Robert Waggoner - John - The Senior Killer

Did he follow us to the motel, she thought. If so, he must have changed places with his brother very quickly. That would mean the secret room is under the house. To leave the house through the back and make his way to a hidden vehicle meant he had planned this from the beginning to find out who was looking for him. It gave her the chills thinking about it as they went back to the motel and lunch.

Sujin went to the ladies room before having lunch with the team. Of course she memorized the license plate, but she realized it would lead nowhere. The rental place would have a completely different description of him or her that what he truly looked like. This was his turf and now he had a good look at who was in charge of the case and what really was his purpose of hanging out in the parking lot? Maybe he thought he could kidnap a member or the team? She would share this new development with the others as she made her way to a small meeting room where lunch was being consumed.

She sat down next to Brad and he took one look at her and Sandy and realized something happened either in the motel or outside. He made no move to ask and waited until she was ready to tell the story. She ate her cold soup and baked trout like nothing was any different. Small talk was going around the table and that was when Steve, looking like he’d been up all night, walked in with a drawn haggard look. He took an empty chair as the waiter asked him if he would like some lunch. He told the waiter he would have whatever the lady was eating and bring him some fresh and not old coffee. The waiter saw the look in his eye and told him he would brew a fresh pot for him right away.

Brad looked at his friend and said, “Burning the midnight oil, Steve?”

Steve looked him in the eye and said, “We have to find this guy and bring this spree of killing to a halt.”

Brad told him they had found the killer and plans were in place to try and apprehend him. When he had Steve’s attention, he told him the story in detail and when he finished, Sujin took his place relating the parking lot incident.

Wendy was shocked and couldn’t believe what she heard. So brazen of him and it appeared he was teasing them; daring them to catch him and if they did, what would the charges be. This was becoming so bizarre and complicated it was making her mind change gears to keep up with the rapidly changing events of this drama.

Steve asked a few questions as Norm got up and made a phone call to his office reporting the story of Sujin encounters with the suspect. He’s been contacted earlier by the agent at the farm that indeed they took his picture and got his DNA. Other than that he reported the guy only blubbered and cried the whole time. He was acting like a ten year old kid, the agent reported. As to the escape route, the agents found a trail and a place where a vehicle had been parked on an old logging road. It had been drizzling rain most of the time and there was a dry place under some trees next to a gravel road just off the main Bald Hills road, but out of sight from anyone parked near or at the farm itself.

Brad took all this in and said, trying to ease the tension around the table. “Look, whether or not he intended us to find the farm through the pig book the fact remains we did. We found him and he held the ace in the hole by buying enough time to make good his escape. Now if the one clue was left by him, then that means more clues are waiting for us. The books will tell us his next move and I think our business here is over for now. We will leave the FBI to do their jobs finding out the DNA and following up on the death of father JJ. I think we will find out the father was murdered and most likely it was John that committed the murder of his father. Now, one more thing, this guy followed us here and I don’t want him following us to Oregon. Steve, tell the pilot to file a flight plan to Seattle and then a flight plan to Salt Lake City. Meanwhile we will drive to Portland and meet him there at the international airport next to the Columbia River.”

Before leaving Brad had a private word and left Norm a phone number committed to memory after he gathered the facts about the lawyer who drew up the document; the father’s cause of death; and the case history of Paul Mitchell, the retarded member of the family.

In case they were followed the FBI had a method of deception for just this purpose. First they drove to the shopping mall. A large eighteen wheel truck stood backed into an unloading dock next to the J.C. Penny store. At the opposite side of the store, where the follower might be waiting thinking they would just walk through the store and out the other side into waiting cars, they would in fact enter the trailer of the truck. It was custom designed in the back for on location communications and other vital needs of the FBI. Thirty minutes later they were headed down the I-5 southbound to Portland. In the first rest area a van waited for the passengers to continue down to Portland. Even Mike was impressed as he sat on a sofa next to the wall. He was quite comfortable and took a nap until the rest area.

Back at what was euphemistically known as the Round House, the team sat around the floor eating another delicious Korean dinner. Another storm or as Wendy thought, maybe the same one hammered rain against the windows. A nice wood fire kept the damp out of the air. Rocky replaced Sandy at Brad’s side. Wendy was famished as she used her chopsticks in a dish she had heard Sujin say it was mandu. They looked like homemade dumplings and tasted wonderful. Mostly she was told they were filled with vegetables with only a little ground chicken, and of course steamed brown rice and baked fish round off dinner. Billy was happy everyone was back. He’d told the team he had some important results from the computer and was anxious to share the news with the team. He gobbled down dinner and headed for the door to chain smoke a few cigarettes before the after dinner meeting. Agent Jones was there with the books. Brad was satisfied all was going as well as could be expected.

Agent Jones had arrived in the morning. Earie was expecting him. After unloading the books he went for a walk on the beach. Mostly because he didn’t know what to do while Billy was locked onto the computer and it was only when he helped with the books and watched him smoke two cigarettes, he really felt out of place and asked if it would be ok to take a walk on the beach. Billy told him to help himself and to tell Earie what he was doing so she could be on the lookout for him when he came back. Agent Jones had heard about the house on the beach, but never in his wildest dreams did he realize what it really looked like. He’s yet to see the basement and yearned with curiosity what lay under the first floor. Jones thought his mother would have a fit if she saw the place. He laughed thinking about how she would have drift wood stacked around the windows and god knows what all for furniture left to her own devices. He sobered thinking about all the questions she would have for him when he came back home.

Agent Jones was fresh out of law school and had just completed his training at the FBI school. He’d gotten lucky being stationed near his home in Sausalito. His parents had sacrificed their lives for his education. His father worked for PG amp;E, the Northern California utility company as a truck driver. He’d worked all the overtime he could get to put his son through college and then law school. He was proud as a peacock with his son landing a job with the FBI. His mother bragged too much with the neighbors about her black son working for the famous FBI. He loved his parents and now that he was working he had money deducted from his salary sent to their bank. Billy lived in an apartment in a not so good part of town in the old town of Sacramento. However, the rent was cheap and it was good enough for him for the time being.