AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I thought he had issues with authority. Isn’t that bad in the FBI? No offense, but with the exception of Carver all these other agents seem like drones.”
“There are many aspects of the FBI. Not everyone is cut from the same cloth. And they like agents who think outside the box—mostly. He belongs in the field. He’s too good at what he does.”
“It’s not my decision, but I’ll support whatever choice he makes.”
“But you could certainly help influence him. What if I told you there’s an opening in the medical examiner’s office in DC?”
“I’d say that doesn’t have much to do with me. I’m not a licensed pathologist. I’m just a coroner with a medical degree.”
“It’d be a training position while you got your certification. Full pay with benefits. Reliable pay.”
She struck a chord there. To say my current position was reliable would be a lie. I was able to pay bills solely based on how many people died per month. And I hada lotof bills. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt from medical school.
“And you’re suggesting all this out of the goodness of your heart?”
“I never do anything out of the goodness of my heart. I’ve been accused more than once of not even having one. But what I am good at is my job. And I want the people I work with on a frequent basis to be good at their job too. Jack would be an assetto the agency. He’d be using his talents for something other than writing parking tickets for speeding livestock. Just think about it.”
“Thanks, I will.”
She nodded and left to go back with the others. Did I want to work in the medical examiner’s office? Not particularly. I didn’t really enjoy working with the dead. I’d always preferred the living. But I didn’t hate it. And I knew I’d do it if Jack wanted to make the move and join the FBI. It was definitely something to think about.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“That was Greer,” Carver said, hanging up the phone a short time later.“Agents found the body of Greg Lassiter in the motel room Tydell was holed up in. A maid found him when she went in to clean. He was shot through the head with his own weapon. The gun was left on site, and they’re checking to see if it’s a match for Wallace, Santos, and Gonzales.”
“That’s my cue to go,” Lauren said, gathering her briefcase. “I need to see the scene and see if there are any leads on the others.”
“I thought you said there was a code of honor,” Wolfe said. “That they wouldn’t kill each other because there was a code.”
“It looks like the rules changed.”Lauren waved goodbye and then left out the front door.
Wolfe whistled and grinned. “She might be irritating, but she has some damn fine legs.”
“I thought you had a girlfriend,” I said, remembering she’d been questioned after his disappearance.
“Honey, I always have girlfriends, and Lawyer Rhodes is going to be added to the list.”
“Fifty bucks says she turns him down flat,” Carver said.
Jack’s head was buried in papers and it didn’t look like he was paying much attention. “That’s a sucker’s bet.”
“You all forget that I’m wounded. Women love a guy that’s been hurt in the line of duty. She’ll be all over me.”
“Like a rash,” I said dryly.
“What have you got there, Jack?” Carver asked. I looked at Jack and realized he’d gotten very still as he read through one of the financial reports.
“Son of a bitch,” he said. “The WMF sent payments for almost two years to Jane Elliott. And look here.” He picked up anotherstack of papers and highlighted the amounts. “Payments for six months sent to the mother of Adam Boxer. We’ll find both of their names on the member roster. I almost missed it because the payments were direct deposit on the fifteenth of the month, and it’s the exact same amount as her widow’s benefits, which she received on the first of every month. There’s no description of who the sender is, just a twelve digit numerical code. And the numerical code is one digit off from the code that the police department uses to make direct deposits. They’d have to have a hacker of some kind to get into the department payroll database and be able to set it up like that.”
“Hackers leave signatures,” Carver said. “Let me see if I can work backwards and find out where it’s coming from.”
“I need to talk to Jane Elliott again,” Jack said. “Dammit.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “Goddammit.” He punched the wall hard enough for me to wince and wonder if he’d damaged his knuckles.
“She could still be innocent in this, Jack,” I said, taking his hand and rubbing the sting out a bit. “If they came to her and offered her the money as a supplement why would she turn them down? A couple of years of payments would have gotten her back on her feet again, especially with all the medical bills she must have had during Katie’s treatments.”
He squeezed my hand and nodded, but I could tell he didn’t really believe me.“I need to call her and set up a time to meet.”
“Do you want me to do it?” Carver asked.
