“You can read the interviews. I don’t want you talking to the people of this town unless I’m with you. But after nearly twenty years, the memory of some of these folks may not be so good. The best you’ll get is probably in those interviews, when their minds were fresh.”
“You’re probably right. And thanks, Chief.”
Jessie followed him back to his squad car in silence. For the first time in a long while, she was stumped for anything to say. The harsh reality was that the death of Angela DeSalvo might only be another piece to the puzzle of her life. The case had gone cold for a reason. Getting her hopes up now would only make it harder later if the answers she’d hoped for couldn’t be found.
She knew she had been at that crime scene before. That had been real, but none of this explained why she’d ended up with Danny Ray Millstone.
At least, not yet.
Guadalajara, Mexico
Two hours later
After Alexa had been dropped downtown, it didn’t take her long to find suitable accommodations. She’d checked into the Villa Ganz, a quaint boutique hotel on the west side of the city near Avenida Chapultepec and the beautiful Zona Rosa district.
With the hotel catering to a discreet clientele, the average tourist couldn’t afford the luxury accommodations, but she’d picked the hotel for other reasons. Her room had a good view of the street, and there were plenty of ways to bail in a hurry if she had to. And anyone who came looking for her, without an invitation, would get noticed if they weren’t a guest.
While she waited for the sun to go down, Alexa had gotten familiar with the hotel layout, looking for viable egress plans in case she needed them. She had also made a few calls and arranged for a rental car to be brought to her. A dark SUV with tinted windows was waiting downstairs, but before she left the hotel, Alexa called Tanya to check in.
“I’m here. Anything new?”
“I had Seth do a little digging into the use of that satellite. Whoever is behind this off-book mission isn’t only using it to trace one cell GPS signal at the Pérez compound. Harper backtracked their trace.”
“Oh? What else are they working?”
“Something happened in El Paso that triggered all this. And from the satellite imagery, they were following a moving signal that ended up at the Pérez estate.”
“Do we know what they were interested in?”
“Yeah, and Harper sent me the images. From what I can tell, a man was abducted on the U.S. side in El Paso and taken over the border to Pérez. We’re trying to figure out who he is, but that’s a long shot.”
“You think it’s Garrett?”
“Don’t know. He’s been missing longer than this man was abducted, but no telling what this off-book job is. I’ve forwarded the images to you on your cell. There’s not enough detail to see faces, so no luck there.”
Alexa couldn’t help but let her disappointment get to her. They had plenty to be concerned about but nothing real to go on.
“Harper told me one other thing,” Tanya added. “It seems phone chatter inside the compound was picked up once the hostage was delivered. Whoever this man is, it’s a big deal to the men who took him.”
“Do you think our team is there to rescue this guy?”
“From what we can tell, they haven’t made their move,” Tanya said. “It’s like they’re waiting for something.”
“Or someone,” she speculated.
“Maybe, but none of this makes sense from where I’m sittin’. I’m worried.”
“Yeah, me too. Thanks. I’ll call you when I can.”
“Be careful.”
After Alexa ended the call, she sat on the edge of her bed, thinking about what Tanya had told her as she stared at the satellite image she’d been sent. Tanya was right. There wasn’t enough detail to see faces. All they had was proof of a kidnapping. Only her gut made her believe that Garrett was the abducted man.
But if this was a Sentinels’ operation, why would anyone sit on the sidelines watching a kidnapping and do nothing about it? She had a feeling Donovan Cross knew about this mission. And since he’d tried to stop her, that had given her another reason to fear that Garrett was the guy in the hands of that drug cartel.
But something else bothered her.
If Hank Lewis was on the ground in Mexico, why would he sit still and let anything bad happen to Garrett? Like Tanya said, none of this made sense.
No matter how things played out, she was in the right place to do something about it.
Alexa grabbed her stuff and headed for the lobby and her rental car. Dressed in dark jeans, hiking boots, and windbreaker, she tipped the valet and dropped the nearly empty duffel bag she carried on the passenger seat next to her.
Before she headed for the coordinates Tanya had given her for the Pérez compound, she’d make contact with a local that the analyst had given her, an arms dealer who would have what she needed to fill the bag she’d brought.
She wanted to acquire a com unit to keep in touch with Tanya, a full surveillance package, body armor, grenades, two MP-5s, and a couple of handguns with ammo. If someone was tracking a cell-GPS signal inside the compound of a drug cartel, they’d soon have a shadow.
Alexa only hoped her efforts would lead her to Garrett—and that when she found him, he’d still be alive.
Police Station
La Pointe, Wisconsin
“You plannin’ on stayin’ the night?”
Jessie looked up to see Chief Cook standing in the doorway of the small conference room they’d allowed her to use. She’d been poring through the murder book and had photos, interview notes, and other evidence spread over the table.
She’d officially taken over part of his station house.
“Oh, wow.”
When she looked past him toward a window, she saw that the sun had gone down, and it was dark outside.
“Sorry. I didn’t realize what time it was.”
“You’ve been so quiet in here, I didn’t want to interrupt,” he said. “You have any questions before I head out for dinner?”
The chief told her he would be working a little OT, catching up on paperwork, but eventually when he left for the day, she’d have to leave the case files behind.
“I noticed a folded map with notes on it. What did you use that for?” she asked, pointing to the aged paper map that she had pinned to a corkboard near the door. The town map had been laminated with red circles and notes in black marker on it.
“That map was used by me mostly. I kept track of who we’d interviewed, the neighbors who lived closest to the crime scene. With the properties so sprawled out, I wanted to make sure we got everyone.”
“Looks like you did make contact with everyone who lived around the DeSalvo place.”
“Yep, all those red circles. Once my men told me they’d made contact, I circled the location. What are you getting at?”
The chief narrowed his eyes, and she felt a distinct chill in the room after she questioned his investigation. The map had been loaded down with small, abbreviated notes from the chief. A lot of detail, but something was missing.
Before she answered the chief, one of his deputies poked his head into the conference room. Deputy Tyrell Hinman had introduced himself before when he got her a coffee refill.
“You need me, Chief. I’m fixing to head out.”
“Ah, no. You go on, Tyrell. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Sure thing. Good night, Ms. Beckett. It was nice meetin’ you.”
“Yeah, you too.” Jessie barely looked at the deputy. She had kept her eyes on the chief. While the deputy interrupted, she saw the wheels of Cook’s brain working. The man was leaping ahead, trying to figure out where she was going with this.