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Jack’s eyes narrowedand he nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”
“They’reletting me sit in on the investigation. Giving me busy work for the most part, but I don’t mind. I want to see it through. The vic was mine.”
“Then let’s go see what they have to say.”
No one really paid attention when we went in the office. One of the other agents had made himself comfortable behind Jack’s desk, the coffee mug I’d given Jack for Christmas one year, sitting at his elbow.
Jack pulled Greer aside, giving him no choice but to talk with him over in the corner. I could see Jack’s face. It was calm as he explained something in great detail, but Greer’s shoulders stiffenedand his fingers tapped against his thigh. Jack might have hated politics, but he was a natural at it. He was good at keeping the peace and negotiating to get exactly what he wanted. I had a feeling Greer had just been expertly negotiated.
Greer nodded and the two men shook hands beforeJack went to the center of the room to look at the updated boards. I decided it was probably a good time to head to the coffee pot, and took one of the little Styrofoam cups someone had set out.
Lauren Rhodes had been on her phone on the opposite side of the room. As soon as she hung up, she focused in on Jack and started in his direction. I wasn’t about to be left out, so I moved in and stood just behind her. She didn’t notice me there, but Jack did and he shook his head a little in warning.
“I heard about the tail.” She laid her hand on Jack’s shoulder and it was everything I could do not to bare my teeth. “You need to be more careful. Even with the added protection you don’t need to be going out unnecessarily, and surely you don’t need to endanger a civilian by letting her tag along.”
I assumed the civilian she was speaking of was me, and I took a fortifying sip of coffee so my mouth would be full and I wouldn’t say anything.
“I don’t want to see anything happen to you, Jack. You need to lay low for a while until this blows over. Maybe take a trip to the beach house for a few weeks.”
“Yeah, Jack,” I said, widening my eyes dramatically and batting my eyelashes. “Maybe Lauren’s right. You don’t want to take any unnecessary chances. And a trip to the beach house sounds nice.”
Laurenturned in surprise and almost bumped my coffee cup, and I saw Jack roll his eyes while her back was turned and mouth the wordsbehave yourself.
No way in hell, I mouthed as soon as Lauren turned back to Jack. And dammit, her hand went right to his arm again. I narrowed my eyes and looked between where she was touching and the annoyance on Jack’s face, and nodded in approval when he took a step back out of her reach.
“Lauren, no offense to the agents who are covering my tail because I’m damned glad forthe extra eyes, but I’ve been Special Forces, been through training at Quantico with several of the agents in this room, and I spent ten years on SWAT. Believe me when I tell you I’m more than qualified to handle myself in a situation, and I’m trained to watch for threats. And my safety isn’t what’s at stake here. It’s finding whoever the hell hunted and killed my men. I won’t stop until I’ve found every one of them and made sure they’ve paid.”
Lauren nodded and took a step back. “I told my boss that’s more than likely what you’d say.”
“I’d sure like to know what kind of interest your boss has in this case.”
Lauren’s lips twitched. “We all have a job to do.”
Agent Greer chose that moment to get everyone’s attention. “Let’s get this briefing started. I want you to remember that Sheriff Lawson has volunteered his office as well as the use of the storage room to the back. We appreciate the hospitality, Sheriff. And my agents will remember that the cops out front all have jobs to do and aren’t their gophers nor do they need help doing their jobs.”
The statement was made publicly, and there were a few uncomfortable looks from a couple of the agents.
“The faster we can find these bastards the faster we can be out of your hair.”
Jack nodded in thanks. “If you need a couple of extra hands I’ve earmarked Detectives Colburn and Lewis. I’m sure we can all work together on this. What did you find?”
“Organized killing of this kind and with the skill they used isn’t done by amateurs,” Greer said. “These were hired hits. It’s not going to be mob related. They can’t agree on what kind of guns to use, much less how to kill nine highly trained men. So that leaves us with the gangs. Specifically the Vagos.”
“We’ve gotten word the Vagos haveseen a heavy increase in their cash flow the last few months. A motorcycle gang based out of California, they now have organized factions in fourteen different states. A large percentage of members are former military, either dishonorably discharged or disenfranchised with the military or the government in general, so they’re highly trained and skilled. Their main targets are law enforcement, so if they were offered a price per head for specific law enforcement targets, then it’s a job they likely wouldn’t refuse. There’s not a crime the Vagos haven’t committed, and they’re highly dangerous and on the top of our watch list. Catching them isn’t going to be easy.”
“We’ve got to follow the money,” Jack said, looking at the board and the pictures of several gang members who had the military training to pull the job off. “We’ve got motive. This is a revenge killing, plain and simple. And we have the means since whoever has orchestrated this is using the Vagos Gang as their personal killing machine. But we’ve got to find the money and cut off the funds.”
“Exactly,” Greer said. “Every agent and officer in this room has a list of people involved and their financials. We’re going to dig and dig deeper until we find something that connects somehow. How did your meeting with Jane Elliott go?”
Jack shrugged. “About as well as could be expected. She’s confused and hurt and angry. I told her to call me if she remembered anything, no matter how small, but I have a feeling she won’t. She doesn’t want to think about what happened six years ago. Her life was hell then.”
“We’re going to head out and meet up with Carver. We’ll keep you updated on our end of things.”
“I need to get some work done at the funeral home,” I piped in. “I’ve got a viewing scheduled for the end of the week, but I need to make all the necessary arrangements. It shouldn’t take me more than a half hour though. If you need to meet with Carver we can split up for an hour.”
Jack was already shaking his head. “We stick together. There’s safety in numbers. I’ve got patrolmenout scoping the perimeters, and it’s going to be damned hard for anyone to get close enough to take me out in a crowd. We’ll go tend to your body. Leanne deserves whatever time you can give to her.”
I nodded and wished I could feel as confident about the whole situation as Jack did. I didn’t have a good feeling in the pitof my stomach, but in all fairness, I hadn’t really had a good feeling in my stomach since I’d been almost strangled to death by someone I’d known almost my whole life. I just hoped it was a residual effect and wasn’t my intuition finally coming out to play.
