Bennie and the Ace of Hearts

Chapter 8

Adam

I was stunned as I watched Bennie’s T-Bird race down the street, followed by that SUV. What the hell was going on? Was Bennie running from me? Who would be chasing him? I ran to my car and raced to my office. Dallas was pacing as I burst into the office.

He looked at me, “Jesus Adam, I’m so sorry I sent those guys to your place, I am so glad you are safe.”

I ran to my office, “Yeah, I’m safe, but I think Bennie has been kidnapped.” I opened my gun safe, loaded the gun and put it in its holster that I had strapped under my tux coat.

Dallas gasped, “what? How? Oh, shit Adam, what happened?”

I pulled my phone to call Bennie again, “I came out of my apartment when I saw him on the street. I came out the door to see his car speeding away and I think he was being chased.” Damn, no answer.

He asked, “what are you going to do? What do you want me to do?”

I asked, “can you track Bennie’s cell phone?”

He picked up a pen, “yep, give me the number.”

I ran out the door, “text me if you can get an address on his phone, I’m going to the hospital fund raiser, maybe he is there. I’ll call if I need anything else.”

Dallas was already on his computer, “I’ll be here, and I’ll call you if I hear anything.”

As I was driving to the hospital, I kept thinking about Bennie. I had really fallen for this guy, I would never forgive myself if something happened to him. Who was after me or him? Shit, who were they after and who are they?

I pulled up to the fund raiser and ran inside to see if maybe Bennie was there. I asked at the front desk, and no one had seen him yet. Just then John Cabot came running out of the hall almost running over me.

I grabbed him, “John, what’s the matter.” He is visibly upset.

“Someone has my son.” He screams.

I held onto his arm, “slow down, what do you mean?”

He said, “my ex-wife just called, Gavin didn’t come home today. I just know those bastards took him.”

I pulled him to the side, “John, calm down. What bastards are you talking about? Are you sure he’s not just at a friend’s house?”

He shook his head, “they have been threatening me for years, I know they took him.”

Before I could get any further information, my phone rang. I looked at the screen, hoping it was Bennie.

It was Dallas, “I just sent you the address of Bennie’s phone.”

I said, “thanks, I’m headed there now.”

Dallas jumped in, “no wait Adam, Dan Winter just walked in the office, he may have some info on the Cabot case.”

I let out a breath, “thank God, have him meet me at the address you sent me, I am bringing John Cabot with me.”

I told John that he was coming with me to meet with the FBI. We drove to the address that Dallas had sent me, but I didn’t see Bennie. I parked the car as Dan pulled up, I was looking around trying to find Bennie’s car or phone. I was walking one way, Dan walked the other.

Dan yelled, “hey Adam, there’s a black T-Bird down this alley.”

I ran to the alley, I called Bennie’s phone and heard it ring inside the car. Shit, it had fallen out of his pocket and landed under the seat, no sign of Bennie. I had no idea what to do now.

Dan said, “ok, tell me everything you know.”

I shook my head, “I don’t know anything, I saw the car on the street and by the time I was outside it was speeding away being followed by an SUV. By the way, this is John Cabot, John, this is FBI Agent Dan Winter.”

John broke in, “let’s not forget my son is missing too, can we please do something?”

I said, “shit, yeah, let’s go back to my office to see if we can figure out our next move. John, you bring my car, I’ll bring Bennie’s.”

We got back to my office, and I gave Dallas Bennie’s phone and told him to call Bennie’s mechanic Keith to come get the T-Bird.

I turned to John, “ok John, I have suspected since you hired me that you weren’t telling me everything. If you want to get your son back safe, now would be a good time to come clean.”

John ran his hands through his hair, “yeah, I know. It all started a couple years ago, I started importing a few items from South America, it was one container about every six to eight weeks. This guy showed up at my office and told me that I needed to increase my shipments to once a month.

Dan asked, “who was this guy?”

John continued, “I don’t know, he told me not to ask too many questions. I told him that I wasn’t buying enough to fill a container every month. He said not to worry about that, he would use all the remaining space and I would be paid appropriately, based on the amount of space they used.”

Dan said, “that explains the extra million you deposit every month.”

John looked confused, “what extra million?”

Dan replied, “when we looked at your financials, we saw you were depositing an extra million dollars each month, that doesn’t match up with your sales. Didn’t you say you were getting paid for use of your container?”

John said, “I am, that’s about 10 to 12 thousand, the million is from my father-in-law, his health isn’t the best, he decided to put my wife Darcie and her brother on the payroll of his company. He told us it was going to save us a lot in inheritance taxes after he passes away. We decided to put the money into our business.”

Dan said, “ok, that makes sense.”

“Didn’t you realize that what they were shipping was probably illegal?” I asked.

He nodded, “of course I did, I’m not that naïve. Again, he told me not to ask too many questions. He told me I would be smart to do business with him and then tossed an envelope on my desk as he left. I opened it and pulled out a picture of my three kids and a schedule of all their school events. Their ball games, concerts, all the things my kids are involved in. There was a note that said it would be a shame if anything happened to your kids, just cooperate and they will be safe.”  

I asked, “how do they get the schedules, I thought your kids were in private schools.”

He said, “they are, the school only gives schedules out to parents.”

I looked at my notes, “you have 3 kids, 2 sons and 1 daughter?”

John nodded, “yes, my oldest son Gavin is 16, I had him with Wendy, my first wife. Noah is 10 and Emily is 8.”

I asked, “are you sure Gavin is missing, could he be at a friend’s house or something?”

He said, “well, I don’t know, his mom was the one that called me and told me he didn’t come home. He was at his friend Josh’s today, Wendy said she called there, and he had left over an hour before she called me.”

“Call Josh.” I told John.

John made the call and came back a few minutes later, “Josh said they went to the courts and played basketball for a couple hours, Gavin got a call and said he needed to go. Josh assumed it was me or his mom. That was about two hours ago.”

Dan was flipping through his notebook, “do your kids go to the Northbrook Academy?”

John said, “yeah, they do.”

I asked Dan, “why did you ask that?”

Dan said, “that’s the new info I wanted to give you. We did some further checking on that customs agent, Boothe. He is living way above his means, his kids go to Northbrook too, he would have access to their schedule. We also found out that our field office was calling him to let him know every time we were planning a raid.”

I said, “I don’t remember that being policy when I was with the bureau.”

Dan nodded, “it’s not, that is the other reason I am here. I am the new head of this field office.”

John asked, “so do you think the customs agent is behind all this?”

Dan said, “it’s starting to look that way, now we just have to figure out why he grabbed Bennie.”

I thought a minute, “I don’t think he wanted Bennie, I think he was after me.”

Dan asked, “you? Why?”

“Because I had been to his office a couple times asking a lot of questions, the last time I was there he was pretty upset with me.” I told Dan.

Dan said, “ok, so if he was after you for snooping around, why did he grab Gavin?”

John said, “well I hired Adam, maybe he thought I was trying to figure out who is blackmailing me.”

Dan thought for a minute, “yeah that might be, maybe just sort of insurance to keep you from telling us anything. I’m not sure what is yet.”

 I turned to John, “did you try to call Gavin?”

John rolled his eyes, “of course I did, he didn’t answer.”

“Give the number to Dallas,” I turned to Dallas, “trace the number please.”

Dan and I asked John a few more questions, Dallas said, “the phone is at the docks, near the customs office.”

Dan jumped up, “let’s go, I’m driving.”

We got to the dock and saw Gavin’s car. We went into the office area, Dan showed the agent that was working his badge, he told us Jerry Boothe had left early. Dan told him we were going to search the building.

The agent said, “sure thing, I’ll be in the office, let me know if you need anything.”

We checked through the main building and found nothing. Dan asked the agent what was in the building across the parking lot.

He said, “it’s an old warehouse, and a few empty offices. We only use it for storage and overflow occasionally. The doors unlocked, but you aren’t going to find much in there.”

We walked across the parking lot, Dan called for backup, John stopped at Gavin’s car, saw his cell phone on the seat and pulled out a small lunch cooler.

I asked, “what is that for?”

John said, “Gavin takes this with him everywhere, it has fruit juice and snack bars. Gavin is a diabetic, he may need this as soon as we find him."

The rest of Dan’s agents showed up and took their positions around the building. We told John to wait outside. Just as we got to the door, we heard the echo of gunshots. Dan quickly yelled into his radio, “go!” They pulled their guns out and entered the building.