Kate bit back frustration.“There’s nothing you can do at all?”
“Hold on.Let me see.”The sound of clacking keys sounded on the other end.A muffled female voice asked a question, and Frank replied, “Nothing important, honey.I’ll come back to bed in a minute.”
Kate looked at Marcus and saw the same tense anticipation on his face.
“Yes!”Frank cried.
“You have him?”
“Well, I’m in the security system.I had to crack the new warden’s password, but if this gives us Cox, then it won’t matter.Hold on.I’ll get the footage now.”
Another minute ticked by while Frank looked for the footage.Kate bit her lip and tapped her heel on the floor before realizing what she was doing and pressing her feet together.
“Got it,” Frank said.“I’m sending it to you.Hell yes, Kate!”
“Hell yes,” Kate agreed.Her email pinged, notifying her that she’d received a series of attachments from Frank.“Good work.I’ll put in a good word for you.”
“Do that, please,” Frank said.“I want a chance to redeem myself.”
His voice broke a little, a reaction that would have disgusted Kate earlier but one she didn’t find so disgusting now.They all wanted a chance to redeem themselves, and bringing the most wanted man in the country to justice would be an excellent way to start.
She said goodbye to Frank, then called Winters.Her boss answered on the first ring.“Hello, Kate.I was just about to call you.”
Kate frowned at that, but she was too excited to stop.“Ma’am, I’m forwarding you some security images of the man who broke Cox out of prison.We believe this individual is the man he’s traveling with.I need you to coordinate with law enforcement nationwide.Have Poppy dig into this too.See if you can figure out what name or names he’s been using.Put an APB out for him too.If we find him, we find Cox.”
“Of course.I’ll do that.”
Kate frowned again.Winters didn’t seem excited.In fact, she seemed subdued, weary.“Is everything okay, ma’am?”
Winters sighed.“No, Kate.I’m afraid that everything is not okay.”
A ball of ice formed in the pit of Kate’s stomach.“What happened?”
Winters sighed again.“We have another body.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Tuesday, December 8th
“Oh, God damn it.”
Marcus’s epithet pulled Kate’s mind from the darkness of her own thoughts.She found no relief when her eyes fell on the reason for that epithet.“Shit.Pull behind the house.”
Marcus obliged, turning down a side street to avoid detection from the hawkeyed reporters currently clamoring in front of Patricia Lowe’s house.“Should’ve seen this coming,” he grumbled.“That’s the side effect of letting the whole world know what’s going on.”He made a left turn.“Doesn’t help the vic’s a former city councilwoman.”
It also didn’t help that they couldn’t get a flight to Baltimore until eight in the morning, meaning it was after noon that they were pulling up to her home in the affluent Federal Hill community.Kate was beginning to regret insisting that the police not clear the scene until they arrive.
Patricia Lowe had served for over twenty years on the Baltimore City Council before her ouster ten years ago after being convicted of embezzlement.According to the background research Kate had conducted on the flight, Patricia had vehemently maintained her innocence, accusing her opponents of running a "hack job" on her and claiming that every charge was a "boldfaced lie".
Kate doubted that.
Marcus parked in front of the house sitting behind Lowe’s home and peered through the windshield.“Looks like they’re not looking at the back of the house right now.We should be able to sneak in.”
“Fingers crossed.”
The two agents moved across the yard of the first house.Kate glanced at the windows and saw that they were all thankfully shut.The others in this neighborhood wanted nothing to do with the scandal that had awakened them this morning.
The drone of the gathered reporters and the irritated police officers trying to keep them away concealed Kate’s lockpicking efforts.Marcus kept watch while she forced open the back door.Kate had a feeling the local officers responding to the scene would be unhappy with the two of them sneaking in, but the last thing Kate wanted to do right now was interact with the press.
