No Good Deed

by Allison Brennan

  “Elise admits to meeting Harper Worthington and injecting him, but she believed it was ketamine, not a deadly poison. She was ordered to seduce Harper Worthington and take incriminating pictures. She didn’t ask why, because she did what she was told out of fear of punishment. I have addressed each of Agent Kincaid’s preposterous allegations in my report to the court.”

  “Your Honor,” AUSA Fallow said, rising, “this is a hearing, not a trial.”

  The judge glared at Fallow. “And you think I don’t know what’s going on in my own court, Ms. Fallow? Do not interrupt again.” She turned to Dr. Oakley. “I read your report in chambers this morning,” she said. “You indicated that Ms. Hansen lived in fear of this Tobias.”

  Dr. Oakley nodded. “Yes, you Honor. Elise is terrified of what Tobias will do to her. What Agent Kincaid claims is a dark and twisted fairy tale. Elise is a victim, not a criminal. For more than twenty years, I have worked with hundreds of teenage prostitutes and abuse survivors. It’s clear that Agent Kincaid has no understanding or sympathy for girls who have been grossly and systematically abused. Elise has made many mistakes, but everything she did was to survive in a world where no one ever showed kindness—except for, perhaps, the most dangerous man wanted by the FBI.

  “It’s my opinion that Elise suffers from extremely low self-esteem, abuse, and that she devalues herself as a human being. She needs our help, not our punishment. There is a group home in Austin that has a place for her. The house is fully certified and run by one of my colleagues who has helped hundreds of sexually abused teenage prostitutes go on to lead normal, productive lives. This court can and should monitor her progress for the duration of the program.”

  She sat down and patted Elise on the arm.

  Lucy wanted to scream.

  “Ms. Fallow, does your office oppose putting Ms. Hansen in the Austin Group Home?”

  “Yes, Your Honor. We absolutely oppose a group home option. If we could simply have three more days—we will be filing charges.”

  “And you have evidence to support those charges?”

  “Yes, Your Honor.”

  The judge sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Why is it that incarceration is always the answer with the government? This girl is hardly more than a child. The system has failed her. The least we can do is give her hope. You haven’t filed charges yet because, I believe, you’re still trying to build a case where none exists.”

  “No, Your Honor, we were waiting for this hearing—”

  “Sounds like an excuse to me, Ms. Fallow. I’m granting the defense petition to place Elise Hansen into the Austin Group Home for Girls for a period of twelve months. At that time, this court will reevaluate the order. Ms. Hansen, you will be required to abide by all the rules of the group home, to meet with your court-appointed psychiatrist weekly, and to appear before this court when requested. You are officially a ward of the court. Ms. Fallow, if you have charges you wish to bring against the defendant, I would suggest you get your ducks in a row soon, because delay is not your friend. Court adjourned.”

  Lucy jumped up. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. “Your Honor! You can’t do this! Elise Hansen is a cold-blooded killer!”

  “One more word, Agent Kincaid, and I will hold you in contempt. I don’t think you would fare well in jail for twenty-four hours.”

  She opened her mouth but someone grabbed her from behind. She whirled around, almost in full panic, then saw Nate’s face. He shook his head once, his mouth set in a thin line.

  She stared into his dark eyes. He was angry but calm. She took a deep breath. Then another.

  Nate was right. If she went to jail, she would be vulnerable.

  She turned and walked out of the court.

  Where was Hans? He was supposed to be here. He was a trained forensic psychiatrist. He could have countered everything that Dr. Oakley said and the judge would have to listen. Wouldn’t she?

  Nate grabbed her elbow. “Let’s go.” He led her out of the courtroom as soon as the judge left.

  “I—”

  “Lucy, this isn’t helping. This was set up from the beginning. Everyone suspects Axelrod is on the take. This proves it. Christine Fallow will put together the charges.”

  “Elise will disappear before then.”

  “I know.”

  “Dammit!”

  They collected their weapons and went outside. Lucy first tried Sean, but his cell phone went to voice mail. Then she called Hans as soon as Nate pulled out of the parking structure and headed toward FBI headquarters.

  “Elise was sent to a group home in Austin,” she said. “You said you’d meet us at the courthouse. She’s going to run. The judge didn’t listen to me or the AUSA.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Heading back to headquarters.”

  “I’ll explain when you get here.”

  He hung up—again—without giving her anything else.

  “Something’s wrong,” she said to Nate.

  She tried Sean again. And again, his phone went to voice mail.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Agent Blair Novak was the team leader, but she deferred to SWAT for an operation like this. She hoped Margaret Hunt would open the gates and let them conduct their search peacefully and without incident, but she trusted her instincts, and her instincts told her this would be anything but easy. That’s why she’d taken the time this morning after securing the warrant to put together a large, experienced team to serve the warrant and conduct the search.

  The Hunt property was fenced on all sides. They could approach from the other side of the hill if necessary, and her SWAT team leader had a team of four on the easternmost boundary waiting to cut through the fence if Blair ordered it. The north side was difficult to bypass, but the south bordered another property, and they’d already talked to those property owners and had evacuated them just in case.

  Once everyone was in position, Blair approached the gate in a lone SUV with Carter Nix in the passenger seat and two other agents in the back.

  She pressed the button.

  It took a long time before someone answered. Blair didn’t recognize the voice.

  “Blair Novak with the FBI. We have a federal warrant to search this property. Please open the gate.”

  Silence.

  “This is the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Blair repeated. “We have a warrant. Open the gate immediately or we’ll be forced to disable it.”

  A female voice came over the staticky intercom. “You have no rights here, Agent Novak. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

  “We have a search warrant, Mrs. Hunt.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “If you open the gate, we can show you the warrant.”

  “I’m sending a boy down to fetch it.”

  Was she stalling? Why? It was within her rights to read the warrant.

  “I’ll give you five minutes.”

  It didn’t take that long. A tall, lean young kid came down the driveway. He said, “Stick it through the gate, then back away.”

  Blair did exactly what he said. He picked up the papers and walked back to the house.

  Five minutes later, Blair rang the buzzer again.

  Hunt answered immediately.

  “Please open the gates,” Blair said.

  “Over my dead body.”

  A rifle blast echoed in the canyon, and Blair and her team took cover.

  “Well, shit,” Blair said and called for more backup.

  * * *

  Elise hugged Barbara Oakley tightly with her good arm. The other was still in a sling. It hurt a little, but she thought she could dump the sling when she got out of here. The doctor had taken off the cast yesterday and put on a thick black brace. But the sling made her look more innocent, and she needed all the sympathy she could get. “Thank you, thank you,” she whispered, bringing tears to her eyes. They were tears of laughter, but the do-good doc didn’t know that.

  “Everyone deserves a secon
d chance, Elise, especially you,” Oakley said. “One reason I picked Austin is because it’s an hour away. You’ll be safe there.”

  “Do you really think so?” She made her eyes wide. Toby always said she looked innocent when her eyes were big.

  “Yes. The people who run it are wonderful and trained to handle any situation. They will make sure you are protected. But you need to do your part. Don’t contact Tobias. I know you feel like you owe him something. He may have helped you when you were thirteen, but he’s not helping you now. He used you. Do you understand that?”

  Elise nodded and forced her lips down. She bit her bottom lip because after practicing in the mirror for hours she knew that made her look nervous and vulnerable.

  “I will see you every week, we’ll talk, you can tell me how school is going. You’re a smart girl, Elise. You deserve the chance to go to high school, to go to college. To grow up.”

  Oakley had no idea just how smart she really was. “Do you really think my past doesn’t matter?”

  “Only the present matters. You are not the same girl you were at thirteen; you’re not the same girl you were two weeks ago. The girls you will be living with have similar stories. They were hurt by people who should have protected them. They will help you; I will help you. All I want is for you to grow into the amazing young woman I know you can be. Confident. Smart. Someone with a future.”

  Her attorney Johnson approached them. He looked a bit nervous, and Elise winked at him when Oakley turned her head to greet a colleague. That flustered him, and she almost smiled.

  “Dr. Oakley,” Johnson said, “I can arrange for San Antonio PD to escort Elise to Austin.”

  Elise grabbed Oakley’s arm and squeezed, her eyes wide with fear. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to oversell it.

  Oakley patted her hand. “Mr. Johnson, Elise is extremely distrustful of law enforcement, and with good cause.”

  “I’ll have a female officer take her,” Johnson said, “and you can of course come.”

  “I’ve already been approved to transport Elise to Austin this afternoon. The group home is waiting for her, and I’ll be able to get her settled.”

  “Um, Doctor, for your safety maybe—”

  Elise said, “Dr. Oakley, maybe Mr. Johnson is right. What if Tobias is looking for me? What if he knows that the hearing was today? What if he is waiting for me outside? What if he hurts you? I would just die if the only person who has ever been nice to me was hurt. I can do it. I can go with the p-p-police.”

  “Honey, Tobias has no idea about this hearing. It’s not public information. The transcript is sealed because you’re a minor. We’ll be safe. If you really would feel safer with the police, I can ride with you.”

  Elise forced herself to look confused and torn. “I would rather go with you, but I’ll do whatever you think is best.”

  Dr. Oakley smiled and squeezed her hand. “I need to contact my office and let them know, and then we’ll gather your belongings and leave. All right?”

  “If you think so,” she said. Elise watched Oakley walk down the hall and get on her cell phone. She let out a long sigh. “Spill,” she said to Johnson. “She won’t be gone long.”

  “He said to be alert as you merge onto the freeway.”

  “Good.” She wagged her finger at him. “You were a naughty boy, Mr. Johnson. Trying to get the good doc not to take me. Trying to bring the police into my business.”

  “Th-That’s not what it was. I had to go through the motions. Make it look legit.”

  “It is legit. Another fuckup like that and your wife will get the pictures and know what you are really doing when you’re working late.”

  He paled and swallowed and she thought he was going to have a heart attack right in front of her.

  When Elise was still incognito and hiding out at Mona Hill’s place, she’d accessed some of the bitch’s blackmail files. But then Mona Hill abandoned Elise when she needed help the most and when Elise went back for the dirt, it was gone.

  But she did get the scoop on her lawyer. After all, how else could she afford a top lawyer like Johnson? And Oakley bought his explanation that he was doing this pro bono.

  Right. If pro bono meant defending her so his wife didn’t find out what a slimy, hypocritical, horny gay fuck he really was.

  Oakley came over and smiled. “It’s all settled. Are you ready, Elise?”

  “I think so. I have butterflies in my stomach.”

  “That’s normal. And healthy. Are you hungry? Would you like to get a late lunch before we hit the road?”

  “I think I’m too nervous to eat. I don’t want to get carsick.”

  “There is nothing to be nervous about, but I understand.” She took Elise’s left hand and they walked down the hall.

  Elise looked over her shoulder and said, “Thank you, Mr. Johnson. I couldn’t have done this without you.”

  * * *

  Sean pulled into his driveway just after one p.m. Tired. Sore. But the adrenaline was still pumping through him.

  He’d just gotten off the phone with Blitz. Kane was out of surgery. His left kidney had to be removed, but miraculously that was the only serious damage. He’d need to be in the hospital for a minimum of forty-eight hours, and then Blitz would take him to Jack’s house to recuperate. Sean said, “Call me first. We have the space here, and I want to keep an eye on him.”

  “He won’t like that.”

  “Do I care?”

  “I hear ya, Little Rogan.”

  “Knock it off.” He hung up.

  He pressed the button he’d programmed on his phone to open the garage.

  Nothing happened.

  A windowless white van pulled up right behind him. Four hooded men with guns jumped out of the side door and rushed his car.

  He pressed the EMERGENCY button on his phone.

  He could get to his gun. He might be able to kill one of them before he was dead.

  But like Lucy said, they didn’t want him dead. They wanted him to give them their money.

  “Open the door right now and you live.”

  Still, self-preservation instincts had Sean hesitating. They had to believe that he wouldn’t cooperate. They had to know about him, that he wouldn’t go down without a fight. A threat to his life wouldn’t get him to help, and they damn well knew that.

  “Your girlfriend is at the federal courthouse right now. When she leaves, we will be following her. We know that she has a protective detail with her. We know that her brother Jack Kincaid is following her around like a damn dog. And if you think we won’t take them all out, you are mistaken. Get out of the fucking car now!”

  Sean opened the door. “If you touch her I will kill you.”

  The bastard laughed at him and Sean hit him hard in the jaw.

  Instantly, two pairs of hands grabbed him, ripping open the stitches on his arm. He winced as they pushed him to the pavement, zip-tied his hands behind his back, and searched him for weapons. They tossed everything they found back into his car, including his cell phone. Then they pulled a black bag over his head and dragged him to the van. He fought until they hit him and he saw stars.

  The van peeled out of the neighborhood and they were gone.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Lucy practically ran into FBI headquarters. Everyone had been acting odd, but she was so focused on the Elise Hansen hearing that she barely noticed what was going on around her. The closed-door meetings. Jack coming to town. Sean not answering his phone.

  “Lucy,” Nate called after her.

  She ran down the hall to her squad room. No one was there.

  “Stop,” Nate said.

  She turned around. “Tell me what’s going on. Now. Something happened—I feel it. Was Sean injured in Mexico? Is that what you’re not telling me? Did something happen to Kane in surgery? Dammit!”

  Nate said, “Hans is in Abigail’s office. He’s waiting for you.”

  “Tell me!”

  Na
te didn’t say a word, and he avoided looking at her. She walked briskly back down the hall and toward the administrative wing. Abigail’s door was open. They were all waiting for her—Hans, Brad, Abigail, Ryan. Nate followed her in and closed the door.

  “Sit down, Agent Kincaid,” Abigail said formally.

  Lucy sat, her back straight, her hands in her lap. “What happened?” she asked, forcing her voice to remain calm. She didn’t feel calm, and she sounded even worse.

  “Sean is alive,” Abigail said. “Okay? Know that.”

  “What. Happened.” Lucy repeated the words slowly, calmly.

  Hans said, “This morning I was on a conference call with Sean, Rick, Noah, and Kate.”

  “My sister-in-law Kate?” Kate taught cybercrime at Quantico and was as good with computers as Sean.

  Hans nodded. “We discussed what you found in Agent Dunbar’s files, and concurred with your assessment. Kane Rogan also found information in Mexico—I mentioned the corrupt DEA agent, Adam Dover, in the meeting this morning. What I didn’t say was that Dover was tasked with luring Kane to Santiago because Tobias believed that Kane stole his money. When Kane escaped the first time, the order was changed to a kill order. That is likely because Tobias and his people were able to decrypt Dunbar’s files and they figured out what you did—that Sean was the civilian consultant who siphoned their laundered money into the FBI asset forfeiture account.”

  “I already know what you’re going to say, and no. I will not support this plan. You want Sean to go undercover. Last time he did that, he almost got killed. And that’s why Sean is not returning my calls—he knows I can talk him out of this ludicrous idea.”