Kilo #2
Tessman shrugged. “I could check with her. Why?”
“That cop out in Virginia is still hassling Donna. I’d like to bring her, her kids, and her mom out for Christmas and need someplace for them to stay.”
“You want to put them in the murder house?” Rogers asked.
“You really need to stop calling it the murder house,” Tessman said.
“A family of four was murdered there,” Rogers said. “What should I call it?”
“Well, if Donna and her family are able to stay there, please don’t call it that to her face. I’m sure it would freak her the fuck out,” Burke said. “I’m not sure where else I can put the five of them up at for a week. A hotel over Christmas is so impersonal and will cost me a fortune.”
“Becca and Woods did put the Christmas tree up and decorate the place over Thanksgiving weekend,” Tessman said. “If they have to put someone there, they wanted to make it homey, they said.”
“I think that was a very nice gesture,” Burke agreed.
Tessman’s girlfriend, Becca, was a total doll, and also a very intelligent lawyer who had come to work for the agency after her sister’s entire family was murdered in their home.
Becca spent a lot of her work time focusing on Briana Woods’ DVR cases, representing many of the women in their divorce cases and in filing for orders of protection.
Her sister’s vacant home was being used as a safehouse to stash women on the run from domestic abuse.
Burke gazed at Tessman with expectation. “Well, are you going to check with Becca?”
“What? You want me to do it right now?”
“Yeah, I want you to do it right now. And I’m going to step back outside and call Saxton and ask her to help coordinate it, if that’s okay?
” His gaze went to Wilson when he spoke the last sentence.
His mind was already three steps ahead. As soon as he could get it sorted out, he could fly them in to Chicago and if neither he nor Saxton were back in town yet, he could have Saxton’s boyfriend and Ops analyst Brad Dupont pick them up at the airport and get them settled at Becca’s sister’s place.
Wilson nodded, knowing that getting it set up was a priority for Burke and that more than likely, until he had a plan in place, he wouldn’t focus on their mission. That pretty much answered the question of exactly what this relationship was to Burke, that he’d refused to answer for over a year.
Back outside, Burke dialed Laura Lee Saxton. He knew that she was away working a PGP project in Pennsylvania.
“Hey, is everything okay?” she answered.
“When’s the last time you talked to your sister?” Burke asked.
“Over the weekend, when she was at my mom’s house.”
“Did she tell you about that cop and what she saw?”
“Yeah, and she told me he asked her out too. Gross. The guy’s in his mid-forties.”
“Well, he was just at her place again, asking for help to identify his lost suspect, and when she stayed on script, insisting she saw nothing, he hit on her again,” Burke said.
“I’d told her to tell him about me if he showed up again, and when she did, she said he threatened her to reconsider it.
She wouldn’t tell me how much it rattled her, but I could tell it did. ”
“She can’t stay at my mom’s indefinitely,” Saxton said. “What are we going to do?”
“I want to fly her, the kids, and your mom to Chicago. Christmas is only six days away. They could come as soon as I get the flight booked. And then you and I are both on leave the week after Christmas and I say we go back with them deal with this asshole.”
“Brad is off too. I’m sure he’ll come help with whatever needs to be done,” Saxton said. “I’m in. What do you need me to do?”
“Call your mom and talk her into flying in for Christmas. I have Tessman checking with Becca to see if her sister’s house is vacant. I was thinking they could all stay there.”
“It would be a hell of a lot cheaper than paying for a hotel for them. It’s not going to be cheap, five last-minute plane tickets the week before Christmas,” Saxton said. “I’ll split the cost with you for everything,” she offered.
“Thanks, you don’t have to. I’ve got it. I just want them to be comfortable and safe, and I want the kids to have a nice Christmas.”
“You’re a good guy, Rich Burke,” Laura Lee said. “My sister is lucky to have you in her and her kids’ lives.”
“Hey, you say it like you’ve just discovered that about me,” he teased.
At least she no longer said he was too good for Donna, like she had done a year earlier.
That had put a strain on their friendship.
He had told Laura Lee over and over that he and Donna were just friends, something she had never bought, and now, with him paying for them all to come to Illinois, he was sure it would reinforce that thought.
Laura Lee chuckled. “Nah, I’ve always known you are. I just don’t like to tell you too often, so it doesn’t go to your head.”
“Thanks,” he said sarcastically. “I’ll text you when I have some plans made for them.”
“Thanks. I’ll call my mom now.”
Burke went back inside. The rest of the team had the plane loaded. “Sorry about that,” he said to the team. “I just had to get the ball rolling on it now before we were in the air.”
“I called Becca and got her voicemail. I left a message with the request to use her sister’s house,” Tessman said.
The four men boarded the Lear and settled into their seats. After the pilot taxied onto the runway, Burke threw his hands in the air. His teammates had been watching him with expectation. “What?”
“So, tell us again how this relationship isn’t what we think,” Wilson said, the sarcasm heavy.
Burke decided the time had come to give his team, his friends, more of an explanation. “She can’t handle what we do. As much as I’d like for us to be more than friends, we can’t be, so I’ve kept it in the friends’ zone.”
All three men were surprised.
“You’re not sleeping with her?” Tessman asked.
Burke shook his head, mildly embarrassed.
“Look, she was only twelve years old when her father was killed on the job. That stuck with her. You should have seen her after Laura Lee was shot and all that went down at her mom’s house last Thanksgiving.
She freaked the fuck out. I knew then that I had to keep her at arm’s length, but I had already promised the kids I’d be around for Christmas.
And it just kind of continued from there,” he admitted.
“You can’t have this fatherly relationship with the kids without a relationship with the mom,” Wilson told him.
“I wish I could have a relationship with her, but…” his voice trailed off.
“That’s really fucked up,” Tessman said.
“Tell me about it,” Burke agreed.
“You do realize that kids get attached. This has been going on for over a year; they’re attached to you,” Wilson said.
“I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t,” Burke agreed. “I love spending time with Donna and her kids, being a father-figure to the kids. I genuinely care about them. And I do like Donna, but I’m smart enough to know a relationship with her isn’t possible.”
“But you do have a relationship with her,” Wilson argued. “Just because you’re not sleeping with her doesn’t mean there’s no relationship.”
“That’s why I’ve said it’s not like that,” Burke said.
“Does she know it’s not a relationship in your eyes?” Tessman asked.
Burke sighed. Yeah, this was why he hadn’t wanted to admit what was going on with Donna, or in his case, not going on.
“I’ve shut her down whenever she’s tried to discuss what it is or isn’t.
I think my exact words have been, we’re good friends and I’ll always be here for you and your kids, but my job doesn’t allow for a relationship right now. ”
“You’re stringing her along, regardless of what you think you’re doing,” Rogers said.
Burke shrugged. “Maybe.” He didn’t want to discuss this any further.
“And if she meets someone who will have a relationship with her and be a dad to her kids? Are you willing to break contact with her and step aside?” Wilson pressed. He waited. Burke didn’t answer. “Because that’s what you’ll have to do. Step aside.”
“Yeah, I guess I’d have to,” Burke said.
“I’ve been with Rae and Lilly for less time than you’ve been playing daddy to Donna’s kids, and I’ll tell you right now, I couldn’t step aside and let anyone else have the father role with Lilly,” Wilson said. “If you think you can, I think you’re delusional.”
“Or haven’t thought this through,” Rogers added.
Burke rubbed his forehead. He was sorry he’d said anything to them.
Well, this was why he hadn’t, wasn’t it?
And the fact that none of them understood or sided with him on it would make him reconsider it.
He trusted his team, his friends. They were all smart men.
Somehow, against all odds, both Wilson and Tessman were making relationships work.
Of course, the women they were involved with were very different from Donna.
Burke made eye contact with each of them. “You’ve given me a lot to think about. And I will think about it. For now, I need you to drop it. We need to refocus on the case. I want to get this wrapped up ASAP so we can get back to HQ.”
“Me too. I understand the urgent nature of this case, especially with it being tied to the prepper group and possibly the militia. If this girl is in with the militia, we need to move on her before the FBI moves on that group or she could end up dead or in jail with the rest of the group,” Rogers said.
“Unless she really is a hardcore member and not some innocent girl brainwashed and coerced by the group, as her family seems to think she is,” Tessman said.
“Cynical as always,” Rogers teased Tessman.
“According to the intel the Digital Team provided, she was a political science major before she quit college two months ago,” Tessman reminded them.
The information on their target, twenty-one-year-old college junior Zoe Reopelle, had been shared during the briefing, and her full file had been pushed through to their emails.
“She actually didn’t quit. She just stopped going to class, and she didn’t withdraw, nor did she register for her classes next semester,” Burke corrected him.
“Technically, she’s still enrolled at the college, and all her things are still in the dorm, which should be one of our first stops.
Her roommate might have some helpful information.
And just maybe she’ll share it with us even though she didn’t give up anything to Zoe’s parents or the local police. ”
“The semester isn’t officially over for two more days, so we should be able to acquire her roommate there today,” Wilson added.
“I agree that visit is priority number one. Our second stop will be her place of employment, though I’m sure after not showing up there for the last two months that she’s technically an ex-employee. ”
“What makes you think her roommate will give up what she may know to us when she hasn’t given anything up to anyone else?” Tessman asked Burke.
“Because we go in on Zoe’s side and are looking to help her out and get her parents off her back,” Burke suggested.
“Interesting angle,” Wilson said.
“Think about it. If she had anything to share and was worried about Zoe, she would have given it up. She didn’t, and she has to know something,” Burke said.
“She may even have a way to reach Zoe. We pair her phone,” Wilson said. “Just in case she calls Zoe after we leave.”
“Zoe’s phone was found by the police when they searched the dorm, but I’m sure she has a burner she’s using,” Rogers said. “Unless she’s truly being held someplace against her will.”
“Do you really think that’s the case?” Burke asked him.
“Unlikely. I think she’s been indoctrinated by the group and is acting in concert with them,” Rogers said.
“How exactly do you want to play this helping Zoe angle?” Tessman asked.
“What’s one thing every cult wants?” Burke asked.
“Braindead followers?” Tessman answered.
“That and money. Everyone wants money. Even preppers need money. We go in as private investigators with an inheritance or a trust fund of some sort that we need to get to Zoe,” Burke said.
“Or a settlement from her parents to at least talk to them. Something that either Zoe or those controlling her can’t pass up. Something that will at least let us know where she is so we can snatch her and deliver her to the deprogrammer her uncle, the senator hired,” Wilson agreed.
“I think we’ll know if the roommate is Team Zoe in the first two minutes we talk to her. We adjust as needed based on her responses to our first few questions,” Burke said.
“Every college kid needs money. We offer a finder’s fee for any information that directly puts us in contact with Zoe,” Wilson said.
Tessman was flipping through the file the Digital Team sent to their emails. “Gabby Struck is the roommate’s name. She’s a junior in the business college program. The file doesn’t say if they’d roomed together before this year.”
“So, we don’t know if the girls are friends or not,” Rogers said. “My sister had a roommate one year that she couldn’t stand. They rarely talked at all.”
“I’m sure the roommate knew her schedule, her comings and goings, overheard phone calls, or saw who she hung out with. She knows something that will help us,” Burke said.
“According to the file, the hair salon she worked at loved her,” Tessman said, still scrolling through the file. “They didn’t have much real info though.”
“We still question them,” Wilson said.
“I’m not sure if I am buying Brandon Ellison’s claim that the cells of the prepper groups and militia groups are independent and he knows nothing about those that could be functioning in the Grand Rapids area,” Tessman said. “Even if he had one name, we could stake that person out.”
“Yeah, I agree with you on that. He knew many who operated in Wisconsin. Why not Michigan?” Wilson said.
“And it’s very unlikely Mark Ellison will give anything up,” Tessman said.
“Not without a deal of full immunity, which he’s not getting,” Wilson said.