Cold & Deadly (Cold Justice: Crossfire #1)(74)
He called Frazer back and told him what had happened and to contact agents at NYFO to get protection on Sandy whether she wanted it or not.
The UNSUB’s plan appeared to have misfired and Dominic wouldn’t put it past the asshole to have something lined up in reserve.
“What are you going to do?” Frazer asked.
Dominic glanced at Ava. He wished she was safely out of the way back in Fredericksburg—not because he didn’t want her around but because he didn’t want her to get hurt. And this UNSUB would be more than happy to hurt Ava if she got in his way.
“I’m close by so I’m going to make sure Galveston is in the dirt where I put him. I want an exhumation order signed by the time I get to Chapel Hills on the border of New York State and Pennsylvania. I’ll call the RA in Binghamton for assistance. You call the director.”
“I’m on it,” Frazer replied. “Just one thing…”
“What?” Dominic snapped as he headed out the trailer to scrounge up a ride.
“Watch your back. Even if Caroline Perry was involved, I don’t think she was acting alone.”
Frazer was right. The plot was too intricate to be carried out by one lone actor. “I agree.”
“Kanas working out okay as protection?” The way Frazer asked made Dominic wonder if he’d guessed something was going on between him and Ava.
“Still saving the world,” he told the other man.
Ava’s lips pressed together, and he knew she knew they were talking about her. But he didn’t have time to worry about her feelings or about what the hell he was going to do with this woman who was complicating his life and his work. Not until they caught this killer. Not until they stopped the madness.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ava sat next to Dominic in the helicopter that had originally been tasked as a decoy for the prisoners’ escape. Now Dominic and Ava were using it to head south from Buffalo to somewhere called Chapel Hills.
It was only mid-morning, but considering everything that had happened since midnight she felt like this day had already lasted a thousand years.
They’d got out of there in record time, Dominic barking out questions and updates even when he was on the phone trying to arrange the exhumation of a serial killer named Peter Galveston—the so-called Lost Girl Killer. Now Ava sat in the back of the helicopter, nervously watching the countryside whizz by below. This was her first time in a chopper, and they were traveling so fast her heart was about two feet behind her body. It was deafeningly noisy even with the ear muffs and the mic in her headset wasn’t working, so although she could hear Dominic and the pilot talking to one another, she couldn’t ask questions or join in the conversation.
After an hour of what seemed like breakneck flying, they touched down in a rural area in Upper Delaware on the border of Pennsylvania.
“Can you wait here? We’ll be a few hours,” Dominic said to the pilot as the guy turned the engine off. The rotors slowed and Ava heard the pilot agree.
She would be shocked if this didn’t last a lot longer than a few hours, but it finally felt as if they were closing in on this UNSUB. Ava grabbed her stuff, opened the door and followed Dominic, both of them avoiding the tail rotor as they quickly strode to a waiting SUV. She’d been so busy filling him in on the details of Caroline Perry’s death that he hadn’t had time to tell her exactly who Sandy Warren or Fernando Chavez were, but she’d pieced some of it together. Ava had spent a good deal of the flight researching Galveston. He’d been a classic sexual sadist, and Dominic had put a bullet in him during his apprehension. She was guessing Sandy Warren was the woman who’d played the decoy hitchhiker, and Chavez was another FBI agent from NYFO.
“SSA Sheridan and Agent Kanas?” A man in a gray suit and dark sunglasses held out his hand to shake both of theirs. “I’m Agent Pine. The State Governor just signed the order. Everything is ready at the cemetery.”
They both got in the vehicle. Dominic had been texting on his phone the whole journey, obviously steamrollering this usually paperwork-heavy event. And he was probably still mad with her about not telling him the truth about Gino and her past.
“Any updates?” she asked, probing for information.
Dominic lowered his sunglasses and looked at her from his seat in the front of the SUV. “NYPD Detective Sandra Warren’s husband was found injured in their home. He opened a package that turned out to be a pipe bomb that had been addressed to Sandy and mailed to their house. They got him to the hospital, but he lost a hand and isn’t out of danger yet.”
Emotion gripped Ava by the throat. “Could Caroline Perry have mailed it before she died?”
The woman had been right in front of them, serving them food and drink and they hadn’t suspected a thing.
Dominic nodded. “It’s possible. They are putting a rush on all the DNA evidence found during this case and any other lab tests that need to be conducted. This is the Bureau’s priority number one. Agents were already tracing every aspect of Perry’s background from kindergarten to present day—and trying to ascertain if the waitress actually was ‘Caroline Perry’ but as far as we can tell she has no living family. So far no one named ‘Perry’ has turned up with any connection to the Galveston case.”
“So, what’s the plan?”