Back-Tracker Read online

  The local Safeway was less than two miles away, and Jake was nearly finished with his shopping when he recalled Karin had mentioned something on the drive home she wanted to get at the store. No matter how he tried to bring the thought back, he couldn’t remember what it was. He knew if he didn’t get it now, they’d only have to make another trip later.

  He called the house, knowing that Karin would be awake anyway because of Janna. Surprisingly, the phone rang and rang, but Karin didn’t pick up. Jake frowned, and looked at the phone as if it could tell him why. Then he dialed Karin’s cell phone. Once again, a series of rings, but no answer.

  He’d been gone less than twenty minutes. It was remotely possible that Karin had finished feeding Janna and gone back to sleep, but he doubted that was the case. Janna didn’t go back to sleep that quickly, and given the number of hours she’d been sleeping counting last night and the drive home, Jake doubted she’d want any more sleep now anyway.

  Heart rate elevated, he quickly activated the App on his phone that interacted with the security system in the house. Quickly he scanned through the cameras, checking for anything out of place or any sign of Karin. Nothing! He could see the unmade bed and Janna’s empty crib, but no sign of either of them. Then he spotted the open front door. That shouldn’t be! He couldn’t be certain, but it looked like the frame might be damaged, as though someone had broken in.

  “Shit!” he cursed, and pushed the loaded cart off to one side. He hated to just walk away, but he’d apologize later. Now he had to get home. Moving quickly, but forcing himself not to run which might be misinterpreted by store security, Jake made his way outside, where he sprinted for his car. Five minutes later he pulled into the driveway.

  He jumped out and made for the front door, seeing it open as the cameras had shown him. Carefully he stepped inside. No one.

  “Karin!” he shouted.

  No answer. He ran for the kitchen, and finding no one, made for his study, where he retrieved the .45 Sig he kept locked in his desk. Armed, he headed for the stairs and headed up to the second level. It didn’t take long to determine he was alone in the house. Other than the broken door, nothing was out of place. But Karin and Janna were missing.

  Jake forced himself to take a deep breath and think before acting. He could think of no one who had a reason to take his family, but it seemed unlikely that they would have been targeted randomly. It couldn’t be coincidence that they had been taken shortly after he had left. That meant someone wanted to use them as leverage against him. Someone who wanted money. They had a great deal. Or was it someone who wanted something from him based on his special ability. Unfortunately, there were a few who knew about him now. The last time he’d helped out Susan, they’d been unable to resolve the matter in a way that no one but Susan knew about him. A number of FBI agents and a couple of cops now knew what he could do. Jake hadn’t been certain, but he believed two or three of the civilians involved at the time had learned about him as well. He couldn’t be certain, and they shouldn’t know his name, but one never knew.

  Whoever had done this, hadn’t thought it out, however. Waiting for him to leave so they could take his family, wouldn’t work. He could simply back-track, and his earlier self would be prepared for them. The kidnapping would never happen. Jake pondered the situation and how best to handle it. The simplest would be to simply go back, and catch and detain the men before they were able to act. Unfortunately, since they hadn’t acted, the local police would be reluctant to arrest them and certainly wouldn’t press charges. They didn’t know about Jake, and he certainly didn’t want to inform them. He could go back and simply not come home last night, but that would only mean whoever it was would plan and strike at another time. Jake needed to know who and why this was happening. Making up his mind, he focused on himself as he came down the stairs earlier this morning. Then he back-tracked.

  Jake’s hand involuntarily went to his head as the memories settled in place. Shit! He turned away from the garage and went into the study for his weapon. He slipped it into his belt along with three spare magazines. His eyes looked briefly toward the ceiling, but he knew he’d work this out. Then he headed toward the garage.

  He backed out as he’d done before, but this time his eyes were watching the street for anything that was out of place. He didn’t know why he hadn’t noticed the last time, but three houses away, sitting under a still damp tree, was a gray paneled van with darkened windows. He wasn’t certain, but he thought he could just make out the outline of someone sitting inside the van. Jake continued on as he’d done before, but this time turned the opposite direction at the corner. He drove a hundred feet down the street, then pulled over to the side and parked.

  Quickly he slid out of the Toyota, and closing the door softly, made his way across the street, and then staying close to the houses and using the shrubbery for concealment, he made his way part way up the block where he could watch and see what happened. Sure enough, five minutes later, the van started up and moved up the block into his driveway. Two burly men climbed out, and headed toward his front door. He heard the smash as his door broke. He’d waited to be certain it was only these two. He thought he heard Karin scream, then he back-tracked again.

  Jake shook off the second set of memories as he stepped off the stairs. As before, he retrieved his weapon, then headed back upstairs, where he alerted Karin to the problem, asking her to stay in the back room with Janna.

  “Call the police,” she urged.

  “It won’t work,” he said, and explained why. Fortunately Karin had become more understanding of Jake’s approach in the last couple of years, and she knew he wouldn’t over react.

  Jake hurried back downstairs and made for the garage. He grabbed a handful of plastic wire ties, and then climbed into his Toyota. He drove away as before, but turned in the next cul-de-sac and sped toward the end of the street. Then he slipped out of his car, and hurriedly went through the gate into the backyard of his neighbor immediately behind his house. Jake ran across the backyard, climbed the fence that separated the houses, and crept alongside the northern side of his own house where he’d be in position to deal with the kidnappers. He needed them in the open. Attempting to deal with two potentially armed men hidden inside the van by himself was a recipe for disaster.

  From behind the bush, he saw the van pull into the driveway, and watched as the two men climbed out and made for the front of his house. He didn’t recognize either of them. Neither was carrying a handgun, although the one in the lead had a heavy crowbar. Both were focused on the house, with the shorter one looking back a couple of times to see if anyone in the neighborhood was paying any attention to them. Neither was looking where Jake was hiding.

  “That’s far enough,” Jake said sharply as he stepped into view with the Sig leveled and pointed between the two men.

  The big one jumped and turned toward him with the crowbar, but stopped his movement when he saw Jake calmly turned the muzzle of the pistol toward him.

  “Drop it in the grass,” Jake ordered.

  The man hesitated, then shrugged and did as he was told, but dropped it on the concrete where it rang loudly.

  Jake had been right. He’d never seen either of these men before.

  “Who sent you?” Jake asked.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” the big one said. “We got a call for a problem with a washing machine.”

  “For that you need stealth and a crowbar?” Jake asked. “Tell me who sent you to kidnap my wife and daughter.”

  “We aren’t here to kidnap nobody,” the smaller one said nervously. Jake could tell he was wondering how things had gone so wrong so suddenly.

  “Jake, is everything alright?” a voice hollered from behind them.

  “Attempted break-in,” he shouted back at his neighbor who had clearly seen the gun he had pointed at the two men. A quick glance showed his neighbor heading back inside. Jake knew he would be calling the police.

  Time was now an enemy.
Jake wanted information from these two, and the police would be here within a couple of minutes. After that, his ability to question the two men would be limited. One of the perks of living in the more upscale neighborhoods in the area was the prompt response of the authorities.

  “Last chance,” Jake said. “Why were you trying to kidnap my wife and daughter?”

  “This is all a mistake,” the big one insisted.

  Jake could see the lie in his eyes. With only a moment’s hesitation, Jake raised the Sig and shot the man in the chest. He gasped, and collapsed on the lawn, already dead. The ragged hole in his chest colored his shirt red.

  “Oh shit!” the second of the kidnappers gasped.

  Jake turned the gun toward him.

  “Your turn,” he said menacingly. “One chance. Who sent you and why?”

  The man held out his hands as if to ward off a bullet. “I don’t know,” he pleaded. “A man contacted us at the bar. He knew all about us and our past history. He paid us to take your family. We were supposed to take them and drive north. He would call us in an hour or so and tell us where to take them. I swear we don’t know any more than that.”

  Jake considered. He thought the man was telling the truth.

  “Where’s the phone he was going to call you on?” Jake asked.

  “Mack has it,” the frightened man said. “It’s in his pocket.”

  Jake kept his gun on the man and checked. There was a cheap smart phone in the man’s right rear pocket. Jake left it in place. He heard the sound of an approaching siren. Less than five minutes. He knew they’d be quick.

  “Describe the man who contacted you,” Jake ordered.

  The nervous kidnapper complied, but the description meant nothing to Jake.

  “Don’t shoot me,” the man pleaded when he’d finished his description.

  “Of course not,” Jake said, and then back-tracked.

  “This is all a mistake,” the big one said.

  “Of course it is,” Jake said. “Let’s just wait for the police and let them settle it.” He kept the gun pointed between the two men who could also hear the siren in the distance.

  The police arrived with the appropriate squeal of tires, and the two officers piled out drawing their service weapons as they came.

  “Police,” the lead man shouted as if everyone couldn’t tell. Both officers had their weapons pointed at the three of them, although mostly favoring Jake since he had a weapon showing.

  “Homeowner,” Jake said, allowing the muzzle of his weapon to point toward the ground. “Watch these two. I’m going to set my weapon on the ground.”

  The officer nodded, and Jake carefully set his Sig down. Then he turned and leaned up against the house, his hands spread. The second officer had the two men do the same.

  “My wallet with my identification is in my pocket,” Jake said. “These men were attempting to kidnap my family.”

  “We weren’t,” the big one said unconvincingly.

  The officer took his time, but eventually pulled Jake’s wallet from his pocket and confirmed who he was. The other men had no identification on them.

  “How would you know what these two intended?” the policeman asked. “It looks as if you stopped them before they ever reached the door.”

  “That’s somewhat difficult to explain,” Jake said. “There’s a card you should have a look at. It’s behind my driver license.”

  “What kind of card?”

  “It’s from the FBI,” Jake said.

  “You’re FBI?” the cop asked.

  “Consultant,” Jake said. “I think you should call one of the numbers on that card and ask for one of the two agents indicated.”

  The card was something Susan Carlson had given him in the event of trouble. In addition to having Jake’s name, his real one, it had her number and that of Jim Laney, the only other member of the FBI who knew about Jake, listed. In the event neither was available, Jake would simply back-track around offering the card, and wait until a later time. He didn’t want anyone else to be aware of him under his real name. There were other ways he could handle this, but he wanted the two men arrested to see what could be learned about them.

  The policeman dug back into Jake’s wallet and found the card. “Maury, what do you make of this?” he asked his partner.

  Before matters were sorted out, another pair of police cars arrived, one an unmarked car with a pair of detectives. Calls were made, while Jake and the two men waited in the back of two of the cars under watch. Jake could see Karin peering out from the upstairs window.

  Finally, the senior detective walked over to him. “You have some powerful friends. I’ve been instructed to let you return to your home and to take these two into custody. Apparently someone from the FBI will appear at the precinct office to question them later today. On a Sunday no less. Can you tell me what this is all about?”

  “I wish I knew,” Jake said. He shook the hand of the detective, and then headed inside where a very distraught Karin waited with their daughter. As he walked up the sidewalk to his house, he noted that it was starting to drizzle again.

  Chapter 2

  Two days after the attempted kidnapping, Jake was on an early video call to Special Agents Carlson and Laney. Months before a secure link to FBI headquarters in Washington had been installed into his house so he could speak freely of matters best not overheard by others.

  “I don’t think they know who hired them,” Susan Carlson said. “Both the police and a pair of our agents have interrogated them at length, and they haven’t disclosed anything useful. One even consented to a lie-detector test, and the results were the same.”

  “I agree,” Jake replied. “I got the same sense of the situation when I questioned them the other day.”

  “You questioned them?” Jim Laney asked. “Nothing was said about that. From the reports the police got there pretty quick. I’m surprised you had time.”

  Jim Laney was younger than Carlson, and had worked directly for her for several years. The rapid rise of her position within the agency, in part as a result of the information that Jake frequently fed to her, had also benefited Laney. He was seen as one of the bright young stars, although in all fairness, he’d had that kind of reputation even before linking with Carlson.

  “My technique usually yields quick results, or nothing at all. This time it worked.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I killed one of them. That made the other more susceptible to answering my questions.”

  “You killed one of them?” Laney sputtered in disbelief. “You mean you shot him?”

  “Yeah,” Jake agreed, nodding his head. “Right here,” he added, pointing to his own chest.

  He could see that Carlson was shaking her head as well. By now, she was used to Jake’s straight to the heart of the matter approach.

  “It was a temporary thing. It softened the other one up right away. He was more than willing to cooperate. Once I got all the information I thought I was going to get, I back-tracked to a time just before I shot the big guy. No one knew except me, and now you.”

  “That’s a hell of an approach,” Laney said. “If anyone knew it could be done, it would be illegal.”

  “The bastards kidnapped my wife and little girl. You don’t think they deserve any special consideration from me, do you?”

  Jake didn’t want to tell Laney that he’d done the same basic thing to him several years earlier when Laney almost prevented Jake’s escape from a federal prison. Thousands of lives had been at risk, and Jake had been unable to see any other way to get free. Even at the time he’d known he would soon back-track to an earlier time where the killing wouldn’t have happened, but it was still a big step. Carlson knew about it, but they had agreed it wouldn’t help the relationship between Laney and Jake to reveal the incident.

  Before Laney or Carlson could answer, Jake added, “What about the cell phone. Anything there?”

  “We followed up all of the numbers cal
led or which had recently called the phone,” Susan Carlson said. “Most were friends and acquaintances, all of which appear clear. There were two numbers that went to cheap throw away phones. They are no longer on the network. It’s almost certainly the case that once the two of them were arrested, whoever hired them threw the phones away.”

  “You could go back to the bar and see who they met,” Laney suggested. “That was almost a month ago. The man they described as having hired them is an unknown and the bartender says he hasn’t been there in weeks.”

  Jake shook his head. “I have a feeling that even if we were able to bust the guy, he wouldn’t know anything either. There is more going on here than is apparent.”

  Susan agreed. “Who might have reason to do this to you? Do you think they were after money? You are well off, after all.”

  “Not money,” Jake said. “I’m sure of that. Look at the people in this neighborhood. Most have more than we do, and what I have is mostly well hidden. We live fairly low-key. Why wouldn’t someone go after Larry down the street? He makes several million a year, and flaunts it. No, this is something else.”

  “Enemies?” Laney asked.

  “Only the ones that I might have made working with you guys, and none of them are supposed to know what happened. Besides, I haven’t been involved in anything in months. Why now?”

  “Maybe it took some time to set up,” Carlson suggested. “Maybe there is a leak here at the Agency, and someone learned belatedly about you, and is planning to take revenge or try and force you to do something for them. We’ve always worried that last adventure might have revealed you to some people. Maybe I need to have a check made of everyone involved.”

  “That might be a good idea,” Jake agreed. “They can’t understand what I can do very well. If they did, they’d realize I can effectively get back and act at a time before they can do anything.”