Santa's Subpoena
Page 28
“I need a favor,” Laurel said. Her gaze caught on a younger man escorting an elderly woman through the terminal, both looking up at the flight information boards. “I don’t have much information, but it appears there are at least a few suspicious deaths in Genesis Valley up in Washington State. I need to investigate the situation.” There was something off about the guy with the older lady. He reached into the slouchy beige-colored purse slung over the woman’s shoulder and drew out a billfold, which he slipped into his backpack.
“Wait a minute. I’ll make a call and find out what’s going on,” George said.
“Thank you.” Laurel stood and strode toward the couple, reaching them quickly. “Is everything okay?”
The woman squinted up at her, cataracts visible in her cloudy blue eyes. “Oh my. Yes, I think so. This kind young man is showing me to my plane.”
“Is that right?” Laurel tilted her head.
The man had to be in his early twenties with sharp brown eyes and thick blond hair. His smile showed too many teeth. “Yes. I’m Fred. Just helping Eleanor here out. She was a little lost.”
Eleanor clutched a plane ticket in one gnarled hand. Her white hair was tightly curled and her face powdered. “I was visiting my sister in Burbank and got confused after security in the airport.”
Irritation ticked down Laurel’s neck. “Return her wallet to her.”
Eleanor gasped. “What?”
Fred shoved Eleanor and turned to run.
Laurel grabbed him by the backpack, kicked him in the popliteal fossa, and dropped him to the floor on his butt, where he fell flat. She set the square heel of her boot on the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve in his upper thigh. “You know, Fred? There’s a nerve right here that can make a person . . . bark like a dog.” She pressed down.
Fred yelped.
An airport police officer ran up, his hand on his harnessed weapon.
Laurel pulled her ID out of her jacket pocket and flipped it open. “FBI. I think this guy has a few wallets that might not be his.” She shook out the backpack. Several billfolds, bottles of pills, and necklaces bounced off the tile floor.
“Hey.” Eleanor leaned down and fetched her billfold and one container of pills. “You jerk.” She swatted Fred with her purse.
He ducked and pushed the bag away. “Let me up, lady.”
“Make him bark like a dog again,” Eleanor burst out.
“Sure.” Laurel pressed down on the nerve.
Fred groaned and pushed at her foot, pain wiping the color from his face. “Stop it.”
The officer stuffed all of the contraband back in the bag and then pulled Fred to his feet once Laurel moved her boot. He quickly cuffed Fred. “Thanks for this. I’ve got it from here.” They moved away.
Laurel reached for Eleanor’s ticket. “Let’s see where you’re supposed to be.” A quick glance at the ticket showed that the woman was going to Indiana. “Your flight is over here at gate twenty-one. Let me grab my belongings and I’ll take you there.” She retrieved her over-sized laptop bag and rolling carry-on before returning to slide her arm through Eleanor’s. “The gate is just on the other side of those restaurants.”
“Excuse me?” George barked through the earbuds “Assistant Director of the FBI here with information for you.”
“Please hold on another minute, sir,” Laurel said, twisting through the throng while keeping Eleanor safe.
Eleanor looked up, leaning on Laurel. “How do you know my gate number? You didn’t even look at the information board.”
“I looked at it earlier,” Laurel said, helping the elderly woman avoid three young boys dragging Disney-themed carry-ons.
Eleanor blinked. “You memorized all of the flight information with one look?”
“I’m still here,” George groused.
Laurel took Eleanor up to the counter, where a handsome man in his thirties typed into the computer. “This is Eleanor, and this is her plane. She’s going to sit right over here, and she needs extra time to board.” Without waiting for a reply, she helped Eleanor to the nearest seat. “Here you go. You should be boarding in just a few minutes.”
Eleanor patted her hand. “You’re a good girl.”
Laurel crouched down. “Do you have anybody meeting you at the airport?”
Eleanor nodded. “Yes. My son is meeting me right outside baggage claim. Don’t you worry.” She pressed both gnarled hands against Laurel’s face. “You’re a special one, aren’t you?”
“Damn it, Snow,” George bellowed through the earbuds.
Laurel winced. “I am happy to help.”
Eleanor tightened her grip. “You have such lovely eyes. How lucky are you!”
Lucky? Laurel had rarely felt lucky to have heterochromia. “You’re very kind.”
“You’re beautiful. Such stunning colors and so distinct. I’ve never seen such a green light in anyone’s eye, and your other eye is a beautiful dark shade of blue.” Eleanor squinted and leaned in closer. “You have a little green flare in the blue eye, don’t you?”
Laurel smiled and removed the woman’s hands from her face, careful of the arthritic bumps on her knuckles. “Yes. I have a heterochromia in the middle of heterochromatic eyes. It’s an adventure.”
Eleanor laughed. “You’re a pip, you are. God speed to you.”
Laurel stood. “Have a nice trip, Eleanor.” She turned to head back to her gate, her mind returning to her trip to Genesis Valley. She’d have to move all of her appointments in DC to the first week in January, so her brain automatically flipped dates. If she juggled a Monday meeting that week, she would have time for a pedicure. Maybe she could skip her Wednesday lunch with the forensic accountants to discuss the recently developed tactical reasoning software. The accountants rarely escaped the computer lab, and when they did, they always talked for too long. “Sorry about that, sir. What did you find out?”
George’s sigh was long suffering. “Multiple body parts, including three skulls, were found this morning by kids four-wheeling on a mountain called . . .” Papers rustled. “Snowblood Peak.”
Laurel switched directions, her heart rate kicking up. “Just this morning? It’s a little early to be narrowing in on a suspect.” She’d spent some time snowmobiling that mountain as a child with her uncles before leaving for college at the age of eleven. “Could be an old graveyard or something like that. Might not be a case.”
“I know, and this is a local case and not federal, I think.”
She paused. “Actually, it depends where the bodies were found. The valley below Snowblood Peak is half owned by the federal government and half by the state. It’s beautiful country.”
“Huh. Well, okay. We could have jurisdiction if you feel like fighting with the state and the locals.” George didn’t sound encouraging.
She never felt like fighting. “Don’t we have an office in Seattle?”
“Yes, but it’s in flux right now. We were in the midst of creating a special unit out of there called the Pacific Northwest Violent Crimes Unit, but there was a political shakeup, a shooting, and a bunch of transfers. The office is restructuring now, and currently in place I have two agents dealing with a drug cartel.” Papers shuffled across the line.
“So I’m on my own with this case, if it turns out to be anything.” Which was normal for her, actually. A flight from LAX to Seattle had been scheduled to depart out of gate thirteen, and a flight from LAX to Everett had been listed as gate seventeen. “Has my flight been changed?”
More papers rustled. “Jackie?” George bellowed. “Does Snow have a new flight?”
Laurel grimaced at the sudden pain in her ear.
George returned. “You’ve been switched to Flight 234, leaving in ten minutes. They’re holding the door open for you, but we could only get you a middle seat.”
At least the gate was close to her current location, and she’d be flying into Everett, which was a quicker drive to Genesis Valley than the drive from Sea-Tac. She loped into a jog, pu
lling her wheeled carry-on behind her. “I only have a weekend bag and my agency-issued Glock.” She hadn’t brought her personal weapon.
“I’m not expecting this to be anything. I’ll give you forty-eight hours to see if it’s a case we want or not, and don’t forget, you called in a favor,” George said.
Her temples ached. “Even so, you don’t want me being the face of the FBI. I don’t relate well to students or prospects.” At least two people had actually left during her presentation.
“Get good with people,” George countered.
She reached the gate and flashed her ID to the impatient-looking gate agent. The woman kept tapping her heel. “I’m boarding. If you get any more information on the skulls, please send it to my tablet so I’m not going in blind.” Her stomach cramped with instinct as well as from her knowledge of statistical probabilities. Three different skulls found on the peak?
There was a murderer close to her hometown.
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You Can Run
Also by & READING ORDER of the Series’
I know a lot of you like the exact reading order for a series, so here’s the exact reading order as of the release of this book, although if you read most novels out of order, it’s okay.
* * *
THE ANNA ALBERTINI FILES
Disorderly Conduct (Book 1)
Bailed Out (Book 2)
Adverse Possession (Book 3)
Holiday Rescue novella (Novella 3.5)
Santa’s Subpoena (Book 4)
Holiday Rogue (Novella 4.5)
Tessa’s Trust (Book 5) - TBA
LAUREL SNOW SERIES
You Can Run (Book 1)
You Can’t Hide (Book 2) - 2022
DEEP OPS SERIES
Hidden (Book 1)
Taken Novella (Book 1.5)
Fallen (Book 2)
Shaken (in Pivot Anthology) (2.5)
Broken (Book 3)
Driven (Book 4)
Unforgiven (Book 5) - June 7, 2022
REDEMPTION, WY SERIES
Rescue Cowboy Style (Novella in the Lone Wolf Anthology)
Christmas story 2022 (subscribe to newsletter)
Novellas 3&4 in summer 2023
Book # 1 launch in 2024
Dark Protectors / Realm Enforcers / 1001 Dark Nights novellas
Fated (Dark Protectors Book 1)
Claimed (Dark Protectors Book 2)
Tempted Novella (Dark Protectors 2.5)
Hunted (Dark Protectors Book 3)
Consumed (Dark Protectors Book 4)
Provoked (Dark Protectors Book 5)
Twisted Novella (Dark Protectors 5.5)
Shadowed (Dark Protectors Book 6)
Tamed Novella (Dark Protectors 6.5)
Marked (Dark Protectors Book 7)
Wicked Ride (Realm Enforcers 1)
Wicked Edge (Realm Enforcers 2)
Wicked Burn (Realm Enforcers 3)
Talen Novella (Dark Protectors 7.5)
Wicked Kiss (Realm Enforcers 4)
Wicked Bite (Realm Enforcers 5)
Teased (Reese -1001 DN Novella)
Tricked (Reese-1001 DN Novella)
Tangled (Reese-1001 DN Novella)
Vampire’s Faith (Dark Protectors 8) ***A great entry point for series, if you want to start here***
Demon’s Mercy (Dark Protectors 9)
Vengeance (Rebels 1001 DN Novella)
Alpha’s Promise (Dark Protectors 10)
Hero’s Haven (Dark Protectors 11)
Vixen (Rebels 1001 DN Novella)
Guardian’s Grace (Dark Protectors 12)
Vampire (Rebels 1001 DN Novella)
Rebel’s Karma (Dark Protectors 13)
Immortal’s Honor (Dark Protector 14)
Garrett’s Destiny- 2022
Warrior’s Hope - 2023
SIN BROTHERS/BLOOD BROTHERS spinoff
Forgotten Sins (Sin Brothers 1)
Sweet Revenge (Sin Brothers 2)
Blind Faith (Sin Brothers 3)
Total Surrender (Sin Brothers 4)
Deadly Silence (Blood Brothers 1)
Lethal Lies (Blood Brothers 2)
Twisted Truths (Blood Brothers 3)
SCORPIUS SYNDROME SERIES
**This is technically the right timeline, but I’d always meant for the series to start with Mercury Striking.
Scorpius Syndrome/The Brigade Novellas
1. Scorpius Rising
2. Blaze Erupting
3. Power Surging - Winter 2021
4. Hunter Advancing - Winter 2021
Scorpius Syndrome NOVELS
1. Mercury Striking (Scorpius Syndrome 1)
2. Shadow Falling (Scorpius Syndrome 2)
3. Justice Ascending (Scorpius Syndrome 3)
4. Storm Gathering (Scorpius Syndrome 4)
5. Winter Igniting (Scorpius Syndrome 5)
6. Knight Awakening (Scorpius Synd. 6)
MAVERICK MONTANA SERIES
Against the Wall
Under the Covers
Rising Assets
Over the Top
Bundle of Books 1-3
About the Author
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Zanetti has published more than fifty romantic-suspense and dark paranormal novels, which have been translated into several languages, with millions of copies sold world-wide. Her books have received Publisher’s Weekly starred reviews, won RT Reviewer Choice awards, have been featured in Entertainment Weekly, Woman’s World and Women’s Day Magazines, have been included in retailer’s best books of the year, and have been favorably reviewed in both the Washington Post and the New York Times Book Reviews. Rebecca has ridden in a locked Chevy trunk, has asked the unfortunate delivery guy to release her from a set of handcuffs, and has discovered the best silver mine shafts in which to bury a body…all in the name of research. Honest. Find Rebecca at: www.RebeccaZanetti.com