Jane did the same. What she’d seen yesterday made her eager to know more. She’d bet her next paycheck that the blue on the ambulance bumper had been caused by a hit and run. Andthat the perpetrator had then shot at the windshield, forced the EMTs out at gunpoint, then executed them one at a time.
A professional hit connected to four other murders. Intrigued, she opened the folder on the first victim, Doctor 1, and got to work.
CHAPTER NINE
Agent Rapp didn’t makean appearance until the afternoon. Jane only knew he’d entered the office because she heard his deep voice, which distracted her from her research.
Neck deep in the backgrounds of the first two victims, Doctors Ryan Daniels and Julie David, she’d read through their family histories and backgrounds, and nothing seemed to connect. They’d worked at different hospitals in the city, had lived in various places before coming to Seattle—at different times—and practiced different specialties. Dr. Daniels worked in family health and Dr. David in pediatrics.
Her eyes crossed as she confused Daniels with David for the sixth time that morning.
“Hell. What time is it?” she muttered to herself as she rubbed her eyes. She needed more coffee.
“Time you got a watch.” Diego smirked at her as he passed her desk, sipping another energy drink. “I know, a dad joke. But it’s still funny.”
“It’s really not,” she said, though she grinned.
“Ha! I saw that.”
“Saw what?” Rapp said as he joined them. Today he’d dressed in a dark blue suit instead of yesterday’s black. Samewhite shirt and blue tie though. For some reason, he looked both perfectly dressed and out of place in a suit and tie. He needed utility trousers and camo paint on his face, she thought.
A glance behind him revealed Gina engaged in a fierce argument on the phone with someone.
“Diego’s trying to be funny,” Jane deadpanned.
“Trying?” Diego whined.
Rapp shook his head. “Quit screwing off. Where’s my intel on the latest victims?”
Diego made a face and nodded to his desk and a printer that continued to spit out pages. “I’ve been collecting data.” He dropped a stack of paper on the desk Jane was using. “Here. I brought you a present. No one appreciates me.”
“Not true,” Rapp answered. “Our government appreciates you not hacking into its servers anymore. Legal is a nice, non-four-letter word. Keep using it.”
Diego muttered something under his breath and sighed all the way back to his desk.
“Kid needs his meds to stay focused, and I’m not making fun,” Rapp said under his breath, though the “kid” couldn’t be that much younger than he was. Rapp pulled up a nearby chair and sat. “Report.”
“Rapp, I left the Marine Corps four years ago. I don’t do one-word orders. Try again.” She needed to establish boundaries. Best to start as she meant to go.
He just looked at her, and she wondered if he planned on making a big deal right now. “Jane, could you pleasereportwhat you found, if anything?”
“I see what you did there.” When an angry flush started to creep over his cheeks, she figured she’d pushed hard enough. “I’ve been going through the files on the first two victims all morning. Diego did a terrific job of compiling data.”
Rapp relaxed. “He did. Gina too. She went over the in-person interviews then reviewed them again and gained some new information for us.”
“Ah, yes. Those are pretty detailed, but I can’t find any connection between the first two victims. At all. I’m sure Diego cross-referenced them, but I went over them too. There’s nothing in their histories that makes sense. I also read over the reports from the MEs. A heart attack and a hyperglycemic reaction that resulted in death. Neither shout ‘conspiracy’ or ‘murder.’”
“Not until you see that both were injected between their toes with a hypodermic.”
“Which isn’t conclusive according to Dr. David’s—no, Dr. Daniels’ report.” She rifled through the folders to pull up the medical report on Daniels. “They couldn’t determine if that spot was due to a splinter he’d received a few days prior, when he’d been camping, or if it was in fact a needle. Because his wife used sharp tweezers to pull one out and couldn’t remember which toes she’d messed with. And the tox screens came back negative for anything suspicious.”
Jane sat back and rubbed her eyes. “I’m happy to help with this, but I can’t see how it’s related. Not even these first two, and I’ve only glanced at the other files.”
Rapp nodded. “I know. I felt the same. But it’s there. Trust me.”
“You mean trust Gambol and/or his source.”
Rapp just looked at her.
