Chapter 16



Amy sat on the hood of her car and watched Shannon with an eagle eye. The girl seemed to resent it even if she would occasionally smile and wave back. The line inside the Foo King Junior was incredibly slow but, right now, Amy did not care. She looked over to Tony who was standing at a nearby light pole in the diner's parking lot. He too had his phone to his ear and, from the looks of it, his aunt had him on hold.

Meanwhile Amy was also stuck listening to elevator music until a woman's voice came on the other line and said, "this is Eleanor, may I help you?"

Amy put on her best drawl as she replied, "howdy ma'am. I'm Misses Kingsley's personal assistant and I just so need to talk with Miss Sally, really I do."

"I'm sorry but she's not in today," the woman on the line replied. Then she went on with, "did you say you're Myra Kingsley's assistant?"

"Oh good gracious no," Amy told the woman. "I'm Miss Tasha's assistant."

There was a short pause and Amy got the feeling that the woman did not believe her. This Eleanor sounded extremely skeptical but, when she came back on she did seem, at least, a little more relaxed, "that might explain why I've never talked with you before."

"Well I am kind of new," Amy replied and then winced when she realized that even she did not believe her own accent.

"So am I too understand," Eleanor asked, "that Misses Kingsley, Tasha that is, wants to see Doctor Cashton now too? She will need an initial consultation, you do understand that, right?"

Amy was a bit confused by that but, she went on, "is there anyway we can get Miss Tasha in there today. You do understand that she has quite the schedule."

"I'm afraid that's impossible," Eleanor explained. "He's booked up for the next two months solid."

"Well now," Amy came back with, "you know Misses Kingsley can make it well worth the Doctor's time if you know what I mean. She's good like that and all."

There was yet another pause. Then finally Eleanor said, "we might be able to get her in, after hours, in a few days. I'm afraid I couldn't schedule anything sooner. The Doctor is out of town right now."

"I will be so sure to discuss this with Misses Kingsley," then Amy added just before hanging up, "ya'll be good, you here?" She took a deep breath and then spit as if the accent were a bad taste in her mouth. She also found that Tony had finished his conversation and slipped up on her. She saw the strange, almost stoic, look that he was giving her, "what?"

Tony tried to imitate her, "ya'll be good, you here?"

"Shut up," Amy said with a swat to his arm. Then she asked, "did your aunt find anything out?"

"Well I can guess why Horst was so interested in the building now," Tony told her. "Like of lot of those warehouses over there, it's owned by a company with an e-mail address and not much more."

Amy nodded, "so it's Texas Mob."

"Probably," Tony replied. "It's starting to look more and more like Danni and Norm walked into a drug shipment in progress. Only.."

Amy shrugged, "only what?"

"What kind of drugs leave dents in concrete floors?"
It was a perfectly legitimate question and one that, Amy had to admit, she had no answer for. She also saw it as somewhat irrelevant now. Her own lead was looking more and more like a dead end and that meant, they had no place left to go. She told Tony what she had found out and that left him thinking hard.

Then Tony said, "you mean Natasha wasn't a patient of his?"

"Didn't sound like it," Amy replied. Then she snapped, "and don't you say you wonder who did her tits or I'm going to really slap you this time."

Tony did not even act as if he noticed Amy's rebuke. He then stated rather rhetorically, "and Cashton isn't there ether. Don't you find that a little coincidental? I'm willing to bet that he was the guy Danni met with last night."

Amy rolled her eyes, "no shit Sherlock. It still doesn't leave us any place left to go with this. I say we call Cal, and tell him what we've found."

"Not till we've found Norm," Tony was still convinced he had to keep this compartmentalized. If they told one person at the station then everybody was likely to find out and that meant the new guy too. "We do have one place left to go. We need a look at Cashton's records."

Amy's face distorted, "why?"

"Cause I'm starting to think we're looking for the wrong person," Tony told her. "Sally just knew Danni and that she was a cop. Don't you get it Amy? She hooked up Cashton. He's the CI, not Sally Hen.. Whatever you call her."

Once again Amy just shrugged, "ok so he's the one that's in to something. Why do you think he'd keep those kinds of records at his office."

"I don't," Tony replied, "but it'll give us an idea of where to go looking for him at least. Maybe we'll get lucky."

"Not," Amy stressed that word, "a good idea Tony. In fact, it's got to be one of your biggest turkeys. How do we even get in there? It would take time and I doubt this Eleanor bitch is just going to let us walk right in and turn his computer on."

Unfortunately, Tony had that mischievous smile that he usually reserved for when he wanted to have sex. Amy found it very concerning that she only half wished that was what he had in mind right now. The other half wished she knew why he kept glancing up at the Foo King Junior sign.

Tony waited until they were sitting in the parking lot of the professional building that housed Cashton's offices, then, as he hit the dial on his phone he said, "haven't you guys heard the news? There's a mad bomber on the loose today." A second later he said, "hi there, I'm the guy that blew up the Foo King L-5. I got even with them and now I'm going to take care of the doctor that pumped my stomach after I ate there. Doctor Herbert Cashton! Death to the corporate, um, booger heads." Tony hung up.

Amy's eyes had gotten so big they hurt, "they're going to see who called Tony."

Shannon, who had been eating in the back seat, now leaned over and asked, "booger heads?"

Tony still looked smug as he pointed to the phone in his hand. He set it down and pulled another phone from his jacket, "this one is mine." He nodded to the one he sat down and had placed the call with, "that's Freddy's phone. I took it from him after we cut him loose."

Shannon almost laughed but was trying too hard to look mad, "you're a dirty fucker. Do you know that?"

Amy pushed her back and then snapped, "and I don't want to hear you say the F word ever again."

The teenager just shrugged and before taking another bite of her sandwich she said, "how can I not talk about eating a Foo King Burger when I'm eating a Foo King Burger!"

"Relax," Tony said ignoring the kid. "Freddy's got an alibi. He lost his phone, remember?"

Amy's head dropped against the steering wheel, "and if Summer's boys pick him up he's going to rat you out Tony."

"And tell them what?" Tony snickered, "that I took it from in a house he was breaking in…" Tony pointed to the front door of the building where a horde of panicked people were rushing for their cars. He doubted if any of them believed there was a real bomb. More than likely they all wanted to get out of here before the all clear sounded and their bosses made them go back to work.

"Stay in the car," said Shannon as she watched the two Colonial Agents get out. They did not even bother to tell her she was right. When the doors slammed Shannon just mumbled with a half eaten burger in her mouth, "ass holes. It's a doctors office. What could possibly happen here."

As they walked against the tide of humanity, towards a side door, Amy just asked, "ok genius. This is your idea. What's the plan?"

Tony pulled out his badge and then held the fire door open as people rushed out. He yelled to them as they did, "Colonial Fire and Rescue! We have confirmed there is a bomb in this building. Please exit the entire property as you…" A lull in the traffic stopped Tony's spiel and he just walked on inside. Amy closed the door behind them and dropped a locking pin in the mechanism so that nobody could follow them.

A few more people came down the fire stairs and Tony turned them around with his badge and an excuse of, "this way is blocked, main entrance please!" When the coast was clear he asked Amy, "three-oh-two, right? I hope that really is on the third floor." She did not bother to answer the obviously ridiculous question. Amy just took the lead and was amazed that this plan was actually working. They saw no one until they actually reached the very bland looking door that had three-oh-two on it.

The door had been left open but, as Amy found, was blocked by a woman heading in the opposite direction. This plump looking middle aged woman in a business suit had her hands full of papers and notebooks. The woman looked nervous and then she became quite demanding when she said, "who are you?"

Amy gulped and was not so sure if it was a good idea to speak. She might have been using a thick accent on the phone but, realized that this woman, that sounded very much like Eleanor, might actually recognize her voice anyway. Fortunately Tony stepped up and waived his badge, "there's a bomb in the building ma'am. I'm sorry but, I'm afraid I can't let you take anything with you. It could be the bomb."

The woman almost became crossed eyed when she replied, "these are note books. I don't think they'll go boom."

Tony began dog paddling at the woman's papers until they were all over the floor. Then he led her to the elevator and pushed her in. She was protesting the entire way, "you're supposed to take the stairs!"

"Not in an emergency ma'am," Tony told her as the doors closed, "the elevator is faster. Trust me I'm a fireman!" He then ran back down to the office and closed the door behind him. He locked it just to be safe. Then Tony put his hands on his hips and looked down at Amy who was shuffling around the papers on the floor. He asked, "anything good besides the shot of your ass I'm getting right now?"

Amy threw one of the notebooks at him. She slung it a little harder than she might should have but, Tony caught it anyway. He thumbed through it, "appointments book." He shoved it in his pocket and then headed for the back part of the office, "I'll check their computers." He came back out a second later, "there are no computers!"

Amy was about finished with her sweep so she looked up at him and grumbled, "file cabinets dumb ass!"

Tony got a strange look on his face, "what's a file cabinet?"

Now Amy was really grumbling as she got up. She grabbed him by the ear and pulled him back to what looked like a file room. She explained, "a lot of businesses with clients that like privacy don't use computers. They're too easy to hack into."

Tony was amazed at the shelf after shelf of paper he was looking at. His jaw about dropped and then he asked, "how many dead trees did it take to stock this room?"

Amy pushed him back in the hall way and commanded, "go check the doctor's desk. I'll glance through here." Unfortunately, even if Amy would not admit it, she had no idea where to even start. As she glared in amazement at all the manila folders she finally realized where to go, the K section. She thumbed through the names until she reached Kingsley. Sure enough there was a folder for Myra but, Amy already figured that. There was one other file with that last name so Amy yanked it and, too her surprise, Eleanor had been telling the truth. The file wasn't for Tasha, or even Natasha. It was a file on Roy Kingsley!

Amy browsed through the file and realized she did not understand most of it. What was clear though, was that Cashton had done some kind of procedure on Roy and the dates were even recent. The last check was just yesterday! Amy mumbled to herself, "this doesn't make any sense."

"Amy get in here!" She did just as Tony had asked and found him in Cashton's office. Unlike the rest of the office, he did have a computer screen sitting on his desk. What Tony showed her on the screen was nothing that Amy had expected to see. It was a news stream with that woman reporter. Roy Kingsley's face was in a little window beside the live report that appeared to be coming from downtown at the police station.

"Again," the reported said, "this is Jessica Walsh, and, police officials are now officially confirming that one of the dead from this morning's explosion was none other than Roy Kingsley, son of prominent business man, Hyrum Kingsley."

Amy slapped the folder down on the desk and added to the reporters statement, "and patient of one Doctor Herbert Cashton." Amy sighed, leaned her neck forward, and rubbed her temples, "this day just keeps getting better."

Tony's phone went off and he almost ignored it as he had been doing most of the day now. He still looked and had expected to see Calvin's name on the screen. He was a little ticked to see Shannon's instead. Tony answered, "we told you to stay in the car!"

"I am in the car jack ass," the teenager replied with a biting tone. Before Tony could reply she added, "you got about a half dozen firemen headed your way only, I don't think they're fireman."

"What do you mean?" Tony was confused, "if they look like firemen then why don't you think they are?"

"Because they're all carrying machineguns!"

Tony hung up without so much as another word. He looked at Amy and growled, "you just had to say it didn't you?"

"What?" Amy was still confused as he grabbed her by the arm and they fled to the hallway.

They came out of nowhere and despite the fact that they were at least half dressed as firemen, Tony was pretty sure they did not work for his uncle. Instead of axes, picks, and other assorted firemen stuff these guys were armed to the teeth. They did have on the gas masks that firemen typically wore but, were not of the right make to be city issue. Only someone who knew anything about the fire department would probably notice that.

One of them made a certain swinging motion with his arm and, while Tony did not see it clearly, only out of the corner of his eye, he could guess what the guy was doing. That left Tony just enough time to do the only thing he could think of. He pushed Amy back in the office door and then the world turned blank, his ears began to ring, and Tony was pretty sure he was dying.