Chapter Forty Four

 

The elevator chimed and the doors opened on the fifth floor. Wakefield and Mike sprinted down the hall toward the door of Vicky’s condo. Wakefield knocked on the door. There was no answer. He inserted a metal probe, picked the lock, and quietly entered. He noticed the keys to Vicky’s Lexus on the table by the door. He surveyed the entry hall and living room. He quickly ascertained there were no occupants. He entered Lauren’s speed dial number in his cell phone.

 

The cab was approaching the perimeter road of the airport. Lauren felt her cell phone vibrate against her leg in the front pocket of her jeans.

She knew they would be at the airport soon, and decided to ignore the call.

Larry pulled into the small parking lot of the JetCorp FBO. “I believe this is the establishment to which you have desired me to take you to this evening.” Larry stopped his cab in front of the entrance to the building. “Dat will be twenty-four dollars.”

Vicky, Geoffrey, and Lauren got out of the cab as Larry retrieved their bags from the trunk. Vicky reached into her purse and handed Larry three twenty dollar bills. “Just give me ten dollars back.”

“Dat is most generous of you.”

Vicky and Geoffrey walked toward the FBO entrance. Lauren lingered by the rear of the cab with her suitcase.

“I’ve got a call here, missuhs Vontgomery,” Lauren said. “I’ll be der is yust a moment.”

Larry returned to the front seat of his cab as Lauren returned her call. She selected the speaker function of her phone and waited for Wakefield to answer.

 

Wakefield and Mike exited the elevator on the first floor, walked briskly past the comatose doorman, and passed through the revolving doors. Wakefield’s cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and answered the call.

“Lauren, where the hell are you guys?” he demanded. “We’re paying you good money to keep an eye on those two. Now where are you?”

“Ver at dah airport,” she replied.

“Which airport? And you can spare me the fake accent.”

“Reagan National.”

“Which airline?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t look like an airline terminal. There is just one small jet parked on the ramp beside a building.”

“Is there a sign on the building?”

“Yes. It says JetCorp.”

“O.K. Do whatever it takes to delay them,” Wakefield demanded. “We’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“No problem.”

 

Larry sat in the driver’s seat of his cab and heard every word of Lauren’s conversation. She had her back to him as she leaned against the left rear fender, and was therefore not only oblivious to his monitoring of her conversation, but also to the fact that he was removing his disguise.

First he took off the blue silk turban. He scratched his closely cropped hair and rubbed his scalp. He was rather proud of the fact that although he had not changed his Marine style haircut for the last three decades, it was now very much in vogue. He then removed the beard. He reached into the glove box for a cloth and poured a solution on it that would easily dissolve the glue used to hold the beard firmly in place. He then took out another rag and soaked it in a different solution.

He quietly exited the cab, and approached Lauren from behind. As she concluded her phone call with Wakefield, he forced the cloth immersed with the second solution over her face. With little resistance, she collapsed. He took her cell phone, lowered her into the trunk next to the man he had placed there under similar circumstances earlier that evening, and closed the trunk lid.

Although his mission for the evening had been to ensure Vicky and her son were delivered safely to Johnny at the airport, Vance Nickelson decided to linger for awhile in front of the FBO.

Heart problems had forced him to retire from flying several years ago, but he still kept in touch with Johnny whenever he was in town. He knew he still had a few hours before the cab driver in the trunk would recover consciousness after being subjected to the same anesthesia that he had used to subdue Lauren. As he leaned against the hood of his cab, he could see Vicky and Geoffrey as they greeted Johnny in the lobby.