Washington, D.C.
Maggie had rushed home, packed an overnight bag and barely had enough time to eat with Patrick and the dogs before she raced off to the airport.
“You’re not getting out of decorating that tree with me,” her brother told her, eyes serious, before launching into a tired smile.
“Of course, we’ll do it when I get back,” she promised. “I won’t be gone more than a day or two.”
She hoped she sounded convincing because her mind hadn’t stopped churning over the information Alonzo and Kuszak kept uncovering. Their texts—brief and coded—were coming fast and furious. Their generation’s communication tool for immediacy was annoying to Maggie, but admittedly effective. And after years of working as a lone wolf in the field, digging up information all on her own, this was different. Different but good.
Now, if only she could shake the image of Nessie’s small body in her ICU bed. Before Maggie had left the hospital, she’d checked in on the woman. Without her bundles of clothing, she looked even more vulnerable.
Detective Sheldon had placed guards outside both Racine’s and Nessie’s rooms, but hospital personnel did a good job of denying access. Her badge had only gotten a generic response from the nursing staff: “There’s been no change.” And when Maggie asked to see Nessie, she’d gotten a curt, “Ten minutes. That’s all.”
However, her badge at Nessie’s door garnered a polite nod of respect from the uniformed officer as he held the door open for her.
There wasn’t a customary chair by the bed, but Maggie lifted a stool from the corner. She placed it close enough where she could see Nessie’s face. Then she sat quietly by her side. She wanted to apologize to the woman. She wanted to take her hand and tell her everything would be fine. Instead, she simply sat, hoping somehow her presence was felt, and that it mattered.
Later, after she’d left the hospital, after she’d left Patrick and her boys to rush off to the airport, she ended up having plenty of time—too much time—to think. She waited in line to board the plane. Waited for take-off. Maggie hated flying, or rather she hated being 30,000 feet above control.
Thankfully, it was a non-stop, two-hour flight. That it was a night flight made it seem longer. That’s when Maggie allowed the flood of images to leak from her well maintained and carefully compartmentalized mind. The mistakes and failures that haunted her. She would do everything possible to fix this one.
“Get me a photo of this guy,” she’d told Alonzo earlier, before her flight took off. “Oh, and Antonio, I want to know about Nessie.”
“I’ll keep checking in with the hospital,” he said.
“Not just that. I want to know who she is. She must have family.”
“Not to be disrespectful, but if she had family who cared about her or that she cared about, would she have been on the streets?”
“Good point.” Maggie was a prime example. Other than Patrick, her family was comprised of friends and dogs. Never had she once considered calling her mother when she landed in the hospital. “Just see if you can tell me who she is. I’d like to know more about her.”
“You got it, boss.”
She had stopped herself so many times from asking him not to call her “boss,” that it was probably too late to tell him now. It still made her uncomfortable.
Despite having a non-stop flight, Maggie knew she would be cutting it close. That departure and arrival had been on time, helped tremendously. Peter Gregory had a huge head start, having left early in the morning hours before they figured out who he was. The good news? His Amtrak trip would take fourteen hours to get to Jacksonville, Florida. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to consider Alonzo’s plan.
As soon as Maggie landed and turned her phone back on, a chorus of pings greeted her. Alonzo and Kuszak were working non-stop. There was also a new number for Wren Warren.
Alonzo had arranged for an agent from the Jacksonville field office to meet Maggie at the baggage claim. Immediately, from the top of the escalator, she spotted Agent Warren, a young black woman dressed casually for a Sunday evening.
She waited off to the side and wasn’t interested in the bags moving around the luggage carousels. There was something about her that signaled “federal agent.” Her shoulders squared, her head barely pivoting as her eyes roamed. Her arms hung at her sides. Her back to a wall. She carried a small duffle bag in one hand. The other looked ready...for anything.
To her credit, Agent Warren’s eyes landed on Maggie before she got to the bottom of the escalator, and she met her halfway.
“Maggie O’Dell?” she asked, head cocked with a polite smile, in case she was wrong.
“Wren Warren, thanks for meeting me at such short notice.”
“No problem. I’m glad to help. Antonio and I go way back.”
Maggie wondered what “way back” was for a couple of twenty-something-year-olds. The only important thing to Maggie was that Alonzo trusted this young woman, and Maggie trusted Alonzo. Which in Maggie’s world was a big deal.
“I brought everything Antonio asked for,” Warren said, gesturing to the duffle bag in her hand. “Do you have any other baggage?”
“No. Just my carry-on.” It was looped around her neck and shoulder and slung to hang high over her back. She realized now how pathetically light it felt as they started walking through the crowded baggage claim area.
“I have your rental waiting out in the parking lot,” Warren told her. “They only had small SUVs available. I hope that’ll be suitable?”
“Black?”
“Yes.”
“That’ll work fine.”
“I have the electronic receiver already set up inside your vehicle.” She tapped the duffle bag and said, “The actual device is in the inside pocket. It’s about the size of a credit card. A little thicker. The magnet is strong, so it’s best you keep it away from your real credit cards. It’s fairly simple to activate. There’s an ON switch. Green light flashes. Inside a tire well is still usually the best spot. Easy access and difficult for anyone to see.”
They were suddenly in front of the exit doors leading to the parking lots. Warren stopped. She handed over the duffle bag along with a key fob and the parking ticket that showed the garage floor and slot number for the rental.
“If you need anything else,” the agent told Maggie, “don’t hesitate to call me. You have my number.”
She liked Agent Warren but knew much of that was influenced by Alonzo’s trust in the woman. However, Maggie liked her even more when she slipped into the SUV and discovered a small cooler on the floorboard. Inside were three cans of Diet Pepsi and what looked to be two deli sandwiches.
As she dug into the duffle bag for the GPS tracker, she also found a blue Amtrak ball cap, a fluorescent vest, bottles of water, and several protein bars. Last was a small brown paper bag containing two cake doughnuts with chocolate frosting, each carefully wrapped in wax paper.
Agent Warren had done good. Maggie was impressed that Alonzo remembered all these details. Maybe giving up her lone wolf creds would be worth it. But that was a fleeting thought. Moments later, in the dim light of the parking facility, Maggie took a flashlight and crawled around checking the rented SUV’s interior, exterior, undercarriage and tire wells. She was about to put a tracking device on a suspect’s vehicle. How easy would it be for anyone to do the same to her, no matter how well intentioned?
Back inside with the doors locked and the engine running, she actually hit the A/C. Maybe she’d grown a little too accustomed to the snowy cold in D.C. and Virginia.
She shrugged out of her jacket, tied her hair back into a ponytail, and pulled on the blue ball cap. She had less than two hours to get to the Amtrak station. Gregory had paid for Priority Vehicle Offloading. His Mercedes would be one of the first to leave the train. Maggie needed to get to the car before he did.