Page 87 of One Final Target

“Really? There’s no doubt?”

“Right now everything points to Ian.” He paused and to Jodie, he didn’t sound at all convinced. “Though none of this was evident three months ago. I looked over your computer back then as well. I’m embarrassed to have missed all this. It really makes me want to catch this guy.” He continued. “I found a couple of other things, specifically some deleted emails.”

“I usually delete emails after I read them, unless it’s something I need to save. Then I put it in a folder.”

“These are emails on your work account. If they were to your personal email, they would be unrecoverable. But work is different. The system the PD uses makes it difficult to permanently delete anything, basically because who knows what might be needed in court someday. Anyway, this caught my attention because someone tried hard to delete certain email files.”

“What were the emails about?”

“I’ll send them to you. There are two sets: the first from Gus Perkins from about a year ago, and then the most recent, someone named Archie Radio was trying to get your attention.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, it’s right before your team went to serve the warrant in the mountains. He sent the emails from a public computer, somewhere in Running Springs, to your work account. It sounds as if there was something wrong and he tried to warn you.”

Jodie felt as if a knife just struck her in the chest. “Uh, stop. Let me process this.”

The line went silent. Seconds passed before Jodie could speak.

“How did I not see these?”

“How did I not see it three months ago? I retraced my steps. Someone with skill tried to completely erase them.”

“How could they erase emails without my knowledge?”

“The person shadowing you on the computer—Detective King believes it’s Ian Hunter—saw them first. There would be no reason for you to suspect anything if you never saw the email.”

“You don’t think it’s Ian?”

“I think there is more work to be done. This hacker, for lack of a better term, is good. I’ve never seen better. Is Ian a computer guy?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“Yet now everything points in his direction. I’m still poking around.”

“I understand. What’s in these emails?”

“I’ll send them to you. You can read them and decide for yourself.”

“Thanks.” Jodie hung up and then opened the first email from Jukebox, the most recent set. She looked at the date and subject.

I’ve never seen this before.

Subject:ALERT ALERT

Jo-Jo, it’s Juke. Hey, I was fed some seriously twisted information. DON’T DO THE RAID! STOP.

In the next one, sent a few hours later, Juke was wondering where Jodie was.

Didn’t you get my email? I can’t call you. They took my phone. One is a little weasel named Dennis. I don’t know the other one, but he killed Hayes. I saw him with the gun. HAYES IS DEAD! Don’t come. I just hope they don’t find me.

Jodie had to sit back and close her eyes for a minute or two.Why didn’t you call 911?

She knew the answer. Juke only trusted her. He trusted her to see the message and act. The warrant service was secret between team members. He would have only talked to her about it.

Oh, Juke, I’m so sorry.

She opened the older emails, from over a year ago, from Gus. Gus’s only email address was work because he was old-school. He didn’t have a personal account. He hated computers, only used them when he absolutely had to. Likewise, he wasn’t much for texting. Yet he could have called her. Jodie’s brow furrowed as she wondered why he didn’t.

---