2nd Cycle of the Harbinger Series Collection

by Carolyn McCray

  CHAPTER 3

  Watching an interrogation was a new thing for Sariah. Usually she was the one in there, but this was a national profile case, so as a junior part of the BAU team, she was sitting this one out.

  The rest of her team was lined up behind her, but Officer Hadderly stood to her left. It was a little weird to have someone so close to her. Weird, but comforting. He had walked her in here, past more than a few glares from some of the members of her team. Sariah found that, in this instance, she didn’t mind the stares so much.

  Finding the nurse hadn’t been as challenging as she had originally thought. There were only a few hospitals in the Ann Arbor area. And when they had contacted St. Joseph Mercy about patients complaining of discomfort after supposedly receiving pain medication, they discovered that an internal investigation was already underway. They had their suspect in less than an hour, versus the days of searching Sariah had anticipated.

  The woman sat behind the table, her forehead sweaty and her fingers drumming a steady rhythm on the arm of the chair. Her level of discomfort certainly seemed promising. She looked guilty enough. If Sariah had gone through Central Casting for a guilty nurse, they couldn’t have done better.

  Peering through the glass, Had spoke over his shoulder at Sariah. “She’s a jittery one, isn’t she? Check out her hands. It’s like she’s auditioning for a band.”

  “Pretty good sign, I’d say,” Sariah replied. “So far, she’s looking pretty good for this one.”

  Nurse Marissa Engstrom had a history of complaints that seemed to follow her wherever she went. This was her third hospital in two years, and the word from her two previous supervisors was not great. Numerous incidents of patient neglect, including situations similar to what they had found at St. Joseph Mercy’s—post-med pain. The consistent refrain? “She just didn’t seem to care.”

  But now the thirty-two-year-old nurse, who looked more like forty-two, seemed to care an awful lot. And what she cared about was getting the hell out of the police station. She pushed peroxide blonde locks out of her eyes and glared at Agent Salazar and his second-of-choice, Agent Marshall. Her movements were shaky.

  Officer Hadderly leaned in and whispered, “It should be you in there. You were the one that figured out the angle on finding her.”

  Sariah shrugged. Every time she’d had a difference of opinion with Agent Salazar, it had turned into something of a pitched battle. Salazar was a bit of a hothead, and Sariah was stubborn. So far, every single one of their skirmishes had gone to Salazar.

  It really wasn’t an even playing field, not with Salazar being more senior. But if she had spent her career waiting for things to be fair, she’d still be back at Quantico. You moved forward, torpedoes—or ass-hat agents—be damned. Hadderly looked back at their suspect.

  “Man, her nerves are really getting the better of her. Check out the trembling in her fingers.”

  It was true. Even the least experienced suspects tried to keep some kind of poker face on. And while maybe this woman’s expression wasn’t giving away much, her shaking and pallor definitely were. It was odd.

  “You can’t hold me here.” The nurse had stopped drumming on the table and was now jabbing her index finger in the air in front of Salazar’s face.

  “You are absolutely correct, Ms. Engstrom,” the agent agreed, his tone pleasant. The shaky nurse, caught off guard, sank back into her chair. Sariah had to give Salazar credit. He knew how to work a suspect in the interrogation room. “You aren’t under arrest. You can leave at any time.”

  “Well, then—” she said as she started to stand.

  “I do need to tell you, though,” Salazar continued, as if the woman had never interrupted him. “We have more than enough here for an arrest warrant. You could leave, but I’d have you back in custody almost before you left the building. So what say we just talk?”

  The nurse sank back down in her chair, but she clearly wasn’t done complaining yet. “I don’t know what you could possibly have on me. I haven’t done anything. And when your boss finds out—”

  “Oh, my boss knows what the story here is. If I’ve made a mistake, it’s his mistake, too.” Salazar spread out in front of her the copies of the letters some of her patients had sent in over the two years she’d been a practicing nurse. “That’s a lot of unhappy customers you’ve left in your wake.”

  “Can I help it that I work in the geriatric wards? Old people complain about everything they come into contact with.”

  Agent Salazar laughed a belly laugh that Sariah found completely believable. If only he were this charming in person. The sound of his laughter seemed to catch the nurse off guard. She sat forward, her face puzzled.

  Salazar leaned in closer to the suspect, his tone conspiratorial. “Oh, don’t I know it. My abuela—my grandmother—used to complain about the chocolates I would bring her. She loved chocolates.”

  Ms. Engstrom made a face and muttered, “You’d get her the cheap stuff, huh?”

  “No, no, these were Godiva. Said they tasted like wax.”

  “So you know what I’m talking about?” the nurse whined.

  “You bet.” Salazar leaned back away from the nurse once again, picking the file up off the table. “Still… there’s some pretty specific stuff in here.”

  “What, did they complain about their catheters?”

  “Ha! Good one.” The agent chuckled. “But no. Nope. They were complaining about something a lot worse.” He nodded to Agent Marshall, who took out a list from the file and placed it before the suspect. “They said that they were still in pain, even after you reported that they had received their medication.”

  “I told you, they complain about anything. They weren’t in pain. They were just old and cranky.”

  Sariah watched as the nurse wiped sweat away from her brow. Much as it pained her to admit it, Salazar was doing an excellent job of interrogation, keeping things light while applying pressure. And it seemed to be working. The woman’s nerves were clearly getting the better of her.

  “Yeah, I would say the same thing. Totally.” Salazar shrugged and grimaced at her in apparent sympathy. “Except for one thing. They only complained when you were the one who gave them the drugs.”

  The woman gave no response, her leg twitching as she sat back in her chair. She rubbed at her wrists, chafing the skin with her fingers. Had tapped Sariah on the shoulder, pointing toward the suspect. He had a frown on his face, his brow furrowed.

  “Something’s off here.”

  “What do you mean?” Sariah asked. Had’s words echoed her own earlier thoughts.

  “Not sure. Hold on.” Had went back to his focused study of the nurse behind the table.

  Salazar leaned in closer to the woman. “Here’s what I think. I think you took their meds from them. They didn’t really need them, right? You did. You had big plans for those drugs.”

  “What are you talking about? Big plans?” The nurse hunched over in her seat, groaning a bit as she clutched at her stomach. “Can I go to the restroom?”

  Salazar got an irritated look on his face that he covered almost as soon as it appeared. He waved for the other agent in the room to take her. “Agent Marshall will show you the way.” The nurse walked out of the room, using the arm of the stocky agent for support as she moved.

  Strolling into the observation room, Salazar graced them with a smile that screamed smug. “Well, we’ve got that one just about wrapped up. A few loose ends and she’ll be begging to cut a deal.”

  “I don’t think it was her,” Hadderly stepped in, his tone apologetic.

  His head whipping around in an exaggerated double take, Salazar stared at the officer in disbelief. “Were you watching the same interview as me?” To be honest, Sariah was on Salazar’s side on this one. There was something off about the whole thing that she couldn’t identify, but the nurse looked good for it. Hadderly folded his arms across his chest.

  “Ah. Bottle blonde with the wrinkled skin? Yup. Same inte
rview. I’m telling you, I don’t think she did it.”

  “Are you nuts? She was sweating she was so nervous. She couldn’t sit still.” Salazar appeared to be one step away from dismissing Officer Hadderly as a nut job.

  “That’s what I thought at first, too. But listen…” Had returned the death glare Agent Salazar was giving him with an intent expression. “I had a cousin who was addicted to OxyContin. He stayed with me for a week or two after his parents finally kicked him out of the house. It was a new area for him, so I guess he didn’t have a dealer, and he started to detox.” He pointed down the hall to the bathrooms where Ms. Engstrom had gone. “Looked just like that.”

  “Wait. What?”

  “The shaking, the sweats, the cramping… It all adds up to addict, not killer.” Had’s expression intensified even further. “Not that I think she’s innocent, not by a long shot.”

  Sariah stepped into the fray, looking to make sense of what Had was saying. “Addict? If that’s the case, there’s no way she’d ever use her precious meds on poisoning someone.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking.” The officer nodded his head, clearly relieved that someone was taking him seriously.

  Salazar, however, was not. He looked back and forth from Sariah to Hadderly. “This is ridiculous. She was your lead, and now you’re fighting me on it? She’s good for this, and I’m gonna nail her to the wall.” He stalked off, muttering to himself.

  Watching him go, Sariah realized that in Salazar’s mind, she and Had were inextricably linked. Sighing, Sariah punched Had on the shoulder. “You know what this means, right?”

  Wincing from the blow, Had raised an eyebrow. “What? That I’m going to get a nasty bruise where you just hit me?”

  “Please. I didn’t hit you that hard. And what it means is that we’re back at square one.”

  “Yeah.” Had blew out his cheeks, making a raspberry sound. “Sucks. Salazar wasn’t wrong, you know. She seemed so good for it.”

  But for Sariah, this more than just sucked. It was now turning into another battle between her and Salazar, and she was junior enough that she didn’t have much of a limb to go out on here.

  But even with that, there was one thing that was sure. Sariah had no intention of losing this time.

  * * *

  Kyle followed Coop back to his desk. Truthfully, they should probably be going back to the space that had been designated for the BAU team, but neither one of them wanted to deal with the other members of the team. At least not at the moment.

  “So, where do we go from here?” Kyle asked the retreating back of the shapely agent. The skimming angle had seemed like such an excellent lead. It was more than a little discouraging to have it amount to nothing. And it wasn’t like he had a whole lot of experience on homicides to compare this to. He’d asked for the BAU to get involved precisely because he had no clue of how to move forward.

  “We could pursue the drug dealer angle, but again, I don’t know how helpful it would be. We can set a couple of your guys on it, but I think we should look for other options.” Agent Cooper sank into a chair on the side of Kyle’s desk, slipped off her shoes, and massaged her instep.

  “Yeah. I can talk to Lopez and Ritchie, see if they can make the round with the usual suspects. But I’m pretty sure that’s not what this woman’s been doing. She seems too calculated to be buying off the streets.” Kyle slumped down next to Coop. “That was part of the reason the nurse didn’t quite fit. She was a bit… sloppy, if you know what I mean.”

  The agent perked up at that. “Say that again.”

  “Uh. What part? The killer seems too calculated—”

  “No, no.” Coop waved her hands, dismissing Kyle’s words. “After that. The last thing you said.”

  “That the nurse was sloppy?”

  “Yes. She was sloppy.” The agent stood up, her movement sudden enough that it took Kyle off guard. “We’re looking at this all wrong. Nurses are too closely watched when it comes to pain meds. Even this one was already being investigated.”

  Kyle shook his head. “Yeah, but there’s no one else who would have that kind of access—”

  Coop held up her hand, cutting him off. “Pharmaceutical companies.”

  Snapping his fingers, Kyle moved over to his computer. “That’s right. There would be plenty of product around. Could be one of the chemists, one of the quality control people… there’s all kinds of avenues there.” He punched a search into the browser, looking for the company responsible for OxyContin.

  “I’m sure they have their own internal protocols,” Coop added. “But they may be less vigilant than the hospitals.”

  The search for OxyContin yielded some results, but not the ones Kyle had been hoping for. “The company that makes the drug is Purdue Pharma.”

  “Great. Let’s check out their operation.”

  “Yeah,” Had sighed. “Already done. Their base of operations is in Connecticut, with labs and plants in New Jersey and North Carolina. Nothing around here.”

  Coop slumped back into her seat. “Well, it was a good idea.”

  “Yeah, it was.” Kyle kept reading the drug company’s website, looking for more information. “Maybe it still is.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, just because they don’t have a plant nearby doesn’t mean they don’t have local offices.”

  Agent Cooper looked over his shoulder and pointed at the screen. “Looks like the nearest field office is in Detroit. That’s about, what, a forty-five minute drive?”

  “Closer to an hour with traffic,” Kyle agreed. “Still a ways away.”

  “Wait a minute. I’m an idiot.” Coop pushed Kyle out of the way and started typing away on the computer. “Drug sales.”

  His mouth rounding into an “O” of comprehension, Kyle grabbed for the phone. “There can only be like one or two reps in the area that deal in OxyContin.” He cradled the phone between his cheek and shoulder. “And you are far from being an idiot.”

  In fact, Coop might just be the smartest person Kyle had ever met. He sighed, lamenting that brains and beauty this concentrated always had to be off limits for one reason or another. At least this one didn’t have a daddy with a shotgun. That had been the worst day of his teenage life. For a moment or two there, he had thought he’d never make it to full manhood. Emphasis on full.

  Coop waved her hands back and forth in front of Kyle’s face. “Hey there, space cadet. Feel like joining me here back on planet Earth?” She pointed to a website she had pulled up for the Purdue Pharma sales office. “They have one drug rep that covers this area. Oh, and one other thing…”

  Kyle waited as the agent pulled up the profile of the Ann Arbor rep. After it loaded, Coop spun around in her chair and locked gazes with him.

  “It’s a woman.”

  CHAPTER 4

  No amount of whining would make the facts any different. So far, Had and Sariah had been the only ones to come up with any solid leads in the case. So far, Had and Sariah had been treated as less than the sludge coming out of a sewer.

  When it was just Sariah, she managed to deal with it okay. But to see Officer Hadderly reaping the rewards of befriending her, it made her sick to her stomach. He was just a nice guy trying to help. He didn’t deserve the cold shoulder her teammates were giving him.

  After Agent Salazar had checked through Marissa Engstrom’s timeline for the dates of the Mary, Mary killings, he had found more than one for which she had a solid alibi. He was still strutting and preening around the offices, claiming that it was probably still her, but he had been much more willing to listen to Had and Sariah’s new theory.

  Not that he would give them any credit for it at all. Talking to the other officers and agents, he called the whole thing an exercise in “leaving no stone unturned.” But if this new lead ended up yielding any results, Sariah was convinced it would quickly turn into Salazar’s brainchild.

  And now, once again, Sariah and Hadderly found themselves stu
ck in the observation room, watching Salazar dancing around inside the interrogation room. The drug rep sat, quietly composed, in her charcoal suit, watching the agent on the other side of the table with cool hazel eyes.

  “Well, she doesn’t seem to mind being here, does she?” Hadderly muttered.

  He was right. There was a marked difference between their last suspect and the one seated at the table right now.

  Brynn Capson appeared to be unfazed by her visit to the precinct office. It might as well have been another sales appointment. Her dark hair was swept up in a French twist, her makeup was impeccable, and her nails looked professionally done.

  Looking closer, however, Sariah could see that everything about the woman only appeared to be expensive. The shoes, the suit… both knock-offs. The suit lacked the distinctive stitching of a true Coco Chanel. The hem was slightly uneven and the threading was sloppy. The Louboutin red soles looked spot on, but peering intently at the heels, the base was plastic and frayed. There was the illusion of wealth and success, but the reality was more bargain bin shopping.

  This interview was also quite different than the first. To begin with, Salazar was much less aggressive. Whether it was the apparent polish of the suspect or the fact that he was still hoping the nurse was the one, Salazar was serving her up slow pitches right across the plate.

  “How many drug samples would you say you carry at any given time?”

  The rep smiled across the table at the attractive Latino agent. “That all depends. There are so many variables. Which client it is, what their typical orders with us look like, what medications the company is wanting to promote that month.”

  “What about OxyContin?” Salazar pressed.

  “What about it? It’s one of our top sellers as far as pain meds go, so I keep some on me most of the time.” The brunette lifted her shoulders in an elegant shrug. “But not too much. Don’t want any addicts rolling my car for a few spare pills.”

  Sariah nudged Officer Hadderly. “Is it just me, or is the suspect flirting with Salazar?”