“I’m not forcing anything on you.”
“Well, now that I’m actually focusing on this thing… a lot is coming into focus.”
“Want to sharpen the picture for me?”
“You have a traveling salesman…”
“We got that part.”
“Will you let me finish?”
“Go ahead.”
“We’ve got a traveling salesman, a murder, a body that was killed elsewhere and dumped, a murder that was so clean the police have no leads and have made no progress in a year.”
“And?”
“Then we have a brother who won’t give up, and a private investigator who starts looking into things, then the PI goes missing.”
“So what’s that tell you?”
“This wasn’t some mugging or a fight over a girl or drugs or something stupid like that. This has all the makings of a professional hit.”
“That’s kind of a big leap to take there, don’t you think?”
“Police have no leads, right?”
“Right.”
“If it was a spur-of-the-moment thing or wasn’t planned, there would be some kind of evidence, right? There always is when it’s spontaneous. People panic. They don’t think straight. They make mistakes. There was none of that with Abbott, right?”
“Clean in all aspects, so it seems.”
“So who else makes clean kills?” Bridge asked.
Nicole cleared her throat, thinking of the possibilities. “Uh, well, could be the mob or some other criminal element.”
“Or it could be some kind of government body that uses traveling salesmen as cover identities.”
“You’re saying the CIA killed this guy on our own soil?”
Bridge shrugged. “I’m saying maybe they’re somehow involved.”
“You blow my mind, you really do. I mean, among other things. But how you go from not wanting anything to do with this case, to going right to the CIA having this guy killed is amazing. I mean, some people just dip their toe in the water to see if it’s warm first, but not you, no, you just dive right in.”
“My mind works differently than others.”
“You can say that again.”
“That’s part of what makes me special.”
“I won’t argue there.”
“You also know I might be right.”
Now Nicole did the sighing. “Maybe. There’s a big chunk of stuff missing that we need to fill in before we can make that conclusion, I think. Like where the PI is.”
“That’s another thing. If this guy’s missing, we both know why that probably is.”
Nicole’s voice became sad. “It’s because he’s probably dead.”
“Right. There’s no other reason he’d be missing for three days.”
“Unless he’s hurt and in the hospital or something.”
“And he just happens to be in a coma?”
“Something like that.”
“Or maybe some other case he was working on, like ten years ago, someone decided to come after him now, coincidentally, the same time he was starting to work on this thing?”
“A lot of coincidences here, huh?”
“Too many. I thought you didn’t want to work on this thing.”
“I don’t.”
“Seems like you’re getting into it,” Nicole said.
Bridge took a deep breath, then looked at his girlfriend. It was one of those looks he gave when he was being sucked into something that he didn’t want to do but just couldn’t help himself. He glanced back at the house, then leaned over closer to the window. Judging from his body language, Nicole could tell that something caught his eye.
“What is it?”
“I just saw a light in there,” Bridge answered.
Nicole immediately looked toward the house. It was just as dark as it had been. “You sure?”
“Positive. It only flashed for a second or two.”
“Maybe it was a car driving by or something. The headlight went through the window.”
Bridge shook his head. “No. This was inside.” He looked over at the folder that was still sitting on Nicole’s lap. “This guy had no family?”
Nicole opened the folder and started reading it again. “No wife or kids. Parents are alive. He was an only child.”
“Maybe it’s the parents sneaking in.” He then glanced at Nicole with a look of disbelief. She gave him the same face.
“You really believe that?”
“Uh, well, I didn’t say I believed it. Just said maybe it was.”
“Pretty sure if his parents were dropping by, they’d know where a light switch was.”
“Probably.”
“So what do you wanna do?”
“I don’t want to do anything.”
“What do you feel you should do?”
Bridge sighed. “I feel like we should go over to that house and see who’s sneaking around and if it ties in to Gary Abbott’s murder.”
Nicole smiled. “I thought that’d be your answer.”
They got out of the car and headed over to the house. It was a modest house, two floors, with a single garage attached to the side of the vinyl exterior. There were two bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs, which Darren Bevell converted to an office for his PI work. As they approached the house, Nicole wondered what the plan was. If Bridge had one, he hadn’t shared it yet.
“Do you have a plan for this?”
“Nope,” Bridge replied.
“Oh. Good. How we getting in?”
“Probably the same way the other guy did. Through the back.”
“Makes sense. I guess he’s not just gonna waltz out the front door.”
“Unlikely.”
“How we gonna take him?”
“Whatever way possible,” Bridge said.
They made their way around the house and stopped once they reached the back door. Bridge put his hand on the knob and slowly pushed it open. He snapped his head around to look at Nicole.
“It’s not locked,” he whispered.
Nicole whispered back. “Well, if someone’s in there, did you really think it would be?”
Bridge gave her a face, then pushed the door open more as the two of them went inside. They walked through the darkened house, not using their flashlights or flicking on any lights, since it would give their presence away to whoever else was in the house. After coming in through the back, they found themselves in an enclosed patio, which then led into the kitchen area. Thinking he heard something, Bridge put his hand out to prevent Nicole from going any further. He tapped his ear to signal her to listen. The noise was faint, but it sounded as if papers were being rooted
