Learning to Drive... Him Crazy (23 page)

Both girls squealed and ran over and hugged
the agent. He looked shocked, and looked at John and 
Cal with a
rather smug look on his face. "Was it this easy for you two to get
hugs from them, too?"

John smiled, thinking back to when they met.
"No, not exactly. She wasn't too happy with me the first time we
met. She was taking her driver's license test, and I failed
her."

"No kidding! You must have passed her the
next time, she's obviously talking to you again."

Chuckling, John said, "Actually, she still
doesn't have her license." He winked at Alana, who was staring at
him now, and added, "But she's ready to take it again. She's ready
to drive now, no doubt in my mind. That's one of the reasons she's
eager to get out from under your control. As soon as she gets her
license, there's a new career waiting for her."

Agent Barstow could see the pride in John's
eyes. It was easy to see how much they meant to each other. "Well,
hopefully we'll have you out of here in a day or two."

"And in the meantime, we have a pool and
exercise room! That should make it a little easier to endure,"
Alana teased. "We'll do our best to cope with it."

They all laughed. John turned to Agent
Barstow and said, "Brad, seriously, thank you for setting this up
for us. We were kidding when we said it, but I won't lie to you, we
will really enjoy it. We're all about to go stir crazy being forced
to stay inside. This will give us a good way to work off that
excess energy. Then we'll go take our frustration out on the
punching bag, and we'll be good again."

"It wasn't a problem, John. This house was
open, so I'm glad you guys said something."

They had gotten to the exercise room, and as
they went inside John said, "Wow. This has everything you'd want
for a good workout."

Cal sat down and tried out one of the weight
machines. "If we could have been here the whole time I would in
shape by now."

Kelli was watching Cal work out, and without
thinking she said, "There's nothing I see that's out of shape."
When everyone turned to look at her, she turned bright red.
"Whoops! Did I really say that out loud?"

They all laughed, but she was a good sport
about it, laughing along with them. Cal went to her and put his arm
around her shoulder, pulling her to him. He gave her a quick kiss
on the tip of her nose. "You sure did. I heard it loud and clear,
Sweetheart."

She groaned. "And he's not going to let me
forget it, either."

Eager to change the subject and end her
embarrassment, Cal asked, "So, anyone feel like a midnight swim
before bed?"

"I'd love that," Alana quickly said. "I know
it's late, but I'm so wound up I know I wouldn't be able to sleep
yet."

"It sounds good to me, too," John
agreed.

They put their things in the bedrooms, again
with the girls feeling better sharing a room, and met at the pool
fifteen minutes later. The guys had already found swim trunks to
fit and changed in the dressing room.

The girls both gasped as they walked into
the pool area and saw John and Cal in swim trunks, their bare
chests looking pretty magnificent. They recovered quickly, though,
and found suits in their size and went to change. Once in the
dressing room Alana quietly said, "Those brothers are two
good-looking guys, aren't they?"

"No argument here," Kelli agreed.

When they went out a couple minutes later
the men did a quick gasp of their own. They, too, recovered
quickly, and after telling their women they look nice in their
suits, they all dove in.

They swam laps. They played tag. They
wrestled, and dove for toys on the floor of the pool. They worked
off the tension and stress from their unplanned vacation. An hour
later, they finally felt like they could get some sleep.

The next morning, they familiarized
themselves with their new home away from home after they had
breakfast. John had become good friends by now with Brad Barstow,
and he asked him about any information they'd learned
overnight.

"We actually got quite a bit from Joe, but
there's a couple things that don't quite fit together yet," he
answered. "Let's go to the office and I'll fill you in."

John followed him in, and once the door was
closed he asked, "Is this room soundproof, too, Brad?"

"It is. That's why I wanted to come here to
talk."

"I thought that might be the case.
Something's up, isn't it? You're worried about the other three
hearing us, aren't you?"

Brad looked at John curiously. "Now, how did
you know that?"

"Just something about how you answered me.
What's going on?"

"I'm impressed, John, that you picked up on
something. I need to hide it better. Okay, here's the thing. He's a
cop, he knows the routine, he knows he's been caught. He told us if
he's going down, the rest of them are, too, and was willing to talk
for a lighter sentence. He named the people involved, and we have
all of them but one. He told us where we'd more than likely find
him, so we have guys on their way there now."

"That's great. I assume your guys asked him
how he knew where we were?"

"They did. He said being a cop, he knew we,
the FBI, would have you put up somewhere in a safe house, so he
started following agents when they left the office. He knew
eventually someone would be going there to talk to you, or deliver
food or something. He said that's why it took several days. He
didn't know which agent, so he followed several before he found the
right house."

"Okay. Did he say anything else?"

"Just that he hated to have to do what he
was going to do because he liked you, but he knew that without the
four of you we didn't have much of a case."

John shook his head and swallowed hard. "And
I thought I knew Joe pretty well." Shaking his head again to clear
his thoughts, he asked, "Any other information your guys got from
him?"

Agent Barstow studied John a minute.
"Information about what?" When John didn't say anything
immediately, Brad said, "I'm curious. Something's bothering you
about this case and I'm wondering what it is."

"To see if it's the same thing that's
bothering you?"

Brad grinned as he confessed, "Exactly. You
know, you'd make a good FBI agent."

"Thank you. And you'd make a good cop."

After a good laugh Brad asked, "So, what's
bothering you about it, and then I'll share my concern."

"I'm still not totally convinced as to their
reason for doing that fake stakeout that first night. I mean, I
know what they said, but it still seems to me like it would have
been easier for them just to knock us all off. That stakeout put
them in the public eye. My gut tells me there was some other reason
for them doing that, but I haven't figured out what that other
reason is. Does that bother you at all?"

"It does. We think a lot alike, John.
There's two things that aren't sitting right with me, and that's
one of them."

"Me, too," John agreed. "I told you one of
my concerns and we both agree on that. Why don't you tell me your
other concern, and see if it's the other open end in my mind."

"Fair enough," Brad said. "I'm questioning
Decker's story as to how he knew you were at that safe house."

"Bingo," John said with a smile. Getting
very serious, he asked, "But if that's not how he found us, how did
he?"

Brad frowned as he said, "I think you've
come to the same conclusion that Lieutenant Berry and I have come
to."

John nodded and asked, "There's a rat in the
FBI?"

"I don't know any other possibility," Brad
agreed.

"Any idea who it could be, or how to find
him?"

"Not exactly, but it's got to be someone
that was here at one time. We're going back over who all has been
here."

"You're sure that whoever it is has been
here?"

"Yes. We don't give out addresses until
after the person leaves. Even then we tell them to turn on this
street, turn on that street, as they're en route. The only ones who
know where they're going when they leave our office are the main
ones in charge. In this case it's Captain Wallace, Lieutenant
Berry, myself and Agents Larry Kline and Ryan Reed. The others that
were here for one shift while someone had a day off, or the one
that delivered groceries the one time, they didn't know where they
were going until they were on the road. We're making a list of all
the people like that, thinking it's got to be one of them."

John said, "Who all do you have on your
list? Maybe I'll remember someone else."

Brad pulled a list from his pocket and
handed it to John. He read it over and said, "Let me think about
it. If I come up with anyone else I'll let you know. Any idea how
you're going to sniff them out?"

"Not yet. Any ideas?"

"Nope, but let me think about that,
too."

Brad nodded. "You know, I'm not used to
having a police officer as a client. It's nice having someone I can
bounce ideas off of."

"Well, I have an obvious interest in the
case. Speaking of that, I have to ask you something I've been
worried about. If someone that's been involved in this leaked the
information to Joe, how safe are we? I'm especially worried about
Alana and Kelli."

"I think you're safe," Brad said, "but I
understand your concern. Lieutenant Berry and I have talked about
it, and the four of us that brought you guys here are the only ones
that will be here. That's myself, Agents Reed and Kline, and Agent
Sheila Livingston."

"She was one of them that was at the other
place."

"She was."

"How about the four in the other decoy cars
last night?"

"They were told where to turn as they got to
the streets. They don't know where you are."

"So the only people who know where we are
would be the four of you and Captain Wallace and Lieutenant
Berry?"

"That's it. That's why I think you're safe.
We're going to keep it to just the six of us this time, and we're
working on a plan to ferret out the rat."

"Good enough. I'll talk to Cal so he can
watch the girls a little closer, but I'll try to remember anyone
else that may have been here."

"I appreciate your help."

The rest of the
day went by quickly for the four friends. They enjoyed the workout
room, and spent more time in the pool before they went to bed
again.

The next morning after breakfast, Alana
wanted some time alone with John, which was fine with him, as well.
He was always up for a little cuddling with the woman who
controlled his heart. Once they were comfortable in the den, with
her cuddled on his lap, she asked, "John, please be honest with me.
Why are we still here? Something's wrong or they would have let us
go home now that they have Joe in custody."

John was a little surprised, but knew he
shouldn't be. Alana was a very intelligent, sharp little lady.
That's why he knew she would make an incredible event planner. She
didn't miss much. "I will be honest with you, honey, always. They
picked up the last person they believe to be involved last night.
The only reason we're still here is they don't feel comfortable
about how Joe knew where we were. Honestly, they're afraid there's
one more person involved, and he's in the FBI, and that's how Joe
knew where we were."

Alana considered his words carefully a
little while. "Didn't you say Joe told them about one more person
that was involved, that the police didn't already have?"

"Yes. He lives and operates out of state.
He's the main person that located the stones or jewelry they stole.
He informed the police, and they took it from there."

"So why would Joe turn this guy in, but not
someone in the FBI?"

After an awkward silence John said, "That's
a good question, Alana. I don't know. I will bring that up to Brad,
though. I'll have to give that some thought. If we can figure out
the answer to that, it may help us narrow down who it is."

John and Alana spent some quality time
together alone, before joining Kelli in the kitchen to plan and
make some lunch.

Later in the afternoon John talked to Brad.
He told him about Alana's question, and they discussed that. Brad
hadn't wondered about that, either. John said, "I've been thinking
about this, and I have what may be a real simple plan, but it may
be so simple it might work."

"What's that?"

Brad listened carefully as John explained
his plan. "I know you don't think it's any of the other three that
are here, but I don't know them well enough to be that confident,
so my plan includes all of them. I assume you've gotten a search
warrant and have gone over Joe's house?"

"We have."

"Do all of these people know that?"

Brad thought a minute before saying, "No, I
doubt that any of them know that. We have a team that generally
does all search warrants. Captain Wallace sends them, along with a
list of what specific things they should be looking for, to execute
the warrant. In this case he had me go with them, thinking
something might jump out at me that they wouldn't know could be
anything of value to the case."

"Do all these other people know they
executed the warrant already?"

"Not that I know of. We did it right away
this time because of our concern. Why?"

"My idea is to "leak" the information about
when you will be searching Joe's place. Then watch the apartment.
If it's any of these people, they may go there before that, just to
be sure there's nothing there to be found."

Brad was quiet and John could tell he was
thinking things through. John added, "I don't know what the FBI
practices are, whether you've got his apartment roped off until you
search it, or if this would even be possible."

Brad answered, "No, we don't tape them off
unless we find something there. If you tape them off ahead of time,
it just invites people to break in and see what's going on."