by D. F. Hart
“And how far is it from Junction to Menard?” Nathan asked.
“It’s an hour’s drive,” Annie confirmed once she’d typed in the search on Google Maps.
“Massive evidentiary point,” Nathan summarized. “Put it on the board.”
“Hey guys,” Ben said as he flipped a page. “This guy’s chart describes a scar up under his jaw, just like on the video.”
Ben fell silent as he skimmed further into the patient file from Kimble Hospital.
“Wow,” he croaked. “Nathan. We need to have a doctor examine Grant. Like, yesterday.”
“Why? What’s in that file?”
Ben walked over and handed it to Nathan.
“Right there,” he said, and pointed.
“Holy shit. That’s what we’ve been looking for,” Nathan said, scrambling to his feet. “I need to read in the Director, and after that I need to make some calls. You guys keep going, find as many highlights as you can.”
He all but sprinted out of the room.
***
“I still can’t believe you’re here,” Grant said softly to Kelly as Bernice and the attorney discussed the bail hearing scheduled for eight a.m. the next day.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Kelly answered, and squeezed his hand. “I know you didn’t do this, Grant. We haven’t been together that long, but I know your soul.”
“Of the thousand scenarios in my head, this is definitely not the place I ever thought we’d be in when I told you this,” he said, his eyes shining, “but I need to say it to you now while I can. I love you, Kelly. I fell in love with you the moment I saw you.”
Even as her eyes welled up, she favored him with a beaming smile, her dimples deep on her cheeks.
“I love you too, Grant,” she whispered as she leaned over to kiss him. “I love you, too.”
***
“Yes, sir, I’m sure,” Nathan told the Director.
“When is his bail hearing?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Better get moving then, Agent Thomas.”
“I’m headed there now, sir.”
***
“Any other match points?” Ben said.
“Hmm. We have a witness that said Grant Forrester checked into a cheap motel in Menard, right?” Annie asked.
“Right.”
“But I’ve got a receipt from an upscale hotel just off the square,” Lizzie pointed out. “Same day. Why the two rooms?”
“Hey,” Annie blurted, “On that note, let’s talk about San Angelo. One eyewitness says Grant checked into a hotel the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day.”
Lizzie cross-checked. “Nope. I have receipts where Grant stayed in a bed-and-breakfast in San Angelo. He didn’t check in until Sunday.”
“What about other receipts for Thanksgiving Day?”
“Hang on, let me look... nothing on Thanksgiving Day. But I do have a gas receipt from Saturday morning, up in Jacksboro.”
Ben frowned. “Okay... Abilene. Let’s look at that trip.”
***
The guard escorted him to visiting room three, and Nathan was surprised to find Grant had a room full of company when he arrived.
The attorney immediately stood up and stood in Nathan’s path.
“This is an attorney-client meeting. You can’t be here.”
Nathan held up his hands to stop the man. “Can we step outside for a moment, Counselor? There’s been a development.”
“What’s going on, Agent Thomas?” Grant asked. “And why step outside? Say it here.”
“Grant-” the attorney began but was waved off.
“Go ahead,” Grant said firmly to Nathan.
“Some things have surfaced that support my theory that another individual is responsible for the murders,” Nathan said simply. “Being examined by a doctor, on the record, will help verify that. But I can’t force you.”
“Done,” Grant’s response was immediate. “Get a physician in here. We can do it right now, if you want.”
“The sooner the better,” Nathan agreed. “Especially since if my hunch is right, you won’t have to have your bail hearing in the morning.”
***
An hour later Grant was in the jail’s infirmary, where a licensed physician performed a complete physical examination. He was then escorted back to his cell.
“I’ll have my formal report to you within the next two hours, Agent Thomas,” the doctor said as he stepped out into the hallway. “But unofficially? I can state with one hundred percent certainty that the patient I just examined is most definitely not the same man that was treated down at Kimble.”
“Thanks, Doc. I appreciate the expediency.”
“You bet.”
Nathan left the building and started toward his car, pulling out his cell phone to make a call as he walked.
But he was stopped short.
“Agent Thomas?” a voice called out from his left.
He turned and saw Bernice Forrester and Kelly Moore coming toward him.
“Sir, I’d like to speak with you. May we come to your office?” Bernice asked, a calm authority in her tone.
“Yes, ma’am, that would be fine. I can give you a lift or you can follow me over there.”
“We’ll drive ourselves. Lead the way.”
***
Thirty minutes later Kelly and Bernice had been assigned visitor’s badges and were stepping out of the elevator at the eighth floor.
“Right this way, ladies,” Nathan gestured toward the smaller of the two conference rooms.
“You don’t understand, Agent Thomas,” Bernice said, laying her hand on his forearm. “I need to speak with you, and only you. Privately, please.”
She turned to Kelly. “Would you mind waiting out here, dear?”
“Not at all,” Kelly responded, and smiled.
“Would either of you like something to drink?” he asked. “There’s a breakroom right here, with a coffeemaker and tons of supplies.”
“I’ll grab a coffee. Bernice, would you like one?”
“I’m fine at the moment, Kelly. But thanks. This shouldn’t take long.”
***
Kelly wandered into the breakroom as Nathan and Bernice continued on to his office and shut the door behind them.
A few moments later Lizzie entered the breakroom to refill her mug.
“Hello,” she said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize anyone was here. Have you been helped?”
“Hi. I’m good,” the young woman answered. “Just enjoying some coffee while I wait.”
Lizzie grinned. “It’s the nectar of life.”
The woman grinned back. “I believe you’re right.”
“I’m Agent Zimmerman, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Kelly,” came the answer. “Kelly Moore.”
The woman Grant Forrester is seeing... Why is she in our breakroom? Lizzie asked herself.
Kelly noticed her furrowed brows. “I’m here with Bernice Forrester,” she explained. “She’s just gone in to speak to Agent Thomas.”
“Oh,” Lizzie responded. “Okay. Um, can I get you anything?”
“Nope. Found the nectar. All is well at the moment.”
***
Once he’d closed the door, Nathan opted to sit in the visitor’s chair next to Bernice rather than behind his desk.
Less formal – and intimidating, he reasoned.
“Mrs. Forrester,” he began politely, “how may I help you?”
“Take lots of notes,” she replied, “because what I’m about to tell you could blow your investigation wide open.”
Twenty minutes later she’d finished speaking, and Nathan sat, stunned, his brain reeling with the implications of what Bernice Forrester had just shared with him.
“And the proof of all this is...”
“In my safety deposit box that I opened in Fort Worth years ago, before we moved to Jacksboro.”
She reached into her purse and retrieved an envelope that she handed to him
.
“There’s the address and the key, Agent Thomas,” she said. “Along with a notarized letter authorizing you to access it on my behalf. Go see for yourself.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Nathan walked his visitors all the way down to the front door of the building.
“Kelly has to head back up to Jacksboro, she has to work in the morning. But I’m staying at Trish’s place for the next couple of days, should you need to reach me, Agent Thomas,” Bernice said as she extended her hand to him in farewell. “Call if you need anything at all.”
He watched them walk back to Kelly’s car. Once they’d left the lot, he retreated to the eighth-floor conference room.
“Gang, there has been a massive development,” he shared with his team. “One that will, with luck, help lead us straight to our killer. Lizzie, you’re with me. We need to make a trip over to Fort Worth. Ben, keep an eye out for the physician’s report. As soon as we get it, we need to start the ball rolling to get Grant brought over here. Annie, pop in and check on Rick, please; make sure he has everything he needs. We’ll reconvene in here once Lizzie and I get back.”
***
As they put their seatbelts on Lizzie asked, “Where are we going?”
Nathan told her about the safety deposit box.
“And why are we going to go open it, exactly?”
Nathan read her in.
“What?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Exactly.”
“That could explain every bit of this,” she pointed out.
“I know.”
“Do Trish and Joe know?”
“No. At least, I don’t think so. Pretty sure Trish would have mentioned it during our conversation if she did,” he confirmed, “and as far as I am concerned, they won’t unless it becomes absolutely necessary. It’s not my story to tell.”
“I met Kelly Moore in the breakroom,” Lizzie said to change topics. “I don’t know if you noticed or not, but her and Annie are the same height and build and bear a resemblance to each other. No one would confuse them up close, but from a distance, it could work. Might be some room there for a bait-and-switch, if it comes to it, to lure the killer out.”
As the light turned red, Nathan stepped on the brake and turned to look at Lizzie.
“Way ahead of you,” he responded. “I’d already planned on doing exactly that.”
“You think Annie’s up for it?”
“She blew a tire at seventy miles an hour and didn’t even blink, to hear Ben tell it,” Nathan quipped, and chuckled. “Something tells me she’ll do just fine.”
***
By the time they returned to the office, Rick had joined Annie and Ben in the conference room.
“What’d you find?” Nathan asked him.
“Almost all of it,” Rick revealed. “I’m tracing back through to the origin point of the hack. The program’s running as we speak. I’ve already set up a double blind, so that he only sees and hears what we want him to – namely, that Grant’s car is parked in the driveway of his mother’s house in Jacksboro. Once my program is done, I’m going to plant a vine.”
“Plant a vine?”
“Reverse the hack so that we get all his data, in addition to pinpointing his exact location.”
“Won’t he know you’re tracing him?”
“You want tech-speak, or a simple answer?”
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “You already know the answer to that.”
“Fine,” Rick laughed. “The simple answer is ‘no’. He will have no idea what’s up.”
“Really? Nice. That could play very well into what I’m planning to do next.”
“You should have seen the way the IT crew were hanging on every single thing Rick said and did, Nathan,” Annie chimed in. “It was like watching a rock star in the supermarket.”
“I bet. I keep telling him that if he gets bored selling books, he’s got an open invitation to join my team anytime.”
“Nope, not interested,” Rick retorted with a friendly nudge. “Super content with life as is.”
“I’ll wear him down eventually,” Nathan joked to his team members before he got back to business. “Ben, any word on the doctor’s report?”
“It came in not even five minutes ago.”
“Excellent timing. You and Annie go pick Grant up and bring him here, please. I’ll fill the Director in and have him call ahead to the jail. He’ll be able to get everything against Grant dropped more quickly than I will anyway.”
“I’ll be in the lab checking status of the program,” Rick said, and headed out the door after Annie and Ben.
Nathan turned to Lizzie after they’d gone.
“Start working on the forms we need to submit to the court for that stuff,” he said, referring to the data they’d collected from opening Bernice’s deposit box. “Once they’re solid, we’ll let the Director take it from there.”
“On it.”
***
By six p.m. Rick was standing in Nathan’s doorway.
“The program is still working through its tasks,” he announced. “I’ve set up a notification on my phone. If anything pops, I’ll let you know, but I’m heading out.”
“Can you swing being here at eight in the morning?”
“You going to have breakfast of some sort?”
“I think I can probably rummage up some pastries or donuts or something, yes.”
“Then I’ll be here. You’re gonna go home and see Bella and Charlie at some point tonight, right?”
“Works for me,” Nathan agreed. “And yes, I’m not far behind you. Night, Rick. See you tomorrow.
***
Ten minutes later Ben appeared and showed Grant Forrester into Nathan’s office.
“I’ll be at my desk, boss,” Ben said, and Nathan shook his head.
“Just give me a couple of minutes here, and then you can go home, okay?”
“Sure. Holler when you’re done.” And Ben headed to the breakroom.
“There are some things I can’t share with you right now,” Nathan began once he and Grant were alone, “but what I can tell you is, you have a stalker, Grant.”
“A stalker? What do you mean?”
“Someone went to a great deal of trouble to bug your car with audio and video and put a tracking device on it. That same person hacked your desktop unit, your laptop, and your cell phone. I believe it’s the same man who rented a gray four-door car in your name. I don’t know yet who he is, but we’re working on it.”
Grant frowned as he absorbed everything he’d just heard.
“You think he’ll try to hurt Kelly?” he managed after several minutes.
“I do,” Nathan confirmed, “and I think he’ll try to do it up at Fort Richardson, probably when the July fourth festivities are happening.”
Grant’s shoulders straightened as a blaze of anger crept into his dark brown eyes.
“You tell me where I need to be and what I need to do, Agent Thomas, and I will help you nail this bastard. He’s not getting within a mile of Kelly if I have anything to say about it.”
“The single biggest thing you can do to help us is to convince Kelly to let my agent take her place when the time comes,” Nathan told him. “We’re going to set a trap for this guy, but I don’t want Kelly in the middle of it.”
“I can do that,” Grant assured him. “I can keep her far away from the whole damn town, if necessary. She can stay with Aunt Trish and Uncle Joe. She’ll be safe there.”
“Good,” Nathan said. “When is her next day off?”
“Monday. At least, that’s the last I knew. Then again, she was supposed to be working today but she showed up down here with Mom, so...”.
“We’ll figure it out. I’m going to send you back to the hotel that you stayed in the other night, and I’m sending two agents with you to watch over you. Get a good night’s sleep. We have a lot of planning to do.”
“Agent Thomas,” Grant said as he stood. “I just want you to kn
ow, I understand. I mean, being locked up sucked, and I was terrified at the prospect of spending the rest of my life in prison for things I didn’t do. But I know you didn’t have a choice at the time.”
Nathan’s expression softened. “I’m sorry that had to happen, Grant. I really am. And I hope it didn’t cause long-term problems for you.”
“Will my arrest record be expunged?”
“I’ll make sure of it.”
“Ben,” Nathan called out as he walked Grant out to the hall.
“Yo.”
“Who’s on tonight?”
“Davis, Barker, Calloway, Evans, and Womack.”
“Go tell Womack and Calloway to come see me on your way out. Meeting tomorrow at eight a.m. in the conference room.”
“You got it, boss.”
***
It was almost seven when Lizzie walked into Nathan’s office.
“Here,” Lizzie said as she handed Nathan the documents that he’d asked her to build. “Let me know if I need to change something.”
“I will. In the morning,” he replied. “If Annie’s still here, tell her to go home, too. We’ll meet up again at eight a.m. to get started. I have a plan that I will present to everyone in the morning, and then we’ll get moving on it. July fourth is only a week away.”
“Who’s guarding Grant?”
“Womack and Calloway.”
Lizzie grinned. “At least he won’t be bored. Those two are hilarious. See you in the morning, Nathan.”
***
“Are you all right?” Trish asked from the doorway of the guest room.
Bernice sighed. “I suppose. I’m just glad it seems to be coming to an end. Hopefully, he’ll be released soon.”
Trish came and sat beside her on the edge of the bed.
“Bernice,” she said softly. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Bernice shook her head. “Now’s not the time. Once this is over, okay? We’ll talk then.”
“Okay. Just know I’m here for you, Bernie.”
“I know, Trish. I know.”
***
Once again Lizzie returned home to a kitchen full of mouthwatering smells.
“Hey, honey,” she called out to Donny as she moved toward their room to change into her sweatpants and a t-shirt.
“Hi. Glad you’re home safe, I can open this now,” Donny said, holding up a bottle of wine.
