It was very tempting to throw a set of handcuffs around Strauss’s wrists, but deep down, Aiden’s gut told him Heath wasn’t the leak. The guy had appeared genuinely shocked to hear someone was approaching the place. Yet Aiden really didn’t like the fact that they’d been found at the farmhouse.
Thank goodness they hadn’t sacrificed the location of their safe house.
“I don’t think we have probable cause to arrest him,” Brady pointed out mildly, reading his mind.
He sighed and took a step back. “Yeah, I know. But we need to figure out how this keeps happening. How the gunman always finds us.”
“I don’t like being targeted any more than you do,” Strauss said, his tone curt. “Maybe it’s time we look at the guy who sent me here, Sergeant Major Bill Parsons.”
“What do you know about him?” Brady asked.
“I’ve only been reporting to him for the past year, so unfortunately not much.” Strauss grimaced. “The guy doesn’t invite small talk and isn’t very personable either.”
“Not helpful,” Aiden said.
Strauss sent him a sidelong glance. “I understand why you’re ticked. I am too. But I didn’t do this. Give me some time to see what I can uncover about Parsons.”
“We can’t stay here,” Aiden said. “And I don’t trust you enough to bring you to our safe house.”
“Aiden.” Brady rested a hand on his shoulder. “We can’t leave him here or let him hang in the wind to end up like Tom Mitchell.”
His brother was right. But that didn’t mean he liked it. “We need to take precautions, then.”
“That’s reasonable.” Brady turned toward Strauss. “We’ll start by you shutting down your phone.”
“The computer too,” Aiden said. “That can be tracked just as easily as a phone.”
Wordlessly, Strauss powered down his phone and the computer. “The only problem is that I can’t investigate Bill Parsons without access to the army database.”
He turned to his brother. “Can the feds help with that?”
“I’ll talk to Ian, our tech guru. See what he can do to provide a computer that can’t be easily traced.” Brady turned toward the door as squads pulled into the long driveway. “Hopefully, we won’t be stuck here too long.”
“You and Marc are federal agents. Just pull rank,” Aiden called out.
Brady shot him a sly grin over his shoulder without responding.
“I assume we’ll have to give statements?” Shelby asked, frowning as officers and EMTs swarmed the area.
“I’m afraid so. But as soon as that’s finished, we’ll be able to leave.” Aiden smiled reassuringly.
Eva squirmed in Shelby’s arms, so she set the little girl on the floor. “Come play wif me,” she said, tugging on Shelby’s hand.
“Go watch TV, okay?” Shelby’s smile was strained. The little girl ran into the next room, seemingly unfazed by the commotion.
“I guess it’s good she’s resilient,” Strauss murmured. The investigator turned toward Aiden. “Listen, I know you don’t trust me, but I will do everything possible to figure out who is behind this. Targeting an innocent woman and child is heinous.”
Aiden nodded. “No argument from me. But that was your mission from the beginning, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, but I was specifically ordered to dig into the death of Tom Mitchell.” Strauss frowned. “And now the exact same thing almost happened here. A random shooting. If you didn’t have so much backup stationed outside . . .”
“And that’s exactly why I did.” Aiden softened his attitude toward the investigator. Looking back, he could tell the shock on the guy’s face had been real. Besides, his brother was right. They needed help from inside the army. They needed Strauss. Probably as much as he needed them to help protect him. “And why I picked a neutral location for our meeting. I just wish we had more to go on than an injured former soldier by the name of Tim Tobin.”
“There must be a way to link Tobin to the person who hired him.” Strauss glanced at the laptop computer, then frowned. “It feels like we’re fighting with both hands tied behind our backs.”
A sharp knock at the door snagged his attention. He exchanged a look with Shelby, then crossed over to let the Timberland police officer inside.
“I don’t care if the FBI has jurisdiction over this case, I want to know what’s going on in my city.” The officer’s last name was Chester. “Which of you is Lieutenant Heath Strauss?”
Heath stepped forward and held out his badge identifying him as an army investigator. “I’m working with the FBI on the murder of my predecessor, Thomas Mitchell. He was shot and killed not far from here.”
Chester frowned. “I remember, it was a drive-by shooting on the highway.”
“Yes, and now another shooter crawled out of the woodwork.” Heath’s tone held a note of sarcasm. “Tim Tobin is former army, recently honorably discharged.”
The cop’s eyes narrowed. “Supposedly Tobin fired first, yet I find it interesting that he suffered two bullets to the gut.”
“That’s what happens when you fire at a cop when there are other cops backing you up.” Aiden’s comment drew Chester’s attention. “Reed Carmichael is an officer with the MPD, and Kyleigh is with the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s department. Tarin is a detective with the MPD too. You already know Brady Finnegan and Marc Callahan are with the FBI.”
“Lots of firepower here for this little meeting.” Chester glanced suspiciously between him and Heath. “Care to expand on what this is really about?”
Aiden sent Heath a warning glance not to say too much. But he needn’t have worried.
“You do remember Mitchell was shot and killed, right?” Strauss arched a brow. “Did you think I wouldn’t come prepared this time? I have no interest in being murdered, which is exactly what almost happened.”
After a long moment, Officer Chester turned away. “Next time, pick a different city for your meeting. I don’t want to be called to the scene of another shooting, understand?”
Heath glanced at him as if asking if this guy was for real. Aiden shrugged. “We understand and will take your request under advisement.”
“Get out of here,” Chester muttered harshly as he opened the door to head back outside. The cold November wind blew the door shut behind him.
“Your brother must have done some fast talking,” Heath said. “I figured we’d be stuck here for hours.”
“There are times it’s good to be a Finnegan.” He met the investigator’s gaze. “I want to trust you, but if I find out you’re playing against us? We’ll bury you.”
“No need for threats,” Heath shot back. “I’m well aware of how close we came to being silenced forever.”
“Enough already,” Shelby said, sounding weary. “I don’t think Heath is involved, and you heard the officer. We need to get out of here.” She shot a sour glance around the farmhouse. “I won’t miss this place.”
Aiden understood the only place Shelby felt secure was at their safe house. He peered through the window. “Looks like the Timberland Falls cops are leaving.”
“We need an update on Tobin’s condition,” Heath said.
He shrugged. “Too early to do that yet. Either Marc or Brady will follow up once we’re out of here.”
“How do we know Tobin came alone?” Shelby crossed her arms over her chest. “There could be another shooter out there.”
“Reed, Kyleigh, Tarin, and Marc have secured the property.” Yet he hated to admit she had a point. Heath had just pointed out how Mitchell was killed on the highway not far from here. And on his way back from their hotel. “I’ll work something out with the family; there must be an alternative route back to Milwaukee.”
Shelby nodded, her gaze reflecting her concern.
Tarin, Brady, Marc, Kyleigh, and Reed crowded into the kitchen. Reed was shivering, his sweatshirt soaked through from being stretched out on the snow and quickly nuked a cup of coffee to warm up. After a brief discussion, they agreed to head northeast, making a wide loop to return back to their original safe house.
“I’ll lead the way,” Reed offered, taking a sip of his coffee. “Worked well enough on the ride here.”
Alanna would kill him if anything happened to her fiancé, but he nodded, grateful for his future brother-in-law’s assistance.
“I promised to stick around here to help smooth things over with Timberland Falls PD,” Tarin said. “Rhy would expect me to do that.”
Aiden nodded. “Okay, Heath will ride with me, Shelby, and Eva,” he said. “I don’t want to risk him using his vehicle as it could be tracked via GPS. Brady, I need you, Kyleigh, and Marc to cover us from behind.”
“Happy to,” Brady said as Kyleigh and Marc nodded.
“Stay here while we get our vehicles out of hiding.” Reed glanced at Strauss. “We’ll park yours inside the barn since we’re leaving it behind. May as well make some effort to hide it from view.”
“Yeah, sure.” Heath didn’t look thrilled at leaving the vehicle behind, but he didn’t voice a protest either. “Whatever you think is best.”
“I’ll get Eva ready to go,” Shelby murmured, turning to head into the living room.
There was a long silence before Heath asked, “You really think this is related to her deceased husband?”
“All I know for sure is that it’s something personal.” He shrugged. “Like I said before, I’m open to other theories.”
“This is really messed up,” Heath muttered.
“Yeah.” He could only nod in agreement.
Another fifteen minutes passed before all the vehicles were ready to go. Shelby insisted on riding in the back with Eva. The little girl balked at going for another car ride, but Shelby managed to coerce her daughter into climbing inside by using her toys.
Despite their convoy, Aiden was tense as they left the scene of the shooting behind. Going northeast would add at least a half hour to their trip, but taking extra time to stay safe was worth every minute.
Shelby did a good job of keeping Eva occupied until the little girl announced she was hungry. Since the hour was one thirty in the afternoon, he could understand why.
“Shelby, call Brady. Ask him to peel off to pick up lunch for everyone.” Aiden met her gaze in the rearview mirror. “You can tell him what to get for Eva.”
She nodded and did as he’d asked, then went back to playing with the dolly and farm animals. Eva grew tired of the game, though, and squirmed in her seat.
“Down! I wanna get down.” The little girl began to unbuckle the strap of her car seat.
“Soon, sweetheart.” Shelby brushed her hands out of the way. “You know the rule. You can’t get out of the car seat while we’re riding.”
By the time they reached the safe house, Shelby was frazzled, and he wasn’t doing much better. Being on the run with a small child made things that much more difficult. The good news was that there had been no attempt to shoot at them during their convoluted ride home, and Brady had brought several bags of fast food.
“Lord, bless this food and continue to keep us safe. Amen.” It was the shortest blessing Brady had ever given, but the moment Eva was given a sip of her chocolate milk and a french fry, she stopped whining.
The tension eased from the room as they all dug into their meal.
No one spoke, maybe in deference to Shelby’s and Eva’s presence. Once they were finished, Reed said, “What we need is a satellite computer. Something we can route through a server that won’t give away our location.”
“Ian is working on that,” Brady said between bites of his burger. “I’m heading out soon to grab it.”
“What can we do in the meantime?” Shelby asked.
Aiden turned to her. “I know I asked you this before, but I need you to think back to the conversations you had with Emmitt. Did he say anything at all that seemed out of place?”
“I told you, we didn’t talk about his deployments.” She sighed, dragging her fingers through her hair. “I’ll try, Aiden. But he’s been gone for two years.” She hesitated, then added, “There are times I can barely remember what he looked like.”
“I know this is difficult for you.” He shouldn’t have been glad to hear she had trouble remembering what Emmitt looked like. No sense in thinking it might be an indication she was ready to move on. “But anything you can come up with might help. As you can see, we’re pretty much shooting in the dark.”
“What about the list of female soldiers?” Shelby stared at him with tired eyes. “Isn’t it likely that Emmitt had an affair with one of them?”
“Yes.” Then a thought hit. “Do you have female friends? Maybe other couples you liked to do things with?”
“You’re joking.” She gave him an exasperated look. “Emmitt wasn’t home enough for us to hang out with each other, much less engage in friendships with other couples.”
Eva had devoured her chicken nuggets and fries, managing to smear a liberal amount of ketchup over her face in the process. But then she irritably pushed her half-eaten food away. “I’m all done, Mommy. I wanna get down.”
“Excuse me.” Shelby stood and crossed to the sink. She washed Eva’s face, hands, and the table before lifting Eva to the floor. The little girl rubbed her eyes. “Come with me, Eva. We’ll watch a show, okay?”
Surprisingly, Eva nodded and followed Shelby down the hall to the master bedroom. He remembered seeing a television in there.
“She’s right about the list of female soldiers,” Heath said. “We need to crossmatch them with Tim Tobin. Maybe he’s very close to one of them, close enough to come after Shelby and Eva.”
“I still think he was hired by the real perp, but we can keep digging.” Aiden glanced at Brady. “How soon can you pick up the satellite computer?”
“Leaving now.” Brady wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood. “You’re on kitchen clean-up duty.”
“I’ll do it,” Kyleigh said with a sigh.
“I’ll dry,” Marc offered. When Kyleigh sent him a surprised look, he grinned. “Kari would expect no less.”
“I can’t wait to meet your wife.” Kyleigh gathered their garbage together. “Elly’s trying to coordinate something with Maddy Sinclair over the holiday.”
“Yeah, we have strict orders to clear our schedules.” Marc carried the few plates and cups they’d used to the sink. “Should be fun.”
Aiden had nothing against Elly and Maddy’s planned family reunion, but they had bigger problems facing them.
If they didn’t get to the bottom of this mess, there may be one less Finnegan in attendance.
Shelby was grateful Eva fell asleep within minutes. She eased out of the bed and tiptoed to the door. She wanted nothing more than to take a nap herself, but she knew that wasn’t fair.
Aiden expected her to contribute to this investigation. And she’d racked her brain, unable to come up with anything useful.
She returned to the kitchen in time to see Aiden opening the laptop. “Wait. I thought you we needed one powered by a satellite?”
“That’s for Heath to use.” Aiden tapped the device. “This has only been used to search social media. I don’t think it’s been tracked, not the way an army-issued computer would be.”
“If you say so.” She dropped into the chair beside him.
Heath frowned. “I know you told me about your top suspects, but how are you weeding the others out?”
“My system isn’t perfect. There were two women who I didn’t find anything about, so I can’t rule them out completely. I was hoping you could help vet those for us. For now, I’m just looking for anyone with a high probability of being involved with Emmitt Copeland.” He pointed to the next name on the list, the one beneath Amy Golden. Shelby felt sick all over again at realizing the young woman had killed herself. “Jane Fordham is the next one I was planning to look into.”
Heath nodded. “Let’s do it. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“Have faith,” Marc said over his shoulder. “That’s better than luck.”
It was awkward watching Aiden work. Especially when she was so tired it was hard to see straight. She finally stood and moved away, pacing the living room to get her blood circulating.
“There are a lot of Jane Fordhams,” Heath said. “How will we figure out which one was in the service?”
“We look at all of them.” Aiden’s determination was admirable.
“That one,” Heath said. “Her bio says she’s in the reserves.”
“Looks as if she hasn’t posted in a while,” Aiden said.
Her curiosity piqued, she returned to the table. Leaning over Aiden’s shoulder, she saw another beautiful woman on the screen, only she had long auburn hair rather than blond. “How long since her last post?”
“Looks like eighteen months.” Aiden sat back in his chair, his gaze zeroed in on the image. “Emmitt died two years ago. The time frame of her going dark on the platform could be significant.”
“Or maybe she just decided to get off social media.” She shrugged. “I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”
“Maybe.” She could tell Aiden thought otherwise. “Let’s make a note to check her out when Brady returns with the satellite computer.”
“Looks like I’ll be checking most of these names.” Heath sighed.
“I know. But it’s nice to put a face with a name,” Aiden pointed out. “Even if it’s only a few of them.”
They got through three more names, eliminating only one of them as the woman was pictured with her soldier husband and five-year-old son, before Brady returned with the satellite computer. She found herself hoping the process would go faster now that Heath could access the army database.
The sat computer was tricky to set up, but once it was positioned close to a window, Heath was able to log in. “Where do you want me to start?”
“Amy Golden,” she answered quicker than Aiden. At his surprised look, she grimaced. “Her suicide is haunting me. I need to know if she’s involved.”
“I’ve already determined she doesn’t have a husband, brother, or father in the National Guard,” Heath protested. “It’s better if we move on to someone else.”
She bit her lip, then nodded. “Okay, fine. But I’d still like to understand why she killed herself.”
“We may never know,” Aiden said, his gaze full of empathy. “Suicide victims often hide their depression from those around them, even their closest family members.”
“Fine.” She decided to let it go, telling herself there was no proof that Emmitt played a role in the young woman taking her life.
“Can you look into the personnel file of Justine Brooks?” Aiden asked. “It might help to cross her off the list.”
She remembered Justine was the stunning beauty that Aiden had identified as leaving the army. The woman who she could easily imagine Emmitt sleeping with behind her back.
Heath tapped a few keys, then scanned the information. “She has one disciplinary action related to fraternizing with an officer.”
“Does it say which officer?” Aiden asked.
“No, but that isn’t unusual.” Heath shrugged. “The officer would receive a disciplinary action as well, and his file would not reveal her name either. Whatever happened couldn’t be too serious because the officer involved would have been demoted or kicked out of the National Guard. Nothing like that is noted here.”
“Would his action be noted in her personnel file?” Shelby asked. She remembered hearing Emmitt didn’t have any disciplinary action in his file.
Heath considered this. “Most of the time it is noted. Especially if there is a need to protect the female soldier from retribution.”
As far as Shelby was concerned, taking the time to describe what the officer had suffered without naming him seemed like splitting hairs. Then again, the army didn’t always make sense. Like most government run agencies, there were many inconsistencies.
“How long ago was the disciplinary action?” Aiden asked.
“Three years ago.” Heath glanced at him. “I guess Emmitt Copeland could be involved as he was alive then.”
“Except for the fact that I already looked at his file, and Tom Mitchell did too. His record is clean, which is why the rumor of his having an affair was never substantiated.” Heath shot her a sympathetic look. “Based on that, it’s not likely he was involved with Justine Brooks.”
“Unless a superior officer was covering for him,” she pointed out. “Maybe even because that same officer knew my father.” Another thought struck. “Maybe that was why Kevin Carter asked if there were any files at my father’s home.”
There was a long moment of silence as Aiden and Heath digested this. “That’s a possibility,” Aiden admitted. “But we can’t go too far into the what-if scenarios. For now, let’s look for something more obvious. I have a feeling your father may have uncovered the truth, and that’s why this is blowing up now, two years after Emmitt’s death.”
She reluctantly nodded. At this rate, they’d never get through the list long enough to create viable suspects.
The thought was depressing.
Heath and Aiden worked for a solid twenty minutes while Brady and Marc huddled in the living room with another computer. She wasn’t sure what they were working on, but she hoped it was something that would break this case wide open.
“Go back to Jane Fordham,” Aiden said. “I’m curious if you can find a reason for her to have dropped off social media eighteen months ago.”
More key tapping, then Heath said, “Looks like she went out on medical leave and didn’t return to the National Guard.”
“Wait, I thought she was still active?” Aiden scowled at the list. “Tom pulled those female soldiers who were still in the military.”
“The paperwork isn’t always as up to date as it should be,” Heath said. “Wait a minute.”
Shelby’s heart thudded against her ribs. “What is it?”
Heath let out a low whistle. “Looks like she had a baby.”
A baby? Emmitt’s baby? Did Eva have a half brother or sister?
Bile rose in the back of her throat. She clapped her hand over her mouth and bolted from the room. Ducking into the bathroom, she slammed the door and immediately lost her lunch.