Saint whistled.
“Yeah, look familiar?” she asked.
Yes, it did.
There, on the floor, was Alfie Steiner, and she’d had her face beaten in. It was the same MO, it was someone attached to this case, and they had another victim.
“Someone is cleaning up,” Callen stated.
Yeah, she was aware.
It looked like they had one more victim from the dead president’s jackassery.
Elizabeth pulled out her phone and made the call.
The clock was ticking.
And she knew who was next.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Crime Scene
Thirty Minutes
Later
When he showed up, the techs were in tow. Chris also had his security guy with him. It looked like Ethan and Gabe were not messing around. Anyone working this case was going to have that extra layer of protection, and she was glad.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Chris said, smiling at her. In his hand, he had a kit.
“Yeah, well, we really have a mess. It looks like our killer is really cleaning house. Her face is…gone.”
Chris followed her to the door, leaving his security guy to stay outside the house to watch their perimeter.
“How bad?”
She laughed.
“I only knew it was her because of that birthmark on her neck. If not for that…”
“That bad, huh?”
They reached the body.
He whistled.
“Someone was pissed.”
Yeah, she was aware.
“I normally ride your ass, but I just don’t have that kind of time,” she stated. “I know who is next, and I have to get to her.”
“Uh, okay. What can I give you to help?”
“Noah said he talked to her yesterday. I need you to confirm her TOD. I need to make sure he’s not lying to me.”
He lifted a brow.
“You think he’s lying?”
Elizabeth shook her head.
“No, but I have to check. I can see the blood pooling in the back of her skin. I can tell she’s been lying in that position for a while. I just need to cover my bases.”
He understood.
They’d been screwed over by someone posing as a tech. They had to cross every T, and he got that.
Pulling on his gloves, Chris grabbed his liver probe and got down to business.
He did the math.
Before he could say anything, she pulled out her phone and made a call.
“Special Agent Stokes,” Noah stated.
“Hey, when did you interview Alfie?” she asked, putting it on speaker.
He thought about it and gave her a time.
“Then I came back in, and we met.”
She looked at Chris. He gave her the thumbs up, telling her he was good to go.
“Okay, well, she’s dead.”
“What?”
“Yeah, she’s dead. I need you guys to really up your work on this. The killer is cleaning up, and she’s been dead since yesterday. We only have one left.”
He understood.
“Tiegan Blackett?”
“Yeah, I’m heading there next. If you guys find anything, call me ASAP. We are running out of time.”
“Got it, boss.”
She hung up.
“Okay, tell me.”
Chris knew what she needed. He stood.
“Don’t get accustomed to this,” he stated. “If you do, you will be greatly disappointed.”
Then he began.
“TOD is going to be about one hour after Noah did his interview. That’s give or take thirty minutes. She was inside her house, and the air conditioning is on. That will play with it a little.”
“What else?”
“COD won’t be able to be determined yet. Remember our one happy hooker had drowned in her own blood. I can’t give you that unless I open her up. I can tell you that from the angle of the lines beat into her skull, you have your righty.”
She smiled.
“Again, don’t get accustomed to it,” he warned. “I mean it. This was a onetime deal.”
She gave him a kiss.
Chris didn’t fight it. Instead, he let himself think about all those years ago.
When she set his mouth free, she patted his cheek.
“Smart men are always sexy.”
She went to leave.
“Wait!”
It stopped her.
“What?”
“Be careful! You are wearing that target until this is solved. The person who did this was just as angry as the person who killed the president. You have two killers. Watch your back.”
She winked at him.
“Darlin’, don’t I always?”
“Remember the Tunnel of Love killer?” he asked. “Remember how that nearly ended?”
She blew him a kiss.
“Doc, how can I forget? We made out on that ride. It’s one of my favorite memories.”
With that, she headed out, and Chris got to work. Outside, she motioned toward Callen.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “Do we have TOD? Is Noah in the clear?” he asked.
She loved this man.
He knew her so damn well.
“Yeah, he is. It happened right after he left. Someone was sitting on her house. We have to get to Tiegan’s home and scoop her up.”
“You think she’s next?”
She laughed.
“And you don’t? I’d be shocked if she wasn’t,” Elizabeth admitted.
Callen followed her to their ride.
“Well, this takes care of one of our couples. Tiegan Blackett and Alfie Steiner were in the running. I guess they didn’t kill the president and try to clean up the Secret Service’s mess.”
Yeah, it was looking that way.
Only, sometimes, things were different than they looked.
“Let’s get to her and go from there.”
She gave Ivan the address.
“Step on it. If she’s dead…?”
Callen knew what she was thinking. They were behind on this one, and apparently, Alfie knew something.
Tiegan likely did too.
She’d stolen that page from Alex’s notebook. There had to be a reason. Why did she want that list of Secret Service agents’ names?
When they got to her, that was going to be the million-dollar question. She was the last link. She was in the center of this somehow. She was in charge of the president’s Secret Service. There was no way she didn’t know what had gone down.
No.
Freaking.
Way.
It was time to rattle her cage.
If she was alive.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Violent Crimes Unit
Office
Thirty Minutes Later
They were doing everything that she’d asked them to do. Max and Harmony were working on Rutherford Carter’s life, along with his woman, Senator Hilda Forbes, too.
Beside them, Noah and Alex were working on digging through Marcus Hunter’s life to lockdown anything odd. Harmony had called around, and she’d tried to get them some good intel, but they both knew this was going to be made by research.
The team was getting frustrated.
It was clear that this was not working for them. They needed something.
Everyone looked squeaky clean.
“What if it’s none of them?” Harmony asked. “What if these four couples aren’t involved, and we can’t pin them down?”
That was a very good possibility.
“Then our unit is done,” Alex stated. “Elizabeth threw it all into the game today, and if we don’t close this, the president will be vindicated. We can point our fingers all we want, but unless we can prove it…?”
“I like my job better,” Harmony stated. “We just chase. I don’t like having to prove it.”
Max laughed.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” she stated.
Oh, he was aware.
“She’ll find the reasoning,” Noah stated. “We just keep digging, and we don’t stop. Now that Alfie is dead, it makes it harder.”
He was right.
Did Tiegan off her as she kept tying off those loose ends?
That was going to be the big question.
When the door to their office opened, in came Ethan Blackhawk with an evidence bag.
“Uh, presents?” Alex asked.
He smiled.
“Well, I pulled a few strings right after the press conference, and a very big favor netted you something.”
“What?” Alex asked.
“This.”
He held the bag up and in it was a phone.
“Who’s gear?” Noah asked. “It’s fancy like the one you and the boss lady have. It has to be someone pretty high up the food chain.”
“It’s the DOJ’s phone. It belongs to Rutherford Carter.”
They all stared at him.
“Are you serious?” Alex asked.
“Yes. Like I said, Gabe and I will clear the way. You find the killer.”
He handed it to him.
“I can have a tech here if you can’t pull the intel,” Ethan offered.
Oh, Alex didn’t need a tech. In Cyber Crimes, he’d seen it done plenty of times.
“I have this.”
He pulled a cable out of his tablet case and attached it to the phone. Then, he hit a program. On the wall, MATE scrolled through the details, uploading information for them.
“I believe Elizabeth said that Rutherford only left the house once on Saturday. Can you pinpoint it?” Ethan asked.
Alex got to work.
Using the program on the tablet, he pulled up the man’s GPS.
“Okay, that’s where he was.”
“Can you give us more on that location?” Harmony stated. “Is it anywhere near the White House?” she asked.
He input the coordinates, and MATE pulled up the information.
“It’s pretty far from there,” Alex said. “Sorry, but he didn’t go anywhere near the president on his last day alive. I can give you the owner’s name,” he offered. “Maybe that will help.”
“Do it,” Ethan stated.
He ran it.
“It’s owned by a Thomas and Sally Maloney,” he began. “They’ve owned it, according to the deed, for at least twenty-eight years.”
Ethan stopped him.
“Why does that name sound familiar?” Ethan asked, staring at the whiteboard.
There were names on it, but not that name. Maybe he was mistaken.
“You’ve heard it before?” Harmony asked. “Are you sure?” she asked.
Oh, he was good with names. Ethan could name every agent he’d ever worked with by facial recognition alone.
“Yeah, run it. I want to know everything about it. Rutherford said it was his niece’s birthday. Tell me about the family.”
They ran it.
Max had the information first.
“Thomas and Sally Maloney are big time donors to the president’s political party. He owns a tech company, and she’s a stay at home mom—but she’s politically active. She runs Million Mom’s Against Illicit Acts.”
Oh, he’d heard of it.
“What else?”
“They have two kids,” Max stated. “One is Griffin, age twenty-six, and then Mabel, age nine.”
Ethan stared at them.
Why did he know that name?
“I came across Maloney in her notes. I’m sure of it. While I was doing her profile, she gave me copies of everything. MATE call Eagle Two.”
The system ran, and within seconds, her face appeared on the screen.
“Yo! I’m just about to bum rush Tiegan’s home. What’s up?”
“We managed to get our hands on Rutherford’s phone from the DOJ. We ran it.”
She waited.
“Okay, and please tell me that he’s is our killer. This will make my day.”
Yeah, he couldn’t do that.
“He didn’t lie. He was at a party, and his GPS didn’t show him leaving,” Alex stated.
“Well, shit.”
“BUT,” Ethan began.
“What?”
“The owners of the house were Thomas and Sally Maloney,” Ethan stated.
“Okay, and?”
“I saw that last name in your notes. I’m sure of it. When I did the profile, it was there. Who did you interview with the last name Maloney?”
She stared at him.
It took a second.
“Oh, shit!”
“Who?” Ethan asked. The not knowing was killing him.
“The First Daughter’s Secret Service agent. His name is Griffin Maloney.”
“BINGO,” Harmony stated. “Guess who is Rutherford’s nephew? His sister’s son, Griffin.”
“Well, this is interesting,” she stated. “Ethan, call him. Ask him if he mentioned the rape to his nephew.”
He knew where she was taking this.
Blackhawk pulled out his phone and had to call the DOJ office. Since they had Rutherford’s phone, he would have to wait. It took a few minutes.
“Rutherford Carter,” he stated. “What can I do for you?”
“Mr. Carter, it’s Ethan Blackhawk.”
There was a pause.
“Yes? I assume you got my phone.”
“We have,” Ethan said, trying to remain calm. This was huge, and he knew it. They were on the cusp. “I have one question, and that’s all.”
“Uh, if it’s classified, I can’t answer. You may have gotten a judge to confiscate my phone, but I’m under no…”
Elizabeth looked impatient. On the screen, she tapped her watch.
Ethan got it.
“It’s actually about your time at your niece’s birthday party,” Ethan offered.
He sounded perplexed.
“Oh, well, okay then.”
“You went there a day after finding out your girlfriend was assaulted, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Who did you tell?” he asked.
There was a pause.
“I don’t think I told anyone,” he stated. “Well, that’s not true. I was pissed. I wanted to head there and kick the hell out of the man.”
Ethan waited.
“Who did you tell?”
“My nephew Griffin was there. He works for the Secret Service. He actually asked me about Hilda. He asked if she was all right. He’s the only one I talked to about the whole thing.”
And there it was. They had more than one thread connecting the man.
“What else?”
“He said that he heard she left upset, and he was sorry that she’d been hurt.”
That hung there.
“Wait…”
Ethan knew that the man was smart enough to put it together. He knew that Rutherford didn’t work for the DOJ because he was handsome. He was intelligent.
“You think that he…?”
Blackhawk cut him off, but before he could ask anything more, it was Elizabeth who chimed in.
“Rutherford, what’s his attachment to the First Lady?” she asked, already knowing where to take this.
“He’s not. He’s attached to Graycie Dean. He’s always with her during the day. Well, except Saturday when he was at the party.”
“Are they close?” she asked.
He didn’t say anything.
“Rutherford, you know where my wife is taking this. You can get behind it, or you can stand in front of it,” Ethan stated. “You saw the press conference. I will bet your bosses want the truth. If you try to stop my wife, or interfere, I will end your career.”
That said it all.
“He’s in love with her. They are an off the record couple until she turns eighteen.”
And there it was.
That would be why Tiegan stole that page. It was a list of Secret Servi
ce agents. Clearly, his name had been on it.
She knew.
“Thank you.”
Ethan hung up and stared at his wife’s face on the screen. From the look of disgust, she was thinking the same thing.
“I’m missing something,” Noah stated. “What?”
“He molested his daughter,” Elizabeth stated. “I’m willing to bet she was his victim. She’s the unknown woman.”
They all sat there in horror.
“Jesus,” muttered Harmony. “A rapist, a child molester, and the President of the United States. This is bad.”
Oh, they were aware.
Elizabeth looked away from her phone as someone was talking to her.
“Ethan, can you make sure my team does the legwork and gets the papers ready for the DOJ? Tiegan Blackett is heading out, and I need to speak to her.”
“Do you think she knew?” Harmony asked.
Alex did.
“My list. He was at the party that night.”
Elizabeth was aware.
“Yeah, I do. I’m going to get the information. Harmony, suit up. If we’re going to arrest him, you get to do the deed with me. Interdepartmental cooperation—and all.”
She was so grateful because she knew it was more than that. This would put it to rest.
It was closure.
“Thank you, Elizabeth.”
She understood.
“I’ll check-in.”
With that, the screen went blank.
Ethan knew what he had to do.
It was time to lock down the details.
“Build the case,” he said, taking a seat behind his wife’s desk. He watched them work.
He couldn’t be prouder.
She’d chosen well, and this unit…it was going places. Ethan would bet money on it.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Tiegan Blackett’s
Home
As she headed down her sidewalk, they met her at her car. When she saw them, she genuinely looked confused as to why they were there.
“What do you want? You’ve burned your connection to the White House. The president has ordered that we don’t even look at you.”
Oh, Elizabeth wasn’t worried.
“That’s the least of your issues.”
All the King's Henchmen Page 64
