Missing and Endangered (Joanna Brady #19)(80)
“I know,” Joanna said. “We were all very lucky.”
And that was enough to let her fall asleep at last.
A bare three hours later, the smell of brewing coffee lured her into the kitchen, where Butch was up, dressed, and getting ready to head out.
“You’re up early,” she said.
He grinned at her. “I’m all for going and getting those girls. It’s a five-hour drive, and I want to be there and ready to head back home when they finish up at noon. I sent a text to Carol letting her know what’s up, and she’s on her way over,” he added as he poured coffee into two oversize thermal travel cups.
“Did you tell her why?”
“I told her Jenny was having car trouble.”
“But doing two five-hour trips in one day is going to be tough on only three hours of sleep.”
“Not to worry,” he said cheerfully. “I’ll drive up and have Jenny do the honors coming back home. I’m taking your car, by the way. There’s more room in the Enclave than in my Subaru.”
“Travel safe,” she said, giving him a peck on the cheek as he headed for the door. She was tempted to go back to bed, but with Denny already stirring in his room, there was no point. She hit the shower instead.
Chapter 36
The text from Aaron Morgan came in on Gerard Paine’s specially designated burner phone just after three in the morning. There was no explanation as to why it had taken so long for Aaron to get back to him after his mission, but the text consisted of a single word: DONE.
Gerard wasn’t what you would call a trusting individual. All night long he’d been monitoring Flagstaff-and Phoenix-based news sites. On the ten-o’clock news broadcast in Flagstaff, there was a report of a shots-fired incident on Lazy 8 Road south of town, with details to come as they became available. That gave Gerard hope that his plan had worked. At 2:30 A.M. there was a breaking-news update on a Web site that reported an incident in which one person, an unidentified female student from NAU, had died from gunshot wounds.
In other words, Gerard was pretty sure Jenny Brady’s death was a done deal well before Morgan sent the text. The GPS software Gerard had installed on Morgan’s phone told him that the text had been sent from Kingman, Arizona. In other words, with his mission accomplished, Gerard’s hired gun was on his way home to Vegas. Gerard was almost gleeful as he keyed in the codes for the Bitcoin transfer. Jennifer Ann Brady was dead. That meant that Beth Rankin would soon be carrying a lifetime’s worth of guilt in that regard. To Gerard’s way of thinking, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.
As for the rest of it? Later today or maybe, at worst, tomorrow, his postage-due package would arrive on Madeline and Kenneth Rankin’s doorstep. In that moment Gerard’s plan of ultimate revenge would be complete.
Unfortunately for him, he was an individual who put far too much faith in technology. After sending the Bitcoin final payment, he went back to tending his flower garden and spent the next hour or so chatting up Samantha Toon in Billings. Had he checked the GPS on Aaron’s phone, he would have seen something both surprising and chilling, because suddenly the phone was moving again, only this time it wasn’t continuing north to Las Vegas. Nope, it was actually heading southbound—and not in a car either.
Shortly after leaving that gas station by car, the phone suddenly went airborne, having been moved from a Mohave County Sheriff’s Office vehicle and loaded into a Phoenix-bound helicopter. Less than twelve hours later, his phone, along with Beth Rankin’s phone and computer, would end up in the FBI laboratory in Washington, D.C., where a team of government IT experts would work frantically to tease out all of “Ronald Cameron’s” many secrets.
The good guys were coming for Gerard Paine, and he had no idea.
Chapter 37
A somewhat bedraggled Joanna made it into the office in time for the end of roll call if not the beginning of it. She didn’t like having to keep a tight rein on what was going on with Jenny in Flagstaff. The day before, she’d learned from Dick Voland that there was a serious leak somewhere inside her department, and she didn’t want to take any chances that might further endanger Jenny and Beth or interfere with the FBI’s efforts to take down Beth’s tormentor.
Once roll call was over, Joanna ventured into the bullpen to huddle with her team of investigators. Seeing Ernie there conferring with Jaime and Deb made Joanna realize that she had not yet nailed down bringing on the next member of the team. With Ernie leaving in less than a month, she had to make that move soon.
“Hey, guys,” she said. “What’s up? And how did things go last night?”
In her late-afternoon phone call with Frank Montoya, the two of them had strategized over how best to deal with the Nite Owl issue. The bar was located close to the Sierra Vista city limits. When Floyd Barco closed up shop, there was a fifty-fifty chance that he’d head west into town or east into county territory. Joanna and Frank had agreed to plant patrol cars on both sides of the line with officers lying in wait.
“Turns out our guys won the toss,” Ernie told Joanna. “Barco’s in our lockup on a DUI charge along with drug possession. He blew a 0.15 on the Breathalyzer. Jaime and I have some paperwork to clear up here, but when we have our chat with him, care to sit in?”