Chapter 18

18

Blake and Nick joined Brooklyn and the rest of the Shadow Lake team for the trip to Kelsey’s lab. Brooklyn wasn’t surprised to see the anthropologist standing at the table near where the skull had been located earlier, but now additional bones for the lower part of the skeleton had been added to the table. The odor had improved, but Brooklyn’s stomach still roiled around her lunch. She hadn’t been very hungry and shouldn’t have eaten a bite, which she now regretted.

“Oh, good.” Kelsey cast them a ready smile. “Sorry if I interrupted lunch, but I thought you would want to be here when the results came in for the finger.” She tapped a white bin with the plastic-bagged finger. “I was able to rehydrate it faster than I thought. I suspect it hasn’t been separated from the body as long as I first believed.”

“Were you able to generate a valid print?” Nick asked.

She nodded. “I already submitted it to AFIS and got a result back faster than I expected for that too.”

“So you know who our victim is?” Brooklyn tried not to sound excited. After all, they were talking about a man who’d lost his life.

“I know who this finger belongs to, but that’s all at this point, as I will have to clean it to compare to the hand and see if it was excised from these skeletal remains. And Emory’s DNA will conclusively link it to this victim. Or not.” She touched the skull with her gloved finger.

“For now,” Blake said. “Share the name.”

“Okay, here goes.” She moved to the computer in the corner and started something printing, then snatched a page up from the printer to study it. “The deceased’s name is Matteo Albertelli.”

“Albertelli!” Blake’s eyes narrowed. “As in one of the brothers heading up the Albertelli organized crime family. Wow!”

“Pretty much everyone in law enforcement in this state has heard of them,” Colin said. “But what in the world does Tarver have to do with them?”

“When I was a deputy, they were mostly into prostitution and drugs,” Dev said.

The others turned to Brooklyn. Of course they did. They wanted to know if he was connected to Kane. “Never heard of him. What about you, Nick?”

“No relation to Kane that I know of.”

“They’re involved in the digital world for their pornography,” Colin said. “But are they into electronic theft and hacking too?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Nick said. “But I only know what I’ve run into in investigations and don’t know all of the details of their businesses.”

Blake scowled. “Matteo’s older brother, Luka, is the head of the family and is suspected of several murders, but no agency has ever proved it.”

“I’ll dig into him,” Nick said.

“Sierra mentioned that organized crime is involved in wildlife trafficking these days,” Colin said. “Could be their connection to Tarver.”

“When I ask Sheriff Day about wildlife trafficking, I’ll mention them too,” Dev offered.

Colin looked at his brother. “Good plan. Unless anyone has the stomach to go back to lunch, we can head to the condo and regroup. You can make the call there.”

“I could eat. Then I can always eat, but I’m good.” Dev chuckled and faced Kelsey. “I’d appreciate an official report to give to Sheriff Day.”

“Of course.” Kelsey smiled. “I’ll issue one after I’m able to confirm the finger belongs to this victim. I should be able to do that before the DNA comes in so you’ll have an official answer to that as soon as possible too.”

“Thank you for that.” Colin gave a tight smile.

“And for all you do.” Brooklyn squeezed Kelsey’s arm. “I’m amazed and in awe of your skills and willingness to do such a difficult job. We’re all better off for your dedication. Yours and everyone’s here.”

“Amen to that,” Reid said. “If only we could clone you all and put you in every law enforcement agency in the country, far more crimes would be solved and so many perpetrators wouldn’t go unpunished.”

“I don’t think the country is ready for that many Kelseys.” Kelsey clutched her chest and laughed.

The others laughed with her, and Brooklyn appreciated how she’d lightened the mood so they could leave without such a heavy feeling deep inside.

“I’ll head back to my lab to run a background check on Matteo Albertelli.” Nick charged out of the room and the others followed.

At the stairwell, Nick waved at them and disappeared behind the door.

Blake strode to the elevator in his usual hurried steps and took them up to the skybridge. Brooklyn slowed to enjoy the warmth of the sun beaming in as she crossed the glass-enclosed space. She peered at the surrounding rural property laden with evergreens and grass green and thick from spring rains. The calming effect of the lush rolling hills belied the terrible things that were discovered in this facility.

Colin fell into step with her. “Nice view.”

“I appreciate it even more today,” she said. “The feeling is in such opposition to The Tomb.”

“Kelsey’s a saint to do the job she does and then to work in a windowless basement all day on top of it. I don’t know how she does it.”

She glanced at him. “You like to be outside.”

“I do. All the guys on the team do, so our jobs are perfect for us.”

She kept her focus pinned to him. “Do you ever miss being an agent?”

“Not really. Not with the things I saw and would still be seeing if I’d remained.”

“Bad?”

He rubbed a hand over his face. “The kinds of things that rob your sleep and never let you go. Make you wonder if it’s even wise to bring children into this broken world.”

So maybe his mother was wrong, and he didn’t want a wife and family. “I had no idea it was that bad.”

“You might think Tarver is the worst of the worst, but he pales in comparison to the child predators I hunted down. Molesting or pimping out a child is the lowest of the low in my book.”

“Yes, I would agree with that, and I’m sorry you had to deal with it.” She slipped her hand into his and squeezed. “I hope someday you find a way to let it go. A reason to move on and believe in the good this world still has to offer.”

He clutched her hand as if it were a lifeline and stared at her. “I’m starting to think that reason has recently come into my life.”

They got lost in each other’s gazes for a long moment. She heard one of the guys clear his throat, but she didn’t know which one. She jerked apart from Colin.

“One thing that would be good about being an agent,” he said as he started walking again. “I would have access to records and databases right now. We might find Tarver faster if I did.”

She sighed. “I’m beginning to think we might not find him, and this will continue until he finds me again.”

He studied her. “If for some reason we don’t locate him, and I’m not saying we won’t, but if that happens, will you stay on with my mom?”

Brooklyn didn’t even have to think about that. “Absolutely. If you will allow it, that is. The danger and all. You know, with him maybe knowing I’m staying with you. I like her a lot, and it’s more fulfilling than I thought to be able to support her needs.”

He gave her a funny look she couldn’t interpret and picked up his pace. A look almost as if something was strangling him. Maybe he was thinking about his mom’s future and how she could very well go downhill from the lupus until she needed more and more care. Brooklyn hated the disease. All diseases, but the world was filled with them, and all they could do for the ones with no cure was manage the symptoms the best they could and support the person who suffered.

Blake opened the door for them. “Will you want to stay tonight?”

“If it’s okay,” Colin said. “I’d like to be here when the DNA results come in.”

“Of course. I can arrange a dinner meal for you, if you’d tell me what you might like.”

“You’re quite the concierge,” Dev said.

“Meals are simple.” Blake planted his hands on his hips. “You’d be surprised what I’ve had to arrange for other visiting guests.”

“What are our options? Because, a massage would be nice.” Dev laughed. “I mean it would be nice, but kidding, of course. I’ll go make that phone call.”

“Just let me know about dinner.” Shaking his head and chuckling, Blake headed down the hallway.

Brooklyn entered the condo, and Colin paused to secure the door behind Reid.

Dev plopped down on the sofa and called the sheriff with his iPad.

“I’m doing a video call. Helps to see her expressions.” He held out the iPad for others, and they gathered around him.

Abby answered and immediately narrowed her gaze. “You’ve been quiet far too long, so you better have an update for me.”

“I do and as you can see, I’m with my team and Brooklyn.” Dev brought Abby up to speed on today’s top developments. “I was wondering if you’ve had any issues with wildlife trafficking in your county?”

She cocked an eyebrow. “This about the possible big cat in the kennel?”

“Yeah. The scientists here have confirmed it was a jaguar.”

“Oh, wow. Seriously?” She blinked rapidly. “I remember studying them in zoology class in high school, and they aren’t common in the US. Definitely not common in Oregon.”

Brooklyn didn’t know that. “So Kane could’ve bought the cat with the intention of reselling it for more money.”

“Sounds possible, but man, I wouldn’t want to take the risks of having a live cat like that in my custody.” Abby shuddered.

“Organized crime is often involved in wildlife trafficking,” Reid stated.

She tipped her head. “And you’re wondering if Tarver and Matteo Albertelli were working together, and that’s why we found him in the house?”

“We are,” Dev said. “You have any details on the Albertellis?”

“Sure, I’m familiar with the family, as are most law enforcement officers. But they’re out of Portland, so I only know what I’ve heard on the grapevine. But hang on, and I’ll go to my office to look up their rap sheets.” The camera moved away from her face and was pointed down at the floor as she walked. Her booted feet thumped on white tile that was surprisingly clean for a public space.

She dropped into a chair and propped up her camera. Her fingers flew over the keyboard, and she leaned forward. “Let’s see here. Matteo did some time for attempting to bribe a judge in a prostitution case. Not for himself, but the prostitute who was facing time. Otherwise his sheet is clear. Now, his brother Luka has a long list of charges, but nothing stuck. Human trafficking. Drugs. Money laundering. Counterfeiting. Even two instances of murder.”

Dev gritted his teeth. “How does a guy get off on so many charges?”

“He has his flunkies do the dirty work for him, and they’re too afraid to testify that he’s the brains behind the crimes.” She leaned closer to the screen. “I’d heard that in one of the murder cases, there was actually a witness willing to come forward, but he disappeared. They found his remains dissolved in a barrel.”

Brooklyn’s turn to shudder. “Not someone we want to have anything to do with.”

A pounding sounded on the door, and Brooklyn’s gaze shot to it, while her pulse kicked up.

Colin touched her arm. “Relax it has to be someone who works here. I’ll get it.”

He strode down the hall. Brooklyn couldn’t relax. She had to know who it was, so she followed him to see Nick enter, his laptop under his arm.

“You learn something about Matteo?” Colin asked.

“No.” Nick brushed straight past Colin and took Brooklyn’s hand to lead her to a dining room chair, Colin keeping up with them. “You’ll want to be sitting when you see this.”

“You’re scaring me.” Her heart dropped as she sat, and Colin stood beside her.

“Sorry, but it is scary, and I can’t sugarcoat it for you.” Nick opened his laptop.

“What’s going on?” Abby asked. “Show me.”

“Sheriff Day is on the iPad,” Dev said to Nick, then got up with his tablet, and he and Reid came to stand behind Brooklyn.

Nick clicked a button, and pictures of her family flooded the screen. Her mother. Father. All recent pictures of them going about their day.

Her gaze flew to Nick. “Where did you find these?”

“Dark web. Posted by Typhon.”

“Kane? Kane posted pictures of my family on the dark web? But why? Why?”

Colin rested his hand on her shoulder, and the warmth from his touch was the only thing keeping her from losing it.

Nick clicked to a message board and opened a posting from Typhon.

I know you’re monitoring this, B. If you don’t contact me by midnight, I’ll be releasing biotoxins into the water supply for their little town, and there’s no way they can stop me. I’m monitoring all communications, so don’t try to warn them or anyone else.

Contact me and they live.

Don’t and they die.

If Colin could take the pain from Brooklyn, he would. She sat staring ahead in the same chair as if she’d lost everything. If he could make the decision of whether to contact Tarver or not for her, he would. If he could hold her in his arms, he would. But he could do none of these things.

Maybe holding her in his arms was an option, but would it bring her comfort or more stress? Probably stress.

Nick peered at her from his chair by the still-open laptop screen displaying the offensive message. “What do you want me to say to him, if anything?”

“Not so fast,” Colin said. “Can you even reply without him being able to track the transmission? Because unless things have changed since I left the FBI, that’s not possible.”

“You’re right.” Nick shifted uneasily on his chair. “Not one hundred percent, but I can route it through so many hubs it will take him a lifetime to track.”

“Then I’d like to ask him what he wants from me,” Brooklyn said. “But not in this public forum.”

“No worries,” Nick said. “I’ll set up a private message board using the data he provided.”

Brooklyn glanced between Nick and Colin. “Do you think he’s going to ask me to meet with him?”

“That makes the most sense to me,” Nick said.

“But you won’t agree to that,” Colin stated in no uncertain terms, so she wouldn’t even consider it.

“I don’t think I have an option.” Tears wetted her eyes. “Not if I don’t want him to poison my family or other people in my hometown.”

Colin couldn’t let her contact that creep. “All we have to do is warn your family not to drink the water.”

“No!” Her anguished cry cut into him. “Kane said he was monitoring their communications. He would know.”

He still wasn’t going to let her meet with Tarver, so their only option was to make sure no one drank the water. “What if one of us went to visit your parents in person? He’s not likely hanging out at their house but monitoring their calls and electronics.”

“I can’t risk that,” she cried out, her agitation nearly at the breaking point. “He could be watching them, and we don’t know it. Besides, what about the rest of the town? Would they warn all the people not to drink it? Could they shut it down? Could they do it in time?”

“At the very least we can warn the officials at the water treatment plant to be on the lookout for any tampering,” Colin said.

“Come on, Colin.” Nick shook his head. “You know this guy has the capabilities to electronically interfere with water treatment plants without the locals being any the wiser, even if on alert. The possibility of cyber-manipulation by him is quite high.”

“I know he has the skills, but can he actually poison the water?” Colin met and held Nick’s gaze. “It’s possible, yes. Probable, no. I sat on task forces for the FBI where we studied the likelihood of such an attack. First, the plant would need to use a SCADA system—Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition—for there to be digital controls of pumps and treatment facilities.”

“Which is possible,” Nick said.

“Possible yes, but less likely for a small town like we’re talking about. But even then, Tarver would need huge quantities of a biological agent to counterbalance the dilution effect of the large body of water, and he would have to somehow override the filtration too.

“I assume there’s a local water tower.” Sheriff Day’s voice came from the iPad. “And could he target that?”

A question Colin didn’t like, but had to answer. “A post-purification drinking water storage facility in a small municipality is likely to be more vulnerable to a hazardous attack. A water tower has smaller quantities of water, but, and I think you need to consider this, it would still be difficult to pull off.”

“But no matter what we do,” Brooklyn said, her voice holding real sharp hints of panic now, “the chance of him killing someone who doesn’t get the word about the water or ignores the warning isn’t zero, right?”

“Right,” Colin had to admit but didn’t like it.

“The risk of him taking my life to save others is something I might have to do, if it comes to that.”

Colin clenched his hands. “A decision we’ll all make together and find a way to protect you.”

“If he wants to see me in person, I can’t imagine that he’ll let you all come with me.” She gripped her hands together and fidgeted with them.

“We’ll figure that out.” Colin had no idea how, but he wasn’t going to let Brooklyn risk her life.

“And we’ll provide official support as well,” Sheriff Day said. “No one is getting hurt on my watch.”

Colin couldn’t let it go at that, and he eyed Brooklyn. “But, and hear me, Brooklyn. Hear me loud and clear. You’ll have nothing to do with him unless we approve it first.”

She lurched back from him.

Fine. He’d done it. Spoken more sharply than he intended, but hopefully hurting her, which he’d obviously done, would have the result he needed. She had to stay away from Tarver if she was going to stay alive.

Problem was, could he live with himself if he stopped her from going to see this lunatic, and her parents or other people in her hometown died?

Nearing three a.m., Brooklyn stared at her laptop screen while propped up on the big bed in the condo bedroom. She’d put a towel down at the door so Colin couldn’t see that she was up and using her computer.

She’d typed her response and just had to hit send, agreeing to the last message from Kane. Then she would need to find a way to sneak past Colin to go meet him. She could tell Colin that she was going down to Nick’s lab, but Nick would have to come up to get her, and Colin would demand to see him. He would probably also insist on accompanying her.

So how did she get out? Was she even going?

Yes. Yes, she was. That was a given. The DNA results had come back. The gun, bullet, silencer, and casing all matched to Kane, and his DNA was also found on the black box, the burner phone, and on the index finger inside. The finger also matched the skeleton, which was now positively identified as Matteo Albertelli, and AI had matched the partial print on the door to Albertelli as well. So Kane was likely a killer. A killer of Matteo Albertelli. And also a man who would snip another man’s finger off for his own motives. Probably took pleasure in it.

So yeah, he would gladly kill again, and she couldn’t risk a single person losing their life due to her fear of meeting with him. Blake had already warned the water management division in her hometown about the potential threat. They’d inspected their facilities, found nothing amiss, and decided at this time not to notify the public.

The local police had put an officer on duty twenty-four/seven at the treatment plant and another one at the water tower for a potential in-person threat. She and the team believed he’d already been to either the plant or the water tower, and the biological agent was in place. But they’d failed to find it, and the threat was going to be released electronically from a distance.

Still, she would go. Meet the killer. Because Kane would outwit the local officials. He was cunning. Seeming even more so these days. What good would it do her to save her own life only to be plagued for the rest of her days over the loss of a life that she could’ve prevented?

None. No good at all.

She peeked out the door into the living room. Spotted Colin on the sofa. His head was back, his eyes closed. Had he fallen asleep? Could it be that easy for her to leave? She would be shocked if he was asleep, but he had to be exhausted. He’d stayed up the night before to stand watch for her and had worked very late the night before that.

She eased back into the room. Sent a message to Kane telling him she would try to sneak out now, and she would meet him at a parking lot a few miles away that he’d requested.

His immediate reply came in.

Don’t bring a phone or any electronic device or a weapon. Come alone. Anyone comes with you and they will die on the spot.