Eleven (29 page)

CHAPTER 28

Just under two hours one way. I hated planes—particularly the lift-off and the landing. If only there were some way to just be in flight without the necessary bumpy navigation required on both ends of it.

Paige had passed me a few glances as we took off. I swear she noticed the grip I had on the arm of the chair, but she never made a comment. In fact, she hadn’t said much since we left the office.

“Do you know why us?”

Her head was pressed against the headrest as she turned to face me. “Punishment for something.” She said the words seriously, but a small smirk at the tail end of her statement disclosed they weren’t intended to be taken as such.

“Jack doesn’t like planes?”

Paige laughed. “Jack’s not afraid of anything Brandon. I think the man could have a rocket launcher aimed at his face from five feet away and still think he’d walk.”

“I asked him but he didn’t really give me a straight answer.”

“He thinks we’ll make a good team.” Her eyes scanned my face, doted on my lips for seconds, and rose back to match my eyes.

“Why?”

She faced forward. “He said you come from Florida and I’m a woman.”

“I’ve noticed.” I had hoped the statement would garner a smile from her, even a slight upward curve—nothing. “What does your being a woman—”

“Everything. Denise Hogan might be more open to talk to me.”

“We don’t think we’re looking for a female unsub. But we’re approaching her like she’s our only link.”

“She is in a way. We’ve spoken with the family of the other suspected victims. We’ve exhausted those areas. This woman is the only one we haven’t. And doesn’t it make you wonder why she’d change her name and move all the way to Florida?”

“Sarasota, no less.”

“That’s right. A little ironic.” I studied Paige’s profile. She was tired. Even her curls had lost their regular bounce. The time was just after eleven and the plane would touch down by midnight. By the time we left head office and boarded the plane it was about ten at night.

“When I asked Jack why us, he didn’t offer much. Just that if I liked being an agent I’d be getting on the plane.”

“He’s testing you.”

“Excuse me.”

“He wants to know if you can handle it. He wants you right in the middle of the investigation so that he knows if you’re right for the team.”

“A trap?”

Paige laughed and turned to face me again. Exhaustion had etched into her expression and it faded quickly. Her eyes were lightly bloodshot. “Like I said a test. Despite what you think he doesn’t want you to fail. He just thinks you will.” She said the last sentence at a lower volume, but I still heard her.

“Well, that’s just great.”

“Don’t take it personally.”

“How else am I supposed to take it?”

“Jack knows people Brandon. He knows whether a person is a fit for the team within a short time. With you I don’t think he’s sure.”

“I’m eluding him.”

She smiled. “Guess so.”

“You seem to know him pretty well.” The words came out and her smile disappeared.

“None of your business.”

“I didn't mean anything by—”

“Of course you did. But what I do is my business, understood?”

She held eye contact until I nodded. Her association with Jack was rubbing off on her. The way she added
understood
was something Jack would say to make a point.

“I mean who are you to judge—” She shook her head and stopped talking.

We spent the rest of the flight in silence.

CHAPTER 29

Part of me expected to wake up to a ringing phone, the other to a knock on the door. Neither happened. Surprisingly I woke up on my own to a hotel room where sunlight filtered in through the sides of the drapes. The alarm on the side table read nine-thirty.

I missed Deb with an ache in my chest. I wondered how she was making out at Nadia’s and worried if she were safe.  I thought of calling last night, but by the time we got in, it was too late.

I picked up the cell to make the call, but it rang on the way to my ear. ID said it was Jack. I took a deep breath and sat up on the bed. I stretched my neck left to right and softly slapped my face to wake up. “Special Agent Fish—”

“Where are you?” Jack’s voice carried more aggravation than was there before we left yesterday. He seemed to be a man who needed sleep, and this case had us going on the minimum human requirement.

“At the—”

“Don’t tell me you’re still in bed.”

I sprung from the bed as if he could see me and drew back the drapes. The bright sun blinded me, and my eyes instinctively shut for seconds until they adjusted. When they opened I looked around the room. “I’m not.”

“Hmm.”

I knew what that one was for. He didn’t believe me. “What is it, Jack?”

“Don’t change the subject, Kid. I’m the one who asks the questions. Where’s Paige?”

I hesitated to answer because I didn’t know.

“Is she in the room with you?”

“Jack?”

“I know about the two of you.”

I dropped into a sofa chair by the window and watched vehicles whizz by on the street below. Everyone in a hurry with a place they needed to be, even on a Saturday.

“Kid?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Hmm.”

“It was a long time ago.” Why did I feel like I owed him an explanation?

“Is that the sin The Redeemer wanted you to confess?”

“Let me guess, it’s only because of pillow talk you know about my affair with Paige.” The words charged out infused with a fuel of their own.

“You know about us.” There wasn’t any shame in his voice, neither any regret.

“I do.”

“Well then.”

“Surprised you sent me away with her. Late nights, far away from home.” I spoke with my eyes on the bed I came from. The sheets and comforter were thrown back in my haste to get up. I pictured Paige lying there and played this like a poker game. “She’s here now if you want to talk to her.”

“Sure.”

He was calm, non-judgmental. He had called my bluff.

Now
what?
“She’s still sleep
—”

There was a knock on the door followed by my name being called out.

“Let her in. I have news for both of you.”

Jack must have heard the knocking. I detected amusement in his voice. He won this round. I unlatched the chain, unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door. Paige stood in the hallway holding a tray with two extra-large coffees and a paper bag clenched in her hand. She looked at my boxer shorts and smiled. She passed me the tray and I balanced it with one hand as I held the cell to my ear with the other.

“It’s Jack.”

She nodded and placed the bag on the dresser before taking the tray from me. “Good morning, Jack.”

“Put me on speaker now,” Jack directed.

I depressed a button and held it out for Paige to hear him.

“We’ve been here most of the night, but we’re getting somewhere. The results also came back from the pig trough. There were traces of human DNA.”

My stomach tossed. Paige’s face scrunched up, but her apparent disgust was thinly layered as she reached for a coffee, took the lid off, blew on it, and then took a sip.

“You’re going to shut them down.” I remembered the petite woman whose pig farm had been in her husband’s family for generations.

“Don’t have much choice but to report it to the FDA. Human meat was consumed by their animals which people then ingested.”

Paige took pause, resting her lips on the edge of the cup. “That takes your appetite away.” She spoke with her eyes on the paper bag she brought with her.

“Yeah,” I echoed her sentiment.

“You guys heading out to see Denise Hogan now?”

“Some of us, or should I say one of us, needs to get dressed first.” Paige’s eyes went back to my boxer shorts.

She wore navy dress slacks that fit her snuggly and rested on her hips. She had tucked her white shirt into them which only further accentuated her thin figure. The holster and her gun wound around her waist as a bulky piece that didn’t seem to belong and appeared to weigh her down.

“Keep me posted. We’re taking a break for a couple hours to get some sleep, but if something comes up I want a call immediately.”

“Of course.”

“By the way how are things going with Detective Jenkins?” I asked.

“Anything comes up, call.” Jack avoided my question and disconnected.

Paige and I were smiling. “He really doesn’t like the guy does he?”

“Can’t say I blame him.”

“Really? You had me fooled. You seemed to be captured by his cop stories.”

She shrugged a shoulder. “Guess I can be a good actress.”

The address provided for Denise Hogan was a modest apartment building of five stories. Paige and I had eaten the blueberry scones she had picked up for us on the way over. It took time for the image of people consuming human intestines with their morning sausage to fade away for our appetites to resurface. When we left the hotel, we took a taxi to a car rental where we picked up a Chevrolet Cruze. The thing rocked as if it were on waves, not a paved road.

I spoke with a mouthful, “Think she’ll even be home?”

“It’s Saturday morning. There’s a good chance.”

“I still find it strange that she wouldn’t have reported her husband missing.”

“Sounds like someone who has something to hide. And the name change and relocation go right along with that. It’s a good thing I’m here.”

“You expect us to get that out of her?”

“Not we, me.” Paige smiled. “Woman to woman.”

“Just for that you think she’s going to open up to you?”

“Guess we’ll see.”

 “Wonder if the buzzer’s even working.” Paige dialed the intercom again for Denise Hogan’s apartment.

The main entrance was a cramped space not much larger than an average-sized cubicle in a high-rise office building. Our elbows touched when she dropped her arm back down. Paige moved quickly to pull her arm in.

A woman opened the door and stepped into the lobby. She was wearing cut-off jean shorts and a sleeveless tee. Her hair was in a tight ponytail. Her bangs were trimmed square across her brow boxing her face. She shimmied between us to reach the door to the streets. Her face was familiar. Paige picked up on it at the same time I did. We both went to go out the door at the same time. The woman had already put at least a dozen paces between us.

Paige yelled, “Denise Hogan!”

The woman slowed down, glanced over her shoulder and started into a run.

“I hate it when they run.” Paige made the complaint but fired off ahead of me.

The sidewalk was relatively barren. Only a stub of a man walking a pug headed toward us. Moving past him I noticed the resemblance between the man and his pet. It wasn’t a compliment to the man, and I nearly tripped over the dog.

“Hey watch it,” the man called out to me.

I kept running and passed Paige. About a foot away from our target, I called out to her, “Miss Hogan.”

“Go away!” Her arms flailed as if they would somehow keep us back the wilder they moved.

“We need to speak—” I reached out for her shoulder.

“Get your hand off me.” Denise Hogan stopped and jerked her shoulder to free my grip. The way she stood there with her hands on her hips, I knew she wasn’t going anywhere. Deb was the same way. Placement of hands on hips grounded her. I pulled my arm back.

“What do you want?”  Her breathing didn’t disclose an elevated heart rate from the mini cardio workout.

Paige came up beside us and ran a hand from her forehead back through her hair. “We’re federal agents Miss Hogan. We need to talk to you about your husband—”

“I’m not—” Denise stalled, her gaze passing between Paige and me as if she were trying to read our eyes. Ten seconds of silent penetrating and her hands came off her hips. She lunged away from us.

“Oh no, you don’t!” Paige fired off after her and caught Denise by the back of her shirt. I jogged the few paces to the two women.

“You are going to talk to us—”

“You can’t make me do anything. I have rights.” The hands never went to the hips. Her arms crossed, a running shoe tapped the sidewalk. The foot stopped when Paige tightened her grip on Denise and moved closer.

“We can talk out here on the streets or someplace private.”

Denise let out a rush of air as her eyes ignited with anger and blended with hopelessness. “Private.”

“Works for us.”