It was time.
“She took a list of the Secret Service agents who were on duty that night, and Friday when Senator Forbes was attacked. I made the list as I was trying to figure out how a person got past the Secret Service in the hotel, and why no one came forward at the Oval Office. I also wanted to run it by the hookers. Someone might have seen something.”
She read over the names.
Well, he was done.
“Good luck on your press conference,” he said, turning to walk out.
“Wait.”
Alex turned.
“That’s a good lead to chase.”
“I learned working with you all those years ago. The most obvious explanation is likely the simplest solution, but with a twist. Isn’t that how you roll?”
It was.
“About yesterday…”
“I’m still sorry, but I’m not sorry it happened. I’m human. I screwup. We can’t all be perfect, and life isn’t always a bowl of sunshine and happiness. I did what I did, I own it, and that’s it. If being honest will get me booted, well, then I guess I’m out. It was, as always, Elizabeth, an honor to work with you. I loved it all those years ago, and I still do. I made a mistake, and I will swallow it.”
He headed toward the door.
Callen stared at her and whispered one word.
Fate.
She got it.
“Stop. You’re not being booted from the team, but you are unofficially removed from this case. If this leads back to Tiegan Blackett, you can’t be working this. If it goes to court, a defense attorney will rip it to shreds and laugh while doing it.”
“I understand.”
“You can sit here and back-up the team, but you may not leave to do any more interviews.”
“Really?”
She sighed.
“Yes, Alex. You’re back on the team.”
He hugged her.
“Uh, that’s awkward,” Ethan stated. “Your hand is on her ass…”
He jerked it away like it was scorched by flames. Then he smiled.
“My bad.”
She shook her head.
Funny, he didn’t look all that apologetic about the ass pat.
“Okay, team, let’s switch this up. Crosscheck Alex’s list of the men we have listed as potential killers. What do we know?”
“Someone was angry,” Chris said, fixing his bow tie.
“We have a lefty and a righty,” stated Doctor Duncan. “Two killers.”
That reminded her.
“Chris, who killed Lala? Was it the lefty who took out the president, or the righty who took out Ginger Snap?”
“Your killer was a righty. It was the same happy hooker killer.”
Well, they’d go with that.
“Divide them up, and let’s see if we can figure out how the list of Secret Service agents relates to this. Was one of the president’s henchmen the one who did the deed?”
It was possible.
They brought him hookers.
“Do we have an avenger for his dirty deeds?” she asked. “We all know the major players in the game will be greed, power, love, or revenge.”
“I don’t think it’s money,” Harmony stated.
Yeah, her either.
“Power?” she asked.
“Well, we do have a vice president who got one hell of a promotion. Could Sofia Downing be the catalyst?” she asked. “Did the president go wandering in the Vice President’s garden? That would keep us with the two-killer theory. Only, how did they leave the White House?”
“Unless she killed him, and her Secret Service guy cleaned up the other two. They go home at night,” Harmony offered. “They walk free.”
Yeah, and could do what had been done.
“Then why abduct you guys?” Alex asked. “If his wife did the deed, why pull you and Chris in? That’s asking for it to be solved.”
Was it?
She wasn’t so sure.
“Well, that’s what we need to figure out. He knew the FBI would be handling it. Did he take me to help or hurt it? Who would Gabe pick to handle it normally?” she asked.
“You,” Ethan stated. “You’re the top crime solver in the FBI, You’re the golden child. If the president was to die, he would make his team, and you’d lead it.”
“Maybe by taking me, he hoped to anger you and me. Maybe by forcing me to play the game, he thought I’d say fuck that.”
Ivan laughed.
He’d been standing there in the corner, silently.
“That’s genius. You think like a criminal.”
“Reverse psychology. It tends to work.”
“Only, you are crazy,” Ivan stated.
She laughed.
Oh, she was aware. No one willingly tangled with this rattler for a reason.
“I was the wild card. Think about it. He had me taken. Uh, I’m pretty sure my husband would wonder where I was at some point. He’s either behind this or an idiot. Pray for the country. It might be being led by a dunce of a killer.”
“Next up is love,” Callen stated.
“If someone raped me at work, would you kill them?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes,” Ethan stated. “I’d take the person, I’d make sure it was the worst torture possible, but I’d turn myself in. I’d play the crazy card.”
“Me too,” Callen stated. “I’d play it too. He raped my wife, and I blacked out. We, as law officials, know how to make it pan out.”
“I’d just hide the body,” Chris stated. “I’m not as law-abiding,” he added.
So, love could be a player.
“Someone was so enraged, they killed, but then why are there two killers?”
“Revenge,” Max stated. “Think about it. He goes to rape someone, and she kills him in a bloody freak-out. She beats the hell out of him with a lamp.”
She listened.
“Then?”
“Someone who loves her covers it up. Then he knows that something is coming. The president is dead, and that’s going to open the door. There are loose ends.”
She pointed at him.
“Give him a prize. That’s my angle. Someone loved that mystery woman. Someone is out there getting some twisted street justice.”
They all were behind her on this.
“Let’s look at love. Who, on our list fits that?” she asked. “Who on the whiteboard?”
They all looked over at it. Callen had brought it in from their office.
“Rutherford Carter and Senator Hilda Forbes fit,” Harmony stated. “She was raped on Friday, and Damian Dean was dead by Sunday night. He loves her, and he wouldn’t give up his phone.”
Before she could ask, he offered it up.
“I’m still working on it,” Ethan admitted. “The warrant is in the works.”
That worked for her.
“I want you to run them both so hard that they feel it from here,” she stated.
“Uh, there are more,” Chrissy stated. “Bear with me because I do the tech thing, but on your board, you have Landry Dean and Marcus Hunter.”
She was aware.
The man was the bane of her existence.
“Does he love her?” Harmony asked.
“He said she gets him all hot and bothered. That’s not love,” Elizabeth stated. “Could he be the one? Maybe the president decided that since he couldn’t grab me, he was going to use his wife.”
It made sense.
“She gave herself an alibi with Marcus. She went upstairs and was having sex down the hall in an unwatched hotel.”
“It could be her,” Max stated.
“Yeah, if we believe Marcus could be the killer.”
Harmony shook her head.
“Well, I doubt it.”
“Why?”
“I once saw Marcus puke when we busted into a drug house and there was a dead body. The dude had been there a week in the Mississippi heat. He nearly died just looking at it. Now think about the hooker and stripper.”
<
br /> “Yeah, but the beating wasn’t as bad,” Chris stated. “Maybe that’s why.”
They both had point.
“We keep him on the list. We’ll see if we can get an alibi for the time the hooker died. Harmony, we know when Wilma died. Can you call your office and inconspicuously ask if anyone saw Marcus?”
She could do that.
“I’m his alibi for Black Magica. He was with me.”
Unfortunately.
They got to work.
“Tiegan and Alfie are next,” Callen stated.
“They don’t fit. I really think this is about love and protection. Someone is cleaning up someone’s mess. Cross them off. I think they know shit, but I don’t think they’re killers. Neither one of them could toss Lala, the Amazon woman, into that dumpster. We’re talking a man all the way.”
Yeah, Ethan agreed.
“Last is Lala, AKA Black Magica, and Clyde. It’s not going to fit for me,” she stated. “She may have killed the man, but Clyde wasn’t in love. He may be cleaning up, but…”
“Are you willing to ride all of this on that?” Alex asked.
She looked at her profiler.
“Yeah, I’m willing to bet it all on the house. Ethan feels that’s the angle. We roll with it. I’m only as good as my profiler, and I’m damn good because of him.”
He gave her a gentle kiss.
He appreciated it.
“You have the names. Dig into them and dig into that book. I need something.”
“What’s your plan?” Max asked. He knew she was going to be wearing a bull’s-eye post press conference.
“After I stir up the White House, I’m going to find Alfie Steiner. I don’t, for one second, buy that she isn’t fully aware of what’s going on there. She may not be the killer, but she may give us the next lead. Then, after I browbeat her, I’m going at Tiegan Blackett. From the start, they knew more. I can tell.”
Callen agreed.
She pointed at the team.
“I’m about to blow this up. Brace yourselves. If I call out the White House, and we don’t solve this one fast…”
Yeah, they got it.
Dead ducks.
She headed for the door.
“He was raping someone. Find me who, and then find me the person who wanted revenge. That’s the bottom line!”
Elizabeth headed for the door with Ethan, Chris, and Callen following.
“God, that skirt is hot,” Chris whispered.
“I know,” Ethan stated. “I’m going to burn the rest of her clothes so she has to wear it every day!” he whispered.
“ETHAN! I can hear you!”
He grinned.
Yeah, he only didn’t care.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Press Conference
It was a matter of utmost seriousness. There was no humor, amusement, or levity. Up to that minute, Elizabeth was still trying to decide exactly how badly she was going to burn the White House during her little reporter meet and greet.
There was a fine line, and she had to blindly navigate it. The whole thing was no laughing matter. There had been hookers, rape, rampant Secret Service agents, and chaos that shouldn’t be going down.
The White House was besieged with lunacy, and someone had to fix it.
Still, up to that moment, she’d been planning to take it easy on them.
Why?
The man was dead, and hopefully, the vice president was going to clean the place up. Well, all hopes of that went out the window.
She knew the second she saw him.
It looked like Gordon Downing was throwing down some intimidation.
In the audience of reporters, at the meeting area behind the Hoover Building, she saw the now president’s Secret Service agent.
He was watching her.
Up to that moment, she was going to be gentle and not throw kerosene on the already smoldering fire.
Until now.
As he stood there, dressed in regular street clothes, she had no doubt who had sent him. The new man in the Oval Office hadn’t learned anything from his predecessor’s mistakes.
Yeah, it was done.
Oh, she was going to light this town up like the Fourth of July.
There was no doubt in her mind that he had been sent there to relay a clear message.
The White House was watching her.
Fine.
Be ready.
Gabe whispered to her before he began his part of the press conference, once he saw the man in the crowd.
“He’s trying to intimidate you. Don’t let him scare you,” he warned. “We have your back.”
Oh, she was aware.
Well, newsflash.
She wasn’t afraid. She was pissed, and that was the far more dangerous emotion.
“I’m not scared anymore. I’m angry as hell, and I’m not going to take it. For the record, it’s been nice working with you.”
He gave her a fist bump.
Yeah, it really had been.
“I will run interference, Lyzee. Do your job. Do what you’ve worked all these years to do. Make that difference and have faith in your bosses. We have your back.”
It was all she could do.
Like Chris said.
It was about doing the right thing—no matter how bad the potential outcome. It was about Callen, telling her fate was driving the bus.
Yeah, it was time.
Gabe walked to the podium and began talking to the media. The whole time, she was barely listening. The weight of all of their jobs sat on her shoulders, and Elizabeth knew this was part of that make-or-break moment in her career.
Burn out or be ablaze forever?
When the Secret Service agent smiled crassly at her and made an obscene gesture with his tongue, she wasn’t going to back down.
NO.
It stopped today.
Women were not to be intimidated into compliance.
Women were not objects for sexual gratification.
Women were not some pawn to be used in a game.
Women were powerful.
Women were tomorrow’s wave, and she was going to do some massive splashing.
For her daughters, it began with her. For the next generation, she would take that stand. You couldn’t get away with rape in her town.
DC was hers.
She was taking it back.
Elizabeth zoned it all out and focused on Gabe.
“With the update on this case, we have Director Elizabeth Blackhawk, head of the Violent Crimes Unit.”
She heard her name and began walking toward the podium to get it done. All the while, the man watched her, trying to get her attention and make her crack.
She was past that.
This game was coming to an end.
On her terms.
If she was going to lose her job, it was on her terms. If she was going to fail, it was on her terms.
Not his.
Not the president’s.
So, it began.
“Thank you for coming. I know that the impression is that there will be some kind of media block and that we are keeping it hush-hush, but I want you to know that we have been tirelessly working to find the president’s killer. Yes, I’m confirming that he was murdered.”
There were gasps and people shouting questions at her. Only, she shut them down. She was driving this bus to Chaos-ville.
HER.
“My team is on the case. We are pulling the murder apart and will get down to what has happened. We know that you believe there will be some cover-up,” she stated.
They all nodded.
“There will not be. I will not run any investigation like that. I work for the people of the United States of America—not the White House.”
The Secret Service agent looked surprised that she’d stated that outright. He seemed shocked that him making oral sex motions with his mouth didn’t deter her.
He didn’t do his research. They
made her stronger. Whenever someone made her nothing but a sexual object, that gave her the strength to push on.
She wouldn’t back down.
Oh, and this agent was about to be Blackhawked. He hadn’t seen anything yet.
The stage was hers.
She persisted.
“As of this moment, I am here to answer any and all of your questions.”
There was genuine surprise from the audience.
“The ONLY ones I will not answer are the ones that could compromise my investigation, BUT I will do a follow-up interview after this case with someone in this audience to talk about the arrests that have been made.”
Thankfully, none of the reporters from The Lumber Yard were calling her out on that special heads-up.
“So, Director Blackhawk, you’re close?” someone yelled.
“Yes, we are,” she said, putting all of her faith in her team. She didn’t do this alone. They had a great working relationship, and they made her look good. At that moment, they were doing the legwork so she could do her job.
Elizabeth knew she needed to connect with the reporters. She moved to stand alongside the podium, so she would seem more approachable. She’d watched Ethan do that a few times when he was trying to work the crowd.
“Oh, she’s good,” Gabe whispered to him. “Did you coach her?” he asked.
“Nope,” Ethan stated. “She’s just being herself. She knows how to work the room.”
In that moment, he couldn’t have been prouder of his wife. In that moment, she didn’t need them. She had this under control, and she was shining.
Elizabeth had come into her own power and could handle anything.
She glanced over at him, and their eyes met.
I love you, she mouthed.
He placed his hand over his heart. It was the one with his wedding ring.
It said it all.
She got ready.
“In an orderly manner, let’s begin asking questions,” she said, as the media erupted with shouts and raised hands.
She picked one of the reporters in the front.
“Where was the president killed?” he asked. “Did someone breach the White House and get him there?”
She could see the international reporters and she knew this was huge. Elizabeth fought to stay in the moment and ignore the fact that this was make-or-break.
All the King's Henchmen Page 62
