Missing and Endangered (Joanna Brady #19)(91)
“Any IDs?” Joanna asked.
“Not at this time,” Frank answered, “but Kendra says that when they went to transport the bodies, they discovered that the female was wearing pajamas.”
“Pajamas?” Joanna echoed.
Because approximately half the human body is made up of water, Joanna knew that even during intense fires the area directly under a victim’s body often remains relatively undamaged.
“My guess is the female is Madison Hogan and the male Randy Williams,” she said.
“What makes you say that?”
“Because the last time I saw Madison Hogan, she was wearing pajamas. That was yesterday afternoon when we brought her in to the department for questioning. It was the middle of the afternoon, and she still wasn’t dressed. She was also falling-down drunk. Her mother, Jackie Puckett, is currently staying at the Windemere Hotel, and Madison’s two kids, Kendall and Peter, are there with her.”
“What happened after the questioning?”
“Deb Howell and Garth Raymond cut her loose and took her back home to Sierra Vista. I have no idea what happened after that.”
“All right,” Frank said. “Based on all the connections between these two cases, I suggest we handle this as a joint operation.”
“Agreed,” Joanna said. “Tom Hadlock will be tied up in a board of supervisors meeting for most of the morning, but I’ll let him know what’s going on. And, Frank, whatever you need from us, just ask.”
“Good,” he said. “I’ll send someone by the Hogan residence to see if Madison is or isn’t there. My guess is that you’re right and she’s a goner. I’ll also be in touch with Mrs. Puckett. Hopefully she’ll be able to provide her daughter’s dental information. Due to the fire, dental records are probably our only hope for getting a positive ID on either one of these individuals.”
Frank signed off. Joanna tried calling Tom back. When her call went to voice mail, she left a message letting him know about the situation in Sierra Vista and then drove on. Before the call from Frank, she’d been feeling upbeat and happy. The prospect of being able to be on hand as Gerard Paine was taken into custody had been almost too good to be true. Now Frank’s disturbing news had burst her bubble. In less than a week, Kendall and Peter Hogan had lost not just one but both of their parents, and it seemed likely that seven-year-old Kendall was the closest thing to a mother Peter would ever have.
That was beyond unfair. It was downright tragic.
Chapter 46
Joanna arrived at Tucson PD in time for the coffee-and-doughnuts part of the joint operation briefing. FBI agents, including Robin, would make up the core arrest team, with part of them focused on taking Paine into custody while the rest were assigned the task of securing his electronic equipment. There was concern that he might have built some kind of self-destruct scenarios into his computers, and the tech guys would be on hand in order to keep that from happening if at all possible.
Paine lived on a street made up of three-unit town homes. His was an end unit in the last group on Correcaminos. The operation was being conducted inside a strict media blackout. Officers from Tucson PD were assigned to create a perimeter to keep gawkers away. They were also tasked with clearing neighboring units of residents prior to the arrest warrant’s being served. Nearby streets would be closed to traffic in both directions. All officers and agents participating in the operation were expected to be armed. Considering the age of the target, a strategic decision had been made that the presence of a SWAT team wasn’t required. Prior to the operation, the perimeter guys were doing their best to give Joanna the boot. Only Robin’s timely intervention, arriving on the scene with her FBI shield in hand, kept Joanna from being sent packing.
She had left her Interceptor several parking lots away, but this was a neighborhood designed for older people, and there were shaded benches scattered here and there. Joanna settled on one of those across the street and two houses down from Paine’s unit and waited to see what would happen. She watched while the residents from neighboring units were roused from their breakfast tables and, in more than one case, from their beds, to be ushered away from the buildings. Only then did the arrest team appear. They approached the unit’s front door with one of them carrying a battering ram while the others held drawn weapons. Robin herself was the one who delivered the obligatory police knock.
“Open up!” she shouted. “Federal agents!”
No one waited around for Gerard Paine to answer or open the door. The guy with the battering ram delivered one fierce blow, and the door slammed open. After that there was a period of dead silence before Joanna heard Robin shout, “Gun!” The pause that followed couldn’t have lasted longer than a second or two, but for Joanna, sitting outside and holding her breath, it seemed to go on forever. Finally there was another shout, a welcome one this time: “Get on your knees!” After another momentary silence, Joanna was relieved to be able to breathe again. Another period of dead silence followed, one that went on for a full five minutes. When agents at last led Gerard Paine out of the house, it was hard to imagine the wizened, handcuffed, and hunched-over bald guy tottering along on the sidewalk could be the source of so much evil.
As they ushered him toward a black Suburban, Joanna couldn’t help thinking about the moment in The Wizard of Oz when Toto finally peels back the emerald-green curtain to reveal the wizard himself running the controls. Everything about Ronald Cameron had been just as fake as the wizard. The wizard was a frail little old guy, and so was Gerard Paine. When faced with the tall step needed to climb into the waiting Suburban, he had to be helped. Once the door closed behind him and the vehicle took off, Robin came looking for Joanna.