Sean sat up and called Lucy’s brother Dillon.
“Is Lucy all right?” Dillon asked.
“She’s fine. She’s in X-ray.” Sean smiled, remembering how irritated Lucy had been, repeating herself.
“I’ll let Kate know, she’s on her way to the hospital.”
“I have an errand, and I’m afraid I won’t be back before she’s done. I wouldn’t go if it wasn’t urgent.”
“No explanations necessary. Kate will bring her home.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Noah walked into FBI headquarters and was instantly bombarded with questions from his boss.
“What the hell happened?” Slater demanded. “Where’s Kincaid? I have the DC Metro police chief yelling at me, and it was his damn detective driving the car!”
Noah said with forced calm, “Genie Reid was shot in the arm. She’s in surgery. She was unconscious for twenty minutes and has a serious concussion, but is expected to recover. I made Lucy go to the hospital for X-rays, she insists she’s fine. She probably is, except for bruises, but she needs a full checkup.”
“This is why I didn’t want that girl in the field!”
Noah raised his eyebrow, biting back a more volatile retort. “‘That girl’? That girl just cracked our case wide open.”
“My office, Armstrong.”
Noah followed Slater and shut the door behind them. He stood at attention. He’d been a soldier for too long to blatantly disobey orders, but right now he wanted to be either working the case or checking on Lucy. He took responsibility for what happened. Lucy should never have been injured on the job. Not like this.
“Do you think she’s right?”
“About what?”
“That Wendy James was a prostitute.”
“There’s no hard evidence, but it fits with the information we have. The multiple affairs. The video recording room—”
Slater interrupted. “Which we have no confirmation was ever used by Wendy James or anyone else—it’s clean.”
“Which is another reason we need to find Ivy Harris and talk to her.”
Slater flipped through his e-mail, then opened Noah’s report. “You said Kincaid and Reid picked Harris up near Hawthorne Street and they were pursued by an unknown male in an unmarked dark blue van, wearing a Yankees cap.”
“Correct.”
“And how did Harris get out of the car?”
“She climbed out the shattered rear window and fled on foot. Lucy didn’t see an accomplice.”
“Doesn’t mean there wasn’t one.”
“Lucy thinks she was scared, that she didn’t know who was chasing her, and she was only concerned about her sister.”
“Sister?”
“Lucy said her name was ‘Mina.’ That’s from a neighbor on Hawthorne Street.”
“Stockton’s coming in any minute, you and Josh need to brief him on every detail. Curb your animosity toward Josh—”
“I’ve shown no animosity.”
“I was afraid that now—”
“He didn’t run Lucy off the road. Our divisions approach crimes differently. I hope that you’ll now give me the reins on this case. With Reid out of commission, we can’t afford to have DC turn this case over to someone else.”
“DC wants it. Their detective was shot. Shit, Noah, can you relax?”
Noah adjusted his stance, but didn’t sit down. “You need to make this happen, Matt. They can give me anyone they want, but it’s our case. Three similar crime scenes with a brief cooling-off period is textbook serial murderer.”
“Dr. Vigo said he wasn’t a psychopath.”
“I didn’t know one had to be a psychopath to be a serial killer.”
“Semantics.”
“We don’t know what Wendy James was doing in the apartment with the secret room, but we can make the case that she was killed because of her involvement in a federal crime, either as a witness or a perpetrator. It’s a working theory. We don’t have time to play inter-jurisdictional politics, sir.”
“Don’t call me ‘sir.’ How long have we been friends?”
“Since I was assigned here. Four years this October.”
“Exactly. It’s yours. I’ll make up something to appease the DC chief. Brief Stockton, I’ll talk to Josh. But he’s your partner on this, keep him in the loop. He’s already deep in all the finances.”
“That’s exactly what he should be doing. In fact, I want him focused on every individual and organization that leased an executive suite in the Park Way building. And the manager, Betty Dare. She’s been there for years, I can’t imagine that she didn’t suspect something with Wendy using the executive apartments. Maybe Wendy bribed her.”
“Talk to her—push her. See if she cracks. If she doesn’t, as soon as Stein gets even a hint of financial shenanigans, we can get a warrant for her finances as well. Right now, we only have a warrant for apartment seven-ten.”
“I have Miriam going through the records from Hawthorne Street and doing a complete background on Ivy Harris.” His phone vibrated. It was an unfamiliar local number.
“Agent Armstrong.”
“Hello?” The voice belonged to an elderly woman. “Hello, Agent Kincaid?”
“This is Agent Noah Armstrong. Who is this?”
“Hello, Agent Armstrong. My name is Patricia Neel,” the woman said slowly. “How are you?”
“We’re kind of busy here. Did you get this number from Ms. Kincaid?”
“The pretty dark-haired girl? Yes, she gave me this card. She wrote her number on the back, but I’ve been calling it and there’s no answer.”
“Can I help you with something?”
“I’ve been robbed.”
“That’s really a matter for the DC police.”
“Well,” Mrs. Neel said, “Agent Kincaid told me if I heard from any of the girls in the pictures, to call her.”
Noah straightened. “And have you?”
“Well, that’s why I’m calling. I went into my family room and the back door was open. It was when I heard all the sirens and I was worried. We get some of those gang kids running in the alley, so I locked the door. Then I noticed my picture was askew. My safe is behind the picture. I opened it and discovered my emergency fund is gone.”
“How much was in it?”
“Five thousand dollars in cash.”
“And who do you think took it?”
“She left me a note saying she’d pay it back when she was able. I don’t want to get her in trouble, but Agent Kincaid thinks she’s in danger.”
Noah squeezed his temples and forced his voice to remain polite. “Who?”
“Well, she didn’t sign it, but I recognized the writing. I’ll read you the note.
“‘Mrs. Neel, I’m so sorry to take your money, but we’re in serious trouble. I promise I will pay you back every dime as soon as I can. Thank you for your kindness. God bless you.’”
“And who wrote it?” he asked for the third time.
“Ivy Harris. Poor girl lost her house and everything in it Tuesday morning. I would have given her the money if she’d asked.”
Now he knew why Ivy Harris had been in the neighborhood earlier that day. “I’m sending an agent over to check your house and retrieve the note. Lock your doors, please.”
“Thank you for your concern, Agent Armstrong. Have a good day.”
Noah hung up. “Ivy Harris stole five thousand in cash from her neighbor. She could be anywhere by now.”
Slater slammed his desk drawer shut. “Shit. I’ll put pressure on that BOLO.”
“Make sure DC knows she’s a witness, not a suspect.”
“You don’t know that she’s not deep in this shit.”
“Lucy said she was terrified and worried about her sister. She might be reckless, but Lucy didn’t think she was dangerous.”