Thread of Revenge

by Elizabeth Goddard

  He slowly released her. He had to get a grip. Maybe she was better off far away from all this. Far away from him while he figured this out.

  She swiped her eyes then lifted her gaze to him. “We have to figure out what was in that syringe. What did they drug me with before? We have to find out. Maybe this drug is connected to the water sample Karon was testing. That has to be it.”

  “It could help me figure out who else is involved in this and how it connects to my investigation.”

  Incredulity surged from her gaze. “Gage...you don’t think...you don’t think she was involved with the drug runners, do you? You’re not investigating because you believe she was guilty of a crime, are you?”

  “I didn’t say that. She and Sean could have somehow gotten in their way and paid with their lives. I’m not thinking like a drug deal gone bad. Nothing like that. It appears Karon was looking into something on her own and got too close. On the other hand, their deaths could have nothing at all to do with it. Until I determine otherwise, I’m still here investigating her death. And... I’m trying to keep you safe. But if you don’t stay in safe places like I ask, I can’t do that, Sadie.”

  Sadie went over everything that had happened—as if Gage could forget. “Don’t you see? It’s a good thing Joe and I came here today. And Joe...well, he said since you weren’t with me, he should go. But how could we have known this would happen?”

  “I’m not blaming you. I’m more frustrated with myself.”

  She put her hand on his arm. He really wished she wouldn’t do that, and yet, her touch was a comforting balm.

  “I want to know how Donna is doing,” Sadie said, softer now. “Do you think she’ll make it?”

  Deputy Crowley approached Gage. “Deputies are searching the neighborhood. Talking to people to see if we can get descriptions or license plates. We looked for the syringe Sadie told us about. Found nothing. Looks like they took her laptop, just like you thought, Sadie.”

  “How could they have known she was going to show me the email?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe they bugged the phones. We can check into that. Which is just more confirmation that Karon had made a discovery and they were monitoring the situation. When Donna came across the email and called you, they acted on it.”

  Gage crossed his arms. “That email had to be no less than two weeks old. Why was Donna just now seeing it?”

  “Maybe it had gone to spam or got lost and Donna found it,” Sadie said.

  Gage filled Crowley in on their conversation with Shana this morning, and then on his brief interview with Epson the day he and Sadie had gone to the office. “Since he wasn’t at work today, I talked to human resources. They told me that he was gone the day Karon went missing. I’ll have to track him down to question him.”

  “In the meantime, there’s something I can do,” Sadie said.

  “I don’t want you going anywhere or putting yourself in dang—”

  “Just listen,” she said. “We need to figure out Karon’s email login. She could have had a web-based email server and we can find her emails that way. I wish we had thought of that sooner. Whatever she’d sent Donna is still out there in cyberspace. Unless these guys already figured it out and deleted it.” Sadie shrugged. “They would have had to crack her password by now. Maybe they hadn’t even thought of it considering they took the computer.”

  Gage looked at Crowley. “Or...in a matter of hours Crowley could have a judge issue a warrant. He could get a skilled cyber person with the right IP address to search for the emails. That only takes a few hours. What say you, Crowley?”

  The man stared at him.

  Gage lifted his hands. “I’m not sure the judge is going to buy my jurisdiction here. Sheriff Garrison can run this through. Or maybe the state police can do it for us.”

  Face reddening, Crowley frowned, not liking Gage’s insinuation that he wasn’t up to handling the more technical side of law enforcement. “I’ll get on it.”

  And he pulled out his cell.

  Gage crossed his arms again and glanced at Sadie. Gratitude reflected in her gaze. He hadn’t done it for her. Or maybe he had.

  “It’s worth a try. And now it’s a race against time.” Sadie averted her gaze and stared at the ground. “I remembered something. That man, when he wanted to inject me, I asked him what was in the syringe. He said it was something I would enjoy. Something new.”

  Gage dropped his arms. “Say that again?”

  “Exotic. Yes, that was it. He said, ‘It’s just for you. Something new and exotic.’ That gives me the creeps.” She rubbed her arms.

  Gage’s pulse ratcheted up.

  A designer drug?

  Illegal drugs could be modified so that technically, they were legal, that was, until the government got wind of them. Then they would go on Schedule I—the government’s list of controlled substances and drugs that had no medical use in the US but could be abused.

  Except what could designer drugs have to do with his maritime drug runners? They usually smuggled cocaine and heroin, and the maritime smuggling had increased over the last few years as the smugglers shifted from land routes through Mexico to the ocean. Pacific drug smuggling routes from Mexico, Asia and Russia were growing. The volume of drugs being smuggled was worth millions, even billions of dollars.

  But designer drugs wouldn’t necessarily be smuggled from those other countries. He’d contact the local DEA agent he knew and worked with frequently. See if he could help them identify the drug.

  “Gage, do you think the drug he was about to inject me with was the one used before? We need to find out. Maybe it would help them treat Donna.”

  “Good idea.” He pulled out his cell as he walked her to his rental vehicle. They waved to Joe, who got in his truck.

  “What do you know about exotic drugs?” she asked.

  “They’re usually called designer drugs.” Gage went on to explain what he knew about them.

  “Are they dangerous? I mean, can they kill you like an overdose of cocaine?”

  “It’s my understanding that there is no guarantee how any one person will react to the drug—” Sadie couldn’t remember a thing when she’d been drugged “—and they can definitely be deadly.”

  ELEVEN

  They were back on the water again. Sadie stared out the window of the hotel room overlooking the Pacific while the radio played seventies music. She hadn’t argued when Gage had wanted to move her again. To be safe, Uncle Joe decided to take Aunt Neta and Aunt Debby down to Eureka, California, to see the coast there. They had scattered to the four winds, almost. They hadn’t gone as far away as they could, but they had still gone.

  Everyone was scared.

  Including her.

  Arms folded, she leaned against the windowsill, letting the numbness take hold.

  Gage sat at the desk with his laptop. Crowley had failed to get the required warrant to find the emails on the server. Gage was working off the possibility this was related to maritime drug smuggling and would probably have even less success than Crowley if he even tried, considering he’d need to produce evidence of jurisdiction. Crowley promised to get the state police working that end of it. But it wasn’t likely the large company hosting the emails would so easily give them up. Getting their cooperation could take time.

  It always took too much time.

  In the interim, Sadie’s life remained in danger.

  So they were opening Karon’s emails using the old-fashioned way of hacking her password. Gage could get berated for this, and who knew what else, but Sadie’s life was at stake and he needed a break in this case. They needed to know what Karon had said to Donna in her email. Unless Donna woke up and told them, that information was lost to them.

  “Any other ideas for passwords?”

  “I’m fresh out.” Sadie dropped her arms and joined him a
t the desk.

  Gage’s cell rang and he answered then turned on speakerphone. He pressed his finger against his lips to let her know to keep silent. “Crowley, what have you got?”

  “Got the information back from the analysis on the dolphin pendant. It gave us nothing. Even if it did, it doesn’t really tell us anything. Karon Casings could have been on the boat at any time. It could have been a convenient vessel on which to put Sadie. We’re still looking for reports of any missing or stolen boats.”

  “It’s too much to be a coincidence. But moving on... What else?”

  “The vehicle you were in a collision with near the national forest—stolen.”

  “Of course.”

  “Donna is still in a coma. Doctors don’t know why. They’ve looked for a drug but come up empty. You and Thompkins need to get with it. Do your jobs and get these drug runners. I have a whole county to manage. You’re working one case.”

  Gage’s jaw worked, and he drummed his fingers. Sadie wanted to say something in his defense, but she wasn’t supposed to be listening in. “I’ll contact Thompkins for news on the investigation into Sean Miller’s death.”

  He ended the call then stared off into space while he rubbed his jaw.

  Sadie snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it.”

  “What have you got?”

  “An idea you can try for the password.” She slapped her forehead. “I feel like such an idiot.”

  “So what’s the password?”

  “Trixi.”

  “Trixi, huh?”

  “Yeah. Wait. Trixidolphin. Just Trixi isn’t long enough. Deputy Crowley reminded me when he brought up the dolphin pendant. How could I have forgotten? That was the name of the dolphin at a sea life marina where she first fell in love with them when she was a kid.”

  Gage typed in the password and it opened Karon’s email. “Yes!” He pumped his fist.

  “Oh, no...” Sadie slumped as she viewed the email account. All of Karon’s emails had been deleted. “I don’t understand. I thought these guys were idiots, stealing the computers to delete emails when the emails could be retrieved from the server. But I guess they weren’t idiots, after all.”

  “Don’t lose hope. There could still be a way to get these emails even when they’ve been deleted. Someone will get that warrant. The issue remains the same—we don’t have time to wait on the email. So it’s a dead end for us. Moving right along...” He scraped his hand through his hair. “We should have heard from Shana by now. I should have seen that water report.”

  Gage checked his own email. “Nothing from Shana.”

  He called her again and got no answer. “Of course, she’s not answering.” His frustration came through loud and clear in his tone.

  Sadie hated that they were getting nowhere. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out. I’ll call her company’s main number and ask for her that way.”

  He whacked the armrests and shoved from the chair.

  “Gage, wait. There’s a new email. It’s from Shana. She must have seen your call, but for some reason couldn’t answer.”

  He dropped back into the chair at the desk and pulled up the email. Opened the attachment. “Looks like she scanned in the results of the water Karon tested.”

  Sadie pulled a chair up to view the report. “Trace amounts of chemicals and drugs. This...doesn’t help us.”

  “And I know why. Same reason they can’t figure out what’s going on with Donna. They have to know what they’re looking for. Back at the house the guy told you it was something new and exotic. Remember I told you it’s called a designer drug, if that’s what he’s talking about, and I think it is.”

  “So what’s your point?”

  “I’m calling someone in the DEA who is working the drug smugglers investigation from their side.” He found the number on his cell and connected the call. Put it on speaker for Sadie.

  “Finley.”

  “Agent Finley, this is Gage Sessions, CGIS.”

  “Sessions. How’s the investigation going?”

  Sadie wanted to ask the agent if he knew her brother, Quinn Strand. He was also DEA, but she hadn’t talked to him in much too long. Still, she couldn’t ask him because she wasn’t supposed to be listening in. She wished Gage would just tell the guy.

  Gage explained what they were coming up against. “What can you tell me?”

  “Research chemicals. Legal highs. That is, until they’re deemed illegal. We can’t keep up with them. Unpredictable and dangerous as all get-out. You know the crazy ways that people have smuggled drugs. In bananas. Submarines. Avocados. Inside lollipops. Any way they can. Well, enter the online drug trade. It’s a serious problem. With a simple click you can order your drugs online and they’re delivered by mail to your door. Not smuggling them in banana skins. Makes it harder for us to get these people.

  “We’re not looking for a meth lab in a backroom kitchen laboratory. These drugs are often created in commercial labs by chemists. On the other hand, nonchemists can design them. Either way, they’re black market chemists, if you will. The drugs usually look like a crystalline white powder.”

  “But can they be injected?” Gage asked.

  Sadie realized Gage had asked that question for her benefit. He already knew the answer.

  “Sure. As well as swallowed, snorted or smoked. But this makes me wonder how this is tied to the maritime drug runners. That’s a different group altogether.”

  “That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I also need to know the exact drug I’m dealing with here that put a woman in the hospital in a coma. How do I find out? The doctors at the hospital don’t know what to look for or how to treat her.”

  “Considering there are hundreds of these drugs out there and more becoming available every day, that’s understandable. We can send it to a lab to identify it once we get it, but that could take them too long to help the woman. I might know someone who can help, though. There’s this guy. He’s a clinical toxicologist. He specializes in novel psychoactive substances—another name for designer drugs—created by these black market chemists. He buys them on the internet. Tests them and gives them a name or identifies them and shares all the information with the authorities, who load them to a database. If we can get our hands on a sample and we can’t identify it, then we can send it to him. He could tell us if it’s made from another illegal drug and specifically what that drug is.”

  “But that’s just it. We don’t have our hands on it. Is there another way he can help?”

  “I can’t think of it yet, but I’ll give him a call and tell him what’s going on. Maybe he is already testing something that could put a woman in a coma. Or leave someone with memory loss, which sounds more like Rohypnol—roofies or date rape drugs. That’s a starting point.”

  “Maybe someone has changed the chemistry of Rohypnol then.”

  “That’s something your doctors could possibly go on. This drug could be similar, only it’s something stronger.”

  Sadie pointed at the computer screen, trying to signal to Gage about Karon’s water test. His eyes widened in understanding.

  “Oh, I might have something for you, after all. Karon Casings ran water tests that are suspect. I’ll email you the results. Maybe there’s something in there you can use. Or your toxicologist friend.”

  “Definitely send me those results. We need to get on top of this, Sessions. These guys are making me angry. And I don’t like being angry. I’ll do what I can on my end.”

  “I hear you. Feeling a lot of anger myself. Keep safe.” Gage ended the call then stared at his computer. Blew out a breath.

  This was beyond complicated.

  Sadie moved back to the window. The waves washed up the beach, then slid back. She’d always loved the ocean. Wished for the carefree days before her best friend had been murdered. “I understand how that Finl
ey guy feels. How you feel. I’m angry too. I’m furious, in fact. I think... I think Karon was on to something. She was digging into something really big and bad to do with this drug and that got her killed.”

  Gage stood. “I think you’re right.”

  She sensed his presence right behind her. Much too close. His nearness and strength chipped away at her anger and frustration. Softened her up. Yeah, she definitely got mushy when she spent too much time with him. Gage could crush the protective barrier around her heart if she wasn’t careful.

  That old song by The Motels played over the radio. “Only the lonely...”

  What in the world was she doing here at this moment in time and with this man? If only she’d noticed him years ago, what might have happened between them? But she hadn’t.

  That was then. This was now. And she couldn’t let herself feel anything but friendship for him. Try telling that to her heart. Especially when the man stood right behind her. The melancholic song stirred her emotions even more. She had to break the mood before she did something pathetic and stupid.

  “So what next?” The question came out in a ragged whisper. Had she given herself away? Did he know how he made her feel? She hoped not because it could go absolutely nowhere.

  He didn’t answer. Instead he touched her arms, sending a current crawling over her and warmth thrumming in her belly. Then Gage turned her around to face him. At first she couldn’t breathe, but forced herself. Except she drew in the scent of him. The essence of Gage. His gaze held hers and she couldn’t possibly miss the longing in his bright hazel eyes. Deep, amazing eyes set in a handsome, trusting face. She wanted to get even closer. She wanted him to kiss her. She thought back to that moment when he might have kissed her on the porch swing, and she would have let him.