‘I was on my way over to the child-protection centre today to interview him and—’
‘Don’t tell me. Stratton’s taken him,’ Hobart said, reckoning immediately that Stratton would want to protect the boy from Skender.
‘I don’t think so, sir. Stratton’s working alone here – at least, we think he is. The kid was abducted by two men this morning, neither of whom matched Stratton’s description. In fact, a witness who was beaten by the men knew Stratton and swears that neither was him.’
Hobart flashed Hendrickson another look as a new set of implications pelted his brain.
‘Stratton’s been in contact with the kid nearly every day since he’s been in LA,’ Hendrickson went on. ‘The boy was due to fly out of here in a couple days back to the UK.’
Hobart looked out of the window at the clear blue sea beyond the palm trees. But he saw only his thoughts. ‘So, what do you deduce from all of this, Hendrickson?’
‘Deduce, sir?’
‘Yes. To deduce. To draw a logical conclusion from something already known or assumed by a process of reasoning. It’s what we’re supposed to do for a living, goddamn it.’
‘Well … Skender’s people killed Stratton’s best friend’s wife—’
‘What?’ Hobart interrupted.
‘Yes, sir,’ Hendrickson said, feeling like a schoolboy who had forgotten to hand in his homework. ‘I only found that out from our people in London before I left the office this morning. Stratton is or was in Brit special forces.’
‘Wait up a minute,’ Hobart interrupted again. ‘Stratton’s a civilian now?’
‘No, sir. He works for the British government, that’s a certainty. It’s just that it’s unclear who he belongs to, the SBS – Special Boat Service – or SIS. Jack Penton was also in the SBS – they’re like the SAS but they also do seaborne operations. Penton and Stratton were on an op together in Iraq a month ago when Penton was killed. Stratton is also Josh’s godfather, Josh being the kid’s name. But Stratton isn’t on the special forces books, like he’s been moved. All enquiries to the SBS about him are deferred to the Brits’ Ministry of Defence. That’s why it’s been difficult to get anything on him.’
Hobart readjusted his thoughts. ‘Go on with your deduction.’
‘Okay,’ Hendrickson said, looking into space as if this was a quiz. ‘So … Stratton revenged Sally Penton’s murder because of his relationship with the family. One of Skender’s people then decided to avenge the deaths of Bufi and Cano—’
‘Why’d you say one of Skender’s people and not Skender himself ?’ Hobart interrupted again.
‘Because Skender’s not related to either of the men. He himself should have had them punished but he didn’t for some reason. I think Skender is less of an Albanian today than he was before he came here. He wants to stay in the States so he’s trying to adapt his m.o.’
Hobart nodded. Hendrickson’s reasoning was crude but interesting. Hobart himself hadn’t gone so far as to suspect someone else in Skender’s organisation but it was undeniably worth considering. ‘Go on,’ he said.
‘Well, maybe Skender but most likely someone else orders a hit on Stratton which backfires and so the kid is abducted.’
Hendrickson stopped there and Hobart looked up to see he was not about to continue. ‘Why?’
‘To get at Stratton, swap him maybe, I don’t know. I doubt whether the kid will survive those guys.’
‘And the possible repercussions? What now?’
‘Now … now I think the faecal matter could hit the air-oscillator. This Stratton guy is no pushover. He’s showed that he’s capable of taking on Skender’s people and winning. But not like the David and Goliath concept. More like a small guerrilla group taking on a professional army. He has advantages in being alone and being able to move freely. I don’t know what his skills are other than explosives but the guy kicks ass. The score is five to one if you count the kid. I think Stratton’s gonna go for them.’
Hobart found himself broadly agreeing. ‘So what do we do now?’
‘Look for Stratton.’
‘Of course. But should we give Skender protection?’
‘Not for me to say, sir.’
‘Off the record. What would you do?’
‘I don’t want to say even off the record, sir.’
Hobart knew that like everyone else on the team Hendrickson would like to see Skender and his people burn in hell. The thought of protecting the mobster was anathema. But Hobart had a job to do. How to achieve that was another problem. Skender would refuse any overt protection and if he suspected even a covert operation to protect him he’d accuse the Bureau of spying on him, which was against their special agreement.
Hobart decided to deal with that later. Right now he had to find Stratton. He would also put a team on the abduction but he knew that there was little chance of finding this kid Josh if the Albanians had him. Hobart needed more information on Stratton. A photograph would be a great start. The Brits would eventually help, once they accepted that their man was involved in a civilian homicide. But depending on how high up the ladder Stratton was they would want to get involved too. That could take time.
Then Hobart had a thought. The Brits worked hand in hand with the Americans in Iraq and in other matters too. There was therefore a good chance that Stratton had worked with American intelligence at some time and if so there would be a file on him somewhere in the USA. Then Hobart’s thoughts went back to the explosives that Stratton had acquired while in the US and suddenly the chance that he had once associated with US intelligence became more than just a possibility.
‘Sir?’ Hendrickson asked, taking Hobart out of his thoughts.
‘What?’
‘What do you think, sir?’
‘About what?’
‘My deduction.’
‘I think it was pretty good, Hendrickson. I want you to put out an APB to every US intelligence and special forces unit in this country.’
‘What’s an APB, sir?’
‘Don’t you watch old cop movies, Hendrickson? An all-points bulletin. Keep it simple. No information or mention of the homicides. All you need is a response to a British military operative named John Stratton. Cover everyone, and I mean everyone including the Salvation Army and the Boy Scouts. And make sure it’s in yellow,’ he said, referring to the highlighting of the text that everyone who read it would know meant highest priority.
‘Yes, sir,’ Hendrickson said.
‘Now,’ Hobart said.
Hendrickson nodded and turned away.
‘Hendrickson,’ Hobart called out. ‘I was joking about the Salvation Army and Boy Scouts.’
‘I know, sir,’ Hendrickson said. He hurried to the elevators only to discover that they were both on the top floor. He moved to the emergency stairs.
Hobart glanced back at the apartment. He did not expect to find anything in there that would lead to Stratton’s discovery so he headed for the elevator and pushed the call button. He considered Stratton’s likely options from this point on, assuming that the guy would expect the cops to be looking for him now. He’d probably go strictly cash, withdrawing as much as he could each day from various ATM machines. He’d also move to a low- profile and cheap local hotel. The main question was, how might Stratton go about getting Skender to hand over the kid? The obvious method would be to offer up in exchange something that Skender valued more than the kid – or more than Stratton, in fact. That would probably be Skender himself.
The elevator arrived and Hobart stepped inside, lost in thought. He had to assume for now that Stratton had more explosives – they appeared to be his preferred weapon. Skender would need to be convinced that Stratton could take him out, perhaps with a demonstration of some kind. That was what Hobart would do. But there he stopped himself, suddenly seeing the futility of trying to put himself in this Brit’s shoes when he and Hobart were completely different animals. Hobart could never have conceived hits like those in the court cells or the restaurant, for instance. Those had been conceived by the mind of a person greatly experienced in that world, which made Hobart wonder what kind of an SIS operative Stratton was. In the CIA, for instance, there were two categories of
