Chapter 43
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Jane spent Wednesday much as she had Tuesday, looking through what they knew to find something they didn’t.
The only good thing, if she could call it that, going on in her life was that Hal and Joe had gone somewhere to take care of something and would be back in a few days.
So she had a temporary reprieve from that horrible video game she’d tried on Sunday.
Hal had said no complaining, but she really didn’t enjoy the first-person shooter game where she had to kill fairies for blood gold and then run campaigns to destroy entire bloodlines. A fairyland Call of Duty that would probably make a ton of money but that left a bad taste in her mouth.
Killing for the sake of killing didn’t appeal to her. Making the guilty pay for their crimes, through a justice system developed by a civilized society, did. Law and order made sense to her. So she empathized with Phillip Keiser for not getting the justice for his parents that they were due.
But taking that rage and pain out on innocent people who had done nothing more than share a similar occupation with the guilty? That was wrong.
Raine could blather about shades of gray all day long, but Jane contented herself with being very clear about black and white, good and bad. Phillip needed to be found, and those four potential future victims saved.
Rapp grabbed Gina and headed for her desk. “We think we have Phillip Keiser. SWAT is en route as well. But this could turn into a real nightmare.”
Gina looked grim. “UW Medical Northwest. A patrol car spotted a man matching his description in the parking lot.”
A hospital in the north. It made sense Phillip might target some place new. But would he let himself be seen by a patrol car? He might be hearing voices, but he was savvy enough to avoid detection. He’d be a real threat to anyone who stood in his way.
After her call with Kyle, she didn’t believe Phillip would stop until he killed his last victims or law enforcement stopped him. Probably with a bullet to the head.
Rapp seemed to follow her thoughts. “I don’t know that it’s him either, but we’ll check it out. We’ll keep you updated, unless you want to come along?”
“No thanks. I’m stuck on looking through our files again. There has to be something here connecting his victims. He’s been pretty deliberate until now.”
“I still—” Gina paused to take a phone call. She hung up. “Rapp, let’s go. There’s another sighting that seems a lot more like our guy.”
They raced out the door. Jane had no intention of following. As much as she’d like to be there when they found the guy, she didn’t think anything but dumb luck would help detect him before the bullets started flying. If he even used guns this time.
Thus far, he’d poisoned his victims and shot them. What would he have in store for the medical admins? Fire? Knives? A bomb?
The thought made her ill. So she plugged away, working alongside Diego.
They had turned up a few interesting items when Rapp called.
Diego put him on speaker.
“It’s him. SWAT has him pinned down at Swedish in Ballard, the clever bastard. We didn’t think he’d go back to a previous location. Get here as soon as you can.”
After he hung up, Jane grabbed her coat while Diego packed a laptop. On her way out the door, her cellphone rang. Sullivan. At a little past seven p.m., it was late for a call from her friend.
Outside, the clouds overhead blocked the sliver of moon trying to peek through.
“Heading out right now, so not a great time—”
“Jane?” Sullivan sounded off.
“What’s up?” Jane nodded to her vehicle, and Diego headed for it.
“Hey, I need some help. Can you come over?”
Definitely not her normal tone. She sounded breathy. Hurt?
“Sullivan, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m okay. But I need to talk to you.” After a pause, she added, “It’s urgent.”
“And you can’t tell me on the phone?”
“No.”
“Okay. I need to come to you where?”
Sullivan rattled off an address in Bainbridge Island. Not at her home in the city. “Hurry, and please, keep this between us, okay? It’s… I don’t want this getting out before you can help me figure out what to do.”
“I won’t.” Jane hung up and paused by the driver side door.
“Jane?” Diego tugged at the locked handle.
“I have something I need to do. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to drive yourself to the scene.
I’ll meet you there.” She didn’t feel bad about not going with him.
With SWAT, Rapp, Gina, and a host of LEOs ready to nab Phillip, they needed her there as much as she needed another lecture on proper FBI protocols from Agent Scott.
“Gotcha. See you soon.” Diego rushed away.
Jane got into her car and sat for a moment.
Sullivan wouldn’t ask for help like that.
Though she did value Jane’s opinion, all this felt a little too cloak and dagger-ish.
If Sullivan had info on the case, Scott, or Haversham she wanted to share, she’d have said so in a roundabout way. But all this mystery?
She hadn’t said much.
Maybe because she couldn’t.
Normally, Jane would rush over and deal with the situation, keeping her involvement quiet. But that’s what Sullivan said she wanted.
Jane had no weapon on her, but since she needed to head to Bainbridge Island, perhaps a stop at the ranch would be in order.
As would a phone call she really didn’t want to make, in case this situation snowballed into something worse.