Danger Close (John Taylor #7) - Chapter 14

The sergeant hadn’t been exaggerating when he said it was out in the desert. He lead them, Chenier, and some conscripted soldiers from one of the training units several miles out into the desert, eventually ending at a series of poorly camouflaged pits containing a variety of crates and containers. Of course, this far out in the middle of nowhere, poorly camouflaged was still hard to see until you were on top of it, which explains why no one ever stumbled on it.

They’d brought the soldiers and several trucks to reclaim as much of the stolen goods as possible, but looking at the condition of the stuff he could see and considering how long some of it had been out in the elements, Taylor would be surprised in more than a third of it was going to be salvageable. Of course, he’d watched the army time and again abandon millions of dollars of equipment when abandoning or repositioning bases over the years, so he figured the loss wouldn’t actually affect the military in any way. At least with it recovered they could say with a straight face that nothing was actually stolen when an oversight committee ended up asking about the situation.

Taylor didn’t stay long on the reclamation. Now that he had the answers to what was going on with the phony black market ring, there was only one thing outstanding they needed to take care of. Lane was out there and his picture had been distributed enough that he wouldn’t have gotten far if he’d actually made a serious run for it. Lane struck Taylor as a planner, especially after learning how well he’d arranged for a cover for his murders, to the point that he’d killed for three years with more or less impunity before anyone twigged to his involvement.

Whitaker had stayed behind at the base, working out of the general’s former office since its previous occupant no longer needed it.

“General Leland was good to his word. They just sent over Lane’s psych profile and I’ve gotta say, you people are terrible judges of character.”

“Yeah. They let me in, after all. What does it say about Lane?”

“That they knew he was a whack job and ignored it, since they didn’t see him as being internally dangerous. This was done while he was still deployed and his boss appended a note that the psychologist had taken too civilian a viewpoint, misinterpreting a necessary military zeal with personally dangerous attitudes. He then wrote a long list of Lane’s achievements and commendations as a counter-rebuttal. Apparently whoever read it agreed, because they gave him the promotion over the psychologists’ recommendation. I’m just surprised it took until he was being cleared for his first star before someone noticed.”

“Remember that Lane was a career man. When he got in, no one took this kind of thing seriously. When Lane went to West Point, they were just coming out of Nam and the army was really unpopular. They weren’t having people breaking down their doors to be the next generation of leaders.”

“Well, they missed big on this one. I’d bet the Iraqi civilians weren’t where he started. The only reason he got caught was because he moved stateside and started killing Americans instead of civilians in third world countries.”

“There’s some stuff in here about difficulty empathizing with others, but nothing helpful for actually finding him.”

“That’s not surprising. These psych interviews aren’t therapy. They aren’t there to get to the root of a problem or solve anything. They’re just looking to see if someone’s fit for command.”

“Which they said he wasn’t.”

“Well, they’re mostly advisory, especially at Lane’s level. This would probably be enough to wash out a recruit just going into boot, but generals have too many connections for that.”

“So where do we go from here? Was there anything in the dumped supplies that would suggest where he went?”

“I don’t know yet. They dug trenches, dumped the stuff in and, when it got full, buried it. Chenier’s going to do an inventory of it against the list of missing supplies and see if anything’s missing, but that’ll take a few hours.”

“We can keep interviewing people he was blackmailing for the fake black market ring,” Whitaker said, frustration in her voice. “Maybe he made a mistake and let one of his contingency plans slip out around them.”

“I really doubt that. Lane’s been very thorough. He thought through this whole thing pretty well. He knew he got too close in Iraq and he couldn’t pull the same thing here that he did there, and worked out this scheme pretty fast.”

“It eventually ended up getting him caught.”

“Yeah, but it was close. Before the new secretary got involved, there was talk of just transferring everyone off base and separating them to shut down the black market ring. Hell, all but three of the murders weren’t even being connected to the base. He was pretty close to walking away and setting up somewhere new. It only unraveled on him because they brought us in. Any internal investigation would have done anything they could to keep the investigation inside the army and avoid locals. It wasn’t until we started listening to the sheriff that things went off the rails.”

“I don’t know, we had a shot at Corporal Evans. He should never have sent them against the money, knowing we were watching it.”

“He didn’t have a choice. We kept everyone BUT him out of the loop. He knew we were looking for the leak in the previous investigations and he was probably worried that we’d start looking at him if our trap was avoided. Besides, he had contingency plans. Hell, he got to Evans and then the tech before we could get anything out of either of them. When he killed the tech, he killed our last lead, so it basically worked. It was only ‘cause we listened to the Sheriff and started talking to the coroner after finding the tech that he panicked. Killing the Sheriff was his big mistake, but he was improvising by that point.”

“I guess.”

“Interviewing the rest of the people he was blackmailing is a good idea. I want to get a list of what they dumped and confirm where they dumped it. The only thing not sitting well with me yet is why he picked some of the things he did to steal, and some of the timing.”

“The timing?”

“Most of the thefts happened sporadically, with weeks or even months in between them, which was why it took so long for the army to come to the conclusion that it was an organized effort and not just mismanagement or someone acting alone. That makes sense, because Lane wanted it as a scapegoat for murders and to give the army something else to look at, but he didn’t want it big enough to get a serious response. There are a few thefts that happened right on the heels of the ones before it. When we looked at this originally, we thought the timing was based on either opportunity or orders from end buyers. Now that we know it was Lane behind everything and that there were no buyers, it changes how we look at that timing. Why did he double up on thefts when he did? It only happened a few times, so it wasn’t part of a plan, I don’t think.”

“So you think he needed something for his contingency plan and stole the items for that, and it won’t be in the stuff abandoned in the desert.”

“Pretty much. We won’t know until Chenier finishes his inventory and we see what’s missing, but I think that’s more likely than him accidentally letting something slip.”

“Okay, so we interview everyone again, this time specifically concentrating on what they know to be stolen and where it was dumped.”

“At least until we hear from Chenier.”

The second round of interviews didn’t go any better than the first. None of the people they talked to the first round would talk to them, even knowing how much the army had on them. The sergeant had named names, which meant it wasn’t just documentation gathered by Lane hanging over their heads anymore. The problem Taylor and Whitaker faced, however, was that most of them had been blackmailed for crimes much more serious than the thefts they committed against the army. Now that the information was out there, they had those additional crimes to face once the army was done with them.

They did get two more soldiers to confirm the sergeant’s story and point out things they knew to be stolen and where it was dumped, but it wasn’t enough to paint a good picture of everything they should find in the desert. One of the men did agree to also provide testimony against other soldiers he knew were involved, but Taylor wasn’t worried about that. The army already had JAG officers on the way to start setting up courts-martial and the FBI was also sending out agents to deal with soldiers whose pre-army crimes were big enough to warrant investigation. Now that they had it all figured out, Taylor was fine to let someone else deal with them and focus on just catching the general.

When they had run through all the incarcerated soldiers again, Taylor and Whitaker both had a chance to get some sleep they missed out on the night before. Whitaker had wanted to push on, keeping at the blackmailed soldiers while they waited for Chenier, but Taylor pointed out that when they figured out what items Lane might have stolen for himself, they’d have a lot of work ahead of them. They’d already been pushing themselves hard over the last week, trying to track down a fictitious black market ring, and they’d be no use to anyone completely exhausted.

Colonel Simmons had given them the use of one of the smaller, unused barracks, to get some rest. Small for the army meant a barrack that could hold thirty men, and felt cavernous with just Whitaker and him in it. But that didn’t keep him from passing out within minutes of his head hitting the thin pillow. It was a sign of how exhausted he really was by how long it took Chenier to shake him awake hours later.

“Finished?” Taylor asked groggily, looking up at the captain leaning over him.

“Yes, and you were right.”

“Whitaker,” Taylor yelled at his partner one rack over, startling her awake, focusing in on Chenier. “Some of the items are missing?”

“We think so. Some are pretty obvious, like the pallet of MRE’s. Others, most of the pallet was there, although one or two items were missing. It’s possible those got dropped while being delivered out to the desert or it got buried further down than we checked, but I don’t think so. Most of those pallets were shrink-wrapped up, and we can see where the shrink wrap was cut away right next to the missing items. Also, once we started listing out all of the missing stuff, it paints a pretty convincing picture.”

“Which is,” Taylor asked, pulling on his boots.

“He’s planning to stay off the grid for a long time, roughing it.”

“So what’s the list?”

Chenier handed him a sheet of paper with the list of missing items written out in barely legible handwriting. It was all materials someone would need to survive in the wilderness like tents, tools, dietary supplements, along with other, more ominous supplies like a significant amount of ammunition.

“He had to have staged supplies. There’s no way he’s able to carry this much stuff. The MRE pallet alone would have needed a truck to haul.”

“Unless he broke it down and carried it a little at a time. Most of this stuff was stolen in the first two years he was here, so he’s had time for it. All of the stolen stuff over the last year is accounted for,” Chenier pointed out.

“Makes sense. Once he had his escape plan set up, he had to keep up the black market ruse, especially since the army had already started to look into it and the murders. Since he couldn’t stop killing, he needed his scapegoat.”

“The real question is where he would have gone to set all this up?” Whitaker asked.

“It couldn’t have been far,” Taylor said. “He wouldn’t have been able to ferry this stuff without being noticed unless it was close. A few hours a week he could write off as personal errands, but disappearing for a whole day? Someone would have noticed.”

“I can have teams start working out from the here in all directions, focused away from town,” Chenier suggested. “We can cover a good amount of ground.”

“Why not ask the locals. He did take a bunch of bottled water, but that still will only get him so long,” Taylor said. “It’s why he took the water purification tablets, so he’ll need somewhere with a water supply. He also needs somewhere with a minimum amount of cover, since he’s not going to just be sitting in the open desert where he’ll be easily spotted. Deputy Morris has lived here for a long time. He’ll probably have some ideas of places that fit that requirement.”

“If he’s planned far enough to stage caches of supplies, he probably doesn’t plan on staying in place long,” Whitaker said.

“No, but he needs to keep a lower profile while we’re actively looking. My guess is he’ll give it some time before he moves again. It’s probably why he took the radio scanner. He’s going to monitor your frequencies and see when you’re gone.”

“He has to know we’ll change encryption to something he didn’t have,” Chenier said.

“Doesn’t matter. He isn’t trying to get direct intel. He just needs to get an idea if you’re still actively looking. You can tell from the volume of message traffic if an area is actively being searched, especially if you know how to watch signal strength and gauge distance and movement, which I’m betting the general does. It won’t tell you a lot, but it will tell you when an enemy is active.”

“So we shouldn’t be out in force?”

“You should. Actually, once we get an idea of where he is, I’m going to want patrols moving around in a sloppy grid search, chatting away. It’ll keep him in one place.”

“Won’t he rabbit if he thinks we’re getting too close?”

“Yes, which is why you’ll need to keep it close enough to make it worth staying in place, but far enough away that he isn’t spooked into making a run for it.”

“Okay, I’ll get teams set up and ready to start the grid search while you get an idea of where we should be searching near. Should I tell Colonel Simmons that we can pull the base off lockdown? I still have guys going over and hauling back the supplies and with the fake search, I’m going to be pretty stretched thin on men, even borrowing from the training companies. I could use the guys patrolling the fence line back.”

“No. I know it sucks, but we don’t know if we got everyone connected to him or if he set up some way to check in on activity at the base. Actually, we need you to have people watching for signals going out of and coming into the base. They’ll probably be scrambled on a frequency you don’t have, so that’s what I’d look for, but you need to listen in on everything, just to be sure.”

“You’re asking a lot, Taylor. We aren’t staffed up for this kind of thing.”

“Pull people from wherever you need to. Right now this isn’t a training facility. Motor pool guys, cooks, hell even janitors. I don’t care; we just need to keep the pressure on.”

“Fine. Let me know when you’ve got an idea of where to start looking.”

***

The next conversation was far less cordial. While Deputy Morris did answer, he did not sound at all happy to hear from them.

“What?” was the deputy’s one-word response when he picked up the line.

“We have news,” Taylor said. They’d discussed it beforehand and agreed they needed to throw the deputy a bone before asking any more favors from him. “We are pretty certain we know who the sheriff’s killer is.”

“I figured out you were close when you guys asked me to shut down the roads out of town. What’s his name?” the deputy asked, his tone changing instantly.

“We can’t say yet, but we’re positive we have your guy. We’re also confident the same person committed most of the murders on base and in your town over the last three years.”

“If you’re so certain, why can’t you say?”

“I know this sucks, but at the moment it’s classified. We need to get things under control here before we can release the information. I promise you I won’t let this fall down some kind of army black hole. As soon as we arrest him, we’ll make sure you know and that you know who it is. You might not be able to tell anyone else, but we’ll make sure you know we have Sheriff Martin’s killer.”

“What do you mean ‘as soon as we arrest him?’ You know who he is and he’s still on the loose?”

“That’s why we’re calling. We got close enough that he spooked and ran, which is partly how we ended up finding him. He’s been planning an escape for a while. We know he’s in the area, but we need some help finding him.”

“So you want me to help you track down a guy whose name you won’t tell me?”

“All we need is some information about the area. We think he’s gone to ground somewhere nearby. He’s been stashing supplies for living off the grid somewhere close to Fort Chilton. Probably no more than an hour or so out, since no one noticed these trips to set up supply caches for himself. Is there somewhere within an hour or so that has a nearby water supply and some kind of cover like trees or crevices that he could hide from searchers in?”

There was a long pause before the deputy said, “There’s not a lot of places to go. Even an hour out you’re talking dessert in any direction for an hour, unless you think he came into town.”

“I don’t think so. Someone would have noticed him making trips into town with loads of supplies. Even if they didn’t, I don’t think he’d risk it. Is there anything you can think of?”

“Well, it’s just about two hours from here, but if you go west you start getting into the foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains. Most of it is still scrub brush, but there are a few wooded areas along the Delaware River. It’s not as empty as you’d think, since there’s a fair bit of mining and whatnot out there, and if he was really tryin’ to lay low, he’d probably avoid those. There is a spot I know of, though. It’s a large area set aside for hunting, right near the river. During the season you have to pay to hunt on their land, but there are even some cabins out that way.”

“If it’s popular I’d think he’d avoid that, cause of crowds.”

“That’s the thing, it’s really only popular in hunting season, which isn’t until the end of spring. Off hunting season, there’s not much to see, especially since if you drive just another hour west, you hit some national parks. No, that area would be pretty empty this time of the year. If I was looking to lay low, it’s where I’d go. You wouldn’t want to go further into the mountains, since it’s got both hikers and park rangers when you hit the state and national parks and you’re close enough to state roads to make a run for it that way if you need to. It gives you options for getting out and it’s accessible by vehicles enough to haul supplies up without spending a lot of time packing them on your back. I’ll get together some of my boys and we can head out that way with you.”

“Thank you, Deputy, but we want to keep this low profile. If he sees us coming and runs, we’ll lose him.”

“We know this area a lot better than you two do. You stumbling about in the woods will do a better job of alerting him than my boys would. Searching places like this is different than working in a big city.”

“I appreciate the offer, but we can manage. I promise you I’ve got some experience in terrain like this.”

“I’m guessing this is a federal deal, so I won’t stick my nose in, but if you lose him I’m gonna make damn sure the news stations asking questions will find out what happened.”

“Fine,” Taylor said, hanging up.

“This is still a long shot. There’s a whole lot of land out there he could hide in. It seems a stretch he’d go to the one place the deputy would think of.”

“Maybe. East and South of us puts him in the areas where training happens, which makes it no good for him to leave caches of supplies. North it’s all open and flat, which just leaves him the mountains, but they’re pretty far out. He’s not a local and it’s not like he’s been doing a lot of expeditions out looking for places to set up his escape route. He’d know it was more or less empty and he’d have months to figure out his next move. Ultimately, he’ll try and get out of the country. Since the border crossings will definitely flag him, he’ll have to do it over the unmonitored areas, which means heading west into New Mexico, and then south across the border over the less monitored mountainous terrain.”

“There are so many qualifiers in that explanation, it makes my head spin.”

“Yeah, but I still think it’s our best bet. Now we have to go talk to Chenier and get the show on the road.”