Chapter 16
The phone call came just as Max arrived at his office that evening.
He’d been officially assigned to lead the car bomb investigation for the FBI, and working on it had taken most of his day.
He’d finally been able to return to the office to look through all the incoming information flooding his email.
Camera views, interviews, collected evidence.
He and Noelle had agreed to not see each other that night.
Both of their work plates were full from the explosion. And the dead body.
There had been no ID with the deceased. When the medical examiner had arrived, she’d looked the victim over and then requested the entire burned vehicle be towed with the body inside. She wanted to examine it still in the vehicle and supervise the removal in a protected environment.
Figuring out how to move the vehicle without destroying more evidence had taken hours. But it was now safely in a garage at the medical examiner’s building. She hoped to get to it tomorrow. Her office was backed up, and she still had Noelle’s first gunshot victim to autopsy tomorrow.
Max glanced at the call on his work cell. No name. “Rhodes,” he answered as he set down his laptop bag.
“Special Agent Max?” asked the woman, her voice low and full, dripping dark honey. “It’s Rachel Johnson.”
The sister from yesterday.
Max closed his eyes, wishing the forward woman had called Mercy instead. “What can I do for you, Rachel?”
“Anything you want,” she purred.
“Rachel,” he said firmly. “It’s been a long day, and I don’t have time for this. Do you have something important to tell me?”
“You’re no fun.”
From her tone, Max could easily picture the pout on her face. “I’m about to be a lot less fun and hang up.”
She gave a loud exhalation, clearly exasperated and disappointed with his answer. “You told me to call.”
“To call if you had relevant information. You’ve got five seconds.” It was more time than she deserved.
“I saw the guy again.”
Now he was listening. “Which guy?”
“The third one,” she said. “The one I spent the most time with.”
He appreciated her PG answer. “Where and when?”
“Eagle’s Nest hardware store today. It was around noon.”
“And you waited until now to tell me?”
“I couldn’t exactly run and call you. He was happy to see me.”
In other words, she’s been with him.
“Did you get a name?”
“He wouldn’t tell me more than Bill. We spent the afternoon at the little motel north of town.”
“Is he still there?” Max touched the key fob in his pocket, ready to race to Eagle’s Nest. He knew exactly where the motel was.
“No. He left before I woke up.”
“You fell asleep in the middle of the day?”
“Pot does that to me.”
Max couldn’t speak. Rachel had known he and Mercy wanted to hear from her if she saw this man, but she’d decided to sleep with him and smoke pot before she called. “Do you have anything helpful for me?”
“He was laughing about that car bomb today. He said it was just a small test.”
Max’s blood ran cold. “A small test for what?”
“That’s what I asked. He wouldn’t expand on it.”
“Tell me everything he said about it.”
“Ummm.” She was quiet for a long moment. “He said the bomb was just the beginning. And that people were starting to rise and fight back. And seeing this bombing would make more people fight back.”
“Why should more people do something like that?” he asked.
“I have no idea. I told him that sounded like boogaloo crap, and I think I startled him. He didn’t expect me to know the term.”
“He didn’t deny it?”
“He sorta ignored it. He was smug, joking around about how the police were distracted by something so trivial. A car bomb didn’t sound trivial to me.”
“It wasn’t,” said Max, wondering if she’d mention the body in the trunk. “The judge was lucky he wasn’t in the car.”
“Yeah.”
“It could have killed some bystanders. It nearly did,” he said, thinking of the man who’d had a heart attack.
“His cocky attitude pissed me off,” said Rachel. “I told him blowing up shit wasn’t funny.”
Definitely not funny.
“He got pissed and gave me one in the lip.”
“He hit you?” He was floored by her casual tone.
“Yeah. It’s nothing.”
“Was this at the beginning or end of your meeting with him?”
“A meeting.” She chuckled. “You’re so formal.”
“Rachel.” He infused her name with as much impatience as he could.
“Toward the beginning.” She sounded a bit uncomfortable admitting the fact.
He hit her, but she spent the day with him.
“What else happened? Which of you rented the room?” Maybe he could get a name from the motel.
“I did. He told me to rent it and that he’d join me in about an hour. He came much quicker than that.” She cackled at her pun.
“Where are you now?”
“Still here,” she said. “I’ve got it for the whole night, so no way am I leaving. You busy?”
Max closed his eyes. “Where did he go? You said he wasn’t local. Do you still believe that?”
“I’m not so sure now,” said Rachel. “He seemed to know a lot about the area.” She paused. “You didn’t answer my question.” Her voice lowered, sending chills up Max’s spine—the wrong kind of chills.
“Rachel. Any chance you have something he might have touched? A beer bottle? Or a glass that we could lift his prints off of?” If Bill had been arrested before, he should turn up in a database.
“How about a beer can?”
“That’ll work. Don’t touch it, and I’ll come get it right now.”
“I knew I could get you over here.”
He glared at the ceiling. “Rachel, is there really a beer can?”
“Yeah,” she said reluctantly. “There’s a lot of them.”
“Don’t touch any of them, and I’ll be there in thirty minutes. Be fully clothed, please.”
“Can’t wait,” she purred.