Page 38 of Operation: Valiant Angel

“Facility records say negative. Not his normal pattern,” Garcia replied.

“If the target is circling home, you’ve got maybe one minute,” Cooper warned.

Wilson left the bedroom and returned to the living room. He peeked out the front window just in time to see the target in his blue Toyota pull into the driveway. “Fuck, target acquired,” he said. “We have maybe thirty seconds.” He rushed towards the kitchen where Garcia had already closed the lid to the laptop and opened the sliding glass back door.

The two men exited, drawing the heavy drape closed and stilling it as much as they could. Wilson slid the door closed just as he heard the front door open. They both ran around the side of thehouse and pressed their bodies against the white siding near the front of the house.

They did not see, but in the house, Bradford Bianchi went into his bathroom and retrieved his wallet from the counter, where he realized he’d left it. Then he retraced his steps through the house, glancing at the cleaning job Mrs. Romero had done with approval. He closed and locked the front door and returned to his car.

Wilson and Garcia heard the front door close. Then they heard the car turn over. From their vantage point, they saw the tail of the car in the street before Bianchi shifted to drive and pulled away. “He’s gone,” Wilson reported.

“Probably heading here now,” Cooper said. “I wonder why he went home.”

“Must have forgotten something,” Wilson posed. He and Garcia walked to the back of the house. The door was still unlocked. They re-entered and they both returned to their searches.

Several minutes later, Cooper reported that Bianchi had just pulled into the parking lot of the Little Falcon.

Madison sat on a barstool in the middle of the bar. She had a menu open in front of her. When Bianchi entered, he went to the right side of the bar, fourth stool, and settled in. The bartender greeted him by name and then went to the tap and drew him a beer without Bianchi ordering. Then the bartender handed Bianchi the clipboard with the specials.

“Maddie, here’s one of our other regulars. Brad, meet Maddie, she’s new to the neighborhood,” the bartender introduced.

“Hi Brad,” she said with her best flirty smile.

“Hey,” he acknowledged.

At his house, Wilson went into Bianchi’s bathroom next. He found baby oil and an anal dildo inside the towel folded on the toilet lid. Below it was a gay porn magazine. “Oh hello,” he transmitted. “You need to change up your plan and send Coop in,” he paused for a moment as he flipped through the hardcore male on male magazine. “Our target plays for the other team, won’t have any interest in Xena.”

“Oh fuck. How’d the Digital Team miss this important detail?” Cooper groaned. “Coming in now. Create me a cover, Xena.”

“Nothing in this guy’s history suggested he’s gay,” Garcia replied to Cooper’s question. Then he hit pay dirt on Bianchi’s computer. “Oh, but the gay porn on his computer confirms what Taco found. Holy shit, does this guy have the movies eating up his hard drive space.”

Inside the bar, Madison shifted gears immediately. She picked her phone up from the bar top and pretended to read a message. “Kevin,” she called to the bartender. “Draw me another beer. My brother just got here and is coming in. I’m so glad he decided to come. He’s been down since he and his boyfriend broke up.”

Bianchi’s attention became focused on her. And when Cooper came into the bar, greeting her with a hug and a kiss, Bianchi’s lips pulled into a grin.

“Kevin, my brother John,” Madison introduced.

The two men shook hands over the bar. Then the bartender handed him the beer. He settled onto the stool beside Madison, his eyes sweeping the bar as he did. When his gaze met Bianchi’s, he smiled at Bianchi, who still grinned at him. When he did, Bianchi averted his gaze quickly.

“Our boy is shy,” Cooper said quietly his face to Madison and broadcasting to the team. “He smiled at me until I made eye contact.”

“He must not be out of the closet yet,” Wilson said. “Makes sense now why he keeps to himself at work. Being gay wouldn’t go over well with the dockworkers.”

“Probably not with his Italian father either,” Garcia added.

“New plan, Xena and I will make him our new best friend,” Cooper said. “This way, it won’t be threatening to him.”

“We’ll be finished here in about a half an hour,” Garcia said. “I’m going through all his files and have already installed spyware on his laptop. So far, no red flags of what could have triggered the referral to us.”

“Besides his bathroom magazine preference, nothing out of the ordinary from my search so far either,” Wilson added.

Then he moved on to what he surmised was Senior’s bedroom. In the rolltop desk he found stacks of betting vouchers. Looking through the receipts, it was obvious that Senior played the ponies as well as frequented casinos. From the stack of receipts from the Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore, he was a regular there. And he lost big every time he was there. He transmitted this tidbit. “Why didn’t we get this info from the Digital Team? I’d like to know where the money is coming from to support dad’s gambling. No wonder our target is paying his mom’s medical bills.”

“So now I have to wonder if it’s Junior or Senior we’re supposed to be looking into. Is there a computer in Senior’s room, Taco?” Garcia asked through comms.

“Negative, not that I’ve seen yet,” he answered. “But I haven’t completed my search.”

Wilson worked for the next twenty minutes searching every drawer and every pile of papers in Senior’s room. In the closet, he found a locked footlocker. He picked the lock and opened it.“Holy shit,” he said aloud. “Senior has six handguns, an AR-15, and multiple magazines of ammo for each weapon. Who the hell is this guy?” He began snapping pictures with his phone of the weapons to document what he found.

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