“Come on, Louie, we gotta get outta here.” Scotty said.
“Hang on.” Louie said. “I moved this stuff off of it. This thing’s weight-sensitive. We cover it up again, it might go off.”
“We’ll get Bomb Squad back here.” Kat said.
“There’s no time for that. Just get clear.” Louie said, giving them a sad look.
“We’re not leaving you here, Louie!” Kat said, frowning in thought for a moment. “Can you disarm it?”
Louie looked up at her for a moment, then back at the bomb. “I usually work with bombs after they go off. I…” He paused for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah… yeah, I think so.”
“You think?” Scotty asked.
Louie closed his eyes and nodded. “Yeah, yeah. I can.” His eyes darted over the device. “All right, I know this. It’s a trip mechanism, pressure-activated. I know this.” He looked up at Scotty and Kat. “Hold this stuff.”
As Scotty and Kat held the wreckage up, Louie pulled a small screwdriver from his pocket. “Let’s just hope if they were tryin’ to look low-tech, they didn’t bother with any booby traps.”
Louie turned the screw-driver at the corners of a small panel, until four tiny screws fell out and the panel popped off, revealing a mess of wires inside.
Louie swallowed hard and wiped sweat from his brow. “There’s a bit more wiring in here than I thought.”
Kat’s eyes widened. “Louie?”
Louie looked at the bomb for a moment, then shook his head. “No, I can do this. I ‘m not going out like this, not now. Anna and I were talking about getting another dog.”
Louie’s eyes ran over each wire, before resting on something he recognized. He pulled a pair of wire-cutters from his pocket and reached inside.
“This should be it.” He said.
Scotty could make out a faint snipping sound, then heard Louie release a heavy sigh.
“Okay, we’re good now.” Louie said, sitting up. “You can set that down now.”
“I’ll get Bomb Squad and CSU in here, make sure there’s no more surprises.” Kat said, once she and Scotty had set the wreckage down and stood up.
Scotty nodded. “Maybe we’ll get lucky with prints or DNA.”
As Kat hurried off, Louie looked up nervously at Scotty.
“Maybe we don’t tell Anna about this, huh?” Louie said.
***
Lilly rapped on the door to Stillman’s office, and Stillman waved her and Detective Nick Vera in.
“FBI lab’s going over the bomb.” Lilly said. “No prints, but they might have some possible DNA.”
“Might have another lead in the mean time.” Vera said. “I checked over Jeff’s phone records again. A few days before Jeff died, he made a phone call to a Dr. Gil Bornstein. Has a dental practice out in the Badlands. Little bit out of his way for a teeth-cleaning.”
“Ethan said that Jeff asked him to find a dentist.” Lilly said.
“But what for?” Stillman asked.
“Did a little digging on Bornstein. Back in the early nineties, the doc was an orthodontist, had a bit of a gambling problem. Lost his job after he got caught dippin’ into the payroll at his practice. Whatever Jeff wanted from this guy, I’m guessing it wasn’t on the up and up.”
Stillman nodded. “Maybe we need to find out what Dr. Bornstein was up to back in the nineties.”
***
Scotty wrinkled his nose as he looked around the grungy, dimly-lit waiting room of Dr. Gil Bornstein’s dental office.
“Long way from fitting braces for rich kids in Chestnut Hill, huh, Doc?”
The slightly weathered fifty-something man frowned at Scotty and Vera. “I made some mistakes a long time ago. It’s not all bad. I think I’m contributing far more here than I ever did there.”
“Well then it’s good you couldn’t get a job anywhere else, isn’t it?” Vera said.
“Just like you couldn’t pick a winning racehorse.” Scotty said with a smirk.
Bornstein sighed. “Again, it was a long time ago. What do you want from me?”
“Remember a guy named Jeff Royce, guy out in Libertyville called your office back in the day?” Scotty smiled.
Bornstein quickly shook his head. “I’m sorry. That name doesn’t ring a bell.”
“Jeff was CIA. He got your name from another agent just before he was killed.” Vera said. “CIA agent contacts a guy with a past as shady as yours, I’m bettin’ whatever it was about, that’s something you remember.”
“No!” Bornstein said with a firm shrug. “Come on, you can’t seriously expect me to remember a phone call from 1993.”
A grin appeared on Scotty’s face. “Didn’t say it was from 1993.”
Bornstein’s eyes widened and his jaw went slack. He looked at the two detectives for a moment before speaking. “I wanna talk to a lawyer.”
Scotty nodded. “Sure thing.” He pulled out his cell phone and started dialing. “Just gonna make a phone call myself in the meantime.”
“Who are you calling?” Bornstein asked.
“Oh, just this guy I know at the IRS.” Scotty said, nonchalantly. “We found a few discrepancies in your financial records. Gotta have him look it over. Just a formality.”
Vera nodded. “Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem. You paid taxes on all your gambling winnings back then, right?”
Bornstein quickly put up his hands. “No wait, wait, wait! I remember him, all right?”
Scotty put his phone away and folded his arms.
Bornstein closed his eyes. “I got indebted to some very bad people back then. They were following me, threatening me, somebody threw a brick through the window here. There was a note attached that said the next one was gonna be a bomb.” He shook his head. “I don’t know how but that man Jeff found me. I met with him and somehow he knew everything about me. He said he could make them leave me alone, but he needed me to do something for him…”
***
(“Orange Crush”)
“Where am I?” Bornstein asked, putting his hands out as he stumbled out of the back of the van. “Can I please take this off?”
Jeff walked over and pulled the blindfold off, allowing Bornstein to see the cracked, graffiti-covered interior of the warehouse.
“Take a breath, Gil.” Jeff said, calmly. “You’re perfectly safe.”
“Where am I?”
Jeff sighed. “Well that would really defeat the purpose of the blindfold, now wouldn’t it?” He leaned closer. “Gil, listen to me. I need you to stay focused. This job’s very important and I need you to be calm.”
Bornstein shook his head. “What job?”
Jeff put his hand on Bornstein’s back and started walking him towards what looked like a small office. “Okay, Gil, I know you’re not that naive. Just a little reminder, you racked up a lot of debt with some very bad people.” He gestured to Steve Mitchum, who was waiting inside the office. “Now, I’m not here to judge you, but my friend here’s gone to a lot of trouble to make sure those guys leave you alone, and our understanding was you’d do something for us in return.”
Bornstein looked at Jeff, then Steve. “What do you want me to do?”
Jeff nodded. “I just want you to do what you do best, Gil. Fix some teeth. Now I’m gonna show you your patient, and I’m gonna need you to stay calm.”
It was then that Bornstein notice the slab against the wall. The one with the body covered by a sheet.
Bornstein took a step back. “Oh, my God! Is he dead?”
Jeff walked over and pulled the sheet back slightly, revealed a slightly disheveled middle-aged man underneath. “Yes, Gil. He’s dead. I really can’t sugarcoat that.”
Bornstein shook his head and hurried towards the office before he noticed the strong grip on his arm.
“You’re not going anywhere, Doc.” Steve said in a dull voice.
Jeff put a hand up to Steve, who released Bornstein. “Sorry, Gil, but I can’t let you do that. Now, I’m sorry if this is a bit more than you’re used to, but I’m gonna need you to rise to the occasion here.” Jeff gestured to the body. “Now I can promise you we didn’t kill this man. He was homeless, no family. He drowned in the Schuylkill two nights ago. It was a terrible accident, but nobody’s fault. Now I need you to work on him. There’s an x-ray over there of a set of teeth. I need you to match his as close as possible to the ones on that x-ray. You do this, those leg-breakers go away and you get whatever’s left of your life back.”
Bornstein walked over to the x-ray and picked it up. “Whose teeth are these?”
“I can’t tell you that, Gil.” Jeff said. “Just do this for me and then you can forget this ever happened.”
Bornstein’s eyes narrowed. “And I can just… go back after that?”
Jeff nodded. “And you can just go back after that. You didn’t make a deal with the devil, Gil, but you did make a deal. You should have all the tools you need on the table there. Now get to work. I’d like if you could be done by sun-up.”
Bornstein looked at the body, then the x-ray. “He must be a pretty big deal.”
Jeff folded his arms. “Who?”
Borstein turned around to look at Jeff and Steve. “The guy you want everyone to think is dead.”
Jeff gave a small facial shrug. “Yeah, I suppose he is. Get to work, Gil…”
***
Bornstein lowered his head. “I did what I could, then they took me home. I never heard from them again after that, but the debt collectors stopped bothering me after that. I’ve been trying to forget ever since.”
“So they were trying to fake someone’s death?” Scotty asked.
Bornstein shrugged. “Why else would you change a dead man’s teeth to look like someone else’s?”
“And you’re sure the other guy’s name was Steve?”
Bornstein nodded. “I overheard them talking while I was working.”
“Okay.” Scotty said. “Stay reachable, Doc.”
Scotty leaned over to Vera as the two walked out of the office. “You remember the Denton job last spring?” He asked quietly.
Vera nodded. “Yeah, P.I. faked that girl’s death, helped her start over somewhere else. That what we’re lookin’ at here?”
“Maybe, but why’s a CIA agent helping a suspected terrorist disappear?”
“I can think of one person to ask.”
***
Steve Mitchum got out of the truck and frowned as he saw the black SUV pulling up to the cabin. Lilly and Cavanaugh both emerged from the vehicle, neither of them looking friendly.
Steve rolled his eyes. “I’m starting to think you’re one of my ex-wives, the way you keep comin’ around here.”
Lilly glared at him. “Yeah, well I’m getting a little sick of this myself.”
“Agent Cavanaugh, FBI.” Cavanaugh said, showing his badge.
“FBI, huh?” Steve chuckled. “Couldn’t get a real job?”
“If you think pissing me off’s gonna distract me from asking questions, think again.” Cavanaugh said, giving Steve a hard look. “We know you helped Jeff fake Omar Khalid’s death. What we don’t know is why.”
Steve folded his arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said, in a bored tone.
“That dentist you guys used is talking.” Cavanaugh said with a smile. “It’s gonna take him about two seconds to pick you out of a line-up.”
“Gonna be a hell of a list of charges.” Lilly added, stepping closer. “Fraud, extortion, kidnaping, harboring and aiding a fugitive.”
“Not to mention treason.” Cavanaugh said. “And we’re talking federal charges here.”
Steve sighed. “You got no idea what you’ve gotten yourselves into here.”
“You’re not the first person to tell me that.” Lilly said, stepping closer.
Steve chuckled again. “So who was? Bob Garrison?”
Lilly shook her head. “Ethan Moore.”
Steve’s smirk dropped slightly. “I heard about that. Couldn’t happen to a nicer fella. I’ll tell you right now though, Omar didn’t do that. Guy’s harmless. Just a poor dumb bastard with bad luck. I saw that myself…”
***
(“World Leader Pretend”)
Jeff pointed to the man walking along the dark highway as they pulled closer to him.
“That’s him.” Jeff said. “Make sure nobody driving by can see the van.”
Steve nodded and turned the van into a brush area as Jeff jumped out and rushed over to the man.
“Where are you headed, Omar?”
Omar Khalid spun around as he heard Jeff’s voice.
“We spotted your car about a mile and a half back there.” Jeff said, jerking his thumb behind him. “I told you last week you should fill ‘er up, but you just kept putting it off. Now, please don’t make me chase you down.”
“What do you want from me?”
Jeff put up his hands. “I just wanna talk.”
“Who are you, really?”
Jeff shrugged. “Actually what I told you was pretty much the truth. I’m Jeff Royce, twenty-year CIA vet, moved my family to Philly, grill a mean steak.” His calm smile faded. “It just wasn’t the whole truth. Certain people I work for were concerned about you since you came to this country, thought you had ties to some group called Al-Quaeda.”
Omar frowned at Jeff. “So you think I’m a terrorist? Is that it?”
Jeff shook his head. “I didn’t know what to think. I just did the job, like I always did, no questions asked. I’m starting to think I didn’t get the whole story either.”
“All those months you were pretending to be my friend.” Omar said, the pain starting to show on his face. “I trusted you.”
“And you know what? I trust you.” Jeff said. “My instincts have kept me alive for over twenty years, and they’re all telling me you’re not one of the badguys.”
Omar just looked at him warily.
Steve hurried over to them, a pair of binoculars in his hand.
“Hey,” Steve said, handing the binoculars to Jeff. “We got a problem, coming up the road.”
Jeff looked through the binoculars towards the distance, then turned to a puzzled Omar.
“Get off the road.” Jeff said quickly.
“What?”
Jeff and Steve both grabbed Omar by an arm and pulled him towards the brush.
“We gotta get off the road now!” Jeff said over Omar’s protests.
The two pulled Omar far enough into the brush to be covered from the road, then turned around. After a few moments, a large black van passed by at a casual speed. Omar could make out men inside scanning around the area as they drove past.
“Not the type of thing you usually see on back roads like this, huh?” Steve said, looking at Omar.
“Who are they?”
Jeff lifted his head once he was sure they were gone. “Private security detail my boss uses on occasion. Bunch of former military guys, uses them for messy jobs no one else’ll do. Subtlety’s not exactly their strong suit. That’s probably why he sent me in first to check you out.” He shook his head. “I never told him you took off though. Somebody must’ve tipped him off.”
“Ethan?” Steve asked.
Jeff lowered his head. “It’s gotta be. We’d better keep an eye him.” He turned to Omar. “If those guys caught up with you, no one would’ve ever seen you again. Now some very dangerous men are after you right now. Now if you’re not what they say you are, then the question is what’s all this about? Why did you run? Why did my boss do everything short of ordering me to put a bullet in your head?”
Omar just looked at him for a moment, before turning away. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Jeff leaned closer. “Try me…”
***
“He wouldn’t say what his story was till we got him out of there, and even then, he’d only talk to Jeff. Whatever it was, Jeff was seeing red afterwards. Said we had to keep Omar safe until the time was right to tell people.”
“That’s why you changed the dental records,” Cavanaugh said. “Made it look like he was dead.”
Steve nodded.
“So what happened to Jeff?” Lilly asked.
“I don’t know. Someone must’ve gotten wise somehow. Whether they got him to talk first or not, I couldn’t say.”
“So where’s Omar now?” Cavanaugh asked.
Steve shook his head. “I don’t know. That’s the God’s honest truth. That was Jeff’s part of it.”
“And you have no idea where he is?” Cavanaugh asked, skeptically.
Steve frowned impatiently. “No, I just told–” He stopped as he noticed car pulling to a stop at the cabin, and pointed to the woman getting out. “Maybe she does.”
“Sharon?” Lilly asked as she and Cavanaugh turned around.
Sharon Royce looked at the two of them sadly. “You know, don’t you? About Omar?”
“What do you know about him?” Cavanaugh asked.
“I know he didn’t do what they’re saying he did.” Sharon said. “Please, you have to protect him.”
“We need to find him first.” Lilly said.
Sharon nodded. “I can tell you where he is, but you have to keep him safe, otherwise my husband died for nothing.”
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