Line of Fire

by Rachel Ann Nunes

  “Deal. But you’ll have to hurry. He believes they may be planning to take her out of the country.”

  Huish led the way to interrogation, while I found myself stumbling down the hall behind everyone except Greeley, who walked beside me, not appearing tired in the least. The detective’s eyes met mine and did a slight double take. “Your eyes,” he said. “They’re different.”

  “Just the light,” I muttered, looking away.

  Greeley slowed. “What are you hiding?”

  “Me?” I snapped my head around to glare at him. “You’re the one who lost evidence. You and your team, here. Meanwhile, I’ve made more progress than you have in two weeks, so don’t talk to me about hiding. Someone in this department obviously doesn’t want us to find Jenny. You’re over the detectives in the criminal investigations unit, and that makes it your fault. Yours and Commander Huish’s.”

  “Evidence isn’t under my control,” he snarled.

  I shrugged and walked on. Okay, I shouldn’t have alienated him, but he was like that annoying piece of gum I once stepped in on a hot sidewalk. It’d taken several scrubbings to get it all out from between my toes.

  This time Cross, Huish, Greeley, and Bremer’s attorney went into the interrogation room while the rest of us watched from outside.

  “We accept your deal,” Cross said. “Information about Jenny in exchange for immunity from anything we uncover about you during the investigation. Provided it helps us find her. This will not affect other charges already pending or in place.”

  “I need it in writing,” Bremer muttered, his charm not in evidence.

  “We have approved it with the prosecutor’s office, and the paperwork is pending,” Agent Cross said. “I’ve been authorized to give you what you ask.”

  Bremer glanced at the recorder on the table and then at Gretta Hansen, who nodded. “Okay, look,” he said, staring at the table. “I was dealing in Portland and hooked up with this group. They’re based in Washington but have guys in every city along the West Coast. I worked for them a few months, but I quit and went my own way. I did a stint in prison after that, and when I got out they started hassling me. Didn’t like that I wasn’t going to work for them anymore. I had enough support—firepower—from my new associates that they didn’t dare do anything to me in Portland, but they got to me anyway.” He stopped and heaved a sigh. “They found out I came down here for Jenny and sent guys to follow me. I saw two of ’em outside the restaurant where I met her. I recognized one of them, and I pushed her hard to come with me because I couldn’t protect her where she was, but she got scared and told me she didn’t want to see me again. Later, I saw two other guys at her school and outside her home. I argued with them, trying to get them to leave her alone, but they threatened me.”

  “You think these men took her?” Cross asked.

  “I know they did. They left me a note saying she was payment for what I owed.” He looked up at Agent Cross for the first time. “It’s at the hotel where I’m staying. I don’t know how they found me there, but they did. They had the manager deliver it.”

  Huish placed both hands on the table. “You say you recognized one of the men outside the restaurant? Who was it?”

  “Millard, the guy I stabbed, and that clerk from the gas station. I knew Millard from Portland before I went to prison the last time. In fact, he was still in Portland up until a few months ago, or maybe it’s been a year. Anyway, he was the one they sent to contact me about paying them when I got out of prison. I’d heard he had a cousin, and the guy with him outside the restaurant looked enough like Millard that I figured they were related. Later I followed them to the gas station and then out to some house Millard had rented. I don’t know what the cousin is doing here—he isn’t anyone I knew from Portland—but he’s got to be involved, and that’s why I went back to the gas station. I was going to see what he knew. Then the cop and that psychic came along and ruined everything.”

  That meant the clerk was involved. Everyone in the hallway exchanged meaningful glances. Shannon gestured to the microphone in Levine’s hands. “Ask him what he did to make the drug guys so upset.”

  Levine repeated the question into the microphone. Inside the room, Greeley nodded slightly. “What did you do to them? You can’t tell me they came after you because you decided not to work for them. They’d just kill you, if that was the case. What did you do? Or what do you have on them?”

  Bremer didn’t answer. Hansen leaned over and whispered in his ear. He gave a sharp nod and met Greeley’s eyes. “Okay, I intercepted one of their payments. A quarter million. For all my trouble I went to prison because it was part of a police raid.”

  “Don’t tell me,” Cross said, her voice dripping disgust. “You still have the money.”

  Bremer waited a few seconds before replying. “Well, they think I do.”

  Greeley slammed his fist on the table. “Why didn’t you just give it to them? Do you think your daughter’s life is worth that money? Do you think any little girl’s life is worth any amount of money?”

  “I tried!” Bremer shouted, his color deepening. “Don’t you think I tried? But they want double, or they say they’ll get more from her on the black market.”

  “What?” Cross asked.

  Bremer’s nostrils twitched as if he smelled something nasty. “They don’t just traffic drugs. They also deal in girls and sometimes boys, mostly homeless or runaways. Kids no one is looking for. I don’t even know how long they’ve been doing it. I was only into the drug side of things when I worked for them. I stabbed that man because I wanted to find her before it was too late.”

  Silence filled the room beyond the glass. I could see denial on every face, but we all knew he was telling the truth. I tried to tell myself this was good news for Jenny, that it meant she was still alive, but it was difficult thinking about the terror she must be experiencing.

  “That explains why they tried to kill Millard,” Shannon said, turning his back to the one-way glass. He spoke quietly, though no one inside the room could hear what we said in the hallway. “They couldn’t risk his talking about the drugs or the girls. Especially the girls. This entire city would be up in arms if they knew.”

  I swallowed hard and spoke low enough for only him to hear. “Sounds like my sister’s drawing, the depressing one Bret told me about that showed a bunch of girls sleeping on a carpet.”

  “The same men could have taken the gas station clerk.” Agent Morley dragged his own eyes from the scene in the room, where Cross was once more questioning Bremer.

  Shannon nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. Even if he’s involved, like Bremer thinks he is. They could have taken him to make sure he doesn’t tell us what he knows.”

  “Or maybe he disappeared when he suspected we were onto him,” Morley said. “At any rate, I think we just found out how he bought his house.”

  Shannon’s gaze shifted back to me. “We have to find that U-shaped house from the imprint, the one you saw on the keys.” He paced the width of the hall, his brow drawn in thought.

  “You think they have girls there?” Levine asked.

  “Or the drugs.” Shannon grimaced. Once again, he looked at me. “Do you remember if the men on those leather couches in the imprint looked like businessmen or thugs?”

  “They looked like the type of men who’d stage a shoot-out in the garage of a hospital.” I sighed, feeling frustrated. “How can we find that house? No one recognized it by my description, and by the time we drive around the entire city, they could be long gone.”

  Shannon stopped pacing. “I’ll talk to Huish and Cross when they finish talking to Bremer. Discuss our options.”

  Morley held up a hand. “Wait. This might be interesting. He’s talking about how he looked for Jenny.”

  We all focused on the room beyond the glass. “So you have no idea where Jenny might be now?” Cross asked Bremer. “None at all?”

  “I thought she was here in Salem or maybe Hayesville, bu
t she could be anywhere by now. I’ve tried to stall them, saying I’ll get the money, but I could never raise that much. I’m a small-time operator. If I give you names of the people I know in Portland, maybe you can find their connections here. Some of them might have been transferred, like Millard.”

  Greeley’s next question formed a knot in my stomach. “What about Cody Beckett? Is he involved?”

  “Maybe if you showed me a picture.”

  “So you don’t know the name?”

  “Nope. Never heard of him. Is he connected to Millard somehow? That’s not the name of that clerk at the gas station, is it?”

  “No, it’s not. Cody Beckett’s a local artist.”

  My attention was drawn away from the room as Shannon returned to his pacing in the hallway. “Where’d Levine go with that microphone?” he asked. “I need to tell them something.”

  “He went to get a photo of Cody,” Morley said.

  I sagged against the wall. They all thought Cody was guilty, even now when a drug ring was clearly involved. Maybe they were right. After all, he’d been involved with drugs in the past.

  Had it been his car I’d seen?

  Shannon strode back and tapped on the door to the interrogation room. When Huish opened it, he said in a low voice, “I can call vice in Portland and verify any names he passes along, in case they aren’t in your database.”

  “Thanks,” Huish said. “That’ll save us red tape.”

  “We’ll get our guys on the line, too,” said Morley, pulling out his cell phone. “Cover all the bases.”

  I knew that sometimes communication and information sharing didn’t go as smoothly as it should between different law enforcement groups and was relieved that Shannon and Morley could cut through the bureaucracy. We needed to find Jenny sooner rather than later—as well as the other girls, if there were any.

  “I’m only giving you two names to begin with,” Bremer was saying as Huish turned back into the room. “I’ll give you more once I have a signed deal.”

  Greeley fumed and Cross looked upset, but Huish nodded. “We’ll get it for you.”

  Shannon gave Autumn a weary smile. “Looks like this is going to take a while. Why don’t you go find some place to sack out? I’ll wake you if anything interesting happens. Looks like most everyone’s gone home for the night except the deputies who are directly working this case or those out on patrol. You should be able to find some quiet corner.”

  His idea was good, seeing as it was nearing ten o’clock already and we hadn’t stopped all day. Except instead of resting, I wanted to be alone to go over the case in my mind, to see if we’d missed anything. I was also famished. Maybe I would look around the station break room to find something to eat. Better yet, I seemed to remember a restaurant not too far away. Probably not organic, but they would at least have something high in protein.

  Leaving Shannon and Morley, I went to the ladies’ room to freshen up. My short hair miraculously looked halfway decent, though nowhere near Agent Cross’s perfection. I used a little water to tame down one side that had dried a bit funny after one of my falls in the snow.

  I was opening the door when I heard a subdued voice in the hallway on the other side. “I’ll get your money, but I need more time. I know he’s done wrong, but I’ll fix it. Please. You know I’m good for it. We’re swimming in medical bills. You just need to give me a bit more time.”

  I stood still, the dull thud of my heart suddenly loud as I recognized Commander Huish’s voice. Who was the “he” who’d committed a wrong that the commander felt he had to fix? Had to be his son, the one on drugs. Must be an embarrassment for the leader of the Marion County Sheriff’s Enforcement Division to have a son who was hooked on drugs.

  “Fine. You’ll have it,” Commander Huish growled. “Don’t call me again tonight. I’m still at work.”

  Silence. I peeked out and saw the commander staring at the ground, facing away from me, his fists clenched.

  Detective Greeley appeared farther down the hall, so I pulled back inside but stayed close to the door to see what else I might discover.

  “Good. Just the man I want to talk to,” Huish said. “What’s with sending that stuff from that clerk’s house to the lab without consulting me? I told you I wanted to be involved.”

  “That’s my call. Always has been. Am I running the investigations unit or not?”

  “I’m your supervisor.” Huish’s voice was cold.

  “I know that. But you have to admit you haven’t been on your game lately. Is something up with you?” There was heat in Greeley’s voice, contrasting directly with the ice in his commander’s.

  I inched back farther, gently shutting the bathroom door. No way did I want to be involved in that conversation or let either one know I’d heard. But it was interesting that Huish and Greeley weren’t as tight as they seemed. Did each suspect the other?

  I was beginning to wonder about both of them. Huish hadn’t immediately sent for Gail’s ex-husband after learning about Jenny’s questionable paternity, not until Shannon mentioned it, and he also hadn’t cared much for obtaining the warrant to search Kirt’s place. Then there was the strange phone call I’d just overheard.

  On the other hand, the disagreeable Greeley had sent his inept partner looking for Kirt, as though he hadn’t really wanted to find him at all. He hadn’t let me near the bloody knife at Millard’s, either, when it would have been easy to find a tiny space free of fingerprints for me to touch.

  Had one of them exchanged the boot?

  Or were Jenny’s parents lying? They had a measure of prestige in the area, and Gail had done favors for a lot of people in the course of her charity work. Maybe someone from the sheriff’s station owed her enough to lose the boot until she could exchange it. Gail had lied before, or at least concealed the truth, and maybe the boot imprints would have shown that her relationship with Jenny wasn’t all it appeared.

  What about Cody? My mind always came back to him and what he might be hiding behind that gruff nature. Tawnia would be devastated if he was involved. Maybe I would be, too.

  I reached for the bathroom door again, this time humming loudly and pasting a fake smile on my face. No one was in the hallway, though, so I let the smile go and went to find my coat, checking to make sure my wallet and phone were in one of the pockets. My handbag was in Shannon’s truck, but I wouldn’t need that.

  Huish appeared in the big room. “Going somewhere?”

  “Just leaving for a bit. I need a break—and to get some food.”

  “Good idea. But before you go, could you draw a quick sketch of that house you were telling us you saw in that imprint at the clerk’s? I’d like to show it to Bremer and also run it through our database. Hopefully, it’s in there somewhere.”

  “Uh, sure. But I’m not that great at drawing.”

  “I’ve called in our sketch artist, but he was at his kid’s play. He’ll probably be here when you get back, but I want to get a head start on this.”

  I had on my gloves, so I reached for a pen on one of the desks and began drawing on a paper Huish gave me. When I finished, it was awkward but recognizable, at least to me.

  “I’m going to get this to the police, too. Maybe one of their patrol officers will recognize the place. It’s kind of distinctive.”

  Just when I’d begun to suspect him, he went all professional on me.

  Huish took the paper. “Have the deputy at the door walk you out. Make sure there’s no one there. We still don’t know what those guys wanted from you and Detective Martin in Portland.”

  “Okay.” I turned on my heel.

  “Oh, and Jonathan’s just down the street. Only a minute’s walk, and they’re open ’til midnight. They might have a free table or two this late, or you can get takeout. They make an awesome steak.” His smile looked genuine, and I wondered how he could hide his inner turmoil so well. “Tell them you’re with the sheriff’s department and they’ll hurry the order. We’re good tippers.
I’ll tell the guard to watch for you when you come back so you can get in.”

  “Thanks.”

  At the outside door, the guard and I looked around to make sure no figures lurked in the darkness. Not that I expected anyone to jump me in front of the sheriff’s office in downtown Salem. Many people lined the sidewalks in both directions, most of them wedding guests coming from the nearby Grand Theatre.

  “I’ll keep a watch on you just in case,” the guard said, staying by the door.

  The freezing air pierced my lungs, feeling much colder than I remembered from an hour earlier. This didn’t stop the bride from walking into the snowy street in her wedding dress, her shoulders bare. I was glad for her sake when her groom placed his jacket over her shoulders and helped her into a waiting taxi.

  Staying alert, I’d barely reached the front sidewalk, skirting a pile of snow someone had shoveled off the walk, when I heard a car door slam followed by a shout.

  I whirled, fearing a van and men with guns or at the least an angry Greeley demanding to know where I was going. Instead, it was Cody Beckett, hurrying away from his gold Honda.

  “Wait!” he shouted.

  A chill crept across my shoulders that had nothing to do with the cold.

  Chapter 16

  I contemplated running down the street or hurrying back inside the sheriff’s office, but he was one man and an old one at that. However good the condition he might be in, I felt confident I could defend myself. Plus I had a weapon he couldn’t possibly match: the knowledge of our relationship.

  I paused, waiting for him to reach me. He moved rather more stiffly than he had on our lengthy jaunt in his woods, and I had to wonder why. He wore his customary jeans but had added a gray knit cap and a black ski parka. I couldn’t be sure because of the darkness, but the parka looked snagged all the way down one side of his chest.

  “Thanks for stopping,” he said rather grudgingly.

  “Do you need to talk to me?” I scanned the well-lit area. Still no sign of anyone suspicious. Besides Cody, of course.