Driven

by Rebecca Zanetti

  Rutherford had his phone recording, but he also took notes on a legal pad. “Why was Agent Zhang at your cabin in the middle of nowhere?”

  “None of your business,” Angus said easily.

  Rutherford kept scribbling. “Are you and Agent Zhang involved in a sexual relationship?”

  Ah. That was the tack he’d decided to take. Piss Angus off and see if he’d let something slip? “Again, none of your business.” He knew better than to lie to federal investigators, but he didn’t have to tell them anything he didn’t want to say. “Why? You interested in her?”

  Rutherford didn’t look up. “The last guy she dated nearly lost his position in the HDD. I don’t date nutj obs.”

  Irritation ticked along Angus’s skin. Nicely done. Rutherford had gotten in a hit, but Angus didn’t have to let him know it. “You probably couldn’t handle her,” he agreed, wanting to punch the guy in the nose.

  “Can you?” Rutherford looked up, his blue eyes clear.

  Angus leaned forward. “Are we really here to talk about my dating life? Tell me you at least have something on the asshole who shot at me and then blew up my cabin. Have you even found Millie Frost yet?” So far Brigid had been unable to track the young tech, so it was doubtful this guy had either.

  Fields crunched on the cough drop. By the smell, this one was lemon-flavored. “So you are dating Agent Zhang.”

  Angus sat back. He started to run through the line of questioning in his mind.

  “Okay. Let’s go over when you were shot at the other day. Nobody else saw a blue truck or a firefight,” Rutherford said.

  Angus rolled his eyes. “We didn’t engage until we were away from the businesses along the road.”

  Fields nodded. “That was wise of you. And the grenade and explosion last night at your cabin? Did anybody see the threat? Besides Nari Zhang?”

  Angus lowered his chin. “No.” He rolled his shoulders. “I’ve told you everything I know about both scenarios. All I can think is that either I or my team pissed somebody off. We busted a cult a while back and it’s entirely possible an old cult member is out for revenge. I don’t know. Give me access to my case files and I’ll go through them one by one.” After he found the serial killer.

  “Tell me where you were the night this woman was dumped in the alley.” Rutherford took out a picture of the first victim they’d found.

  Angus looked down at the dead Chinese graduate student. He shook his head. “This isn’t your case.”

  Fields looked at the picture, his gaze hardening. “No, but the bodies reflect an obsession with your team, so we called in a couple of favors in order to question you. I suggest you cooperate. Please answer Tom’s question.”

  Heat pricked along Angus’s neck, but he forced himself to stay in the moment. “I was at the office when I got the call about the first victim,” he said. “I called in West and Wolfe and we headed to the scene.”

  “Who else was at the office at that time?” Fields asked, not taking notes.

  “Roscoe, my dog.” Angus forced his temper elsewhere. These questions made sense, even if he didn’t like them. “You can interview him if you’d like, but he’s a tough one to crack.”

  “Sarcasm. Nice.” Rutherford took out the picture of the redhead draped over the log in the forest, a gaping hole in her chest. This time the cuts were smoother, although the dump area was not Lassiter’s style. “Where were you when Sasha McDouglass was dumped in the forest?”

  “I was at the office when the call came in. Most of the team had been there but had left.” He looked more closely at the young woman. So that was her name. “Who was she?”

  “You tell us,” Rutherford said, twirling the photo around with one finger.

  Angus lifted his head. “What do you mean?”

  “She doesn’t look familiar?” Fields asked.

  Angus studied the photo. “She looks a little like Brigid Banaghan, a former teammate of mine, but that’s it.”

  “All right.” Rutherford tapped a finger on the photograph. “You said that most of the team had gone from the office when you received the call about McDouglass. Who was left there with you?”

  “Nari.” In fact, it was the first time Angus had kissed her. A pit opened up in his gut. They couldn’t be going where he thought they were, could they?

  Rutherford drew out a picture of the victim found in the laundry room of Angus’s former apartment building. “What about this innocent victim? Lizzie Nelson? Where were you when she was dumped, right where you lived?”

  Angus looked at the woman, his chest aching. She was so young. So defenseless against a psychopath. “I was sleeping when the call came.”

  Fields reached into his pocket. “In the apartment complex?”

  “No. In my cabin,” Force said.

  “Alone?” Rutherford asked.

  Angus nodded, unable to look away from the gaping hole in the woman’s chest. Completely smooth lines this time—much closer to Lassiter’s work. “Except for Roscoe.”

  Fields pulled out another cough drop and slowly unwrapped it. “You still have your cabin in Kentucky?”

  “Yes.” The burger he’d eaten for lunch rolled around in Angus’s stomach.

  “Huh. If you still have that cabin, why did you need this one?” Rutherford cocked his head.

  Angus grew still. He needed to focus, damn it. “I like cabins.” He’d get any of his team still working for the government fired if he admitted they were working these cases together and had needed the cabin to do so. “Real estate is a good investment, you know.” Not the truth, but not a lie. He was definitely skirting the edge of a felony, however.

  “I have heard there are good returns on real estate.” Fields popped the drop into his mouth.

  Angus turned on him. “What is up with you and cough drops?”

  “I’m on a diet and they’re the only treat I get,” Fields said, sucking on the drop.

  Rutherford sighed. “They still have ten calories a cough drop, you know.” He shook his head and opened another file folder, pushing forward a picture of a dead African American woman. “Identify her.”

  Angus started. “You found another body today.” Shit. The victim looked a lot like Serena. Whoever had been watching the team had done so for months. “Are there still HDD operatives on Serena Johnson?”

  “Of course,” Fields said. “She’s safe. Unlike this woman. Her name was Bernadette Wexel.”

  “Was there a note?” Angus asked, his throat suddenly raw. Another woman. Another death. She looked young and broken in death.

  Rutherford leaned toward him. “You know there was, don’t you?”

  Angus closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. “All right. What did it say?”

  “You know. Stop messing around with us,” Rutherford snapped. “Stop playing. It’s over. You’re over. Don’t you want to get this all off your chest? Come on. They gave you to us because we know you. You were one of us—don’t let me down. Don’t let your team down.”

  Angus stared into the earnest eyes of the HDD agent. Well, he was going for earnest. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  Rutherford gave up any pretense of brotherhood. “I can help you or I can destroy you and everybody you’ve touched, including sweet Nari Zhang.” He slapped down the five pictures, one at a time, their edges barely touching.

  Death and pain and horrible endings.

  Rutherford tapped his finger on the first victim, who looked like Nari. “Lori Chen. A bright doctoral student who worked part-time at Miller’s Coffee, just down the road from your apartment building. How often do you get coffee there?”

  Angus leaned in to study the woman. “Hell if I know.” But he did grab a coffee there once in a while, when Wolfe wasn’t around to force sugar on him. It made sense that anybody targeting him might’ve come across her. “That’s a coincidence.”

  “You’d think.” Rutherford planted his entire hand over the dead redhead on the log. “Sasha McDouglass. G
uess where she worked?”

  Angus shook his head. “No clue.”

  “Squishy’s Car Wash. You know. Where you have an account and get your truck washed and detailed regularly. I bet you’ve talked to her more than once.” Triumph filled Rutherford’s gaze now.

  Angus turned toward Fields. “Are you kidding me?”

  Fields just stared at him, his shrewd eyes hard.

  Angus sat back. This was actually happening.

  Rutherford then slid the picture of the mutilated blonde in front of him. “She lived in your apartment complex and was found dead in your laundry room. Oh, and you don’t have an alibi for the time when she was dumped. Oddly enough, the security cameras were all cut by somebody who knew where they were.”

  Angus cocked his head. “You’ve lost your mind.”

  “Have I?” Rutherford pointed to the African American woman. “She’s a professor of theology whose family owns the Brickhouse Pub on Eighth Street. She works shifts sometimes to help out. You know the place, no?”

  Angus looked more closely at the woman. She did look familiar. “Yes.” He often met his team at the bar. It was quiet, with good beer. He pointed to the other victim. The woman with the pink streaks in her hair. “And her?”

  “Haven’t found the connection yet, but I was hoping you’d just tell us.” Rutherford shook his head. “Come on, Force. You’re a burnout and an alcoholic. I’ve seen it before. You were in the game and you caught the bad guy, but you can’t let go. You’ve re-created the case you miss.”

  Angus shoved his chair back from the table. “I didn’t kill these women. Jesus Christ, Rutherford.” He wanted to be furious, but instead he felt numb. Stunned into numbness. “I have an alibi for when McDouglass was dumped.”

  Rutherford smiled, going in for the kill. “Yes. Your lover alibis you. That won’t exactly hold up in court and you know it. Also, the second you get wind we’re on to you, your cabin blows up? Sounds like a truly excellent way to destroy evidence. What? Did you kill those women in that miserable cabin where their screams would never be heard?”

  Angus just stared at him. Oh, he knew the smart thing to do, but asking for a lawyer felt like defeat. He wouldn’t lose to this asshole. “You’re grasping for straws with both hands.”

  “No. We have federal agents serving search warrants on your cabin in Kentucky, Nari Zhang’s apartment, and your former apartment here. I have no doubt we’ll find the evidence to fry your ass. So make it easy on yourself. Claim insanity or something. Who knows? A jury might have sympathy for an ex-FBI agent who became the monster he’d chased for so long.” Rutherford gathered the photographs, sliding them away as quickly as the killer had sliced the life from those women.

  Fields sucked on his drop. “How long did you take with each woman? We don’t have the autopsies yet, but it looks like the torture took a while.”

  Angus sat back. “I’m done talking. You idiots need to find a different path.” Honestly, the circumstantial evidence against him was a lot worse than he’d thought. A decent prosecutor might even be able to make a case. “You know I didn’t do this.”

  “Wrong.” Rutherford sat back.

  The door opened and Tate walked in, along with two uniforms. His dark face was unreadable. “Angus Force, I’d like you to accompany me to Metro so we can continue this interview.”

  Rutherford shoved back from the table. “What the hell? Get out of here.”

  Tate smiled, showing the predator deep down. “You don’t have enough to arrest him, so he’s leaving. Force? I need to question you.”

  Angus sighed. He didn’t mind leaving HDD, that was for sure. There was a better chance he’d get information from Metro, the scrappy underdog here in comparison to the HDD and its resources. “No need to fight over me, gentlemen. I’m happy to accompany you, Tate. Let’s go.” It was going to be a long-assed day.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It had taken all day for Angus to be interviewed by Metro, and Nari yawned widely while waiting in her new rental car to pick him up. It was now almost midnight on Saturday night.

  He emerged from the building, so pissed off he looked as if he’d just rammed his head into the car. Opening the door, he slid inside, his muscled bulk shifting the entire vehicle. “Where’s Roscoe?”

  Nari’s temper wasn’t far behind his. She pulled away from the curb. “You’re welcome for the ride.”

  “Thank you. Where’s my dog?” Angus demanded, his shoulders looking as if they were made of solid rock.

  “He’s at my apartment, pacing and confused,” Nari said, reaching into the back for a fast-food bag. “Figured you’d be hungry. For now, how strong is the case against you? All Agent Fields would tell me was that you might be arrested and I could go to prison as an accomplice after the fact for providing a false alibi, although it isn’t false.”

  Angus rested his head back and his shoulders lowered as he obviously took a moment to try to relax. “Honestly? I wasn’t arrested because they’re still trying to build a case, and they don’t want me to hire a lawyer. All of the evidence is circumstantial, but it isn’t bad as a case. A good prosecutor might be able to make it stick. If they find an ounce of physical evidence, I’m probably screwed.” He groaned. “Plus, it’s a race right now to see who gets to me first—the HDD or Metro. They both want to arrest me and will the second they have enough evidence.”

  Nari drove up the interstate. “Do you think the killer intended this consequence? Or is it just that he’s after you, after us, and this is a result of the HDD and now Metro both being pissed at you?” At all of them, actually.

  “Dunno.” Angus bit into a burger, his shoulders too wide for the seat of the compact. “How much trouble are you going to get into for being with me?”

  “None.” She switched lanes and sped up. Oh, she was probably going to get fired. But for now, they had a serial killer watching them, a bomber/shooter trying to take out Angus and maybe her, and she couldn’t think how leaving Angus to fight all this alone would help anything. “Brigid acquired new phones for us and they’re in the back seat. We had lunch together while waiting for word on whether or not you were arrested.” Thank goodness he hadn’t been. Yet.

  He glanced into the back seat. “Already programmed?”

  “Yeah. Numbers, contacts, everything. She’s good at what she does.” Nari drove faster and headed for the exit to her apartment.

  Angus reached for another burger in the bag. “Did you two have protection?”

  “Yeah. There’s an HDD detail on her. I refused one, considering I planned to help you.” Nari tried for a light tone but definitely failed. No doubt Quan or Opal would find out, and she’d be in for a lecture, a transfer, or termination. Right now, she couldn’t worry about it. “If there’s another body tonight, will Tate call you?” A new victim had appeared every night, and the idea of another dead young woman made Nari want to throw up.

  Angus crumpled up the wrappers and shoved them in the bag. “Considering Tate almost arrested me, I doubt he’s willing to share any more information.”

  Nari rolled her eyes and pressed down her window to punch in the gate key. “How nice it was for HDD and Metro to work together to bring you down. So much for jurisdictional rivalry.”

  “Oh, they’re not working together. It’s a fight to the finish,” Angus muttered. Anger rode his tone, but he kept it low. “HDD knows me better, so if I had anything to give up, I would’ve probably done it with them. Then the case is Metro’s, so Tate had to be the one to finish the questioning and make the decision on arrest or not. For now. HDD is the one with warrants to search. Did they go through your place?”

  “Yeah and they made a mess.” She frowned. “You’d think I’d get some professional courtesy.” She drove forward and parked near her apartment.

  Angus stilled. “Does Roscoe have food?”

  “Of course. I bought him food earlier while working on your situation.” She slid from the car, anxious to be inside rather than
out in the open. Too many people had tried to hurt her lately.

  “Good.” Angus followed her, a solid form in an uncertain world, instantly changing the feeling of her entire apartment when he walked inside. The cool, calm lines now held a certain tension.

  Rosco jumped off the white sofa and came right for Angus with a welcoming bark. Angus caught him in a hug and set him down, vigorously rubbing his fur from head to tail. “I’m okay, boy. There’s nothing to worry about.” His voice gentled as he reassured his dog.

  The moment slammed right into Nari’s heart. Angus could be so sweet sometimes.

  Then he looked up, his green gaze clear and still sharp with anger. “We need to come up with a good plan for you.”

  She paused. “Huh?”

  He looked at the sofa, which held a Roscoe-size imprint. “We’ll stay here tonight, but then you need to leave. Go somewhere safe. I think I can talk Wolfe and Dana into going with you. He’s all in on this case, but she’s pregnant, and he’ll choose her safety every time.”

  “I’m not leaving.” Nari tossed her keys on the entryway table, which was once more in place.

  “Yes, you are.” His jaw firmed and he looked like an impenetrable stone wall in the center of a peaceful home. “You have to be safe until I catch this guy or guys, and leaving is the best option. You’re a target on two fronts, and neither of us can ignore that. Also, every second you spend with me jeopardizes your entire career, and that can’t happen.” He released his hold on the dog’s head. “I’m not asking, Nari. You are leaving.”

  Her mouth gaped open. “You can’t make me,” she blurted out. Great. Five minutes with the guy and she resorted to grade-school jargon.

  He didn’t retreat. “I can and I will make you.”

  Her head jerked in surprise. “The hell you can. Last guy who tried to manhandle me got punched in the junk. You want to go?”

  “Sure.” He lifted a shoulder. “However, this guy knows what you can do and is prepared for you. Also, I’ve trained with the best, have about a hundred pounds on you, and am pissed off enough to run through a wall. Feel free to kick me, princess.”