Chapter Fifty-Three
Maya and Rory had moved their vehicles down the road to a location where it was harder to spot them. Not impossible, but harder. Juniper was circling in her compartment, ready to get out and go to work again.
“Don’t worry, girly, you’re going to get to do something soon,” Maya told her. Juniper gave a little whine and a short yip.
The wind had died down, but clouds had moved over and the temperature was dropping fast. The first flakes of snow started to fall.
“I guess this spring storm is moving in,” Rory said.
“Hopefully it holds off enough to keep the roads clear so that the FBI can get here,” Maya said, jumping up and down on her tippy-toes to stay warm. She could only hope that the timing went down right and the FBI would arrive by the time the senator or whoever showed up.
They were all in position and waiting. Maya and Rory were staying by their vehicles until more officers arrived.
The area where they had parked would allow them to approach the building safely and, thanks to the trees along the way, as concealed as possible.
Josh and Elena were in the classroom. Josh had prepped Elena on some tactics and where to take cover if things went bad.
The anticipation of what would happen kept an electric feeling in the air.
Would anyone show? There was always a chance that they were way off base and the senator had nothing to do with this, but Maya didn’t bet on it.
They all had radios and Josh had a gun, although they needed to assume that the senator’s security detail would search him and take it away.
Elena had the knife that she had shown she was so adept at using.
She had it tucked into her bra. They would feel it if someone patted her down, but they were all betting on Tony and Ian worrying more about Josh and less about Elena.
Just as Maya was about to go crazy with anticipation, an FBI vehicle pulled in next to her. Thank God. Agent Kessler stepped out and came over to her. They’d worked several cases together and she had the utmost respect for him. He was a solid agent.
“Anything yet?” he asked.
“No, nothing. Josh hasn’t radioed anything either.”
“I should go arrest him first,” Kessler said.
“I know, but I think we’ll be able to prove he’s innocent. I promise Josh will turn himself in when this is all over. He wants to be cleared of these crimes too.”
“I hope so. I’m also very curious about this senator. I looked into him, and he’s pretty clean for a politician.”
“He’s not that clean,” Maya said. “If the wrong person was serving time for murdering your daughter, wouldn’t you want to find out who really did it?”
“I would,” Kessler said. “That way I could kill the person.”
“Exactly—you have passion about the thought of it. The senator barely acknowledges anything. It’s like he doesn’t want to think about it.”
Kessler shrugged. “He may not.”
“Is the HRT coming soon? Hopefully they’re right behind you,” Maya said.
“They are running a little behind. They were held up and coming from Denver, so it’ll take them longer.”
Maya hoped they had enough people to do what they needed.
The drive from Denver was about two hours on good roads.
If the snow came in early, there was a chance that the team coming from Denver wouldn’t make it in time.
But Maya had radioed Deputy Wilson and he had arrived.
If they had to go in, they were better off than before.
They waited in silence. Finally, a vehicle could be heard before it could be seen.
“I hope that’s the senator,” Maya said as more snow started to fall.
“Me too. Because if we wait too long, we might be snowed in and staying the night,” Kessler said.
They waited and a black SUV pulled down the road to the research campus. They parked behind some trees, making it difficult to see who was getting out.
Shock went through Maya as she recognized the person stepping out of the vehicle with Tony and Ian. It wasn’t the senator.
“I didn’t see that one coming,” Kessler said.
“Me either,” Maya said. Then her heart started pounding as Tony pulled another person out of the vehicle. At first all she could tell was that the person was female and her hands were behind her back. Then it hit her. She knew who it was.
Bianca.
Maya pulled out her phone and texted Josh and Pops about the situation. They were using Bianca against them, and that changed their plan.
“Great,” Agent Kessler said, getting on his phone to see how far out the HRT was.
As Maya finished sending her messages, she knew things had suddenly gone from bad to worse.
* * *
Josh’s phone buzzed. It was Maya. She would only text if something wasn’t going according to plan. He read her message and then put his phone away. This was bad. And the person behind all this wasn’t who they were expecting.
“What’s wrong?” Elena asked.
“Tony and Ian are here too. They have my sister as a hostage.”
“What?” Elena asked.
“My sister. She’s been taken hostage and is being held at gunpoint.”
“Oh my God. Maybe we need to abort this plan,” Elena said.
“Too late,” Josh answered as the door opened. He froze for a moment, seeing his sister held captive. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Let her go. I’ll give you whatever you want. You don’t need to involve her in this.”
Josh tried to give Bianca a look to tell her that it would be okay. Bianca continued to cry as Tony and Ian gripped her arms. But Josh kept staring at the person he wasn’t expecting—Laura.
“Sydney is already dead,” Josh said. “So is Amber. Do you really want to hurt Bianca too? Let her go.”
“Why should I?” Laura asked, then she laughed a little. “You should see your faces. You really expected my husband to show up here, didn’t you?”
Josh didn’t answer. She was right, but he was working on regaining his cop poker face.
“Yes, that’s exactly who you expected. Where’s your evidence? And I mean all of it. I’m not stupid. I’m sure you made copies,” Laura said.
Josh thought through what to say. How could he defuse her? “I’ll give you what you want. Just let my sister go. Then we can talk about all this.”
Elena hadn’t said a word. Josh figured she was as shocked as he was. But she finally said, “I’ll drop this case. I’ll tell my boss this was nothing. Whatever you want, but just end the violence. I don’t know what happened with Sydney, but this isn’t worth it.”
“What makes you think they’ll listen?” Laura asked.
“Because they need that evidence to prove that the wrong person was convicted. Although setting up someone who was killing a child across town at almost the same time wasn’t the smartest move.”
Josh took a deep breath and shot Elena a look that said, Please don’t antagonize Laura. She’s obviously on the edge of completely losing it.
“You need to shut up,” Tony finally said.
Josh had begun to think that he wasn’t going to speak up. That he was the hired gun. What did Laura have on him? The Tony he knew wasn’t one to take instruction from a woman. He’d treated the female cops he’d worked with like crap and even had a few harassment complaints.
“And you need to remember I’m in charge,” Laura said.
“Yeah, well, you don’t know what you’re doing,” Tony said.
There’s the guy I remember. If I can get them to fight, then maybe I can figure out how to do something while they’re distracted.
Laura took the gun and pointed it at Tony. “You want to say that again? You’re the one who taught me to shoot. Remember? I learned from the best.”
“You wouldn’t do that. You like screwing me too much,” Tony said.
Okay, well, I wasn’t expecting that one.
Now I know why he’s helping her. Or at least one of the reasons.
I need to use this to get Bianca out of here.
Josh started to edge away from Elena and closer to the wall.
If he could get a good angle, he might be able to catch Tony off guard and get the gun away. Laura was another problem, though.
“You weren’t that good in bed,” Laura answered.
“Neither were you,” Tony said. “But you needed me.”
“You never complained when I paid you off. With your ex-wife breathing down your neck about child support and all your debts, you needed me.”
“What the…” Josh muttered. Elena’s face was pale and she seemed stuck in place. Somehow Josh had to get some sort of control back over the situation before Maya, Juniper, and the other officers breached the door.
Bianca, realizing Laura was aiming a gun at them, pulled back and struggled to get out of Tony’s hold. Ian grabbed her from the other side and gripped Bianca’s wrist. Anger surged through Josh as he noticed Laura’s finger had moved to the trigger.
“Your help is no longer necessary,” Laura said to Tony.
“No!” Josh yelled, leaping forward and managing to knock Bianca out of the way as Laura fired the gun. Ian had let go of Bianca once he realized Laura was going to take the shot.
Tony staggered back and then collapsed. Laura’s shot had been accurate—upper center mass—and had probably hit his heart.
Before Laura could pull the trigger again, Josh stepped in front of Bianca.
“If you want to know where the evidence is, and all the evidence including the copies, then you won’t shoot either of us.
If you hurt Bianca, I’ll make sure all the copies get out, not just to law enforcement, but to the media too.
I know Tony and Ian were watching Maya when she gave her reporter friend an envelope.
What do you think was in it? Now let’s talk. ”