Twenty Eight
A
face flashed across the screen. A face
the man knew, but from where, where had he seen him before? “Sweet Jesus, I know him” he said to himself,
he had been the guy who had checked into room 222.
“Wow the little
s. o. b. has escaped” he spoke aloud; he reached for the old grey receiver and
quickly dialled 911.
“Hello police
department”
“Hello, it’s
about the guy from the news, the one who’s gone on the run”
“What about him?”
“I think he
stayed in my motel last night.”
There was a pause
while he was put through to the appropriate department.
“Hello detective
Lloyd”
The man repeated
his statement.
“What? Are you sure?”
“Yeah, he sure
looked like him”
Detective Lloyd
reached for his jacket then signalled to King.
“Okay, where are
you?”
He scribbled an
address.
“Okay, we’re on
our way”
Jo looked anxiously up to where the two
men now stood and from what she could make out they had a lead on Ingebrigtsen.
“
King pushed open the door and stepped
inside, brushing the rain drops from his coat as he approached the counter. “That
was quick, you must wanna catch him real bad” King grimaced. “Something like that”, the older man looked
thoughtful. “So there must be some kind
of reward?” King leaned on the counter and came face to face with the guy. “Helping us catch a dangerous fugitive is
reward enough.”
“Mm, now maybe I
were bit haste, maybe he just looked like him.”
King straightened
then caught the man by the lapels of the old 80’s style jacket and proceeded to
pull him over the counter.
“You are gonna
tell me everything you fucking know.
From the time he arrived till the time he left.”
The scruffy
looking man licked his lips, “Okay, maybe I did see him. He booked a room last night, room 222”
King let go of
him. “Key” he demanded.
The man scratched
at his beard as he searched for the key.
“There weren’t
anyone else with him was there?”
“Like who?”
“I don’t know, a
chick maybe?” Lloyd inquired.
“Now come to
mention it, there were a girl with him.
A pretty girl, mighty pretty she were”
Both men
exchanged glances. “Thanks” said Lloyd.
The room lay empty with nothing out of
place, the detectives having very little to go on. “Well if it were him, he’s gone now” Lloyd
mused. King turned to him, “Oh the
little shit were here all right” he retorted angrily.
“Well he’s gone
now”
“Yeah, come on”
“Where?”
“To talk to his
chick.”
“I thought
“Yeah, she was”
said King as he produced his phone.
Rosetta Cortez
stood by the kitchen counter shaking her head; she never had been able to work
her employer out. One minute he was in
police uniform the next he wasn’t. “Hey
hon, what you got planned for today huh?” he said, Jessica smiled up to where
he stood, she to wondering why he wasn’t wearing his uniform. “Just school an
stuff.”
“Yeah, drop buy the lab ASAP”
“Give me ten, I gotta
see Mason”
“Fine, see you in
ten bud, and it’s good to have you back”
Mason was a tall dark haired man in his
late fifties. He had been head of the
FBI Civil Rights Division for almost ten years now and had sent
“Well? How the hell did you manage to get yourself
Suspended?”
Ben Adams drew in
a deep breath, “I lost my cool, I know it weren’t very professional but well,
take a look at these?”
Mason put on his
glasses and read through the contents, when finished he slowly removed the
glasses and looked up to where
“What?”
“I’m sorry Ben”
“What you’re
telling me is that Jessica may not be legally mine?”
“The adoption was
illegal”
“Even with the
Mother’s signature?”
“Ben I’m so sorry
but these have been forged”
“This just gets
better and better” he muttered sadly.
Mason cleared his throat then looked the
younger man in the eye; he had to be sure that he’d be able to carry on with
the investigation.
“What? Of course I will, why wouldn’t I be able to?”
“Well Jessica is
Ingebrigtsen’s daughter”
“Yeah”
“Well it wouldn’t
really be viable for you to investigate his case now would it, just in case by
some miracle he was indeed innocent?”
Mason raised his
hands, “Sorry Ben, I should never have questioned your ethics”
“So what we got
on that case anyway?”
“Heaps, all I
need is the test results from Gerry and we should start coming up with some
answers”
“And the other
thing?”
“There are two”
“Two? What outa that whole precinct?”
“Yeah, I’m gonna
head over there today, I need a team”
“Sure, how many?”
“Say about six
that should do it”
“Okay, go gather
up your team”
“Ben, if you want
I could have one of my people take a look into that adoption, to see what
you’re up against?”
“Thanks Sir”
“No problem”
Gerry Welsh looked up when
“Did you come up
with anything?” he asked.
“Tell me Adams,
Ingebrigtsen is a natural blond is he not?”
“Well how would
you explain these?”
“What?”
“Have a look”
“Dark hairs how
the hell can that be?”
“How the hell did
they miss that over at the precinct?”
“Do we know whose
dark hair?”
“No but I got
someone working on it, I want you to take a look at something” Gerry said as he
moved to the other side of the lab,
“What’s that?”
“It’s a hat”
“Oh duh I could
see that Welsh, but what’s it to do with this case?”
“It was found at
the scene of the crime, a few months after Ingebrigtsen’s conviction”
“Err so?”
Gerry motioned
for him to follow him once again.
“Take a look” he
instructed.
“Okay, I know I
ain’t the sharpest tool in the box but what am I suppose to be looking for”
“The hair”
“Err dark?”
“Same as we found
on the clothes”
“Perfectly”
“Strange”
“Very, and we
found this blood sample”
“Ingebrigtsen’s?”
“Some of it is,
the majority belonged to
“There’s a but?”
“Yeah these here,
and there” he demonstrated by circling the droplets. “Don’t belong to either
Anderson or Ingebrigtsen,”
“There had to be
a third party?”
“Yeah and there’s
more”
“More?”
“This is
Ingebrigtsen’s blood”
“I think we
established that already.”
“Ah but what was
never established by anyone was the fact that these bloodstains were made long
before these” he pointed to
“What about the
gun?”
“Oh it belonged
to him alright; only it had been wiped clean”
“Naturally”
“Too clean”
“So we got
nothing on the gun?”
“No”
“Wait,
Ingebrigtsen’s girlfriend has dark hair”
“What? I thought
she was blond?”
“No not Kate,
Shelby she has dark hair, I don’t suppose we got any matches?”
“No, forensics didn’t
come up with anything”
“Keep working on
it”
“I will”
“I’m taking a
team over to the precinct now; call me if you come up with anything”
“I will”