TWENTY-THREE
Ashort time later, Ella met Justine in the station’s hallway. “Is Dr. Lee in custody?”
“You bet. But she’s steaming mad and screaming for a lawyer,” Justine said.
“Stall. Don’t let her have contact with anyone. Is Anna back at Dr. Lee’s place?”
“Yes, and Michael Cloud’s covering her. A few calls came in for Dr. Lee from her teaching assistant, Mona Tso, but that’s about it. Anna didn’t answer the calls.”
“Okay. We’ve got the first part of my plan down. Now we move to the second part, and this’ll have to play out in a very public way. The only hitch is that I’m going to need the college administration’s cooperation.”
Before she could continue, Blalock came in. “Not necessary. I have the authority to force the issue. Whaddaya need?”
“I wanted to get someone in administration to call Mona Tso, Dr. Lee’s teaching assistant, and tell her that Dr. Lee will be unavailable for class because she’s helping the police on an important matter.”
“You want the other members of Dr. Lee’s group to believe she’s turned traitor and is a threat to their operation,” Blalock observed, putting things together quickly. “But do you really think they’ll make a move on her here at the station?”
“No. That’s why I also wanted the TA told that Dr. Lee can be reached at home in the evenings, and if any of the students have a problem they can contact her there. Word will get around fast. If I’m right, the group will go after Jane at the house—only we’ll be waiting, one guard showing, the rest under cover,” Ella said.
“They’ll need a very good reason to believe Dr. Lee is there,” Blalock said slowly.
“That’s where Anna comes in. She’s about the same height and weight as Dr. Lee. We’ll make sure she’s seen from a distance, briefly, maybe walking around the house tonight—along with someone known to be in law enforcement. The rest of us will be in hiding, ready to seal off the area and close in. When they make their move, we’ll make ours.”
Blalock nodded slowly. “You’re thinking that they’ll have to neutralize her quickly because they have no way of knowing what she’s telling us. You’re probably right about that, but the problem is that they might also decide to scatter. Depending on what she knows about the rest of the cell, it could go either way.”
“They’ve shown dedication to their cause so far. Their actions are well planned and coordinated. Even if she hasn’t been told enough to unravel all their plans, she still constitutes a risk by knowing their codes. I think they’ll strike, the sooner the better,” Ella said.
Blalock considered this, then nodded. “Let me call the college president and bring some pressure to bear.”
“Actually, Ella, if you want to word to spread fast, there’s a better way,” Justine interrupted. “You and Blalock should go talk to the president in person. Mention that Dr. Lee is helping the FBI catch the bomber. If the right person is in a position to overhear and spread the tale, everyone in the entire county will know within the hour,” Justine said.
“And the right person happens to be?” Ella asked, thinking she already knew.
“Jayne, my sister, who works on campus. Who else? And the fact that she’s been seeing Bruce Little will add credibility to her story because people will see her as someone who’s on the inside track.”
“The woman is a blabbermouth,” Blalock replied, nodding. “No offense, Justine,” he added quickly. “But it can’t look like a setup, so she’d have to be in the right place at the right time to be convincing.”
“I can call her and arrange for her to be in the president’s office when you’re there,” Justine said bringing out her cell phone. “Shall I call her now?”
Ella smiled. “Do it, partner.”
The plan was put in motion quickly. Jayne had been happy to cooperate. She’d always liked having others see her as someone “in the know.”
Sticking to their plan, Ella and Blalock went to the college and within forty minutes had completed the first phase of the operation. Jayne, who’d delivered coffee to the president’s office, waved at them and headed to the college cafeteria to spread the news.
It was now time for phase two of the operation. Ella and Blalock drove to Dr. Lee’s home, where the rest of the team was waiting.
Inside, Ella met with Anna. “You’ll be wearing a vest, but it’s still risky. Any second thoughts?” Ella asked her.
“None. It’s all part of the job,” she said in a firm voice.
Ella saw the flash of excitement in her eyes, and knew precisely what Anna was feeling. That adrenaline rush was one she’d felt many times before, and it was addictive. There was nothing like coming face to face with death to make you appreciate life even more.
“Joe, you came out first in our last rifle competition,” Ella said. “I want you out of sight with the sniper gear, up in one of those cottonwood trees across the road. Use the infrared scope to monitor the perimeter.” Ella focused on her partner next. “Justine, you’re with me. We’ll be in the orchard watching the road and that ditch in the back—a potential access point. Marianna, I want you in uniform and visible through the windows but only briefly and intermittently. Blalock will be inside the house, but away from outside view. Stay on the floor if you have to, Dwayne.”
“Crawling from room to room? Sure, why not? Impersonating a rug rat will add a new dimension to my personnel file,” he said straight-faced.
“I’ve been reading the reports that Joe and other officers filed detailing Dr. Lee’s habits around the house. I’ll be sure to sit on the back step for a little bit like she’s known to do,” Anna said. “But I’ll keep my face down.”
Ella realized how carefully Anna had prepared. That thoroughness might help keep her alive tonight.
“What’ll happen to Dr. Lee while we’re working?” Justine asked.
“She’ll stay in holding. No one questions, or even approaches her,” Ella said. Then as an afterthought, she added, “We need to make note of what she’s wearing so Anna can match her outfit.”
“She’s wearing jeans and a red sweatshirt with the community college’s logo on it,” Justine answered.
“I’ve got the jeans part covered, but I don’t own any red sweatshirts,” Anna said, looking at the two other women in the room.
Justine went down the hall to Dr. Lee’s closet and returned with a sweatshirt. “Here you go.”
“Then we’re all set,” Ella said, standing up. “Double-check the video cameras, Justine, and make sure they’re positioned to record everything as it goes down.”
“I would have gotten top-notch electronics from the Bureau if we’d had more time, but come to think of it, Bruce probably has better hardware,” Blalock said.
“I agree,” Ella answered with a chuckle. “One last thing, people. Communicate via cell phones, unless you have no other choice. At least one of the suspects has access to our tactical radio frequencies.” Ella looked at each person. “All right. Let’s roll.”
Long after the sun had settled over the Carrizo Mountains to the west, Ella and Justine, in camouflage clothing, sat in the orchard at the rear of Dr. Lee’s house. From their position, they could see the rear of the house, the road leading in both directions, and the rim of the ditch running through the field behind them. Minutes ticked by slowly.
Ella checked with Phillip Cloud. “You’re still watching Baker?”
“For a while it looked like he was going to return to his vehicle, but then he hoofed over to Broadway and hitched a ride to Shiprock with a Navajo family. Now he’s at the Dog House, eating dinner. I can see him through the window from my vehicle, across the street. He doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere for a while at least.”
“Stay with him,” Ella said.
Lapsing into a long silence, Ella checked her weapon, a department-issue AR-15 assault rifle, identical to the one Justine was holding.
“What’s been eating at you lately, partner?�
�� Justine asked her quietly. “You’ve been tense about something these past few days, and it’s not just the job. We’ve worked tough cases before.”
“Actually it is the job. I have an important decision to make and I haven’t had time to think things through,” Ella answered, her eyes on the ditch. “It’s something I’d like to discuss with you in a few days. But now is not the time.”
Before Justine could comment, Ella’s cell phone vibrated. She flipped it open with one hand and answered.
“It’s Joe,” Neskahi said, his voice coming through clearly. “We’ve got a brown delivery truck turning down the lane. It’s headed toward the house.”
“Keep an eye out for passengers. I’ll alert everyone inside,” Ella replied.
Ella called Blalock and put him and Anna on alert. Not knowing if the delivery was legitimate, they’d have to be careful not to overreact. Ella then glanced at Justine. “Check out the driver, partner.”
Justine focused the infrared binoculars on the approaching truck. “Looks like the parcel delivery company’s regular step van. The driver’s wearing the uniform and matching baseball cap. But he’s delivering awfully late for this time of year. By now they’re usually done and back in Farmington.”
Ella smiled. “It’s hard to make a delivery on the Rez with so few street signs. But let’s play it safe. Since the truck could screen out Joe, I’m going to approach from the right and cover the front. I want you to move in to the other corner, but keep checking our six in case this is a diversion that allows someone else to come in from behind the orchard. And stay out of sight as much as you can.”
Ella walked around to the right end of the house and waited, watching from around the corner, her weapon lowered. The deliveryman got out, package in hand, walked up to the door, and knocked. His stride and stature didn’t match that of Whitefeather as she recalled, so Ella relaxed slightly. Everything looked perfectly normal.
As the door opened, the deliveryman stepped aside and reached into his pocket, dropping the package. Flashes came from the cab of the van as two shots rang out. Almost simultaneously, the deliveryman dropped something on the front step, then ran. Ella heard a pop, then white smoke quickly billowed from the ground.
“Justine, get a shot from your side,” Ella shouted, now unable to see the van clearly.
Ella ran into the cloud of smoke, then stopped, blind, remembering the fence. She heard the van’s metal door opening, then there was a loud thud on the road, like something being dropped, and a gunshot went off.
Something bright red appeared to her right, low, on the ground, and she recognized the scent of a road flare. Inching forward, Ella saw the four-foot-high fence just as she bumped into it. Feeling her way, she vaulted it with one hand.
Hearing the sound of a motorcycle starting up, Ella ran toward the sound. She came out of the smoke just as the cycle raced down a ramp at the rear of the van. From the light of the red flare on the road, she could see the bike was carrying two people in brown clothes.
A spurt of dust kicked up beside the bike as a gun roared from the left and above. It was Neskahi, with the rifle. Ella stopped, raised her own weapon to her shoulder, then lost her sight picture as a flare and then another smoke bomb went off on the road behind the bike.
Grabbing her cell phone, she dialed Blalock’s number. Almost simultaneously, she saw his vehicle racing by, Justine on the passenger side.
“Already in pursuit,” Blalock answered crisply. “I’ll call for backup. Check Officer Bekis.”
Ella hurried through the drifting smoke, which had dispersed enough now for her to orient herself. She located Anna sitting on the porch.
“Are you okay?” Ella asked as Anna looked up, her back against a post.
Anna nodded, fingering a hole in her sweatshirt. “Glad he didn’t take a head shot, but it still feels like I’ve been kicked by a horse.”
Seeing her struggle to stand, Ella helped Anna up. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay down a while longer?”
“I’m okay,” Anna said, shaking her head. “I didn’t get a good look at the delivery guy. The cap was over his eyes. But he was Navajo.”
Hearing a clank, they both turned and saw Neskahi coming through the front gate. “You hit, Bekis?” he asked.
“The vest held,” Anna answered, her voice strained.
“Damn flare blinded my optics. I had to fire at the sound. Sorry, boss,” Joe added.
“These guys knew what to expect and came prepared. We needed more protection, I see that now,” Ella said, muttering a curse. “Let’s start processing the truck. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find something useful.”
Remembering Blalock was in pursuit, Ella called Justine and asked for a situation report.
“The cycle went down an arroyo and into the bosque to the north,” Justine answered quickly. “We’re trying to find a route down there, but the sand’s making it tough to keep going without bogging down.”
“Get back along high ground, then listen for the bike and try to stay parallel to him,” Ella said. Then realizing she was trying to micro-manage the pursuit, she corrected herself. “Forget what I said. Just use your own judgment. You’re in the best position to make the right tactical choices.”
“We’ve got backup on the way. They’ll block the main routes,” Justine added. “I need to hang up now so we can park and listen for the bike.”
Ella called Phillip Cloud next, and learned that Baker had checked into a Shiprock motel using a phony ID.
They turned their attention back to the van then, and soon learned it had been stolen a few hours earlier, when the real deliveryman had been inside a business. The “package” delivered to Dr. Lee’s door had been one apparently pulled from a shelf within the van to serve as a prop. Again, the perps had planned carefully.
Twenty-five minutes later, Blalock pulled up with Justine, a sour look on his face. “We found the cycle abandoned right beside the river,” he said. “It looks like they used the same plan that Haske’s killer did—wading across the river at a shallow point, then taking a vehicle parked on the opposite bank.”
“There was still water on the rocks where they came out on the far side, and we could see tire tracks in the sand over there with the binoculars,” Justine said.
“We’ve got the Colorado police manning a roadblock on 491 northbound. There’s another unit checking southbound out of Shiprock for Whitefeather—if he was the shooter—and the other perp. But they could have already slipped by on a side road. Without a vehicle description, we’re operating blind. Whitefeather, or whoever’s calling the shots, has played it smart all the way, Clah,” Blalock said.
“Neither of these guys was Baker. That much we know for sure. He’s at a Shiprock motel. Let’s check what the cameras picked up,” Ella said, pointing to Teeny’s video console.
A moment later, they were playing back the recordings on a split-screen laptop. The cameras had been placed at two locations to cover the house from the outside, and were low-light devices that recorded in black and white, not color. The first camera caught the deliveryman from behind, and only for a second as he turned and ran after dropping the smoke grenade. After that point, the images were indistinct, obscured by the choking cloud that had engulfed everything.
The second camera covered another angle, but from the distance, the image of the shooter inside the truck was too vague for them to make a positive ID.
Ella called Teeny, and he gave them quick instructions on how to transmit the recordings to his home, where he’d try to clean and filter them for clarity. He called back just five minutes later.
“What do you have for us?” she asked.
“I’ve got a partial image of the deliveryman, but he kept his head down, and the bill of his cap hides his eyes. I’ve got less on the shooter—just enough for a general description, nothing facial. These guys did everything they could to obscure the scene once the shots were fired, and it was effective.”
Ella said
nothing for several long moments. “Teeny, put your enhanced images onto a DVD and bring it to me at the station. I’ve got an idea.”
After leaving her people to process the evidence, Ella left with Blalock.
“Update me,” Blalock said, taking his eyes off the road long enough to glance at her. “You’ve got something running through your head, and I don’t like being kept in the dark.”
Ella grunted, busy squirming out of her camouflage pants and jacket, which she’d worn over slacks and a blouse.
“Okay, after you lose the duck-hunter suit,” he added.
Ella tossed the pants and the camo jacket into the back seat, then snapped her seat belt. “I’ll have to get Big Ed’s okay first, but here’s what I want to do. I’d like to release the camera images that show Anna taking the hits and going down and let the press assume that Dr. Lee died in the attack. We’ll then move Dr. Lee into a safe house. Once she sees what went down tonight, I think we can turn her.”
“You may be underestimating the woman,” Blalock said. “A lot of zealots will take a bullet for the cause.”
“From their own people?” She shook her head. “I don’t think so. We’ll show her Anna’s vest and let her verify what she sees. She’s smart enough to understand that once her associates find out she’s still alive, she’ll be nothing more than a walking target. One thing’s for sure, if Whitefeather was her boyfriend, Jane’ll discover right away how much he really cares. . . .”
Once at the station, Ella and Blalock went directly to the chief’s office.
Ella gave Big Ed a full report, then added, “I’d like permission to put my plan in motion. I called Bruce on the way in, and he’s going to make sure we have exactly what we need.”
Big Ed leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin absently. “I hate to purposely mislead the press. In the past, that’s always come back to haunt us.”
Earthway Page 28
