I Bet on Losing Dogs - Patrick Jane

323 & 324 - Strawberries and Cream

Kenzie and Teresa stood in a gas station parking lot. Someone had a bomb and blew himself up.

"No secondary devices," said a policeman.

"All right," said Teresa. "Is the Fire Department done yet?"

"We're talking with the company about gas in the storage tanks," said another policeman.

"Excuse me," said Patrick, walking through a crowd and under the police tape. Kenzie turned to him in confusion.

"I didn't call you," said Kenzie. "What are you doing here?"

"Fighting crime. You?"

"Seriously."

"Seriously. A man uses a bomb to rob a bank? I mean, this baroque. Mysterious, even. What do we know?"

"Well, one, it wasn't a bank. Dinkler robbed his employer. It was a Cash in Motion store."

"Cash in Motion? Sounds like a game show."

"It's a long and money-transfer chain. People use them to wire money."

"Almost got away with 50 grand," said Teresa. "He stopped for gas, and Sac PD unis spotted him. Lucky for us, the lunatic only killed himself."

"If it's so cut and dried, why are you here?" asked Patrick.

Kenzie motioned to the crowd of new reporters. "Them. The media. Director Bertram wanted CBI presence here."

"Director Bertram. Let me ask you something. If Director Bertram wanted a CBI presence to jump off a cliff... would you and your CBI presence jump off that cliff?"

"Hell, no," said Kenzie.

"If there was overtime, sure," said Teresa.

Patrick and Kenzie looked at her. "That's very sad," said both of them at the same time.

The two of them walked into the gas station, talking to a store clerk.

"I knew that man was trouble," said the store clerk. I was looking right at him in his car. He was, uh, making gestures at me."

"Gestures?" asked Kenzie.

"Yeah, pointing at me like that: Real insistent," said a woman. "It was creepy. And those eyes. Crazy, angry eyes."

Patrick hummed. "Pointing. Crazy, angry eyes." He turned to another customer. "And you, sir? Anything else you remember about the bomber?"

"I thought I was dead. I saw the bomb around his waist, and I thought, this is it. I'm dead."

They stood in front of a monitor, watching the security footage of the bomber. Patrick turned to her. "This man wasn't angry or crazy. He was terrified. Interesting, huh?"

LaRoche and Bertram walked into the gas station.

"This is horrible," said Bertram. "Horrible. High-impact visuals like this, the media will carry the story for days. I've got a wolf pack of journalists outside. What do you have, JJ?"

"Agent Patterson?" called out LaRoche.

"Alan Dinkler, 27 years old, no priors," explained Kenzie. "He robbed his employer, a Cash in Motion store. Walked into his boss' office, showed him the bomb... demanded to be let into the vault. He got $50,000. But I believe that Dinkler was the victim here. He was abducted, put into the bomb jacket... and coerced into committing the crime. Bomb squad confirmed the device was activated by remote control."

"How awful. That poor, poor man. Used as a puppet," said Bertram. "But the thing is, the person behind this wants money. So this is not terrorism, right?"