Dead Heat (23 page)

“When was the last time you slept?”

“He kidnapped a little girl!”

“And the FBI is running with it.”

“Sam, something big is going down, I feel it. You do, too.”

“We have no proof. All this could be because of one typical drug shipment.”

“It’s not. You’d agree if you weren’t—”

He cut himself off. Insulting Sam wasn’t going to get her to see the truth.

“I want Jaime Sanchez as much as you do, Brad. If he falls, a lot of dominoes fall. I like that. But I don’t want you to risk your career over this.”

“I haven’t crossed any lines.”

“We can’t keep Mirabelle Borez.”

“Like hell we can’t.”

“The most we have her on is harboring a fugitive. The fact that one of her brothers was killed in jail and her daughter has been kidnapped is in her favor. She has a hearing tomorrow morning in front of Axelrod. She’s going to be released.”

He tossed the stress ball into the trash can. “We have to stop it.”

“I don’t know that we can. I’m not going to fight it. The AUSA doesn’t want to, in light of what’s happened to her daughter.”

“Does Mirabelle know?”

“She doesn’t know we’re not going to object. The AUSA is going to move for a strict probation, but that’s it.”

“Then I want another run at her beforehand.”

“Her lawyer isn’t going to let her talk.”

“I have another idea.” He had none. But he wasn’t going to tell Sam that.

“What?”

“I’m going to bring in FBI Agent Kincaid—she’s a psychologist, she got info from the girl, I think she can push Mirabelle’s buttons.”

“Is Casilla okay with us using his people?”

“I talked to him in person yesterday. I sent you the report.”

He was grasping at straws, he knew it, but he didn’t know what else to do. And he had the info from Dixon. Not a huge tip, but it was something. If he could push Mirabelle on McAllen … maybe she would give them something more to work with. A name, address, any straw.

Sam was watching him, and he kept his face as tight and blank as possible. He retrieved his stress ball and squeezed it once before putting it back on his desk.

“All right,” she finally relented. “I’ll have the AUSA work it out, tell her to keep it zipped about tomorrow until the hearing, and maybe you’ll have some leverage. If you and Kincaid can get her to give us
anything
I’ll take you both out for beers when this is all over.”

“I need one more thing.”

She sighed. “Brad—”

“It’s legit. I have a tip that Sanchez might be heading to McAllen. Might already be there.”

“Where?”

“An informant. He’s been reliable in the past.”

She mulled that over. “I can call the SSA down there, find out what they might know. They already have an alert on him, they would have called me if he’d been spotted.”

She started to leave, her hand on the doorknob, but before she opened it she said, “Brad, we’ve been colleagues for fifteen years, as well as friends. You’re my best agent, you know that, but you’re also the only one who truly worries me. Don’t let Sanchez destroy you.”

“He won’t.”

She wanted to say more. He looked her in the eye, almost daring her to bring up their past. If things had been different—if he hadn’t been transferred under her command, if she hadn’t suspended him for two weeks last year when he disobeyed orders, if they didn’t see the job from different angles—maybe they could have made it work. But there were too many obstacles, and too many fundamental disagreements. She wanted to fix him. He didn’t need fixing.

“Let me know what happens.”

“You know I will,” he said, standing.

“Why don’t you take Rollins with you instead of the FBI agent?”

“Nicole is good in the field, but Kincaid has a knack with people.”

Sam nodded. She, of all people, appreciated when strengths were used. “Remember, Nicole is part of your team, don’t shut her out.”

Sam left. What did she mean by that? Did Nicole feel he was keeping things from her? Ridiculous. He’d shared everything with everyone on his team.

He dry-swallowed three aspirin and left to track down Nicole. She was on the phone. He wrote a note.

Off to run at Borez one more time. Sanchez might be in McAllen—Archer is calling down, follow up with her. Text me if anything breaks.

There. He wasn’t a control freak, or obsessed. He’d just delegated an important task.

He walked out and dialed Lucy Kincaid’s cell phone.

“Kincaid? I need you to help me break Mirabelle Borez. Meet me at the jail in thirty minutes.”

CHAPTER 18

Brad was practically bouncing on his heels when Lucy walked into the county jail where Mirabella Borez was being held.

“Thanks for coming,” he said.

“Of course.” Lucy eyed him, half suspicious. Brad was both distracted and excited, an odd combination. “I was surprised, though, considering the first interview with Mirabelle.”

“I told you yesterday we might do this.”

“Yes, but—”

“Push her on the danger to her daughter. You’re the shrink, I think you can do it. You said you wanted another run at her.”

“I’m not a shrink.”

He dismissed the comment. “Look, Lucy, I’ve read your files. I know you have a master’s in criminal psychology, and your brother is a respected forensic psychiatrist. You understand her, right?”

“I think so, but—”

“You said she didn’t care about her daughters, and that might be true—”

“That’s not exactly what I said. I said that she would be fine with them going into the system because she didn’t think that she’d be held for longer than a few days. She was weighing the situation, calculating.”

“Look, I’m going to be honest with you.”

She tilted her head. “That would be nice.”

“They’re going to cut her loose tomorrow. She doesn’t know, but the AUSA isn’t going to fight the defense’s motion. I don’t know the legalese, I suspect they’re going to try to have everything tossed, use the grief card, we’ll get probation, time served, some such thing. But she doesn’t know. I want to push her as hard as I can to get
something
that will lead us to her brother. Get her to slip up.”

Lucy was shocked. “What about Michael? She had a child locked in her basement.”

“And she’ll say she didn’t know. Or that he wasn’t held captive, he was living down there.”

“That’s bullshit, and you know it!” Lucy rarely swore, but she was seeing red right now. “Her daughters both knew.”

“CeCe isn’t talking and Bella is missing. This is our last opportunity to compel her to talk. Anything we can get is better than what we have.”

“I’ll do my best.” But Lucy was not happy with the situation. There was no doubt in her mind that Mirabelle knew all about Michael being held against his will.

“We need an idea about where Sanchez might be holed up. Safe houses. Friends, family we don’t know about. I got a tip that he’s already in McAllen. I have locals there following up on it, but I can’t go down myself unless I have something tangible.”

A corrections officer approached. “The prisoner wants a minute with her lawyer. You good here?”

“Yes,” Brad said. He waited until the guard was gone, then said, “I’m going to observe. You’re in there with just her and her lawyer. Keep your earpiece in, I may have some questions for her if you get her to open up.”

“More likely I’ll get her to slip up than open up,” Lucy said.

She filled him in on her meeting with Jennifer Mendez and the possibility that there were many more boys from the foster care system who’d been marked as runaways, but were in fact coerced to work for Sanchez. “There’re too many similarities. The scar on the forearm is only one. There’s at least one common foster home between Richie Diaz and Michael, both of their fathers are in prison, they don’t have a mother in the picture. Different CPS counselors, they’ve been gone different lengths of time, and Richie was murdered—but the fact that they both originally came from Sanchez’s neighborhood tells me that they either knew him, or their fathers knew him.”

Brad absorbed the information. “That’s all good. Are your people running it down with CPS?”

“Yes. Both from the director’s end, and from my end. Jenny is going to try to get the information we need faster.”

The guard approached again. “They’re ready for you, Agent Donnelly.”

They followed the guard down a locked hall, were required to leave their weapons with another guard, then proceeded down yet another locked corridor until they reached the small interrogation room. Donnelly slipped into the narrow adjoining room where he could observe and listen.

Lucy walked into the interrogation room alone. Mirabelle’s attorney, Keith Glum, glared at her and said, “Where’s Agent Donnelly?”

“I’m Agent Lucy Kincaid from the FBI,” she said. “We met the other day.”

“What do you want? We were waiting for Donnelly.”

She sat down across from them. She looked directly at Mirabelle. “Donnelly is focused on finding your brother. I’m focused on finding your daughter. Kidnapping is under the FBI.”

“My client has nothing more to say.”

“Good. Then she can listen.” Lucy sat down and looked Mirabelle in the eye. The woman maintained eye contact, possibly trying to intimidate her, but it wouldn’t work.

“You’re not safe and neither are your daughters. Your brother took Bella as leverage. Over you, over someone else, I don’t know. But she’s in danger, and you know it.”

“Family does not betray family.”

“I agree. I have a large family and I would do anything for any one of them. I would die for them. I would kill for them, to save their lives. I know where you’re coming from. Jaime is your brother. But Jaime is in deep with the wrong people, and now he’s put Bella in harm’s way.”

Mirabelle snorted.

“You think it’s funny?”

“Jaime can handle himself.”

“The people he’s associating with killed George.”

“Your people killed George.”

“You don’t believe that.” Lucy shook her head. Donnelly was talking in her earpiece.
Find a way to drop McAllen. Like a bomb.

“If you didn’t lock him up, George would be alive today.”

Lucy ignored that and continued. “If the people your brother is working for will kill George to keep him quiet, they’ll kill Jaime. And then where will Bella be? Where will your sweet, beautiful seven-year-old daughter be then? Stranded with violent predators? Sold to an old man who likes to screw little girls?”

“You’re sick!”

“
They’re
sick! Bella is in danger, and Jaime will not be able to protect her if he’s dead.” She paused. “Why did he take her in the first place? To make sure you wouldn’t talk? Or because she knows about the boys locked in the basement.”

A flicker in Mirabelle’s eyes, but her attorney said, “My client has already told the DEA and the AUSA that Michael Rodriguez was not locked in the basement, but was living there.”

“I spoke to Bella, and she told me the truth,” Lucy said, ignoring the lawyer.

Glum said, “You spoke to her without an advocate. She’s a seven-year-old child, hardly more than a baby. Nothing she said will hold up in court.”

“And now your brother took your little girl out of the city.” Again, something in her eyes alerted Lucy that she was going in the right direction. “We’ve confirmed they’re in McAllen.”

She shook her head. “He wouldn’t. He would never hurt Isabella. We’re
family
.”

“Right now, she’s safe with him, because he loves his family. That’s why he does all this, to give his family—you, your daughters, George—a better life. Food. Money. A house. I honestly believe that Jaime will protect Bella if he can.” Lucy didn’t know that for certain, but Mirabelle believed it, and Lucy had to work with that.

“But,” Lucy continued, “what happens when these people think he’s risking them? It’s a war out there, and Jaime is in the battlefield, which means that Bella is in the battlefield. What happens if he takes her across the border? Does she have a passport? Anything to help her get back?”

It was evident she didn’t, and Mirabelle paled.

“McAllen is minutes from the border. Once they cross, she’s gone forever.”

“Agent Kincaid,” Glum exclaimed. “Enough with the threats.”

“I’m not threatening anyone. I want to find a scared little girl who cried and begged not to be taken. A little girl who is in the middle of a dangerous situation, taken away from her family and home, on the run. Do you want her to be caught in the crossfire? Because that’s the kind of life Jaime leads, and you know it. Every cop and federal agent in southern Texas is looking for him. Is he going to give up willingly or go for the gun battle? And where will Bella be when he does?

“Help us find Bella and I’ll help you.”

Mirabelle was thinking. Lucy could practically see the gears in her brain turning. Yes, Mirabelle was selfish, a criminal, had no qualms about locking Michael up in the basement, but she did it for her family. She would use her daughters, but she didn’t want them hurt. Lucy finally understood this woman and what made her tick. What she would be willing to do for her family.

“You don’t understand,” Mirabelle said, but she’d lost some of the venom. “He wouldn’t. He knows that—he just wouldn’t.”

“He wouldn’t what?”

“Leave the country. He wouldn’t.”

“To save himself? Yes, he would.”

Now Mirabelle was visibly scared, her eyes wide and searching. She didn’t want to believe Lucy, but she
did
believe her. Because she knew something.

“Save Bella.”

“Jaime will protect her. That’s all. I’ll say nothing.”

“And what about CeCe? Why did he leave CeCe behind and only take Bella? CeCe wanted to go with him, but he didn’t take her.”

Mirabelle frowned, but didn’t speak.

“That’s enough,” Glum said. “You’re fishing. My client has nothing more to say. She doesn’t know where her brother is, or where he took her daughter.”

Lucy leaned forward, focused solely on Mirabelle. “You know where he’s going. You’re scared. For him, for Bella. You can save him, Mirabelle. More, you can save your daughter.”