“It’s kind of a moot point,” Agent Cooper said. “Phoenix is a thousand miles away right now. Leslie is right here. Which brings up another point. Where is Leslie right now?”
“We don’t know that Phoenix is a thousand miles away,” Joshua began, but Coop already had her phone out and was dialing.
After a long wait, she hung up and dialed a different number. This time the wait was much shorter.
As the call was answered, Agent Cooper put it on speaker. “Bailey?”
“What is it, Agent Cooper?” the woman didn’t sound irritated, but there was a sense of her being distracted. “Sorry. I’m right in the middle of getting a blood sample off the console in the van.”
“That’s okay,” Coop assured the woman. “But is Leslie Sands around there close?”
“Joshua’s sober companion?” Bailey asked.
Agent Klingler perked up at that. Fantastic. One more person that wasn’t going to listen to a word he said now that he knew Joshua was an addict. Whatever.
But a second later, any angst about having the CID agent know his business left Joshua’s mind for good. He listed as Bailey spoke.
“I have no idea where she is. She pulled out her cell phone after you guys left and then kind of disappeared. I was going to go look for her, but I figured there was work here that needed to be done and that she was a grown up.” Bailey must have finished whatever task was before her, as her attention seemed to clarify. “Do you want me to go look for her?”
“No, no,” Coop said. “Keep doing what you’re doing. We’re going to come back out to you in a few minutes.”
She hung up the phone and met eyes with Joshua. From the expression on her face, Joshua could see that she had made up her mind. Leslie was the accomplice.
But there was more than one thing that gave Joshua pause. Agent Cooper didn’t always get these things right. Plus, Joshua had seen Leslie in moments where she was allowing herself to be vulnerable.
Things weren’t adding up right now.
Agent Cooper motioned to the rest of the team, including Klingler in the motion. “Let’s go out and ask Leslie Sands a few questions, shall we?”
Joshua could do nothing but follow.
At least for the moment.
CHAPTER 13
The clock was ticking down on Reggie’s life.
No matter what the other considerations here were, Sariah couldn’t afford to forget that. So even though she didn’t agree with Joshua’s assessment, she wasn’t about to just abandon his ideas without a backward glance.
Sariah refused to waste time. So instead of sitting back while the Humvee took them back to the crime scene, she called the cab company that Phoenix worked for.
Turned out that Phoenix wasn’t her real name after all, but that’s about where the suspicious information stopped. Her real name was Bonita. No real surprise why she might have changed it.
And as far as her boss was concerned, the woman walked on water. She was one of his best drivers, got more requests than anyone and never gave him attitude.
“If I had twenty more like her, I’d be a rich man,” he grumbled.
Even the description Sariah gave him of the woman they’d met matched. It was her. The only way to get more confirmation on this was to get him to fax over a photo, but for right now it wasn’t important.
Joshua had stopped protesting by about the third or fourth comment made by the owner of the taxicab company. Sariah was just about done when the man interrupted her.
“So when am I going to get my compensation from you guys for the damage to my car?”
Right. The sniper shoot-out.
Sariah gave the man the number to call at the BAU with promises that she’d follow up to make sure he got his money. Then she hung up, avoiding Joshua’s gaze. There was no telling how he would handle this information.
He sat there with his hands trembling. His eyes were rimmed in dark circles, and he seemed to be sweating more than he did on most occasions.
Reggie being kidnapped had seemed to both focus Joshua and accelerate his physical symptoms. If they had been anywhere near alcohol, Sariah wouldn’t give his sobriety a vampire’s chance at midday on the surface of the sun.
But his faculties seemed as sharp as ever, and even when she was questioning his ability to see his sober companion in an objective way, his reasoning was sound enough. Enough to where Sariah had begun to second-guess herself.
But right now it didn’t matter, as they had arrived at their destination.
Stepping out of the vehicle, Sariah began scanning the area. There were still a few crime scene investigators milling about, but most had gone. Then her eyes landed on the person she was looking for.
Leslie Sands was there, sitting atop one of the police vehicles, her long skirt blowing out to the side of her in the wind. She caught sight of the group and waved at them, hopping down off the car and moving toward them.
This felt surreal.
They were seeking out a serial killer, or at the very least an accomplice. This woman, with her hair and clothing whipping about in the breeze, didn’t seem anywhere close to what Sariah would expect. And as she walked toward the Humvee, there wasn’t even a trace of concern on her face.
But wasn’t that the perfect disguise?
Joshua was staring at his sober companion, but caught Sariah staring at him. No words were spoken, but he indicated toward the woman approaching them, and his meaning was clear. Does this look like a killer?
“Wait a minute,” Sariah said, an idea coming to her. “Do you still have that burner phone of Shively’s?” she asked Had.
The young officer dove back into the Humvee and pulled out an evidence bag. Sariah opened the phone inside the plastic, hitting redial on the last number called.
A ringtone sounded across the distance that separated them from Leslie Sands. Joshua’s sober companion reached into a pocket tucked away in her skirts, an odd expression on her face.
There, in the woman’s hand, was the perfect companion to the phone in Sariah’s possession. The phone that had been used to coordinate the kidnapping of Reggie. The phone that pointed to its owner with a straightened finger of blame.
Leslie Sands was the kidnapper.
* * *
“But this is insane!” Joshua yelled at Agent Cooper.
Leslie was in handcuffs in the back of the Humvee, looking stunned. She had sat there in near-perfect silence since Sariah had made her accusations. There had been a brief moment when she had looked at Joshua with wide eyes that spoke of betrayal, but there hadn’t been a word of recrimination.
Nor had there been any of explanation.
She acted as if she were innocent. Joshua was convinced that she was. So why wasn’t she proclaiming it to all who would listen?
“There was access,” Sariah listed her points off on her fingers. “She had the opportunity. And she had the burner cell in her possession.”
“Didn’t you see the expression on her face?” Joshua shot back. “That could have been planted.”
Agent Cooper rolled her eyes. “Planted? Joshua, please.”
“Just do me a favor,” he asked. “Will you at least fingerprint the phone?”
“What is that going to prove?” Coop responded. “If it was a plant, then we’ll still find her prints on it. She grabbed it when she picked it up.”
“Yes, but there will only be that one set.”
Coop turned and pointed at the woman, who was still sitting in the back of the vehicle. “She hasn’t said word one since we put her back there. If she were innocent, wouldn’t she be protesting?”
“I’ll go see if I can find out,” Joshua said. “But only if you’ll go and get Bailey to print the damn phone.”
The BAU agent nodded, and Joshua walked over to Leslie, Bella trotting along by his side. His sober companion lifted her head up to gaze at him as he approached. The stunned look in her eyes had faded, and she peered at him with a look of patience on her face
.
Bella pranced up to the woman and licked her hand. There it was. Bella trusted her. It wasn’t evidence, but as far as he was concerned, it might as well be.
“You’re innocent,” he said as he approached. “I know that you are.”
“So do I,” she replied with a slight smile.
“Then why aren’t you saying anything?”
She looked down at her hands. “I’m assuming that phone I pulled out of my pocket was one that was used in the crime, correct?”
Joshua nodded. “Yes. But why didn’t you tell everyone that it wasn’t yours?”
Leslie just cocked an eyebrow at him. “Because protestations of innocence are so effective?”
Okay, she had a point. “But if you had pushed. If you had fought….”
“Yes, it’s possible that someone would have listened. But someone’s listening right now. And instead of a desperate fight to prove what I know to be true, I’m having a gentle conversation with someone that is now on my side.”
“I was already on your side,” Joshua said, realizing as he spoke the words that they were true. He was on her side, in spite of the fact that he wanted to get the hell away from her most of the time.
“Think about this,” she said. “If I had screamed and protested, would that have helped? Or hurt?”
He took that thought forward. If she had fought them from the first moment, the reality is that even Joshua himself might have pushed back against it. Whereas right now, even though Coop thought she was guilty, Joshua didn’t. Not one bit.
“So the real question is,” Leslie continued. “If it’s not me, then who is it?”
That was the issue, wasn’t it? From the conversation in the car, it was clear that Phoenix was on her way to being completely cleared. That just left Leslie. And, of course, the women on Klingler’s team, which seemed like a bit of a long shot.
Then Joshua froze.
Shively had infiltrated Klingler’s team because everyone had assumed he was who he said he was. What if that was the sister’s MO as well?
“Klingler,” Joshua shouted, startling Bella at his side into barking. “When did Bailey join your team?”
The CID agent looked over at Joshua like he was crazy. He called back to Joshua.
“What are you talking about?”
Joshua felt his heart sink. “Bailey. Bailey Truscott?”
“I don’t have a Bailey Truscott on my team. Never have.”
An assumption. Bailey Truscott had been there on the base, as if she belonged. And she never once actually said that she was on Klingler’s team.
It couldn’t be her, though. Both Shively and she had been there at the same time the sniper had attacked. It couldn’t be.
But what if it was?
The idea that the sniper had to be the sister was just another assumption, wasn’t it? One that could turn out to be deadly for Reggie.
At that moment, Agent Cooper returned. Even before she opened her mouth, Joshua knew what she was going to say.
“I can’t find Bailey anywhere.”
Joshua didn’t know where she was either, but there was something he knew. He knew she was with Reggie. Doing things to her that Joshua didn’t even want to begin to imagine. Taking out her anger over the death of her brother on the one person she had power over right now.
They had failed. The entire team had let Reggie down. He had let her down.
Joshua knew something else, as well.
He knew he would never forgive himself.
* * *
Had lifted the phone back up to his ear, listening as it went straight to voicemail for the fifth time.
Bailey had turned off her phone.
“We have to do something,” Had said to the group.
“I know that, Had,” Coop fired back at him.
“She must realize that we’ve figured it out by now,” he pressed.
“I know that, too.”
“That puts Reggie in more danger!”
Joshua stepped forward from where he had been releasing Leslie from the handcuffs. “Had, we know all of this. And we all want to find Reggie. Trust me.”
That last was said as Joshua’s gaze flickered over to Agent Cooper. Great. It wasn’t enough that one of their team members was missing, possibly being tortured or killed. But they were also having to deal with jealousy stuff.
“We could triangulate,” Had said.
“She slipped her cell phone into Leslie’s pocket, remember?” Coop said.
“No, not that one,” Had rebutted. “The other one. The non-burner that she was using with us.”
“She will have taken the battery out of it,” Joshua responded, his tone frantic.
But Agent Cooper seemed to think the idea was a good one. She rounded on Joshua, her tone confrontational.
“It might be a long shot, but you don’t think it’s worth trying?” she asked.
Joshua faced off with her. “It could. Sure. The chances are probably greater than playing the lottery, but by all means, waste time doing something that won’t work.”
“I don’t see you coming up with any better ideas,” she answered, her jaw thrusting out in the expression she got when she was digging in her heels.
“Come on! Knock it off!” Had stepped between the two of them.
From the other side of the Humvee came Klingler’s voice. “We need to go back to the beginning. Now that we know they’re related, maybe something will pop.”
Had wasn’t sure, but that sounded like as much of a reach as the triangulation idea, and that had been one of his own. Even as he’d said it earlier, he’d been aware of the fact that it was a bad idea.
But there had to be something. Some way for them to track down Bailey… if that was even her name. At least with members of the team, he could use the app on his phone to narrow the search…
And then he realized something.
“Y’all,” Had said, trying to keep his excitement in check. He could be wrong, after all. “I may have an idea.”
A palpable energy surged through the group at that. Even Bella started thumping her tail, her tongue lolling out as she pranced forward.
As the team gathered around, Had pulled out his phone. When Joshua saw that, he groaned and stepped back.
“You can’t track her on that,” he moaned.
“I know that,” Had replied. “But here’s the thing. When we were tracking Shively using Reggie’s phone, there was a point where he started going in a totally different direction. Like, opposite where he’d been going up to that point.”
Agent Cooper was listening, as was Klingler. Even Joshua grunted and moved back into the circle.
Bella, for her part, seemed to be ready to go. Leaping toward the door and then scurrying back, the Boxador looked like she wanted nothing more than to get going.
And why not?
“Look, either this will work or it won’t. So let’s get in the car, and I’ll show you where I think Shively was going.”
Agent Cooper turned toward Leslie. “You need to stay here.”
Joshua’s sober companion stared back at Coop. “I would prefer to join you.”
“No,” the BAU agent answered, shaking her head. “I can’t guarantee your safety if you come.”
“I wasn’t asking you to.”
Joshua stepped forward, facing off with Coop. His face was stern, but there was a gleam of something else in his eyes. What that was, Had couldn’t identify for sure.
Maybe it was pride in his companion.
“Give her a gun, Coop.”
With a frown, Agent Cooper handed over a weapon to the flowy-skirted woman. Leslie took the weapon, slid back the action to check the chamber, then slammed it closed again.
Was it just Had, or was that totally hot?
“She’s coming with us,” Joshua stated, his tone flat.
Within seconds the team was like a reverse clown car, with everyone vying to get inside instead of out. They piled in, and Had held
out his app.
Now, if he could just remember where that dot had gone….
* * *
Pain, pain and more pain.
Reggie hadn’t known there were so many different ways to experience it.
Now, after spending an hour with Bailey… or whoever this really was… pain was beginning to feel like an intimate friend. One that had overstayed its welcome by a factor of one hundred.
Bailey approached her, something unknown glinting in her fist. That was one of the methods she was using. Hide the device until it had been used. Then show it to Reggie, blood and all.
The first time Bailey had done it, Reggie almost passed out.
There was no leeway here. No quarter.
It didn’t seem to matter to Bailey if there were screams or not. At first, Reggie had tried to be stoic. But that had only lasted so long.
Then, she’d let the screams echo through the concrete bunker where she was being held. She screamed and cried for mercy.
There had been little change in Bailey’s reaction.
After a while, Reggie started to form the opinion that this had nothing to do with finding pleasure in the torture. Oh sure, Bailey wanted her dead and wanted her to suffer while it happened. But it was almost like she was fulfilling some assignment. Like it didn’t matter one way or another what Reggie did, as long as Bailey cut her up.
Even the methods seemed preplanned.
Reggie wasn’t sure which was worse. A psychotic killer bent on breaking her, or a methodical assistant that would follow all of the painful instructions to the letter.
Then Bailey opened her mouth to speak, and Reggie reconsidered the whole unfeeling assistant thing.
“I wonder how much pain my brother felt, right before he died?” she asked, just as she stabbed whatever she held into Reggie’s side. There was a blinding sensation of pain, then a lingering burn that made her want to weep from its incessancy.
“Salt,” she said, lifting the utensil in hand. “It’s amazing how simple some tortures can be. Just a little bit of salt on an ordinary fork.”
Bailey held the fork up, showing Reggie the tines that had been rammed in between her ribs. Blood coated the tips of each of the four points. Reggie could feel her vision blurring and she groaned out loud.
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