Hour Game

"They're actually pretty cool. They have all these events, infantry drilling, hospital demonstrations, bands, dances, even fancy balls, afternoon teas, candlelight tours. The cavalry charges are really something. These guys are serious about this stuff. You'll see hundreds of them out there today, although during the actual war the armies had tens of thousands of soldiers. But they put on a good show anyway."

"How did Eddie get into that? Doesn't seem like something a sensitive artist would be drawn to."

"I think it was his father who was interested in it at first. He was very much into history, even helped finance some of the battle reenactments."

"Was Eddie very close to his father?"

"I think he wanted to be. That's one reason he got into reenactments-at least that's my educated guess. But Bobby Battle was an inscrutable fellow. And he wasn't around all that much. I think he preferred sailing around the world in a hot-air balloon or building a factory in Asia to raising his kids."

"I understand he offered you a job after you rescued Eddie."

Bailey looked surprised that she knew this.

"He did but I wasn't interested."

"Mind my asking why not?"

"No big secret. I just liked being an FBI agent. I hadn't been with the agency all that long, and I wanted to make a career out of it."

"How'd you bust the case?"

"Got a tip that I ran to its source. Eddie was in college back then, and I did some digging around. Found out this guy living at the same apartment complex was a convicted felon."

"Why didn't Eddie live at home? Didn't he go to UVA?"

"No, he went to Virginia Tech over in Blacksburg, a few hours from here. Anyway, turns out this guy had found out who Eddie was, or more to the point who Eddie's parents were. Eddie came home late one night, and next thing he knew he was tied up in a shack in the middle of nowhere."

"How'd you learn about the shack?"

"The guy had used it before for hunting. I'm not saying he was the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was dangerous. The Battles paid the money; but we were watching when the pickup was made."

"Wait a minute; I thought the Battles didn't pay the ransom."

"No, they did but they got it back-well, at least most of it."

"I'm not following."

"With kidnappings the dicey piece for the criminal is getting the payoff. Today you can do it with wire transfers and computer gimmicks and such, but it's still tricky. Twenty years ago it was far harder. But this guy thought he had it figured out. He had the drop arranged so it was at a shopping mall on a Saturday, people everywhere. He must have scoped out the place, because he knew where this back exit was. As soon as he took the bag, he disappeared into a sea of people."

"How'd you pick him up, then?"

We had two transmitters hidden on the bag. But we figured he'd think of that and toss the bag, so we had transmitters in some of the cash wrappers binding the money. We didn't think he'd throw out the money. He did, in fact, toss out the bag. But we were still able to follow him right to the shack."

"Wasn't that a risk, not arresting him on the spot?"

"The bigger risk was never finding Eddie. This guy's past history showed him to be a loner. If Eddie was alive, and that was a big if, this guy was probably going back to either set him free or more likely kill him."

"And that's when the shoot-out happened?"

"He must have spotted us and opened fire, and we returned it. We had a sniper with us, and the kidnapper took one in the head."

"You said you recovered most of the money?"

Bailey laughed. "After he spotted us and opened fire, this idiot burned about five hundred thou of the five million total in the potbellied stove that was in the shack. I guess he was thinking we weren't going to get himand the money."

"Lucky you didn't hit Eddie," said Michelle.

He looked at her sternly. "It's easy to play Monday-morning quarterback."

"I'm not trying to second-guess what you did. I've been in situations like that too. It's never easy. The important thing is, Eddie lived."

"That's the way I've always seen it." Bailey pointed up ahead. "And there he is in the flesh."

They'd turned off the main highway and into a parking area filled with trucks, horse trailers, campers and RVs. Along one side numerous tents were set up. Michelle waved at Eddie, who was busy getting his gear together. They got out of the car and joined him.

"So what are you this time?" asked Bailey.