Page 44 of Targeted at Christmas

“True. But he knows now and can hopefully do something about it for you and Eleanor.”

“There’s more…” Lexi angled her face. “The home invaders appear to be the same carjackers responsible for killing Horace Eckhart and Neal Zapponi—”

“Seriously?” Pamela voiced with shock.

“They wore the same type of ski masks and were similarly built. Combine that with my being in the same orbit on both fronts and it’s enough for Cooper and police detectives to feel that there’s something there worth investigating.”

“Well, if true, this gives the authorities another tool to try and crack all the cases.”

Lexi nodded. “Right, including whether or not the carjackers are on the payroll of someone else who’s actually pulling the strings.”

“Sounds so complicated,” Pamela moaned.

“Maybe not so complicated that it can’t all be connected and disentangled by the authorities,” Lexi countered, believing that this was something that Cooper was clearly good at as a member of the FBI. If anyone could sort out the good from the bad, it would be him.

“I suppose.” Pamela ran a hand through her hair. “By the way, I decided to end things with Jarrod.”

“Really?” Lexi favored her with a straight gaze.

“Yeah. Guess I suddenly woke up and smelled the roses, so to speak. I think they were rotting away before my very eyes.”

“You think so?” Lexi asked as the supportive friend.

Pamela nodded. “As much as I wanted to believe we had something special, I came to the conclusion that Jarrod was never going to leave his wife. And truthfully, I’m not sure I’d ever want him to. Or neglect his kids as part of the deal. I deserve to be with someone who can be solely devoted to me—and vice versa—rather than divided loyalties.”

“I think you’re right about that,” Lexi told her candidly. “You do deserve to be in a relationship that doesn’t come with the wrong strings attached.”

“We both do.” Pamela looked at her. “Seems like the strings are the right ones for you and Cooper.”

Lexi smiled. “I believe they are.” She trusted that he felt the same way as they navigated the path of two widowed individuals hoping for a second shot at happiness. This, in spite of dark forces in play around them, causing trouble like a nasty Christmas windstorm.

Chapter Fifteen

Hallie was at her desk when the video call came in from the latent print comparative section. She accepted the call and a lab technician appeared on her laptop.

“Hi,” Hallie said, sensing something positive was coming relative to her current investigation that had now stretched into two carjackings and a home invasion—with two people dead and an elderly woman victimized.

Agnes Tsuji, a certified latent print examiner, was in her late thirties and slim, with raven hair in a chin-length blunt bob and brown eyes. She flashed a serious look. “We were able to get a latent print from a dresser drawer in Eleanor Palakiko’s bedroom.”

“Well, that’s good,” Hallie uttered with bated breath in anticipation for more.

“It’s even better than that,” Agnes said with a catch to her voice. “After entering it into the state Automated Fingerprint Identification System and the FBI’s national Next Generation Identification databases, we got a hit!”

Hallie exhaled. “Who’s the unlucky unsub?”

“His name is Darren Fonseca,” she responded. “He’s forty-one, white, and has spent time behind bars for assault and armed robbery.”

Hmm…that seems to fit the pattern of the carjackers and home invaders, Hallie told herself. “Do you have an address for Fonseca?” she asked.

“I do.” Agnes gave her the suspect’s last known address in the city. “Hope you track him down and see if he can explain how his print ended up in the victim’s bedroom,” she said sarcastically.

“Yeah, I’m sure he’ll have an explanation that will let him off the hook.” Hallie seriously doubted that. On the contrary, the home invasion suspect was also suspected of being one of the perpetrators in two lethal carjackings. She also believed that he and his crony had stolen Eleanor’s vehicle—which was still missing—and were driving the black Ford Explorer seen on surveillance video as the perps’ getaway car. A license plate reader had locked in on the vehicle and determined that it had stolen plates.

Following the video chat, Hallie pulled up the suspect’s rap sheet—studying the various times he’d been in trouble with the law over the years—and looked at his mug shot. Comparatively speaking, he bore a fair resemblance to the heavier one of the two home invasion suspects as described by Eleanor Palakiko to a sketch artist.

We’ve got you now, Hallie thought confidently. She phoned Cooper with the breakthrough, then set things in motion, believing there was more than enough probable cause for securing arrest and search warrants in pursuit of Darren Fonseca and his as-yet-unidentified partner.

The open question still needed answered about who the mastermind was behind the fatal carjackings—if in fact the suspects hadn’t acted alone, as the elements of the case seemed to indicate.