“Then why did he ask you to back him up?”
“We’re his insurance. If he can’t finish what he started, he wants to make sure I do.”
“That’s insanity. We could have done this clean, with minimal collateral damage.” Alexa shook her head. “But he doesn’t care about that, does he? If he’s got a shot at killing the bastard, he’s gonna take it, no matter what happens to him. Damn it, Jackson.”
She knew Kinkaid didn’t care what happened as long as he got what he wanted. Garrett was right about his having nothing left but revenge. And how much of Kinkaid’s mercenary days had been a part of his scheme to find the man who’d ordered the hit? Had he gotten involved with the drug cartels, hoping to find out who had been responsible for the murder of his wife and child?
His obsession had consumed him. That was what she sensed the last time she’d seen him on their mission into Cuba during a hostage-rescue operation, but after hearing what Garrett had to say, Alexa felt an overwhelming sadness for Kinkaid. What a waste!
“I want in.” She turned her attention to Garrett. “I understand your concerns about my objectivity when it comes to Kinkaid, but I’ve got to be a part of this.”
Garrett sighed and stole a glance toward Hank. The ground-team leader only shrugged his version of an endorsement.
“You’re in on one condition. What I say goes. You’re following orders, understood?” Garrett pointed a finger at her. After she nodded, he said, “And when this turns ugly, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Alexa knew that if Kinkaid was on a suicide mission, odds were that she’d see him die. And that thought fueled an ache deep in her belly, but that was a far cry from letting him go it alone. The least she could do was back him up.
And that meant taking down Pérez on his turf—in the stronghold of his estate.
Chapter 9
La Pointe, Wisconsin
Next morning
Jessie had taken a chance and gotten up early to catch Chief Cook at the police station. She didn’t intend to talk to him, knowing how far that would get her. This time, she parked down the street, playing a hunch. And when she saw his patrol car leave the station parking lot, she smiled.
“Gotcha.”
The man could have been making a donut run, but Jessie had a gut feeling he was up to something else. When he headed toward the DeSalvo house and turned onto a back road, she knew her hunch had paid off. True to his word, he had gone to see Sophia Tanner, the trip he had wanted to make alone.
“Sorry, Tobias. You can’t be the Lone Ranger, not today.”
But before he turned into the Tanner driveway, the chief spotted her in his rearview mirror and stopped in the middle of the drive, blocking her way in. When he got out of his vehicle, she did, too.
“I’m not breaking any laws, Chief. This is a public road. And I’m a tourist.”
“You’re loitering.”
“I’m bird-watching.” She glared at him, going on the offensive before he did. “What changed, Chief? One minute you’re talking to me, the next, you’re ready to slather me in hot tar and roll me in feathers. What gives?”
“Look, I don’t have to explain myself to you. What part of ‘this is my case’ don’t you understand? Is English not your first language?”
“Oh, I’m getting your message loud and clear, Tobias. And for the record, if I were bilingual, I could ignore you in two languages.” She stood toe-to-toe with him, her arms crossed. “Who’s Sophia Tanner? And why are you protecting her?”
“What? That’s ridiculous.” Chief Cook glared at her and worked his jaw like it pained him. “Anyone ever tell you, you’re a pain in the ass?”
“Yeah, but if it’ll make you feel better, you’re the first one today.”
Before Cook could mount a second wave of ornery, Jessie looked beyond him and waved her hand and smiled.
“She looks real friendly.”
Chief Cook turned to see Sophia Tanner standing on the porch. She was returning Jessie’s wave with one of her own.
“I might have to come back, to say hello.”
“Now I told you . . .”
“I know what you said, Chief, but the way I see it, you have two choices. You could invite me to stay, and both of us talk to her, or I can come back later—alone. Your choice?”
“There is another way to go. I could arrest you.”
“For what? Bird-watching?”
Cook dropped his chin to his chest and let his shoulders slump. None of this was going like he’d planned, but before he thought about things too hard, Jessie’s mouth was making promises it couldn’t keep.
“If I promise that I won’t say a word, will you let me sit in?”
Chief Cook clenched his jaw, and finally said, “Fine.”
The Tanner residence was the closest acreage to the house where Angela DeSalvo had been murdered. It was a mirror image of the DeSalvo place except that it was in better shape. The green clapboard house had a well-maintained yard with wooden steps that led to the front porch. Potted flowers hung from a cedar pergola near the front door. And Sophia Tanner was a collector of yard art, anything that spun in the wind.
By the time Jessie and Chief Cook parked their vehicles and got out, Sophia Tanner came out to meet them. She was wiping her hands with a washrag, wearing khaki slacks with a blue floral top.
“Hello, Sophia. Thanks for making time for me.”
“I didn’t expect you to bring a visitor, Tobias. Not with you wanting to talk about . . . that DeSalvo murder.”
Mrs. Tanner did not look happy with the chief, but when she turned her attention on Jessie, the woman smiled.
“I’m Sophia Tanner.” She extended her hand and waited for Jessie to reciprocate. The woman’s hand was icy cold.
“My name’s Jessie. Jessie Beckett.”
“You’re not from around here, are you?”
“No, ma’am. I’m not. I drove up from Chicago. I’m an investigator, helping Chief Cook with an old case.”
The woman squeezed her hand and held it a little too long. And the way she looked at her, it made Jessie feel uncomfortable. Chief Cook must have felt it, too. He cleared his throat and put his hand on Mrs. Tanner’s shoulder.
“Let’s go inside. Would that be okay?”
Mrs. Tanner blinked, almost as if she hadn’t heard him.
“Yes, of course. Please . . . come in.” The woman led them into her living room. “How’s that arthritis of yours, Tobias? You walking like I told you?”
“Sophia used to push me to walk at lunch when we worked together,” the chief told Jessie. “And she wasn’t a woman you could say no to, at least not often.”
Mrs. Tanner listened to Cook and smiled, but when she thought Jessie wasn’t looking, the woman stole glances at her. Jessie felt like a damned lab rat. The staring made her uncomfortable until she got distracted with the woman’s house.
The Tanner house was real homey inside, especially with the smell of coffee and cinnamon lingering in the air. And she collected antique furniture, good-quality stuff, and had lace and pastel frills everywhere. But when Jessie saw all the family photos in the living room, the smiling happy faces reminded her of what she’d never had—a family.
She’d been a ward of the state of Illinois and had never been around a real family, except for those in the foster-care system that she’d stayed with when she wasn’t in an institution or halfway house. All of her belongings had been kept in a trash bag, ready to move when the state ordered it. That was no kind of life for a kid.