Bailey’s face looked horrified. It was the same expression Jordan was sure she was wearing as well.
“But that means hundreds of people could die,” Bailey said angrily. She looked back at the article. “In Pennsylvania, almost three hundred people lost their lives.”
Another thought hit Jordan as the enormity of the situation hit her. “This information was all collected before Jeremy died, which was over nine months ago. A lot can happen in nine months. Can you find out if the Mintax substitute is already for sale in the USA? For all we know, people are already using it.” Panic and fear swirled together and formed a knot in her chest as Bailey typed her queries. It took her about ten minutes, but Bailey soon had an answer. Farnaprixolene was already available in small amounts by ordering directly from the Chinese manufacturer.
Jordan really did feel sick. “There’s another class action suit waiting to happen. If enough people get sick, which they will based upon the studies we just read, Baker and Davis can make even more money by suing the Chinese company. They can claim the Chinese lab altered the formula in such a way that they are responsible for the deaths and seizures. Southeastern can avoid liability altogether.”
Bailey looked surprised. “I don’t know much about lawsuits. Can Americans sue and win an international case like that? It seems like it would be hard to hold a foreign company responsible.”
Jordan shrugged. “I’m no lawyer, but I remember a while back there was a problem with a blood pressure drug coming out of India that was hurting people because it contained cancer-causing impurities. They were able to trace the problem back to the factory. We heard about it when I was working at the labs, and I remember discussing it during a lunch break one day with Jeremy and Samantha. We could check, but I’m pretty sure the victims won the lawsuit. I bet Eddy could find even more examples if we asked him to do a bit of research.”
There were some noises near the front of the office suite, and Jordan looked up from the notes she was taking. When she saw it was Ben and his team returning, she stood and quickly approached him. He looked pleased and welcomed her with a smile.
“Well?”
Ben put his headset on the table. He was still wearing some of his tactical gear but had removed the helmet and assault webbing. He was dressed in all black, from his boots to the heavy bulletproof vest that covered his chest, and the clothing and gear made him look dangerous yet professional at the same time. He smelled faintly of gunpowder and the outdoors.
“We got him, Jordie. They’ll be bringing him in for questioning in just a few minutes. I recognized him right off. He’s definitely the man who broke into my house and pushed our car into the river.”
“That’s fantastic! I knew you would. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say.” She threw her arms around him and gave him a hug to celebrate, then realized what she’d done and quickly pulled back. It had felt fantastic to be in his arms, but she quickly chastised herself for reacting so exuberantly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I’m not sorry,” Ben replied, catching her eye. His expression was suddenly serious. “Jordan, we need to talk.”
“Yes, we do. Bailey and I just discovered...”
“Not about the case,” Ben interrupted as he took a step forward and took both of her hands in his own. “Jordan, we need to talk about us. About our relationship. About the future.”
Jordan took a step backwards, and he released her hands. “Did something happen during the arrest? Is everyone ok?” She was having trouble understanding why their relationship had just jumped to the top of his priority list when the Southeastern case was coming to a head.
“Everyone is fine. We’ll be interviewing the suspect as soon as he is processed. We just...” Ben looked around the office, apparently noting the many people coming and going as they did their jobs. “We need some privacy so we can talk.”
Jordan could see the hopeful glint in his eyes. Still, she couldn’t give him what he wanted, at least not now, when they were on the precipice of stopping Southeastern. She was bursting with the news of what they had discovered, but she could tell that Ben had other things on his mind that were taking precedence over everything else. “I’m not ready to do that, Ben. But I really need to tell you what we just found out.”
“If not now, then when?” Ben pushed.
OK, so she was going to have to think about this now. She took another step back and pushed what they had discovered about the train and the new drug to the back of her mind. She had been ruminating on their relationship for quite a while but hadn’t liked what she had concluded. Coming so close to death in the St. Johns River had forced Jordan to face some important truths.
She couldn’t have done this on her own.
All her life, she had struggled for success and believed she had reached her goals on her own strength. She didn’t like to depend on others. Even working in her lab, she had rarely delegated projects or tasks and had retained as much control as possible over the bulk of her assignments. Her problems with Southeastern were no exception. When issues started to arise, she had tried to face them and deal with them all on her own without help. Now she realized how incredibly selfish and full of hubris she had really been. She also realized how important God’s contribution had been along the way. In fact, she finally acknowledged that she couldn’t have reached any of her goals without God’s help. Each day was a gift from Him. Maybe she didn’t have to do everything herself. And maybe it was okay to depend upon others when she needed help. From now on, she decided to show others around her how much she valued their contributions, and she vowed to increase her efforts to collaborate and to show her gratefulness more to those around her.
She also was learning to appreciate the fact that Ben had gifts that were totally different from her own. She had always known that he had special talents, but she didn’t think she had really respected all of his skills until now, when she’d had a chance to see him in action up close and personal while they had been working this case together. Ben wasn’t a scholar and would never feel comfortable in a lab, yet his athletic ability and law enforcement skills were unparalleled. His unique abilities were undoubtedly the reasons she was alive today. She didn’t think she had truly appreciated him or his skills until this Southeastern problem had risen its ugly head.
It was difficult to be thankful during adversity, yet her relationship with Ben was growing and changing as they spent time together fighting a common foe. She treasured the time they had spent together since her return and was so grateful that God had given them a second chance to grow in their relationship.
But even so, she truly didn’t know where to go from here. Even though after today, she felt closer to him than she ever had, guilt still swamped over her every time she looked at him. She had hurt him so badly. By returning to Jacksonville, she had not only proven that she hadn’t trusted him when she disappeared without a trace, but she had also pulled him right into the middle of this case with deadly consequences. Because of her, his life had continued to be in jeopardy ever since.
Even today, because of her, they’d had to arrest a dangerous mercenary. She knew arresting people was part of his job—and Ben had said that no one was hurt. But what about the next time? She had been living with the magnitude of the danger for a while now, but she hated the fact that Ben was now forced to live with the consequences of her actions. It wasn’t fair to him. Ben was drawing closer. She’d thought he was going to kiss her when they had been resting on the rocks, but now, Jordan felt herself pulling back. She didn’t want to ever hurt him again, and she doubted he could even forgive her for her actions in the first place.
She loved him. And because she loved him, she had to let him go.
“He’s ready.”
Both Jordan and Ben turned to face Franklin Kennedy, who had entered from a different doorway and motioned toward the interrogation room. “Do you want to listen in? I’m about to start the questioning.”
Jordan breathed a sigh of relief. The interruption couldn’t have come at a better time. She turned and moved away from Ben, trying not to react to the look of frustration on his face. “Definitely. But first you have to know what Bailey and I just found on the computer. We were able to break the encryption and get into the hard drive. It impact which questions you ask.”
She waved Bailey over, and together, the two of them described what they had discovered, both from the hard drive and their subsequent research.
Ben shook his head, amazed. “To plan the deaths of hundreds, just to make a pile of money. It’s inconceivable.”
“Inconceivable to us, but apparently not to those men and women who are on the verge of losing everything. They are desperate people, and desperate people do a lot of stupid things.” Jordan replied, although she couldn’t quite keep the disgust out of her voice. “What we don’t know is their timeline. We found the name of one of the train engineers for the Sunset Special, but we don’t know for sure if they’re planning to crash the train. That was just my assumption. It’s possible they have another role for him that we haven’t yet uncovered.”
“Then we need to get this guy talking, no matter what. He could be the key to saving all of those people,” Franklin said grimly. “I’m heading in. Why don’t the rest of you watch from the observation room and let me know if I get off track and need to go in a different direction?”
“Count me in,” Jordan responded, her voice filling with anticipation. She found herself oddly anxious to see the man who had tried to kill her and Ben, as long as she was safely in another room with armed law enforcement officers all around her. She didn’t understand the man’s motivation, or how someone could be so evil. But she hoped that somehow, they would be able to convince him to tell them what they needed to know before the Sunset Special was scheduled to take its final trip.
“Not me,” Bailey said, putting up her hands. “I need to get back to the computer. Now that this perp has been put into the system, I want to see if I can find anything on him that we can use for leverage to get him to talk.”
She turned and went back to her laptop, and Jordan headed to the observation room. Ben followed her into the small room with the two-way mirror separating them from the interrogation and closed the door behind him. She pushed some hair behind her ear and caught Ben watching her closely. His scrutiny always made her nervous. She knew he was incredibly good at reading her. At some point, she was going to have to tell him what she was feeling, but now didn’t seem like the right time or place. She did know that she didn’t want to keep hurting him. And he was right about one thing. They did need to talk soon so she could tell him that they couldn’t be together. It wasn’t fair to him to keep dragging him along. She glanced his way again and noticed he was studying her every move. She knew instinctively that he was still waiting for her to answer him.
“Tonight,” she finally said. “We’ll talk tonight, okay?”
He relented and relaxed his stance. “Deal. We’ll talk tonight.”
Ben flipped the switch so he and Jordan could hear the interrogation in the adjoining room. He was frustrated by Jordan’s choice to delay in their conversation, but he acknowledged that they probably couldn’t have talked right now anyway in such a crowded, public place. Still, he wondered at her hesitance. Ever since she had returned, she had kept a distance between them. He acknowledged that he had been doing the same thing to some degree, but now he knew what he wanted. Their dive into the river had made him see their relationship with crystal clarity. Jordan was the woman for him.
Still, for right now, all of their focus had to be on getting whatever information they could out of questioning Aaron Rich, so he pushed his personal agenda aside. The man had been processed in record speed so they could quickly interrogate him. He was a professional, so Ben didn’t hold out much hope that he would talk, but sometimes people surprised him. And if he or Jordan wanted Franklin to go down a certain line of questioning with Rich, it was easy enough to pull Frank out, talk about it, and send him back in. He buried his concerns about Jordan and their relationship for now and put all of his attention on the job at hand.
“Can they hear us?” Jordan asked, pointing to the speaker.
Ben shook his head. “No. We can hear them, but they can’t hear us.”
Jordan nodded, indicating her understanding. “Didn’t you want to be in there with Ben, too?” Jordan asked. “I’ve heard you talk about doing interrogations before. I thought that was something you actually enjoyed, and I know you’re really good at it.”
Ben shrugged. “I do enjoy it most of the time. Solving a crime is like putting a puzzle together. If I can pull out some new information from the perpetrator during the questioning, then I’m that much closer to finishing the puzzle. It’s invigorating.”
“But not today?” Her expression showed surprise.
“No, not today.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t understand. That guy could have real answers about Southeastern and their plans with the train. He might even be the one that killed Jeremy and Emma Sparks and Samantha. He could have a lot of the missing pieces to our puzzle.”
Ben nodded. “Yes, he could. And I hope he does. I don’t know if he’ll talk or not, but this is the best lead we have right now.”
“But you still don’t want to be in there?” She took a step closer, a question in her eyes.
“Frankie is really good at interrogation, too, Jordan. He’ll do a good job.”
Jordan’s lips flattened. “I know Frank is good, but I also know you’re even better when it comes to interrogations. I’ve heard the two of you talking and joking about it. I really don’t understand why you don’t want to participate. I thought you wanted to help with this case.”
“I do, Jordie.” He fisted his hands. Didn’t she believe him? Hadn’t his actions over the last few days shown her how important solving this case was to him? He didn’t really want to explain his shortcomings to her and his lack of control, but he could tell that his reticence was hurting her. How could he explain so she would understand, without making himself look unprofessional and weak in her eyes? He grimaced as he watched her pull away from him even further. He reached for her, but she moved slightly, just out of reach.
He let his hand drop but was considering his next move when motion caught his eye through the window. Rich was already sitting across the table, but Frank had entered, opened a file, and started reading over some of the documents. Ben decided he would wait to talk to Jordan tonight and get it all worked out. Hopefully, she wouldn’t push too hard for answers between now and then.
He turned his attention back to the scene playing out in front of him. He studied the man who had very nearly succeeded in killing them. His hands were cuffed to a metal bar that was bolted on the table, and he sat unmoving, with a bored expression on his face. His eyes were dark and his skin held a dark tan, as if he spent a lot of time outdoors. His hair was a light brown and closely cropped in a military style. If Ben hadn’t known him to be a killer, he would have thought he looked and carried himself just like many of the deputies that worked in the building.
Perhaps that was the point. Was he a law enforcement wannabe who hadn’t been able to cut it? He didn’t know the man’s history, but everything about him was causing his blood to boil, and it was all Ben could do to restrain himself from rushing into the interrogation room and tearing the man limb from limb. This man had tried to kill Jordan. Ben never remembered feeling this much anger and hostility toward a suspect, and it was an uncomfortable, ugly sensation that made him feel frustrated and powerless at the same time. He had shared his shortcomings with Frank, but he really hoped he wouldn’t have to go into detail with Jordan tonight. He was being unprofessional. He should be able to remain detached and do his job without emotion impacting his decisions and behavior. But he was finding it almost impossible to restrain himself from going into the interrogation room and wiping that arrogant smile off the man’s face with his fists.
Franklin interrupted his thoughts by starting the interrogation. “I’ve already gone over your Miranda warnings, Rich, but I’ll ask you again, do you want an attorney?”
“I don’t need an attorney,” Rich responded. “I have nothing to say to you.”
Frank shrugged. “That’s fine. You can just listen to me talk then. I want to start with when you broke into Deputy Graham’s house and tried to kill him.”
Rich stared at the wall, effectively ignoring Frank. “According to the official report, you broke the glass in his rear door window, then unlocked the dead bolts and made yourself at home. Sound about right?” Frank shifted. “Ben was able to knock the gun out of your hands, and then you ran away without it. It says here it was a Glock 19, nine-millimeter.” He put the report down on the table. “Sweet choice. What did that set you back, about six hundred bucks?” Rich still didn’t answer, so Frank pressed on, once again looking at the document. “This one was a generation five. Isn’t that the one that lets you customize your frame size with backstraps that come in two different shapes?” He still got no response. “I think that one even lets you remove the finger grooves, so it is a lot more versatile.”
Rich leaned back in his chair and studied the pattern in the ceiling, effectively ignoring him.
Frank was undaunted. “I can understand why you left that gun behind. I mean, it was the middle of the night, right? It was dark outside, dark inside. You had just lost a fight with a trained officer that left you feeling inadequate. You got scared, right? You probably didn’t know where the gun had even landed, after Graham kicked it out of your hand.”
Rich uncrossed his legs, then crossed them again.
Franklin pushed on. “Then at the river, what happened there? Did you get a bit cocky? A bit too sure of yourself?” He laughed. “I mean, the driving was incredible, I have to tell you that, but once you got that notebook, you took off your sunglasses, just to gloat. You had to know that Graham would recognize you, right? I guess you figured he would die from the fall, but you figured wrong. That was sloppy on your part. And then you left your fingerprints all over the outside of the car. Water doesn’t wash those off, Rich. Even if the car does sink to the bottom of the river. Did you think we wouldn’t check?”
Rich cocked his head to the side, but still said nothing.
“So you lived in a pretty nice house, Rich,” Franklin continued. “I say ‘lived,’ past tense, because you’re headed to prison and your days of living it up are over. But I have to admit, you had a pretty nice setup. Working for Southeastern must have paid well. So what’s the going rate for taking out a scientist? Did they pay you the same rate for Sparks and Jordan Kendrick?” he paused. “Did they promise you a bonus for taking out the deputy sheriff who was guarding her?”
Jordan moved closer to the glass. “Why isn’t he talking?” she said under her breath. Her voice was angry. “We know it was him. You identified him. We have enough evidence to prove his guilt.”
“Sometimes they never talk,” Ben responded. He could see her frustration clearly written all over her face. Even her body language showed how tightly wound up she was inside as she began to pace in front of the two-way mirrored glass. He did his best to calm her down. “Others ask for a lawyer the second they sit down, and we have to stop talking to them before we get out the first question. Frank will keep trying. He’s only just begun.”
She rounded on him. “So why don’t you go in there and get him to talk?”
“I can’t force him to cooperate, Jordan.”
She gave him an incredulous look. “You could convince him it was in his best interests.”
Ben ran his hands through his hair. He really didn’t want to explain to her why he hadn’t gone into the interrogation room, but she wasn’t giving up or giving him an out. He understood her frustration, but her behavior was making him even more unnerved. “Is that so? And how am I supposed to do that? There are no guarantees, no scientific formulas that will make him tell us what we want to know.”
“You make it worth his while. Surely, we can offer him something to get him to talk.”
Ben ran his hands through his hair and spoke before thinking. “Are you telling me how to do my job now?”
It was the wrong thing to say. He saw fire shoot from her eyes, and a muscle twitched in her jaw. She moved to leave the room, but he blocked her. “I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “Jordie? Don’t go. Please. This has been a rough day for me.”
“If you didn’t want to work on this case anymore, all you had to do was say so,” she whispered, her voice tight as she reached for the door. “It’s obvious that this case is my problem and no longer yours. That’s okay. I knew I was asking a lot when I came to you in the first place. I’m not mad. I’m just...disappointed.”
“You sure sound mad,” Ben responded. “And that’s not it at all,” he denied. Good grief, he was making a mess of things. A few minutes ago, he was trying to figure out how to tell her he loved her, and now he was in a deep hole and attempting to dig himself out of it. How could he fix this? Before he could even string another sentence together, they heard the door open behind them, and Donald Eddy strolled in, nearly bumping into Jordan as he did so.
“Hi, folks. Did I miss anything?” he asked. He had been totally unaware of the tension in the room but caught up fast. He glanced at Ben and raised an eyebrow. “Wow, I guess I did.”
Jordan looked away, but Ben answered him. “Not a thing, Eddy. Rich hasn’t said a word so far, except that he didn’t want a lawyer.”
“Right,” Eddy replied, obviously not believing him.
The door opened in the interrogation room, and their attention was drawn back to the table where Bailey had joined Frank and was standing behind him.
“Find anything good?” Frank asked her, a smile on his face.
“Why, yes I did. Thank you for asking, Deputy.” She turned her attention to the man handcuffed to the table. “Mr. Rich, part of my job is running background checks on suspects that get an interview, like you’re having right now. Would you like to know what I found when I looked into your background?” Bailey looked at the man expectantly, but although he looked up and met her eye, he still didn’t speak. She shrugged and moved a paper or two around in the file she was carrying. “I’ll take that as a yes, please, ma’am. Thank you for asking.” She raised an eyebrow. “Well, what I discovered is that as much as you like to pretend you’re all alone in this world, the cold hard truth is that’s actually not the case.”
Rich’s muscles tightened almost imperceptibly, but enough that Ben realized they had just hit a chord. He took a step closer to the speaker, his quarrel with Jordan momentarily put on hold. He didn’t want to miss a single thing the man said, and if his guess was correct, the man was about to spill it all.
Frank gave his wife an amused look. “Hmm. Not alone. Is that so?”
“Yes, it is. It seems Mr. Rich here has a baby brother. And his brother hasn’t been living large in a three-story mansion overlooking the beautiful St. Johns River. No, his baby brother has been in prison for the last three years, right here in the wonderful state of Florida. It seems he had some sticky fingers and tried to embezzle a large amount of funds from his employer. I say tried because he was caught almost immediately. It seems that Mr. Rich’s brother isn’t very good at crime.” She paused and tapped the file against the table. “He’s not so good at being a prisoner, either. He got beaten up pretty badly last week. Apparently, he doesn’t work and play well with others.”
A muscle twitched in Rich’s jaw. Ben had to give it to him. He was one cool customer. Suddenly, the suspect tossed his head back and looked down his nose at Frank, totally ignoring Bailey. “I want a deal.”
Frank leaned back. “And why would we give you a deal? We’ve got proof that you attempted to kill a law enforcement officer and a civilian on that bridge. We’ve got witnesses and fingerprints. Our state attorney can convict you with one hand tied behind his back. All the rest is just icing on the cake.”
Ben put his hands on his hips. Now things were getting interesting. He looked over at Jordan, who had also focused on the assassin’s words.
“I can tell you more than just what I’ve done. I can also tell you who paid me to do it.”
Frank raised an eyebrow. “And what’s to stop us from researching that information and finding it out by ourselves? We’ve got our top people on that very assignment as we speak. Your entire financial records for the last few years will soon be sitting on my desk, and I won’t have to give you a thing to be able to see them.”
For the first time, Rich looked somewhat less than confident. His body slumped slightly in the chair, and he shifted uncomfortably.
“Of course,” Frank continued, “if you could tell me something about their plans for the future, well now, that might actually be worth something.”
Rich paused for a moment before saying, “I can give you what you want, but I need a really good deal.”
“And what would this deal entail?” Frank asked. It was now his turn to pretend to be bored and disinterested. Ben knew that if Frank looked too eager, they wouldn’t get much from the suspect in exchange for whatever concessions they made.
“I want to be sent to the same prison where my brother is serving his time, in the same wing. Even the same cell, if you can swing it.”
Frank laughed. “Do I look like a travel agent?”
“That’s the price of my cooperation.”
“The same region is hard enough. Getting you at the same facility is nearly impossible.”
Eddy smiled at Ben, then headed toward the door. “Looks like I’m on. You two have a good afternoon.” He left and moments later, they saw him on the other side of the window in the interrogation room. He unbuttoned his jacket and took a seat across from the suspect as Bailey left the room and closed the door behind her. Frank stayed seated, unmoving.
“So you must be someone that can make a deal,” Rich said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“That would be me,” Eddy said caustically. “Donald Eddy, State Attorney’s Office. State law says the courts can’t force the Department of Corrections to place a prisoner in a specific facility.” He tossed his pen on his legal pad. “What we can do, is ask the court to make a sentencing recommendation as part of a plea agreement. Nine times out of ten, DOC will place the defendant where the court asks, but there is no guarantee.”
The suspect was quiet for a moment, and then he nodded. “That’s the right answer, Mr. Eddy,” Rich responded quietly. “I know the law, and I was just waiting to see if someone was going to come in here making promises that there was no way they could keep.” He sighed, then looked Eddy directly in the eye. His body language made it clear he had made a decision. “I want your word that you will ask the court for a sentencing recommendation to place me in the same facility as my brother.”
“You have it,” Eddy agreed.
“And I want a guarantee that I won’t get the death penalty. I don’t care how long you put me in prison, but I need to be around to protect my brother.”
“Deal.” Eddy wrote out the terms on his legal pad and signed the bottom, then moved the pad so Rich could read it and sign it as well, even with his hands cuffed. Once it was signed by both men, Eddy tore off the sheet and handed it to Rich, then reclaimed his pad and pen.
Rich nodded. “I pushed their car off the bridge. I admit it.”
“And who paid you to eliminate Jordan Kendrick?”
Ben and Jordan both took a step closer to the window, waiting impatiently for him to name the person who had tried to kill them both.