Missing and Endangered (Joanna Brady #19)(79)
“Sounds like we’re about to put in an all-nighter,” Butch said, crawling out of bed. “I’ll start a pot of coffee.”
In the end it wasn’t quite an all-nighter, but close. Sheriff Fulton was good enough to supply information as it became available, including the hit man’s name—Aaron Morgan. He was in St. Jerome’s Hospital in Flagstaff with what were deemed to be serious but non-life-threatening injuries that included numerous broken bones. He was also under arrest and would be interviewed by Phoenix-based agents from the FBI as soon as they could arrive on the scene.
It was almost one in the morning before Jenny finally called back. Two individual interviews had been conducted at the sheriff’s department. Nick’s had taken place in a single-person interview room. Jenny’s had been done as a group-grope in a conference room where detectives from Coconino County, FBI Agents Norris and Flores from Phoenix, and Commander LuAnn Maxfield from NAU’s police department had all joined in on the questioning process. Once the interviews were over, and with their vehicles currently impounded, sheriff’s deputies gave Nick and Jenny separate lifts home.
“What’s happening now?” Joanna asked.
“NAU is concerned that Beth’s and my presence could put other students at the school in danger. Since a bad guy might be able to figure out when and where we’ll be taking finals, we’ll be having our last exams tomorrow during the day. We’ve both been told to show up at the president’s office at ten o’clock in the morning. Someone there will administer our tests. In the meantime we’ve been instructed to speak to no one. That goes for Beth and me and for Nick, too.”
“If you’re done with finals a whole day early,” Butch said, “does that mean you’ll be home tomorrow evening?”
“I don’t know how,” Jenny said. “Beth doesn’t have a car, and my truck is currently impounded as evidence.”
“All right, then,” Butch said, “since you’re not old enough to rent a car on your own, I’ll hop in one of ours and come get you.”
“Would you?” Jenny asked. “You’re sure you don’t mind?”
“Are you kidding?” Butch returned. “If random bad guys are busy taking potshots at you, I’d rather have you here at home, safely behind our security shutters, than out driving around on your own.”
“Thank you, Dad,” she said gratefully. “I can’t wait to be there.”
It wasn’t an easy night. As sheriff, Joanna was accustomed to being the one in charge and running the show. This time around she was on the outside looking in. About 3:00 A.M. a few more details slipped in under the official radar via a phone call from Special Agent Robin Watkins.
“Okay,” she said, “here’s what we know so far. Shooter’s name is Aaron Morgan.”
“I already knew that much,” Joanna said. “Sheriff Fulton gave me the name, but not details.”
“Turns out Aaron’s an ex-con from Las Vegas who’s about to go down on charges of attempted murder along with a weapons-possession charge. With an offer on the table of his pleading guilty to reduced charges, he’s singing like a bird. According to him the real target tonight was Jenny.”
A shudder of dread shot through Joanna while Robin continued.
“Morgan was hired to do this by someone who paid for his services via a Bitcoin transaction, half on signing and half on delivery. He’s given the FBI access to his Bitcoin account. One of the FBI’s blockchain agents in D.C. has suggested that we attempt to pull off a sting. We’ve asked the Coconino County authorities to report the incident as a fatality shooting with the identity of the victim being withheld pending notification. Meanwhile they’ll have someone posing as Morgan report back that he’s successfully completed the mission. When the final payment appears in the shooter’s account, we may be able to use emerging technology to peel back the blockchains and establish a trace.”
“Will the FBI do it?” Joanna asked.
“Looks like,” Robin replied.
“And for now we’re all supposed to pretend that the shooter succeeded and Jenny is dead?”
“That’s the whole idea,” Robin answered. “Fortunately, it was the middle of the night and there was no on-scene media coverage at the time. Everyone involved—Jenny, Nick, and Beth—is being asked to keep quiet about what really happened. As long as the bad guy thinks it worked, he’s unlikely to try to make a second attempt, at least as far as Jenny is concerned. Just in case, however, LuAnn Maxfield has posted night-shift officers to keep all entrances to Conover Hall under surveillance.”
That should have been some small comfort for Joanna, but it wasn’t.
“How long is all this going to take?” she asked. “Until the bad guy is taken into custody, both Jenny and Beth remain in serious jeopardy.”
“Agreed,” Robin said, “and we’re moving heaven and earth to make it happen sooner rather than later. In the meantime we’ve all got to pull together in order to make the unsub believe his hired gun succeeded. In other words, mum’s the word.”
“Understood,” Joanna said, “I won’t say a thing to anyone.”
She and Butch finally crawled back into bed at four. “At least Jenny’s safe,” Butch murmured into Joanna’s ear as she snuggled against him. “If it weren’t for Beth and Nick, we’d be planning a funeral right now instead of planning Christmas.”