Redheads Read Online Free PDF Page B

They’d thought the future was a wide-open road. He pushed that away.
    “That’s something that always bothered me,” Chris said.
    “That there’s no official investigation?”
    “Each one’s handled by local cops who’ve got no idea what’s going on in the town next door, let alone what happens in New Zealand or Japan or Vladivostok.”
    “You’d think at least the FBI would keep track,” Westfield said. “What’s it they have? VICAP? That computer tracking system?”
    “We picked it up. The thread’s just sitting there where anyone could find it.”
    “Maybe because we wanted to see it.”
     
     
    The sun was coming up. Chris looked at his watch and was surprised it was only six in the morning. He felt like it should be mid-afternoon. He drank the rest of his coffee and pushed his chair back from the table.
    “I’m going to walk back to my motel, get some sleep. I’m dead on my feet.”
    “I’ll drop you off.”
    Chris shook his head. “I’d rather walk. But let’s talk later.”
    “Punch in your number.” Westfield handed over his phone.
     
     
    It was a mile back to his motel. He stopped in his room to drop off his Glock and pick up his wallet and cell phone. Then he went back out and bought a burrito from a breakfast truck and sat on a bench on the seawall opposite his motel. He was too tired to think coherently. He ate the burrito and felt the sunlight warm his face. When he was done he balled the foil tightly and tossed it into the trash can next to the bench. He took out his phone and called Mike.
    “You all right?” Mike asked, as soon as he picked up.
    “Yeah. We had coffee and then I walked back to my motel. I don’t know where he is now, but I’m not too worried about him.”
    “I think he’s legit.”
    “I agree.”
    “What do you want me to do?”
    “Come to Galveston. There’s a direct flight to Houston that’ll get you here tomorrow morning. Can you do it?”
    “I’m on it.”
    “Bring all the files on a laptop. We’ll sit down with Westfield and compare notes. He’s not as thorough as us, but he’s been at it longer. Maybe he thought of things we haven’t.”
    “You’re working with him, from here on?”
    “Both of us are. Call me when you get a car, and I’ll tell you where I’m staying.”
    He moved to hang up the phone and then brought it back to his ear. “Mike, you still there?”
    “Yeah.”
    “See what you can find out about the FBI’s VICAP network. How’s data entered, how’s it disseminated, who has the power to make entries, who decides what goes in.”
    “VICAP…okay.”
    “I’ll see you when you get here.”
    He went back to his room, put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door, and turned the air conditioner up to full blast. He took a shower and came back to the cold, darkened room, and got into the bed.
     
     
    It must have been an hour later that he heard the knock. He wrapped a towel around himself and went to the door, quietly, to look through the peep hole. A redhead in her late twenties or early thirties was standing there. She was reaching out to knock again when he opened the door.
    “I think you got the wrong room,” he said.
    “I don’t think so.”
    He’d only opened the door enough to poke his head out, but she shouldered past him and came inside. He shut the door.
    “We know each other?”
    Now that she was in the room, he saw she was holding a pistol in her left hand. She was wearing a gray wool skirt, a wrinkled blouse, and high heels. The pistol looked expensive, and she held it so casually and without evening pointing it at him that he guessed she knew exactly how to use it. As usual, his Glock was on the other side of the room.
    “You don’t know me. Have a seat.”
    They sat across from each other at the round table in front of the air conditioner. She put the gun on the table and kept her hand on it.
    “I saw you go into my sister’s apartment building. You picked the lock. You were inside for fifteen