JACK MASTERS stared down at the pictures C.J. set out for him. She and Luke had called and said they needed to see him ASAP. When he found out it was about the kidnapping, on which his teams were working nonstop, he told them to come right over to FBI headquarters. His huge corner office was equipped with state-of-the-art computers, monitors and beeping phones, just like in the movies. Only this was the real deal.
“Here are some of the pictures Aidan O’Neil took at the fair in Penn Yan. I picked out the ones with the two Asian boys in them.”
Masters’s expression was grave. “They’re always around Rory.”
“Now, look at this picture I downloaded from the Watch List. It’s Sasha Sanders, Annie-O’s cousin.”
He studied the photos and came to the same conclusion she had. “She’s the boy at the fair. Since some of these are close-ups—thank you, Mr. O’Neil—I can see the resemblance. Of course, we have to make a positive ID.”
“Caterina and I got Annie-O’s picture from the list, too.” Luke shook his head. “The other boy isn’t her. There’s no resemblance.”
“I’m not surprised,” Masters said. “We got a room full of people to testify where she was that day, if necessary. It’s one of the reasons we didn’t pursue Sasha any further than we did. If her cousin wasn’t involved, why would she be?” Jack studied the first concrete lead they had. “Put it together with the Asian accent on the death threat and a female Asian strand of hair on Rory, and Sasha Sanders’s involvement fits right in.”
“What about her alibi, Jack? Her parents claim she was out of town the day of the kidnapping.”
Masters’s eyes narrowed. “Parents have been known to lie for their children.”
“Didn’t you check it out?” Luke asked.
“I sent an agent down to Corning to talk to the Sanderses’ friends. They swore the family was with them. They said specifically that Sasha was there that weekend. We had no reason to believe they were lying. We had no reason to dig deeper.” He held up the photo. “Until now. If these are the kidnappers, which seems highly likely, given what you saw, Agent Ludzecky, and because one of them is sure to be a match to Sanders.”
“We should double-check it with the boy that went to see Lennon.”
“I can do that now.” He called up that picture on his computer. “Shit, the boy at the prison isn’t Sanders.” He did some more manipulation of the keys. “Bingo. It’s the other one.”
C.J. scrutinized the photographs of the second boy. “Nothing’s familiar about him, or her.”
Masters swerved around in his chair. “We can blow the photos up on our computers and put them through the profiling bank. We can also use imaging software to change the appearances, like from boy to girl, different hairstyles, facial hair, et cetera. We’ll get a positive ID of Sanders and a line on who the other one is.” He cocked his head. “Do you have the disc card the pictures were on?”
She hesitated. “Can’t you just scan them into your computer and do all that?”
“I could if I had to. But I’d rather not spare the time. They wouldn’t be as clear, either, as the ones off the disc. Don’t you have the original card?”
C.J. picked up the envelope. “Yeah, I do. It’s in here.”
“Give it to me.”
C.J. threw a panicky glance at her brother.
A scowl from Masters. “What’s going on? We’ve got a breakthrough that could solve the case. Why are you balking?”
Luke started to speak, but C.J. stayed him with a hand, palm out. She faced the FBI agent directly. “With these pictures were others of me...with someone. I imagine they’re on the disc, too.” Had she realized things might go this way, she could have deleted them. “They’re private, Jack.”
“Hell, I don’t care what you do in your spare time. Besides, I can be discreet.”
“If the pictures got out, they could ruin my career because of who I’m with.”
“A man or woman? ’Cause if it’s the latter, nobody would care, C.J.”
“No, it’s a man.”
“Jesus, he’s not a married politician or something like that, is he?”
“No, he’s neither.”
“Then who is it?”
“I’d rather not say.”
Masters studied her. “I’m the FBI. I can find out that kind of information on you in the snap of my fingers if I need to. Everybody leaves some kind of trail.”
They had—at the places they stopped, the night at dinner on the lake. Sighing, C.J. saw her career going down the tubes. Worse yet, the embarrassment to Bailey and Clay. “The person I’m with is Ms. O’Neil’s brother, Aidan.”
“The one who took these pictures?”
“Yes. I know what I’ve done is unethical. But, besides hurting my career, it could embarrass Ms. O’Neil and I don’t want to do that.”
“Still, you brought this in.”
“Of course I did.”
He exhaled sharply. “I could subpoena the disc. Best I look at it now. Maybe we can work something out.”
Reluctantly, she handed him over the card.
But she had to walk away while he went through every single photo on the disc. Jack seeing what had transpired between her and Aidan was such an invasion of privacy. To her, it was sacred. Now a practical stranger was witnessing their intimate time together. The irony of the situation didn’t escape her. She’d been so adamant that no one know about their assignation at the lake. Now this public exposure—which could get even more public.
Luke came to the window and circled his arm around her. “Sorry, baby.”
“My fault.”
They could hear Masters fiddling with the keys. Outside, D.C. was hustling and bustling, warm and humid. After an interminable time, Jack said, “I got what I need.”
They went back to the desk; he popped the disc card out of the computer and handed it to her. “You can have this back. Far as I’m concerned, I never saw anything that could hurt you or embarrass the Second Lady.”
“Thanks, Jack.”
“Too bad,” he said, raising an eyebrow, “you two look happy as hell together.” He turned back to the computer.
C.J. squelched the regret and focused on what Jack was doing with the photos. Imaging-enhancement software blew up the two suspects, then changes were plugged in. He kept playing with the photos, his hands flying across the keys, until one of the boys at the fair turned into Sasha Sanders.
“No question,” Masters said. “That’s definitely Sanders.”
Shaking her head, C.J. frowned. “I don’t get it. If this confirms one of the kidnappers is Sanders, but the other boy-turned-girl isn’t Annie-O, who is it?”
Jack said, “We’ll find out. I have a feeling Sasha Sanders will tell us who her cohort is.” He booted up another program on the screen and sent the picture of the second person through it. “If we can’t find a match in our files first.”
As Jack got up and poured coffee, the computer clicked and clicked and clicked. Luke and C.J. sat on the couch, pretending to read today’s Washington Post. Finally, there was ding from the machine. Jack said, “Hoo-rah! We got a match.”
They hurried to the computer and looked over Jack’s shoulder. C.J. said, “I still don’t know who she is.”
“Read her bio.”
“Oh, Lord. Of course, there’s the connection.”
o0o
AT FIVE that afternoon, Mitch and C.J. sat with Bailey and Clay in his office in the Executive Office Building next door to the White House. The Second Lady’s face was flushed and she gripped the chair arms as Jack Masters told them of the discovery he and C.J. had made only hours earlier. The vice president stood behind her, his hand on her shoulder.
“Are you sure?” Bailey asked, her voice gruff.
“We are. Our team in New York is on their way right now to pick her up.”
“Quinn Pnu. I don’t recognize the name as one of the GGs. She wasn’t taken in for questioning when they arrested Mazie, was she?”
“No, she wasn’t,” Masters said. “She was picked up later and sent to juvie.”
Bailey frowned. “You got the juvie records unsealed. You said the GG juvie girls went straight.”
“They did. Pnu was originally a GG, the youngest. But she was never rounded up with the other juveniles. She got away. Later, she crossed over to the Anthrax gang.”
“Ah, I see. That could happen, especially with a younger girl.”
“For six months she ran with them. When the cops broke that group up, thanks to some leads the GGs eventually gave them for lighter sentences, Pnu was with them and went to juvie then. We’d gotten the juvie records from a family court judge for the GGs but not Anthrax. I sent for those this afternoon when she came up on the computer.” He sighed. “She was thirteen when she got into the gang.”
“Christ,” Clay said. “She’s only seventeen now and she planned out this whole kidnapping plot?”
“They age fast in gangs. Besides, she probably had help.” He showed them the photos from the prison. “Here she is visiting Lennon at Lancaster. Dressed in her disguise as a boy.”
Bailey took the pictures. “I don’t remember seeing her at the fair. But I wouldn’t have known who she was, anyway, as I’ve never seen a picture of her anywhere.”
Jack said, “Don’t forget, there were hundreds of people there that day, too.”
“The service should have thought to get the juvie records on Anthrax,” C.J. put in. “We might have recognized her at the fair.”
“She was dressed as a boy,” Masters said. “So probably not.”
Mitch spoke up. “Still, we should have been on top of this, Ms. O’Neil.”
The vice president held up his hand. “Stop this. You two foiled the kidnapping attempt, and now figured out who the kidnappers are. Apologies are in no way called for.”
“Did Pnu do this because I helped break up her gang?” Bailey asked.
“That’s one possibility. Since Lennon’s involved, another scenario would be that Lennon forced Pnu to do it.”
“Blackmail?” Mitch asked.
“Could be. If Pnu was an accessory to the murder of that young girl who was trying to get out of the GGs and we didn’t know her part in it, Lennon might have held it over her head. At the very least, they probably planned the kidnapping together. Pnu’s boy photo matches the boy who visited Lennon in Lancaster, though Lennon wouldn’t give the person up when we questioned her. But there’s no way this is all a coincidence. Lennon’s got to be involved somehow.” He thought for a minute. “And the death threat to you, Ms. O’Neil. As I said before, I believed all along they were done by the same person or group as the kidnappers. Keep in mind Mazie Lennon is certainly capable of murder.”
Bailey cleared her throat. “But why now? I’ve been out of gang intervention for almost three years.”
“Our agents will have to discern the reason. Though I have a theory on that, too.” The FBI agent scowled. “Your stay at the lake got a lot of publicity from a TV station in New York. What’s the anchor’s name? Scott?”
Clay’s mouth tightened. “Rachel Scott.”
“Blackmail or not, both Lennon and Pnu had a grudge against Ms. O’Neil. When they saw on TV that she and the kids were at the lake for a prolonged period of time, they might have figured things would get loose because you were on vacation. Sanders being there was icing on the cake. It made Pnu’s trip to Penn Yan easier. She and Sanders had a clear path to come after Rory as payback to Bailey.”
Clay’s expression turned grim. “From my way of thinking, Rachel Scott is to blame at least in part for the attempted kidnapping of my son and the death threat against my wife. If they hadn’t been so irresponsibly placed in the public eye none of this would have happened.”
“Let’s just be glad we’ve identified the perpetrators.” Masters checked his watch. “And we’ll have them nailed, soon. Reports from the two groups of agents I sent out are long overdue.” His phone rang. “Maybe that’s one of them. Masters.” A pause. “Yeah, did you get them?” A scowl. “Just her?” A deeper scowl. After some instructions to his agents, he clicked off. “The group of agents that went for Quinn Pnu couldn’t find her at her last known address. They picked up Annie-O to question her. As we knew all along, she has an alibi for the times the events occurred. She claims she hasn’t had any contact with Sasha Sanders since her parents moved her to the lake. And that she knew Quinn Pnu from years ago when Pnu was a kid in Anthrax. But by the time Pnu got out of juvie, Annie had gone straight.”
“So if Annie-O wasn’t involved,” Bailey asked, “how did Sasha Sanders end up in the thick of it?”
“There has to be a link. As I said before, I don’t believe in coincidences. Think about what we have here. Two girl gangs from New York are in the picture. A member of one has a cousin in the same town as the Wainwright cottage and they’re not connected? I don’t think so. My other agents are up in Penn Yan now to get Sanders.” He glanced at his watch again and picked up his cell phone. “I’ll call them now.”
They waited as Masters made the connection.
“Carson, this is Masters. You’re overdue. Anything on Sanders?” He listened for a long time. “Yeah, yeah. Does she know where Pnu is?” A long hesitation. “What? Damn it to hell!”
“What happened?” Clay asked when Masters hung up.
“Bad news. Pnu is allegedly here in D.C.”
“What?”
“Just before my agents got to Sanders, Pnu called her and said she was in D.C.—to get another shot at Ms. O’Neil. She didn’t know that Sasha had already confessed everything to her parents. They did lie, by the way. They’d left her with friends, and when they came home, Sasha got scared and she told them about the attempted kidnapping with Pnu. They panicked. They’d taken her out of New York to get her away from the girl and gang life. So they covered for her.”
“That’s incredible,” Clay said.
“Then, when Pnu called, Sasha’s parents didn’t want to cover up a murder plot. As I said earlier, her father’s a retired cop and after Pnu called, he contacted a lawyer friend of his in town who came right out. The lawyer was with her by the time the FBI arrived. They cooperated for a deal.”
“Why was Sanders in on the kidnapping?”
“She told the agents she wanted to be part of the new gang Pnu was forming and that was her method of jumping in.”
“Another gang is forming?” Bailey asked.
“No. It didn’t happen. Pnu tricked her with that. Sasha found out right after the kidnapping attempt that the plans fizzled out for the new gang.”
Clay asked, “How she’d meet Pnu, anyway?”
“We don’t know the details of how they hooked up. The critical thing right now is that she told us that Pnu is in D.C. My agents are staying with Sanders, hoping that Pnu will contact her again. Meanwhile, we’ll be checking credit cards, known gang members in the area, that kind of thing to pinpoint where she is. We’ll also put the D.C. cops on alert for her.” He faced Bailey. “Don’t worry, Ms. O’Neil, we’ll find her. But you’ll need an armed escort besides your personal agents back to Observatory Way.”
“And she’ll stay inside the house until Pnu is caught,” Clay put in.
“Of course I will.”
Clay turned to his agents. “C.J. and Mitch, I’d like you two to move into the residence until this is cleared up. It will mean twenty-four-hour duty, but I’d feel better if you were with her day and night, in close proximity.”
“I agree,” Mitch said.
He looked to C.J.
“Yes, of course. We’ll do anything until she’s safe.”
On their way back to the residence with double the guards, Bailey sat in the backseat of the bulletproof limo and turned to C.J. “In all the excitement, I didn’t get to ask you how you got the pictures Aidan took at the lake.”
“Aidan sent them to us.” Technically, he sent them to her, but it was almost the truth.
“I’m surprised he’d think his photos would help us. He takes shots of everything and rarely knows what he has on disc.”
C.J. thought fast. “Truthfully, I’m surprised he didn’t make the connection before this.” Except that he had a lot on his mind. “Maybe when he got back to New York and printed them off, he realized what he had—pictures of the fair on the day of the kidnapping.” Well, it could have gone down like that. There was no note with the pictures. C.J. didn’t know exactly why he sent them to her.
“Still, something’s off about it all.”
“Let’s just be glad he got them to us. This thing could be over soon.”
o0o
BEHIND A TWO-WAY mirror that gave them a view into an interrogation room, C.J. and Mitch flanked Bailey and Clay. It had been a long night and another long day, but they’d picked up Quinn Pnu at a bar on A Street. She’d tried to buy some blow from an undercover cop and he called it in. The D.C. police had their people on the lookout for her, so the officers identified who she was and brought her in.
The door opened and a girl—Pnu—was ushered inside. She wore a fringed suede top that bared her belly. A tattoo of a pitchfork was visible just above the waistband of jeans that could have been painted on her. An orange bandana wrapped around her head like a crown.
“She’s flying her colors. The bandana’s the trademark of the old GGs.” The Second Lady shivered and leaned into Clay. “It gives me the creeps to see all this again. After Moira and Taz dying because of their involvement in gangs.”
“You don’t have to watch this interrogation, love.”
“Yes, I do.”
C.J. touched her arm. “She can’t hurt you.”
“Only emotionally.”
The girl had donned an attitude along with her gang paraphernalia. When she sat, she threw one leg up so her foot crossed the other knee. She lounged back and appeared bored.
“So,” Masters said to her. “What are you doing in D.C., Quinn?”
“It’s a free country, popo. I can go where I want.”
“Not if you’re planning violence against the vice president’s family.”
The young girl fiddled with her fringe. Eyes made up with kohl-like mascara glared at him mutinously. “Dunno what you mean.”
He tossed pictures on the table between them. “We got you almost red-handed, lady.”
Quinn peered down at the pictures. She rolled her eyes. “What the fuck are these?”
“Pictures of the people who tried to kidnap Rory O’Neil. These ‘boys’ are scouting out the vice president’s son.”
She jutted out her chest. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I ain’t no boy.”
Masters lounged back in his chair, too. He had a reputation for being a closer, getting a confession from the suspect. “No? Aren’t you smart enough to plan this?”
The girl’s face reddened. The fingertips of her left hand began to drum on the chair’s arm.
“Guess Sasha Sanders figured it out by herself.”
A snort. But no more.
“Or maybe Mazie Lennon planned it.”
Pnu’s whole body stiffened. “Mazie’s in prison.”
“She’s had visitors.” He tossed some of the pictures on the table of Pnu dressed as a boy visiting Lennon. “The same person in the photos at the fair visited her in prison.”
Pnu frowned.
“But if it wasn’t you, then it has to be Sasha. I guess you don’t have it in you. You’re not tough enough. Now Sasha, she’s tough.”
“She’s a baby. She couldn’t plan dick with nobody.”
“Then you did plan it? By yourself?”
A smirk.
Bailey said, “They never change. He’s appealing to her pride as a gang member. She’s going to give it up.”
Masters leaned forward. “Why would you want to hurt Rory O’Neil? Because of his mother?”
No answer. But Pnu’s lips thinned and her eyes narrowed.
“You found out Rory’s mother was the Street Angel when she married Mr. Wainwright, didn’t you?”
“Did I?”
“Bailey O’Neil never hurt you. All she did was try to help kids out of gangs.”
“Nobody leaves gangs.” Her chest started to heave under the tight T-shirt.
“The Street Angel got Taz Gomez out, though. And then Mazie killed Taz.”
Pnu’s eyes flared wildly. “It was the Angel’s fault for dicking around with Taz. I hate the cunt. She put my girl in jail.”
“So you tried to hurt her by kidnapping her son.”
Quinn pretended interest in the toes of her boots.
“What were you going to do with him? Have a little fun?”
“Oh, God,” Bailey gasped. She knew what gang girls did for fun.
“Was Mazie Lennon in on this with you?”
Her head snapped up. “Mazie didn’t do nothin’.”
“Quinn, we’re just trying to help you. We might be able to cut you a deal if you tell us who else was involved in this kidnapping attempt.” He waited a beat. “Now here’s something I didn’t want to tell you, but I’m going to have to, I guess. Sasha Sanders ratted on you. She told us about the kidnapping. And about the death threat.”
Pnu bolted up at the new information. “Sasha ain’t no hater.”
“Sit down!” When she did, she shifted around, curled and uncurled her hands. “Tell us about it, Quinn. You’re toast anyway.”
The girl pounded her fist on the arm of the chair.
“How did Sasha get involved? Did she start a new gang?”
“That punk? Gimme a break. When the cunt broke up the GGs I went over to Anthrax. Me and Annie-O hung out for a while. I met Sasha then. Annie was thinkin’ about letting her in the gang. Then the cops was pressing Anthrax, so the three of us decided to get a new posse. Before we could do it, Annie was arrested and I went to juvie. When we both got out, her little cousin was still livin’ in New York, and wanted to be part of our new gang, so we told her gettin’ back at the Street Angel could be her way of jumpin’ in.”
“Annie-O wasn’t involved, you know that.”
“Sure she was.”
“No, Quinn, if she was, you wouldn’t give her up. Gang girls don’t give up their homies. Annie refused to be part of the plot against Ms. O’Neil, didn’t she? She wouldn’t participate and told her aunt and uncle what was happening to her cousin. That’s why you’re trying to sell Annie out. After she did her time, she decided to go straight. So you lured Sasha in. When you told her parents about it, they moved to Penn Yan to live. To get away from you.”
An ugly laugh. “Didn’t help. Her and me are homegirls, now.”
“You and Lennon and Sasha.”
“I didn’t say nothin’ about Maze being in on this.”
“She won’t give Mazie up,” Bailey said. “It’s their code of honor. Since Sasha already snitched on her—she wasn’t entrenched enough in gang life not to—and Annie-O refused to hook up with her, Quinn feels she can finger both girls.”
Masters switched tactics. “So you just wanted to hurt Ms. O’Neil.”
“Yep.”
“Why now?”
“Me and Sasha been makin’ noise about doing it all along. Thinking of a plan.”
“How did you know Bailey was at the lake?”
“I saw the cottage on the fuckin’ TV. I caught a train that night to Penn Yan. Stayed with Sasha ’cuz her ’rents were out of town. We figured the Angel might be at the fair, so we dressed up as boys—like I did when I went to see Maze.”
“Why the death threat, Quinn?”
Her laugh was maniacal. “Just makin’ things interesting.”
Clay said gravely, “I think we’ve seen enough.”
“All right.” Bailey rose and arched her back. “I feel bad for those girls, all of them, but at least it’s over and Rory’s safe.” She glanced at the glass and a little of the old Street Angel peeked out. “How sad. I wish I could have...” She let the sentiment trail off.
As if to switch moods, Bailey turned to her husband and, in front of the four agents in the room, gave him a sloppy kiss on the mouth. “Bye, honey. See you for dinner.”
They chuckled at Bailey acting as if they were just an ordinary couple saying good-bye until suppertime.
Mitch and C.J. escorted Bailey out of FBI headquarters, and Clay went to his office. It took only ten minutes for the agents to get Bailey back to the residence.
Once inside, Mitch said, “After you rest, Ms. O’Neil, we need to decide which one of us—C.J. or me—will be going down to the Beltsville training center.”
“Did we talk about this already?” she asked.
“Just before your father got sick, but with everything going on, you probably forgot about it. C.J. and I are both weeks overdue for our periodic refresher, but we were told to stay with you until this whole kidnapping thing was finished. One of us will need to go now.”
“Maybe after Dad’s and Aidan’s party? It’s only ten days away. Don’t you want to see my family again? They’ll worship the ground you walk on now you got the lead on Quinn and Sasha.”
C.J. drew herself up. It was time to take this to the next level. “Ms. O’Neil, I’d like to be the first to go for the refresher. A session starts in a couple of days.” She’d checked the dates. “Gorman can go to New York with you two in my place.”
Bailey studied her. “But Pa’s taken a shine to you. If you went to the party with us, you could see him and Mikey. And of course Aidan would...” Her words trailed off.
Mitch was watching C.J. “I think it might be the right thing if C.J. went first. When would you leave?”
“Thursday.”
Bailey cleared her throat. “Are you sure this is what you want, C.J.?”
She practically choked out the words. “I think it’s best.”
“All right then.” Bailey looked disappointed.
Mitch looked relieved.
And C.J. felt like shit.