The rest of Recker and Haley’s day did not provide anything useful. They talked to several more people, none of whom could even tell them half as much as Feeney did, or Alderson for that matter. They staked out a couple people, watching them as they either left their work or their homes, hoping they would meet up with someone shady they could pinpoint back to Cloutier. Nothing happened though. Nobody made even the slightest move toward doing something suspicious. After they finished up with the last name on their list, they had to head back to the hotel.
“Back to ground zero?” Haley asked.
Recker sighed. “Yeah, there’s not really anything left for us to do out here. Let’s take it back to the barn and see what shakes out.”
“Maybe David’s got something.”
“Hope so. Haven’t talked to him all day. That’s unusual.”
“Might mean he’s on the trail of something.”
“Could be. Also, could be he’s got nothing worth talking about.”
“Let’s shoot for some positive waves.”
“I’m all for shooting something,” Recker said. “But it ain’t positive waves.”
Once they arrived back at the hotel, Jones barely heard them come in. He heard a door open but didn’t bother to turn around, assuming it was them. He didn’t want to take his mind off his work, even for a few seconds.
“Got anything there, professor?” Recker asked.
“Shhh,” Jones replied, putting his index finger in the air, still without turning his head.
Recker and Haley looked at each other. “Guess he’s busy,” Haley said.
“I would say so. I don’t remember ever getting a shhh before.”
Exhausted, Recker and Haley both went over to the couch and plopped themselves down, wanting to relax for a few minutes. Since whatever Jones was doing seemed to be occupying him immensely, they assumed it was something important.
“Excuse me sir,” Recker said, putting his hand up like he was back in school. “Could you at least tell us how long you’re gonna be there.”
“A few more minutes.”
“Do you mean a few more, as in like five, or a few more as in, like, thirty?”
“I don’t know yet,” Jones answered. “You can’t rush these things.”
“So I gather.”
“Why don’t you use the downtime to call Mia?” Haley said.
Recker looked at him and nodded. “Good call. I do believe I will.” Recker got up and started moving toward the bedroom. “David, I’m gonna go in here and call Mia, you know, just so you know where I am in case you need me for anything. Not that you will or anything.”
“Have fun. Tell her I said hi.”
After Recker went into the bedroom, Haley, figuring he had some time himself, just leaned over, lying down on the couch. With how tired he was from moving around all day for the last few days, he fell asleep within a few minutes. Recker was in the bedroom for close to forty minutes talking to Mia before he came back out. He initially didn’t see Haley.
“Where’s Chris?”
Jones still didn’t bother to turn around. He didn’t even know Haley had fallen asleep. “On the couch still, I believe.”
Recker took a few more steps, coming around to the front of the couch, now seeing Haley sleeping there. He certainly couldn’t blame his partner for falling asleep there. He was tired himself. If he hadn’t been on the phone with Mia, he might have even done it too.
“I’m almost there with you, buddy.”
“What’s that?” Jones asked.
“Chris is no longer with us.”
Jones immediately stopped typing and spun around. Recker said it in such an ominous way. “He’s just sleeping, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You said it like he was dead or something.”
“Oh. Sorry. Bad habit I guess.”
Jones spun back around and started typing away again.
“Not that I’m trying to hurry you up again, though I guess that’s exactly what I’m doing, are you almost done?”
“Almost.”
“Because I’d like to move on, but it’s hard to do that when it seems like you’re working on something.”
“Understandable,” Jones said.
“You are working on something, correct?”
“I am.”
“Something important?”
“Could be.”
“Gonna give me anything more than that?”
“In a few minutes.”
Recker rolled his eyes and started walking around the room. “And people say I’m stubborn and hardheaded.”
“What was that?”
“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.”
Since he had nothing else to do, except for waiting, Recker went into the kitchen and made himself a turkey sandwich, along with grabbing a soda. He hoped that by the time he was done eating, Jones would be done as well. Finally, ten minutes later, Jones stopped typing and pushed his chair away from the desk, apparently finished. He wiped his eyes and rubbed the sides of his temples.
“Done there?” Recker asked.
“Yes.”
Recker then reached down and tapped Haley on the arm to wake him up.
“Is it morning yet?” Haley asked.
“No, sunshine, still night.”
Haley sat up, feeling like he’d only been asleep for a half hour or so. “Feels like I just went to sleep.”
“You did.”
“Oh.”
“David’s finally done and is going to give us the holy grail so we can go home in a few days. Right?”
Jones rolled his eyes. “If only it were that simple.”
“I sure hope you have something interesting and didn’t just make me wait all that time just to tell me you have nothing. You didn’t do that, right?”
“I’ve been able to eliminate most of the people as people of interest.”
“That’s not what I wanted to hear,” Recker said. “You were supposed to say, I’ve identified the man we’re looking for. That’s what I was looking for.”
“Sorry to disappoint. But there are still two men I think could be that person. You probably won’t know unless you talk to him.”
“How’d you eliminate the others?” Haley asked, somehow managing to keep his eyes open.
“I simply traced the money.”
“You wanna expand on that?” Recker said.
“The issue was that they all received mysterious payments which they deposited into their bank accounts, correct?”
“Yeah.”
“So, I traced where the money came from.”
“How?”
“I zeroed in on family and known friends and tapped into their financial records,” Jones answered. “The people I’ve eliminated all had family or friends take out the exact amount of money from their account which was then deposited into the accounts of our suspects. Therefore, the money matches up and can be accounted for as to the question of where it came from.”
“And the last two?”
“I cannot make or find any leads as to where their money came from. Friends, family, no one matches up with the same amount of money.”
“What if it came from two sources? You know, a brother gives them half, then a friend gives them the other half, something like that?”
Jones shook his head. “I looked into that possibility. Nothing within the time frame makes sense. At least that I can decipher.”
Haley yawned. “Doesn’t mean it’s anything criminal. Could be they gamble, had a good streak at the casino.”
“Possible.”
“Or they could be taking payments from a certain wanted man,” Recker said.
“Also possible.”
“Guess we need to check these guys out.”
“I’ve already checked into their work schedules,” Jones said. “One is working now. He usually works an overnight shift. The other works during the day tomorrow.”
“Guess we’ll slip into the darkness of the night.”
“Are you trying to be poetic or something?”
“Why, is it good?”
“Not really.”
“Then no.”
Haley scratched the top of his head and yawned again. “Really? One of them’s really gotta work at nighttime? Figures.”
“You can stay here if you want,” Recker said. “I can check it out alone if you wanna get some rest.”
Haley stood up. “No, no, I just need to wake up a little. I just need to grab a coffee before we go.”
Recker nodded. “Take your time.”
“He’ll have to,” Jones said.
“What do you mean?”
“The guy doesn’t report to work for another two hours.”
Recker shook his head. “You couldn’t have told me that to begin with?”
“You didn’t ask.”
“In that case, I’ll make it two coffees,” Haley shouted from the kitchen. “Maybe even three.”
Recker was about to say something as Haley walked back into the room, coffee in hand, but he yawned himself.
“Ahh, see,” Haley said, pointing at him with his coffee. “I’m not the only one.”
“I think you’re rubbing off on me.”
Haley then turned around and walked back into the kitchen. He grabbed another cup of coffee and brought it back out with him. He handed it to his partner. “Here, you might need this.”
Recker grabbed it, taking a sip. He then turned his attention back to Jones. “You got a file on this guy?”
Jones walked back over to the desk. “I’ve got everything you need on both guys.”
“Might as well look it over since we got some time to kill. Seems like we’ve been doing a lot of that.”
“Doing what?”
“Killing time.”
“It’s still early yet,” Jones said. “We haven’t been here all that long.”
“So you keep saying.”
“I keep saying it because it’s the truth.”
“Yeah. Let’s just hope one of these jokers is actually involved and can tell us something.”
“That’s always the goal.”
“That is the goal. Let’s hope we can finally put the ball across the finish line.”