“Yes, because I need help,” she said, not mincing words. Then, she focused. “Gene, start focusing on buyable people who could possibly be helping them. We all need to do that. We need a chemist who figured out the correct amount of poison. In fact, the car that was blown that nearly killed us outside his building wasn’t done by him either. We need someone good at explosives, too. He will use them again since they were successful. If we want to be safe, we have to cut off all of his paths until the only one is directly at me, where I’ll be ready for him.”
Oh, this was going to take time.
She wasn’t done.
“Hiring mercenaries isMUCHharder to track, and he knows it. An ME and the minister are throwaway helpers. Mercenaries keep their mouths shut when they are hired. He knows if I figure that out, I’ll never be able to find them or get them to spill their guts. So, he’ll let the mercenaries live—in case he needs to use them again. We cut off his ability to hire new people with that press conference.”
It appeared Elizabeth had this asshole dead to rights.
Not wanting to be the downer, Callen still had to point one thing out.
“We can’t justGoogle‘Mercenaries for hire’,” Callen stated.
Oh, she was aware.
“No, but we can go through arrest records for similar crimes, and see if anyone is in this area, and also out of jail. He’d hire the best. We can also dig in and see what our friends know. We have access toThe UndergroundandThe Dark Webthanks to our friends. It’s time to think outside the box on this one.”
And there was Elizabeth.
It appeared she got her feet back under her, and they were going to stay focused.
Together, they all dug in.
From Ethan to Chris, and Callen to Gene, they all did what they did best as a team, and family.
They got to work.
As an hour went by, and they were pulling police records, news stories, and anything else that contained Aconite or an explosion, her phone rang.
Hitting the button, she recognized the number.
It was the sheriff.
“Yes, Sheriff Deen?”
He sighed.
“Ma’am, you were right. Something bad happened here. Doctor Monroe is dead. Someone killed him. His throat is slit, and the place is a bloodbath.”
They all stared at her.
It looked like the bitch was back. She’d been right, and they were onto this asshole.
Now, Devon Slater had a problem. He’d given her too much with that one-hundred-dollar bill, and experience gave her the rest.
She was locked into him.
Now, he was fucked.
“Well, shit,” she stated. “I’m sorry, Sheriff. Since this is likely tied to our case, I’m going to have to pull jurisdiction,” she stated.
He handed it over.
“Honestly, Director, I don’t want this one. He was a friend,” he stated. “Do you want me to call your office?” he asked.
She did.
“Yeah, contact theCorpus ChristiFBI office, and tell them I authorized it. Before I hang up with you, do you see a phone? A tablet? Something electronic?” she asked.
