Smooth Operator (Teddy Fay) (13 page)

C
ongressman Blaine pushed his way through the throng of TV reporters shouting questions and pointing microphones. He had just given a speech on the steps of Capitol Hill, stressing that now was not the time for party politics, now was the time for bipartisan unity, and urging Congress to act responsibly. He had stopped just short of asking Republicans to vote for the clean veterans aid bill, but the message was clear. Everyone knew what he meant.

It was a bombshell.

“Mr. Speaker! Mr. Speaker!” the TV reporters shouted.

He might not have heard them. He elbowed his way through them, gently at first, then more assertively. He should have had aides clearing the way for him, but he hadn’t made any preparations, hadn’t told anybody what he was doing. He had just shown up on the top steps of Capitol Hill and started speaking.
And within minutes he had every camera in the vicinity aimed at him, with more members of the media arriving every minute.

It was a politician’s dream, the type of publicity impossible to generate, except in this fashion, by committing political suicide.

Congressman Blaine walked down the steps on automatic pilot. He’d held himself together for the TV cameras, but as he plowed his way through the crowd, he was on the brink of tears. Still he held them back, his public persona hardwired into his system.

He had just cleared the crowd when his cell phone rang. He nearly jumped out of his skin. The phone was set very loud to make sure he heard it. He fished it out of his jacket pocket. “Hello?”

There was no one there.

He said, “Hello?” again, feeling like a fool, but terrified he might hang up on the kidnappers.

Finally he gave up and stuck the phone back in his pocket.

He turned a corner, ran into the girl, and knocked her down. He’d been preoccupied with the phone, hadn’t realized she was there. Muttering apologies, he stooped to help her up.

Millie missed the grab. She knew where the phone was from watching him answer her call, and she’d done the pickpocket’s move perfectly, bumping him in the stomach so he wouldn’t feel the hand in his jacket pocket, but the phone slipped through her fingers. The poor man was sweating from his ordeal, and the phone was wet from his perspiration.

She had to go double-dipping, a no-no in the trade. The
danger escalates exponentially on the second try. A pro would leave the mark and find fresh game. Millie didn’t have that option. She slipped and fell into him, got her hand inside his jacket, tugged the cell phone out.

It wasn’t the perfect move. He grabbed for his lapel as if he’d felt his jacket ripping. He had to let go of Millie to do it, and she slid to the ground, curling her hands underneath her and landing on her forearms.

She flicked the back off the cell phone, held it between two fingers, and grabbed the chip she’d been palming with her forefinger and her thumb. In her head she counted the seconds as she clicked the chip in place and slid the back on.

She came to her feet, apologizing for bumping into him, thanking him for helping her up, and straightening his jacket, a perfectly natural thing to do since she’d certainly mussed his clothing.

Moments later she was hurrying off to whatever important appointment she’d been preoccupied with when she bumped into him.

As soon as she was out of sight, Millie whipped out her own cell phone and called Kevin.

“Target is live.”

T
he reaction was fast and furious. Speaker Blaine had barely gotten home before Congressman Herman Foster was on CNN disclaiming everything that the Speaker had said. “Speaker Blaine does not speak for the Republican Party when he advocates betraying the trust of our constituents by abandoning the principles on which we were elected.”

Congressman Blaine went in the kitchen and poured himself a drink to calm his nerves. He went back to the living room, where Herman Foster had been replaced on CNN by Congressman Sam Snyder, presenting the opposing viewpoint.

His cell phone rang. He had left it on the coffee table, didn’t trust it in his pocket. He snatched it up.

“Yes?” he said breathlessly.

“What the hell are you doing? Have you lost your mind?”

It took Congressman Blaine a moment to place the voice. When he did, his heart nearly stopped. Calvin Hancock! The last person in the world he wanted to talk to now.

Calvin Hancock was not a man you could brush off. He had spent over a million dollars on the Speaker’s campaign. The situation did not matter. When Calvin Hancock called, you answered.

“Sir—”

“Have you forgotten who your friends are? Have you forgotten who funded your campaign?”

“No, sir, I—”

“Your fellow Republicans seem to think so. Or haven’t you noticed.”

“You mean Herman Foster?”

“Is anyone else calling you out on national TV? I’m sure they will. He’s just the first.”

“I’ll call Herman. We have a relationship.”

“Not anymore, you don’t. Weren’t you watching? The gentleman made his feelings pretty clear.”

“I know, sir, and—”

“If that’s not bad enough, I’ve got to watch that idiot Sam Snyder
supporting
you on national television. Sam fucking Snyder, who’s not only the opposition, he’s a personal family friend of the President.
Praising
you on TV.”

The phone bleeped.

Speaker Blaine jumped. He pulled it from his ear, looked at it.

Caller Unknown.

That was them!

That was the call!

“I have another call,” he said helplessly.

“More important than mine?”

“No, sir, of course not. But—” His mind whirled, searching for a reason. He couldn’t find one. “I have to take it,” he said, and broke the connection. He’d pay for that later. He didn’t care. He clicked on the new call.

It was the voice he’d come to dread. “You didn’t do what we asked.”

“I did. Weren’t you watching?”

“I was. You were supposed to tell Republicans to vote for the bill.”

“I said we need a bipartisan effort.”

“Did I ask you to give them a
hint
? Go back on TV and tell them
directly
to vote for the bill.”

“I can’t do that.”

“You’ll do what we say or your daughter dies.”

He steeled himself. “Let me talk to her.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not going to let you.”

“How do I know she’s alive?”

“She’s alive.”

“How do I know?”

“I told you.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“You have no choice.”

“I don’t care. I can’t go on not knowing. I have to know she’s alive. If you can’t prove she’s alive, then she must be dead.” His voice broke. “Is she dead? Is my daughter dead? If she’s dead you get nothing, you understand, nothing. I’ve done everything you asked. You have no reason to hurt her.”

“Don’t give me a reason.”

“I’m not, I’m not! I’m telling you to keep her alive! You get nothing unless you keep her alive. Prove it to me. Prove it to me or you get nothing. Do you hear me? Nothing.”

The phone clicked dead.

K
evin ripped off his headset. “Jesus Christ!”

“Where’s the call from?” Teddy said.

“They’re going to kill her!”

“Snap out of it. Trace the call.”

“It wasn’t long enough to get an exact location.”

“You got something.”

“It was a cell phone here in D.C. I can probably pinpoint it within a twenty-block radius, but that’s the best I can do. He has to keep them on the line longer.”

“We don’t have control over that. He doesn’t know we’re doing this, so we have to work with what we’ve got. Now then, you’ve got a cell phone in a twenty-block radius. What else have you got?”

“Nothing. It’s a throwaway phone, and it isn’t registered. There’s no way to trace the owner, just the location. If they call
back I can pin it down, but with a throwaway phone, they probably won’t.”

“What about the other call? What can you tell about that?”

“That one was different. It came from a landline, which will be listed. Hang on, I’ll trace it.” He typed rapidly. “Got it. The phone’s listed in the name of Calvin Hancock.”

Holly Barker sucked in her breath.

Kevin looked at her. “What?”

“Big money man,” Teddy said. “All right, that tears it. As if the Speaker wasn’t under enough pressure. Once Calvin Hancock gets involved, the situation’s out of control. He spends a ton of money and he expects results.”

“Any way to stop him?” Millie said.

“Short of killing him, no. He won’t be put off and he won’t be distracted. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. Just when the Speaker got the nerve to stand up to these guys.”

Teddy’s cell phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket. “Hello?”

“Mr. Worthing?”

It took Teddy a second to place the name. It was the one he’d used to rent the hangar at Dulles where he’d left Peter’s plane. “Yes. One moment please.” He covered the phone. “I have to take this. Millie, stay with Kevin. Keep on top of the Speaker’s calls. He should be getting a lot.”

Teddy followed Holly into her office, shut the door, and uncovered the phone. “This is Mr. Worthing. What’s up?”

“I had some men snooping around the hangar checking
out your plane. They seemed particularly interested in the tail numbers.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. The decal of one of the numbers was peeling up on the corner. The guy tried to pull it off. I stopped him. But they had a lot of questions.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them to take a hike. If they weren’t from Federal Aviation they got no right to ask.”

“And these guys weren’t?”

“Just goons. They didn’t even bother to flash credentials.”

“Did they leave peacefully?”

“They asked a lot more questions. I didn’t answer them.”

“What did they want to know?”

“When was the hangar rented, how long was it rented for?”

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them they were wasting their time, the hangar wasn’t available, but there were plenty more to rent right next door.”

“Did that satisfy them?”

“Hell no. They wanted to know about Billy Barnett. They seemed to think he was the pilot.”

“Thanks. They got no right to be there. Let me know if they come back.”

Teddy hung up.

“What was that?” Holly said.

“They just found Peter’s plane. They had a bug in Stone’s phone when he called me to come out here and told me to
borrow it. They tried to take me out at the airport. When the item ‘Movie Producer Billy Barnett Shot Dead’ didn’t show up in the tabloid press, they started tracing the plane. I changed the tail numbers, but they found it anyway.”

“How bad is that?”

“Well, it isn’t good. Now they know Billy Barnett’s in D.C. They suspected it before, but this confirms it.”

“But they don’t know who Billy Barnett is.”

“No. As far as they’re concerned, he’s just a movie producer from L.A. But the harder he is to pin down, the more interested they’ll become. They can’t kill him, and they can’t find him. The plane they think he’s flying has the tail numbers changed. They keep coming up empty. It will drive them nuts. They’ll become obsessed with Billy Barnett.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Let them find him.”

T
eddy Fay called the concierge and asked to have valet service bring around his car. He’d rented both the car and his hotel room on Billy Barnett’s credit card. He’d changed into his Billy Barnett guise to match the ID photo on his driver’s license.

He spotted the two men right away. They were small-time thugs, and they probably weren’t used to following anyone who was familiar with surveillance techniques, because they weren’t very good at it. One was pretending to be waiting for someone, and he oversold it by looking at his watch every fifteen seconds. The other was reading a newspaper. He wasn’t holding it upside down, but he might as well have been for all the attention he was paying to it. As if that weren’t bad enough, they gave each other the high sign when he walked out, and they climbed into a gold Oldsmobile way too flashy for
the job. Teddy led them through a few turns just to make sure, but he needn’t have bothered. It was obvious who they were.

And what they wanted.

Teddy drove to a downtown mall and pulled into a parking garage. He drove up to level 5, which wasn’t crowded, and parked. He locked his car and headed for the elevator.

The gold Oldsmobile pulled up next to his car. Two men got out and followed him. They picked up the pace and closed the gap.

A gunshot stopped them in their tracks. It came from the direction of their car. They spun around, crouching and starting to reach for their guns.

There was no one there.

They turned back.

There was no one there, either.

The man they were following was gone.

They looked at each other, baffled.

Teddy Fay stepped up behind them and shoved guns in their backs.

“Let’s hold it right there,” Teddy said. “What you feel is the silencer of a gun. If you’re wondering why your partner doesn’t make a move, I have a gun on him, too. So, let’s put your hands on your heads and walk back to the golden Olds.”

Teddy marched them back to their car.

“All right, turn around slow.” Teddy waggled his gun on the big thug. “You, with your left hand, reach in your buddy’s jacket,
take out his gun with two fingers, and put it on the ground. That’s right.” He motioned to the now-disarmed man. “Now you do the same to him. Good. Now step back.”

They did.

Teddy pointed to a black spot on the ground next to his car. “The shot you heard was a firecracker. Remarkably cheap and effective. Illegal, I’m afraid, but you can’t have everything.”

Teddy studied his assailants’ faces as he picked up their guns. They were clearly nothing special, just your run-of-the-mill thugs. The big one had a crew cut and his face was scarred, like a prizefighter who’d hung around a bit too long. The smaller one looked street-smart, with animal cunning.

“Nothing to be worried about,” Teddy said. “We’re just going to have a little talk. First of all, who’s in charge?”

The small thug’s eyes flicked toward his buddy.

Teddy shot the small thug in the face. He crumpled to the pavement.

“Funny,” Teddy said, “I would have thought it was him. So, you’re the brains of the outfit. If you want to survive this meeting, you’re going to tell me everything you know.”

The big thug gawked at him. His lip quivered.

“You got the car keys?”

“Yeah.”

“Pop the trunk.”

The thug took out his car keys, pushed a button, and zapped the trunk open.

Teddy gestured with his gun. “Put him in.”

The thug hefted his dead buddy to his feet, propped his stomach over the edge of the trunk, and flipped him in.

Teddy gestured with the gun. “You too.”

The thug looked alarmed. He clearly expected to be shot. He climbed in with a sense of resignation.

“Give me the keys.”

The thug handed them over.

Teddy slammed the trunk. He popped the trunk of his rental car and took the bolt cutters he’d requisitioned from the CIA out of his gear bag. He threw them on the floor of the thug’s car, hopped in, and drove down the exit ramps, level by level, and out of the garage.

One of Teddy’s favorite places, back when D.C. was his stomping grounds, was an abandoned boat ramp just fifteen miles out of town.
Boat ramp
was perhaps a flattering description for the overgrown dirt road sloping down to the river. Teddy had made use of it often in his stint with the CIA. He hoped it was still there.

It was. A simple turn off the highway, unmarked except for the two weathered wooden posts holding up the chain across the road. The chain itself was invisible in the overgrowth. Teddy stopped short of it and got out of the car. The chain was held in place with a heavy-duty padlock, and Teddy didn’t want to waste time on it with a live thug in his trunk. He took out the bolt cutters and snapped the chain.

Teddy drove over the chain, pulled in, maneuvered a U-turn, and backed up to the riverbank. He got out, popped the trunk.

The thug poked his head out, blinked in the sunlight, and found himself looking at a gun.

“Have a nice ride?” Teddy said. “Get out.”

The thug climbed out of the trunk.

“Okay, let’s you and me have a little talk. I’m going to ask you some questions. Each time you get one wrong, I’m going to shoot you somewhere. Sooner or later, I’ll hit something you need. Ready? Let’s begin. Who hired you?”

“I don’t know.”

Teddy shot him in the foot. “Wrong answer.”

The thug cried out and doubled up in pain.

“You might want to think about your answers a little. You don’t want to just blurt out the first thing that comes to mind, because your default setting is to lie. As you can see, lying will do you no good. Let’s try again. Who hired you?”

“A guy in a bar.”

“What guy?”

“Guy I never seen before. He comes up to me in this bar I hang out in. Joey’s Place.”

“Not exactly your high-end establishment.”

“It’s a dive, but drinks are cheap. Guy said he was told to look me up.”

“Did he give you his name?”

“No.”

“What did he look like?”

“Egyptian, Arab, whatever. I can never tell those guys apart.”

“Did he have a hat? A beard? Long hair? How was he dressed?”

“No hat. No beard. Short hair. Suit and tie. Could have been a business executive. But he wasn’t American, you know what I mean?”

Teddy showed him the photo of the man with the SUV. “Is this the guy?”

The thug peered closely at the photo. “You know, it could be. He asked me if I wanted a job.”

“What was the job?”

“Take someone out.”

“Who?”

The thug grimaced. “Billy Barnett.”

Teddy nodded. “How were you supposed to find him?”

“Hotel reservations.”

“And airplane hangar rentals?”

“That’s right. He said they might not be under that name. But the plane was a Cessna. He gave me the tail numbers.”

“How do you contact this guy? Tell him it’s done?”

“He said don’t bother, he’ll know.”

“That’s kind of scary.”

“No kidding.”

“But you must have some way to reach him. Some number you could call.”

“No. He didn’t want to see me again.”

“How were you going to get paid?”

“He paid me in advance.”

“In cash?”

“Yeah.”

Teddy held out his hand. The thug made a face.

“You’re not going to earn it,” Teddy said. “Why should you have it? Hand it over.”

The thug pulled a wad of money out of his jacket pocket, reluctantly held it out.

Teddy stuck it in his pocket. “You paid your buddy yet?”

“No.”

“Then we don’t need him. Get him out of there.”

“You want me to dump him in the river?”

“You got a problem with that?”

The thug put his hands under his buddy’s armpits, lifted him up, and hefted his body out of the trunk. He wrestled him down to the river and flopped him in.

The dead man floated on his stomach. His feet caught in the reeds. The thug bent over, grabbed his ankles, freed the body, and gave it a push.

Teddy shot him in the head. The thug pitched into the water face-first. The two bodies floated away from shore.

Teddy slammed the trunk, got back in the car, and drove out the dirt road. As he turned onto the highway he made a mental note to call up and report the broken chain. Someone needed to get that fixed. After all, they wouldn’t want just any old riffraff using the boat ramp.