Major Crimes

by Janie Crouch

It was time to catch a killer.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Cain, I’ve got something.”

  It was the next morning. Hayley had insisted on working all night after they’d returned from seeing Mason. He’d tried to talk her into stopping for rest, or even other things, but she was moving forward with a purpose now.

  He could only admire it.

  Her program was still narrowing CET exam takers in foreign countries. The first round of results had given them a group of suspects too broad, so she’d had to reset the parameters and run it again.

  “CET case or the mole?” he asked.

  “Mole. I’ve got a name.”

  “What?” Cain rushed to her side now.

  She grimaced. “Not a real name, unfortunately. I’ve just discovered he calls himself Fawkes.”

  “Fawkes? As in Guy Fawkes, the British guy who attempted to blow up the government a couple hundred years ago?”

  “I would assume so, especially based on what I found.”

  He sat down next to her. “Show me.”

  “It doesn’t help with identification, but it’s definitely something set up by him. Or her. And it wasn’t meant to be found. At least not this early.”

  “What is it?”

  She brought up a picture on a screen, with the name of a file.

  Manifesto of Change.

  “What the hell?” Hayley opened the file and Cain began to read.

  “‘On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character or the public trust.

  “‘I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions.

  “‘I will always uphold the constitution, my community and the agency I serve.’”

  Cain looked over at her. “That’s the Oath of Honor law enforcement officers take at their swearing-in ceremony.” He continued reading out loud.

  “‘We all took an oath to uphold the law, but instead we have allowed the public to make a mockery of it. Where is the honor, the integrity, the character in not using the privilege and power given to us by our training and station to wipe clean those who would infect our society? We were meant to rise up, to be an example to the people, to control them when needed in order to make a more perfect civilization.

  “‘But we are weak. Afraid of popular opinion whenever force must be used. So now we have changed the configuration of law enforcement forever.

  “‘And now, only now, will you truly understand what it means to hold yourselves accountable for your actions. Only with death is life truly appreciated. Only with violence can true change be propagated. As we build anew, let us not make the same mistakes. Let the badge mean something again.

  “‘Let the badge rule as it was meant to do.’”

  Cain stared at the screen, reading the manifesto again silently before whistling through his teeth. “That’s some pretty extreme stuff. Calling for a police state. For a law enforcement ruling class.”

  Hayley nodded. “And history wasn’t my best subject, but it’s pretty ironic that the mole chose the name Fawkes. Fawkes was trying to destroy the government to give the people more power.”

  “This guy is doing the exact opposite.” Cain read the words again. “Can you tell when it’s set to release?”

  “I’m trying to nail down the date, but I can’t. But it’s for soon, Cain.” Her brows knitted. “Maybe even in the next couple of weeks.”

  Cain cursed under his breath. “Who will it release to?”

  “Everyone at Omega Sector, for sure.” She typed a few commands into the keyboard and a flowchart came up on the second screen. “And it looks like it is set to then automatically forward to every other law enforcement agency Omega Sector is connected to.”

  “After some huge, violent event that we don’t know.”

  “That obviously targets law enforcement in some way.” She bit her lip. “And worse, because I know you’re close with Ashton and some of the others, but this message is linked to someone on the Omega SWAT team.”

  Cain’s curse was even more foul. “How certain are you?”

  “Given the fact that the mole doesn’t know I’m in the system? Almost completely.”

  “Do you know who?”

  “No, because the mole routed the information through almost every login ID on the SWAT team. Which was smart. Implicates everyone.”

  Cain thought of John Carnell and Saul Poniard, both of whom had caught his attention when he’d first been brought in for investigation. Carnell was a genius and definitely had the ability to do the computer dirty work Hayley was suggesting. Poniard was a power-hungry SWAT wannabe who had been reprimanded more than once for unnecessary use of force.

  “There’s only one SWAT team member whose ID wasn’t used in the routing,” Hayley said. “Someone named Muir. I don’t know why. He might’ve just been overlooked or it’s possible that Muir was skipped on purpose. Given that we accessed this information before the traitor meant to send it, I would start investigating this guy Muir as soon as possible.”

  “Gal.”

  “What?”

  “Lillian Muir is a woman. The only female on the SWAT team.”

  And another one who’d been on top of Cain’s suspicious pile. Given her history that she’d gone through so much trouble to hide, this Manifesto of Change could definitely be her brainchild.

  Cain stood. “I’ve got to get this information to Steve so we can run it against upcoming events and possible terrorist attacks.”

  “Okay. I’ll just keep working here. I should be able to manually eliminate some of these CET suspects my program is red-flagging.”

  Cain hesitated for just a second. He would be leaving her here, unprotected, knowing that the mole—Fawkes—was also in this building and would kill her if given a chance.

  Also knowing he would be leaving her here with full, unfettered access to a computer.

  But damn it, he needed to get this info to Steve, so he could begin making contingencies. That couldn’t be done here.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’ll be back soon. Stay in here and keep the door locked.”

  Hayley’s look was shuttered as she turned back to her computer. Obviously his hesitation hadn’t been lost on her. Tension knotted Cain’s shoulders as he walked to the outer door. There never seemed to be any easy solutions when he was with Hayley.

  He turned back before he left. “It’s your safety I’m concerned about, too. Okay?”

  “But it’s also about what you’re afraid I might do while you’re gone.”

  “I’m leaving you here so I’m obviously not that afraid.” And he realized it was true. He would prefer it if he could stay by her side every time she was at a computer, since that’s what he’d agreed to in the original parole easement agreement. But it was more because he wanted to be able to say he’d lived up to his end of the agreement than it was because he thought she was going to do something bad if left unsupervised.

  She nodded, looking back at him. “Fair enough.”

  Fair enough.

  That was just it, wasn’t it? He and Hayley had to figure out their balance together. What was fair. What they wanted. How they fit together.

  Cain walked back over to Hayley and leaned down to her. He cupped her face and brought his lips to the generous curves of her mouth. What he’d meant as a light kiss turned deeper. A fire licked at them both, and when he pulled away they both were breathing heavily.

  “We have things to work out. And we will,” he said.

  “Everything feels so shaky sometimes.”

  He nipped at her bottom lip. “That kiss didn’t feel shaky.”

  Her soft, sweet laugh wrapped its way around his heart. “No, it sure didn’t.”

  He straightened and turned back toward the door. He really did need to get this Manife
sto of Change info to Steve immediately.

  “I’ll be back soon. Stay out of trouble.”

  * * *

  HAYLEY BROKE THE order to stay out of trouble in the worst possible way. Fortified with another mug of coffee, she dived into the CET case. She found a pattern an hour later. Confirmed it long after that.

  Ran it one more time to be sure.

  She shot back from her computer as if that would protect her from the information. She’d known it was someone pretty powerful who was selling the secrets. But she’d had no idea the link between the buyers would be a US senator.

  Not only that, Senator Ralph Nelligar had been one of most vocal detractors of the CET exam system over the years. He was one of the people who had called for a speedy trial of the hackers, arguing that this sort of electronic exposure was what he’d been afraid of from the beginning.

  Proving that Senator Nelligar was the one selling state secrets by using the test would be almost impossible. All Hayley had right now were vague links between his office and questionable people who’d taken the CET on foreign soil. Definitely not enough to convict the senator. Hayley was lucky she had someone like Cain who believed her at all.

  Even worse, the senator had the resources to find Hayley and Mason, no matter where they hid. He was obviously the one behind making her parole documents disappear from the system and her rapid rearrest and arraignment. Hayley wouldn’t be able to outrun him and his resources.

  Maybe—maybe—Hayley might be able to build up enough evidence of the situation to scare the senator into stopping his actions. But she doubted she’d ever be able to prove it was him. Especially now that he knew she was the one who knew his secret. Cain wouldn’t be able to help, either.

  She was still just staring blankly at the screen, trying to figure out what in the world she was going to do, when Cain returned. She had no idea how long he’d been gone.

  He took one look at her face and sat in the chair beside her. “What?”

  She told him what she’d discovered. That all the paths were leading back to Senator Nelligar.

  His low curse pretty much echoed everything she felt about the situation.

  “I know,” she whispered. “I know this is a lot and your plate is already full with what we found out about Fawkes. I just don’t know what to do.”

  Cain rubbed the back of his neck. “We’ll see if we can figure out some way to set a trap.”

  Hayley nodded, but she doubted the senator would be dumb enough to fall for one. Not knowing she was looking for him.

  “Meanwhile,” Cain continued, “we’re going to need to put you and Mason into protective custody.”

  “Last I checked, law enforcement wouldn’t put a known fugitive in protective custody.”

  “Yeah, we’ll have to work around that. I’ll talk to Steve. We can work something out, even if it’s temporary. But for right now, at least for a few days, you, Mason and Ariel are safe at Ashton and Summer’s place. You have no ties to them and there’s no official record of it.”

  “Yeah, we definitely need to remember that whoever is doing Senator Nelligar’s electronic dirty work is good. Very good.”

  “As good as you?”

  “Maybe.” She shrugged a shoulder wearily. “The point is, we should work under the assumption that nearly any information put into a networked computer can be hacked by Senator Nelligar.”

  Cain nodded. “Got it.”

  “I should do more work now, but it seems pointless until I come up with some sort of plan.”

  He slipped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple. “We know who the bad guy is. That gives us a huge upper hand. Now we just need to wait for him to make a mistake, or even better, do something to cause him to rush into one.”

  “But I don’t know what that is.” Her brain was tired. She needed to get away from screens and keyboards. “Let me go rest in the apartment. That will help.”

  “How about if I take you to Summer and Ashton’s. Be with Mason and Ariel. Get rest there.” He held out a hand. “And before you even think it, this is not about not trusting you. You need a break from this.”

  She reached her hand up to twine her fingers with his. “What about you? You need a break, too.”

  “And I’ll get one. Just not yet. Not with what you found about Fawkes and his damned manifesto.”

  “What did Steve think?”

  “Same as us. That Fawkes has a big explosion planned and that this is his love letter regarding it. Problem is, without knowing who Fawkes is, we can’t get as many agents focused on this as we normally would.”

  “Too big a chance of us tipping him off that we’re onto him. I’m sorry I couldn’t get a positive ID. He, or she, is pretty clever.”

  Cain trailed his fingers down her cheek and she couldn’t help but lean into the touch slightly. “What you found is going to save a lot of lives. You take a break. Let Steve and me do some work. You can come back tomorrow and look at it all with fresh eyes.”

  Hayley prayed it would make a difference.

  Chapter Twenty

  Cain had been right: everything seemed not so overwhelming when she woke the next day, after ten hours of sleep, Mason running in to ask if she wanted pancakes.

  “Kiss first,” she said.

  He scrunched up his little face, but then kissed her before running back into the kitchen. Hayley could hear Ariel and Summer in there with him and Chloe.

  She got dressed and ran a brush through her hair—good thing about prison had been the elimination of a lot of unnecessary beauty habits—checked the dressing on her wound, and made her way out to help.

  “There she is, just in time!” Ariel gave her a huge smile. “You look so much better.”

  “Thanks. I feel it. Looks like a feast in here.”

  Summer grinned. “We had two aspiring chefs.” She set out a tray of pancakes and put Chloe into her high chair. Hayley helped Mason into his booster seat.

  “Ashton’s not here?” she asked.

  “No, he got called in to work.” Summer gave her a direct look. “A project only certain people can work on.”

  So he was helping Steve and Cain with the info about Fawkes. Good. They needed all the people they could trust working on this.

  It was only a few minutes later when Summer’s cell phone rang. After talking into it for just a minute she handed it to Hayley.

  “Cain wants to talk to you.”

  She took it. “Hello?”

  “We’ve got to get you your own phone. I’ve got to get a new one, too. This burner has outlived its purpose.”

  “Yeah. There’s a lot I need to start thinking about if we’re going to be here long-term.”

  “I know you’re supposed to have a full twenty-four hours off, but we think we might be onto something and I was wondering if you could come in.”

  “Sure.”

  “Okay,” he said. “I’ll be there to get you in about forty-five minutes.”

  “Why don’t I just drive if Summer doesn’t mind my borrowing her car?” Summer nodded from across the table, giving her an okay sign with her fingers. “It’s a waste of time for you to come all the way out here just to go all the way back. Nobody knows I’m here, so it’s got to be safe.”

  She heard Cain say something to someone else before talking to her again. “Yeah, that would be good. Evidently I have someone here to see me anyway.”

  “I’ll call you as soon as I’m in the building.”

  Hayley hated to leave Mason again, but Summer assured her he was fine and welcome. Hayley provided a bit of information about what was going on, and the possibility of witness protection for her and Mason. To be honest, Hayley wasn’t exactly sure what it would mean for Ariel and her upcoming plans for Oxford.

  But as always, her cousin hugged her and told her they
would figure it out.

  As Hayley pulled out of the subdivision she tried to work through what this new change was really going to mean. Would Ariel be safe to go to Oxford? Would Senator Nelligar go after her to try to get to Hayley?

  If she could take it all back, never accidentally stumble upon those dark activities, she would do it. She would do just about anything to keep her loved ones safe.

  And she had to admit to herself that now included Cain.

  She stopped at a red light, trying to come to grips with those feelings—

  When the passenger door was flung open and someone got inside her car.

  “Oh God.” It took Hayley a second to realize what was going on. But before she could unbuckle her seat belt and fling herself out the door, she saw the gun pointed at her.

  “Light just turned green. I need you to drive, Hayley.”

  Hayley’s eyes flew to the woman holding the gun, her voice familiar yet different.

  She did a double take. “Mara?”

  The woman looked different, her hair no longer as teased and poufy as when she’d worked at the Bluewater. Her voice was different, Southern accent gone. Even her posture had changed—more domineering, self-assured.

  “Drive, Hayley.”

  Somebody honked behind them, but Hayley still couldn’t make herself move the vehicle. What was Mara doing in the car pointing a gun at her?

  “Hayley.” Mara gave a big sigh. “If you don’t move the car my next call is going to be to have someone go point a gun at your son.”

  That got her driving immediately. She took off through the intersection.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I know for a fact you’re not that dumb, Hayley. Figure it out.”

  Hayley knew that the woman was obviously here due to one of the cases. What she didn’t know was which one.

  “Senator Nelligar sent you?”

  “Actually, no.”

  “Fawkes?” She just kept driving straight, no idea where she was going.

  “What the hell is Fawkes?”

  So not the traitor inside Omega. “So the senator did send you.”

  “No, the senator has no idea I’m here. Has no idea anything is going on at all.”