Page 68 of Facing the Enemy
I handed the nurse my business card. “When he’s alert, would you call me?”
“Yes, ma’am. But I encourage you to check back on your own. We often get busy.”
Before leaving the hospital, I called Gage. He didn’t pick up, so I left a nonurgent voice mail to get back to me. I told him what Jack had alluded to before falling asleep. I drove back to my apartment, where I’d rewrite my sloppy notes from this morning.
I’d contact Luke Reardon next to possibly fill me in on what Jack couldn’t say. He and his wife had been married about three years. I’d gone to their wedding, a spring event with dozens of yellow, pink, and white tulips. No children yet, and they lived in a small bungalow in the Heights. Before I could contact him, an email landed from SAC Dunkin.
Mary Smith is Emily Lock, a fugitive wanted in Columbus, Ohio, for representing a fraudulent adoption agency. She has been ID’d by the Wades as part of the illegal private adoption scheme in Des Moines. She posed as single and pregnant. You can be sure this ring is working beyond the three states already identified.
By Emily Lock showing up in Houston, she’d made a mistake, an opportunity for law enforcement to arrest her. Why attempt access to Jack except to kill him? Perhaps finish what she or someone had started? I texted the SAC.I’ll be in the office tomorrow. Thank you for all you’ve done for me and my career.
The SAC’s response arrived moments later.Just help bring in those behind the adoption fraud. I’ll forward our texts to the ASAC and Gage. Good to have you back.
I’m trying to locate Luke Reardon. Just to talk.
He hasn’t been in the office this week.
Had my logic been hijacked? Trenton used to say I overthought too many scenarios, and my IQ often stood in the way of common sense. His rationale also said my logic got in the way of emotions. We were so opposite. A brother was supposed to be wired for logic, and a sister had the drama personality. Not Trenton and me.My sweet brother. How I miss you.
If enduring a tragedy made a person stronger, then I had achieved an emotional phoenix. Maybe. I hadn’t talked to God about repairing our relationship fully. I’d started but much needed to be done.
The best way for me to remember Trenton was to find his killer. Did Jack suspect his former partner’s involvement?
A shiver at my nape disturbed me, an intuition that wouldn’t leave me alone. If Luke didn’t respond soon, I’d drive to his house. Jack seemed insistent I talk to him, and the motive stayed fixed in my mind.
35
GAGE
I entered an empty interview room to talk to SAC Dunkin, but my mind weighed down with what bad news he might report. “I’m alone,” I said.
“Did Ethan Mercury confess?”
I updated the SAC on Ethan’s interview and the likeness to Carson’s story of the night Trenton Jacobs was killed. The video and transcript would be further evidence the two had given an identical testimony. “I’ll retrieve his phones and ensure a tech checks them for tracking and recording.”
“You have free rein on this, Gage. Whatever expedites the investigation, go for it. Mrs. Mercury is aware of a threat to her and her sons, but nothing else,” the SAC said. “Agents have given her one hour to pack, except she refuses to leave her home without talking to her husband first. Ethan needs to be coached on what to tell her, a reasonable explanation but omit Carson’s involvement and the attempt to eliminate him and Risa. She can find that out later, but not today.”
“Mrs. Mercury must be upset,” I said.
He groaned. “Extremely.”
No one wanted to deal with a person in distress mode. “I met herrecently, but with her agitation, I won’t mention it unless needed. I’ll give Ethan and Carson your instructions.”
“At this point, we address the bare facts until we have evidence to make arrests.”
“I’ll handle it, sir. Last night I drove Carson’s Jeep to the hospital on the chance I might talk to Jack. I learned from the charge nurse that he’s not doing well. His room is heavily guarded, but a man tried to get by the nurses’ desk a couple of hours before I got there. They called hospital security, but he left before they arrived. I viewed the security cams, and his build resembles the man Carson described as John Smith.”
“Stay on it. Check to see if Ethan can identify him,” SAC Dunkin said.
“Will do. Someone stuck a note on the Jeep window informing me, ‘You’ll always be a step behind us.’ I’ve got it with me and will have it analyzed. The hospital security cam caught a slight figure that could be a man or a woman.”
“Put a rush on the handwriting analysis. The one in your possession may be a different person or someone attempting to disguise their handwriting.”
“We might get lucky.”
“Good thought. To bring you up to speed, as of this morning Jack’s been upgraded to serious condition, and he’s able to have visitors five minutes on the half hour. We have a positive ID on the man who attempted to run Risa and Carson off the road. His name is Norman Peilman from New Brunswick, Canada. Although his plates were from New Mexico. No employment listed or prior convictions. No connection to Mercury Alarms or any of its companies. Peilman might have been a thug hired for grunt jobs with no idea of who’s paying him. Or he used an alias and possibly altered his appearance. We’ve found nothing connecting him to the Phan sisters or Trenton Jacobs. I’m sending Peilman’s info to your phone.”
“Anna Wright at Houston Healing and Hope Maternity Care supplied us with a list of past and present employee information. I haven’t dug deeper into the findings other than one of the present employeesby the name of Clyde Washington said he’d only talk to Jack Bradford or his partner, meaning Luke Reardon. He might change his mind knowing Jack’s in the hospital.”
