Cold as Ice

by Allison Brennan

  He scowled, shook his head. “The SAC himself reamed the chief of police and ultimately, I’m not being arrested, but I can’t leave the county and I’m suspended pending investigation.”

  “Nate, I’m sorry,” Lucy said.

  “I want these bastards,” he said. “Aggie has a theory.”

  Lucy listened to Aggie’s analysis, and immediately when she mentioned the Saints, she said, “Elise befriended a girl, Marie Ynez. She was affiliated with the Saints.”

  “I thought they were all but gone,” Nate said.

  “They’re not organized,” Aggie said, “but they’re around. Brad has been watching former members, it’s been quiet, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t working for whoever will pay them. That’s what I think Mitts is—for hire.”

  “And you know where this girl is?” Nate asked.

  “Yes. I need to talk to her and to a corrections officer who spontaneously quit.”

  Lucy told Nate and Aggie about Elise sneaking out of the prison, and about her nontraditional probation. “Elise didn’t leave just to get a tattoo and her hair done,” Lucy said. “And she returned because that’s part of some plan—the same plan that has Sean in jail and Brad missing and drugs planted in Nate’s car.”

  No one disagreed with her, even though it sounded incredible.

  Lucy had read Marie Ynez’s file on the way back from juvie, and shared the information with the others. “Marie had a messed up life. She was sexually and physically abused, her brother and mother are in prison, her father was killed in prison, her other brother is dead. She wants out of the cycle. She’s in a group home, gets good grades, and the warden doesn’t think she would be involved with a crime, but I don’t like the fact that Elise befriended her—especially since her brother was part of the Saints.” Lucy glanced at Aggie and realized she might not be the best person to talk to Marie. “I think Aggie should talk to her.”

  “Why?” Nate asked.

  “Because Aggie doesn’t look like a cop and she’s smart enough not to be manipulated.”

  “Thanks,” Aggie said, sounding surprised. “And she might give us a lead on Mitts Vasquez.”

  Lucy concurred. “I would join you,” she said, “but Elise may have told Marie lies about me. Elise never met Aggie.”

  “She’s not going alone,” Nate said.

  “I’m right here,” Aggie snapped.

  “Nate, you would intimidate the girl,” Lucy said.

  “I’ll stay in the background, but if we’re dealing with anyone associated with the Hunt family, no one goes anywhere alone. They grabbed Brad—they had to know his routine, because he’s too good to be followed. And they could know about Aggie, even though she’s new.”

  Lucy frowned. Jack’s words came back to her.

  They took out our core.

  “What?” Nate asked.

  “Jack and I were talking before you arrived. He said someone is taking out our core. It’s Elise and whoever is working with her. But … revenge isn’t the motive. It’s a motive, but this is too big and too elaborate to be the primary motive.”

  “The Hunts are crazy,” Nate said bluntly. “Especially Elise. Revenge is a perfectly viable motive. And didn’t Nicole plot revenge against the DEA? Just because she was found out?”

  “No—I mean, yes, she did damage to the DEA out of spite, but her primary motive was to disrupt the system so that she could get her confiscated money. She was cold and calculating, she would never have stayed in town if she had the money to get away.”

  “And Elise is young and wild and it makes sense that she’d want to get back at everyone who took out her family.”

  Something shifted in her thoughts. “We didn’t get everyone.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Her father. Jimmy Hunt.”

  “He’s in prison,” Nate said.

  “In L.A. What do you want to bet the first thing Elise did when she landed in L.A. three weeks ago was to visit her father?”

  She didn’t know why she didn’t think of it before, except that she hadn’t been involved in the Jimmy Hunt extradition and prosecution, had never met him, didn’t work any aspect of his case.

  She needed to know if Elise talked to him. It might not mean anything, but if Elise and Jimmy had talked even once over the last three weeks, maybe he was the one orchestrating her moves. It made sense. She’d taken direction from Tobias, her half brother. She would be more apt to take direction from her father than coming up with something this elaborate on her own.

  And maybe then it really was just about revenge. They had killed his wife, his niece, his son. Would he use his only living daughter to get it?

  Yes … she thought he would. And Elise would be more than happy to do it.

  “I’m going to contact the agent who was involved in that investigation,” she said. “Hopefully, she can get the information first thing in the morning.”

  She looked at her watch. “Okay, you guys get going and we’ll meet back here when we’re done, no matter how late. Garrett and I are going to talk to the corrections officer who resigned.” She looked at the lawyer. “I assume you’re coming.”

  “Jack would kill me—literally—if I let you go out alone. I have to say that I feel you’re interfering with a police investigation and this could come back to hurt you.”

  “The police aren’t looking at Elise Hunt, at least not yet.”

  “What about Jess?” Nate said. “He shouldn’t be by himself.”

  “Leo Proctor called earlier and said he’d help any way he could as long it wasn’t about Sean’s case,” Lucy said. Leo was a senior agent and the SWAT team leader. He was also the lead hostage negotiator and Lucy had been working closely with him for the last year. “But can you stay for the weekend?”

  “You don’t even have to ask. But I’ll have to deal with this drug situation if they call. I’ll ask Leo if he can help if that happens.”

  Lucy agreed with the plan and sent Leo a message. He responded immediately. “Leo will be here in fifteen minutes. I’ll wait for him, you and Aggie go talk to Marie Ynez.”

  She hugged Nate because she needed a friend, and he was the best friend she and Sean had here in San Antonio. Maybe ever. He was a rock and she loved him.

  “Be careful,” she said. “If they’re watching what went down today at the courthouse, they might not like that you were released.”

  Nate and Aggie left, then Lucy went up to talk to Jesse. When Leo arrived, she secured the house, then she and Garrett left. This time, Garrett drove—which was fine with Lucy.

  This time, the SAPD officer didn’t follow them. She was about to mention it to Garrett when her phone rang.

  “Kincaid.”

  “Lucy, it’s JT. I talked to Nico, our PI in Los Angeles. He hasn’t seen Elise since Wednesday afternoon.”

  “Forty-eight hours ago?”

  “He and his team have been watching since Tuesday morning. He first laid eyes on her Tuesday afternoon. She left Wednesday morning, went to the mall, the gas station, a salon, then was home that afternoon. He confirmed she entered the property. There are two ways in and out, and they had them both covered. But since he hasn’t seen her, he’s been checking his surveillance film and believes she left in a delivery van that arrived Thursday morning. That’s the only way she could have eluded him, unless she went out on foot in the middle of the night, which is a possibility.”

  “She knew she was being watched.”

  “I’m emailing you and Nate photos of everyone who has gone in or out of the property since Nico has been monitoring the situation. Rick is working on identifying them, but you need to keep their faces in your head. Rick is having Blair Novak go to the prison to talk to Elise’s father, Jimmy Hunt. She’s the agent who liaised with the DEA in extraditing Hunt from Mexico.”

  “Nate and I were just talking that Hunt might be behind this. How’d you think of it?”

  “I didn’t. Rick did. He’s been on top of this. He
told me you called, he knew you were upset with him.”

  “I shouldn’t have been. He’s under a lot of pressure right now—”

  “No apologies. We all love Sean, Lucy. He’s family. He shouldn’t be going through this and we’re going to get him out.”

  “Thank you.”

  “But what I really wanted to tell you is that Rick already had the prison logs checked. It helps to have the assistant director of the FBI making the calls himself. Elise Hunt visited her father the day she landed in Los Angeles, three weeks ago. It could be that he gave her marching orders, or told her what was happening. He’s in prison for life, and we can make his life hell if he doesn’t cooperate.”

  “Thank you,” Lucy said.

  “I don’t know that we can trust anything Hunt says, but Novak is good, and she was instrumental in pulling together evidence once the FBI extradited him back to the U.S. from Mexico. So give her a chance. Megan is flying down tonight to join her.”

  Megan Elliott was Jack’s wife, an FBI agent based in Sacramento.

  “Why Megan?”

  “Why? Because we’re a family, blood or not, and no one is going to let either you or Sean fend for yourselves. We’re going to get to the bottom of this. I promise.”

  JT’s reassurance gave Lucy hope that they would. That by Monday, Sean would be home and they’d know who killed Mona Hill and framed him. That they’d find Brad safe, clear Nate’s name, and put an end to whatever revenge plot Elise had concocted with her father.

  In the back of her mind, though, she couldn’t help but fear that the worst was to come.

  Chapter Sixteen

  SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

  While Aggie and Nate were driving to Marie Ynez’s group home, she got a message from Brad’s administrative assistant that Salter had the video of Brad’s abduction.

  “I need to make a stop,” she said. “You have to stay in the car.”

  Nate looked at her without comment as she sped toward DEA headquarters.

  “Fine, come in, I’ll be suspended for disobeying Salter’s orders not to get involved in your case.”

  “I don’t need your help.”

  “Yes, you do,” she snapped. “But go ahead, play maverick, get Marie to talk. Because she won’t tell you anything, and you know it. She’s a sixteen-year-old girl stuck in juvie for being forced to help one of her brother’s miserable friends.”

  He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t get out of her small truck when she pulled into the parking lot.

  “I won’t be long. I’m going to grab a copy because Lucy or you might know one of the suspects.”

  She was surprised that Salter wasn’t there when she walked in. It was well after five, but with Brad missing he should be here working the case. She found Rena Abrams at her desk outside Brad’s office. She was one of the few people still here from before Nicole Rollins betrayed them. She’d been the staff secretary for years, and Brad promoted her to his admin when he took over the ASAC mantle. She was loyal and devoted to him, so devoted that she postponed retirement to help Brad set up the new office.

  Rena had been crying; her face was red and splotchy, and the makeup she’d had on earlier in the day had been wiped away.

  Aggie went over and gave her a hug. “I should have been here, but—”

  “I know. You are doing what Brad told you to do.”

  She didn’t know what to say.

  “Do you think anything goes on with Agent Donnelly that I don’t know about?” she snapped.

  “I’m sorry, I—”

  She handed her a DVD. “I made you a copy. Agent Salter is at FBI headquarters putting together a task force. I know you’re working with Agent Dunning and Brad thinks highly of him.”

  She almost denied it, but Rena wouldn’t believe her if she did. So she kept her mouth shut. “Anything happen since I left?” She’d only been gone three hours. It felt like all day.

  “Agent Salter was on a conference call with Houston, they called in the FBI, we’re getting all the help we need, but no one thinks he’s alive. But they didn’t kill him on that tape.” She said it emphatically, needing to believe he was still alive even after more than six hours.

  Aggie asked, “Is Martin looking for me?”

  “No. He’s in over his head. He’s a good agent, methodical, and focused, but he’s not good in a crisis, I’ll leave it at that.”

  She took the DVD and told Rena that she would call later.

  “Find Brad—but be careful.”

  “Ten-four,” she said and left.

  She told Nate what Rena said about the FBI and the task force. She grabbed her laptop from the small space behind the driver’s seat, booted it up, and popped in the DVD.

  Heads together, they watched the black-and-white recording. It started thirty seconds before Brad’s car stopped. They couldn’t see him—just the front of the car as it skidded to a stop and four masked men in black rushed the vehicle. Two had come from the direction of the warehouse and two had come from out of range, across the street. The actual abduction was mostly off-screen, with only one man visible—holding a gun on Brad’s car—then two men came into view dragging a semi-unconscious, struggling Brad across the street and out of sight. Aggie thought that was it, then ten seconds later a black windowless van flashed by. It turned up the street directly across from the camera. She couldn’t read the license plate, but it was visible. With enhancement they should get the numbers.

  As if Nate knew what she was going to say, he said, “The FBI will be all over the plates and tracking it. I’ll call Zach and see if he’ll give me the information. But this confirms that Brad was alive when they took him.”

  The van turned right at the intersection, a small dot now on the camera. She closed her laptop and slid it back behind her seat.

  She had nothing to say. Seeing Brad manhandled like that disturbed her. She was an agent, she’d gone through training, she’d been Tasered and shot with pepper spray and put into a variety of scenarios so she’d know what to expect if it happened to her.

  But seeing a friend—a mentor—dragged away like a sack of potatoes, they couldn’t prepare you for that.

  She sped out of the parking lot, going faster than even she usually drove, trying to work through the frustration. Nate, fortunately, didn’t comment, nor did he grab the chicken stick.

  She was beginning to like him.

  Okay, she’d always liked him, but she was glad he was with her now because she didn’t know what to expect. While she was confident she could handle most anything thrown at her, she feared Brad was dead. That they wouldn’t find him in time.

  She drove to the group home, south of downtown, in an older neighborhood that looked nice, but bordered one of the highest crime precincts in the city. If she were running a group home, she wouldn’t put it in walking distance to a big drug center. But the house itself was well-maintained, clean, with a lawn and wide porch. It looked homey and safe.

  Coming here was iffy. Lucy had given her all the information about Marie Ynez, but if the director of the home didn’t allow them to speak to her, they didn’t have a warrant or even an active investigation. She had to wing it.

  She said to Nate, “Go with me on this.”

  “I’ll follow your lead,” he said. “But if I say jump, you jump as high as you can, understand?”

  She blinked. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of his comment. “O-kay,” she said slowly.

  He said, “I have your back, Aggie. Take lead, but I have to know that you’ll do what I say if I see a threat.”

  That she understood. Nate might not trust her—yet—but she trusted him.

  It was a start.

  She rang the bell. Less than a minute later a teenager answered the door. “May I help you?” she said, though she didn’t open the locked screen.

  Aggie showed her badge. “I’m Agent Jensen with the Drug Enforcement Agency. I’d like to speak with Hannah O’Dell or Rose Hernandez.”

 
“One moment, please.”

  The girl didn’t seem scared or worried. Based on Lucy’s notes, there were twelve girls between the ages of thirteen and eighteen who lived here at any one time. Hannah and Rose were licensed social workers who ran the home through a private nonprofit and contracted to the city. They had a solid record and only three of their charges had gotten into trouble with the law within a year of living here—and none while they were in the program. Out of more than one hundred ten girls who had gone through this house, those were terrific numbers.

  A moment later, the door opened and a petite Hispanic woman who looked younger than Aggie answered. “I’m Rose Hernandez,” she said as she stepped out. She closed the door behind her. “May I please see your badge?”

  Aggie showed her badge and identification. Nate had his ID, but because of his suspension he didn’t have a badge. He showed his ID, and the woman didn’t ask for more.

  “How can I help you?”

  “We’d like to speak with Marie Ynez.”

  “Regarding?”

  “When she was in juvie, she was roommates with a girl named Elise Hunt. Elise aged out three weeks ago, and is now wanted for questioning. We haven’t been able to locate her at the address on file, and the warden indicated that Elise had become friendly with Marie. We’re hoping that Marie might help us find her, and might have additional information regarding Elise’s plans.”

  “I don’t understand,” Rose said. “What plans?”

  The woman was not going to be a pushover.

  Aggie remembered something Lucy had told her months ago. “Be honest, as much as you can. People know when you’re lying to them, and they’re not going to help if they think they’re being played.”

  “Elise is the younger sister of Nicole Rollins, a former DEA agent who was working with the cartels. Rollins murdered my boss.” Slight fib—she’d still been at the academy at the time. “Rollins was shot and killed after her escape from prison, and Elise was arrested at that time. We have information that Elise may be seeking revenge on certain law enforcement officers in the DEA and the FBI who were involved in the operation that ultimately ended in Rollins’s death. We can’t find her, and we’re concerned because a DEA agent is missing.”