“We’d like that, Mr. President.”
“Good night to you all,” the president said.
“Good night,” Kate echoed. “And, Holly, come and see me first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Holly said, but they had already hung up.
Dino and Holly came into the living room.
“I don’t know about you two,” Stone said, “but I’m exhausted.”
“Then come to bed,” Holly said, heading for the bedroom.
“I guess I’m sleeping alone tonight,” Dino said.
55
Teddy set down his cessna at Manassas airport well after midnight, then taxied to the FBO, which was dark. Everything, including the tower, was closed.
He went to the luggage compartment, got out a case, took the things he needed, then put the case back and locked the compartment. He removed the passenger door from the rear seat and rehung it on the airframe, then locked the airplane.
He went to the FBO door and inspected it for alarm sensors, then he shone a very bright flashlight around the walls, looking for an alarm box. Finding none, he took a set of lockpicks from his pocket and made quick work of opening the door. Inside, he went to the rental car desk and checked the keys hanginb="2em">
He unlocked the rear door of the FBO from the inside and stepped into the parking lot, then he unlocked a Toyota Camry, got in, and started it. A moment later he was on his way to an apartment development a fifteen-minute drive from CIA headquarters.
It was easy enough to find, since there was a large sign at the untended gate offering two- and four-bedroom town houses for rent, furnished or unfurnished. He parked two doors down from Todd Bacon’s house, slipped plastic booties on over his shoes, and, using his flashlight sparingly, walked between the two nearest houses to what would be backyards when the landscaping was developed. The ground was dry. He checked the two houses as he moved along, looking for signs of alarm systems, but he saw none. Bacon’s house would be alarmed only if he had installed the system himself, and he was unlikely to have done that for a rental.
Teddy circumnavigated Bacon’s house, figured out where the ground-floor master bedroom was, then decided that the best way in was the front door. He slipped out of his shoes and booties on the lawn next to the front walk and continued in his stocking feet. On the front porch, he stopped and prepared the materials he had brought with him. The moon gave him all the light he needed.
He donned latex gloves and picked the front door lock easily-it was right out of a hardware store-and let himself into the front hall, silently closing the door behind him. He stopped in the entrance hall for a full minute, listening for signs of life in the house. A faint snore came from the direction of the master bedroom, down the hallway. He walked slowly down the hall, the silenced gun held out in front of him, took a quick look through the open bedroom door, then jerked his head back and reviewed what he had seen.
Todd Bacon lay on his back, on the left side of the bed, snoring with each breath. The bedroom was flooded with moonlight. Teddy removed the small plastic hypodermic from his shirt pocket, uncapped it, put the cap into his trousers pocket, then clenched the instrument in his teeth. He walked softly into the bedroom, around the bed, and stopped next to the sleeping man. He took the hypodermic from his mouth, bent over until his lips were near Bacon’s ear, then poked the silencer hard against his temple. “Freeze!” he said. “Not a move, not an eyelash.”