Authors: Misty Evans
Ronni stepped up beside him and handed him a fresh cup of coffee. “Bobby will be in shortly. He just got a call from the team hunting for that fishing cabin.”
Her voice conveyed that she thought it was good news. Cooper wasn’t holding out hope. So far, they had nothing. Most of the crime scene reports weren’t back yet. The car had last been spotted off Interstate 680 near Freemont, then disappeared. Cal Reese and Bianca Marx seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth.
Bobby, Ronni, and ICE agent Nelson Cruz had worked all night digging up information on Cal and Bianca’s families, past history, and possible locations they might go. The fishing cabin was in Bumblefuck, USA, way out in the rolling hills of Northern California, but Cooper prayed that’s where the two had holed up for the night.
When Bobby rolled in a minute later, Nelson was with him and Cooper could see from the look on both men’s faces that there was no happy ending in sight.
He just hoped Bianca was still alive. “What’d you find out?”
“Cabin was deserted,” Bobby said, “but someone had recently been there. Embers in the fireplace were still warm. My guys found a long, blond hair on the couch and several in the bed.”
Ronni’s face lit up. “Bianca’s? The CSI techs found several of her hairs in the shower drain at Emit Petit’s.”
Nelson drew out a chair and rubbed his eyes as he sank into it. “Won’t know for sure unless we run a DNA test. There were also other short, dark hairs found on the floor at the cabin. Similar to those found at the beach house. Guessing a dog.”
Cooper set his undrunk coffee on the conference table. Cal Reese was a dog alright. “Any blood? Any signs of a struggle?”
Bobby answered. “None.”
Cooper could see his friend was holding something back. “But…?”
“The team I sent is thorough. Very thorough. They found some, uh…something that appears to be bodily fluids. On the bed sheets.”
Ronni took a seat across from Bobby. “Semen?”
Thomas, who’d been dozing in the corner after their all-nighter chasing the Chevelle, opened his eyes and cracked a grin. “Bianca, you naughty girl.”
If he could have reached Thomas, Cooper would have smacked him upside the head. “We don’t know it’s them, and even if it is, as long as it was consensual and Bianca’s not a kidnapping victim, that’s none of our business.”
“It’s them,” Bobby said, setting his tablet on the table and scooting it over to Cooper. On the screen was a picture. “They found the Chevelle.”
Thomas meandered over to peer at the photo of the yellow car, half covered with vines and tree limbs. Reese had hidden it. “They left on foot?”
Bobby touched the screen, flipping to the next photo of tire tracks. “Two vehicles stopped in front of the cabin. Those tracks were made from some heavy-duty, off-road terrain tires. One of my guys is a car nut. Says the treads belong to something that works off-road as well as on. GMC Yukon, Range Rover, that sort of thing.”
Cooper leaned on the table, staring at the photo. Two vehicles, no signs of a struggle, semen on the bed. “Any idea which direction they went?”
“Yep.” Bobby tapped the screen again and a grainy satellite shot of a highway with two burgundy-colored Land Rovers, one behind the other, appeared. “This might not be them, but if it is, they’re headed north on I-5.”
Ronni frowned. “You snagged satellite images? I thought that’s what we had Bianca on the taskforce for. Spying on people.”
Bobby smiled. “She does it legally. I do it…well, less legally. Besides, you didn’t really think the NSA sent her to help us, did you? She was sent to spy on Dupé.”
“Holy shit,” Thomas said. “I didn’t know that.”
Neither did Cooper, and it gave him pause. “Spy on him for what?”
“Maybe someone doesn’t like the way he’s running our taskforce?” Bobby offered.
“How do you know that’s why NSA sent her?” Cooper asked.
“I’m a hacker, remember?” Bobby tapped the side of his head. “And I’m smarter than all of you put together. I know things.”
“Did she find anything on Dupé?” Ronni asked.
“Not yet.”
Nelson, seemingly unconcerned, passed Cooper a piece of paper. “I ran the plates on the vehicles in the photo. They belong to Roman Enterprises.”
“What’s that?” Thomas asked.
“A shell company for several businesses owned by someone you might be interested in.”
For the first time in the past twenty-four hours, Cooper felt a ray of hope. “Who?”
Bobby rubbed his hands together with glee. “Emit Petit. Along with a couple of other businesses, this guy runs a security service. High-end. He only takes rich and/or famous clientele, and his employees all happen to be former Special Forces men. A few of them were referred to him by Reese.”
“So Emit and Reese have something going and they’ve taken Bianca along. Why?”
“She’s NSA,” Ronni said. “She knows everything and can hack into anything they want.”
Cooper ignored the scenarios that particular comment sent running through his head. “What’s north?”
“Sacramento.”
“What’s in Sacramento?” Ronni asked.
Bobby shrugged. “No idea. Neither of them has any ties to the area that I can find.”
“Any government installations?” Cooper said. “Anything they would need Bianca’s expertise for?”
“Nothing I’ve found so far.” He took back his tablet and rubbed his eyes, mimicking Nelson. “I’ll keep digging.”
Cooper paced to the window and back. “What about the guy who was in Petit’s beach house? The one who got injured? Any ID yet?”
“Let me check.” Bobby tapped a few keys, entered his password for his email. His eyes scanned the incoming mail and he shook his head. “Nothing yet.”
Thomas held out his hand to Cooper. “Looks like a road trip to northern Cali. I’ll drive.”
Driving would take too long. “We need to get ahead of them. Get to Sacramento ASAP.”
Ronni pulled out her cell phone. “I’ll call the airlines about flights.”
“No,” Cooper said. “Call Dupé. We need a helicopter.”
Bobby looked up from his email. “Sacramento’s a big place, Coop. You need a starting point.”
Bobby
was
smarter than all of them put together. Didn’t mean Cooper liked it. “Do your best to track those vehicles and alert Sac PD. If they spot the cars, they should contact us and not engage. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t want Bianca in the line of fire. I want to know what Reese and Petit are up to first and have a solid plan in place before we go after them. Clear?”
A knock sounded on the door behind him. Through the plate glass, Cooper saw a figure. No one visited this office except for Dupé, unless it was an aging senior citizen who got lost looking for the social security admin office.
Nelson and Thomas both went on alert. Cooper made a hand signal to stand down and both men returned to their relaxed positions. Cooper didn’t buy it. He knew they had their hands on their weapons. But at least they wouldn’t give some poor old woman a coronary.
To his surprise, it wasn’t a senior citizen on the other side of the door. Instead, he found a man in navy whites. From the insignias decorating his jacket, he looked to be an officer. “Is this the SCVC Taskforce?”
“It is,” Cooper answered.
The man removed his hat and ran a hand over his short hair. “I’m looking for Bianca Marx.”
Inside the room, Thomas snickered. “Join the crowd.”
“And you are?”
“I’m her husband’s Senior Chief, Justin Lugmeyer.”
“Cooper Harris. I’m her boss.”
They shook and Cooper motioned the man inside. “What’s your business with Agent Marx?”
“I believe she’s kidnapped my platoon leader, Cal Reese.”
This time, Thomas laughed out loud. “Bianca kidnapped
Reese
? What alternate reality do you live in?”
The senior chief didn’t look amused and Cooper once again wanted to smack Thomas upside the head.
Lugmeyer did a quick inventory of all of them, returning his cool gaze to Cooper. “Do you know where Agent Marx is? Reese missed a very important military hearing this morning, and I believe she’s the only person who would keep him from showing up. It’s imperative I find him.”
The guy was a no-nonsense SEAL unit chief. Cooper respected that, but this guy sent alarms ringing in his head. Every time he mentioned Bianca, he acted like he’d swallowed a lemon.
“Bianca didn’t kidnap your man. We believe, if anything, the situation is reverse, that Cal Reese may have taken her against her will.”
The chief studied Cooper for a minute, seeming to consider the scenario. “I’m aware of what happened at the marina yesterday. I’m not at liberty to discuss Reese’s current state of service with the Navy, but I will share with you that he’s been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after his last field mission went south. He’s…” The guy paused, rubbed a thumb over the brim of his hat. “He’s unstable.”
The hope Cooper felt a minute ago evaporated. “Unstable enough to kidnap his own wife and disappear?”
The man said nothing, didn’t even nod. His lack of an answer was enough.
“I don’t involve myself with my men’s personal problems, but Reese and I go back a ways. Agent Marx recently filed for divorce and I believe that’s what messed him up on his last mission.” Lugmeyer glanced out the window and stated without emotion. “He refused psychiatric help, and regardless of what’s going on, he’s a SEAL under great emotional stress who’s suffering from PTSD. That’s a dangerous cocktail.”
Exactly what Cooper feared. He started to grab Bobby’s tablet and show Lugmeyer the photos and tell him what they knew about Reese and Bianca’s whereabouts, but something held him back.
As far as he could tell, Bianca hadn’t been harmed. She’d said there was a man after her, but never mentioned it was her soon-to-be-ex. Seemed kinda key to the whole thing.
“How’d you know where to find us?” Nelson asked, still slouched casually in his chair. Only, his eyes were sharp on Lugmeyer’s back. Watching, assessing.
So Nelson felt it too.
Ronni’s phone pinged.
The chief turned from the window. “Bianca talked about the taskforce the last time we spoke. She mentioned how much she loves it here. She told me this was your HQ.”
Cooper stiffened. Bianca hated it here. She’d never said as much, but he knew from her body language and from what she
didn’t
say that she knew working with the taskforce was a step down for her. A demotion. And while their meeting location wasn’t top secret, none of the taskforce members talked about their jobs or this place with anyone outside of the team. Their undercover ops
were
top secret and no one but them and Dupé needed to know where they met to discuss missions.
Ronni had received a text, but at the mention of Reese being dangerous and Bianca supposedly telling Lugmeyer about their meeting place, she’d glanced up from reading it. Her eyes sent Cooper a clear message. She didn’t buy Lugmeyer’s story either. “Why would Bianca go with Cal if she knew he was dangerous?”
The chief gave a stiff shrug. “Maybe she doesn’t realize he is. Or maybe she does and thinks she’s saving him from a court-martial. Doesn’t matter. If she’s assisting him in going AWOL, she’s in effect conspiring against the United States Navy. I will bring charges against her.”
Cooper didn’t know Cal Reese, and he certainly didn’t trust him, but he didn’t trust Cal’s senior chief either. There was something more going on here. Something Lugmeyer wasn’t telling him.
Or maybe the guy really didn’t know any more than Cooper did. Either way, the one person Cooper
did
know was Bianca. They weren’t close friends, but she’d been with his team long enough for him to get a read on her. Outside of discovering she was investigating Dupé on the side—which meant she was doing her assigned job—he believed she was trustworthy.
Ronni gave Cooper another look. She was tapping one long finger against her phone as she handed it to Bobby, showing him the message.
Cooper stepped in front of the SEAL and made no bones about hustling him back to the door. “If we learn anything of value, we’ll be in touch.”
Lugmeyer resisted for half a second, then relented, stepping across the threshold. “Cal Reese was once a hero. Now he needs to set the record straight. He can’t run from the United States Navy.”
The chief stopped and faced Cooper as he set his hat on his head. “If your agent is involved in Reese going AWOL, you can be sure I’ll find her and bring her to justice as well.”
Cooper put his hands on either side of the doorframe and leaned forward, getting in Lugmeyer’s face. “You let me handle my agent.”
The senior chief held his stare for a moment and Cooper let all kinds of threats run through his head. Threats he couldn’t say out loud to a military man without breaking a few written laws, along with his own personal code of conduct. But Lugmeyer understood the body language and the glare. He turned on his heel and marched away.
Cooper drew a satisfying breath, and with renewed determination, he closed the door and faced his team. Ronni and Bobby were staring at him with grins on their faces. Grins? Not what he was expecting. “What?”