Once again Sujin had pleased
the senses. The smell was enticing and the bowls of steaming
noodles lay waiting for the sticks to grab hold. Steve was no
slouch with chop sticks as having been the commanding officer in
South Korea before he retired to civilian duty. He did himself
proud slurping the noodles and marveled at the sweet sour taste of
the cucumbers and other side dishes. Sujin after the small bowl of
noodles brought out the gas cooker and marinated beef strips and
veggies were cooked. Steve noticed the meat was mostly for his
enjoyment as both Brad and Sujin were primarily
vegetarians.
While the meat was cooking
some small talk between the men occurred. Brad asked how his father
was and Steve said, “Your father is well and sends his greetings
and after your Sacramento meeting wants you to stop by his house in
Palm Springs for a private meeting.”
Brad nodded and thought back
about his strained relationship with his father. Even after all
these years and being a full colonel his father still tried to tell
him what to do. Brad new he meant well, but at times he couldn’t be
in the same room with him. His mother, thank god, adjudicated the
gatherings the best she could so in the end, the game was tied with
no winner or loser.
Steve tried in vain to read
Brad’s mind and even though he was a lawyer by trade he failed to
really know this young man. For eight years he was his commanding
officer and besides being a desk man, he tried to get out into the
field as much as possible. However, he found out soon enough he was
only in the way. Then five years ago the Secretary of the Navy
called him into his office and that is when the operation to
eliminate a terrorist camp unfolded. A five man team had been sent
into the area led by a known sympathizer. This was a special team
of Navy Seals with Brad leading the team. They were ambushed and
two out of five were killed with Brad left finding his own way out
of the mountains. He had ordered is men to evacuate and gave them
cover fire as the helicopter took off without him.
Now he wondered what went
through his mind as they sipped some refreshing tea oblivious to
the raging storm outside. Sujin cleaned off the table and Steve
said good night and gave Sujin his best bow. Brad smiled and led
the way downstairs with Rocky bringing up the rear. They both heard
Sujin call Rocky and he slowly turned and headed back the way he
came. A few minutes later Sandy replaced Rocky as Steve laid his
head down for a long sleep while his friend took the files into the
computer room. Steve made a phone call to his wife and then turned
the light out. He laid thinking about his last meeting in DC with
his boss. He was instructed to have their team on the hunt
yesterday. The president was taking so much heat from this wild
killer and seniors across the nation were in a panic. Heart attacks
and strokes were on the increase. Doctors were plagued with over
crowed waiting rooms prescribing sleeping aids by the gross.
Southern California and in Sacramento protests by seniors over the
Senior Killer hit the media with a bang. The FBI in Los Angeles and
elsewhere were overloaded with tips on unseen or suspected people
who looked like what they thought a serial killer should look like.
Of course no one knew what he/she looked like because of his
disguises. Trying times to say the least as Steve drifted off to
sleep in a soundless environment.
Chapter
2
Steve woke up the next
morning and looked at his watch. He’d always been an early riser,
but today it was close to seven am and he felt a little guilty
sleeping so long. He made his way to his bathroom and took a long
hot shower. Shaving gear was present along with a new toothbrush.
Exiting the shower and drying off he noticed his overnight bag
sitting on a hotel type bag stand open for his ease of dressing. It
wasn’t opened out of curiosity but hospitality from the orient. He
quickly dressed and stuffed his soiled clothes away in a bag his
wife always provided him and made his way upstairs to a new
day.
The f
irst
thing he noticed was the weather was still pretty much the same.
Rain beat against the windows and Sujin was in the kitchen looking
like she never left it from the night before. Rocky had replaced
Sandy and was lying next to the wood stove with an eye on Steve.
Steve shivered thinking about someone making a false move against
Sujin. He shook the thought out of his mind as the door opened and
a soaked Brad came in. He stripped down and said, “Good morning and
did you rest well?”
“Never felt better as usual
when I have the pleasure of sleeping under your roof. Tell me what
does it feel like to run on the beach in a storm like we are having
now?”
Brad laughed and said, “I
can only say it makes me feel alive and damn glad I am.”
“I guess that makes two of
us,” Steve replied with a grin that few had the privileged to see
on his face. Sujin placed a mug of hot coffee on the old table next
to the window. Steve moved towards it like a bee to a flower
seeking the aroma and its delicate taste. She knew he liked his
coffee in the morning like most Americans. Brad headed downstairs
to take a shower as Rocky watched him go with one eye and the other
on Steve as he sat at the table lifting his cup of hot freshly
ground coffee. Steve didn’t wait for Brad to come while he drank
his coffee and said to Sujin, “What do you make of this case
Sujin?”
“Well,” she said in an Asian
accent, “he or she makes good use of a disguise.”
Steve knew better than to
discount what she said because it was obvious this killer was adept
in using a disguise. He vowed to give that point more thought as
Brad walked into the room looking like a college professor dressed
in tan slacks, a pale yellow striped shirt and a dark brown silk
tie. He carried his sport coat over his shoulder and hung it on the
back of a chair sitting down and saying, “I heard Sujin say
‘disguise’ and in our opinion that is the key to this
case.”
Sujin brought him a cup of
herb tea and asked Steve if he would like some scrambled eggs and
toast for breakfast. Steve told her that would be lovely and she
returned to the kitchen. About that time a high pitched sound went
on along with the lights flashing on and off. Sandy had punched the
button that someone was on the property. Sujin quickly scanned the
screen next to the refer and announced it was her sister and left
to open the door for her. Her sister was standing on the gravel
drive waiting for permission to enter.
Steve had never met Sujin’s
sister and upon looking at the two of them they looked like twins.
Sujin introduced Earie to Steve and Steve standing up gave her a
little bow while Earie gave him a deep bow and in almost perfect
English said “Nice to meet you.” Brad said hello in Korean and the
girls headed for the kitchen. Brad explained to Steve that Sujin’s
sister stays here when they are gone. Like her sister she can take
care of herself very well. We always leave one dog with her and she
is happy to stay here for as long as we are gone. She is well
versed in computers and we tie into her while in the field. Works
well.”
Steve never knew he had a
sister in law and later he found out they were indeed twins, but
not identical. She lived in a town where her American husband, a
former military man turned policeman; and was the local chief of
police. Steve got the impression Brad didn’t socialize with anyone
from town and his brother in law thought it wise not to know what
he did for a living. A situation that worked out well for the two
of them; him being the chief of police kept the busy bodies in town
from talking too much. Steve asked, “What is your thinking about
this case?”
Brad understood his boss
didn’t want a full blown detail rendition, but a brief overview
would suffice. Looking his boss in the eye he said, “The disguise
is too good for an amateur so we must look at a professional and
most likely we will find our killer either working in the film
industry or was working in the make-up department
somewhere.”
Sujin brought the men their
breakfast and all were quiet while they ate. Steve heard the girls
talking in Korean and understood a word or two, but not enough to
understand what they were talking about. The guys had just finished
when the phone rang and Sujin answered it from a cordless on the
counter. Without a word she handed it to Brad who listened and
said, “Four o’clock in front of the state capitol in Sacramento.
Tell Billy to not be late,” as he hung up the phone.
Steve looked at his watch
and said he would call the pilot in the North bend and tell him to
be ready for a ten am departure time. Brad nodded his agreement and
left to go down to the basement. A few minutes later he returned
with a garment bag, a lap top and the files had read the night
before. Sujin had followed him down as her sister cleaned up the
dishes. Rocky knew they were going somewhere and sat at attention
waiting for his call to arms. Sujin returned dressed nicely in what
looked like a pair of light wool gray slacks, a white blouse with a
sweater over the top. A light coat contrary to the weather outside,
but she knew it would be much warmer in Sacramento and down into
Southern California. What Steve didn’t know was strapped to just
above her ankle a small handgun couldn’t be seen from her loose
fitting slacks. Steve did know that Brad was packing his favorite
hand gun in the small of his back. Steve had witnessed Brad at the
target range and god help the person who drew down on him. A cool
guy under pressure would be hard to find, much less match him under
any circumstances be it guns or hand to hand combat. Killing the
bad guys came easy for him and the only thing he said one time
after a covert raid deep in the jungle of South America was he was
not sad he killed the leader, but rather he had the utmost respect
for his leadership.
Sandy gave them a bark as
they loaded into Steve’s car. Rocky sat in the front with Steve and
Brad and Sujin in the back. Brad made Rocky wear his seat belt and
he sat facing Steve on the drive to the airport. Steve thought
about reaching out and petting him, but when took his hand off the
wheel, Rocky raised his head up and looked him in the eye saying
put your hands back on the wheel with his eyes.
At the airport gale force
winds were blowing from the southwest. The pilot was a little
nervous as was the co-pilot. Mike Henshaw, a key member of the
team, was talking to the pilot telling him this was a normal fall
day and not to worry as the wind would make the takeoff shorter.
Brad caught the tail end of the conversation walking into the
flight center. The pilot gave off a feeble forced laugh and turned
back to the guy behind the counter for the latest weather report to
Sacramento, as if he didn’t already know. Mike moved towards Brad
and with his usual big grin turned towards Steve and shook his
hand. Greetings out of the way the pilot said to board and they
would take off in a few minutes.
Umbrellas were not much use
in the winds so they hurried to the hanger where the Gulf Stream
waited. It was the latest model loaned to them by NASA. The
president and congress had approved an increase in NASA’s budget
for space and this special branch of the government took advantage
whenever they could.
Everyone buckled in,
including Rocky, waiting for a bumpy ride to California. Brad
realized if the pilot hadn’t been a little nervous, he wasn’t a
good pilot. Brad was sitting with Mike and they were quietly
discussing the case. Mike was a carefree kind of guy, but when it
came to business he was totally focused. Mike lived down in Port
Orford tucked in a valley east of town. Steve was aware of where he
lived but had never been there. He wasn’t married, but had a
longtime girlfriend with a couple of kids acting like old hippies
back in the sixties living off the land. Today, however, he was
dressed much like Brad and clean cut looking. Steve knew he was
close to forty five, but looked years younger and moved like a cat.
He was one of the lucky ones escaping on the helicopter from the
bungled Afghanistan job. Brad used him for digging out information
where cops or other guys like the FBI failed to elicit facts.
Walking up to a total stranger he had them going in two seconds and
after a few minutes they were spilling their guts to him about
whatever he wanted to know. Brad called it uncanny and why or how
it worked was Mike’s secret personality. Some might say he could
sell ice to an Eskimo. Mike said it was his honest eyes and a long
nose that made the difference.
Meanwhile Sujin sat with
Rocky studying her laptop. She had brought up a long list of
cosmetic suppliers. Start at the source and work from there to the
buyers of quantity. She would provide Mike the list and he would
follow the trail. Next she researched suppliers of disguise and
prop companies. She knew many film companies had their own props
and clothing, but in today’s world it was easy to order from an
outlet except in special make up characters. Also she would have
Mike check the film companies for inventory loss or items missing
lately. She had no idea if they even kept track of what went out
and what came back from a take on a particular days
shooting.
She would take on the film
companies employment records. As a female and a Korea with passable
English she was more likely to enjoy cooperation than a male. It
had worked in the past and would work in the future. All of the
team members were United States Marshals. In most cases that ID
opened the door where even the FBI had trouble without a warrant.
Most cases as with the others demanded leg work. Brad always
supplied her with a driver so she didn’t have to worry about
finding an address. Most of the time the drivers dug for
information, but after a few attempts, they gave up when they
thought she was either stuck up or didn’t understand English. She
liked it that way so her mind was always clear and focused no
matter even if it was a mundane chore.