They slipped out the back, locking it up like it had been, and returned to their vehicle, not bothering to take off their gloves just yet. After typing in the second employee’s address into their vehicle’s GPS, they headed out. When they got to his place, they found a small bungalow nestled in a block of similar-looking houses. It was a little bit better secured with bolts and a lock, but, even with that, they got in easily enough.
As soon as they entered through the back door though, they both stopped and froze.
The smell …
“Shit,” Nico said, his heart sinking. “This is not good.”
“We need to confirm though,” Keane said.
Silently they quickly went in with handguns out and at the ready. They swept through the small bedroom. Using flashlights, they held the light up to study the body on the bed, atop the covers, fully dressed, with one bullet to the head.
“I wonder if this is one of our two hotel workers,” Nico said. He quickly took a photo of his face and sent it in for Miles to identify.
“It’s hard to see in this light. The photo on the file wasn’t very current.”
“I know.” Just then Nico turned and headed to the bathroom. “And here’s a second one,” he called out. “And I recognize this one. These are our two missing employees.”
The two men exchanged hard looks, and Nico quickly told Miles about the newest update. Then he pocketed his phone, completed a full search of the house, looking for anything that would lead them to Charlotte or to find out why the kidnappers would have taken out these two local men. “Either they were loose ends or they caused trouble,” Nico said. “Or the other kidnappers are increasing profits for the job by reducing the number of ways the money needed to be split.”
“You know what? I’m almost tempted to believe the last one. It doesn’t make any sense that they would be cleaning up, unless they’re planning on killing Charlotte. And, with that damn helo on the roof, I don’t think she’s dead. Not at this point anyway.”
“And yet,” Nico stated, “there’s got to be another reason to kill her, not just because she’s an activist.”
“You’re right,” he said. “She didn’t have that big a voice in that community. It’s not like she made national headlines.”
“She wasn’t targeting a particular company or industry either,” Nico continued, “so it’s not like some big monopoly would be after her.”
“And that takes us back to the brother issue.”
Both men were silent and grim as they moved from room to room. In the kitchen in one drawer full of odds and ends they pulled out a notepad. A few names were written on it. Nico tapped the top name and said, “That’s the second DB in the bathroom.” They quickly tore off the top list and checked for more. Nico took a photo of the list, then sent it to Miles. These names, check them out.
“Why would he have that list here?” Keane asked, studying it.
“Hard to say but maybe it was early on, when they first started working together, and he wanted to know who the team members were.”
“Well, I know I wouldn’t work solo with somebody if I didn’t know who they were,” Keane said.
“Yet we’ve all worked with teams where we didn’t know some of the guys,” Nico said. “We might have had a first name or a second name, but, chances are, those aren’t the names that their mothers knew them by.”
“Yeah, but we knew who they were,” Keane said with a half smile. “We knew who they were inside. Otherwise we wouldn’t be working with them.”
“Agreed,” Nico said. Then, after a complete search of the home, the two of them turned and looked at each other. “Now to check the bodies,” Nico said. A couple empty grocery bags were on the counter. He quickly grabbed them both, and they returned to the first body. Keane followed. There, Nico pulled out the first DB’s wallet and dropped it inside one plastic bag and handed that to Keane, while Nico checked the rest of his pockets, doing as well as he could to not move the body. Considering the deceased was on his back, it was just a case of lifting up one side to make sure that each pocket was freed up.
With all the pockets turned inside out, and the cell phone taken, he handed everything over to add to the first bag Keane held, and then both men went to the second body. This one had a cell phone, a wallet and loose change too, but nothing else. That all went into the second grocery bag. In the kitchen, they quickly went through the wallets, looking for anything helpful. They photographed everything and then returned the wallets to the bodies. “The cops need the cell phones too,” Keane noted.
“Agreed. Sending everything on these to ours.” Nico pulled out a small device and hooked it up to each of the hotel workers’ cell phones and quickly downloaded as much as he could; then he popped out the sim card and replaced it with another one.
“You always walk around with sim cards?” Keane asked.
“Standard issue in my to-go bag now,” Nico said.
Keane shrugged and said, “If you say so.”
And then they turned and walked out, making sure they left no fingerprints on the doors either, taking off and pocketing their disposable gloves once outside. Back in their vehicle, this time Nico took over the driving as they headed toward the hotel. His phone rang, and he tossed it to Keane. “It’ll be Miles.”
“Miles, what’s up?”
“I’ve arranged for an anonymous caller to alert the local cops about the two DBs you found. Both men have records, but it’s all recent. Like in the last two to three months. Otherwise they’re both clean, and they both worked only at the
