Flash Point (34 page)

Dodd nodded.

‘But why was he even—'

‘Irv was trying to get hold of you, but he said it kept going straight to voicemail—'

‘Yeah, my battery was low so I put it in standby until I was back on the road and could charge it—'

‘Well, he was worrying, because he couldn't get hold of Saleda or anyone
else
inside that mall. Irv figured out they were jamming satellite signals. Which meant radio contact couldn't go in or out. But before long he realized it wasn't only to delay first responders, because when Irv hacked into the mall surveillance networks, something seemed off about the surveillance feeds. And boy was it. Turned out the footage that Saleda, General Bearito Mussolini, SWAT, and every other rescue personnel was using to strategize wasn't real-time footage. They were seeing only what Black Shadow
wanted
them to see.'

Jenna nodded slowly, disgusted. ‘So they'd act based on what the cooked footage told them was happening, while outside, their BFF the media would be broadcasting the
real
footage far and wide showing the cops—'

‘Irresponsible, rash, dangerous actions result in monumentally horrible fuckups,' Dodd filled in.

‘And show the public that if the government can't pursue a criminal inside an everyday shopping mall without an innocent citizen ending up in intensive care, a martial law order in effect would bring disaster.'

Dodd nodded. ‘So, when he couldn't get you, he called Yancy, told him what was going on. Yancy was already in his car on that side of town, so he was going to rush and warn Saleda they were being set up, try to stop the first responders from acting on bad intel from the cooked footage.'

Jenna looked down, swallowed hard. Her eyes burned, a lump hard in her throat. ‘Guess he got there right on time,' she said, hating the bitter edge coating her words. He was hurt. This wasn't the time to be mad at him for rushing into danger, but it's exactly why her ears burned at the thought. Didn't he know how much she needed him? How much A loved him? How much they all did?

Her head bolted back up. ‘When can I see him? Can he have visitors?'

At this, Saleda turned to face them. ‘Jenna, I know your first instinct is to run to the hospital to be at his side, but trust me when I say that whatever setup he risked his life to warn us about is the same setup still in play at this very moment.' She gestured to the letter she'd been reading on her tablet. ‘Whoever this mastermind Ishmael is, whether he's an invalid or not, he's clearly started something here, and he's not done. Something about this whole thing isn't right, and we have to figure out how to get to him and the others who got away before anything else happens, be it to Flint and his family or anyone else. At this point, I doubt there's anything the people pulling the puppet strings behind Black Shadow aren't capable of.'

Jenna forced the fears bombarding her about Yancy away as hard as she could. Saleda was right. They'd done this to him. They had to be stopped. She looked to Dodd. ‘Dodd, can you find a quiet place for Grey to sit with the letter?' She turned to her ex-patient. ‘See if you can find any hidden meanings in there, particularly to do with literature, huh, Grey?'

Grey nodded and followed Dodd to a room off to the side with a small desk. He closed her in then rejoined them.

‘Keep an eye on her,' Jenna said, then faced Saleda again. ‘So, which ones got away?'

‘Well, Ishmael would've never been there, of course. He always hangs back because of his disability. The one the sniper popped – the one who looked liked he was wearing a suicide vest and seemed to be fiddling with what could've been a detonator? We couldn't question him for, um, obvious reasons … but after running his prints, turns out that not only was Fai Xiong active on the original Black Shadow forum, but he also used to be an intern in the computer lab of the community college where Irv traced that e-mail McKenzie McClendon received.'

The light khaki of something not quite right flashed in, that a computer intern would send something like that from his own lab, but she ignored it when she remembered his name. ‘Fai Xiong?' Jenna repeated. ‘Chinese?'

‘Yep. We're guessing he must've been Richelieu. Then Marius – I mean JP Haynie … I mean James Asner … or whoever the heck he was, is dead,' Saleda said. ‘So, we're missing two. One is Ashlee Haynie. The other we're trying to figure out by process of elimination.'

At the mention of Richelieu, the light khaki flashed in again, but Jenna pushed it away.

‘You have them isolated, questioning them separately?' Jenna asked, already knowing that would be the case.

‘Until General Grumpy Griz crashed our party and tried to horn in on our jurisdiction anyway,' Dodd said.

‘So far, we've pegged the obvious ones we have in custody: Scout, Slender— I mean Hester, Watson and Holmes,' Dodd said.

‘Mr Darcy is the creepy thin dude with the daggers, and Atticus is clearly the line leader with the machete,' Saleda added.

‘So only two males we can't confirm?'

‘We're assuming the one missing the hand is Tremain, but even so, both have lawyered up and aren't talking.'

‘What about the others? Ready to talk?' Jenna asked.

‘Attitudes are across the board. No lawyers so far. Some defiant, some stoic. Some, like Mr Darcy, remind me a little too much of Isaac Keaton if he happened to be playing Jack the Ripper on Halloween,' Dodd said.

‘That sounds like my worst nightmare,' Jenna said, actually unsure what she was imagining, but knowing she didn't want to be anywhere near it.

‘Different as the reactions may be, the story's always the same about why they were at the mall today. Every single one says because their leader told them to be there. Then they say they don't know anything else, that they aren't the boss and only do what they're told. Then, as soon as you ask about any of the others, especially Atticus, they clam up,' Saleda said.

The door to the little side office creaked open and Grey poked her head out. ‘Um, are you guys busy?'

‘Yeah, we're in the middle of something, Grey. Keep working on the letter, OK?' Jenna said.

Grey lingered in the doorway, her eyes shooting from one person to the next, like a shelter animal trying to determine which human would be most likely to spring her from the joint if she looked up at them with sweet, innocent eyes. She stopped on Jenna. ‘Right. I can do that. I just think there's … the letter writer might be a person who is also involved in the group, and …'

‘The letter writer is most
definitely
involved in the group,' Saleda said. ‘Spot on. Good work, Grey. See if you can find us any clues on where Ishmael might
be
.'

Grey nodded. ‘I can keep looking. I was wanting to kind of verify that you knew that the letter writer is writing for the group member who is not in the group but is taken away from the group—'

‘Yes,' Jenna said. ‘Ishmael is writing about taking Flint. Flint used to be Black Shadow, and now they've kidnapped him and his family. We need anything in the letter that might help us find them
or
Ishmael. Keep looking, OK?'

Grey nodded, then shut the door. Through the glass, Jenna watched her sit down and begin to pour over the letter again. Maybe she'd get lucky. They could only hope. Until then, Jenna's best shot was one of the other killers. But which?

Her mind jumped to the images of Scout on the video, her dry heaving in the bank. But no, she was street smart. That was her profile. Street smarts made her less likely to rat anyone out.
Who else …

The clumsy Slender UNSUB from the video came to mind, the one who needed to be rescued by the bigger male with the WASP knife. ‘What about Hester? How has she acted?'

Saleda smirked. ‘Devastated. Ashamed. Afraid.'

Jenna nodded. ‘Perfect.'

After skimming the folder Irv had been able to put together on what they knew about Slender UNSUB, aka Hester, aka Elise Kapra, Jenna turned the knob to the room where the thirty-three-year-old woman was being held for questioning. The others said she'd cried a little, seemed one of the most upset. But still, Jenna wouldn't know best how to tackle the interview until she had a better feel for the woman. Was she upset because she got caught or had real remorse? Her fighting style made her seem weak and clumsy, and yet, she was obviously strong – and ruthless – enough to join a band of terrorists slaughtering innocent people in droves. Until Jenna talked to Hester herself, the woman's folder couldn't tell her much at all.

Jenna stepped through the door and laid eyes on Hester, her long, thin face pale and gaunt, eyes wet with recent tears. Her bony fingers trembled, folded neatly in her lap.

‘I'm Dr Jenna Ramey, Special Agent with the FBI, Ms Kapra. Or do you prefer Elise? Or Hester, maybe?'

The woman's trembling hand opened, her palms face up on the table side by side, cuffed together. ‘Whichever you wish,' she said softly. Then, even quieter, ‘Hester is fine.'

Jenna set the folder on the table, her cup of tap water. ‘Can I get you any water or coffee, Hester?'

The woman only shook her head.

Jenna opened the folder, pretending to be looking something over, but in reality, she wanted to give Hester a chance to realize this would be an informal talk, not the third degree. If she did, maybe she'd open up. Be willing to confide in her.

‘I'll cut to the chase. It'll save us time and trouble. I'm sure you're aware that most of your friends at the mall were captured and detained, also, right, Hester? All but two.'

Hester gave another nod. ‘Yes. I did know that.'

‘The two still out there have plans to hurt more people, Hester. Even more than all of you already have.'

Hester's bottom lip trembled.

‘We need to find them before that happens, Hester. Before this gets any worse for them … for
you.
' Jenna leaned forward, clasped her hands on the table. ‘I don't know you, Hester. Maybe you want dozens or even hundreds more people to die. But I don't think you do.'

Hester sniffled, let out an audible sob. ‘Why not? I'm a monster, aren't I? That's why I'm here!' Sharp pain touched the edges of Hester's voice, a person who'd crossed lines she'd thought she could handle.

Ash gray flashed in, Hester's guilty conscience calling it forward.

‘Because you didn't join Black Shadow to hurt people.' Jenna had skimmed the notes about Hester's education, her employment history. The only court record that came up in conjunction with her name happened to be a lawsuit. The file didn't tell the whole story, but Jenna could fill in the gaps. ‘You see, I've been reading up on you this afternoon, Hester, and I just can't see that being why you did what you did.'

Jenna took a long pause, sipped her water. She opened the folder, sifted through the pages, and read. ‘After you got your Master's in education, you took a job teaching seventh grade at a private school in Boston. You lived in the suburbs with your then-husband Joel, correct?'

Hester nodded again. Sniffled.

‘It looks like your life was somewhat vanilla until I get to these pages showing where you were abruptly terminated from your teaching position and the subsequent wrongful termination suit you filed. Your husband also filed for divorce right around that time.'

‘Yes,' she whispered.

‘Now, I know this is a painful memory, Hester, but am I correct in understanding from this paperwork that you were terminated from your post because you had an abortion?'

Tears welled in Hester's eyes, dripped down her waxy cheeks and chin. ‘Yes.'

Don't prod. Wait.

When Hester spoke again, her voice was riddled with hurt. ‘When Joel and I found out we were expecting, we couldn't have been happier. It was a dream come true for us. But …'

Hester sniffed, her body racked with a dry sob. Jenna waited quietly.

‘A few weeks later at an ultrasound, the doctors discovered my sweet baby girl …' Hester nearly choked on the words. She took a gasping, rattling breath. ‘She had so many things against her. A chromosomal defect, a few other things. But the worst … the absolute
worst
,' Hester said, stopped. She blew out a slow breath, regaining composure. ‘Only one chamber of her heart was formed. The doctors … they said there was no chance of survival.'

Jenna bowed her head, Ayana's bright eyes blazing in her mind. Her gentle giggle almost echoing in her ears. ‘I'm so sorry.'

Hester bit back another sob. ‘Joel left that night. He said the decision was impossible. That he couldn't face it,' Hester said. She half-laughed, shook her head. ‘Funny how one person's impossible can be another person's sentence, huh?'

Compassionate Catalina blue flashed in. It was all starting to make sense. Facing that terrifying, gut-wrenching nine-month march to saying goodbye to her baby only moments after birth – and alone – Hester had opted to terminate the pregnancy. The private school got wind of it and fired her on grounds that having the procedure displayed morals not in line with the school's religious principles.

‘And then, despite your exemplary record, the school let you go,' Jenna said.

Now, Hester was sobbing, and she looked Jenna right in the eye. ‘Did they think I enjoyed it? Did they think I didn't feel anything? I didn't make the decision for
me
! I made it for
her
!'
Tears ran down Hester's face and neck, her nose running. ‘If by some miracle she had survived minutes or hours or days, none of them would have been pleasant. She'd have had absolutely no quality of life to speak of! I did it for
her
!'

‘And that's why I don't think you want anyone else to die, Hester. I don't think you killed anyone because you wanted anyone to die. I think you did it because you felt like it was the only way you could get anyone to listen. Am I right?'