John: The Senior Killer (22 page)

The picnic was relaxing and
the creek was still rather high for May. Kids could lie in the
fresh water and let the stream run over their bodies. The creek was
only fifty yards from the Kitchen and when the kids and adults got
cold they would run to the fire and warm up. Brad and Steve were
thinking about other things and even though they were involved in
small talk, all could sense his inner problems. Something was up
and all waited patiently for what was on his mind.

By four in the afternoon
the tide was low enough to walk to the ledge of Fish Rock to check
the crab pot. Brad asked if anyone would like to go with him to
check the crab pot and Wendy, Nancy and agent Jones jumped up like
there was a fire somewhere on their blankets. Walking to the rock,
which was only a hundred yard from Devils Kitchen, a buzz of talk
about what the hell was going on filled the air. Still a cold wind
was blowing from the north and the sun was slowly dipping towards
the horizon out to sea. A bright glaring light reflected on the
tranquil sea making the beach walkers hold their hands above the
eyes lessening the glare. Brad and team jumped onto the ledge
between surges and walked down to near the southern point of the
rock where he had tied off the rope to a piton long ago driven into
a crack above the tide line. Agent Jones asked if he could drag it
in and Brad turned the job over to him. All watched as the pot came
near the ledge and finally brought up to the ledge where a dozen or
more crabs scrambled around inside the wire cage. Brad had given
Wendy a plastic bucket to put the crabs in and he opened the wire
door and reached in what looked like a dangerous thing to do as
large pincers were raised in defense of what they knew as a large
predator invading their space. In no time Brad had thrown back into
the sea the small ones and kept the larger ones placing them in the
plastic bucket. Six adult crabs were carried back to the fire. All
of them including Brad were acting like young kids when they
returned with the crabs. Mike meanwhile had gone to the ocean and
filled up the large pot to boil the crabs in. Billy helped him
carry the heavy pot back to the fire. Brad told them you need salt
water to cook the crabs in. It took a while for the water to boil
and the kids plus Nancy and Wendy played with the crabs taking one
out of the bucket and letting it go to run around trying to get
away with pincers high in the air for protection. Mike took one of
the sticks for cooking marshmallow and showed the neophytes how
strong the pincers were on adult Dungeness crabs.

The water finally came to a
boil as the sun edged closer to the west where it would meet the
sea in about an hour or around seven daylight savings times. Sujin
took out of a bag crab crackers which are like pliers to crack the
tough exoskeleton of the crab. Brad took a long pair of tongs and
after only a five to ten minute boiling the crabs turned red in
color ready for the watering mouth of the expectant eater. Brad led
the way showing how it was done along with Mike who was even
faster. Sujin had melted some butter mixed with onion and garlic to
dip the crab in. Loud praise went around the fire as fresh crab
boiled on the beach with good friends is hard to beat. Julie had
brought a gallon of homemade dark burgundy wine to wash the rich
crab down. When only a pile of shells were left smoldering in the
fire, the picnickers were all slightly on their lips.

As the long red rays of the
sun made the sky red all stood on the beach watching the sunset
singing a song that no one knew the words to. When the sun went to
bed they all cleaned up their mess and slowly walked back to the
Round House and a good night’s sleep. The kids crashed on the floor
with Billy and Mike and Julie took a bedroom for their own. Steve
had his room and agent Jones was left to the sofa downstairs. No
one cared where they slept and come morning there was more than one
headache from the wine and rich crab from the night before. No one
complained and by eight am all were sitting on the floor around the
table drinking tea or coffee, all except Brad and Steve who were
talking at the wood table by the kitchen.

Brad had told Sujin of the
new case about North Korea. Sujin asked him if he thought they were
trying to ease him and his team out of the serial killer case.
“Probably because of the new director wants to prove he can do it
without outside help. He’ll find out the hard way that this guy is
way above average in intelligence and a force to be reckoned with.
I’m not going to worry about it for now. I think John will go to
ground as that last round in Anacortes probably shook him up a
little. Now he will be more careful and it will make him harder to
catch, unless……..,” He paused in his speech thinking and then
continued by saying, “maybe he will think he is
invincible?”

“I like the both of them put
together,” Sujin said

“Yes, I’ll pass this on in
the morning and see what Wendy and the team thinks.”

Back at the kitchen table
Brad told Steve he and his team were in on the Korean
operation.

Billy went out for his
usual two or three cigarette after breakfast smoke and hurried back
in saying to everyone very loudly with an unlit smoke in his lips
to come outside and look at the dog house. Sandy had had her litter
and was still licking one of them as first Sujin looked in with
Brad looking over her shoulder. Three pups were suckling on her as
Rocky sat back and had a nonchalant look about him like, hey guy’s,
what is the big deal here?

Sujin hated the thought of
leaving Sandy alone here, but her sister could and would take very
good care of them. Her husband Lane would stay here while they were
gone along with the old lady. The rest of the team would fly to San
Francisco and from there to Seoul. Steve would go back to
Washington to his office and later fly to Seoul for an update for
Brad and his team.

At about the same time as
they were looking at the new pups, in Vancouver BC John, aka Alex
sat at the airport waiting for his flight to Toronto. He was
followed he knew that and didn’t much care. In Toronto, where he
had spent a lot of time in his job as a makeup artist while filming
more movies than he cared to remember, he would lose his tail and
cross in Chicago and back to his old haunt in Wenatchee to regroup
and make a plan for the future. He would, he decided take some time
off and enjoy the summer in and around the Wenatchee area. For now,
at least, he had to figure out a plan to ditch these guys and that
would not be easy as they were on to him about his many disguises.
The call to his plane broke his thinking and he picked up his only
bag, carried it on the plane and left for Toronto.

Back on the Oregon coast,
Brad and Sujin made ready for their trip to Asia. Nancy reluctantly
packed her bag for the flight to Seattle. Steve would drive her to
the airport and he would fly back to Washington DC. Billy, Wendy,
and agent Jones would follow Brad while he made arrangements for
staying in Seoul. No more than a week would pass before they left
for Seoul. Meanwhile they would do the research on the Koreas,
China and Russia. Wendy would do profiles on Kim, Jung in and the
Chinese leaders. A lot of information was needed to make the
project successful, such as economics, political, and military and
profiles done on all the power behind the scenes. South Korea was
still sending aid to the North and seemed, by the current
president, to ignore the signs of military buildup by the North.
The recent test firing of missiles rocked the free world and if
North Korea went nuclear, an arms race was imminent. Japan would
reconsider its constitution with a stockpile of plutonium from all
of their nuclear power plants to make a bomb. The same could be
said for South Korea. Back in the nineteen seventies America leaned
on South Korea to stop their plan to go nuclear assuring the
country America could protect the peninsula with its strong
presence in the region. However, that was more than thirty years
ago and now with North Korea knocking on the door, South Korea
would have to seriously think about protecting itself.

Then there was Taiwan and
its big brother China with the economic climb of exponential
dimensions of risk from a potential conflict in the region. None of
this was classified information as Brad thought about Asia. Anyone
could find this information on the WWW. Brad listened to his
headphones to music as they rode first class to Seoul. He was
formulating a plan and he was struggling with the notion of Sujin
so close to the volatile conflict that like a volcano building up
pressure and once the pressure could not be contained, an eruption
occurs.

Also he thought how
political this operation was. He would gather the intelligence and
the politicians would play football with the results. Threats,
sanctions, frozen assets, and if China cut off the flow of oil and
gas to North Korea, North Korea would have few options but to ally
itself to the Middle East offering nuclear support for oil.
Countries like Iran would gladly exchange oil for nuclear knowledge
of making a bomb. God, Brad thought, what a mess the world is
getting into. The Cold War all over again and the arms race would
be on like the Kentucky Derby. Billions of dollars would be spent
and where would the money come from? Space would be a busy place
like a rush hour freeway hurry to be the first home to have a space
station or a permanent place on the moon. He shut his mind off and
along with the music he fell asleep.

John Mitchell was in his
room at the Toronto Hilton. He had a plan. He laughed when he
thought about it: so simple, yet effective. He would trade places
with the guy who brought him room service. The only problem was
finding a waiter that was his size. Age made no difference to him
as he could use his make up to look twenty if necessary.

The first night after
checking in he ordered dinner. He quizzed the guy with weather talk
and his job. It was not hard to learn his schedule for the week and
in particular for the next day or two. After checking this one out,
later he ordered some dessert. The dinner guy had possibilities,
but the young kid for dessert was a no going. In the morning he
ordered breakfast and this guy was forty something; and had the
seniority to work the day shift. Perfect, he thought. Some knock
out pills and he was home free. As John was of average build, the
day shift guy had a beer belly and that would work well for John as
he could fit his makeup kit and a change of disguise once he left
the men’s room in the lobby.

The hotel management was
aware of the watch on the guest named Alex Windslow. The joint
watch of the room was done by the FBI and the equivalent in Canada.
John knew from the room service people that the authorities always
looked under the cart as if he was going to escape hiding under the
stupid cart. What dummies, he thought.

The next morning he invited
the room service guy for a cup of coffee and at first he refused,
but then, he thought and said later, this guy was so nice and a big
tipper he took the drug laden cup and a short few minutes later he
landed on the floor in a heap. John caught the cup of coffee before
it hit the rug and quickly made the appropriate make up to fit the
room service man. Dressed in his disguise he pushed the cart out
the door leaving the guy in the room to wake up in his shorts and
undershirt. John even took his socks he said later to the laughing
hotel staff down in the basement kitchen.

It was a breeze as the FBI
man checked under the cart and John made for the elevator. He
pushed the cart into a storage linen closet and locked the door on
his way out. Next he found the restroom and quickly changed into
his other clothes but left the original waiter look as he walked
out of the hotel into a bright sunny day in Toronto.

Now, he thought, getting
across the border with his passport as Alex Windslow would be hard
if they ran a check on the computer. This was not good and he
needed to give this some serious thought. He made for the ferry
terminal to see what was available in America across Lake Michigan.
No doubt the authorities were alerted to his passport name and
number. He was sure it would pop up with a red flag as soon as they
entered it into the computer. God, he hated to do it, but maybe he
would have to find an American and steal his passport. Well, he
thought, the Canadians probably will blame the murder on the States
serial killer the loss of one more would not affect the balance of
the population age bracket, he decided to overdose a likely
prospect and take his passport and apply the appropriate disguise
and fly to wherever the guy’s home was.

John found a medium priced
hotel just off the business district. At noon, after he checked in
under an assumed name with cash, he went to the bar to see if any
heavy drinkers were there and American. His luck held at a
convention of salesmen from St. Louis marketing dental supplies
were drinking lunch. John perused the gathering and when he spotted
a table with only three and a fourth chair vacant, he sidled on
over and introduced himself. The three men were already half in the
bag and it wasn’t long before two left and the lush with a
strawberry nose kept drinking with John. John wasn’t much of a
drinker so when he ordered a gin and tonic he told the waitress to
make it a light one as he lots of work to do before his six o’clock
meeting with his boss.

The conversation took on
the good ole boy talk and when John at about two thirty said he
needed to make a phone call, invited the guy to his room for a
drink from his bar in his suite. The guy jumped at the call for
free drinks and off they went to John’s room. Once situated in the
room, John poured the guy a stiff scotch and dropped enough knock
out pills to lay down an elephant. The pills mixed with alcohol
knocked the guy out for good. John propped him up so he could make
up the face in front of the room’s mirror. Satisfied he took the
guys passport and left him propped up leaning against the bed.
Fingerprints would be taken and the only things he had touched were
the small scotch bottles and one glass. He wiped both clean and
wiped the doorknob clean on both sides. Then he wiped the swipe
card and threw it away once he found an outside trash
can.