Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 132962 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 665(@200wpm)___ 532(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132962 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 665(@200wpm)___ 532(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
“No, sir. Special Agent Hanson was with the family that evening,” the less ugly one said.
“And is he around?” Mitch asked.
“He was here earlier. We relieved him,” the uglier one answered.
“Of course you did.” Mitch scrubbed a hand over his face as he headed for the elevator. Then thought better of it and bypassed the elevator to take the stairs down to the lobby and out the front doors, letting the sunshine soothe his frustration. Sliding his sunglasses in place, he took a seat on the closest park bench and pulled up the message he needed to send in private. This one was to Aaron.
He’d met Aaron years ago online, playing State of Decay. As it turned out, Aaron’s day job was part of the intelligence nerd herd division of the NSA. He had the highest security level clearance anyone could have, but as Mitch had come to learn, his skills didn’t require a clearance. He was a hacker through and through. His sole purpose in the NSA was to hack into the government’s systems. Something he did easily every single day and then assisted in fixing the areas of weakness. In other words, Aaron was badass and a great ally to have on his side even if no one else thought so.
“Hey, you busy?” Mitch texted.
“In Dallas at Geekfest,” Aaron texted back.
“Of course you would be there. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. I just got back from there. There wasn’t a room to be had,” Mitch texted back
“It’s been greatness. Wat’s up?”
“I’m calling in a favor. I’m on assignment and I need to figure out who someone is. Have time?” Mitch asked
“Sure, what’s there to go on?” Aaron asked.
“I have a picture I’m attaching—it’s not the best quality. His name is Cody. He lives somewhere in central Texas and he’s a Texas State Trooper. He was just assigned to the new mounted detail for the state capitol.” Mitch attached the photo he had and felt more than heard Connors stalking up on him. He purposely ignored him as he finished the text and waited for Aaron to respond.
“Seriously, what was that about? You never just leave an interview,” Connors asked as he came to stand directly in front of Mitch.
“It was bullshit and a waste of time. Besides, someone’s lying,” Mitch said, never looking up. Instead, he opened Aaron’s return message. “When do you need this back?”
“Whenever it’s convenient for you, but today would be good.” Mitch texted back quickly.
“It’s wildly assumptive to consider anyone in that room to be lying. They profile exactly as they should, and this isn’t a conversation to have so publically.” Mitch glanced up as Connors scanned the area, looking for wondering ears. His phone vibrated again, alerting him of another text.
“It shouldn’t take long. When I get back to my room, I’ll message you,” Aaron responded back.
Mitch rose, making a showing of stretching out his long body and rolling his shoulders. He did it all just to get a little further under the skin of his goody two-shoes partner who continued talking. Lord, did the man ever shut up? He tucked his phone in his back pocket and started for the car. Thank god he’d chosen to drive.
“You have got to stop walking away from me in midsentence!” Connors stated emphatically. Mitch did look over his shoulder, cocking his head toward their rental.
“The airport’s this way,” he said before lifting a finger toward the half a dozen or so cameras on the light posts around the hospital parking lot. “It’s more private in the car.” He never said another word, but by the time he had the car in reverse, Connors was buckling his seatbelt. God must have showed mercy on him because Connors didn’t start back up again until they hit the freeway. Best half mile of his life.
Chapter 13
“You guys travel in style,” Mitch said as he boarded the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s luxury private jet.
“You deputy marshals seem slower than the rest of the agencies I’ve worked with. Do you need sign language? Honestly, this is an important case. We need answers so we get preferential treatment, or did you not hear that in the conference call we all shared?” Connors replied.
“Wait, what? Was that a joke I just heard?” Mitch stopped and looked around like he’d lost something.
“Cut the shit,” Connors said over his shoulder as they were greeted by a flight attendant. In all the years Mitch had worked for the government, he’d never flown in anything this nice. For the first time in his long career, he second-guessed his decision to join the USMS. He should have gone FBI. Then again, he couldn’t walk around with a stick up his ass every damn day just to get perks like this.
Even cooler than the plane…they were seated and headed for takeoff in a matter of minutes. Mitch looked up as the overhead announcement started, and he realized Connors had been talking to him again. For the first time today, he considered he might be to the point of tuning the guy out, which would be great and might actually save the case, because he was pretty close to putting his hands on Connors to get him to shut up.
“Last night I read the case files that you presented last month. You’ve done a lot of leg-work on this. I couldn’t believe no one picked this case up. It’s clearly serial,” Connors said quietly as the flight attendant spoke and they began their ascent.
“Budget restraints, political infighting, whatever, I heard it all.” Mitch kept his voice equally quiet.
“How did you get involved in the Michaels case?” Connors asked, looking straight at Mitch. He got the impression that Connors might have thought he and Michaels were together at the time. Mitch couldn’t decide if he should string him along to humor himself or just tell the truth. Honesty won in the end.
“A personal favor. I stumbled on all this by accident.”
“Gentlemen, in about twenty minutes, we’ll be flying into some bad weather. We should be above the storms, but the pilot’s worried about turbulence. He’s asking you keep your seatbelts on,” the flight attendant said.