She took another bite from her sandwich and glanced at Jessica.Despite her semi-scolding advice to Faith, her own sandwich sat forgotten on the table in front of her.Jessica looked up and saw Faith’s gaze, then smirked and picked up her own sandwich.“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
Faith pushed air through her nose, the closest thing to a chuckle she could get right now.Her hand strayed to her phone, but she stopped herself.Harassing them wouldn’t make the process any faster.
She lifted the sandwich to her mouth, but when her phone rang, she tossed the sandwich onto the table and pulled the phone from her pocket.The sandwich opened and spread meat, vegetables, and sauce all over the table, but she'd deal with cleanup later.
“Bold.”
“Bold, it’s Dunn.We have the image enhanced.I’m sending it over to you right now.”
“And?”
“And… that’s it.He’s not on the wanted list, whoever he is.”
“You didn’t think to run his image through NCIC?”
The National Crime Information Center was a computerized index of missing persons and criminal information used by law enforcement organizations across the country, including the FBI, for identifying suspects.It only identified people with criminal records, but more often than not, spree and serial killers had past criminal histories.
Dunn sighed.“Agent, we’re in the middle of a lot of other shit right now.I’m not trying to minimize your case, but we’ve helped as much as we can.You need to take it from here.”
Faith pressed her lips together.“Right.Of course.Thank you for your help.”
“Not a problem.Chin up, Bold.You’re on the right track.You’ve got this guy.”
Yes, but what if we don’t have himin time?“Thank you, again.”
She hung up and turned to Jessica to see her partner already pulling the image from the email and running it through NCIC.Faith took the seat next to her, accidentally putting the sleeve of her uniform into a splotch of mustard, but that was another thing she could deal with later.
Turk trotted softly to the table, glanced at Faith, then began gingerly eating the remains of her sandwich off the table.Faith stared at Jessica’s laptop screen while the NCIC searched its records for the man in the image Dunn had sent.
He was in his late thirties with reddish hair sprinkled with gray.His eyes were a shocking sapphire blue, although that could be a result of the image enhancement and not exactly their true color.He wore an oversized windbreaker above a Harley Davidson t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans above scuffed tan boots.In the enhanced image, it was clear that he was watching the three victims and not the commotion taking place between Anthony Pierce and the security officers.
There was murder in his eyes.
The laptop chirped, and an image came up.Faith and Jessica both cried out with excitement when they finally stared into the eyes—genuinely a deep sapphire blue—of their suspect.
“James Caldwell,” Jessica read.“Forty-one—looks pretty good for that age, not that it matters—former US Army Staff Sergeant and K9 handler.Honorably discharged three years ago once he hit twenty years.”
She scrolled down the file.He applied to adopt his service dog, Hunter, and was denied because both he and his dog were diagnosed with PTSD.The dog was sent to the Dallas Doghouse for rehabilitation.The Doghouse worked with Hunter for three weeks, then kicked him to the Plano Animal Shelter.It looks like he was put up for adoption, but they couldn't find a family they deemed qualified.He was sent to the Fort Worth animal shelter and euthanized."
“Well, there’s our connection to the victims,” Faith said.“Why’s he in the system?”
“Had a meltdown after Hunter was euthanized.Got into a bar fight and put a guy in the hospital.Looks like the charges were reduced, and he was ordered into court-mandated grief management.Passed that with flying colors, and he’s been a model citizen ever since.”
Faith experienced a stray moment of sympathy for Caldwell.She had fought in a war.She knew the kind of hell that put people through.She knew the sacrifices people were called upon to perform in the service of their country.This man had been through that hell, fought hard to come home to a place free of violence, then lost the only living thing he had to share that journey with.It was tragic that he’d lost his way so much.
But he was killing people.Tragic or not, Faith couldn’t allow that.“Address?”
Jessica clicked back to the first page, revealing an address near downtown Arlington.
“Perfect,” Faith said.“Call Arlington PD and get officers on scene ASAP.We’ll meet them as soon as we can.How long is that drive?”
Jessica punched the route into her GPS.“About forty-five minutes.”
“Okay.Let’s get going then.”
The three agents left the hotel room, jogging to the stairs and taking them to the ground floor rather than waiting for the elevator.Jessica called Arlington, PD on the way, and got them to send a pair of cruisers to the apartment to detain Caldwell until they arrived.They would be there in five minutes.
Faith looked up at the stars popping to life in the night sky.She hoped those stars were good omens and not dispassionate observers watching the desperate ants scramble to stop a crime that had already been committed.
