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36
Logan sat down with his unit after getting off the phone with Washington. He was keeping them all apprised of the situation.
“When will they be here?” Robin asked.
“There’s a pileup on the highway coming out of Washington. Both lanes are shut down, and they don’t know how long they’ll be stuck there. They’d send out a helicopter, but the winds have picked up. It’s too dangerous.”
Logan ran his hand through his hair. “The Hostage Rescue Team is being alerted, but they need a location. They also need local police to help us find our agents. Until the weather clears, they can’t use a helicopter either, so they’ll deploy their emergency vehicles, including their Humvees. As you know, HRT is trained to operate in this kind of weather. They’ll get through the snow, but they’re slow. We need that triangulation. Not only for Alex’s phone, but also for Cooper’s. Julie’s too. I don’t know if she’s part of this or if she’s a victim, but we need to look for her phone as well.”
Logan quickly called Chief Gorman. He asked for Cooper’s and Julie’s normal phone numbers. After the chief gave them to him, he asked why he needed them. At this point, Logan wasn’t certain who he could trust. He wasn’t ready to tell the chief he thought his two detectives were working for the man they’d been looking for. Or that he wasn’t certain they were still alive. He told the chief he would talk to him about it later. Then he called CIRG and gave them the additional phone numbers.
“Can we use our other phones now?” Monty asked.
“Not yet,” Logan said. “They’re probably okay, but until we have our agents back, we can’t take any chances. I’m not losing anyone else.”
As Logan waited to hear from CIRG, every minute seemed like an hour. He prayed that God would lead them to Alex and Kaely. And that they would be alive.
“It will be okay,” Monty said. “God will protect them.”
Logan was surprised that Monty had talked about God in front of the rest of the team. Expressions of faith in the workplace, especially for those in the federal government, were discouraged. An agent could even receive a reprimand.
“Amen,” Robin said.
The other agents nodded their approval.
“Well, I guess we’re all in agreement,” Logan said with a smile. “We’ll get them back alive.”
“Ben put a thought into my head that wouldn’t go away,” Alex said to Kaely. “I didn’t realize that was what was bothering me all this time until I sat in our room and used your method. That’s when it came to me—that and the quote from Holmes.”
“And what was that thought?” Bayne asked. “I’d really like to hear it.”
“Ben said you’d be the perfect suspect if you weren’t dead.”
“We just accepted that you’d died,” Kaely told him.
“As you were supposed to. You see, if I’d been the only one who died, you would have figured out my suicide was fake. That’s why I had to add it into the mix. Get your attention on Davis as the first and most important victim and the rest as an attack against profilers.” He chuckled. “Sorry. Behavioral analysts.” He wagged his finger at them. “You realize no one wants to say that mouthful. That’s why everyone calls you profilers.”
Alex was trying to do anything she could to stall him. She had no idea what he was going to do next, but she was certain he wouldn’t just shoot them. He wanted to end his spree with something memorable. “I became convinced when I considered that the only person who actually saw your body wash out to sea was your wife,” she said. “That’s when I realized that what we saw on the video could have been rigged.”
Kaely stared at him for a moment before saying, “How did you do it? Although no one else reached the edge in time to see your body wash away, people did see you jump.”
“A lot of crevices sit below that cliff edge. Early that morning, before anyone was around, we set up a cable and attached it firmly to a rock near the top. Then when I fell, I grabbed the cable to my right and easily swung over to one of the jutting rocks below. It wasn’t that far, and I’d found a way to practice at home. Build up some calluses on my hands. Then I jumped onto several other rocks that led me back to the top but far enough away that no one noticed when I climbed back up. When Gloria dropped down to her knees, she unhooked the cable and let it fall into the sea. Her performance kept all the attention away from me. We had a car waiting, and I just drove away. By the time anyone could reach her, the cable had washed away.”
“Clever,” Kaely said. “Very clever.”
“Yes, it was,” Bayne said. “We had to make it happen in real time to fool you. So there you go. As you said, everyone’s attention was on the spot where my poor mangled body had been dragged out to sea, just waiting for the sharks to feast on my remains.” He pulled up his shirtsleeve and flexed his muscle. “Good thing I’m in shape, or it never would have worked. Pretty good for a man of my age, don’t you think?”
Alex wasn’t impressed or surprised with his self-aggrandizing. “And Gloria? I guess she’s the only person who knows what you did. Will you let her live?”
A man like Bayne would value his own life above everyone else. Even those he professed to love.
His eyes widened. “Of course. We planned this together. She’s dedicated to my plan. Now, if that ever changes ... Well, I’ll deal with that possibility then.”
Of course he would.
“But I still don’t get it,” Kaely said. “Again, you were respected by every behavioral analyst who came through the BAU. You and John Davis are the fathers of behavioral analysis. Why would you destroy your reputation? Your legacy?”
His face grew dark, and his expression twisted into one of rage. “John Davis believed he was the only one who was instrumental in creating the BAU. He took credit for everything. I hated him.”
