“It doesn’t seem like a coincidence we get word the Feds are pulling out this morning, and this happens tonight,” Sheriff Buckley said, tapping his fingers on his desk.
“No, it doesn’t,” Royal agreed.
“We’ll have the card processed, see if we can get some prints, but if it was left there on purpose as a threat, it’ll be clean,” Beckett said.
Royal agreed with that too. “I’ll talk to Deputy Mayfield once I’m back in Hope Town. He didn’t see anything specific, but maybe there was something of note earlier in the night. Or an idea of where they would have gone to avoid him. Ihearda car. Maybe security picked something up. I’ll contact Simmons in the morning too, see if we can’t get a look at some video.”
The sheriff nodded. “Good first steps. But before we can do any of that, we have to deal with what we’re going to do about our victim slash witness.”
“She can’t go back to that apartment if she’s being threatened,” Beckett said.
“But if she’s being threatened, she can’t just goanywhere,” Royal returned. “She has to be protected.”
Before the sheriff could weigh in, Zach Simmons strode into the office. He looked a little worse for wear. He had dark marks under his eyes and his hair was wild—probably from raking hisfingers through it. He did not give off the sameI’ve got thisaura he always had before.
“What are you doing here, Simmons?” the sheriff asked irritably.
“I need to be part of the discussion about this attempted break-in.”
“How’d you find out about it?” Beckett demanded. “It’s the middle of the damned night.”
Simmons shook his head. “Listen. This is more delicate than you guys understand.”
“So, enlighten us,” the sheriff replied. “Now.”
Simmons looked around the room, surveying each of the men. “Okay, but it has to stay in this room. What I’m about to explain is private, privileged information and I am only sharing it to keep everyone involved as safe as possible. It cannot go out to the department at large, or people you all may know personally. You’ve all taken oaths to uphold the law tohelpvictims—so I need you to understand that if what I tell you goes beyond this office, you are breaking that oath.”
Royal hadfeltlike there was something strange about Hope Town, but this was more than strange. Especially when Simmons waited for every man to verbally agree.
“Hope Town is…complicated,” he said, raking a hand through his hair. “And there are a lot of reasons I don’t tell most people about that complicated background. That’s the whole point of Hope Town. Not knowing.”
He looked at each of them, as if taking time to make eye contact so they’d all understand the gravity of the situation.
“It’s a place for…people who are in danger to go to live a normal,safelife.”
“So WITSEC?”
“More like…private WITSEC, with a few more complications and a little less red tape.” Simmons shrugged. “Not all of thesewomen would qualify for a federal program, and noteveryonein Hope Town needs protection, but there are a group of women who do, who have pasts. Ones that could catch up with them if I’m not careful. And I’ve been incredibly careful. I realize this attempted break-in is a concern. It is for me too, but it can’t get out. It can’t… These women need to know they’re safe.”
“But one of them wasn’t,” Beckett pointed out.
“No. Albennie wasn’t. That’s part of the problem. There was a leak somewhere. Maybe it was Albennie herself. But until I know for sure, I need to keep everyone in one place. Protected. But more, so I can get to the bottom of how who took her found out where she was. The Feds are aware of Albennie’s past, and they’re working from that angle, but so far, they haven’t gotten anywhere.”
“We’re handling the attempted break-in, Simmons,” the sheriff said firmly. “I trust my men better than any FBI agent. We’ll share what we find, but it’s our case.”
“Look, I don’t care who does what as long as we’re all on the same page. I cannot afford for any of the women in Hope Town to think they’re not safe—or even morenot safethan they usually are. It leaves too many of them open for their pasts to come back and haunt them. This break-in attempthasto be kept on the down-low.”
“What exactly are you asking us to do?”
“Investigate. By all means. I’m not standing in the way of that, but I need Ms. Perkins to stay put. Her leaving would worry too many of the women and have them contemplating the same.”
“You can’t be serious,” Beckett said.
“If this kidnapping has made Ms. Perkins a target? We need to use her.”
“Mr. Simmons, I don’t know about all that,” the sheriff said. “She’s a civilian. Not one of these other women with pasts.”
“Yes, that’s the point.Normallife. Not just people like them, but regular people too. If Franny runs at the first sign of danger, how do I keep anyone else calm and staying put? We’ll keep her safe. I have some ideas on that. Security measures, courtesy of my company. It would keep Franny where she is, but under constant surveillance so nothing happens to her. If Deputy Campbell stays where he’s at, he can man the surveillance. Keep an eye out for Franny.”
