Bug Out! Part 12: RV Alliance (16 page)

“Altercation?” Malcolm asked.

“Yeah,” Chief Hanson said. “Cindy took that Class C away from her ex in the divorce. It was his pride and joy. He was here trying to hot wire it. Drew called us.”

“Might have something to do with the beating,” Ted said.

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Chief Hanson said “This guy was a real hot head. His friends on the force tried to get him hired more than once, but I vetoed it. I was getting ready to revoke his certification for reserve officer. Wish I wouldn’t have dragged my feet on that.”

“Why did you?” Agent William asked.

“The war,” Chief Hanson said. “We didn’t know how bad it would get. I figured we should keep all the resources we could. The jerk
could
shoot pretty well.”

“Understandable,” Malcolm said. “Think there’s a cross reference between RV spaces and units?”

“Yes, because it drives a discount,” Delson said. “The problem will be logging onto the system.” He hit the spacebar.

“Shit,” Agent Williams said, looking at the screen lock. “Look in the drawers. Maybe the password is written down somewhere.”

“On it,” Delson said, opening drawers and picking through them.

“Mind if we walk around?” Malcolm asked. “Maybe he left a hand truck lying around or something.”

“Go ahead,” Delson said, “but I’ll need more than just proximity to cut off any padlocks. I could get sued big time. Not going there.”

“Okay,” Agent Williams said. “Let’s go.” He followed Malcolm and Ted into the yard, as Chief Hanson and Delson searched the office.

“Let’s take a look at the wagon,” Malcolm said. “Maybe he left something behind.”

They walked over to it. “This thing is in pretty good shape for a mid-80s station wagon,” Ted said.

“Scott got it with the house,” Agent Williams said. “Belonged to the old lady who died there. Probably sat in the garage for years.”

Malcolm tried the tailgate. “Locked.”

“Go in through the windshield,” Ted said.

“You mean break it?” Malcolm asked.

“Oh, it’s already broken,” Agent Williams said. “We think the ex-husband broke it when he went to Cindy’s house.”

Ted knocked glass away from the driver’s side edge and reached in to pull on the door handle. He got to it, barely. The door opened, the dome light coming on.

“Got it,” he said. “Have to crawl around to get the other doors. This thing doesn’t have power locks.”

“Wait!” Malcolm said. “We need to shine some good light in here before we crawl around.”

“Yeah, Malcolm, you’re right,” Agent Williams said. “I’ll go see if they have a decent flashlight in the office.”

“We can get started with our cell phone lights,” Malcolm said, pulling his out and switching it on. He peered into the driver’s side window as he shined it inside. “Look, slip of paper next to the driver’s seat.” He reached in for it. “Address.”

Agent Williams ran back out with two large flashlights. “Find something?”

“Slip of paper,” Malcolm said. He handed it to Agent Williams.

“That’s Cindy’s address,” he said.

“Oh,” Malcolm said. He looked back in. “Nothing else in the front.” He reached for the rear door’s lock and pulled it up, then backed out of the driver’s seat.

Ted opened the door and pointed a flashlight in. “Looks clean. I’ll get the passenger side door unlocked.” He shimmied in and pulled up the door lock. Agent Williams rushed over and opened the door. Something fell out onto the ground.

“What’s that?” Malcolm asked.

“Pop-tart wrapper,” Agent Williams said. He smelled it. “Recent.”

“Back seat looks pretty clean,” Malcolm said. He got on the seat and looked in the back. “Hold it!”

“See something?”

“That looks like blood, see? In the shape of a crate, perhaps?”

“Son of a bitch,” Agent Williams said. “Yeah, close this up. We’ll get the lab guys out here.”

“What are you thinking?” Ted asked. “Another victim?”

“Nah,” Malcolm said. “It’ll be blood from Agent Keith and that parolee who got cut up back at Scott’s house.”

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Agent Williams said. “Easy to check out.” They walked towards the three-story building.

“If they stopped the crate in front of a storage door, we might have something,” Malcolm said.

“Yeah,” Agent Williams said. “If the blood matches. I texted Simone and Weiss. They’re lining up the lab guys now.”

“Good,” Malcolm said. “We should be careful how we walk in there. Don’t want to disturb any evidence.”

“Right,” Ted said.

They went into the double doors. There were stairs on the right. They walked past those, to an intersection with the main hallway. Metal rollup doors populated both walls, to the right and left of the entry hallway.

“Look, there’s a hand truck,” Agent Williams said, pointing to the right. They walked over slowly, looking at the floor in front of them and the hand truck.

“Don’t see traces on this,” Malcolm said.

“Elevator,” Ted said. “Shall we?”

Malcolm nodded and pushed the button. The whir of the elevator motor started as the cab approached. The doors slid open. Malcolm stuck his foot in front of the door, and they shined all of their lights in.

“Looks like more residue,” Ted said, squatting in front of the door.

“Don’t go in,” Malcolm said. “Let the lab guys check it first. Let’s go up the stairs and check at the elevator doors on the next two floors.”

“Yeah, if that’s what we think it is, we just eliminated the first floor,” Agent Williams said.

They walked back towards the incoming hallway and took the stairs.

“Hey, look!” Ted said, pointing at the landing floor for the 2
^nd
story. “Is that a pop-tart wrapper?”

“Holy shit,” Agent Williams said, walking slowly over and squatting. “Sure is.”

“Let’s be careful when we’re walking the halls up here,” Malcolm said.

They went through the door into the access hallway, then onto the main hallway, turning right. They slowed down as they got to the elevator.

“Stop!” Malcolm said.

“What?” Ted asked.

“Look,” he said, pointing at the floor. “Along the wall, there.”

“I see it,” Agent Williams said.

“Doesn’t look like a long stream,” Ted said, creeping towards the elevator. “Oh, wait, there’s another bit of it.”

Malcolm and Agent Williams approached, looking down.

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Malcolm said, squatting to get a closer look.

“More here by the elevator,” Agent Williams said. “Looks like he used a dolly instead of that big hand truck.”

“The dolly’s probably in his unit,” Malcolm said. “The traces are intermittent. Hard to tell which unit it is from these.”

“Luminol,” Ted said. “We can use that. It’ll detect traces we can’t see.”

“The lab guys will have some,” Agent Williams said. “Let’s try to follow it down the hall, but go slowly. Tread lightly.”

They turned and walked back towards where they found the spot against the wall.

“Wonder how many residents have been here since the event?” Malcolm asked.

“Could they get in without an attendant?” Ted asked.

“Yeah,” Malcolm said. “The sign said 24 hour access. I’ll bet they can get in with a card or a code through that gate up front.”

“Oh,” Ted said. “Yeah, makes sense.”

“I’m not seeing any more traces,” Agent Williams said.

Ted went backwards, to the spot. “Closest unit is 210.”

“Noted,” Malcolm said, punching it into the notes app on his phone.

“We might as well go back to the office,” Agent Williams said.

“How long until the lab guys get here?” Ted asked.

“Not long,” he replied.

They went slowly back to the stairs, speeding up after they got outside. When they got back to the office, Delson and Chief Hanson were leaning against the front counter.

“Any luck?” Agent Williams asked.

“No,” Delson said. “You?”

“Yeah, we found traces of blood in the back of that station wagon and in the building,” Agent Williams said.

“Where in the building?” Chief Hanson asked.

“In the elevator and on the second floor,” Agent Williams said.

“Well, at least we have it narrowed down to the floor,” Chief Hanson said. “How many units on the second floor?”

“Hundred and sixty,” Delson said.

“Shit,” Ted said. “That’s a lot.”

Headlights shined into the office as a black SUV parked in the lot.

“Who’s that?” Delson asked.

“FBI lab boys,” Agent Williams said. “I want them to check out the blood spots in the station wagon and in the building, to make sure they match.”

“We suspect that it’ll match blood at Scott’s house,” Ted said. “Be nice to know.”

“They can use luminol to pinpoint our unit,” Chief Hanson said.

“Hopefully,” Agent Williams said.

The door opened, and two men in white lab coats walked in with plastic equipment boxes. “Agent Williams?” the first one asked.

“Right here, gentlemen,” Agent Williams said. “Thanks for making the trip so late. Follow me.” He led them out to the station wagon. Ted and Malcolm followed.

***

It was dark, the Colorado night air settling over the park like a cool sheet. Frank and Jane were both sitting at the dinette, laptops open, on either side of the table. Mr. Wonderful sauntered over and sat on the bench next to Frank, purring and rubbing against him. Lucy noticed and pranced over, getting on her hind legs and looking at Jane.

“All right, girl, come on up,” Jane said, sliding further toward the wall to make room. Lucy jumped up and put her head on Jane’s leg as she continued to focus on the screen.

“Seeing anything?” Frank asked.

“I haven’t gotten past the conspiracy pages yet,” Jane said. “Looks to me like somebody is censoring this. There’s nothing from the mainstream sources, and we know a lot of people have witnessed the UN by now.”

“Maybe we’re in one of the few places the UN is operating,” Frank said.

“You think we’re safe here?” Jane asked.

“No. I’m going call George now. Ask him to get with Sam Hinton. Then maybe we should sleep in shifts, in case we have to leave in the dead of night.”

“It’s almost nine now,” June said. “Ever hear back from General Hogan?”

“No,” Frank said. “It’s been a few hours. Another reason to call.”

“If anything really bad has happened, we would have gotten a call from somebody,” Jane said.

“I hope so,” Frank said. He pulled out his cellphone and hit George’s contact, then frowned.

“What’s the matter?” Jane asked.

“No answer,” Frank said. “Went straight to voice mail. I’m afraid to leave a message.”

“Try General Hogan.”

“Yeah,” Frank said. He punched that contact and waited until it went to voice mail.

“Oh, no,” Jane said. “Can’t get him, either?”

“Nope. Could be the cell tower, you know. They had some weather this morning.”

“Wish we still had army radios,” Jane said.

“I know, me too,” Frank said.

“Apps still work?” Jane asked.

Frank loaded it and looked. “Yeah, still working. Still seeing the icons in the detention areas.”

“Looks like the long-range detail app is still working too,” Jane said, staring at her laptop screen.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Frank got up, sending Mr. Wonderful scurrying away. He looked out the window. “It’s Jerry,” he said as he opened the door.

“Sorry to bother you so late,” Jerry said. “I can’t reach the park.”

“Neither can we,” Frank said. “Seems like a cell tower issue to me.”

“Yeah,” Jerry said. “Jasmine’s on the phone with Rosie right now. No problems getting there, at least.”

“I’ll try Gabe,” Frank said. He punched his contact and put it on speaker.

“Frank,” Gabe said. “Was just going to call. Can you reach the RV Park?”

“Nope,” Frank said. “That’s why I’m calling.”

“Crap,” Gabe said. “Hope everything’s okay.”

“You and me both,” Frank said. “You’re on speaker. Jane and Jerry are in here.”

“And Jasmine,” she said as she walked in. “No dice?”

“Nope, honey,” Jerry said.

“What do we do?” Gabe asked.

“I don’t know,” Frank said. “Where are you guys?”

“We’re at a park just west of Indianapolis, waiting on Malcolm and Ted,” Gabe said.

“What are they doing?” Jerry said.

“They’re checking out that storage yard with the FBI,” Gabe said.

“I’ll see if I can conference Malcolm in,” Frank said. He picked up his phone and set it up. It rang.

“Frank? Something wrong?”

“I’ve got you on a conference call with Gabe. Jerry, Jasmine, and Jane are with me in my coach, on speaker.”

“Uh oh, what’s going on?” Malcolm asked.

“None of us can raise anybody at home.”

“Shit,” Malcolm said. “For how long?”

“Well, I talked to General Hogan early in the evening, while the fire-fight with the UN was going on.”

“You guys got into it with the UN?” Malcolm asked. Delson shot a worried glance at him.

“Yeah, at an RV Park in Grand Junction,” Frank said.

“I take it you won,” Malcolm asked.

“Yeah, with the help of about thirty others there. Another group like ours, organized by General Walker.”

“Wow,” Malcolm said. “George said he thought there were others.”

“We’re not sure what to do. You have an alternate way to get to George?”

“I can have Ted put something in his secure drop box, but he won’t get it without cell coverage,” Malcolm said. “Wonder if the whole town is down, or just the RV Park.”

“Now that Howard’s gone, we don’t know anybody there,” Frank said.

“Yes we do,” Gabe said. “Just a minute. Let me put it on speaker.”

“Okay,” Frank said.

“Still hear me?” Gabe asked.

“Yeah,” Frank said. “You were saying?”

“Hey, Dobie, you have the number for that RV shop you got your hitch installed at?”

“Yeah,” Dobie said. “It’s gonna be closed now, though. It’s late.”

“Was it a land line?” Malcolm asked.

“Yeah,” Dobie said. “See your point. I’ll call right now and see if it rings.”

“He’s trying now,” Dobie said.

“There’s a better number to call,” Malcolm said. “I’ll have Ted call the local police. He called them before we attacked Sherry in town. Somebody will be at the police station, I’m sure.”