PART II
When Robert left Chad’s house, he waited several hours and returned to place a homing device on the underbody of Chad’s car. He also picked the door lock and placed a tiny microphone inside the upholstery. Then he removed the dashboard air vent and positioned a tiny, wide angle camera. He repositioned everything and went home.
The following morning he waited several blocks from Chad’s house and monitored his surveillance gear. As soon as he heard Chad’s engine start and picked up motion on the car, he drove to Chad’s house.
He arrived there driving a van disguised as a delivery truck. He put several boxes on a dolly, wheeled them to the front door and positioned them in front of the door lock. With the boxes hiding him from public view, he started to work on the lock.
Once inside, he located the house alarm system and temporarily disabled it. He carted all of the boxes in and opened the top one. Robert took out a black briefcase, set it on the floor and removed several remote bugging devices. Twenty minutes later, the job was done and Chad wouldn’t be able to fart without Robert hearing it.
Robert packed everything back up and left the house, (with exception of the listening devices), in exactly the same manner in which he found it.
He returned to his vehicle and tried to determine Chad’s location. Unfortunately, it looked like he had gone to work. Robert had hoped to get there before Chad so he could bug the store as well.
Robert decided to drive a distance half way between the mall and Chad’s house and wait.
He was surprised to see the vehicle leaving just minutes after it arrived there. “The rat is on the move. Maybe he’s looking for cheese,” said Robert as he started his truck and moved in Chad’s direction.
Robert caught up with the signal and spotted Chad’s car as it passed him. Robert turned into a business parking lot, turned around and sped back out. He was only six cars behind Chad.
He dropped back a couple of more cars and followed Chad to an indoor movie theatre. It was featuring a child’s matinee. Chad parked, went to the window and bought a ticket. Minutes later, he emerged from the theatre carrying a huge tub of popcorn. He walked briskly to his car, looked around and got inside. He sat there momentarily, opened his car door again and dropped the popcorn tub to the pavement. Then he drove off slowly and cautiously, like an elderly person on a Sunday drive.
Robert waited for Chad to get out of sight and then walked to the discarded popcorn container. The tub was large enough to hold a gallon of milk, yet there were only a couple of handfuls of popcorn on the pavement.
He picked the tub up, looked inside and said, “What else did you have inside beside popcorn?”
He threw the tub back down and returned to his truck. His cell phone started ringing as he turned the ignition key.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hey, Bob, it’s Jack.”
“Mr. Maxwell. How are you doing this wonderful, bright and shiny day?”
“I have some feedback on badge 4512. Your hunch was right. It’s an active badge and it belongs to Sergeant Harold Bosley. I showed him the pic you e-mailed me. The scar was the clincher. It belongs to a clever loser named Curtis Blanchard. He was busted a couple of times by Bosley. He nailed him once for armed robbery. He got him again a year or so later for possession with intent to sell. The second charge didn’t stick so he was cut loose. That had him under surveillance because they suspected he was the trigger in a brutal double murder. Bosley got him again on a different charge, just when he was about to make a big score of some kind. Blanchard got three-to-five in the same prison with our Nuxhall guy. We’ve got a pretty mean team going if they’re really working together.”
“Thanks, Jack.”
“Do you have anything else we can use to get these guys?” asked Jack.
“I’ve got some pins lined up. All I have to do is wait for Chad to knock them down,” said Robert.
“We don’t have enough to go to the judge with. I’ll send you some help in a couple of days. All of the guys will be tied up on other stuff until then.”
“Thanks again, Jack. I’ll take any help I can get.”
“Gotta go, Bob. Keep me posted if anything new turns up.”
“You got it.”
Robert saw that Chad was headed back to the mall. “Let’s go see what our boy is up to,” he said as he drove off.
When Robert got to the mall, he looked at the video he had recorded from Chad’s car. He was hoping he would be able to see what was in the popcorn tub. It showed Chad brushing some popcorn out of the way and removing a medium sized, brown paper bag. He set it on the front passenger seat without opening it. Then it showed Chad picking it up and taking it with him as he got out of the car.
Did he take it to his store or did he meet someone in the parking lot? Maybe he gave it to someone in another store. Robert could only guess at this stage. He decided to go back into Chad’s store and press some of Chad’s buttons.
When he walked in, Chad was nowhere around. A young girl walked up to him and asked if she could help him with anything.
“Is your store manager in?”
“He stepped out for few minutes, is there something I can help you with?”
Robert produced his credentials and said, “I’m a private investigator and I need to see him on some personal business.”
The girl became nervous and fidgety. Robert looked around the store and decided to roll the dice. He sized the girl up and watched as she clasped her hands together and fiddled with her fingers. He assumed she was hiding something and inexperienced enough to play into a bluff “Maybe you can help me. Your manager is involved in some serious issues strictly forbidden by the laws of this state. If you’re involved in any way, or withhold information pertinent to this investigation, you will be charged equally under the law. If, however, you cooperate and assist me, you will be given favorable consideration.”
The girl bit her lower lip and looked into the general mall area. She turned back to Robert and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do. You know it and I know it.”
“Look, mister, if I knew anything and told you, my life wouldn’t be worth squat. Chad has a mean side and very bad temper. He really scares me.”
“Why are you still working here then?”
“I’m good at what I do. Chad can leave the store at any time and I can handle any situation that comes up. I generate a lot of sales and ultimately make him look good.”
She bit her lower lip again and glanced into the mall. “One night, after the store closed and he was doing the closing paperwork, I told him I was going to quit. He glared at me and said I wasn’t allowed to quit. So, I told him again. I said I was serious. I wanted to leave and work somewhere else. He grabbed one of my breasts and said he would cut both of them off and send them to my parents in a gift box. He said he wasn’t sure if he’d cut my ears off next or stick an ice pick in my eyes. He said he’d have to see what mood he was in at the time.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“And tell them what? If I told them what I just told you, my parents would be getting a gift box in the mail and I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you.”
“Is there anything at all you can tell me without incriminating yourself?”
“No. I have to go now. Chad will be back any minute,” said the young girl as she walked away.
Robert walked the store for a few minutes and waited for Chad. The girl kept as much distance between him and her as possible.
He was looking at some clearance merchandise when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Robert turned around and saw Chad standing there, smiling.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Nuxhall,” said Robert.
“Veronica tells me you’ve been harassing her and that you refuse to leave.”
“She never mentioned leaving to me,” he replied.
“Well, Mr. Munford, you’re a private investigator so you should be familiar with the law.
I’m asking you to leave my store, which is private property, and never return.” Chad turned to the girl and waved for her to come over. She walked to Chad and stood to his side. She bit her lower lip and looked at Robert.
“Veronica, I’ve already asked Mr. Munford to leave my store. I’m going to ask him again, this time with you as a witness. Mr. Munford, leave my store immediately. Being a knowledgeable man, you realize that as long as you continue to stand there, you’re guilty of criminal trespass. As such, I can have you arrested and thrown in jail. You have until I count three to leave. Then it’s a 911 ticket out of here for you. Do I make myself clear enough for you?”
“Crystal clear,” said Robert as he patted Chad on the shoulder.
“That’s assault, Mr. Munford. Just another charge for you to explain.”
“See you later, Mr. Nuxhall,” said Robert as he walked out of the store.
“See me later? Hmmm. Maybe. You better be ready for me if I do see you later.”
Chad suspected Robert was putting a full press on so he called a friend and asked if he could borrow his car. Once that was arranged, he called another friend and asked him to check his car out.
“Hey ya’ Curtis. It’s Chad. That private jackass I was telling you about is turning into a real nuisance. Come get my car and check it out. I’m guessing he probably has it bugged. Let’s teach him a lesson. We’ll talk later about the how, why, when and where.”
“Consider it done,” said Curtis as he hung up the phone and went to get Chad’s car.
Curtis took the car to a garage frequented by local criminals. It was used to change vehicle identification numbers and make necessary alterations to stolen cars.
One of the mechanics “swept” it with an electronic detection device and quickly found all of Robert’s plants.
Curtis phoned Chad with the results. “Hey, man, it’s Curtis. The car was loaded all right. Wanna’ do County Road 5?”
“Good idea. What time?” asked Chad.
“How about tonight around ten o’clock?”
“See ya’ then,” replied Chad.
Robert was listening to the conversation but wasn’t quite sure what they were talking about. They may have been talking about dumping the car or maybe they were talking about some kind of meeting. Either way, he would be ready.
He exchanged his truck for a car and got a map of the area. County Road 5 was a long stretch of rural highway that joined two rural counties. It had very few stop signs and was lined on both sides with hundreds of pine trees.
Robert drove to the highway and traveled a few miles of it to size it up. It gave him a bad feeling but he had to play the hand out.
Chad left his house at twenty minutes until ten and headed in the general direction of the county road. Robert was close behind. He no longer had electronic tracking devices on the car so he had to maintain visual contact. Surveillance on a road with no streetlights and little other traffic would make his car stand out like a boil on a model’s face.
They had been driving north on the road for about ten minutes when a new set of headlights appeared in Robert’s rearview mirror. At first he thought it was a good thing. He would slow down and let the car behind him pass, thus putting another car between his and Chad’s to help hide the surveillance. But when Robert slowed so did the car behind his. Maybe the person behind me is just a very cautious driver.
Chad stopped at one of the few stop signs and just sat there. Robert was at least forty car lengths behind and Chad didn’t move. Robert noticed that the car in his mirror was closing the gap and had moved to maybe one or two car lengths behind him. Chad still hadn’t moved.
Robert slowed down and so did the car in the rear. There were only two or three car lengths left and Robert would be playing tag with Chad’s bumper. He took a look in the mirror and said, “I’m in a vice!”
He turned the steering wheel sharply to the right, drove a couple of feet and then sharply to left and held it until he completed a U-turn. He looked in his mirror as he drove away and saw both cars sitting at the stop sign. The cars remained stationary the entire time he was driving away, confirming several things in his mind. The immediate concern was being in a vice so he could neither drive ahead or in reverse. He would be trapped between the two vehicles and be at the mercy of the drivers. Another thing he confirmed was that these guys were playing for keeps. He decided that the prudent thing to do would be to back off somewhat and wait for Jack’s cavalry to arrive and help him out.
Chad got out of his car when he saw that Robert had driven out of sight. Curtis followed suit and met Chad at his trunk.
“We’ve got to stop this shit before it gets worse,” said Chad.
Curtis lit a cigarette and nodded.
“Get rid of the bitch and we get rid of this asshole. He’ll keep dogging us as long as he’s getting a check. If we keep buttin’ heads, he’ll end up bringing in the cops and then we’re screwed.”
“Stop the money and we stop him. You know how to get to the bitch’s house, right?”
“Yep,” replied Curtis without looking at Chad.
“Then leave tonight, track her down and make it slow and painful. Make the bitch regret the day she was born.”
Curtis smiled and said, “Now we’re getting to the really fun stuff.”
“You have to leave tonight though. Don’t forget, we have big business at the end of the week so it has to be done quickly. Don’t contact me in any way until you’re done and see me face-to-face in the mall. I’ll keep a low profile and establish a rock solid alibi.”
“It’ll take me thirty minutes to get home, thirty minutes to pack and two or three hours to ice the bitch when I get there,” said Curtis as he flicked his cigarette to the pavement.
“I’m just sorry I couldn’t be there to share in the fun. Once we’re sure the private dick is out of the picture, we’re going to have to take care of Veronica. She’s becoming a liability. I know she said something to Munford and she’s going to have to pay for it.”
“Will you let me do her before you mess up her body?” asked Curtis.
Chad nodded. “You can do her before and after. I don’t give a shit.”
Curtis smiled and said, “Now I’m motivated to get back in a real hurry.”
The two smiled at one another and returned to their cars. They both drove off. Chad headed for home and Curtis was going to Florida.
When Robert returned to the office he set up a conference call with Donna and Marcia. He briefed them on the incidents of the night and suggested they upgrade the Florida surveillance to a 24-hour-watch.
“I have a feeling we stumbled into something much bigger than we imagined. These guys are serious and I’m guessing they’re looking to end our interference…one way or another,” said Robert in a solemn voice.
“I think we’re all pretty much in agreement,” said Donna. “I’ll get authorization from Mac to extend the surveillance. You’re pretty sure Curtis Blanchard is our man?”
“Chad seems to be the type of guy with a very limited inner circle. I doubt he would trust more than one guy. And I’m certain the guy coming to meet him in the mall was Blanchard.” stated Robert.
“Has Jack e-mailed you a picture of the guy yet?” asked Donna.
“Not yet but I should have it by morning. I’ll call you the moment I get it and send it to you.”
“Have you been able to identify anyone else that may be associated with Chad?” asked Marcia.
“There’s a girl named Veronica that works in his store that seems to have some knowledge of what’s going on but fear has her vocal cords paralyzed.”
“With this guy, the fear is probably justified. We’ll have to see if there’s a way to extract her from the situation safely,” said Marcia.
“I’ll work on a plan with Jack. Well, anything else?” asked Robert.
“Nothing here,” replied Marcia.
“Nothing here,” replied Donna.
They passed along their go
odnights and hung up. Meanwhile, Curtis Blanchard was highballing down Interstate 95 and headed for Florida.