“Yes. And that’s when he started shooting.”
Faith looked at Janice then. “Did he hit you?”
“No.”
“Come close?”
Janice shrugged. “Hard to say. I’m not an idiot. When the shots started flying, I ran into the woods. I expected him to drive off.”
“But he didn’t.”
“Nope. Parked that truck and came after me.”
“What was he shooting?”
“Handgun. Don’t know what kind. Definitely not a rifle or a shotgun. I hunkered down in a spot thick with some evergreen bushes and called 911. I told them I was an FBI agent, gave them my location, told them I was being fired on, and waited for the Carrington locals to show up.”
“Lucky for you they were nearby.”
“Yeah. I have to give them credit. They got there a lot faster than I thought possible.”
“When did you get a look at the guy? You gave Gabe a description.”
“After I got myself tucked away, I saw him by the streetlight before he ran into the woods after me. He’s David Lee.”
“How sure are you?”
“I’m sure.”
“How sure?” Faith pressed.
Janice’s lip curled, but she answered. “David Lee has a tattoo. It’s clear in all the photos you’ve found of him. It’s some kind of animal tail. Maybe a tiger. Not sure how far down it starts, but it comes up from his collar, over his neck, and a little bit up one cheek.”
Luke had seen it. It was quite distinctive. He hadn’t thought it looked like a tiger tail. He’d assumed it was a snake of some kind.But if Janice was right and it was a tiger tail, could this David Lee be the person Bill had called him about?
“Any thoughts as to why he would come after you?” Faith asked the question casually, as if she were asking about the weather and not attempted murder.
“How on earth should I know? It’syourcase. You figure it out.” Janice stood. “Will that be all, Special Agent Malone?”
“Not quite, Special Agent Estes. I’d like to know how you’ve seen photographs of David Lee. How do you know his name and that he has a tattoo?”
Janice tossed her hair. “You leave things on your desk. You shouldn’t.”
Faith didn’t look as surprised as Luke had expected her to. Had she suspected Janice of snooping around her desk? “One more thing. Why didn’t you go public with the stats from the ME and the forensic anthropologist when you got them? If you’d gone public with the details that we were looking for a missing woman, twenty-nine to thirty-five, of Asian ancestry, we might have gotten a hit a month ago.”
Janice looked at Luke, a malevolent gleam in her eye. “I thought she was a prostitute. No one would have noticed she was missing, or even if they did, they wouldn’t have come forward.”
“Why would you think Thad Baker was with a prostitute?” Faith got the question out before Luke had time to react.
“Men his type are like that, aren’t they?” Janice was enjoying this way too much. “Too-good-to-be-true Christians. Won’t go in for a normal affair, but they’re all in for the kinky stuff.”
“There’s nothing about Thad Baker that could have led you to that conclusion.” It was a good thing Faith was defending Thad, because if Luke opened his mouth, the things that would come out would not be very Christian at all.
“You’d think so.” Janice turned her attention to Luke. “Maybe you didn’t know Thad as well as you thought.”
Something was tugging at the fibers of Luke’s memory. Maybe six months ago. Less than a year. Thad had come in from a task force meeting, baffled that he’d been hit on. “Could she not see the ring?” Thad had said, sticking out his left hand.
“Maybe you hit on him and he turned you down and you’re not sorry he’s dead.” It had been a calculated guess. When Thad had made the statement to him, Luke wasn’t sure it was Janice who’d hit on him, but he was sure now.
