Chapter Eleven #3
Eli connected the cell phone to the laptop with a USB cable.
“One more thing. You wanted us to check to see if there was any CCTV footage of Ortiz leaving her apartment and following Hector Ibarra. There was. Footage of them together in the parking lot of her building, as well as on the road, headed in the direction of the old railroad tunnel where Kehoe was murdered. But eventually they turned off into an area that doesn’t have any cameras. I can’t prove he was at the scene.”
Frustration bubbled higher, along with Jackson’s anger and fear.
“Take a seat, Jackson,” Autumn said.
“No. I don’t want to sit. I need to do something.” Anything. Even if it was limited to standing and pacing. Sitting felt like surrender. “That’s why I came straight here as soon as I realized she was missing.”
“Please. Indulge me.” Autumn motioned to one of the stools near her.
Jackson took a seat at the massive kitchen island and tried to keep an open mind, considering Autumn wasn’t just an investigator with IPS.
She was a forensic psychologist and former FBI profiler who had been instrumental in solving several cases.
Biting back any more complaints, he did as she asked.
“You told us your motorcade was attacked as you were en route to the airport to have Ortiz transferred,” Autumn said. “I want you to take us back to that moment, right before you left the scene with her. Tell us what happened.”
“Why?” Jackson huffed. “What’s the point?”
“We need a clear picture. Please.”
“Everything fell apart so quickly. A truck came out of nowhere and hit the SUV in front of mine. Aguilar, a high-level hit man for the cartel, jumped out of the truck. He killed all the police escorts so fast. Then Flores was hit. Aguilar sprayed a civilian vehicle with de-icing fluid and lit it on fire. Tillman went to help the driver and was hit. I released Christina from her cuffs so that she could take cover. As I returned fire, I realized that Aguilar was using armor-piercing rounds. Christina was screaming that we needed to leave. That Aguilar wasn’t going to stop until everyone was dead so that he could take her, because it was personal for him.
She told me she still had vital intel to give me. ”
“And you believed her?” Autumn said.
“Yes.”
Autumn’s grip on his shoulder tightened just a fraction. “Why?”
“She warned us at the US marshals’ building that there might be trouble. Told me that death was coming for her. We should’ve listened.”
“After she mentioned the intel,” Autumn said, “you decided to leave.”
“Yes. No. Walken emerged from the other SUV and began shooting. I didn’t want anyone else to die. We were losing. We were being slaughtered.”
“Okay. So, you left with Ortiz,” Autumn said. “But why didn’t you go back to the US marshals’ building? Or a police station?”
Jackson opened his eyes. “I underestimated him. His reach. His determination. His capacity for murder and mayhem. He was ten steps ahead of us. And he has at least one mole inside the task force helping him. We think he might have another one even higher up. If we went to the US marshals’ building or a police station, he would’ve expected it.
Been prepared for it. The man is a cold-blooded killing machine.
” Jackson raked his hands through his hair.
“I had to do what he would’ve least expected.
So, I took Christina to the river to get on a boat.
And I thought we’d lost him, too, once we made it to the camp. Until I realized Christina was gone.”
The team was quiet, their faces grave. It was better than them rushing to pick apart and question everything.
“You told us that you and Christina argued at the camp,” Autumn said.
Jackson nodded. “Yeah, about the way Kehoe recruited her. The compromises and sacrifices she had to make. I didn’t like it.
” The idea that she had been in a relationship with Aguilar still burned him to the core.
“And I needed to be sure I could trust her. That I was looking at this whole thing from every angle.” He understood Winter’s concerns.
Autumn nodded, her expression compassionate and patient. “Then why do you think she was taken from the camp if the handcuffs were on the ground? If Aguilar took her by force, wouldn’t he have left them on her?”
Jackson had believed Christina when she told him that she would never hurt him or set him up. But voicing that conviction based on sentimentality wouldn’t pass muster with this group.
“The go-bag that Imogene gave me was still in the tent. Along with the gun and the cash. If she was going to run, she would’ve needed to take both.
Also, the contents of the bag were strewn across the floor, like there was a scuffle.
I think Aguilar deliberately left the cuffs to make me believe she just took off. ”
Jackson propped his elbows on the counter and dropped his head into his hands.
“I was supposed to protect her. Help her finish what Kehoe started. What she and I both signed up to do. Bring down the cartel. Now, that animal Aguilar has her and I don’t know how long he’ll torture her, asking her questions, making her pay for her betrayal, before he kills her.
What I do know is that Christina saved my life on the boat when she didn’t have to.
She made tough sacrifices and didn’t lose her way in the darkness.
She’s in danger. I know it. I’ve got to find her before it’s too late. ”
If only he had believed in her sooner.