With Burak turning states evidence, the police had the same information that I had, so I was racing against the clock to exact my revenge. Once they were arrested by the police they would be out of my reach. So I hurried back home so I could find Yua’s two kidnappers, Frank Jackson and Thomas Ward. There were two things going for me. The first was that the area they worked in was close to where I lived, and the second thing is that the police had a lot of other cases they had to deal with while I only had to find two men. With the advent of the internet finding people had gotten a lot easier.

One thing I did feel bad about doing or not doing and that was not letting Charlie, James or my on-again-off-again boss Jasmine Giordano know that I was back home.

When I got home the first thing I did was to get rid of all Jojo’s supplies. I donated them to an animal shelter. There was no use letting all of that dog food go to waste. The photos I had of him were enough for me to keep. I didn’t need any of his toys or other things lying around either to remind me of him.

I’m not sure if I will ever get another pet, especially one as big as he was. Even though he brought a great deal of joy to my life he was quite a handful. He also made travel quite difficult at least, that is what I’m telling myself. I am sure it is all part of the grieving process.

Once I had that taken care of I went into my office area and I shredded all the information I had on Madame Dinara and her brothels. I know that it was really pointless, but why make it easier for any investigator to link her murder to me. Leaving Jojo’s body behind was bad enough. However, there was nothing else I could do, he was just too big to move by myself. So hopefully the investigators won’t be able to tie him to me. At least I did not show him around in Cheb like I did in Istanbul or Toulouse.

After the last of my housekeeping was done, I could finally concentrate on finding these two guys.

The first thing I did was to try and find their names on the internet. While I knew that they would be on the police database, there would be a big price to pay for finding them in this manner. My name would be attached to all of the files that I accessed. When the investigation began it would look kind of suspicious if I had accessed their files just before they were killed. While I don’t have a problem paying for my sins, I don’t want it to happen before I finish my quest either. So I had to be smart about how I did the search. Because I knew that they were in some way tied to The Simpson Adoption Agency, I decided the easiest way would be watch the agency till they both showed up there. It was made even easier when I went to their website and found that they were listed as staff members. They even had legitimate titles and all. But try what I might, I couldn’t find out what their addresses were. So I had three options as I saw them, the first one was my police access which I had totally ruled out, the second was to break in and get their addresses from their employee files. Which option I also quickly ruled out because for one, I could not pick a lock for shit, and secondly I did not know the first thing about disabling an alarm system. The third and final way was to simply watch the agency and follow them home when they finished work.

Sometimes the low tech way is the best way. Why not work with my strengths and surveillance/stakeouts were definitely one of them. I figured that It would take two days to discover each one of their addresses. Once I had that information, I would take out both of them in one night. Another thing that confirmed that the agency was bad was that they had kidnappers/traffickers working for them, so even if I did not have an eyewitness, the proof was in the pudding. Because the Simpsons were affiliated with known traffickers and kidnappers they definitely were a part of the trafficking ring. I will confirm this presumption of guilt when I interrogate Lamai Thuet.

One of the biggest problems with doing stakeouts is pee breaks, especially if you are doing them by yourself, the second one is using a vehicle that blends in. Bar none the most popular car is the Toyota Corolla, so I rented a basic silver one. Then I went to a medical supply place and bought a urinal with a hose. These two steps took care of the two biggest issues.

When I bought a small Igloo ice chest and Freez Paks I addressed the food issue.

I then purchased several bottles of various drinks and some chips and a couple of sandwiches for each of my two days. I did not need to spend the whole day on the stakeouts just the later afternoon hours. However, you never know what would happen once I began my surveillance, so it paid to be prepared.

I decided to bring a pistol with a silencer for good measure. I did this because I no longer had Jojo to watch my back. I decided that my primary killing tool was going to be the garrote. I chose it because it was much quieter and was definitely more personal.

I also bought a circular glass cutter to facilitate entering their abodes.

I picked a small spy 16 X 52 telescope so that I could increase the distance I was able to watch them from. They are nice because they are smaller and less obvious than using a pair of binoculars.

The final component of my murder kit was a couple pair of rubber gloves and a ski mask to make me look like a burglar, if anyone saw me.

On my first day, I pulled up to my lookout position a block away from the adoption agency. I got here way in advance of their closing hour which was at 6 pm because I had a feeling these two guys did not work a standard 8-hour workday. I was sure that their schedules varied depending on their current assignments. So I may actually find myself following them around town a little before they finally called it a day. With the spotting scope it would make avoiding detection somewhat easier.

It really didn’t matter which one I followed first, I just chose the first one that left the earliest from the office. It turned out to be Thomas Ward. He drove a black Silverado full-size pickup truck with a two-inch lift kit, 33-in tires and a rifle rack in the back window. His truck should be quite easy to follow, thanks to these after market add-ons. Another thing going in my favor apparently he is a horn-dog, because he made a booty call before he went home, so even though he left fairly early in the day he did not trot me all over “to hell and gone.” Apparently he was quite the stud because he was there for over two hours before he finally called it a day and went home. You ask me how I know it was a booty call? When he knocked on the door of the condo he parked in front of a young rather well-endowed young lady only wearing a negligee opened the door and let him in. Before doing so she not only gave him a nice hug and a kiss but she flashed him for good measure. While I am not the greatest detective in the world you certainly don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out the purpose for his visit.

Finally about 5:00 PM, he pulled up to this rather plain-looking ranch style house where he parked in the driveway. Because of his lift kit he was unable to park in the garage. However, he still used his garage door to enter his house. When he went in he brought with him a rather bulky and heavy duffle bag. I waited another hour after he closed the garage door to make sure he was in for the night, then I jotted down his street address and a couple of cross streets to make it easier to find his place when I went back the following night. I did this out of habit, but thanks to his living close to the city getting a GPS signal should not be an issue. After I had all of his information, I went to a local grocery store and I bought some groceries. My pantry and refrigerator were totally empty thanks to my being away for the last two years. The only things left in the refrigerator were items that were no longer recognizable and were happily growing Penicillin, so I had tossed them all out when I woke up that morning.

The house certainly felt big without Jojo stomping around. His absence would definitely take some getting used to. I actually started doubting my resolve in not getting a replacement for him. The problem was that I did not even know what the future was going to hold for me. I might end up dead or getting convicted for murder and spending the rest of my life in prison. Thanks to the fact my crimes were being perpetrated in the D.C. Metro area the death penalty was not an issue. Though I am not sure what is more humane…death or life in prison.

When I finished up eating my dinner and doing my chores I was left with nothing to do. For the first time in my life I actually started thinking what I would do with my life after I concluded Yua’s business. If everything worked out it would all be over in the next week. I know I still wanted to help out the victims of sex trafficking, especially the ones that I recruited as an undercover agent, but that would not take up all my time. I guess, I could go back to work with Jasmine Giordano’s agency. I don’t think I could go back to work at my police department because even if they couldn’t prove that I killed the people responsible for Yua’s kidnapping and death, they would know I did it especially my Captain, my ex-partner and James. I think the best thing I could do would be to just pick up and move somewhere else. Maybe I could try and reestablish my relationship with my family. I have a lot of kin up in Minnesota maybe I could go up there and see some of them, we, at least had some Grandpa Gordon stories that we could share….well, maybe not.

All I know is that I have no hobbies or interests, at least my Grandfather had photography and flying and my father had billiards that he enjoyed playing, I have nothing. I guess this is the time that people start to think about drinking or doing drugs. However, that just was not in my makeup or how I was brought up. Besides, Andersons don’t ever take the easy way out.

It was still too early to go to bed so I turned on the TV and found a movie on Netflix to watch, wouldn’t you know it, the first movie that popped up in the que was the movie Taken, just my damned luck. I said, “what the hell!” and I watched it, anyways. Boy, Liam Neeson can sure kick some ass.

The next morning I forced myself to go for a punishing five mile run, I finished it by sprinting the last quarter of a mile. I thought I was going to collapse when I finished. At least while I was running my mind was blank for a little while. When I got back home I worked out in my small home gym for another 30 minutes or so, afterwards I sat in the steam room for an additional ten minutes. I followed my bruising workout routine by taking a cold shower to close my pores. Even after grabbing a bite to eat, I still had a couple of hours to burn so I went for a drive in the countryside.

Finally it was time for my second stakeout. This time Thomas Ward left before Frank Jackson. Since I already knew where he resided I just let him drive by. He did not seem to notice that the same vehicle was outside the adoption agency for a second day. Well, to give him some credit I did switch things up some because I parked on the other side of the agency. Most people on stakeouts make the mistake of parking in the same spot day after day and using the same vehicle. Since I was only going to stay two days watching the agency, I didn’t think that using the same car would be an issue. If I was going to spend any amount of time I would have rented two or maybe even three different vehicles and rotated them out.

Half an hour after Ward left, Jackson got into his blue Toyota Rav4 and took off. This time I wasn’t as fortunate because he apparently had several things to do. After I had followed him a while, I became nervous about him discovering that he had a tail. Just when I was getting ready to pull off and go down a different street. he pulled in front of a duplex. He quickly got out and grabbed a couple of grocery bags and went into the house. He was greeted by a pretty lady with a small child wrapped around her leg. He kissed her tenderly on the lips and went in the house. Oh boy, he is a married man with at least one child. What the hell do I do? Right then I decided that he just earned a reprieve. I would only kill Ward. I was not going to make that pretty lady a widow and take that child’s father away from him. At least that was the plan, anyway. However, as you will soon find out plans do occasionally go to shit.

First of all, that wasn’t his wife and child, it was simply a lady he was dating. Second of all, he had spotted me and that is why he had cut his errands short. He was actually using his girlfriend as bait. He did not live in that duplex at all. To top it off, the grocery bags had dirty laundry in them. He was just using them as decoys. I saw them in the back seat of his car as I walked by it later that night. He had most definitely called his girlfriend from his cell phone and told her to meet him at the front door with her son. She thought it was all cloke and dagger stuff, so she agreed. His ploy had the desired efect because he was now off my radar. This is where things went wrong. I became the prey now. He started watching me. I didn’t discover it until it was almost too late.

Luckily for me, he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was because he followed me in his Rav4. So when I went to Thomas Ward’s house that night to take care of business I saw him following me in my rearview mirror. Since I no longer had Jojo as my wingman I had to be a little more careful, so I had put on my bullet proof vest from my patrol days. This precaution saved my life because even though I knew I was being followed, Jackson still managed to catch me off guard. I was so focused on breaking into Ward’s house by using the glass cutter that he was able to sneak up on me.

Well, to speak up in my defence he had peeled off from following me before I got close to Thomas’ house. I kow that is still no excuse I should have been prepared. He tried to stab me in the back but the vest blunted his attack and I was able to grapple with him. After rolling around in the grass outside the sliding glass door in Ward’s backyard I was able to turn the blade and punch it through his throat. As his life’s blood oozed out of his him. I just watched him slowly die without any feeling anything at all. I was actually starting to frighten myself. After he took his last breath, I quietly resumed my work on cutting a hole in the sliding glass door.

Once the circular hole was made, reaching inside to unlock the sling door was a piece of cake. Since Ward’s house was a one-story cement block house, I did not have to worry about any creaking boards giving me away. Because the floor plan was simple I quickly found his bedroom. Since I had already enough fun that night I just went in the room and fired three rounds into his body with my silenced pistol. I did this for two reasons…one, the walls of his house were virtually soundproof and secondly, I did not want to take the chance that he would get the upper hand on me when I was strangling him. I had put my rubber gloves on before I had even left my car, so there were no finger prints to worry about. So I went back out the way I came in and did a double check to make sure that I had left no forensic evidence behind after my fight with Frank Jackson. As I walked by his Rav4 I instinctively looked inside and I saw those damned grocery bags with clothes stuffed in them to make them look full.

You may wonder how I figured out that Frank was not married. It was actually just plain guesswork on my part. Before I left the backyard I took out his wallet and there were no photos in it. What kind of father and husband would not even have a photo of his wife, especially one as beautiful as the one I saw earlier in the day and the same goes with the child. So I could only come to the conclusion that they were just dating. She also seemed to be having entirely too much fun when he arrived at her front door. Her response to him was just a little too over the top. So again I could only come up with one conclusion, she was play acting. The kid wrapped around her leg was a nice touch. As a matter of fact, that is what convinced me to take him off my hit list.