CHAPTER 5

Jake did not bother getting down in the scorched asphalt like with the last car bombing. The irony here, he was actually dressed more appropriately but, he didn’t need to get dirty this time around though. Jake looked over to where the remains of the car was still smoldering. The entire side of the car wash showed considerable damage as well. Still, it wasn’t that strong of an explosion. The brick walls were just fine and standing tall. The damage to the building had been mostly confined to the lighter weight materials like the roof, windows, and assorted signs. Even the inner part of the car wash, where the cars actually got cleaned, looked to be in descent shape, structurally at least. The place was burned really bad but, there should have been more damage.

That’s why Jake did not need a close inspection. It was a good thing too, since he couldn’t get one right now if he had even wanted it. The fire department was still over there doing their thing. The debris pile was still pretty hot and the chance of a flare up was for real. Jake had also learned that Blake Tippet was pretty knowledgeable about all forms of combustion. Jake suspected that he wouldn’t be able to call this one though. Still, Blake would catch other things that Jake would not.

As Jake stood there watching, his little crew came walking up behind him. He had sent them off to “check the perimeter” and they grumbled about it. Garcia was probably the loudest and even Danni asked him what the order meant. Jake did not tell them that what he was really saying was, “get the hell out of my sight.”

The fire and police had the area roped off well enough so he told his people to take pictures of the crowd. It sounded good enough to get them moving. Jake thought it was an exercise in futility since he knew that people who set off explosives usually did so in places that they had no plans on being. Usually that was THE trick with explosives. Still, having pictures couldn’t hurt so it gave the crew something to do and kept Jake from having to listen to their bitching.

Now that they were back, Jake had a little bitching of his own to do, “so you three never told me why you were here.”

Jake noticed that Bob and Garcia were bowing out very quickly. Danni was actually the one who spoke up, “well, you know, it’s a car wash. We were washing the car?”

Garcia mumbled with no small amount of resentment, “not that it matters to you.”

Jake heard it and even wondered if he was supposed too. He blew up, “of course it matters Alvarez! You three almost got turned into a pile of slop on the pavement.”

Bob meekly raised a finger, “what do we tell Barbara about the car?”

“Glad you asked that Agent Johnson,” Jake said with an equal amount of fury. “That greatly depends on why you were here in the first place and the bullshit story you feed me.”

Danni huffed out, “Betsy Fry.” When she got evil looks from Garcia she tossed up her arms and said in resignation, “guys, he already knows.”

Garcia was having a hard time looking at Jake. He did manage to ask, “is she ok? Anybody seen her?”

“Actually,” Jake told them as he dropped his command tone, “you guys probably saved her life. If you hadn’t come over here on some third grade vendetta, she would have still been sitting in that little control room and got a face full of glass and fireball.”

Suddenly Garcia did perk up, “she’s ok then?”

“They took her to Kaiser,” Jake replied as he saw something on the ground. He stepped on it and then remained standing there. He then pointed to Garcia and Bob, “she followed you two morons to the back door. She was standing there when the bomb went off. She got some cuts and stuff but, she’ll be ok.”

Danni put her hands in her pockets and kind of shuffled her feet, “so? We’re not in trouble?”

Jake’s eyes flamed again, “I didn’t say that did I?” Jake softened his tone and sighed heavily, “unfortunately, I think we all are.” He thought about it for a second and then told them, “get back to the station. Somebody call Leslie and tell her to get on the phone. Call everybody in.” He could see Danni was about to speak and he knew what she was going to say so, Jake cut her off, “I mean everybody. I don’t care what they’re doing.”

Danni still asked, “Including Barbara? I mean, she‘s at the palace with Tony.”

“I don’t think their little meeting is going to play out,” Jake told them. He then tossed his car keys to Garcia. The guy seemed surprised by that. Not because he was worrying about Jake not having a car but, more because Jake picked him to drive. “You know how to drive Garcia, get them back safe.”

When they left, Garcia was not exactly friendly but, he was a little less hostile and, certainly far less hostile than Norm. It wasn’t saying much since Norm was always that way. He came walking up, from his own car, a few minutes after the younger agents drove off.

“What took you so long,” Jake asked in the usual frustrated voice that he saved, special, for Norman.

Norman had seen Jake’s car driving off as he pulled up. Now that he had walked up to Jake he saw the stations only other car, with a smashed hood. He groaned but said nothing about it. Then he looked at the carwash. He asked in a matter of fact way, “is it the same as before?”

Jake was very disturbed when he said, “unfortunately, no.”

“Wait a minute Jake,” Norm protested but, then he thought about it some more, “oh shit.”

“Oh shit is right,” Jake told him in a subdued fashion. He then explained, “the bomb was definitely a professional job but…”

Norm was not liking the sound of this and Jake’s “but” usually spelled even more bad news, “what?”

“Whoever placed it had no clue what they were doing,” Jake told him. When Norm was unconvinced, Jake told him, “that was basically an improvised anti personnel device. It should have been placed in the dashboard, pointed at the driver’s seat. Whoever set this one, put it under the car in a place that was pretty well shielded. If they hadn’t used too much explosives the driver would have probably lived.”

“Thought you said it was a pro job,” Norm sounded unconvinced. “Pro’s don’t tend to use more explosives than they need.”

“That’s the other problem Norm,” Jake still remained calm as he pointed to the carwash, “that car was not the intended target for that bomb.” Before Norm could ask, Jake told him, “not only was it too much boom for the buck, it wasn’t even suppose to go off here.”

“Damn it Jake,” Norm protested, “just on the off chance, you can really know all that other bullshit. How do you know that?”

“This is where I got Betsy that second job,” Jake explained. “I saw what the track system looked like before it got blown to hell. Look over there at the blast point. That’s right about where the tracks connect with the car and pull it thru the wash. You telling me that’s a coincidence?”

Norm let a few descriptive and impolite words escape under his breath before he sighed in disgust. He was almost afraid to ask Jake but did it anyway, “any more cheerful news?” Jake did not say anything. He just rolled his foot up and pointed down at what was under it. Norm’s eyes got big when he realized, “is that what I think it is?” Then Norm realized something else. He looked over at the car debris and formed a mental picture of what it probably had looked like before the bomb turned it into so much burning scrap. “You think that car is….?”

“Unfortunately,” replied Jake who was not too happy about it. He then took his phone from his pocket and dropped it on the ground. He scooped up the frayed and partially charred slip of cloth with his phone and then put them both back in his pocket.

Norm gulped and then asked, “how long you figure we can keep a lid on this?”

“Not long,” Jake replied and then followed with, “unfo…”

“God damn it Jake!” Norm snapped. “Stop saying that word!”