Cho's Sun
Chapter 04
(The Hunt)
The bullpen was bustling with activity. Lisbon had gotten the case officially assigned to them, so they had full bureau resources behind them. That would be a valuable asset.
"I have an ID," Van Pelt announced. She'd been running facial recognition software against frames from the surveillance footage that Cho had obtained. Everyone gathered to see. "He's a small time gang banger, Brandon Hill. It's a small local gang that's mostly involved with covering themselves, small time drug dealing and boosting cars. These are not heavy hitters and this is totally out of character."
"Do we have an address on him," Lisbon asked.
"I have his motor vehicle information and his address of record for his parole officer, guess what! [pause] They are the same! Do you think he actually lives there?"
Four voices echoed, "Let's find out!"
"This does not take the whole team," Lisbon barked. "Jane, Cho, check it out. Call for backup if he's really there."
They wheeled, and just reached the door when Cho's phone chimed a text alert. He stopped in his tracks, grabbed the phone and opened it. With a deadly serious look on his face, he held it so Jane could read it.
"Let Shushu free
More soon.,"
was all it said.
"This changes things," Jane said. "Good old Brandon may be local, but Shushu sure isn't. We'd better move very carefully, here." He stood motionless, thinking. "Cho, text them back and ask why and tell them to call with the reason. We need them in a dialog."
"I got a fix on the phone, but it's on the other side of town and was moving before it went off. I think they were driving around to make the call. Since this is the second time they used her phone, they are probably pulling the battery to disable the GPS." Van Pelt looked very frustrated.
"Shoulda let that sumabitch choke on his own blood," Cho muttered.
Jane nodded in silent agreement. Lisbon grimaced, but said nothing.
Cho's phone range. He snatched at it and looked at the caller. He nodded and started to open it, but Jane stopped him. He held out his hand, indicating that Cho should give him the phone. Cho hesitated. "Give," Jane demanded. "This is my specialty." Cho sighed and gave him the phone.
Jane flipped it opened and spoke. "Jane." He listened. "Well, I'm the one you need to talk to, now.......Yes.....No.....Put her on and we can continue to talk, otherwise I have no reason to believe you......" Jane's face softened. Yes, I'll tell Cho that you're OK." His face hardened. "We'll wait." He snapped the phone shut. "Sunny said she's OK, but that's about all she had time before they took the phone. They said that they'd call back in an hour with instructions, so we've got an hour to work on this. We've got some time."
"Grace, where did the call come from," Lisbon asked. Van Pelt move the cursor to the last call area. "Highlight the prior location, please." They all stared at the two locations. "Can you get the record of the location of the first call?"
"I think so," Grace answered. "The location of calls are logged." She busied herself at the keyboard. "I got it!" She added that one to the map.
They all could see that all of the calls had originated from a rather small area. "They aren't moving around all that much. Either they have no clue how obvious they are or they are careless or overconfident." Lisbon drew a circle, with her finger, around the zone the calls originated from. "We know they will call in an hour. If they continue with this pattern, we can be in the area, ready to respond."
They all stared at each other and nodded. Jane verbalized what they were all thinking. "Sounds like a plan, Boss. Let's do it."
Lisbon stood. "Van Pelt, you stay on the computer and keep track of that cell phone as much as you can. Find out all you can about this Brandon character and his gang and it's affiliations. Rigsby, you come with me. Jane, you and Cho follow us. We'll rendezvous here," she said tapping the map. "Set your radios to tach two."
The area they were in was mostly residential, but it wasn't far from the hospital that Shushu was in. Now, it was a waiting game. Until they called, there was no real way to know where they may be. "If Shushu was actually released from the hospital, I'm not sure how well he could navigate," Jane said. "His face is wired together, and I understand that both of his eyes are swollen shut. You really did a number on him."
"Not enough of a number," Cho grumbled.
The radio squawked to life, Van Pelt coming across the air. "Heads up. I've found the address of a cousin of Brandon Hill in the area you are posted." She read off the address.
Lisbon came on the air. "Jane, you and Cho check out that address. I'm going to stay mobile."
Cho was driving the CBI car. He lost no time making his way to the indicated address, arriving slowly and quietly, preferring unobtrusive stealth. They arrived and parked three quarters block from the house. It was a corner house, one and a half story, neat, but needing maintenance. It was surrounded by some shrubbery and had a fairly stout tree next to it. "A burglar's dream house," Jane observed. "We have twenty minutes before we're supposed to get the next call. Want to check it out?"
The approach was simple. Just walk up. They did look around prior to vanishing into the shrubbery, but it was more of a formality than a necessity. It was a very quiet street.
They made their way to a window. Jane removed a small mirror from his jacket pocket, attached to a telescoping rod, and the used it to allow them to peer into the room without being seen. What they saw caused both of them to start!
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