Eleven (Brandon Fisher FBI Series)

Chapter 7 & 8

Chapter 7

JACK AND I WERE MAKING our way back to Salt Lick. Jack had his window cracked, but it did little for easing the second-hand smoke billowing from his mouth. By the end of the probationary period maybe I'd have lung cancer. Life could be unfair like that. While Jack would live to see a hundred, I'd be dead by thirty.

"How are you coming with the twit thing?"

"Twitter." I corrected him again. Here is where the generational gap drew a darkened line of distinguishing those from the dark ages and those who were hitched to technology. "We know he goes by The Redeemer, but just for the heck of it I searched for users with the handle Redeemer in it. Most of them are churches. There's a newspaper."

"Maybe Bingham belonged to one of those churches." Jack directed the hands-free system to dial Nadia Webber.

Nadia worked out of our home office in Quantico as a technical analyst.

She answered on the second ring.

"I need you to get together a list of the churches in the area around Salt Lick, take in all of Bath County. I believe there should be a list of about thirty, according to the good sheriff anyhow. I also want to know if any are of Catholic denomination or go under the name of Redeemer."

"Of course."

"Give that information to Zachery." Jack hung up and turned to me.

"I can see his history." I had clicked the link to his profile on Twitter. "There's not much here. His last tweet—"

"I like twit better."

I'm sure you do...

"Was two weeks ago," I paused for a second. "The file says he's on Twitter every morning, but I guess he doesn't have a lot to say? Or maybe he sends personal messages and deletes them afterward?"

"What was his last tweet?"

"He quoted a scripture."

Jack rolled his eyes.

"You don't believe in God."

He sucked in on his cigarette and crushed the glowing butt in the SUV's ashtray. He didn't say anything.

I studied Jack's profile for a second. "Bingham's last tweet said, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer."

"I hate it when cases cross over like this." Jack put up his window, but I kept mine lowered. "Now we're not just dealing with a psychopath and narcissist, we're likely dealing with a religious fanatic. They're the worst kind." He looked over at me. "Welcome to the FBI."

*****

I WORKED DOWN THROUGH THE list of Bingham's two hundred followers, curious what they were tweeting and where their interests lay.

"How do you know so much about this Twitter anyway?"

I glanced at Jack not sure whether to explain.

"You have an account." He pulled around a slow-moving tractor and headed down the side road back to the house from hell.

"I used to."

"You still do."

I turned to face out the window and watched the cows in the field. A few of them were lying down. Rain was coming.

"Kid?"

"I don't use it much."

"Hmm."

"I started it as an experiment."