No Good Deed (41 page)
“I’ll find a way,” she said. “In the meantime, can they stay at the boys’ home? There are two private security guards inside, and it’s the only place I can think of until I can arrange something through my office.”
“Of course,” Mateo said. “As long as you need a place, Elena, you have one.”
Lucy and Nate escorted Elena and her children to the boys’ home across the street, and Lucy explained the situation to Pete and Sister Ruth. By the time she walked back across the street, Ryan, Brad, and Leo Proctor had returned from talking to Elena’s boyfriend.
“He’s clean,” Ryan said. “We ran him, no warrants, no record. Works as custodial staff for the public school district, been with them for eight years, right out of high school. I have his contact info, license, address—all checks. Scared shitless, but more concerned about Elena. I told him she was in protective custody and would call him when she could, but I don’t want him or anyone knowing where she is.”
“That was a bust,” Brad said as the five of them gathered around the two SUVs. “We didn’t learn anything.”
“At least we know how it started,” Lucy said. “And one other important fact—her husband, the one in prison, must have talked to someone recently so he knew when to make the call. Can we get his records?”
“We already requested them,” Brad said.
“I’ll have Zach follow up,” Nate said.
“Nicole would know that we would eventually learn this information,” Brad said. “She isn’t going to let her people slip up by going on record.”
“With all the violence? The explosion? The multiple agencies? Yes—we’d get the records, but if we weren’t specifically looking for something, we wouldn’t necessarily know it when we saw it,” Lucy said. “Nate, ask Zach not just for the phone records, but for the visitor logs as well, going back a full month.”
Nate sent Zach a message.
“It’s nearly time for me to be in court,” she said. “Elise Hansen’s hearing.” She called Hans. He picked up the phone, rushed. “Hans, I’m heading to the courthouse. We can pick you up.”
“Where did you go?”
“Saint Catherine’s.” She told him what they’d learned. “Sort of a bust, but we have another small lead that Zach is checking out.”
“I’ll meet you at the courthouse.” He hung up.
She stared at the phone. “I have a feeling that everyone is avoiding me today.”
“Not me,” Nate said. “I’m sticking to you like glue. Is everything okay?”
“Hans will meet us at the courthouse.”
Ryan said, “Leo and I will follow up on the prison records, compare this Pedro Garcia with any names that might be associated with Rollins or Tobias. Donnelly, you’re with us.”
He looked like he was going to argue. “One minute.” He turned to Lucy. “Don’t worry about Elise. I know you’re concerned because of the circumstances, but this isn’t a trial. You’ll have more leeway to talk to the judge, give him your opinion.”
“That’s not the problem—it’s the psychiatrist. She’s bought Elise’s story and believes she’s the victim. I don’t have the credentials to tell the court that Elise is a sociopath and manipulated the system. She hasn’t denied injecting Worthington, but she convinced Dr. Oakley that she’s been abused and manipulated and she didn’t know she’d killed him. I have nothing to connect her to Rollins, except through Tobias. Yet … I have nothing solid to connect Tobias to Rollins. We
know
that they’re working together, but proving it … even circumstantially? We’re not there yet.”
“The AUSA will most likely ask the court for more time to evaluate,” Brad said. “They like to delay when they can, and because Elise is a minor with no family in the area, and the only family she’s claimed is a brother who is a wanted fugitive, I don’t see how they’ll let her walk. If the AUSA can’t keep her in the psych ward, she’ll be in juvie.”
Ryan nodded. “Donnelly’s right. With Tobias linked to the murders of several cops, the court isn’t going to be lenient. Holding her for another two weeks is a reasonable precaution.”
“I hope you’re both right,” Lucy said.
Her phone rang. It was Kenzie.
“What’s up?” Lucy asked.
“Lucy, I wish you were here.”
“What happened?”
“I’m at the morgue. Julie Peters just finished the autopsy on Barry. It was—awful.”
“You didn’t have to watch,” she said.
“I know—and I feel like shit that I walked out in the middle of it. Emilio stayed. I’ve never felt like this before.”
Lucy had worked at the DC morgue for over a year; she was used to the sights and sounds and smells. But it was always different when you knew the victim. And considering the state his body had been in, this autopsy must have been one of the worst.
“Julie got a positive ID?”
“No—that’s how bad it was. His body was so decomposed we can’t tell by looking at him. She sent blood, teeth, and tissue samples to the FBI lab at Quantico. They have the capability here, but Durant wants our people on it. Everything is already on a plane.”
“Come over tonight. You shouldn’t be alone.”
“Maybe I will. Eric’s staying with me—he knows how hard this week has been.”
“Eric—Eric Butcher? Your boyfriend?”
“He’s been so great. Last night—it would have been worse without him.”
“I’m glad you have someone.” Lucy knew exactly how Kenzie felt. Sean made everything better. She missed him. Even having a houseful of people, even having her brother in town, wasn’t the same as having Sean by her side.
“I just spoke with Abigail, and Emilio is writing up the report. Barry was tortured before they killed him.”
Lucy’s stomach flipped. “How?”
“Because of … the state of his body, Julie couldn’t determine much, but every finger had been broken while he was still alive. His jaw was cracked. The cause of death was a bullet in the head.”
Lucy closed her eyes and pushed aside all the emotions that threatened to escape. She took a deep breath, then said to Kenzie, “Where?”
“Where what?”
“If they tortured him, they had to have taken him someplace. What time did airport security show Barry’s car arriving?”
“Uh—just before midnight on Friday.”
“Do they have a decent image of the driver?”
“Not from the parking lot, but they know it’s a man with dark hair over six feet tall. He left the lot on foot heading toward the departure gates. Zach has a team going through all the footage there to see if we can get him on camera, boarding a flight, something.”
“Have them specifically check flights with a stop in DC, as well as the external feeds at the pickup and drop-off zones.”
Kenzie didn’t say anything for a moment.
“Is there something else?”
“I—I couldn’t process all this so fast. How do you do that?”
“Do what?” But Lucy knew exactly what she meant.
“Never mind, I’ll double-check with Zach. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.”
“He does, but it never hurts to run through the checklist with a fresh set of eyes.” She pinched her nose and wished she could better learn to balance her analytical side with her compassionate side. Kenzie had called her because she needed to commiserate about watching the autopsy of a friend and colleague. She hadn’t needed the questions and orders. “I’ll let you know when I get home.”
“Thanks, but I think I’ll make it a quiet night with my boyfriend.” Kenzie hung up.
Lucy felt miserable.
Hans wasn’t waiting for them when Nate and Lucy arrived at the courthouse. She sent him a text message, and he responded that he’d been held up but was trying to make it before the hearing.
Once Nate and Lucy went through security and checked their weapons, they went to the third floor where AUSA Christina Fallow paced in the hallway on blood-red stiletto heels.
“Agent Kincaid,” Fallow snapped and approached them. She glanced at Nate with narrowed eyes.
“Special Agent Nate Dunning,” he said.
“Where’s Agent Crawford?” she demanded.
“He was killed Friday afternoon,” Lucy said.
Fallow paled. “Killed? No one told me.”
“We found his body last night.”
“Oh God.” She sat down heavily on a bench. “What happened?”
“We believe Nicole Rollins sent someone to kill him,” Lucy said. “We can’t prove it yet—but we will.”
“Rollins? I’m going to be sick.” She looked at Nate. “Are you replacing Agent Crawford?”
“No, ma’am. Agent Kincaid is the agent of record.”
Fallow shook her head and buried her face in her hands. A moment later she looked up and said, “Why didn’t you tell me that you spoke to the defendant?”
“It wasn’t about her case, it was about Nicole Rollins’s escape.”
“I don’t care if you wanted the name of her hairdresser! Her lawyer is up in arms. And I only found out twenty minutes ago when I got here.”
“I talked to her yesterday morning for fifteen minutes. You can watch the recording.”
Fallow sighed. “That’s not the only reason I’m upset. The case is fucked. We have nothing on her.”
“She killed a man.”
“Manslaughter. Extenuating circumstances. Her lawyer wants a plea—ten months in a minimum-security facility until her seventeenth birthday and then emancipation after a court hearing. Her mother is dead, she doesn’t know who her father is.”
“But we don’t know if any of that is true,” Lucy said. “She can’t prove who she is. She’s given us nothing to verify her identity. She held James Everett at gunpoint and forced him to transfer millions of dollars to accounts controlled by Tobias.”
“She says she was acting under duress.”
“We can produce two witnesses who will testify that she was not acting under duress,” Lucy said. Sean would testify, and she hoped Kane would as well.
“She’s a minor. She doesn’t have to prove anything. She gave us her name and she doesn’t have or doesn’t know her Social Security number. Her mother always went by the name Sue Hansen, but we can’t confirm that—Sue? Suzanne? Susan? Elise was raised practically on the streets, she thinks her mother is dead, and she told the shrink that Tobias was her foster brother in Las Vegas, Nevada.”
“There has to be a record in the foster system.”
“We’ve been trying to get it, but it’s going to take more time.”
“Don’t they print foster kids?”
“Some jurisdictions do, but not the jurisdiction she claims to be from. And even if we did have it, because they’re minors the prints aren’t uploaded into the criminal database. If they’re a missing person, the prints will be in the missing persons system; her prints haven’t shown up. No one has reported her missing. But the system isn’t perfect.”
“Elise is a sociopath,” Lucy said. “She can’t be released into minimum security anything. She has to be closely monitored.”
“The court-appointed shrink doesn’t believe she’s a sociopath,” Fallow said.
“Her shrink has been played,” Lucy said. “Just like Nicole Rollins played the DEA for fifteen years.”
Fallow looked at Lucy oddly. “What does she have to do with this?”
Before Lucy could answer, the bailiff opened the door. “The judge is ready.”
Lucy followed Fallow into the small courtroom. Elise was already inside with Dr. Oakley and her attorney. She wore a modest pale-blue dress with shell sleeves. Her hair was clean, brushed, and pulled back on the sides. She wore no makeup and looked like a twelve-year-old cherub.
Elise turned and looked at Lucy. She smiled. Then she winked. She turned to her doctor and grabbed her arm. Lucy could see her shaking from twenty feet away. Oakley looked over at Lucy and narrowed her eyes, then patted Elise on the arm and whispered in her ear.
Lucy’s mouth dropped open. She couldn’t believe that she was the only one who’d seen what had happened.
Nate cleared his throat. She caught his eye—he’d seen it, too. But that wasn’t going to help them in front of the judge.
There was no one else in the room ready to testify. Elise with her two people; Fallow and Lucy; the bailiff and a court reporter.
Lucy leaned over to Fallow. “What’s going on? We should have other witnesses here—”
“This isn’t a trial, it’s a hearing,” Fallow said in a low voice as she sat down in the front. Lucy sat next to her. “We aren’t presenting evidence, we’re making a case to keep Hansen in a criminal psychiatric care unit. But Kincaid, this isn’t going to be pretty—I was expecting Agent Crawford. He’s good with the court. He knows what to expect. And he knows this case.”
“I know this case, too. And I know Elise Hansen better than you can imagine.”
“I hope so, because I need to give the court a damn good reason not to accept the offer of ten months in juvie.”
“Reason number one? She’ll walk away.” How could Lucy make Fallow see the truth?
“Listen, Kincaid—I had prepared with Barry, and he was supposed to be back from his vacation this morning. I wish I’d prepared you as well.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Fallow stared at her as if she didn’t understand the question. “Because … Barry was the lead agent. You’re a rookie. Not everything was by the book—I would have called you if there was a trial because if I didn’t, the defense certainly would, but I’d really hoped this wouldn’t go to trial.” She leaned closer and whispered, “I already offered two years, maximum-security juvenile detention. They declined.”
Lucy hadn’t known—she was stunned. In an equally low voice she said, “Elise Hansen is a cold-blooded, sociopathic killer. She should be tried as an adult.”
“There’s not enough evidence,” Fallow hissed.
“Keep her in lockup for two more weeks. I’ll get evidence.”
“After talking to Naygrow this morning, that’s my goal, and I think the Judge will at least give me the time. I’m going to ask for two weeks at first, then seventy-two hours.”
“All rise for Judge Eleanor Axelrod.”
Fallow looked stunned. She waited until the judge was seated before she said, “I was under the impression Judge Goodman was presiding over this case.”
“Judge Goodman’s trial has taken longer than expected and instead of postponing, I agreed to sit in on this hearing.” Axelrod looked at Fallow pointedly. “Is that a problem, counselor?”
“No, Your Honor. But if you need more time to become familiar with the case, I would be happy to postpone the hearing until Monday.”