Price of Life (Sue Thomas FBEye)

Chapter Five

"That's it!" exclaimed Tara.

"Conference room, everyone," ordered Dimitrius.

They all complied, leaving the bullpen empty. As the conference room closed, the elevator door opened. The couple stepped out, only to find nobody. They called the elevator back. They would deal with it tonight.

Tara was at the board writing names.

"Jane Doe #3 is Kate Lewis from Windsor, Ontario. And our Jane Does from the Detroit case are Shaylene Jordan from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Debbie King from Hamilton, Ontario. All Canadian girls, that's why it took me longer to find their identities. The money, like I said earlier, is sitting in a Canadian bank. Name on the account is L. Jones. I still haven't figured out who that is. Now, license plate. BBP338, dark green Ford Windstar 2001, registered to Mrs. Marie Thomson, and BBP838, dark green Ford Windstar 2001, registered to a Mr. Allan Rogers. Couldn't find a record for Mr. Rogers, but got his picture from his driver license." She pinned an 8x10 on the board. "Jack, meet your neighbor's nosy friend."

"Unless Jack's stalker has a twin brother."

"Let's not go there, Myles. So, what's the connection between him and the Reverend?" asked D.

"I couldn't find anything on Mr. Rogers, yet," admitted Tara.

"Lucy, get a hold of Howie as soon as possible," Jack asked. "Sue needs to show him that picture. See if he can find anything."

"I'm on it, Jack."

"Now people, it's a good thing we are going somewhere because our timetable just shrunk," D said. "Myles and I were out meeting my snitch. He has it from a good source that twelve passports are on the making for white young American women matching our spec. They are supposed to be ready by next Friday, but apparently, our artist is still missing the pictures of three women."

"That Rogers said 'Three more' when he was talking to the Reverend on Wednesday night," recalled Jack. "He's missing three girls, and delivery is Friday?"

"Logical conclusion. Unfortunately, we still don't know how and where they pick them up," stated Dimitrius.

***

Bobby unlocked the door and walked in with two cases of beer.

"More where it came from, sheila," joked Bobby as he entered the kitchen, forgetting Sue couldn't hear. He almost dropped the beer when he saw her on the kitchen floor, curled with Levi securely locked in her arms.

"Sheila?" He pulled her to him, letting Levi go. "Sue?" He turned her face to him. "Sheila, what happened? Jack's going to kill me." To his relief, her eyes slowly focused on him. "Sheila? Are you okay?"

"Bobby?"

"Yah, it's me. Are you okay?"

She nodded, taking a deep shaky breath.

"That's it, just breathe." He rubbed her shoulders, keeping her close to him. "Now, don't get any idea, sheila. I really like you, and I know it looks bad for me right now, but I'm not trying to steal you from Jack." A big grin spread on his face, now that he knew she was going to be fine.

"Thank you, Bobby," she said, moving away and getting up.

"Want to share?"

"I...I had a visitor."

Bobby froze.

"Not him, Bobby. His wife. She's scary. She...she just walked in the kitchen, right after you left. I was surprised, but she seemed harmless. She just stood in front of me. She knows ASL. She just started signing, her lips were not moving. She kept going on about her daughter Lisbeth. From what I got she was deaf and died of an overdose at a teen party. She said I reminded her of her. Then she left. Didn't touch me, just rattled me pretty hard."