Chapter 11

“WE BELIEVE he is still in the State,” Moran said in the task force meeting. “The sheriff’s car showed up yesterday, abandoned in Cedar Rapids. It was in a residential district and locals indicated it had been there for only a day. We’re still gathering fingerprints, but expect we’ll find Perkins had been driving it. We also have a twenty-year-old from Guthrie Center in custody. He turned himself in, saying he was a dealer, and asked for protective custody. DCI is questioning him.”

“Cedar Rapids is on a straight shot route to Ames,” Brisco mused. “He had a dealer there, too. I think he might be coming back to Bartley.”

“What’s so important in Bartley?” FBI Agent Oren James asked.

“The Bartley dealer is being released to his parents today. We were unable to convince the judge he’s a flight risk because he’s confined to a wheelchair.”

“Why would Perkins go back to him?”

“We have three good reasons, any one of which would be satisfactory. First, Unger could have a stash of some sort Perkins wants to get his hands on. Of course, it’s possible that he just wants a traveling companion, but he doesn’t seem that altruistic. Second, he may want to get rid of another link that could tell us something damaging about his network. In that case, Unger is a dead man,” Brisco said.

“And third?”

“Unger plotted to rape and kidnap his younger sister. Perkins may be coming to finish that job as the sister indicates Unger threatened.”

“She’s that important?”

“I don’t doubt that she’d bring a good price on the slave market,” Brisco said, “but she’s the one who supplied the intel that got us there in the first place. Unger knows that she ratted him out. The crash has been so colossal, the motive may be nothing more than revenge.”

“She’s in danger any time she’s alone,” Moran said. “That means her boyfriend is also still in danger. If Perkins can raise an army out of his dealers, they might think they can take her girlfriend, too.”

“Boyfriend and girlfriend?” James asked.

“There may be more. The boy is very popular among some of the girls at his school and manages the girls’ sports teams,” Moran said. “I interviewed the coach and she said that during the time when what they call the Gang of Three were free and roaming around, they’d made explicit threats against the Enders boy and he was always escorted home by two or more girls from the team. They often spent the night at his house.”

“He’s fucking an entire basketball team?” James asked in disbelief.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Brisco said. “The Unger girl indicated the prize her brother wanted was popping her cherry. Several of the girls are only fifteen or sixteen. They might be technically virgins.”

“I’ve had a few opportunities to interview Dennis Enders. Each time he’s had a different girlfriend or two with him,” Moran said.

“It seems to me that we have the makings for a trap,” Brisco said. “Amy Unger and maybe her girlfriends and boyfriend are the bait. Jerry Unger is the link to Tom Perkins. I think we should figure out how to stake out his home as soon as he’s released.”

“It’s going to take more than one person at a time to stake it out,” Moran said. “I’m thinking of your agent in Ames. This bastard is bloodthirsty and vicious.”

“Minimum of three at a time,” James said.

“We’ve got one problem with that,” Brisco said, “not including manpower. Bartley is a town of just over a thousand people. Strangers are noticed.”

“Ms. White, thank you for visiting with me,” Dot said. “I’m in over my head and I don’t know where to turn. Dr. Nelson said I could trust you.” The two women sat at the kitchen table. Will was in the living room with the TV going. Peg was in the back yard ‘practicing her shots.’ Dennis, of course, was still at school and wouldn’t be home from track practice until nearly five.

“That is an opinion that I highly value and will do my best to help you,” Rhonda White, the social worker, said. “First, we need to make a list of your resources. You do not need to include your home or car on your list of assets, but cash in the bank and your income are necessary. Then, we’ll look at the need and list those expenses. We’ll include anything you owe on your home and car with monthly payments. Any other debt and expenses you have. I’ll go over the doctor’s assessment and the Occupational Center’s assessment of the capabilities of your husband and daughter.”

“I hate to depend on them for income. Peg doesn’t earn that much at the Occupational Center,” Dot said.

“I’m not as interested in their earning power as in their available time commitment. You are stymied right now. You take your daughter to the OC, but you still have your husband at home and you can’t leave him unsupervised. That means you can’t work. What I want to find out is whether both can be engaged in some activity that enables you to continue working. There is, of course, adult daycare, but it is often more expensive than your earning power for the same time. We don’t want to get you in a negative cash flow situation.”

They began the tedious process of itemization of assets, income, liabilities, and expenses. Rhonda spent most of the afternoon looking at possibilities and counseling Dot. For her part, Dot was thankful that she could simply talk about these things with an adult who could give her advice. The mothers of Dennis’s girlfriends had been a great help to her, but they also had lives and couldn’t put together a solution or proposal. She didn’t know if she was closer at the end of the afternoon, but she felt better.

“What’s the purpose of this exercise, Dennis?” Tori asked as she pumped her arms against the machine.

“Keep your elbows in,” he reminded her, touching an elbow that had flared away from her body. “Your arms are as important in running as your legs. You have great endurance and can keep the same pace up for the full 400 meters. But if you get your arms working with your legs instead of against them, we can cut a good five seconds off your time. You’ll come down from your current best to about fifty-five seconds through the efficient use of your arms.”

“You’re kidding! I swing my arms when I run,” she said.

“That’s the problem I saw in the race Saturday—swinging your arms instead of pumping them. When your elbow flares outward, your hand comes across your body. That’s motion that is contrary to the direction you want to go. We want to get your arms moving in the same direction you are—pumping straight ahead to propel your body instead of obstructing it.”

“Is that going to be the same for all of us runners?” Brenda asked.

“Absolutely. Some of you are doing a pretty good job with your arms. But exercising them and becoming conscious of how they are affecting you will help. You can’t expect to cut five seconds off your hundred-meter time, Brenda. You’re already down to about fourteen seconds. I’m sure we can cut a full second and your continued sprinting practice can take off another. That gets you in the twelve second range. The state record is only a little under eleven seconds. You’ll be in contention against anyone you compete with.”

“I love you, Dennis,” Brenda said as she attacked the weights.

“Me, too,” Tori said. Half a dozen sprinters echoed the sentiment. Dennis’s face got hot and he busied himself helping other runners with their leg exercises.

“I love that it’s getting warmer out,” Laura said as she worked her arms with a pair of wrist weights as she jogged on the treadmill. “Granted it’s raining today and we’re working inside, but this weekend I got a couple of great runs in out in the country.”

“We need to have a picnic party this weekend if the weather’s decent,” Leah said. “We could do it after the meet, right? We’re home this weekend.”

“The meet should be over by two-thirty,” Dennis said. “You should have plenty of time.”

“Hey, what’s the ‘you’ stuff, Team Manager?” Tori asked. “With the possible exception of the showers, where the team goes, you go.”

“And I’m not too sure about the exception,” Debbie laughed. “Seems like the basketball babes had a lot more fun in the locker room than we’re having.”

“Whatever fun the basketball babes had, everyone consented to,” Brenda said. “And I’m not saying what fun that was. But there’s thirty track babes and any fun we have, everyone has to consent to. Ain’t gonna happen and we don’t pressure anyone.”

“Well, the picnic invitation still includes Dennis,” Laura said. “I didn’t realize how much a member of the team he was during basketball season. I understand now.”

The practice came to an end with a set of wind sprints in the gym. Boys would run with the girls right after. As soon as the girls reached the end of the gym, the boys took off again. After twenty of them, the exhausted teams headed for the showers.

Dennis managed his shower in the coaches’ locker room in record time and was standing outside the locker room door with the laundry bag to collect the towels. He had to stop one girl who had tossed a T-shirt in the bag.