Chapter Twenty-One #2
Everyone shifted to look at the television at the back of the room while Baz filled them in, explaining the deposits that JJ had uncovered, as well as the FBI using the ruse of a federal witness in order to get away with kidnapping her.
“Oh my God,” Elana said on a choked sob. “She’s alive.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Brantley said, standing up. “I will say this. The information we’re giving you does not go any further than those in this room. Not until we have proof of our theory. And only after I share whatever we find with her family. Understood?”
“Travis doesn’t know?” Holly asked.
“He knows some of it. We haven’t given him all the details yet. I won’t be comfortable until I get eyes on her or find someone who knows where they took her. Like I said, we keep it within this team.”
A round of nods and affirmative mutterings moved through the room.
“How long have you known this?” Evan asked, his tone holding a slight edge, as though he was bothered that he hadn’t been included.
Atticus didn’t blame him. He’d tried.
“Since Saturday morning,” Atticus told him. “We shared our findings with Brantley, who took the information to Travis. With his permission, we moved on it. Our trip to Dallas was to talk to Max Adorite, the head of the Adorite Crime Family.”
“That was about Meredith Prescott, right?” Jay asked.
“Correct. We wanted to get clarification on the events that supposedly took place nineteen years ago. As you know, Decker stated that Meredith did not witness a hit, although she was being blackmailed into testifying.”
“But we don’t know that for sure, right?” Charlie asked. “We have secondhand information from Decker.”
Atticus glanced at Brantley, received a nod to continue.
“Meredith showed up Saturday morning,” he said, realizing some of the team wasn’t aware of her presence. “Evan and Becs were able to talk to her yesterday.” He glanced at Evan. “Would you mind sharin’ the information you have?”
While Evan filled the team in on their conversation, Atticus listened intently, hoping to hear something that he might’ve missed from reading Evan’s notes.
“Meredith isn’t very forthcoming with details,” Evan explained after he summed it up. “I think she’s hiding something, but we don’t know what yet.”
“What makes you think that?” Charlie asked.
“We received a photograph from Atticus,” Becs answered. “And showed it to Meredith and Decker. Neither of them claimed to know who it was, but they were both visibly upset when they saw it.”
The picture appeared on one of the wall screens.
“We’ve yet to determine who the child is,” Atticus explained. “But the name on the back of the photograph is Cicily Rose. We assume she was born in 2006 since that’s the year beside the name.”
“The woman looks like a young Meredith,” Becs stated. “I pulled up old yearbooks from the high school she worked at and compared them.”
“Do we have a location on Cicily Rose?” Charlie asked.
“Not yet. We’re weeding through a long list of possibilities,” JJ said. “Believe it or not, it’s a very popular name.”
“Where did you find this picture?” Elana asked.
“From a previous address for Decker,” Atticus answered, clicking a button on the remote to pull up the pictures he took while they were at the trailer.
He flipped through them, giving the team a visual of what he and Archer had seen the previous day.
He stopped when he got to the photo of Archer and Tesha mugging for the camera.
Laughter erupted along with a few awwws.
“That’s where he grew up?” Evan asked. “In that trailer?”
“We believe so.”
“There’s furniture in only one room?” Becs asked.
“Yes. And it looks new. The rest of the house was empty, except for some toilet paper and new towels in the bathroom,” Archer supplied. “We attempted to talk to neighbors, but either they weren’t home or they weren’t willing to chat.”
“We’ve added these to the case notes,” Atticus informed them.
“Does Travis know his mother-in-law is in town?” Elana asked.
Atticus looked at Brantley, not sure he should answer that.
“He does,” Brantley confirmed. “He was here when RT and Z brought her Saturday mornin’.”
“Is there anything else you’re keeping from us?” Charlie asked.
Before Atticus could answer, Brantley stood up.
“The only things we’ve purposely held back were the details around Kylie’s death.
It wasn’t until yesterday that we had valid intel to back up Holt’s theory that her death was faked.
We still do not have any proof that she is alive, only that Martin Calloway paid off the doctor to forge her death certificate and that the funeral home knowingly buried an empty casket. ”
“Do Travis and Gage know that last part?” Holly asked.
“They know we’re lookin’ into the possibility that she’s alive. Like I said, until we have concrete proof, we’ll keep this to ourselves.”
“What’s our main objective here?” Evan asked.
“It’s two-fold,” Brantley said.
Atticus stepped back because it was clear Brantley was taking over. He didn’t mind at all.
“First and foremost, our goal is to find Kylie,” he said firmly. “Once we do that, we’ll focus on taking down Censorious. We have the go-ahead from Z to officially tackle this and to see it through to completion.”
“You make it sound easy,” Becs said, looking skeptical.
“Trust me when I tell you, it’ll be anything but.”
Yeah, Atticus had a feeling he was going to say that.
Reese listened while the team pondered over the information they’d been given.
To be honest, it went better than expected.
He thought for sure there would be more hurt feelings.
He did pick up on some subtleties in Evan’s and Charlie’s tones.
Since they’d been with the task force the longest, it was only logical that they would feel slighted.
It hadn’t been their intention, but they had held back valuable information.
Now that everything was out in the open, the team seemed determined to do what was necessary to find Kylie and take down a group of rogue law enforcement agents.
The first seemed relatively easy compared to the second.
Reese had no idea how to even begin cutting off the head of a very powerful snake. And that was what Censorious was.
Last night, after he’d dosed Brantley with his migraine medicine, Reese had done some research of his own.
He had wanted to know what they were really up against. Simon, with help from Elana, had made decent headway in getting information on the group that had been formed to mete out their own brand of justice when they weren’t content with the results of the US judicial system.
They had a growing list of names, as well as information on their families, occupations, and political affiliations.
But they didn’t have enough information.
Not for his liking, anyway. So he had started digging deeper.
What he found on his own had made his stomach churn.
And to think, Martin Calloway claimed Max Adorite was the one who needed to be put down.
From what Reese found, the opposite was true.
At the very least, they both needed to be stopped.
Not that Reese had any intention of taking down Max. He might not believe in what Max stood for, but he understood it to a degree. His motivations, anyway. He was building an empire, fueled by money and power. Yeah, people got caught in the crossfire, but the collateral damage was minimal.
The same could not be said for Censorious.
Martin Calloway was fueled by power and greed, using whatever means necessary to get what he wanted: justice.
His perverted version of it. Censorious had distorted the definition of justice to achieve their goals.
And they weren’t above taking down innocent people in the process.
“What should we focus on?” Charlie asked, drawing Reese’s attention.
Archer was now standing up, moving to the front of the room. “As Brantley said, our main objective is to find Kylie and take down Censorious. And yes, in that order. Our focus should be on finding Kylie.”
“I guess there’s no reason to exhume the body, huh?” Charlie asked.
“What’s the point? The funeral home said there isn’t one,” Jay stated.
“And what if they’re lying?” Elana countered.
“And if they are?” Jay argued. “Then we will have disturbed the woman’s final resting place for no reason.”
“But we won’t know for sure unless we do,” Charlie argued.
“Right now, I’m not worried about that,” Brantley said. “If we get nowhere in the next twenty-four hours, I’ll consider approaching my cousin with that request. For now, let’s focus on following the leads we have.”
“Where do we start?” Holly asked.
“The task list is up to date,” Archer explained.
“Make sure you add anything you get as you get it. This is our playbook right now, so you’ll see we’re adding things as we go.
If you determine there’s something that plays to your strength, assign it to yourself.
But if you do that, it’s yours. And we want hourly updates from everyone. ”
“I’ve got a lead on a member of Censorious,” Reese told Archer. “He’s got an Austin address. Charlie, Jay, if one of you could pay him a visit this mornin’, see what you can get outta him.”
He could tell that statement surprised Brantley, but he didn’t say anything.
“I can do that,” Jay offered.
“I’ve asked JJ to continue to monitor Allison Bogart’s cell phone,” Atticus said, stepping up beside Archer. “I think she’s key to finding out more on all fronts.”
“I agree,” Brantley added. “If and when you find her, I want to talk to her.”
“Charlie is gonna continue her research on her,” Atticus added. “See if we can find out who she’s workin’ with. I can’t imagine she doesn’t have a partner.”
“Depends on what her role is,” Reese told him. “If she does, there’s no guarantee that person knows what she’s up to.”
“True. But it’s worth a conversation,” Atticus countered.
“It is,” Brantley agreed. “If you need someone to do legwork in Dallas, reach out to Z. He knows what we’re focused on. Said he’ll have agents at the ready if we need help.”
Atticus gave a thumbs-up. “Noted.”
“We’re headed to Johnson City,” Reese informed the team.
“While Atticus and Archer head to Dripping Springs. We’ve got enough connections in those two cities to be more than a coincidence.
It’s worth doing some recon. If you need us, call, but remember, Atticus and Archer are runnin’ this op. Go through them.”
“You ready?” Brantley asked.
Nodding, Reese whistled for Tesha. He was eager to get this underway. Finding Kylie was all he could think about, and he knew he wouldn’t rest until they did.
One way or the other.