“Maybe you need a fresh pair of eyes.”
“Maybe so. I will have their files sent over to you in the next few hours.”
“I appreciate that.”
Pinnacle One then stood up, Bridge doing the same. “We’ll keep plugging away at it.”
Bridge nodded. “I’ll do the same.”
“Oh, before I go, how ‘bout an introduction to your better half? You met her after you left us, did you not?”
“I did.”
Bridge thought about it for a second, wondering if he actually wanted to have Nicole show herself physically. P-One already knew what Nicole looked like. He’d looked at the files, that was obvious through some of his comments. But looking through files was one thing. Seeing someone in person was another. Bridge finally decided to bring her in. In the end, he figured it really didn’t matter much. It wasn’t as if he was trying to keep her a secret. If that were the case, he would have kept it up. But Nicole was a known entity. There really wasn’t much point in trying to hide her. Bridge looked to his right and waved for Nicole to come in. She was dressed in a similar fashion as the last time. Sneakers, shorts, tank top, a hat, and sunglasses. She cautiously approached the pair, taking her sunglasses off as she got near them. Bridge was about to introduce the two of them before Pinnacle One cut him short.
“I don’t believe introductions are in order,” Pinnacle One said. “So this is the woman who finally got you to settle down.”
“That’s her.”
“Quite a feat, my dear.”
“It has its challenges,” Nicole said.
Pinnacle One smiled. “I’m sure it does. Judging by how you’ve eluded our eyes twice now, I can see how resourceful you are. Beauty and brains. A deadly combination.”
“It is.”
Pinnacle One smiled again as he looked over at Bridge. He then leaned forward to whisper to Nicole. “You keep taking care of him. He’ll need you.”
Nicole returned the smile. “I know.”
Pinnacle One nodded. “Next time don’t be in the shadows.” He then started walking away, putting his hand in the air, though he never turned around to look at them. “Until next time.”
As they watched him and his men walk away, Nicole wondered where they would go from there. “What next?”
Bridge sighed. “I don’t know. But we got our work cut out for us.”
9
By the time Bridge and Nicole got back to their hotel room, Bridge had some new ideas. Nicole logged onto her computer and instantly found the files on Kenny, Stash, and Abbott had been emailed to them. While she started looking at them, Bridge called their FBI friend.
“What now?” Happ asked.
“New plan of attack.”
“How’s that?”
“Can you run camera footage from all locations near Bevell’s house? If we can find the car that shot at us and run the plate, we can start unwinding this thing.”
“Weren’t you guys talking with your former friends about that?”
“We’re in agreement that I’m going to help them.”
“Really?”
“Well, they can’t really operate here, right?”
Happ laughed. “Yeah.”
“So they need someone who can.”
“Which is you?”
“They trust me.”
“And you trust them?”
“So far,” Bridge replied. “We’ll see how it goes, but right now, from everything I understand, they seem just as much in the dark about this as anybody. Seems to me they’re looking for answers to questions they don’t even have.”
“Yeah. Oh, I checked out those names you gave me, Kenny and Stash? Nothing came up on our end for either of them.”
“Yeah, I already got what I needed on them. Kenny is a former agent and Stash is on the agency’s radar for arms trafficking, among other things.”
“Wait, and you said you found their names in Bevell’s planner?”
“Yep.”
“How would he get that?”
“I don’t know. But he must have run into someone who knew them. If you can find that car, that might help us get there.”
“All right, give me the details.”
Bridge then described the car as best he could remember along with the approximate time. It was a black four-door sedan. Looked new. Chrome wheels. The back windows were tinted. He was pretty sure he’d know it if he saw it again.
“I’ll start running it through and see if we get any hits,” Happ said.
“Thanks. Let me know if you get anything.”
“Will do.”
Once Bridge was done, he went and joined his girlfriend in the living room and started examining the files of their subjects.
“Anything that jumps out at you so far?” Bridge asked.
“Not yet.”
“I wouldn’t bother going back too far. Whatever we’re looking for should have happened in the last few years.”
“You think we’ll know it if we see it?”
“No.”
“You said you knew Kenny?”
“Only briefly. We didn’t go on any missions together or anything. We were in a couple of the same meeting rooms, bumped past each other, that sort of thing.”
“Ever talk to him?”
“Just in passing. A few comments here or there. This mission sucks, that’s not a good idea, that sort of thing. Never anything more than that. And it was maybe three times that I saw him. Wouldn’t know anything more about him than what’s in the files. I can’t give any personal information as far as what makes him tick or things he likes to do if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Thought it was worth a shot.”
They worked straight through for another hour, reading and analyzing every move that the men they were looking for had made in the past few years, at least as far as was documented. Their concentration was broken by the sound of Bridge’s phone ringing. It was Happ.
Bridge looked at it. “It’s Eric. Maybe he found something.” He then put the phone to his ear. “Yo, Happster. What’s up?”
“I hate those nicknames, you know.”
“You love it. Gives you an identity.”
“Really doesn’t.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“Will you?”
“No.”
“I thought not.”
“So what’s up?”
“Check your email right now. I’ve sent you a few possibles for the car you’re looking for. Let me know which
