Robert Waggoner - John - The Senior Killer

About two o’clock Earie’s husbands showed up making the security go off. Earie hurried to the door to let him across the yard and Brad greeted him with a warm handshake and told him to sit down and have a cup of coffee while they waited for the go signal to head to the beach. The other members of the team came up and all were introduced around and Lane Brown greeted all with a little awe and respect. After the intros down the beach they went with blankets and ice chests full of drinks of all kinds. Sandy stayed home and came to attention when they all left except the old Korean woman who stayed and cleaned the kitchen.

Walking down to the beach and tucking themselves out of the wind, the team made a nice fire out of gathered drift wood. Brad thought it good the team could relax after a stressful couple of months. He vowed to give them a few days of relaxation while he worked out a plan for going to South Korea and then over to China along the border with North Korea.

Nancy, Brad noticed was into the swing of things much different than last time when she showed up with her tail between her legs. Now she was helping build the fire and spreading blankets around to sit on. Agent Jones and Wendy went up the creek to find some sticks to roast some marshmallows on. Billy was smoking more than the fire was as he sat Indian style with Mike and Julie’s two boys talking computer games and the internet. Brad thought Billy wasn’t much more than a kid himself as he watched him with the young boys. The tide was in and starting to turn back out. It was early that morning Brad had taken a crab pot and with a chicken from the freezer dropped it off the side of Fish Rock. In a couple of hours the tide would be low enough for him to fetch the crab pot and see what occupied the jail inside. He’d carried down a big pot and all wondered what he was going to do with a big pot when it was just a picnic. Brad and Sujin inwardly smiled at the idea of live crab probably never seen by agent Jones, Wendy or Nancy.

The picnic was relaxing and the creek was still rather high for May. Kids could lie in the fresh water and let the stream run over their bodies. The creek was only fifty yards from the Kitchen and when the kids and adults got cold they would run to the fire and warm up. Brad and Steve were thinking about other things and even though they were involved in small talk, all could sense his inner problems. Something was up and all waited patiently for what was on his mind.

By four in the afternoon the tide was low enough to walk to the ledge of Fish Rock to check the crab pot. Brad asked if anyone would like to go with him to check the crab pot and Wendy, Nancy and agent Jones jumped up like there was a fire somewhere on their blankets. Walking to the rock, which was only a hundred yard from Devils Kitchen, a buzz of talk about what the hell was going on filled the air. Still a cold wind was blowing from the north and the sun was slowly dipping towards the horizon out to sea. A bright glaring light reflected on the tranquil sea making the beach walkers hold their hands above the eyes lessening the glare. Brad and team jumped onto the ledge between surges and walked down to near the southern point of the rock where he had tied off the rope to a piton long ago driven into a crack above the tide line. Agent Jones asked if he could drag it in and Brad turned the job over to him. All watched as the pot came near the ledge and finally brought up to the ledge where a dozen or more crabs scrambled around inside the wire cage. Brad had given Wendy a plastic bucket to put the crabs in and he opened the wire door and reached in what looked like a dangerous thing to do as large pincers were raised in defense of what they knew as a large predator invading their space. In no time Brad had thrown back into the sea the small ones and kept the larger ones placing them in the plastic bucket. Six adult crabs were carried back to the fire. All of them including Brad were acting like young kids when they returned with the crabs. Mike meanwhile had gone to the ocean and filled up the large pot to boil the crabs in. Billy helped him carry the heavy pot back to the fire. Brad told them you need salt water to cook the crabs in. It took a while for the water to boil and the kids plus Nancy and Wendy played with the crabs taking one out of the bucket and letting it go to run around trying to get away with pincers high in the air for protection. Mike took one of the sticks for cooking marshmallow and showed the neophytes how strong the pincers were on adult Dungeness crabs.

The water finally came to a boil as the sun edged closer to the west where it would meet the sea in about an hour or around seven daylight savings times. Sujin took out of a bag crab crackers which are like pliers to crack the tough exoskeleton of the crab. Brad took a long pair of tongs and after only a five to ten minute boiling the crabs turned red in color ready for the watering mouth of the expectant eater. Brad led the way showing how it was done along with Mike who was even faster. Sujin had melted some butter mixed with onion and garlic to dip the crab in. Loud praise went around the fire as fresh crab boiled on the beach with good friends is hard to beat. Julie had brought a gallon of homemade dark burgundy wine to wash the rich crab down. When only a pile of shells were left smoldering in the fire, the picnickers were all slightly on their lips.

As the long red rays of the sun made the sky red all stood on the beach watching the sunset singing a song that no one knew the words to. When the sun went to bed they all cleaned up their mess and slowly walked back to the Round House and a good night’s sleep. The kids crashed on the floor with Billy and Mike and Julie took a bedroom for their own. Steve had his room and agent Jones was left to the sofa downstairs. No one cared where they slept and come morning there was more than one headache from the wine and rich crab from the night before. No one complained and by eight am all were sitting on the floor around the table drinking tea or coffee, all except Brad and Steve who were talking at the wood table by the kitchen.

Brad had told Sujin of the new case about North Korea. Sujin asked him if he thought they were trying to ease him and his team out of the serial killer case. “Probably because of the new director wants to prove he can do it without outside help. He’ll find out the hard way that this guy is way above average in intelligence and a force to be reckoned with. I’m not going to worry about it for now. I think John will go to ground as that last round in Anacortes probably shook him up a little. Now he will be more careful and it will make him harder to catch, unless….,” He paused in his speech thinking and then continued by saying, “maybe he will think he is invincible?”

“I like the both of them put together,” Sujin said

“Yes, I’ll pass this on in the morning and see what Wendy and the team thinks.”

Back at the kitchen table Brad told Steve he and his team were in on the Korean operation.

Billy went out for his usual two or three cigarette after breakfast smoke and hurried back in saying to everyone very loudly with an unlit smoke in his lips to come outside and look at the dog house. Sandy had had her litter and was still licking one of them as first Sujin looked in with Brad looking over her shoulder. Three pups were suckling on her as Rocky sat back and had a nonchalant look about him like, hey guy’s, what is the big deal here?

Sujin hated the thought of leaving Sandy alone here, but her sister could and would take very good care of them. Her husband Lane would stay here while they were gone along with the old lady. The rest of the team would fly to San Francisco and from there to Seoul. Steve would go back to Washington to his office and later fly to Seoul for an update for Brad and his team.