“Nita is still struggling, but she’s out of the woods. Micah is fine—better than fine, considering.”
“Zach didn’t have his name.”
“I didn’t—couldn’t name him without Nita’s input. We never picked names for the other kids until they were born. You look at them and then you just know…” His voice trailed off. “Nita had a rough time. But last night she woke up, was talking. The doctors don’t know exactly what’s wrong. They just know what it isn’t.” He shook his head. “They’re keeping her for at least another day, and she’s still very weak, but she told me to check in. Just for a couple hours. I’m taking maternity leave for at least three months.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his tired eyes. “Seems odd, Nita did all the work, but I get to take time off.”
“I’m sure you’ll be doing more than your fair share over the next few weeks,” Lucy said.
He nodded, looked at a point on the wall but she suspected his mind was still with his wife. Then he shook his head and said, “Abigail told me about Barry.”
“The autopsy is being done this morning. Julie Peters is handling it. She’s the best.”
Juan was quiet.
“We’ll find the people who did this.”
Again, silence.
“Juan?” Lucy closed the door and sat down. “There are some people who have wondered if Barry was a traitor. I don’t. He was a solid agent who did an outstanding job. Anything I can do to prove that, I will.”
Now Juan looked at her. “You mean that.”
“Of course I do. I learned a lot working with Barry on the Worthington homicide. We have different styles, but never—not once—did I think he was anything but a professional agent. I hate that anyone would question his loyalty.”
She half hoped and half feared Juan would mention the letter Barry had written. Instead he said, “Be careful, Lucy. I’ve lived in San Antonio my entire life, except for the months I was at Quantico and the two years I was a rookie in Colorado. I’ve never seen a level of violence like I have over the last two weeks, starting with the Worthington murder.”
“I’m being careful.” She stood, because it was clear Juan’s mind was elsewhere. “Please give Nita my love. If it’s okay, I’d like to stop by the hospital or the house later this week.”
He looked at her and shook his head. “Lucy—I care about you. But my family is my number one priority right now. Until … until the situation with Rollins is resolved and everyone involved is behind bars, stay away from my family.”
Lucy had nothing to say. What could she say? Juan was essentially telling her that she was too dangerous to have around.
Could she blame him? After what had happened these last few weeks? She’d put herself in the sights of a ruthless killer. Anyone she was around was in danger as well. She could argue that she was just doing her job; that it wasn’t her fault Tobias and Nicole had targeted her and her family. Except that this was only partly true. Even if she could argue that she’d done everything by-the-book when investigating the Harper Worthington murder two weeks ago, the real issue was the off-book operation three months ago when she, Kane and Sean rescued the boys and Brad Donnelly. That event had started this chain reaction of violence and murder.
But could she have done anything else? Let all them all die?
She walked out. She half expected Juan to say something, to apologize, to tell her he didn’t mean it the way it sounded.
But he didn’t.
* * *
The squad room was empty. Lucy checked the conference room, but the briefing hadn’t started. Only the chief analyst sat at the front sorting through documents. “Ten minutes,” he told her.
She went back to her desk and called Noah on his cell phone. DC was an hour ahead of Texas, but it was still only eight in the morning on the East Coast.
Noah answered immediately. “I talked to Hans about the memo you sent last night. You should have called me.”
“It was three in the morning in DC.”
“I wasn’t sleeping anyway. I discussed it with Rick, then we were on a conference call with Sean, Hans, Hooper, and one of Kane’s men. Have you heard if Kane is out of surgery?”
“An hour ago he was still in,” she said.
“How confident are you that your profile of Nicole Rollins is accurate?”
That seemed to come out of left field.
“Hans and I have been working on it together, I think we have a good understanding of her motivation. I wish I knew more about her background, but it’s clear that she entered the DEA for the purpose of infiltrating the organization in order to expand her family’s criminal enterprise. I suspect, based on Agent Novak’s assessment in Los Angeles, that her uncle Jimmy Hunt steered her in that direction. He’s a fugitive, and I have no information on whether he’s still active.”
“He is,” Noah said, “but he’s been a fugitive for five years. We have no idea where he is or how he’s operating. At least, not until now. It’s clear that Rollins has been protecting him, using her access and contacts to uncover any potential threat to Hunt. We suspect that she informed him of the DEA raid five years ago—he slipped away only hours before and fled the country to avoid arrest.”
“So Nicole is de facto in charge.”
“Where does that leave Tobias? Because for the last three months, Kane Rogan was confident that Tobias was a criminal mastermind behind the murder of six marines, stealing US military supplies and weapons, and building a pipeline up through Mexico all the way to Louisiana.”
“Tobias is involved,” Lucy said. “Partners, most likely, but even if they are equals, Nicole is the brains. It’s clear that he took over when Nicole went to prison and that’s when their master plan started to fall apart. He made mistakes. His actions jump-started our investigation. We know far more now about their organization than we learned even after Rollins was arrested. He’s more the public face, someone who does what he’s told. An important player, but it takes someone smarter—shrewd, patient—like Rollins to manage. When she wasn’t around to tell him what to do, he followed his piss-poor instincts. With time, I will prove it.” She hesitated, then added, “My guess is that this Joseph Contreras is the same Joseph that Nicole went to college with and that would suggest that Joseph might be her lover. Definitely a confidant and extremely dangerous.”
“I trust your judgment. But you’re still guessing at this point.”
“An educated guess.”
“And they want their money. That’s why Rollins is still here.”
“It’s the only logical reason—aside from revenge—that she would stay in Texas. According to Jack, Kane figured out why they need the money right now. That’s what your conference call was about, right?” She was fishing, but it was logical to assume that.
“In part,” Noah said. “Hans concurs with your assessment, that revenge is only one motive and that it may be more important to Tobias than to Rollins. Archer, Crawford were both tortured. Dunbar was executed, he died immediately. That hit was solely for information.”
“Noah, I’m worried about Sean,” she admitted. “Everyone here is watching me, Brad Donnelly, and Ryan Quiroz. We’re covered. My brother Jack flew in from Sacramento to stay with me. But Sean is traveling from Hidalgo to San Antonio practically on his own. And we can’t assume that Rollins doesn’t have people down there. She’ll know by now that Kane got out of Mexico, and she has enough people, between her and Tobias, to learn that Sean was with him.”
“But they don’t want to kill Sean. They want him to hack into the FBI to retrieve their money.”
“That’s what I said in my memo,” she said. Something was wrong with this conversation and she didn’t know what it was. “But he won’t do it. You can’t think he’d work for them.”
“That’s not what I meant. I meant they’re not going to shoot him on sight, because they need his skill.”
“If they get to him and he refuses, they’ll kill him. If they find a way to manipulate him into doing it, the
y’ll kill him when they’re done. Noah—if Nicole wants to hurt me, and she does, the best way would be to k-kill Sean.” Her voice cracked and she wished Sean were here, right now. Or that Kane wasn’t hurt, because Kane would know how to protect his brother.
In a soft voice, Noah said, “Rick is well aware of the threat to Sean. He concurs with your analysis.”
She was relieved, but Noah still seemed to be holding something back.
“Rick just called me into his office,” Noah said. “I have to go. Watch yourself, Lucy. I mean it.”
Then he hung up. And Lucy didn’t feel relieved that he agreed with her.
* * *
Because Lucy had been talking to Noah, she was late to the briefing in the main conference room. But there was hardly anyone there—only Durant, Hans, Brad, Nate and the Houston DEA director Edward Moody.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I had a call—”
Abigail shook off her apology. “Hans explained. We were just making sure everyone was up to speed. Nate can fill you in on the details, but the one thing you should know is that we’ve loaned Agents Proctor and Quiroz to the DEA until they get their office back up to fully staffed.”
Moody said, “Both Brad and Abigail have told me how diligent you’ve been on not only this investigation, Agent Kincaid, but working with our office during Operation Heatwave and other cases. I sincerely appreciate your help and insight. I also appointed Brad as the Acting Director of the San Antonio office.”
That appointment was well deserved, but had to be difficult for him
Moody continued. “We’ve also employed an outside security assessment company to ensure we have no more rotten apples.”
Lucy straightened and glanced at Brad. He winked at her. They hired RCK? That had to be it.
Abigail said, “Of the six men we know assisted Rollins in her escape, two are dead—the shooter at the bar and the first suspect we arrested, who was killed in prison. Two others are in custody and under tight protection in another jurisdiction—we can’t risk someone getting to them like the first suspect. The DOJ is offering a deal to whoever talks first, but so far they have remained silent. The other two are still at large.”
“What about Agent Crawford?” Lucy asked.
“Agents Malone and Figueroa are working with ERT on processing the evidence from Agent Crawford’s murder. Ritz has been in contact with Crawford’s brother, and there will be a service at the family’s church next week. I will send out the details as soon as they’re settled, but the FBI director has already indicated that he will be traveling here for the funeral. Juan Casilla has taken maternity leave. In light of his absence, I’ll be running the day-to-day operations in the VCMO Squad until we are fully staffed.” She turned to Hans. “You had something, Dr. Vigo?”
“Agent Kincaid and I have a preliminary profile on Nicole Rollins and her people.” He slid hard copies over to everyone at the table. “The highlights are in a packet that was distributed via email last night to everyone involved in this investigation. None of the key points has changed, even with the additional information we learned this morning.”
Had Hans even slept last night? Lucy glanced through the information and realized that most of it was from the reports she’d been sending to Abigail and Hans. Her profile, her assessment of Nicole, Joseph, Elise … everything was here in a slightly different format.
“I had a report from our legal attaché in Mexico City—we attempted to take Dover into custody late last night. He hadn’t gone into work this week and wasn’t at his apartment. According to his supervisor he was working with local authorities to track a fugitive, but the case he created was pure fiction. A source saw Dover outside of Santiago two days ago where we believe he was sent by Tobias or Rollins to kidnap an American citizen. He slipped away and we believe someone tipped him off that he was wanted for questioning. He’s considered a fugitive and likely still in Mexico.”
Hans continued, “The information coming out of Los Angeles is that Margaret Hunt, Rollins’s aunt, slipped up during her initial interview. She may not have realized it, and SSA Novak didn’t tip our hand. We’re in the process of getting a search warrant for the property. But this information, coupled with the profile that Agent Kincaid wrote, gives us valuable insight. More details are in the packets.”
Hans looked at the few people at the table. “Wear your vests on and off duty. Be prepared at all times. And don’t go anywhere alone.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Lucy wanted to talk to Hans, but Hans went into a meeting with Juan in Juan’s office with the door closed. While she waited, she and Nate went over Logan Dunbar’s computer files more carefully. While she was confident she’d found what Nicole was looking for, it was vital that they make sure there was nothing else she might be interested in that could jeopardize an agent or a current operation. The case against Adeline Worthington was detailed, but most of the information was either public record or would be made public record as soon as the indictments were complete. Noah and the AUSA were reviewing that part more carefully because he was privy to information about the other defendants and witnesses.
“Did you know that the DEA hired Rogan-Caruso?” Lucy asked Nate quietly.
“No. I thought something might be up when your brother followed us here. Your brother is tight-lipped. Still, Moody didn’t say it was RCK.”
“Brad knew.”
“He bounced back quickly,” Nate muttered.
“Nate, you’re not being fair.”
“I don’t like this. I don’t like not trusting people. Don’t repeat what your friend said, I get it. I can think one thing; knowing something doesn’t mean ignore my instincts.”
“What do your instincts say?”
“That there’s a reason Rollins is one step ahead of every law enforcement agency in Texas.”
“Who’s running property searches?”
“Um—” Nate glanced at notes that he’d been taking. “Texas Rangers. They have state jurisdiction, can access records quickly, and have a good working relationship with local cops. Durant is working directly with them.”
“But do they have all the possible names? The property isn’t going to be listed under Nicole Rollins; we would have found it after her arrest three months ago. And Joseph Contreras has been wanted by the FBI for the last two weeks, so anything under his name would have popped by now. But there’s Margaret Hunt, Tamara Hunt, any number of entities that one or all of them may control. Even Elise Hansen might be used.”
“Durant is feeding the Rangers everything we have, but if it makes you feel better, send her a message.”
It would, so Lucy did. She added at the bottom:
Because I’m going through Agent Dunbar’s files, I’m pulling out all names and entities that were part of Adeline Worthington’s land scheme, because she may have set up Nicole’s escape plan, whether she knew it or not. James Everett may know something as well—is there any way the marshals can arrange a conversation with him? Or ask him about land transactions? It could have been set up five years ago, when Joseph Contreras started working for Adeline, or as recently as two or three months ago, if Joseph wanted a safe house after Nicole’s arrest. It would be remote and secluded, with multiple access points, including the ability to land a small plane.
Nate read over her shoulder. “Good thoughts, all of them.”
“I’ll need your help—it’ll take all day.”
“Or longer,” he said.
“Wait—” She scrolled through the attachments to the original indictment that Dunbar had planned to file prior to Adeline Worthington’s murder. “Agent Dunbar, you are a saint.”
She hit PRINT and ran over to the printer.
“What did you find?” Nate asked.
“Attachment D—a six-page list of every entity or individual that was involved in a land deal with Texas Holding Company, the front company for Everett and Adeline’s money laundering.”
“You just saved us hours o
f work.”
“Maybe—but there are no transaction dates, it’ll need to be cross-referenced to the original files.”
She sent the attachment to Noah Armstrong in DC and copied in Abigail Durant, along with her theory about why she felt the safe house property was on the list.
She couldn’t wait. She half walked, half ran through the office to Durant’s suite. She was in a closed-door meeting, so Lucy sat and waited. She read the list carefully—nothing jumped out at her as suspicious. That didn’t mean there wasn’t something here. She just didn’t have all the information she needed to make the assessment.
While she waited, she logged into a computer at an empty desk and forwarded Agent Blair Novak in Los Angeles the same information that she’d just sent Noah. She cc’d Hans, Brad and Nate. In a case like this it was better to make sure that everyone was in the loop, because it would be too easy for something to slip through the cracks.
She responded to some of her emails, waiting for Abigail to be done with her meeting because Lucy knew—in her gut, her heart, her head—that the property was on that list. Abigail could make things happen. If the Texas Rangers could prioritize their search with the list from the Texas Holding Company, they’d find Nicole faster.
Durant’s office door swung open. Brad and Moody stepped out. “Whoever you need,” Durant was saying.
“Kincaid,” Brad said when he saw her.
Durant frowned. “Agent Kincaid is a target, I don’t want her in the field today.”
“What happened?” Lucy asked.
“The agents the FBI has at Saint Catherine’s spotted the mother and boys we’ve been looking for, the boys who missed the bus on Monday when the hijackers boarded.”
“They’re at Saint Catherine’s?”
“I just got the call,” Abigail said.
“Ma’am, that’s my church.”
“And they could have been sent there lure you out.”
“Nicole knows where I live. If she really wanted to get at me, she knows where to find me. Ma’am, one of the boys at the home is in danger. Sean hired a private guard for the house, but we know these people will do anything to get the results they want.”
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