Red on the Run (The Syndicate-Born Trilogy Book 1)

by K. M. Hodge

  “Your statement is really important to this case. Do you think you can tell us exactly what happened tonight?” He slung his foot over his knee and sat back in the chair.

  Jason sighed and looked away, his eyes pooling. “Yeah, let’s get this over with.”

  Richards pulled out a tape recorder and put it on the hospital bed table. “I’m old, so if you don’t mind, I’m going to record this.”

  Jason nodded. “That’s fine.”

  “Why were you at the office today?”

  Jason raised the bed so that he was sitting up, but his eyes never left the bed sheets. “We were working to get the Sunday morning paper out. This is the first time in the history of the paper that we won’t be providing our subscribers with a Sunday paper. My father is probably rolling in his grave. The paper was his life. He died for the fucking thing.”

  Richards couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy. He hadn’t asked to be involved in this mess, and yet here he was recovering from being shot. Yet as sorry as he was for the poor bastard, he needed Jason’s account of what happened. This had to be done by the books if they were going to keep Senator Mitchel behind bars. They couldn’t afford for him to be out on bail.

  “So you were working on the paper... and then what?”

  “I stepped out of my office to get Eddie and me some coffee.”

  Richards leaned forward so that his good ear faced him. “Eddie. Lisa Eddie, your Editor-in-Chief?”

  “Yeah,” Jason said as single tear slid down his cheek. “I was walking through the bullpen in the dark when I heard a gun being cocked and Scott telling me to stop. He tied me up to one of the chairs.”

  “Just for the record.... Scott is?”

  Jason’s face reddened and his voice rose. “Scott Mitchel, the illustrious Senator for the great Commonwealth of Virginia. My once-friend, who held me at gunpoint, knocked out my tooth, and mercilessly shot me and one of my closest friends.”

  A pretty nurse with chestnut-brown hair poked her head into the room. “Is everything okay, Mr. Knettle?”

  Jason held up his hand to dismiss her. “I’m fine. I’ll calm down.”

  The nurse looked to Richards and Hoover. “You gentlemen are on warning. Mr. Knettle needs to keep his blood pressure down.”

  Richards nodded and flashed her one of his southern gentleman smiles. “Sorry, ma’am, won’t happen again.”

  The nurse narrowed her eyes at them, but nodded and walked back out.

  “I’m sorry that this happened to you, Jason.” Richards patted his hand.

  “Yeah, me too.” Jason wet his split lip with a quick sweep of his tongue.

  Richards got up and brought him his cup of water.

  Jason took the cup with his good hand and took a sip. “Thanks,” he said as he handed his cup back to Richards.

  “I’m sorry, but I really do need a clear account of what happened. So he tied you to the chair, and then what happened?”

  Jason leaned back against his pillow. “Lisa came out to yell at me to hurry up, and Scott shot her like it was no big deal. He just let her lie their bleeding on the floor outside my office.”

  Richards sat down on the end of the hospital bed. “Then what happened?”

  Jason took a deep ragged breath. “He hit me a few times with the gun, knocked out my tooth. Some blood got on his shirt so he took money out of my wallet, saying it was for the dry cleaning bill.”

  What a lunatic. “Did he say what he wanted?”

  Jason nodded. “He wanted to know Charles MacAvoy’s release date. He wants him dead so that he can’t testify against him.”

  Richards crossed his arms over his chest, his upper arm buttressed by his middle-aged belly. “What did you tell him?”

  Jason looked him straight in the eye. “When he demanded the information, I noticed Officer Marianna Espinoza. She and Lisa had a date tonight. She’s a cop with the first precinct in Richmond. She had her gun drawn and was creeping up behind Scott, so I tried to distract him with what little information I knew. Marianna told him to drop the gun, which he did only after shooting me in the shoulder. The doctors say it was clean and I should heal fine.”

  Richards took a deep breath and looked over at Detective Hoover. “Do you need anything else?”

  Hoover shook his head. “No, that’s good. I’ll go and interview Ms. Eddie now. Thank you for your time, Mr. Knettle.”

  The young officer turned back to Jason at the door. “I’m going to make sure that sick bastard stays behind bars for a long time.” With that he was out the door and down the hall.

  “Does Katherine know?” Jason turned his head back to look at Richards.

  The edge of the bed squeaked as Richards sat down. “I left a message. They’re out of pocket this weekend.”

  Jason nodded. “Have you seen how the news is spinning it, saying Scott is being questioned in connection with a shooting? No one is telling the truth.”

  Richards sighed. “Son, I don’t understand the news media. No offense, but it seems to me that they never get it quite right.”

  “Maybe I need to do something to change that.”

  The determination in his voice had even a cold-hearted skeptic like Richards believing.

  He looked down at his buzzing phone, saw a new message from Alex, and handed the phone over to Jason to read.

  Jason read it out load. “Just saw your text. We are so glad to hear that Jason is okay. Katherine’s worried about him even though I told her he was going to be okay. I think she is also quite distraught because it was her brother. She feels responsible, even though that’s ridiculous. I don’t think she will sleep well until she hears from Jason, so please allow him to call her on the secured line.”

  Richards watched as the young man’s eyes pooled. “Do you want me to call the number for you?”

  Jason nodded, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed hard.

  Richards dialed the secured line and Katherine answered on the first ring. “Hey, Kat, I’m here at the hospital with Jason. I heard you want to talk to him.”

  “Yes!” Her voice filled the small room.

  Richards handed the phone to Jason, whose voice trembled. “Hey, Red. Yeah, I’m okay. Please don’t cry. Really, I’m okay, and Lisa is too.”

  Richards slid off the bed and stepped out to give them some privacy. At least that’s what he told himself. He really just needed a smoke.

  Chapter 20

  CIA Safe House

  Wrigleyville Neighborhood

  Chicago, Illinois

  October 15, 2008

  10:00 AM

  ~~~

  Alex woke up from his post-coital nap to the sound of his phone vibrating on the bed stand beside him. He blindly reached for it—still half asleep. “Bailey.”

  Beside him, Katherine stirred. “Who is it?”

  Alex held up his finger to silence her so he could listen to the caller.

  “Hey, Bailey, it’s Brian. I got a call that the police and the FBI caught the old man and are holding him for questioning at the fourth precinct in Chicago. I don’t know if you want her to know or not—we’ll leave that up to you—but he said he won’t talk to anyone but her.”

  Katherine shifted beside him, and watched him with her head in the palm of her hand.

  Ever since their weekend stay at the B&B, they had spent most of their time between the sheets, making up for lost time. Their fun time was going to come to an abrupt end now.

  He sat up in bed and swung his legs over the side. “Thanks for letting me know. Yes, I’ll let her know and coordinate with the Chicago Field Office to make the arrangements for the meeting, and I’ll call you if anything changes. ”

  “Sounds good. Talk to you later.”

  He wordlessly ended the call and placed his cell back on the nightstand.

  He rubbed his face and raked his fingers through his hair. Sally’s information on the whereabouts of former US Marshal Mitchel had been solid. He knew he sho
uld be happy that Katherine’s old man had been found, but he worried too much about what this would do to her.

  She bristled beside him. “Alex?”

  He turned his head back towards her but avoided looking her in the eye. “They found your dad and brought him in last night. He says he won’t talk to anyone but you.”

  She sat up with a start.

  He took a deep breath and twisted his body towards her. “We’re supposed to meet with him as soon as possible at the Chicago Field Office.”

  She paled and opened her mouth to speak, but abruptly closed it again. Instead, she jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom.

  Damn it.

  After a couple minutes, he stood and padded into the bathroom, where Katherine was already in the shower. He pulled back the curtain and climbed in.

  Despite the running water he could hear her soft sobs. He touched her shoulder and folded her into his embrace. “I’ll be with you the whole time.”

  “Thank you.” She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.

  ***

  Chicago Field Office

  Chicago, Illinois

  October 15, 2008

  1:00 PM

  ~~~

  Alex’s heart skipped a beat as he rounded the corner.

  Katherine was dressed in a black Donna Karan suit, minus the jacket. Her black pencil skirt hugged her like a glove, and her Louboutin heels... well, they made her look sexy as hell. She was suited up for warfare, but in that moment all he could think about was later, when he could take it all off her, except for maybe the shoes—they could stay on.

  He bit his bottom lip, shook his head, and took a deep breath as he set down a hot cup of tea in front of her.

  Her hand trembled as she pushed it away. “I can’t.” Her hand moved to her stomach, and she looked as if she might throw up.

  “You ready?”

  “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready, but I want to get this over with as quickly as possible.”

  The chair raked across the linoleum as she pushed it back to get up, and she followed him to the room they had set up for the interview. As they neared the door, she turned to stop him. “Can you stay out here? I think I want to do this alone.”

  He nodded.

  She tugged his arm and looked up at him with her sparkling blue eyes. “I need to do this on my own.” He reached up and cupped her cheeks in his hands, and she leaned into his touch, her eyes slipping closed for a moment. “I know you’re right here waiting if I need you. I need to do this for me.”

  “Okay, but I’ll be watching and ready, just in case.” He hooked his thumb over to where the monitors picked up the security feed.

  A smile rippled across her trembling lips. “Thank you.” She kissed the palm of his hand.

  His stomach bottomed out as she stepped away from him and his hand fell back to his side. The security feed showed the small room with a long table and two chairs. He sat down in front of the monitor and watched as the door closed behind her with a thunk, making her pause for a moment in her step.

  “Come on, baby,” he said to himself as his knee bounced up and down.

  When she stepped forward again, he let out a breath of relief. The sound of her pulling the metal chair away from the table reverberated throughout the room. She sat down, scooted the chair closer to the table, and folded her hands in her lap. He worried his bottom lip between his teeth as he watched her stare down her father. The two sat there in complete silence while the clock in the room ticked past the seconds, and then minutes.

  “Jesus,” he said under his breath.

  After five minutes had passed, Katherine cleared her throat and spoke in a strong authoritative voice—her FBI voice, he thought with a smile.

  “You wanted to see me?” She offered an inquisitive arch of her eyebrow.

  Alex shivered at the coldness that emanated from her.

  Her father seemed unperturbed by it as he sat there, studying her.

  Once a cop, always a cop.

  Slowly, the corners of Mr. Mitchel’s mouth cracked into a smile. “You’ve grown so much, Kit-Kat.”

  Katherine sat still, unmoved by his familiarity.

  “You look so much like your mother.” The old man’s expression softened, but her flat affect seemed to disappoint him. “You were such a little firecracker. Now look at you.” He puffed his chest pushing out in pride. “They tell me that you work for the FBI as a criminal profiler, and that you were the one to set this all in motion.”

  “You said that you would cooperate with the investigation if you saw me. You’ve seen me,” she said, her tone as frigid as before.

  Her father’s face fell as the wall between them grew tall and wide.

  Alex knew all too well how painful it was to be on the other side of that wall.

  “Katherine,” the old man said. “You have every right to hate me for deceiving you and the rest of the family. I need you to know that I did what I thought was best for you all. I was stuck. I had already taken some bribe money to look the other way, and when I had a change of heart they came down hard on me, threatening to discredit me, and to hurt you kids and your mom. I made a deal with them that, at the time, seemed like the only option. I really thought you would be better off this way. It seems you’re doing well here at the FBI.”

  She huffed angrily at her father’s words. “And on what are you basing this astute assumption?”

  Her father’s mouth fell agape. “I guess... I guess I don’t know. I’m sorry if I presumed wrongly.”

  Despite the old man’s otherwise calm exterior, Alex could tell he was starting to crack.

  Katherine wet her lips with a quick sweep of her tongue, and her eyes narrowed. “That’s an understatement. Scott’s a part of The Syndicate now, did you know that? Did you know that they killed Adeline to keep me quiet? Did you know Mom has been in and out of institutions since you died? Did you know that I was kidnapped, beaten, raped, and left for dead by The Syndicate?” She verbally vomited her rage at him through the rapid-fire succession of barbed questions.

  Mr. Mitchel paled at her harsh words. “No, I didn’t know that.” The old man’s hands trembled and his eyes pooled.

  “No, I think it’s pretty clear that you don’t know anything,” she replied under her breath as she examined her own clasped hands.

  With tears in his eyes, her father tried to meet her gaze. “Kat, I am so sorry. I don’t know what else to say. I....” He choked on his words.

  She pursed her lips and looked up in an obvious effort to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. Even after clearing her throat, her voice still wavered. “Your cooperation with this investigation would be appreciated,” she said in her professional tone again. “We’ll need you to give an affidavit stating everything you know, and produce any evidence you have to corroborate those claims.”

  Her dad nodded and reached across the table towards Katherine, but she pulled her hands back.

  “Maybe, in time, we can get to know each other better,” he said.

  She looked down at the table, gave a small, almost imperceptible nod, and stood up to leave. “Someone will be in shortly to explain the process and what we need to move forward. Goodbye, Mr. Mitchel.” She turned and walked briskly out of the room.

  Her father slumped in his chair when she left.

  As the door closed, Alex saw her bravado give out, and he was there at her side immediately. He took her into his arms as she sobbed into the scratchy material of his suit jacket.

  He pulled away far enough to wipe away her tears. “Come on, let’s go home.”

  ***

  CIA Safe House

  Wrigleyville Neighborhood

  Chicago, Illinois

  October 21, 2008

  6:00 AM

  ~~~

  Following the meeting with Katherine’s father, the field office requested assistance from Alex, who agreed to help. He’d told her how he’d anticipated them just needing an extra set
of hands to handle the large volume of paperwork that came with taking Mr. Mitchel into custody. He was surprised when they assigned him to be the ASAC for the Chicago side of the investigation.

  She was surprised too, but after living and breathing the investigation, he was probably best suited to fill that position.

  They put him in charge of managing the evidence collection; the evidentiary chain of custody; the staff assigned to the task force; and made him the point person for the representative from the AG’s Office. The office was charged with assisting the D.C. headquarters with preparing for the upcoming indictments. Arrests were scheduled to occur the day before Halloween, and Alex was assigned to be one of the arresting officers in the bust.

  He worked long, hard hours, and she missed him, but she kept herself busy planning for their move back to Virginia in November.

  The date of her deposition came faster than she’d expected. For security reasons, she gave her testimony to the AG’s staff at the Chicago Field Office. On her last day, one of the staffers had asked if Katherine had a tampon on her, and she realized with a start that it had been a long time since her last period. The app on her phone said it had been two months since her last cycle.

  During one of her scheduled breaks, she sneaked out of the office, with one of her bodyguards in tow, to go to a drugstore and pick up a pregnancy test.

  The next day, she awoke early and crept out of bed and into the bathroom to take the test. She didn’t want to worry Alex. It was silly even contemplating it, since the doctors had told her after the attack that it would be almost impossible for her to get pregnant. Still, as she waited for the results to show, she paced back and forth inside the tiny bathroom.

  She wasn’t opposed to having children, and if by some miracle she was pregnant, who was she to question that? An anxious prickling of fear crept up on her. What would Alex think? They had only been lovers for such a short time, for God’s sake! That weekend at the bed and breakfast....

  As much as she wanted to avoid looking at the stick, she forced herself to do it. Sure enough, two lines stared back at her. Pregnant. She slid her hand down her belly—they had made a baby.