In Hot Pursuit Read online

  “Do you know if he has reached out to his mother?” Bowles asked. “He knows we are closing in on him, he may have tried to contact her.”

  “The FBI interviewed her several times. They have searched her home too. Poor woman! She hasn’t spoken to him in almost two years, she says.”

  “Do you believe her?”

  “There’s no reason for her to lie. She is out of the country at the moment, on an extended vacation to the south of Italy. I think that’s where her family is from originally.”

  “Do you think we can reach out to her to help bring him in?”

  “We have thought about doing that, Agent Bowles, but I don’t think his mother has much influence over him. They grew apart when she remarried. He wasn’t happy that she was moving on. Her new husband has been in two accidents since then. Thank God he survived them. Now, I’m beginning to think that Mr. Raybourne had something to do with it.”

  “What about his past relationships?” Bowles shut the file.

  “He doesn’t seem to have had many of those. It says here that Mr. Raybourne was

  somewhat of a loner. But there seemed to have been one girl he favored.” Dr. Bailey read through the profile again.

  Bowles face lit up. “Is she around? Maybe he has been in touch with her.”

  “No. She died in a car accident right around the time his mother remarried. They were living together; probably planning on getting married themselves. Her death hit him hard. He turned rogue soon after.”

  “I guessed he felt he didn’t have a purpose,” Earnes added. “Do you think that was what pushed him over the edge?”

  “I doubt it, Agent Earnes. I think Mr. Raybourne had his plan all along. The young

  woman’s death just changed his timetable. He had been carrying around all that anger, hate and blame for a very long time.”

  Dr. Bailey joined them shortly after.

  “Were you able to find anything more about the suspect we flew in, Doc?” Director Nilsson asked.

  “As a matter of fact, I did.” All eyes went to him. “His neck was broken, as you suspected, Agent Bowles, and not from the force of the clothes around his neck. Someone snapped it.” Dr. Bailey handed the file to Director Nilsson. “We got those off his body. They were done in invisible ink, and unnoticeable to the naked eye.”

  Director Nilsson went over the file. He passed it over to Earnes and Bowles after. They took out the blown up pages and looked at them.

  “They are a bunch of numbers and letters,” Earnes remarked.

  “It’s like we are reading pages of a spy novel.” Bowles corrected him. “His entire body is covered with writings, or whatever they are—his stomach, back, legs and inner arms. This must have taken days, if not weeks to do. It was a painstaking job. There are numbers tattooed on his tongue and the inside of his cheeks, as well. Some of the numbers are in sequence. Have you been able to figure out what they mean?” she asked Dr. Bailey.

  “Our team is still working to decipher them. Everything there is in Persian and Arabic, but mostly Persian. I recognized some of the scientific tables. Some of it is definitely a formula of some sorts,” Dr. Bailey informed them. “The rest could be phone numbers and bank accounts. We have people working round the clock to figure them out.”

  “Persian?” Agent Bowles knitted her brow. “Iran!”

  “Seems like it to me.” Dr. Bailey told her.

  “I hope it’s not a formula for an atomic bomb. They have enough nuclear weapon to make one.” Earnes joked.

  “Very funny, Agent Earnes, but this is far from being a joking matter.” Dr. Bailey scolded him lightly. “This appears to be a very serious matter.”

  “He’s supposed to be from Libya—if I can recall, they don’t speak Persian there.” Earnes sounded just as bewildered as the rest of them.

  Director Nilsson leaned his elbows onto the desk. “Unless,” He knitted his thick brow. “He was in charge of delivering some sort of message to someone here. They could have been using him as a pigeon. Let’s hope that there was only one of them.”

  All eyes went to Director Nilsson. “Do you think that there were more of them?” Bowles asked, trying hard not to think of the gravity of the situation at hand.

  “They never use just one.” Director Nilsson told them with certainty. “There is always more not far behind, or ahead. Maybe that guy was the final piece of the puzzle, who knows. We have to look into the possibility that whatever is written on his body is only part of it. We should question Al-Bishi again. He must know something. I wouldn’t object to water boarding—if it would get him to talk. We can’t consider politics or what’s wrong or right here. We are at war. We have to use whatever means possible to protect ourselves, and our allies. We have to get answers from Mr. Al-Bishi, and we have to get them fast. We need Al-Bishi to tell us everything he knows”

  “I totally agree, Director. I have a theory that Mr. Al-Bishi decided to jump ship at the last minute because he wasn’t on board for whatever Mr. Raybourne commissioned him to do. My guess is that it’s something extremely ruinous and dangerous. He seems like a reasonable man to me. He has been showing some form of

  remorse.” Dr. Bailey informed them.

  “If you are right about Mr. Al-Bishi, Dr. Bailey, then he should have no problem telling us what we want to know. This entire thing is beginning to look and sound more and more dangerous as it’s uncovered.”

  “Do you think they are planning on blowing up something?” Bowles speculated. “Iran is on our list for sponsoring terrorism. What if they are using some of their scientists? Israel was fearful of the exact thing happening for a while. That’s why they were targeting their scientists. ’’

  “That is a huge possibility.” Dr Nilsson pushed himself back into the chair and gave them a grave look. “We have to find out what they are planning and stop them. We have a lot of work to do. None of us are getting any sleep until we catch Raybourne,” he told them frankly. “Thanks heavens we brought that guy’s body back here. We wouldn’t have known about any of this if we hadn’t.”

  Dr. Bailey nodded in agreement. “He would have disappeared from the morgue without a trace if we had left him there. Someone was certainly after him. They wanted him dead or alive.”

  “The Vincentian Government didn’t object when we asked to have him. I think they owed us that much, considering the debacle with the passports. They weren’t eager to ruin the good relations we have with them. And we were able to make several arrests, going on the information the guy provided you, Agent Bowles. They arrested a couple of immigration officers there. It’s obvious that they were in it for the money. They had no idea what they had unleashed. They thought they were handing out passports to people who had been rejected for a US visa. They were clueless that some of them were terrorists. It was a sophisticated scam, going all the way back to the US embassy in Trinidad. Now we have to figure out how many more passports came out of the embassy there, and who they were issued to. It’s going to be a painstaking job, but we aren’t going to rest until we recover every last one of those passports.” Director Nilsson was direct.

  “No wonder they wanted the guy dead. Do you know who did it?” Bowles was curious. She had been fuming when she left the island, thinking that Agent Ferguson had had a hand in the guy’s murder.

  “A couple of police officers were in on it,” Director Nilsson told them. “My guess is they distracted Agent Ferguson so he wouldn’t be around when they did it. Then they went back and broke the guy’s neck and staged the murder to make it looked like a suicide. They didn’t want to take the chance of him start naming names. They were trying to save their own skins!”

  There was relieved on Bowles’ face. She guessed she owed Agent Ferguson an apology.

  “Well, I’m glad they got them,” Bowles added. “I’m surprised they think the would

  get away with it.”

  Director Nilsson agreed. He decided to sum it up a step further.

  “They kill
ed the guy to shut him up. They thought that would have been the end of it—an accused terrorist overcame with guilt, killing himself in an island jail to escape having to face his punishment. I guess that’s what the idiots wanted us to believe! They had no idea what that murder would unleash— what he was worth to Raybourne, and to us.”

  Chapter 10

  “Your partner is the mole. I suspected it all along. I should have asked for his badge and gun a long time ago! The FBI is on their way to his house to arrest him, as we speak.”

  She understood why Director Nilsson was enraged. They had all defended Earnes, even when the evidence kept mounting against him, well, at least she did. She had never seen Director Nilsson this angry.

  “No wonder Raybourne evaded us for this long. With Agent Earnes assisting him, we had very little, if any chance of catching him. He was always a ahead of us.”

  She decided to remain calm. Deep down, she was still convinced that Earnes wasn’t guilty. How could he be? Earnes had been risking his own life to catch Raybourne, and he had come close to dying more than a few times. And if that wasn’t true dedictaton, then she didn’t know what was! She must agree that something wasn’t quite right about the entire picture—something was missing. And she was going to find it.

  “Is it possible that he was set up, sir? Raybourne could have singled him Earnes out.” She really wanted Earnes to be innocent.

  Director seemed annoyed with her.

  “Not possible, Agent Bowles!” he told her firmly.

  “I thought the investigation was an ongoing one.”

  “We concluded it yesterday. Our findings were very conclusive! All the evidence point to one person and one person only—Agent Earnes!”

  That was certainly news to her. No one had bothered to tell her that her partner had been found guilty of betraying his team and colluding with the enemy. It would have helped to know!

  “Earnes was caught read handed. Forensics traced a number of his calls to a house in Manhattan. It was one of the residences Raybourne had been using. His access code was used on one of our secured servers. Information was downloaded that would have benefited Raybourne greatly. And we were able to trace two bank accounts in the Caymans that were opened in Earnes’ name less than a year ago. A substantial amount of money was deposited into those accounts, twice, as recently as two months ago. The evidence is stacking up against him, Agent Bowles. There’s no doubt that he is guilty as sin!”

  There seemed to be some pleasure in Director Nilsson’s voice. It was like he wanted it to be Earnes.

  She still wasn’t convinced.

  “Couldn’t it all be circumstantial, sir? Raybourne has the money and resources to

  pay people to set Earnes up for the fall. He has been targeting us from day one.”

  She could see that Director Nilsson was getting frustrated with her line of questions.

  “Not likely! And why would he target Agent Earnes for this—why not you or Agent Henderick? We didn’t just jump the guns here, Agent Bowles. We did a very thorough investigation. There is no way Agent Earnes was frame for those things. He did them. And he did them willingly!”

  “I just can’t see Earnes doing something like this, and especially not for the money.

  He’s committed to his job. He doesn’t cut corners, and he wouldn’t do it for a scumbag like Raybourne.” Bowles allowed herself to stare off in the distance. “Maybe Raybourne was threatening his family.”

  “Not likely.”

  “How can you be sure, sir?”

  “Because we looked at all possible angles, including that one—nothing came up. Earnes and his wife are in the process of divorcing. His entire family is safe and sound. We spoke to them.”

  “I still don’t get it! None of this seems like Earnes.”

  “What can I say, Agent Bowles, money makes people do very strange things—very strange things, indeed! There was over a million dollars in those two accounts. He was paid well for whatever he gave Raybourne. You are being assigned a new

  partner.”

  “A new partner?” She hadn’t thought that far ahead.

  “Yes, as of Monday. This investigation is still going on. What Agent Earnes did

  isn’t going to stop it. I should have followed my gut feeling all along and kicked him off the team when I began to suspect him. Putting off that decision could have caused us Raybourne. Who knows if he hasn’t already made his way to Russia! It’s where all the cowards and traitors go to hide out!”

  “Didn’t the FBI profilers agree that Raybourne will most likely stick around? He still has ties in the city, his mother, for one, and he enjoys taunting us.”

  “His trail has run cold. We haven’t picked up anything on him since. We have no idea where he is, and what he is doing. He seems to have disappeared into thin air.”

  “He could be keeping a low profile for a reason, sir.”

  “It’s not in his sick nature! He’s a show off—he likes to bait us.”

  The phone on the desk rang. “Excuse me,” Director Nilsson told her in a rushed voice, and leaned over to answer the call.

  He appeared agitated as he spoke into the mouthpiece. He pounded his fist on the

  desk seconds into the call. He turned to stare at her, and she couldn’t help noticing the twitching in his left eye as he barked a number of questions into the phone. He ended the call abruptly, and swung back around in his chair.

  “That was the FBI!” he told her in a firm voice. “Earnes escaped!” He sounded

  livid. “He wasn’t at the house when they burst in. No one was there. His wife moved

  back to Montana a couple weeks ago. They think he knew they were coming and took

  off. Did you have anything to do with it, Agent Bowles?”

  His searching eyes bore deep into hers.

  She felt offended that he would even harbor such an outrageous idea about her. She still considered Earnes a friend, well, until she proved otherwise, but she would never jeopardize her job or her career to help him in that way.

  “No, sir.” She met his eyes. “I had no idea that there was a warrant out for Earnes’ arrest. I wasn’t aware that you were about to bring him in until you mentioned it.”

  “So, you have no idea where he might be?”

  He still wasn’t letting up.

  “No, sir.”

  “You are positive?”

  “Yes, sir?”

  Director Nilsson backed off. “I have to ask, you are his partner. I know you are close. I just figure he might have told you something, or reach out to you.”

  “I haven’t spoken to him since yesterday. We are close, sir, but it doesn’t mean that I will interfere or impede an investigation where he’s concerned.”

  “If Earnes is working for Raybourne, I have to warn you that there’s a possibility he might be coming after you too. You have to watch your back.”

  “I will, sir. Is that all?”

  She decided there was no need to tell him about the gun she had taken from the

  dead guy at her house

  Director Nilsson seemed distracted. “Yes, yes, you may go.”

  She got up and left.

  This latest development had certainly complicated things for her. Now she was beginning to think that Earnes mightn’t be the person she’d thought he was all along. She realized she couldn’t support him anymore. Giving him the benefit of the doubt shit was out the door, as of now. There were far too many coincidences. She just couldn’t turn a blind eye to what was before her.

  She stepped out into the hall and placed a call to Mark, and asked him to speed up the tests on the gun. If Earnes was working for Raybourne, as Director and the others seemed to think, then she had to be ready for him. She would have absolutely no qualms killing him.

  Chapter 11

  “Agent Bowles, you have a new haircut! I like your old one better. But this one is still lovely. It brings out the color of your beautiful green eyes. It’s sexy! Jean-Paul an
d his team did a remarkable job! The three hundred and sixty-five dollars, plus tip, was worth every penny!”

  Bowles felt a sudden chill run down her spine. She shuddered slightly, despite the warm morning sun. She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, trying hard not to make a sound into the phone as she did. She didn’t want him to know that he was getting to her. She could feel her heart racing beneath her blouse. She clenched her left fist, and took another deep breath. This immense wave of emotions she was experiencing wasn’t out of fear—it was more of an adrenaline rush. She probably should be alarmed that he knew so much about her, but strangely, she didn’t. She had bigger fish to fry with him.

  “Who is this?” She held the phone close to her ears, and tried to get back into the car.

  “Tsk! Tsk! I’m disappointed—very disappointed, Agent Bowles! Have you forgotten me already? I haven’t been gone that long.”

  She unlocked the car and slipped back into the driver’s seat. She reached into her

  bag for her work phone and texted Marcy: “Try to get a trace on this call—I’m on my personal cell. I think Raybourne is on the other end.” She pressed send and returned the work issued phone on the top of her bag. She waited for Marcy to text her back. The text came in less than a minute after. “Keep him on the phone as long as you can. We might be able to track his location.”

  She glanced at the message.

  “Where did you get this number?”

  “You know that’s confidential. I don’t give out my sources.” He sounded coy, as always.

  “You have the wrong number—I’m hanging up.” She was calling bluff on this one. She hoped he didn’t see right through it and allowed her to end the call.

  “I don’t think you want to do that, Agent Bowles,” he told her quickly before she could hang up.

  “And why not—I have no plans of spending my time talking to some random guy who just happened to call my number by mistake.”

  “Come on, Agent Bowles. You don’t really think that I’m buying that little annoyed act of yours, do you? You know fully well that I’m not some random guy who came across your number by mistake.”