32

Rune Alignment

Chapter 10

"What did I miss?" Bishop walked up to Goren and Eames. She saw Sledge pacing with a cell phone to his ear.

Bobby was going through the next steps Eames and Jackass were to do. Eames was taking notes.

"Don't you think we should put a car outside her building?" Eames asked.

"No, that won't be necessary. I'm going to stay close."

"Bobby, you have the trunk case. You can't do both."

"Alex is right, I can't run this body/trunk/diamonds case myself, not at this point," Bishop mentioned.

"Well, you're going to have to. I'll do up the plan, and you execute. It's straightforward, right Eames? Besides, Alex here will give you a hand if she has to, right?"

Eames rolled her eyes and looked down at the stack of files, loose photos, and notes that covered her desk and sighed. They actually had three cases going right now – the museum artifact case was midway, the trunk with diamonds had just started, and the professor was fresh. "Bobby, this isn't right. You have to give up the professor's case. Just work the trunk with Bishop and get it done. Then you can join Sledge and me on the professor's case."

Bobby was about to answer when Sledge returned from listening to the messages on Gleason's cell phone. His face was pale and he was subdued, "Why isn't this with Special Victims? This is obviously a sex crime, or will be."

"Because right now it's a stalking and threat case; no sex crime has taken place and if we all cooperate, there won't be. Now, if you will join us, we can work out a plan. OK?"

"Wait. Let's take everything we've got on each case into the conference room, sort through it all, get it organized and then see how to proceed on each one," Eames suggested. Finally, a plan, something real to do; each of them began picking up folders, evidence bags, loose photos and headed for the conference room.

Two hours later, the museum fraud/switch case filled two boxes, the body/trunk/diamonds case was in one box, and the professor's case was two folders. They agreed to set aside the museum case for now since no person was in harm and the professor would be unavailable to assist for the time being. That left the body/trunk/diamonds case and Gleason's case.

Eames agreed to try to wrap up the body/trunk/diamonds case. She had two more interviews with diamond brokers to gather corroborating evidence, match the ME's report, and then meet with Carver. Sledge and Bishop took on Gleason's case. Sledge agreed to continue working the phone angle, getting the messages copied, overseeing the trace on new calls on Gleason's cell or on the redirect from her home, and so on. Bishop took the student Elliott tangent, finding out all there was to know about him. Bobby orchestrated everything. Most of the time, he was at his desk, on the phone talking to who knows whom.

Sledge, Bishop and Eames all returned at about the same time, late Friday afternoon.

"Ok, the student's last name is 'Baughman.' He's not in the system, doesn't even have a driver's license. He's been a student for three semesters entering last winter. He took no classes last summer. He took one of Wintermantle's classes last semester. He registered in each of Wintermantle's four classes plus a literature class this semester. He's an undeclared major with a 2.45 GPA. University has no residence, no phone on file. What is interesting, however, -- he has a student visa," Bishop read to the other three.

"A visa? From where?" Bobby asked.

"The U. K., Wales," Bishop answered. "His student number is his national insurance number instead of a social security number. I'm going to run down the stats from his visa application next."

"He had no accent, none that I noticed." Bobby scowled and wrote in his folder. Then, "Did the university have a photo, maybe a copy from his student ID?" he asked hopefully.

"They do, but that computer was down. The woman said it would be back up Monday, hopefully. Sorry."

"Well, on another note –," Sledge said, "Wintermantle has apparently unplugged the phone in her apartment. It must be plugged in to redirect any incoming calls. Incoming calls will ring busy or the caller will get a message saying to try again later. You going to get her to plug her phone back in?"

Bobby ran his enormous hand over his face and said, "I'll take care of it. What else?"

Eames reported that the two brokers she needed to interview for the body/trunk/diamonds case were out of the country on a buying trip and wouldn't be back for a week.

"They were asked to remain available. But good, that puts that case on the back burner. Have you told Deakins yet?" Bobby asked.

"Want me to also tell him we've set aside the museum case until Wintermantle is able to assist?" Eames suggested.

"Yeah, but not now. So, what's next?" Bobby looked at his colleagues expectantly. They looked back at him.

"Bobby, it is Friday afternoon. Let's give it the weekend. No one is going to get anything done this late on a Friday. What do you say?" Eames had asked what the others wanted to say. "Let's talk to Deakins and then we'll all go home."

Bobby looked at the other three. He wanted to keep on working. Find this bastard. Bad guys don't quit just because it's the weekend. Gleason was still in danger. The caller was still out there. He knew Eames was right. "Alright, let's go talk to the boss." He rose from his desk, as did Eames.

"How about you and Alex talk to Deakins? Bishop and I will wait here. I want to run something by her," Sledge offered.

"Suit yourself," Bobby mumbled.

Eames explained to Deakins about the trunk case being on hold because of the brokers being gone. She also suggested they rest the museum case until the professor's case was resolved.

"Well, it seems you've gone from three active cases to one," Deakins commented. "Where are we with the professor's case? Any ideas as to who is making these calls?"

"Two possibilities that we know of so far," Bobby answered, "the student Elliott and the ex-lover, Clive. Bishop tracked down information that may make the student a person of interest."

"How so?"

"He's in this country on a student visa from the UK. But, I heard no accent when he hollered to her last night. I'm . . . I'm going to see if I can check out the student this evening."

"Apparently, it doesn't matter that I took you off that case, does it, detective?" Bobby looked at the floor and wrapped his arms across his chest. "Where is Jerry on her phones?" Deakins continued.

"Jerry told Sledge that the redirect is a problem until her phone is plugged in again. I'm, um, going to try and take care of that tonight as well."

Deakins shook his head and said, "Have a good weekend."