Chapter 5

The ‘Batt Team’ euphemistically known by in certain circles of the government was built on stamina and perseverance. This was evident by the plane ride up the coast. Steve and Wendy were both sleeping and the team was fully awake doing what they do best: working. Billy at his laptop; Sujin at her laptop, doing what she did best: digging for information that might lead to a clue where this madman might strike next; Brad with his map studying each kill site looking for a needle in a haystack. Math, the answer to all questions, lay before him. The formula is all he needed. Mike did his best work analyzing where he had been, what he saw, what he heard and Brad had told him to try and understand why the house was empty save the books and kitchen stuff. He’d also told him after the FBI had looked for clues and fingerprints to have the books sent to Oregon.

The plane landed in the dead of night to the calm after the storm, but just a pause as another one lurked just over the horizon. Mike took his car to Port Orford to check in at home and Steve took his car and the rest of them piled into a van for the trip to Bandon.

Sandy was happy they were home and didn’t pay much attention to the newcomer in Wendy. Rocky would have told her to be aware if there was any danger, but he renewed his love with a standoff stance while she played the role of female making sounds of love and happiness by dancing around. Earie had the welcome mat out and hot bowls of noodles sat on the low table for the hungry team and guests. The smell of onion and garlic rising off the noodles made all mouths water with hunger.

Wendy was totally impressed by what she could see and what she imagined the house and grounds looked like in the daylight. So sterile, but so homey she thought. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. But what felt like independence of the team members, but yet a bond made it all feel warm and comfortable. No evidence of touching or hugs upon returning, but just an order of business and the comforts of home. The look and aroma of the noodles made her want to sit down and eat, as Sujin led her downstairs to her bedroom where she could freshen up. Billy and Steve followed them down to their respective rooms and a few minutes later all were sitting on the floor sucking up a homemade U-dong, a Korean noodle soup. To Wendy it tasted wonderful and she was impressed with the surroundings having peeked into the computer room and wondered what the other rooms looked like. Her room was austere but comfortable. She thought she would enjoy staying here and maybe she would even learn something.

Earlier she had received a document on her laptop one paragraph long about her inquiry about who Brad Pratt was and is. Sitting at the table eating this wonderful food she gazed at him thinking about what the document said. He was an Oxford scholar and after graduation entered the Navy. After retiring six years ago it was vague about what he was doing at the present time. In it was nothing about his personal life or why he had retired early when she knew he was supposed to be a career man following a long line of military men such as his retired father who was a general up until a few years ago. Vague was not the word she thought about, secrecy was more like it. Why I need to know, she thought, it seems like he knows more than he is letting on. How to crack that knowledge base was her intention. Must be careful as if I come on too strong or too curious he will clam up tight and like a fool I will have lost his confidence. No doubt he was held in high esteem in some circles and Jake knew more than she did about this strange and powerful team of seemingly misfits.

Then there was his Korean wife. Where did he meet her and how does she fit into this team. She hadn’t heard her say ten words since she met her. But she always noticed the two of them looking at each other like telepathy was going on between them. She moved like a cat. No sound and fluidity marked her movements. Watch and learn she heard her father say. There is nothing worse than a person putting their nose where it doesn’t belong. Gain their confidence and tread lightly. She liked Mike, but he was gone and who knows when he will return. Then there was Billy who had gobbled down the noodles and ran outside with a pack of smokes to satisfy his habit. She didn’t see him so strange once she got by his dress and habits. Kind of typical of a computer nerd, she thought while she fought the spicy taste and rank smell of kimchee.

Brad broke the silence by saying that we should all retire for the night and get together at six in the morning. Wendy thought that a good idea and thanked them for a lovely dinner and went to her room. Looking at the wall clock it said close to one am. After the bathroom and putting on her nightdress, she peeked out the curtains and saw Brad sitting on a small sofa reading some papers. Doesn’t ever sleep she wondered. And his dog is always next to him as her eyes closed and the next thing she realized it was six am. She never slept so well and she remembered there wasn’t a sound after she went to bed: total silence. A little scary, but when she dressed in casual clothes climbing the stairs and looking out the tinted windows as daylight was just breaking, she relaxed when Steve came up alongside her and said, “Sleep well?”

“Never better and why would anyone live in DC when you could live here,” she answered with an obvious rhetorical question.

“Wendy, it wasn’t by chance you were chosen for this job. Brad asked for you special. He thinks you can be a real help with this difficult case we are on.”

Wendy was shocked and still looking out the window which now had streams of water from a soundless rain running down the window said, “How did he know or how does he know me?”

“Honestly speaking he was given a list of profilers and liked what he read about you I guess.”

At that moment Brad came through the door with one of his dogs. Both stopped on the entry way and Brad stripped down to his running shorts. He toweled off his dog and walked to the stairs.

Wendy had a first look at his body. When he walked it seemed he floated on air. Legs were well muscled, but not overly so. It was the same with his arms and shoulders, powerful but not bulging. His body seemed hairless, but that was not unusual for blondes. Some of her friends would say he had a wedge of a body. Wendy felt an electric current run through her body and especially the sensitive areas. Her thoughts were interrupted by Sujin coming through the door. She too stripped down to shorts and a wet T-shirt, following her husband down the stairs.

Wendy said to Steve with a look of curiosity, “Don’t they ever sleep?”

Steve with a small grin said, “Not much. I would guess a couple hours a night is all. Something to do with Eastern religion, but as I’m a complete neophyte about that discipline, your guess is as good as mine. I will say that I’ve never seen him or her tired. And believe me, I’ve had occasion to witness when he had operated in the field for four days straight without any sleep or rest.”

Wendy looked back at the view now that daylight gave her an outline of the coming day. She saw what appeared as sand dunes running to south and the Pacific Ocean is beating the beach with large waves of the storm in progress. No way did she want to be out there in this weather. She was a city girl and didn’t like the rain. The smell of breakfast cooking with Earie working mostly soundless in the kitchen drew her away from the view. She was starving and wanted a cup of coffee in the worst way. Earie must have sensed the need for both Steve and Wendy as she placed two mugs of steaming coffee on the old wood table by the window. Steve took her by the arm and both sat at the table sipping fresh coffee.

Billy came up looking like he just crawled out of bed, but then he always looked that way. He almost ran into the door while fumbling for his smokes. Rocky was hot on his heels and wanted to play. The door faced east so the weather was hardly noticed when the door opened or closed. Sujin had turned off the security at the door, but the outside was always on. Brad had informed Wendy about the ground security and to not go outside without either Sujin or him with her. She took the warning seriously and had no need to venture out in this weather.

Breakfast was fish soup and Korean pancakes. Wendy wasn’t much of a fish lover, but hungry was the better part of valor and she dug in with relish. She found the taste excellent and sheepishly wondered what was for lunch.

After breakfast Brad suggested they have a meeting in the basement to discuss the case. Almost on cue the high sound of someone coming denoted the arrival of Mike. Wendy was amazed how well it worked. Mike declined breakfast and made for the stairs saying hi and good morning to all. Billy was standing in the kitchen wolfing down an egg sandwich and milk. He ran back to the door for a last minute smoke and once all were in place around the glass top coffee table, the discussion at first surrounded the contents of the kitchen from the house of John.

Mike said, “We all know the questions, but what are the answers. He cleaned out the house save the kitchen and books.” He’d made an easy to read list of the inventory and had passed around to all a copy. “Let’s go around the room after a minute and see what pops out of the box.”

After a few minutes Billy offered, “If it had been me I wouldn’t take condiments and pancake mix with me either. That tells me he left it to confuse us and to stall for time frustrating the investigators.”

Brad looked up and said with his usual soft spoken voice, “Maybe that is the case Billy, but let’s look a little deeper than what is on the surface. What do you do with condiments and such things? You mix them to make something is what you do. Now he is mixing up an alphabet soup. We need to take a first letter of each item and see what we come up with.” Billy was scrambling for his laptop and decided that was not what he needed and left for the computer room.

Brad continued by pointing out, “B for baking soda: Barstow; C for cookie: for Cantil; S for salt: Santa Clarita; N for nuts: Needles; and so on.”

Wendy thought this was so off the wall she almost laughed. Steve sensed her thoughts and gave her a glare that would have devastated her in grad school. She was smarter than that and gave herself a verbal warning to listen with an open mind.

Brad went on to say, “If we look at the size of the area he used for the two letters A and N, then follow that with the next two sites further north to connect the C, something tells me he didn’t follow his plan of making the ‘Catch me if you can logical or symmetrical. If you follow Sac and add Bishop then connect the line to Baker a nice C is visible. However, if you make a C out of Bakersfield to Bishop to Baker you have again a C. In addition you have the three C’s.” A frown on his face was felt by all at the meeting. Steve thought this was way over his head and excused himself to make a phone call. Wendy had to use the bathroom, but was afraid to leave.

Billy came back in with a random list of words three pages long. Sujin took a look and left to the computer room without a word. Mike changed the subject to the books. Everyone looked at their copy of the list of books and magazines found in the John house. Mike keyed in on one book he found as an anomaly to the rest of the books. He said, “This book about raising pigs is totally alien to the rest of them and to my thinking why would a guy have a book about raising pigs when you live in a city?”

Wendy was looking over the list and was now starting to get in on the feel of things. Her brain was starting to gear up and forget about the deeper thoughts and think about what is staring you in the face. Pigs, why the hell would he have a book about pigs? She blurted out, as all heads turned towards her, “Maybe in his history, that is family history, pigs were raised by a relative.”

Brad said, “I like it and Mike run this guy’s genealogy through Utah and see what comes up” Wendy looked pleased as punch and Brad gave her a small smile. Only the two of them were left sitting around the table and she took the opportunity to excuse herself for a bathroom run.

Steve, meanwhile, in his bedroom was talking to Jake in Sacramento. Jake was telling him they found his car and were dismantling it piece by piece. He told Steve they were phoned by long term parking at the airport after a description of it with the two letters was sent out to places where he might park or hide the car. Steve asked, “Has he been identified by anyone at the airport?”

“No, I doubt if we will get an ID as he uses so many disguises.”

“Fine, Brad wants those books up here soonest Jake, so please double your efforts on them and send by first light tomorrow.” That was an order and not a request as Jake took it.

“That will be done and is there anything more,” he asked sarcastically.

“Not for now, but find that storage locker and if you need more men, call me on my cell phone and I will have fifty there by nightfall,” he hung up without waiting for a response. Damn him, Steve thought. We need team players and not a guy like Jake who resents anyone stepping onto his patch.

He’d just got off the phone with Washington and reported to his superior that this case could be a long and difficult one to solve. His boss didn’t want to hear it, but softly said he knew what they were up against. He’d asked Steve if he needed anything to help them along the way and Steve replied that he was going to walk the beach and pray for the second time in his life. His boss asked when the first time was and he responded by saying when he was in church the last time getting married. He’d asked God to never let his dick grow soft. His boss laughed so hard he had to hang up. Steve cracked a big smile, but as usual no one saw it. He decided he would go for that walk on the beach.

Wendy was coming out of her room when he saw her. He asked her if she wanted a walk on the beach and she looked doubtful knowing she would get wet and probably sand in her shoes. He saw her reluctance and quickly said there are some beach combing clothes if you like. She had a small smile that acknowledged an agreement to his suggestion. Ten minutes later they were headed down the trail with Rocky as their guide. Brad had sent Rocky just in case and Wendy asked what the just in case meant a Brad only smiled.

Wendy looked like a professional beach comber in her yellow rain coat with a large rain hat on, knee boots that fit perfectly, and lined pockets to keep her hands warm. Keeping her legs warm was a pair of nylon pants that was waterproof. Once they hit the beach from the trail, the sand firmed up and the going was easy. The rain and wind whipped her face, but it felt good. The smell of salt and seaweed filled her nose. On the sea stacks as they passed by sat hundreds of sea gulls waiting out the storm. The tide was out so they could pass by and see hundreds of thousands of black muscles hanging from the rocks along with starfish interspersed giving a rainbow color to an otherwise black background. Having never seen this before Wendy moved closer to look at the hanging muscles with long hair like things hanging all over them. She was afraid to touch them and reached out tentatively to touch a starfish. They were tough skinned and rough to touch. She turned to say something to Steve, but realized the roar of the ocean and wind would only carry her voice a short ways. She closed her mouth and they continued up the beach toward the jetty.

Wendy felt the wind and rain on her left side as they walked north to the jetty. Steve had his hands buried in his pockets of his Burberry. A brightly colored yellow rain hat with a neck strap made him look like a comic book character in his big black boots strolling up the beach. An hour later she loved the walking. She held her head high and the salt air refreshed her body and brain. As they neared the jetty she could see the waves crashing into the giant rocks that protected the entrance to the harbor. The spray was flying high into the air from the waves and wind. She’d never witnessed such a sight and was mesmerized by the picture as she drew closer to the jetty. By now she could see the outline of some people walking on top of the rocks and when she was close enough to see them, she spotted Brad standing next to the seashore hatless wearing a blue Gore-Tex coat. How did he know we would this way she thought? He was alone as they climbed the small bank to the parking lot. Few cars were there as the tourist season was long gone and the sight of a storm to the locals was nothing to them.

“Hi,” he said, “I brought you some dry clothes and maybe we would have lunch at the local eatery.” He handed her a bag and pointed at the low building where the restrooms were located. For Steve he had a pullover sweater and a light rain coat and a pair of slip on waterproof shoes. Wendy found a sweat suit and sweatshirt inside the bag along with some slip on waterproof shoes. A windbreaker jacket and she were good to go. She looked into the stainless steel mirror and gave up the thought of combing her short hair or applying some lipstick. Go natural girl, she thought.

Brad drove the van to the new part of Bandon. The old town lying at the edge of the harbor where the Coquille River emptied into the Pacific Ocean. A small town she thought as they drove along the waterfront where small boutiques and other shops and restaurants were located. Brad turned right through town and up the hill to the new town where the supermarket and banks were located. A busy restaurant sat off to the side and that is where Brad parked.

Inside she made for the restroom to comb her hair and after looking presentable she found them sitting at a table talking quietly. She looked around and noticed the look of locals rather than tourists sat busy talking about whatever locals talk about. She sat down and Brad smiled at her asking what she would like. He said, “The clam chowder is great and a crab sandwich is out of this world.”

She looked at him and thought this was the most human like sentence she had heard him speak. “I will follow your suggestion and some coffee would be nice.” It turned out they all had the same thing and she was delighted he met them and stopped for lunch. “How did you know where we would be,” she asked with a raised eyebrow he noticed.

“Ah, it is Steve’s famous walk. It’s too far for him to return and years ago he called me the first time he made the trek to the jetty.” Steve glared at him.

“You know that isn’t true. I called you the first time to see if I was needed and you said two calls had come in. Then you suggested you come and get me and I agreed,” he said with a small sign with a grin. Brad rolled his eyes and Wendy laughed. Hot bowls of chowder arrived and Wendy loved the food. It reminded her of the East Coast and Boston. But the crab was much better here.

They didn’t talk any business here as Brad was known but left alone. About the time they were finished eating a policeman walked in and up to the table. Brad introduced him as his brother-in-law who was married to Earie. Wendy noticed he was short and stocky, with a nice smile. He shook hands around the table and made some small talk and left. Wendy thought it a little strange he didn’t sit down and have some coffee, but maybe he was on an errand or something.

Driving back to the roundhouse, as she called it, she took in the sights along the way down the Loop Road. New houses mixed with old weather beaten houses were scattered here and there along the road. Turning into a small dirt road they made their way to the parking lot after Brad opened the cable crossing the road at the end of the trees. The wind was gale force and they hurried to the house. Inside Sujin took their wet clothes and disappeared down the stairs. A warm feeling from the wood stove gave off warmth and comfort. Wendy sat down on the sofa and let out a relaxed sigh. Brad and Steve left for the basement and she sat alone until Sujin came back up and sat next to her. Sujin smiled timidly and said, “Are you comfortable here Wendy?”

“Yes, very much so and if you are not careful I will be living here soon it is so nice and relaxing.”

Sujin knew English American humor and gave off a laugh. “My husband likes your work and thinks you will be a big help on this case,” she said with a sincere look in her eyes.

“I hope I can help. Even my parents back east are scared to go outdoors anymore and how much more here or in California are the old folks worried to death of the serial killer.”

“Yes, and I’ve read your report and is there anything else you might think of to add to it after the last few days being on the sites and in his house?”

“Sujin, I know one thing and after studying profiles until my eyes fell out is that they all have one thing in common: abuse at home when young whether physical or mental. The pig breeding book and if in his history of family reveals a location; we might find him holed up there or near there due to his loss of a ‘home’ so to speak.”

“Mike located his family history and we are discussing it when you are ready to join the team in the basement.” With that they made their way downstairs. Billy who had taken advantage of the lunch break caught up with them on the way down smelling like stale cigarettes eliciting a sharp look from Wendy. He made no excuse and sat on the floor next to Sandy who had replaced Rocky inside for the afternoon shift. Sandy was no different and snuggled up to Billy. Dogs know who and what humans are. If a dog doesn’t like you it is for a good reason. Wendy knew that and that is maybe why he always had Rocky or Sandy with him.

Brad led a formal discussion about the results of Mike’s history on John. He said, “Mike has located Johns’ fathers’ home. He has since found out his father raised pigs and the location is near the city of Olympia in Washington State. I think it prudent Mike and Wendy investigate this new information and maybe we can turn up a clue or two. Wendy gives us your thinking about this new development.”

Wendy thought for a few minutes and said, “Simply put, the more we know about this guy the closer we can determine his geographical travels. What I mean is if he is familiar with the area around Olympia maybe he will decide to let the press cool down and the hunt for him wanes. He must know we are going all out to find him and what better place to go to ground would be in a familiar place. He’s two thirds there if we can take his ‘Catch’ me expression. I think it is likely he will let things cool down for a while. I’m ready and willing to go or do anything to help the team and in particular stop this guy from killing our grandmothers and grandfathers.”

“Well, it is settled then. Mike and Wendy go to Olympia and for the time being we will stay here and work on our random numbers and word games. Meanwhile Steve will make the arrangements and notify the local FBI that you are coming,” Brad said standing up telling everyone the meeting is over.