His Good Deeds (Kate Reid Thrillers Book 13)

by Robin Mahle

  “Then I guess that leaves me to get a handle on this morning’s train station attack.”

  “That’s where I come in,” Stallard interjected. “We found signatures that matched the other bombings. However, it has become increasingly clear that King is learning.”

  “Learning? How so?” Fisher asked.

  “Let’s just say, he’s experimenting. Trying to figure out how much damage he can do with the materials he has. He won’t risk an attempt at buying anything else. He knows we’re obviously getting closer to him since we figured out where he lives. So what concerns us the most now is that he’ll use what he learned from that blast at the station to make a larger statement. A deadlier one.”

  “We have to find a way to preempt him,” Kate said. “Maybe it’s time to get his face out into the public. I’d hoped we’d find something at his house to offer a clue, but…”

  “You did.” Surrey picked up the photo album. “Reid had the idea to take a look at his family pictures. Figure out if he has any family he can turn to.”

  “That’s right. We were just about to do that when you arrived,” Kate added.

  “Don’t let me stop you. I’d like to get with Tillis on issuing a statement to the press along with a photo of Danny King. That could go a long way in isolating him,” Fisher replied.

  Tillis nodded. “I think we can arrange that. If you want to follow me to Forensics. We should have his personnel files loaded. They have a photo of him there. We’ll see if that’ll fly for the cameras.”

  Agent Stallard waited for them to leave the room before he turned to Reid. “Why do I feel like you aren’t real keen on the fact your boss is here?”

  Walsh glanced at her.

  “What gives you that idea? I understand. It’s part of the deal sometimes.” She brushed off his concerns and turned to Duncan. “You’re sure you’re up to this?”

  “Of course I am. Tell me what you want me to do.”

  “The identities of the people whose phones we have here. Gather them up, if it’s more than just our case workers, and get them under protection. But let’s also focus on learning how they’re connected. We know his first three victims were connected through PivoTech before they fired him, then he changed up his M.O. and went after Jeff Hardy. Now we have the case workers. One of whom is already dead. The other victim is standing in front of me,” Kate replied.

  Stallard folded his arms and widened his stance. “We might be neglecting something here.”

  “What’s that?” Surrey asked.

  “One thing that’s been bothering me about the whole train station attack is that it was far outside what our bomber had done before. I can say from experience, it’s uncommon to target a single individual with a bomb, unless maybe you’re the IRA, but here? That’s unusual. Then to switch it up and go after a larger crowd, only to take out no one. Not one person suffered a major injury in that attack. Anyone else find that strange?” He shook his head. “Then we have the timed bombs on the case workers’ vehicles. Now, that I get. He was targeting individuals again, albeit, using a different technique.” He paused a moment. “I can see this is riveting information for everyone but let me backtrack to the train station. We did find two of his homemade devices, which leads one to believe it was our guy. But…”

  “But?” Kate asked. “You were pretty sure we weren’t dealing with a copycat.”

  “I was.” Stallard nodded. “Maybe not so much now. I’m wondering if Danny King is part of a larger group. A support group, even. People who have advice to offer. Knows certain ways of doing things. Has similar views on the world. You see where I’m going with this?”

  “Wouldn’t be hard to find a group of like-minded individuals. Especially if you know where to look. And if Danny King is as good a hacker as he appears to be, then he knows exactly where to look,” Walsh replied. “That would explain someone making a similar effort, say at the train station.”

  “That it would, Agent Walsh,” Stallard added. “I don’t claim to be an expert in that arena, but I’ll bet a dollar to a dime you people would know just who to talk to about that.”

  Kate considered the notion. “If he did find a group, he might’ve used his company computer to engage with them. If that’s the case, it’s likely PivoTech would track the online activity of their employees. We could go back to them and demand the files.”

  “It would be one hell of a Hail Mary, but at this point, what do we have to lose?” Surrey replied.

  “Even if he did use a company computer, which seems unlikely, none of this gets us any closer to finding him. That is our goal, is it not?” Duncan asked. “Why don’t you let me pursue this with my friend in Unit 2? Same one who helped us figure out when the phones were cloned. I’ll bet he could track down groups of that nature and root around for us.”

  “While you all work to that end, I need to head back to the shop,” Stallard added. “I’ll put my focus on this morning’s blast. See if I can spot anything that could point to another suspect. Hell, I still can’t rule out the idea there may be two of them out there.” He started ahead. “Not that I want to throw a monkey wrench into this deal.”

  Kate waited for Stallard to leave. “With Fisher getting King’s face out there, we should monitor any tips that come in. I’d still like to go through the photo album and start tracking down any family members. If he’s out there alone with his sister, he won’t be able to do anything. So, I think he’ll find help somewhere.”

  At last check, the time had been 4pm. Where the last two hours went, Kate had no idea. But as 6 o’clock rolled around, they still searched family records and photos of Danny King. Kate examined the information with Walsh. “Can I ask you something? Why did you guys really come here?”

  “I already told you—because of Duncan.”

  “Levi, are you sure about that? Kind of feels like Fisher lost faith that I could close the deal.”

  “He hasn’t lost faith in you or anyone on the team. A lot of things have come up since you got here.”

  “What do you mean?” Kate pressed on.

  Walsh glanced at Surrey, who had his nose buried in a laptop searching records. “Nothing. Frankly, I’m glad to be here. We work better when we’re all focused on the goal. I know it’s crowded, but extra eyes never hurt anything.”

  Duncan ended the call as she sat nearby. “You’re not going to believe this…”

  “What is it?” Kate asked.

  “That was Tillis. He’s with Forensics. The cloned phones recovered from King’s house? One of them isn’t a clone. It’s Danny King’s phone,” she replied.

  “What? We have his phone? Did they get into it?” Kate asked.

  “It was a number registered to him. That’s all I know. Could’ve been some extra phone he kept laying around. I have no idea, but they’re working on it now,” Duncan replied.

  “That seems a little convenient, don’t you think?” Kate peered at them. “Something doesn’t add up.”

  “According to Tillis, it’s a pay and go phone, but it still has a provider. They’re cooperating, which means we could learn where he placed his last call,” Duncan said.

  “That can’t be his primary phone,” Kate continued. “He wouldn’t just leave it behind after taking the computers and whatever else in the house.” She paused for a moment. “What if it’s the remote?”

  “What remote?” Surrey asked.

  “For the bomb. Stallard said the first four attacks, he used a remote to detonate them. What if that’s it? We should let him know.” Kate picked up her phone to make the call. As she held it to her ear, her gaze landed on a photo inside the album. She dropped the call and peered at the image.

  Walsh appeared to notice her expression. “You okay?”

  “Look at this.” She pointed to the picture.

  Surrey walked toward her, and he and Walsh peered at the photo. Walsh shrugged his shoulders. “Looks like a family in front of a house.”

  “Not just a regular h
ouse, this looks like a cabin. There’s a lake in the background too. Take a look at the blonde kid. That has to be Danny. His older sister standing next to him. And then the mother. At least, based on some of these other photos, I think that’s the mother. No father.”

  “Then who’s taking the picture and where is this place?” Surrey asked.

  She removed the picture from beneath the plastic sheeting and examined it closely. Then she turned it over. “Well, look at that.” Kate read the writing on the backside. “Grandma and Grandpa’s cabin. 2010.” She glanced at her colleagues. “Danny would’ve been about 12 or 13. His mom was still alive. They have grandparents and by the look of this, they’re maternal grandparents. We need to know who they are and where the hell this cabin is. Danny King could be there right now.”

  26

  If there was anyone Nick Scarborough could trust with Kate’s life, it was Levi Walsh. So when word reached him that Fisher and Walsh were headed to Pittsburgh, the weight lifted from his shoulders. What he needed was eyes and ears on the ground to keep watch over whatever scheme Goodman and his people, including Quinn, had concocted. Fisher was wrong to dismiss the notion that they were after Kate. He seemed to believe that Noah Quinn had some sort of moral line he wouldn’t cross. That they all had a moral line—a laughable notion. The Bureau was like a cult in a lot of ways. Nick had been on the inside long enough to realize that. Fisher should have too.

  He could admit that uncertainty surrounded the train station explosion. But there was no doubt the text and photo were intended to scare him into submission. It had worked. Kate was going to be safe with the team at her side, but it was time to acknowledge defeat.

  Nick pulled out of the parking garage and into the golden rays of a setting sun. Agent Bryce’s phone number was cued up and Nick placed the call.

  The line rang and finally, Bryce answered. “Scarborough, listen I can’t talk right now…”

  Nick voiced concern at Bryce’s hushed tone. “Hey, man, you all right?”

  “I’m close. I gotta call you back.” The line went dead.

  Nick stared out onto the road ahead as he drove home, his mind spinning at Bryce’s words. He wondered if the agent had been in danger, but it hadn’t sounded that way. In fact, if Nick hadn’t known any better, it sounded as though Bryce was smack dab in the middle of a possible breakthrough.

  The rush of adrenaline sent a tingle down his spine. Something was happening and all Nick could do was stand on the sidelines.

  They knew who he was. They’d been to his home. They’d been to the facility that cared for his sister. Danny King wasn’t safe anywhere in the city and never had that idea grown clearer than right now. Being out on the roads was a risk because if they knew everything else about his life, they sure as hell knew what kind of car he drove. Even though it was registered to Mel, he had to give the cops credit to put two and two together.

  Danny parked in the back of the building designated for employees. The storefront was closed, and the lot was empty. PivoTech’s retail store in this location was small by comparison and only a handful of employees worked here. Danny and two others worked from home answering the tech support lines. He stepped out of his car and pulled down his baseball hat. The back lot was absent security cameras, but as he made his way to the rear entrance, a camera was mounted just above it.

  Danny reached for his little black device that was wrapped in copper wire and black electrical tape. The electromagnetic field generated by the pulse could have been more elegant, but it did its job disrupting electronic circuitry, including the surveillance camera above.

  With a store key still in his possession, Danny unlocked the back door and slipped inside. Emergency exit signs illuminated the otherwise darkened hall as he let the door close behind him. The alarm beeped and he hurried to the keypad only steps away. Standard protocol dictated a change in the security code and turning in the keys when someone was let go. His boss hardly cared about his own job and didn’t think he would have bothered to follow standard operating procedure, but he was about to find out.

  Danny keyed in the code. A moment later, the light turned green. “Dumb ass, Larry.” His boss hadn’t known half of what Danny knew about cyber security, computers, and internet protocols.

  With the building disarmed, Danny was free to roam around. He’d waited until after 7pm to be sure the cleaners had gone home. Now it was just him and all he had to do was access his client files. That was the price to be paid to those who knew more than he did when it came to making the kind of impact he’d wanted to make. Danny had warned law enforcement, and yet they persisted. That wasn’t on him.

  Tips had already begun to pour in on sightings thanks to the evening news. The field office agents were already hard at work sifting through them. That left the BAU team to work on their existing theories in hopes of catching a break.

  While Duncan pursued PivoTech to determine whether Danny had accessed the dark web via their servers, she had also enlisted the help of Unit 2’s Villanova and his knowledge of underground groups that shared Danny’s vision.

  Duncan ended her phone call. “I got the name of three sites. If Danny King was going to visit a dark web domestic terrorist site, these would be it.”

  Fisher raised his sights to her. “Do you know how to access them?”

  “Villanova is going to walk us through it.” She sat next to him and opened the laptop. “How far have you gotten on the phones from his house?”

  “We’re waiting on Stallard to confirm if that one was used as the remote detonator. I wish I had more.”

  “Then we’ll see if we can get inside these chat rooms,” Duncan began. “There are a million out there, but these are the largest and they specifically discuss explosives. If Danny needed to learn from anyone, it would be these types of people. I also have a feeling, since the story’s been all over the news, that someone in these groups will be talking about it.”

  Walsh peered at his phone from the other end of the table. “Hey, I just got those birth records.”

  Kate stood up and made her way to him. As she leaned over his shoulder, she read the email. “Mr. Al Monahan and Mrs. Grace Monahan. Ellen King’s parents. I’m surprised she kept her husband’s name.”

  Surrey joined them. “Are these two still alive? If so, we can pull property records to see if they own that cabin in the picture.”

  “I’ll get on that now. Let me make a call.” Walsh stepped out into the corridor to make the call, but before he could dial, the line rang. “Scarborough, hey man, what’s going on?”

  “Something’s happening with Hugo Bryce in Boston. I called him a few minutes ago. He sounded like he was onto something. Said he had to call me back.”

  Walsh pressed his hand on his hip. “You mean, you haven’t pulled him off yet?”

  “I was trying to, which was why I called him. Something’s happening and I’m sitting here on my hands waiting,” Nick replied.

  “I’m up to my eyeballs right now, man. What do you want me to do?” Walsh pressed on.

  “Hell, I don’t know, but this is making me nervous. Look, we know someone from Quinn’s circle was there at the train station,” Nick added.

  “Right.”

  “You have to find out who that was. There has to be security footage that shows him. I have the angle from where the picture was taken. That’ll narrow down the shot from the footage. Levi, you gotta find out who’s watching Kate.”

  “We talked about this. You were going to end it before things got out of hand,” Walsh replied.

  “I know. But after hearing from Bryce. Damn it, Levi, something big is about to pop. I can’t pull the plug until I know what that is,” Nick said.

  “You’re playing with fire, brother. You know that.” Walsh peered at the door to the ops room. “Look, we’ve got everyone and their mother working on this serial bomber case. Everyone’s certain Danny King is going to give us another show. We’re all trying to stop that.”

&n
bsp; “You’re saying you won’t help?” Nick asked.

  “I’m saying we all think this could be his swan song, you hear me? People will die.” Walsh took in a breath. “I get where you’re coming from, Nick. Here’s what I can do. Tillis is working with Pittsburgh police now reviewing DOT footage and running vehicle matches through the database. Maybe I can ask him to check out the footage from around the train station and see what he finds. No guarantees.”

  “Please. If you can do at least that,” Nick pleaded. “Thank you, Levi.”

  “I’ll call you back if I learn anything.” Walsh ended the call and dialed Tillis’s phone. “Agent Tillis, this is Levi Walsh.”

  “Yeah, what’s up? You guys get a run on something?” Tillis asked.

  “Not yet. Working on it though. Everyone’s busting their tails on this.”

  “Okay. Why the call?”

  “I need a favor,” Walsh said. “You don’t owe me one. I get that. But I’m asking because this affects someone at the Bureau. A friend of mine.”

  “How can I help?” Tillis continued. “Not like I don’t have my hands full at the moment, but what do you need?”

  “The train station blast this morning.” He paused a moment. “Did you see anything unusual?”

  “You mean besides the bombing?” Tillis asked.

  “Yeah. I know how this sounds, but specifically, do you recall seeing someone just standing around looking, watching you guys work. Anything like that?” Walsh added.

  “Several bystanders hung around, but the local cops taped off the area and kept them back. I don’t understand. What exactly are you trying to ask me and what does it have to do with someone at the Bureau?”

  “It’s a long story, one that I’ll tell you someday. But what I’m asking about is if you saw anyone who clearly didn’t belong. Another one of us just hanging out, looking, watching.”

  “One of us? Another agent?” Tillis asked.

  “Possibly.” He listened while the line went quiet for a few seconds too long. “Tillis? You still there?”