Gifford held up a hand. “Above my rank. Good luck with that.”
DeSantos punched in the numbers. “Keep your fingers crossed.”
44
Vail watched while DeSantos began his quest to track down FBI director Douglas Knox. As he waited for Knox to take his call, Vail’s BlackBerry buzzed. She thought about whether to answer, noticed it was Dixon, and grabbed it as she moved out of Gifford’s office. Dixon . . . pretty early in California. Must be important.
“Roxx,” Vail said, “you’re not going to believe—”
“Are you near a computer?”
“I can be. What’s going on?”
“Don’t laugh,” Dixon said. “But I want you to go to YouTube.”
“No, wait. I’ve got some news for you.”
“Listen to me. Open it up and type in ‘Lugo confession.’”
Vail continued down the hall and slipped into her office. Sat at her desk and tapped on her keyboard. Opened YouTube. “Okay, typing in ‘Lugo confession.’”
“Scroll down. See Ray’s face?”
“Scrolling,” Vail said. “Wait—did you say Ray’s face? Lugo confession?”
“Just find the video.”
Vail passed the thumbnail that displayed Lugo’s image, then fingered her mouse wheel and clicked on the video. “Got it.”
“Turn up your speakers.”
Vail pressed Pause, then said, “Wait, what am I watching? Where’d this come from?”
“WITSEC approval came through for Merilynn Lugo. Surprised the shit out of me—out of everyone. Just guessing here, but maybe they figured that since Mayfield and Cannon are still alive, there was still a reasonable threat against her. When I met the U.S. Marshals Service at her place, she handed me a piece of paper with the name of this video written on it. Now just watch it.”
As she moved her mouse toward the link, she noticed that it said, in fine print, 4 days ago. “This was uploaded four days ago?”
“Yes, right before we caught Mayfield. Press Play.”
Vail did as instructed. As on the DVD, Ray Lugo’s face appeared onscreen, in a dimly lit room. The image jerked a bit, the result of a low-quality webcam. “If you’re watching this, it means I’m dead. Hopefully, I was successful in taking out the man who’s made my life a living hell. I don’t know his name, but he’s someone who kidnapped my wife and son five months ago. I guess Merilynn already gave you the DVD I left with her.
“If she didn’t, she and my son were returned unharmed, but with a warning that he’d kill them unless I did things to help him out. At first it was just getting some information for him. Then it became addresses, home addresses, and other information about people that I needed to use the Police Department and county database to look up. And then he wanted me to get him a prox card, which would give him access to the Sheriff’s Department.”
Vail closed her eyes. Shit, Ray, you should’ve told us all this. We could’ve done something. And it would’ve helped us.
“I didn’t realize what he was doing with the card, or all the info I was getting for him, until he asked for stuff on someone I knew, a friend of mine.” He bit his bottom lip and looked away from the camera. Seconds later, he turned back and tears were streaming over his lower lids onto his cheeks. “Our first vic, Victoria Cameron. Honest, I didn’t know what he wanted with her. I tried to ask him about it, but he told me to shut up and do as I was told. A couple days later, Vicky was dead. And I knew we had a problem.
“I tried. For months, I tried finding him. Son of a bitch was good. Too good. I got nowhere, and when I poked around, he knew. He knew.” Lugo tightened his jaw, then took a breath and blew it out.
“I should’ve said something. I’m sorry, I should’ve leveled with all of you. But there was nothing we could’ve done. I didn’t know who the guy was. I had nothing on him that would’ve helped catch him. But . . . ” He wiped at his eyes, looked off to his right, then back to the camera: “As we kept finding new victims, I felt like I should’ve been able to do something. I felt responsible. But I was just trying to protect my family. I had no idea what he was doing . . . ”
He wiped his face across his sleeve. “I had no idea he was using some of this information to locate and kill people. I—I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d known. I truly believe he’d come after my wife and son—no matter where we went.
“So if you’re watching this, my wife has told you where to find it. I assume she’s safe. And I assume I was successful in killing this goddamn fucking monster who’s made the last five months of our lives a living hell. Wondering if he’s watching us, if he’s going to keep his end of the deal . . . ”
He paused, dropped his chin down—it looked like he had fallen asleep—but there was still timeline left on the video.
Lugo’s head came up and he said, “César Guevara is tied into this somehow. I don’t know how, but I’ve just got a feeling. There’s gotta be something. If he is somehow affiliated with our killer, I don’t want him skating by. Again, I’m sorry. But know that I gave my life trying to keep my family safe. And, yeah, mix a little revenge into that too. A lot of revenge.”
He sat there looking at the camera, then said, “Take care. I feel honored to have served with all of you.”
Vail closed the window.
“Open Live Messenger,” Dixon said.
Vail clicked and signed in, then added the Sheriff ’s Department email address. A moment later, a request for a video call popped up. Vail accepted, and Dixon’s face filled the screen. The sight of her friend’s image made her feel good. There hadn’t been many moments like that of late.
“So Ray was more deeply wrapped up in this than we thought,” Dixon said. “That explains why he was so agitated and stressed out. He knew what was going on but wasn’t telling us.”
“Don’t be so hard on him, Roxx. He thought he was doing what he had to do to protect his wife and son. It’s a horrible choice to have to make.”
“Still . . . he could’ve pointed us in the right direction.”
“What direction was that? We were already looking at Superior and Guevara. The only thing we might’ve been able to do is to put a tail on Ray so that when Mayfield contacted him, we could track it. But that would’ve run the risk that Mayfield would’ve found out or detected it somehow. And Ray probably wasn’t willing to take the risk that we’d be able to adequately protect Merilynn and Mario.” She shook her head. “We still don’t have the whole picture.”
“I’m going to talk with Brix about putting some undercovers on Guevara. It’ll be tough, because the street-wise SOB may pick it up. But we still don’t have enough for a search warrant.” She brushed her blonde hair off her face. “Let me switch gears a minute. I haven’t heard anything from the San Francisco field office about Robby. If they’re working the case, I’m in—”
“That’s what I was going to tell you,” Vail said. She rested both forearms on her desk and said, “You’re not gonna believe this, but Robby’s working undercover. I can’t go into it over an unsecure line. But that explains why he suddenly disappeared. He went dark.”
Dixon’s eyebrows rose. “No way!” She sat back in her chair. “That’s a huge relief. But Jesus, I can’t believe he didn’t tell you. I mean, doesn’t he realize what he put you through?”
“I just found out a minute before you called, so it hasn’t really sunk in. Let’s just say I feel betrayed. Bottom line, he didn’t trust me.”
Vail’s desk phone buzzed. “Agent Vail,” Lenka’s voice said over the speaker. “Mr. Gifford wants you in his office right now.”