Chapter 11
Agent Roberts was mad. No, he was furious. No, he was livid. He let that punk hired gun get past him, and the moron burnt down the home of the girl he was supposed to be protecting. How did it happen? He had beat himself over the head for a whole day asking that. He failed one important part of the mission. If the mom hadn’t been involved in an accident, the girl would have died in that fire. If Miss Becker hadn’t left, she would be dead, simple as that. Roberts paced back and forth in his rental, dumbfounded at the audacity of the killer. He hadn’t expected his adversary to go to those lengths. Most hired assassins are quick, thorough, and clean. This one is messy and slow. Of course, that too gave him insight into the character of the man he was angry about.
What had happened was this: the day before Miss Becker’s eighteenth birthday, Roberts had decided that this was probably the day the killer would try something, so he doubled patrol on the girl, and put one person on the mother as well. It was simple enough most of the day, since they both never left the mobile home all morning. Then the mother left for work late in the afternoon, with Diaz following her. Things were too serious this close to the end; Roberts wanted to be sure there wouldn’t be anything to hinder his mission: deliver the girl to New York on the next day, safe and sound.
Shortly after the mom left, Miss Becker’s tall black friend, Alex Turner, arrived in her car. So there was another long period of time when the girl was safe inside her home.
He saw the pest control guy during the day. He watched him spray around the house. He knew that the Park didn’t typically pay for pest control from the investigation last week when the key was discovered in Mrs. Becker’s rosebush, and so he surmised it wasn’t bug spray, but wasn’t sure what his game was at the time.
Diaz was with the mom, and he, Davis, and Michaels were watching the girl. Thomas and O’Brian were using a state road maintenance vehicle and doing clean up on the road outside the mobile home park, keeping the black car in sight. It had been out there since early morning, when Thomas and O’Brian followed it from the motel.
Toward dark, Diaz radioed in that the mom was leaving for home. Roberts decided to check the perimeter of the Becker’s mobile and see what the perpetrator was planning if he could. He had wanted to wait until dark, but with the mother coming home, he couldn’t wait any longer.
He put the dog on a leash and headed towards the Becker’s home. The closer he got, the stronger he could smell something was wrong. He couldn’t quite tell what it was, but there was definitely something amiss. The dog began whimpering as they got closer. He went into the bushes and yard surrounding the Becker home, an excuse that ‘the dog got away’ ready in case someone tried to accost him. He knelt down and picked up some of the foul smelling dirt surrounding the mobile, trying to determine what the substance sprayed on it was. He sniffed it. Kerosene? No, not quite, but he was guessing it was some kind of flammable liquid. He quickly stood up and left the area, making sure the occupants didn’t see him.
“Thomas, O’Brian, what’s the status on our suspect?” Roberts asked into his radio once he was clear of the trailer.
“Hasn’t moved from his car.” Thomas responded.
“We have a situation here. Suspect has sprayed some sort of flammable liquid all around the perimeter of the mobile home. Looks like he’s going to try to light up the girl. Do not let him leave that vehicle. I repeat, keep him in there. If he can’t leave, then he can’t start the fire. Once the Beckers are asleep, we will flood the area so it will no longer be flammable.”
“Ten-four,” was the response.
Then Roberts waited for the mom to come home, so the friend would leave, and they could safely and secretly make her safe. He was on pins and needles knowing that house was a matchbox, ready to go at any second, but the mom didn’t get home in the time she should have. It was taking too long.
“Diaz, what’s the status on the mom.”
“Stopped at a store for something, just back on the road now. ETA twelve minutes,” Diaz replied.
Roberts left the rental home, and began walking around outside without the dog. Davis and Michaels were scattered here and there around the park, keeping watch. Then, all hell broke loose.
“Oh God! Roberts, come in, this is an emergency!” He heard Diaz over the radio.
“This is Roberts. What’s the situation,” he immediately replied.
“Mom in car wreck. It looks bad. Her vehicle was t-boned in the driver’s door. Other guy didn’t even slow down. Call for an ambulance. Corner of East Main and Seventh Street. Signing off to offer assistance.” Diaz seemed shaken. It must have been a bad accident.
Roberts immediately called for an ambulance to the location of the accident. He guessed by the street address which hospital they would be going to, and made that phone call that forever changed Jo Becker’s life: he called her and informed her that her mother had been in an accident, and told her which hospital to go to. Miss Becker wouldn’t, or couldn’t respond, so the friend, Miss Turner, took the phone and the information. Once they hung up, Roberts called Davis and Michaels in to go ahead with the girls to the hospital. He would follow behind; making sure the home was secure.
Diaz buzzed in on the radio, “The paramedics are here. They are using the Jaws of Life to get her out. It’s going to take a while, and they are not sure Mrs. Becker will make it. It’s bad, Roberts.”
“Stay with her, Diaz. Follow to the hospital. Is there any way that the driver of the other vehicle was a set up? Does this have anything to do with our case?”
“Negative. Just a drunk driver, a local. The police recognized him from previous offenses. He shouldn’t have been on the road. I don’t see a correlation to our assignment.”
“Okay, Diaz. Keep with the mom, and stay at the hospital with the girl. There’s no telling what the suspect will do when he sees the girl leave, since he had his trap laid here.”
“I’m with her.”
Roberts hung up and looked towards the Becker home just in time to see the tall girl Alex supporting a stunned and sobbing girl to her car, and put her in the passenger side. If he hadn’t just seen it, he would say that the driver was in the car alone, since Miss Becker just disappeared. She was not visible at all in the car, and he could clearly see the passenger seatbelt dangling unused. He radioed to the team that had just left, “Davis, I need a verification that Miss Becker is in her friend’s car. Do what you need to do to verify and report back.”
“Yes, sir.”
Roberts went outside and up the road to the Becker’s mobile home, and, grabbing a hose, began dousing the ground around the trailer. The longer he stood there, the less intense the odor was. He was hoping he was diluting whatever was there enough to cause the suspect to fail in his plot. Between this and, hopefully, the other agents keeping the man from getting out, the perpetrator should fall short of his goal.
“Miss Becker is confirmed inside the vehicle. She is hunched over, head between her knees.”
“Thank you. Stay with them.”
Roberts needed to go, too. He felt he should be with the girl. He watered as far as the hose would reach around the back, then left the hose trickling, to continue soaking the ground, and went for his car. He left for the hospital about eight minutes behind the girls.
“Keep that man away from that trailer,” was Roberts last instructions to the two agents left at the site. Thomas assured them they would take care of him.
Once at the hospital, Roberts quickly acquired scrubs and a white coat so he could come and go freely without being questioned. Once he was in sight of the girls, he nodded to Davis and Michaels to do the same; get a cover of some sort. Diaz was already mopping a floor in the waiting area, in a janitor’s uniform. The four were keeping eyes on Miss Becker at all times.
Roberts was faced with a dilemma at this point, though. Even if the mother were going to live, the daughter would not allow herself to be whisked off to New York, for any reason, with her mother in a hospital. This was a definite snag in Director Johnson’s plans. He would have to report the problem as soon as he knew what Mrs. Becker’s prognosis would be.
About an hour after the girls had left for the hospital, Roberts heard his radio buzz. He went into a supply closet so he could talk without being conspicuous.
“Roberts here, what’s the status?”
“Sir, this is Thomas. I swear to you sir, the man never left his car. He is still sitting in his car. I swear it, sir.” Thomas was audibly upset, and Roberts could hear anger in his voice.
“What happened?”
“Not sure, sir. We were in bushes behind the black car, watching his shadow move, so we know he did not leave. Yet, there are fire trucks and police vehicles pulling into the mobile home park, and there is a fire where the girl’s home would be.”
Roberts swore under his breath. That was not supposed to happen. “Has the suspect moved yet?”
“Negative. Still watching the fire.”
“Stay on him. If he leaves the car, tackle him. If he drives off, follow him. He got past us somehow.” Roberts swore again. This was bad. Not only did he fail to protect the girl, he failed himself. This girl was facing her mother’s impending death, from what the doctors were saying, and now she will have no home too. How did the killer get past his guys? But no, he never left the car. Did he have a timer? Maybe a cell phone? Ah, that was probably it. Probably called a number and it set off an incendiary device of some sort. Maybe a slowly burning flare. Roberts kicked himself for not checking further once he found the odor. He should have known the man wasn’t going to sneak up and light a match. Someone could see him leave the scene then. Roberts was angry with himself for the oversight. The suspect truly had tried to kill Miss Becker before her eighteenth birthday. And Director Johnson would have his head on a platter for it.
He left the supply closet to walk past the waiting room his charge was in, as he had repeatedly the whole evening. He saw some doctors in there, heard the words “brain surgery,” and knew the mom was getting worse. He dreaded the girl’s reaction to her home being gone. From the short description Thomas gave him, it was obviously going to be a total loss.
For hours he paced up and down the hallway, meeting Diaz and then Davis and updating each in turn on the mobile home fire. Davis went in to update Michaels, who was acting as a grieving wife whose husband was in surgery at the moment, and was stationed in the surgery waiting room, where Miss Becker and her friends had been moved to. Every so often, Davis would come in to update Michaels on her husband’s supposed surgery, and Michaels informed Davis of Mrs. Becker’s condition from what she could overhear in the room. This was how they finally found out about the death of their charge’s mother.
Agent Michaels was moved to tears by the emotional display Miss Becker tried to hold in once she returned from her mother’s deathbed. The girl truly loved her mother; it was easy to see. She wished they were free to kidnap her and take her to New York now, and avoid the horror and pain that was to be hers for the next few days, but she knew that was impossible, and yet, maybe this tragedy she was now enduring would better prepare her for her life to come? She hoped so, for the girl’s sake.
She heard the friend Alex declare that Miss Becker would be living with them from now on. That surprised Michaels. Did they already know of the fire? Was this other family somehow connected to the suspect? Something to consider. She mentioned it to Davis at his next status report, and also that the girl would be living with the Turner family for the time being. Davis immediately left to report to Roberts.
Upon hearing from Davis, Roberts decided it was time to call Director Johnson. She would not be happy, he knew. It was still early when he finally made the call, but he knew he could reach the Director at her home.
“Johnson,” she said as she answered the phone.
“Ma’am, this is Agent Roberts. I have news.”
“It better be that you are boarding a plane with the girl in an hour for New York.”
Roberts sighed. “No, Ma’am. That is unfortunately not the case.” He paused for a moment, to gather his thoughts. “There have been some developments in the case.”
“Is the girl alive?” the director asked alarmed.
“Yes, Ma’am. The girl is alive, but she is grieving. Her mother was killed in a car accident a few hours ago.”
“Oh, that is distressing.” The director paused. She knew Agent Roberts was asking her what she wanted to do about it. The girl had unfinished business now, and to try to force her to leave now might be detrimental.
“All right, find out when the services are. We will give her the time to bury her mother.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Roberts replied. He had figured that was what she would say, but knew she had to be the one to say it. He hesitated before he went on, and the director heard his pause.
“There’s more, isn’t there Agent Roberts?”
“Yes, Ma’am. I’m sorry to report that I failed to secure Miss Becker’s home. I did not thoroughly take care of a threat that I had witnessed, so I missed the suspect’s final intentions. Shortly after she left the home for the hospital to see her mother, the suspect set off a device that engulfed the mobile home in flames. It was a total loss.”
“You missed it?” Director Johnson shouted into the phone. “You missed the suspect’s intentions? What did you need, a big red “X” that said, I’m going to kill her here?” The director slowly took a few deep breaths, calming herself. “Tell me how the girl got out undetected, since I’m assuming our suspect thought she was still in the house?”
“When Miss Becker left with her friend for the hospital, she was so distraught that she was collapsed in the seat, head down between her legs. It was dark, and unless you could see inside the car, it looked as if the friend was alone. I did verify that the girl was in the vehicle before I left the home unattended. Thomas and O’Brian were on the suspect, and confirmed he never left his vehicle. He must have used a timer or cell phone, something that didn’t require him to go near the mobile home after the placement of the liquid he had sprayed around it.”
“What type of liquid?”
“I was unable to test it. The accident happened shortly after I discovered it was there. I sent Davis and Michaels on to the hospital with the girl, and flooded the area with water as much as I could before I followed them. I saturated the ground for seven or eight minutes, as far as the hose could reach, but my priority was keeping the girl safe, so I left for the hospital.”
Director Johnson sighed. “This will affect the girl almost as much as losing her mother will. I do not know how much one eighteen year old girl can stand. Today is the day she turns eighteen, is it not?”
“Yes it is.”
The director took a deep breath, and thought for a moment. Then she gave her orders.
“Find out when the funeral is. Let the girl have her time to grieve, but the moment she has things settled there, I want her on a plane with you to New York. Make it happen.”
“Yes, Director.”
Roberts hung up with his boss, relieved. He was certain Director Johnson was doing the right thing, letting Miss Becker finish up her business here, but now he had another problem. He still had to keep her safe until they landed in New York. And once the killer found out he hadn’t killed anyone, Roberts knew there would be even more attempts on the girl’s life.
The rest of that day, the six agents took turns watching and sleeping. Since all of them had been on duty overnight, they all needed to get at least some rest, so they did it in stages. Thomas and O’Brian took a room next to the suspect at the motel, and took turns watching him. After the fire, he had returned to his room and had not ventured out, but if he tried, they were ready.
Davis and Michaels took turns strolling down the Turner’s street, catching twenty-minute catnaps in between walks. This is what they had trained for, so twenty minutes would last them a while.
Roberts and Diaz were back at the mobile home park, subtly helping the police and fire departments with their arson investigations. Since the people he worked for had no authority to arrest the arsonist, they were trying to help the law find out who the man in the black car was. They gave detailed descriptions of the vehicle and the man, and described the fake exterminator costume as well. They mentioned not seeing the man for hours before the fire, and helped the search through the rubble for the device that set it off. The authorities apparently found something eventually, though they were reluctant to share the find with bystanders. The police finally left, thanking the kindly nosy neighbors for their enthusiastic help. Late in the afternoon, Roberts and Diaz were informed that Miss Becker and her friends would be descending upon the mobile home to search for anything recoverable. Michaels had discovered the date, time, and location of the funeral for Mrs. Becker, and also had acquired a copy of the police and fire department reports regarding the house fire. There was a timing device found in the debris, the report read.
Meanwhile, Thomas and O’Brian were continually babysitting the suspect, who was still sleeping after his hard work. Once the police had left the mobile home park, Roberts had a brilliant idea, and called Thomas on the radio. Then Thomas, at the direction of Roberts, placed an anonymous phone call to the police about a man at the motel that had a black car, and was last seen wearing an exterminator’s uniform. They gave a detailed description of the vehicle and the man, and of course, his last seen location. Then they sat back to watch the fun.
While Miss Becker and her crew were combing through the remains of her home, several police cars and a S.W.A.T. vehicle surrounded the motel where the black car was located. They stormed into the man’s room, announcing themselves as they busted through the door. Shots were fired. Many of them. An ambulance was called, and the man came out of the motel room in a body bag. The police carried out an exterminator’s uniform, plastic gas cans of volatile liquid, and other conclusive evidence. The threat had been eliminated. Or had it? The hired killer was terminated, but who had hired him? And would the person who did send another? If he had lived, he may have talked, but there was no chance of that now.
Roberts felt so good about having rid Miss Becker of the assassin threat that he decided to talk to her. He approached her, as she was about to leave the remains of her home, and made small talk. He told her how sorry he was for her double loss. He asked about her belongings, if anything was salvaged. When she mentioned the photos she had kept from the fire, he got excited. The director would want to hear about this. Then he wished her well, and Miss Becker and her entourage left.
Roberts assigned Davis and Michaels to follow, and called the director. He informed her of all that had taken place that day, from the times of the funeral, to the death of the suspect. She was sorry that the suspect was dead instead of just incarcerated. She really wanted to know who was behind the threats. Roberts agreed, and commiserated with her. She told him to keep up the guard on the girl, as if the threat were still eminent. It was possible that the suspect hadn’t discovered that the girl had not perished in the fire, so his report to whoever hired him could still be that the girl was dead. That could work in their favor. However, caution was still advised, so the watch was still to be in place. Roberts also mentioned the photos of the girl with her father that the girl was still in possession of. The director seemed to brighten at the news. Roberts agreed that he would get the girl to New York by Friday evening, the day after the memorial for her mother. The call ended.
Roberts had not had time to consider how to approach the girl about her upcoming trip. He knew she had to go. There was no option, but in light of what she had been through, taking her away from her friends right now seemed cruel. However, once she understood how important she was, that countless people were depending on her, he believed she would willingly be led away. He hoped she would be able to comprehend the imposing power she was granted the day she was born. After all, not every eighteen-year-old holds the responsibility for the future of the nation in her hands.