Boston, MA
The Saudi man stopped washing his hands. “Excuse me?” he said in Arabic, definitely with a Saudi accent.
“I said, why are you following me?”
“I’m not following you. Who are you?”
“Let’s not play games.”
“I don’t know who you are.” He shook the water off his hands and bypassed the hand dryer.
Samuel stood in his way, blocking the door. “Do you even know why they sent you?”
“Who? No one sent me. I’m on my way home to Atlanta.”
Samuel stared him down.
“I don’t know who you are,” the man said. “Move out of my way.”
Samuel grabbed his wrist, put him in a lock, and pushed him against the wall.
“What are you doing? Let me go!”
Samuel held the lock with one hand and patted the man’s pockets with the other. He’d expected some kind of weapon, but perhaps getting something past security had proved too difficult. Samuel took the man’s wallet out of his pocket and flipped it open: an American driver’s license with an Atlanta address, cash, Mastercard, debit card with Wells Fargo, and several pictures of him with a smiling woman in a hijab and a couple of kids, one taken in front of the ATL sign in Woodruff Park in Atlanta.
Samuel let go and backed up. “I’m sorry. I thought you were following me.”
“Are you insane?” The man took his wallet and rushed out of the restroom.
Samuel stayed in there for a few minutes to get his head straight.
His throwaway cell rang. He took it out of his pocket and looked at the screen—a 678 number, Atlanta.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Samuel?”
“Trudi. Thank goodness. I’ve been trying to call you. What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry, Samuel. They took Dream.”
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. But they took Dream, Boston mob. He went with them to make sure they left me alone.”
Samuel rested his hand on the counter and leaned his weight on it. Thank goodness she’s all right. “How long ago did they take him?”
“About twenty minutes. I’d lost my phone before we got out of the condo, so I had to go buy a throwaway. I tried your cell, but it was dead. I called Eula out of desperation. She had your new number. What happened? Why’d you ditch your old phone?”
“I don’t think it’s secure anymore. You said you got out of the condo. Where’d they catch up with you?”
“The disco Kroger. I’m hoping you can call Stepp and get him to pull traffic camera footage and see if you can figure out where they took Dream. They were in a black Escalade with tinted windows, Massachusetts plates, 267BRP.”
Samuel set all that to memory.
“Can you call Stepp now?” she asked. “I’m worried what they’re going to do to Dream.”
“You got out of there, right? You’re someplace safe?”
“Stop wasting time. I’m fine. Just call Stepp.”
“All right, all right. I’ll call you back within half an hour.”
She ended the call.
He sighed and then dialed the number for the precinct mainline. He was transferred to Stepp’s office.
“Samuel. Where are you? What’s going on?”
“Do you remember when you first agreed to take me on? I told you there may come a time when I couldn’t give you the full story.”
“Yes.”
“That time has come. Though I’m sure you’ve put together a fair amount.”
“A fair amount,” he agreed. “Where’s Trudi? Do you know if she’s all right? She asked me to send officers to a condo building in Buckhead, but she wasn’t there when they arrived.”
“I’m sure she left a trail of destruction.”
“Someone took a beating. Found blood on the floor. But everyone was gone.”
“She must’ve just knocked out her attackers. She wouldn’t seriously injure someone unless she had no choice. But I just talked to her. She said she’s safe.”
“I’m relieved to hear that, but I’m sure you didn’t call just to tell me that.”
“I need a favor. I can’t give you details, but I need to track a vehicle on traffic cameras. Black Escalade with tinted windows, Massachusetts plates, 267BRP. It left the Piedmont Peachtree Crossing shopping center about twenty minutes ago.”
“That’s the Kroger center, right?”
“Yes.”
“Let me ask you, do you need to find the vehicle because it was involved in a crime? I need some kind of narrative.”
“It was a kidnapping. I have strong reason to believe the assailants plan to harm the victim and may kill him.”
“All right. I’ll get it done. I’ll put it under the category of cooperating with a federal agency.”
“Thank you.”
“Call you back.” Stepp ended the call.
Samuel put his phone in his breast pocket and ran his hands through his hair. Then, sure the Saudi man was long gone, Samuel walked out of the men’s room and turned toward his gate.
He was halfway through the terminal when an authoritative voice from behind him said, “Stop right there, sir.”
Samuel stopped and turned around. “Is there something wrong, officer?”
The officer looked back at the person behind him, the Saudi man. “Is this the man who attacked you?”
“Yes, sir.”
Several people had stopped to stare.
“I think you must be mistaken,” Samuel said. “I have a very familiar look about me.”
“I’m positive, officer,” the Saudi man said.
“I need you to come with me for questioning,” the officer said to Samuel.
“I’ll miss my flight.” Samuel pulled his eyebrows together and furrowed his forehead a bit.
“I really need to get home. My wife is pregnant and due to deliver any day.”
The officer put his hand on his handcuffs.
Still with the furrowed forehead, Samuel shuffled reluctantly forward. Thank goodness he’d heard from Trudi. If he hadn’t known she was all right, he wouldn’t have been able to handle this so calmly. He followed the officer back through the terminal, and eventually, they made it to a security office.
The officer patted Samuel down, then took his wallet, phone, and badge out of his pockets and handcuffed him to a table. He set the items on the table, out of Samuel’s reach. Interestingly, he didn’t seem to take any notice of the badge.
“This isn’t necessary,” Samuel said.
“We’ll just chat a bit, sir, and then we’ll decide what’s necessary.” He looked like the captain of the football team—young, blond, and thick.
“Look, please bring me whoever’s in charge.”
“Do you have a story to tell?”
“An interesting one, actually.”
He smirked. “The man you attacked has an interesting story as well. So, why’d you attack him? Because of his skin color, nationality, or just because you’re crazy?”
“Please bring me whoever’s in charge. You’ll be glad you did.”
“Is that a threat?”
Yeah, someone sounds like he’s on the ’roids. “Certainly not.” Samuel smiled.
The officer left the room.
Samuel sat there for at least ten minutes. Although he didn’t feel patient, he maintained the illusion of it on the outside. Trudi had sounded pretty concerned about Dream, which meant she would go to extremes to help him. He knew she was smart enough not to be reckless, but she was also the kind of person to put herself in harm’s way to help someone else.
Finally, the door opened and a man, probably in his midsixties, walked in. He had wrinkles and white hair, but his gray eyes were sharp as a switchblade. He sat across from Samuel. “I hear you have a story for me.”
“First, I apologize for confronting that man. I honestly thought he was following me. I can’t tell you every detail, but I do have good reason to be cautious.”
“Not every Muslim is a terrorist.”
“That I know better than most.”
“And how is that?”
“Again, I can’t tell you everything, but I will tell you that I’m a government agent.”
The man picked up Samuel’s badge. “Atlanta PD isn’t usually referred to as a government agency. If this is even real.” He tossed the badge back down on the table.
“I’m currently working as a homicide detective while on stand-down.”
The man raised an eyebrow. “Stand-down?”
“For my and my family’s safety. There’s a particular family in the Middle East that’s not especially happy with me right now.”
“You told my officer you had to get home to your pregnant wife.”
“Yes, I did. In my line of work, sometimes twisting the truth, when it doesn’t hurt anyone and to make circumstances work in my favor, is necessary. I know that sounds kind of horrible, but if you’d been in the situations I’ve been in, you’d understand.”
“Lying is wrong, especially to law enforcement. That’s pretty simple.”
“I wish the world were that simple,” Samuel said. “Let me explain a bit about what’s happening, and perhaps you’ll understand. The mother of my son was recently killed, my son is being protected by someone I don’t trust, and the person I care about most in this world, besides my son, is in danger. I need to get back to her. That’s why I’m trying to catch a flight.”
“And yet you found time to attack an innocent stranger in a restroom. Do you have any idea who he is?”
“Like I said, I thought he was following me.”
“I’m still waiting for some kind of evidence for anything you’ve said.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t have evidence, and even if I did, I couldn’t share it with you.”
“Convenient.”
“In my line of work, you don’t keep evidence of anything on you. You commit all intel to memory. That’s the only place I can guarantee is safe.” When his phone started ringing, Samuel looked over at it. He recognized the Atlanta PD number. “That’s my captain in Atlanta.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“It’s very important that I talk to him. Please.”
“We’re not done here.”
“You can put it on speaker if you want.”
The officer picked up the phone, looked at the screen, and then clicked the button to send the call to voicemail. “That man you attacked, he’s from Saudi Arabia.”
“I realize that.”
The officer raised his chin. “I’m surprised you admit it.”
“Why wouldn’t I? I’ve worked in that area of the world for years. I speak Arabic. I recognize the different accents.”
The officer smirked. “You really must think I’m stupid.”
“What?”
“To admit all that to me.”
And then Samuel realized what was going on.