Chapter 7 #3
Ethan ignored the byplay he didn’t understand and entered the larger conference room, which held a long table and twenty chairs. A small cabinet sat off to the side, where refreshments were usually available, and the high windows allowed the afternoon sunshine to warm the room.
It reassured him more than he’d realized to see the rest of the deputies were there.
Hank Green, whose main job was courtroom security, and Albright, who’d been shot a few weeks ago, were missing. Liam was watching Aubrey. But there were still plenty of deputies to work this.
Supervisor Howard stood at the front of the room.
“As you are aware, we had an attack during Renegade Days this morning. Thankfully, no one was killed, but the stagecoach team driver, Frank Petersen, was seriously injured and is in critical condition. Kennedy, can you pass out the information, please?”
Emma gave each deputy a stack of stapled papers, which included the flight manifest from the downed plane. Whoever had stolen it knew they’d never take off without a manifest, so they’d filled one out. How much they could trust the information remained to be seen.
Howard continued. “As you can see, there was only one inmate on the plane that crashed: Finn Donovan. He has been locked up in federal prison on the East Coast for the past twenty years. Now someone’s taken it upon themselves to bring him here. He should be considered armed and dangerous.”
A low murmur moved through the room.
Stanton said, “That why you asked me to find his file, Butler?”
Ethan shook his head. “I didn’t know it was him at the time.” More murmurs rippled across the room, but Ethan didn’t wait for it to settle. “Sir, something like this doesn’t happen without multiple people being involved. This was a conspiracy, and they pulled it off. Until the plane crashed.”
Howard narrowed his eyes. “Right. It’s up to us to apprehend him and bring in those who stole the plane and concocted this elaborate plan to bring him here.”
The deputies began talking at once.
Howard held up his hand. “Hold on now. We will be working around the clock until we find this plane and apprehend Donovan and his coconspirators.” Howard looked at Ethan.
“Given the black box in the judge’s car, are there any leads as to who killed the judge and his housekeeper? It’s likely the same perpetrator.”
Ethan leaned forward. “The judge’s outside cameras had been disabled. And there was no clear picture of anyone other than Aubrey showing up as seen from the neighbors’ cameras either. So no leads there until forensics gives us something.”
“I did find something interesting.” Adam Montgomery spoke up. “I called the Denver office, and there were rumors that the judge was fixing trials. Maybe he finally decided he didn’t want to do that anymore and they killed him.”
Emma glanced around. “The Denver office got us a warrant for Mullinax’s financials. We were able to get access to the judge’s bank accounts and found he had a lot of extremely large deposits over the past ten years. But the past sixteen months, he’s had a lot of large withdrawals as well.”
Howard leaned back in his chair. “Keep pulling that thread. Find out if he was taking bribes. Butler, in light of the circumstances, I’m putting you in charge of the manhunt.
Montgomery and Roberts can take the hunt for the plane.
I need to make some phone calls to get the support we need. Dismissed.”
They stood and filed out of the conference room, but Stanton held out his hand and motioned for Ethan to follow him back to his office.
Once inside, Stanton closed the door. He pulled a file out of his drawer and pushed it across the desk. “Seems our friend Roger Rousseau has a few skeletons in his closet.”
“Was there a reason why you didn’t share this in the meeting?” Ethan opened the file folder and read the contents.
“I figured you’d want to hear this in private before deciding what to do with the information.” Stanton sat in front of him like a stone sentinel. Unmoving. Stanton had good instincts, and Ethan trusted him.
“Okay.” Ethan looked up from the file. “These bank transfers look like the same numbers that the judge was receiving.”
Stanton crossed his arms. “Looks to me like whoever was paying off Mullinax is also paying off Roger Rousseau. Which, as far as we know, connects both of them to the syndicate.”
“But that doesn’t mean Roger has anything to do with this plane crash, or with the deaths of Judge Mullinax and his housekeeper.”
“No, but if you look further, we were given some copies of emails from an interested third party. They wanted to remain a confidential informant. Rousseau mentions the ‘syndicate’”—Stanton made quote marks—“asking for a personal favor.”
“Could be anything.”
“Maybe.” Stanton leaned forward. “But when you look at the date of the email and the date of the judge’s death and the plane wreckage, they match up.”
Holy crime scene.
Ethan closed the file and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Finn Donovan was brought here by the syndicate.”
“Yeah.”
Stanton sat back in his chair, a smirk tilting his mouth up. “Turns out Sunshine has a few secrets.”
Ethan said, “Doesn’t mean she’s part of it.”
“Of course not.” Stanton picked up a pen and twirled it between his fingers. The man didn’t say a whole lot, but he studied human behavior. Probably could’ve been a shrink. “After you got Aubrey out of there, how was she?”
“Scared, and rightfully so. Given we now know that Donovan is on the loose.”
“You’re gonna help her, right?” Stanton asked.
“Isn’t that part of my job?”
“I mean beyond your duties as a marshal.” The old office chair squeaked as Stanton adjusted his weight. “I think you’re the man God sent to help her.” Stanton pointed the pen at Ethan, his deep-brown eyes burning with an intensity that caused Ethan to shift in his seat.
“My purpose is to chase down felons, put them behind bars, and make sure they never hurt another living soul.”
Stanton said, “Exactly.”
Ethan exhaled slowly. Maybe he and Stanton weren’t talking about two different missions after all.