Finding North (21 page)

Raz pointed to a cluster
of photos and information written in the chalk.

“
Images from surveillance
videos . . .” Raz pointed to an image. “Of the
action as well as later photos of the places.”

As if they were paintings
in a museum, Alex took in the photos and information. She went from
grouping to grouping before looking at him.

“
Notice . . .” Raz said.

Alex stepped close to the
board. She went from image to image and then back through them
again.

“
All the perps’ faces are
turned away from surveillance,” Leena said. “Is that
usual?”

“
No,” Raz said. “Means
they must have known the camera was there. They cased the
area.”

“
Each of these attempts
were planned in detail,” Alex said. “What’s that?”

She pointed to a satellite
image at the top right of the board.

“
Looks like an ICBM site,”
Raz said. “There was a decommissioned Ajax site in the city Dex
grew up in.”

“
I thought he grew up
here,” Alex said.

“
His parents divorced,”
Raz said.

“
Gee, I wonder why,” Leena
gestured around her.

“
Absolutely,” Raz said.
“Dex’s mother couldn’t leave the state with him, so she took him to
Ellensburg. It’s just inside the border in upstate New York. Dex
grew up there and came to the city for college. I think that’s why
he wanted to be a cop. He wanted to help fix the weird.”

Alex nodded and stepped
back to look at the whole board.

“
Someone’s gone to a lot
of trouble to try to kill Dex,” Raz said.

“
Dex has gone to a lot of
trouble to figure out why,” Alex asked. “Is there an NYPD case on
this?”

“
Not according the
Detective Williams,” Raz said. “I asked her when we were stuck
there this morning.”

“
Why take him now?” Vince
asked. “Why not kill him and move on?”

“
Drive-by, even,” Leena
said. “These attempts are so . . .
personal.”

“
That’s the question,
isn’t it?” Raz asked.

“
Max?” Alex
asked.

“
I agree,” Max said. “We
need to control the scene.”

She looked at Max and
nodded.

“
Trece?” Alex looked
around the large room to see where Trece might be. He came out of a
room. “Your team is taking over this location. Please lock this
down.”

“
Yes, sir,” Trece said. He
glanced at Max, and Max nodded.

“
Fey Team?” Alex called.
“We need still and video images of everything you’re seeing. It’s
unlikely that we’ll get a chance to get back in here.”

Royce relayed the
information to the top. Raz took out his phone and took pictures of
Dex’s investigation board. Vince and Leena took pictures of the
photo board. Alex and Max went back into the timeline room to help
Troy take detailed images of the timeline. Trece’s camera phone
flashed in the main room.

Alex, Max, and Raz waited
for the last of the Fey Team to leave the basement bunker before
heading up the stairs. Trece closed the door, and Raz locked it.
Trece held out his hand for the key. Raz looked at him for a long
time before placing the key in his hand.

Trece and Max went to the
front to speak with the NYPD and the FBI.

“
Why is
Max . . .?” Colin asked in a low tone.

“
He’s the head of that
team now,” Alex said.

“
Trece’s super-secret,
doesn’t-exist-but-has-clearance-over-everybody team?” Colin asked.
He looked up to the front. “Our Max?”

“
Until Steve comes back.”
Alex nodded.

“
Wow,” Colin
said.

Alex raised an eyebrow.
She went from team member to team member to check the images they’d
taken of the basement. When she finished, she went to stand next to
Raz.

“
How are you holding up?”
Alex asked.

“
I’m . . .”
Raz nodded.

He smiled at her concerned
face. She hugged him.

“
You remember that flash
drive Larry stole?” Raz said in a low tone in her ear.

“
Yes,” Alex
said.

She winced at the memory
of the flash drive her friend and intern Sergeant Larry Flagg had
stolen and given his life to protect.

“
I swear to God some of
the images on that wall were on that drive,” Raz said.

“
Which wall?” Alex
asked.

“
The one with your article
on it,” Raz said. “I remember the intimacy of those
photos.”

“
I recognized the Ajax
site from those photos,” Alex said.

“
A couple of the locations
where Dex was almost picked up,” Raz said.

“
Yes,” Alex
nodded.

“
How would Larry have
those?” Raz asked.

“
Not Larry,” Alex said.
“Whoever took him.”

Alex shuddered again. He
put his arms around her and pulled her close. Matthew and Joseph
came down the alley toward them.

“
Max’s team has arrived,”
Joseph said. “They are taking the over scene.”

“
The NYPD has agreed to
look for Joshua Peretz.” Matthew glanced at Raz, who nodded. “They
want to interview him.”

“
I’ll give him a call,”
Raz said.

Alex gave Raz an amused
look.

“
We need to get to
France,” Alex said. “Fey Team! Let’s get out of here. Pete and
Bill, too.”

Alex waved them down the
alley. She walked between Matthew and Raz.

“
How’s married life?” Alex
asked.

“
A day in?” Matthew gave
her a beaming smile. “Pretty fantastic.”

“
Does it feel weird?” Alex
touched his wedding ring.

“
It feels perfect,”
Matthew said.

They had almost reached
the end of the alley when Alex stopped walking. She took out her
phone and began pressing applications. Looking up from her phone,
she caught Raz’s eye.

“
I know where he is,” Alex
nodded. “Dex, I mean. Joseph, Matthew, how do you feel about a
little stateside hostage retrieval?”

“
Any day, any time,”
Joseph grinned.

“
Yes, sir,” Matthew
said.

F

Chapter
Sixteen

Tuesday night

May 17 — 7:42 p.m. MDT
(9:42 p.m. EDT)

Denver,
Colorado

John pulled on the knot in
his tie as he walked down the flagstone path from the garage. From
the path, he could see through the window in the door into the
kitchen. Cian was cooking like a madman. One of Troy’s boys, Hector
James probably, walked to the window with a platter. The boy waved
to John, and John smiled. With Raz gone, John did all of their
barbequing because, in Cian’s words, it was something even he
couldn’t screw up.

John had no idea who they
were cooking for, but, clearly, it was something big. He looked
down for a moment to see if he remembered anything. When nothing
came to mind, he scowled. He was greeted at the door by Maggie,
their English Springer Spaniel, and Hector James. It still
surprised John how tall Hector James had grown in the last months.
He smiled at the boy.

“
I’m supposed to tell you
to grill these now. ‘No time to come in.’” Hector James looked over
his shoulder. “But I won’t tell if you want to come in and see the
twins. They’re asleep.”

“
And Maggie?” John
asked.

“
We took her to the dog
park after school,” Hector James said.

“
Brilliant, thanks,” John
said.

“
Grill?” Hector James
asked. He pushed the plate in John’s direction.

“
If the twins are asleep,
and Maggie’s been out, I’d better do just what the master orders,”
John said.

Hector James snorted a
laugh and then blushed at having made the embarrassing noise. John
smiled. Hector James thrust the platter at John and turned in
place.

“
Ár
mhac
?” John called Hector James by the
name Alex had given him — “our son” in Irish Gaelic.

Hector James
turned.

“
Would you mind?” John
held out his overcoat and briefcase.

Hector James took
them.

“
I can take your tie,
too,” Hector James said.

“
It’s okay,” John said.
“My hands are a little full.”

“
Just a second,” Hector
James said.

Hector James closed the
door in John’s face. John stood on the back step for a few minutes
before the boy returned. When the door opened, John heard Cian
yelling.

“
Does he need help?” John
asked.

“
Mental help,” Hector
James snorted at his joke but smiled this time.

John laughed. Hector James
gave John an apron.

“
Who’s coming?” John asked
as he put the apron on.

“
I’m not supposed to tell
you,” Hector James said.

“
What’s the problem?” Cian
yelled. “Tell him to get cooking, or we’ll lock him
out.”

John chuckled at the idea
of Cian locking him out of his own home. Hector James laughed at
John’s expression.

“
Who’s coming?” John
repeated.

Behind Hector James, John
saw his elder sister, Neev, come down the hallway and into the
kitchen. John suddenly flushed with rage. He gave the boy a dark
look and practically shoved the plate of lamb into the boy’s belly.
Furious, he took the mudroom in two steps and was in the kitchen in
an instant.

“
You will get out of my
house this instant,” John said.

No one in the room had
ever seen John angry, let alone this full of rage. The boys gawked
at him. John saw Cian moving to his left.

“
Out, you vermin,” John
picked up a straw broom. As if he was sweeping, he bat at his
sister’s feet until she was out of the kitchen.

“
Now, Johnny,” Cian
said.

“
No,” John said. “She
killed Mum and almost killed Alex.”

Neev reeled back in
horror.

“
She just got
out . . .” Cian started.

“
I will tolerate a lot of
things, but I will not tolerate the woman who tried to kill my Alex
in our own home.” John held the broom against Neev’s feet, but
turned to talk to Cian. “She almost killed Raz, Max, and Troy.
Wyatt, too. Who will she turn on next?”

John turned back to
Neev.

“
Did you come back to
finish the job?” John spit at her.

Neev shook her
head.

“
I should have killed you
myself,” John said.

John was so angry that he
struggled to catch his breath. Everyone fell into a stunned
silence. John looked from horrified face to horrified
face.

“
No,” John said again. “I
will not allow her to stay.”

He turned to Cian and
pointed.

“
You will never make me,”
John said.

He nodded, as if to
convince himself.

“
Johnny.” John turned to
see Neev’s husband Jack Mac Kinney standing in the doorway to the
shared dining room and living room. A tall man with a barrel chest,
Jack filled the entire doorway. “I wonder if I might have a
word.”

“
Fine,” John
said.

He threw the broom at Neev
and stalked out of the kitchen. He grabbed the platter of lamb
steaks and apron from Hector James and went out into the cold
evening.

“
Good lad,” Jack Mac
Kinney said. He patted Hector’s back. “Don’ worry yourself. That
family — they’re mad as hatters, the whole lot of them.”

Jack followed John out the
door. John went around the house to a patio tucked between the side
of the rooming house and the duplex where Cian and Margaret now
lived. Jack had to trot to keep up. John opened their smaller grill
and started turning on the burners. He turned on an outside light,
closed the grill, and went to a cabinet next to the
grill.

“
What?” John asked with
his back to Jack.

“
Uh . . .”
Jack started.

John turned in place. He
pointed to Jack with his long steel barbeque fork from the cabinet
and went to the grill.

“
You’re not using the
bigger one?” Jack asked.

Jack was clearly fumbling
for something neutral to talk about. John shot him a dark
look.

“
This grill is better for
this cut of meat,” John said. “Gives a better sear.”

“
Americans,” Jack said.
“Who knew?”

“
I’m
not . . .” John started.

“
Yes, Johnny, I know what
you are,” Jack said. “You’re a boy who lost his beloved mum when he
was a baby. I can’t imagine it. Jimmy told me you and he were there
when Brigid was killed.”