Chapter Twenty-Six
Thorn
Paris, France
Sunday, Zero Eight Hundred Hours
T he alarm on his phone beeped beside Thorn’s head. He stretched out to swipe it silent. Relieved to have been jarred awake, Thorn rolled over and stared up at the shadows cast across his ceiling.
The last picture he’d seen in his dream was of Lynx, her hand on his shoulder, nodding. For most of the dream he saw himself with the world beneath his feet, shifting and spinning as he tried to catch his balance. It reminded him of the Greek pictures of the Titan Atlas. But in this dream, Thorn wasn’t trying to support the world, he was simply trying to find his place to stand on it. He’d been working to catch his balance all night.
And like a veil over all of this, were Juliette’s blue-green eyes.
Juliette’s eyes were an astonishing color. She reminded him of the National Geographic cover of the iconic Afghan girl from the mid-eighties. Juliette’s hair was honey blonde, and her skin was a lighter shade than that girl’s, but their eyes were almost the same color and held that same haunted expression. Maybe that was what got its hook into him.
He threw back his covers and climbed from the bed. Before Thorn hit the shower, he moved through his exercise routine of planks and squats, pushups and some stretches that kept him flexible. He showered and decided to just let his beard grow for the time being.
Today, he wore civilian clothes. He thought if they were going to be going on a Juliette hunt, that blending in would serve him better than looking official. When Gage and Honey knocked on his door, he saw that they’d thought the same.
“What happened with DuBois?” Thorn asked after they’d ordered room service.
“He was uncooperative,” Gage said dryly. “We offered him a couple of diazepine, which he refused. We handed that assignment off to Strike Force. Maybe they had a better time of him.”
“Is that a bite mark on your hand?” Thorn asked Gage.
“Yeah, when they do his blood draw, they’ll check for rabies and let me know.”
By the time room service brought up their steak and eggs, Thorn had caught his team up with what he’d been up to. They’d read the same files he had.
The case was intriguing, that was for sure.
Gage’s computer pinged right on time, and he booted up on his encrypted video conference into Panther Force war room.
Lynx was in the view. “Hey guys!”
“Good morning,” they said.
“For you, well I guess for me too. The cock hasn’t crowed, yet, so I still think of it as night. Nutsbe’s going to be here in a minute. He’s just looking into something for you.”
Thorn swallowed down his bite of food as he wiped his mouth on the overly-starched linen napkin. “While we wait, I’m interested to hear, you said you were heading out on a field trip?”
“Right. So the only information Nutsbe or I could find about Juliette Marie DuBois was her green card and her stamp entering the United States. After that, she became a ghost. No car insurance, or driver’s license, no residence, no residential phone number under her name. She has a bank card that’s tied to Dr. DuBois. It looks like he’s paying her bills.”
“But you tracked something down,” Thorn said as he cut into his steak.
“I tracked David DuBois down. He has a lovely home in D.C. proper. It’s in a chichi area where the houses cost mega. It could mean something nefarious, but it’s not completely telling because people often have income streams that aren’t connected to their professions. But on a DARPA contract, he’d never be able to afford it. He also has another house. This one is in a suburban neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia. A pleasant neighborhood with a lot of older people.”
“Does he rent it out?” Gage asked.
“Interesting question,” Lynx said. “I stopped by to find out. When I drove over, there were two packages on the front porch. One was for Roxanne Olson and the other was for J.M. Dubois.”
“Bingo,” Honey said.
“In spades. A woman and her dog were walking up the street as I was standing at the door. I introduce myself and asked her if she was Roxanne. Roxanne, very thankfully, is a very friendly person, and I gathered some information about the strawberry part of our pink rabbit mystery.”
“What was your excuse for prying?” Honey asked.
“I told her that Juliette was having some medical issues in France. Then I explained how when someone is overseas with such problems that the Red Cross can sometimes step in and help the situation.”
“From that,” Gage asked, “she assumed you were with the Red Cross?”
“I have a friendly face and a helpful attitude.” Lynx smiled.
“I want to hear this now, but will you also send me a report for reference?” Thorn asked.
“Yes, I’ve typed it up. I just need to upload it for your team.”
“Who is this Roxanne Olson?” Honey asked between bites.
“Roxanne is an author who is living with Juliette as her caregiver. The dog she was walking was Toby, Juliette’s stability dog.”
“Stability dog, huh?” Thorn said. “That might explain the video in Orléans.”
“Almost guaranteed,” Lynx said. “My understanding is that Juliette and her mother were in an accident. The elements of the accident were never described to Roxanne, but Juliette’s mother was killed, and Juliette sustained significant disability. One way that you can identify Juliette is that on her feet there are white marks from burns.”
“Do we have photographs of that?” Honey asked.
Lynx pulled a hair band from her wrist and stuck it between her teeth. “No, I don’t, sorry.” She reached up and gathered her hair back in a pony tail and was winding the elastic around it as she explained, “Juliette sustained a head injury that affected her memory. She has issues with stability, tinnitus, confusion, sometimes she is hard of hearing ? more specifically there are certain ranges that she can’t hear. These hearing deficits cannot be corrected with hearing aids.”
The men were hard focused on these details. They’d be important during a rescue attempt should one be called for.
“Juliette also has unexplained fevers,” Lynx said. “That can exacerbate these effects, with accompanying headaches and confusion. So, all in all, I would say your pink rabbit, is severely affected by her medical condition. And the fact that she was able to get to France on her own in high heeled boots, no less, is quite remarkable.”
Honey asked, “Does she wear glasses or contacts? Are there any medications that she takes on a regular basis, something we need on hand if we were to scoop her up?”
“No, there are no medications that can help her. Roxanne said that when Juliette starts to become feverish, her father takes her to his lab and gives her an IV drip of electrolytes. And that seems to help. Her vision is fine. That is to say, she has twenty/twenty eyesight on her good days, but when she’s experiencing what Roxanne refers to as a ‘bad spell,’ she has difficulty focusing. This is why she can’t have a driver’s license and depends on Roxanne to drive her around and care for her. Juliette also has good days where her symptoms are less aggressive, and she can take care of herself.”
“Except for the driving,” Thorn said. “Which explains the weaving of the car that she stole from the good Samaritan.”
“One would assume.” Lynx nodded. “Another weird one, I got David DuBois’s health insurance information. Juliette is assigned to his policy. There’s never been a claim declared for Juliette. And nothing in the credit cards going back to their arrival in the United States paying for Juliette’s medical needs.”
“What does that mean?”
“One would assume that for some reason she’s paying cash out of pocket for some strange reason, or that she’s not seen a doctor in the time she’s lived here.”
“With her level of disability?” Thorn asked. “That’s curious.”
“My thoughts exactly. Why hasn’t she even gone for a flu shot?”
Suddenly, the monitor shifted to a split screen of Lynx’s face and Nutsbe’s torso.
“Good morning, lads,” Nutsbe called as he set his cup of coffee in front of him and maneuvered himself into his chair. “I hope you all went straight to bed and had a good night’s rest.”
“Yes, Mom,” they said.
“Good. I have a feeling you’re going to need it. Was Lynx telling you about Roxanne?”
“Affirmative,” Thorn said, and while Lynx had provided them with important information, he wished they could just cut to the chase. Where was Juliette and was she okay? “Did you find Juliette? Were you able to get CCTV of the airport from French Intelligence?”
“No, not from the DGSE, but I know a guy. What I had available wasn’t helpful. There’s something on the lens of the camera by the taxi queue. Bird crap, I’m guessing.” He squinted at his monitor and tapped at the key board. After a moment, Nutsbe focused back on the field operatives. “Let me back up. I just want to hammer this piece home. It strikes me how odd and out of character it would be for Juliette to travel to Toulouse on her own, and be able to ? with her level of disability ? scape the two Russian guys and get secretively to Paris.”
Honey pushed his plate away and scooted closer to the table. “Did Roxanne say anything about what Juliette did in her life prior to the accident?”
“Yes,” Lynx answered. “She was a veterinarian’s assistant.”
Honey, Gage, and Thorn chuckled.
“No, she wasn’t,” Gage scoffed.
Lynx shrugged. “I’d have to agree, but that’s the story Roxanne was told. Juliette had brain surgery and most everything prior to the surgery is gone from her memory bank. So Roxanne got that information?”
“From DuBois,” Thorn cut in.
Lynx nodded. “Exactly.”
“Apparently, our rabbit doesn’t like to make too much contact with those around her either. When Lynx and Roxanne were chatting, Roxanne described how narrow Juliette’s life is in Northern Virginia. She’s home with Roxanne. She often goes out with Toby for walks ? that’s her dog”
“Roger,” Thorn replied.
“She just goes up to a nearby park,” Lynx said. “She goes with her father to his work with him about once a week. Roxanne said it was just a way for her dad to get her out of the house. Juliette’s being new here in America, she hasn’t made any friends. She was very isolated by her disability.”
Thorn leaned in. “Something changed to bring her to France.”
“Agreed.” Lynx paused. “Yeah, what that something is, I have no clue. Roxanne said it came out of the blue. Apparently, Roxanne was out doing the grocery shopping for the week when she got a text. Of course, Roxanne immediately called her employer, Dr. DuBois. I followed that time line. The text came in, the call went out, DuBois was on the next flight to Toulouse.”
“Getting there the morning after Juliette did and missing her by minutes. Good thing or bad thing?” Honey asked.
Gage turned to him. “Do you think her being kidnapped might have been a good thing?”
“Yeah, I think Honey’s right to ask that question,” Thorn said. “Look what happened. DuBois didn’t go in and talk to his mother. He didn’t wait to talk to the police. He jumped in his cab and took off for the airport. Strange set of actions for a loving father.”
“Beyond that,” Honey said, “he fought us in the airport. He had the phone number for the Omega crew and called them for an extraction. He fought us out to the car and fuckin’ bit Gage trying to get away.”
“Now, see?” Nutsbe chuckled. “I thought the poor man was just hungry because you guys forgot to feed him.”
Gage pursed his lips as he shook his head. “He was still fighting when we handed him over to Strike Force.”
Lynx nodded. “Yeah I can see the confusion. Not knowing what’s going on in DuBois’s mind means we don’t know if he knew who had taken Juliette and how to get her back. He might have had a connection to Omega, and they were there to assist him in getting to his daughter. He could have been fighting you in an attempt to get back with the team he thought would be of the most use in the situation.”
“And he was chasing her to France, why?” Gage asked.
“Again, the obvious reason would be that she is disabled and could get herself into a life-threatening situation. Roxanne said that normally Juliette wears a tracker at home.”
“Like for someone with dementia?” Gage asked.
“It was on a bracelet that also had her contact information and medical records. She wore it so that if Juliette went somewhere on her own with Toby, and didn’t get home in a certain amount of time, Roxanne could go out and find her. Juliette can become cognitively and visually disoriented. And she can lose her hearing ? not all the way ? but so that conversations aren’t possible.”
“Right. No hearing aids. Does she know sign language?” Honey asked.
“She does. So lucky you that you’re required to have some basic skills in that. When you find her that might be helpful.”
God, that sounds like a difficult life, Thorn thought. Especially without much of a support system – old friends, a larger family…
Thorn came from a big family. Five boys. Tons of cousins. They leaned on each other. Sometimes, he just took it for granted that everyone had that kind of support. Family behind them. A team like the Panthers behind them. Juliette had DuBois and this Roxanne person.
Thorn shifted in his seat. He was done gabbing. He wanted to be out prowling the streets, finding Juliette, making sure she was okay, not just from the kidnappers who might still be on her trail, but from anyone who might want to take advantage of a woman in a physical crisis.
When he looked up, he found Lynx’s eyes hard on him. There was a trace of worry between her brow. A slow nod of her head. Thorn wished she’d share that thought. There was conviction behind it whatever it was. He thought if they were alone, she might just tell him, instead he said, “All right, let’s get on it. Any crumbs to lead us toward her?”
“We didn’t have a license plate, but I tracked cab destinations from the taxi queue at the time we saw her in line. I called each of the hotels where they took their fares. No Juliette DuBois. But Lynx had suggested that I also ask for Roxanne Olsen, probably the safest name for someone with Juliette’s brain injuries to use. And she was right. We have Juliette registered as Roxanne at Petit Coin , a hotel in the ninth arrondissment . I put a satellite on the place with a computer watch, and I haven’t mapped her coming or going. We have to assume that Juliette went to bed and hasn’t gotten up and mobile yet today.”
“She took Roxanne’s ID?” Honey asked.
“Her caregiver is African-American,” Lynx told him. “I’d say that was a no. She’s just using her caregiver’s name. Taking Roxanne’s I.D. would be significant though, it would show premeditation for going to ground. I really don’t think that’s the case here. Based on her behaviors, I’d think she would have been better prepared.”
“We hacked the Petit Coin computer system,” Nutsbe said. “Juliette paid for a week in-full using a gift card and left a two-hundred-euro cash deposit. I’m assuming that’s because she didn’t have a credit card to give them.”
Thorn pulled that name up on his map app. After giving it a look, he shoved his phone back in his pocket and reached out to tap his teammates. “Okay, Lynx and Nutsbe – if there’s nothing else, we should move.”