Threat Detection, page 5
“Jasmin, how are things on your end?” He quickly brought her up to speed on his case. “Look, I’ve just downloaded some folders containing photographs.” He tapped the keyboard. “I’m sending them to you right now. It would be great if we could get some names attached to these pictures. We already know the identity of the woman. Her name is Emily Smith. Her sister is the one who was shot at last night. Emily also works at the foundation.”
Aubrey could hear a woman talking on the other end of the line though she could not discern what was being said.
“Sure, give me a call as soon as you know something.” He looked at his watch. “Oh, I didn’t realize it was so late. Sounds like you got a lot on your plate. I’ll wait to hear from you in the morning.”
He hung up and stared at the computer screen for a long moment before pulling the thumb drive out and putting it back in the zippered pocket of his jacket. “This stays with me at all times until I can get it turned in to evidence.”
Her phone dinged, indicating she had a text. Emily’s name came on the screen.
Doing Ok. Don’t worry about me.
She took in a breath. Emily was safe but did not want to share more information. After so many years of slipping in and out of each other’s lives, her relationship with her sister was fragile. She didn’t want to jeopardize what they had begun to rebuild together by making accusations or even asking questions. Emily was her only family. She wanted her sister in her life.
Her stomach growled. “What are we going to do since our dinner is scattered all over the courtyard?”
“The lodge has a little restaurant here, limited menu, but it’s better than going hungry.” He must have picked up on how preoccupied she was about her sister. “Jasmin is a whiz at working through information. We should have some answers in the morning.”
She nodded.
“We’ll just have to hang tight.” He rose to his feet and cupped her shoulder. “Let’s go get something to eat.”
Leaving Freddy alone in the room with his dinner, they stepped outside where the sky was growing dark. A few stars twinkled in the sky.
Isaac’s gaze moved around the courtyard and parking lot as if he was expecting another attack. She edged a little closer to him as they entered the restaurant.
Only two of the five tables were occupied. One with an older couple and the other with a man who looked to be in his early twenties. His deep tan indicated he spent a great deal of time outside. He could be on one of the fire crews that was in the park every summer or maybe he was a hiker.
“Why don’t we get some sandwiches to go?” Isaac said as he studied the menu that was written on a chalkboard behind the counter.
The suggestion made it clear that Isaac didn’t want to be out in the open for long.
A middle-aged lady in an apron emerged from a back room. “What can I get you for?”
“Do you have anything that is quick that we can take back to our room?”
“How do club sandwiches, chips and a drink sound to you?”
Aubrey was so hungry she could eat her shoe at this point. “That would be great.”
“Give me just a few minutes.” The woman disappeared through the swinging doors.
While they waited, Isaac’s radio fizzed, and a female voice came on the line. “Officer Nielson here. Just wanted to let you know we did not locate the car you described on any of the roads around the lodge. Suspect is still at large.”
The bad news made Aubrey’s heart beat a little faster. The shooter was still out there.
Once they got their food, they headed back to the ground floor room at the lodge. Isaac handed her the to-go containers so his hands would be free. She knew he was thinking about the possibility of the man taking another shot at her.
They stood outside the door of the room.
“Look,” said Isaac. “I’m going to see if we can get one of the suites on the second floor. You’re just too vulnerable on the ground floor. That way we’ll both have a room. This thing is not going to be over anytime soon. I’m going to have to pull in some more PNK9 officers to help me get it resolved.”
The realization that her life would not go back to normal quickly was frustrating. And now she was going to have to spend more time with Isaac. “If that is what we have to do.” The one consolation was that it was clear that Isaac was very good at his job.
“Why don’t you go inside and wait with Freddy? I’ll look into getting us moved.” Isaac swiped the key card and opened the door for her.
Freddy greeted her enthusiastically, his ears flopping around as he ran toward her. She stepped inside and closed the door. She slid the dead bolt in place and sat down.
Aubrey felt like the walls were closing in on her.
The man who had tried to kill her was still out there. It was just a matter of time before he came after her again.
* * *
Once settled in the new suite on the second floor, they sat at the table to eat their sandwiches. Isaac’s mind was racing with the calls he needed to make. The first one would be to his boss, Chief Donovan Fanelli, to see how many resources they could allocate to this case. The team was assigned to the state’s three national parks—Mount Rainier, Olympic and North Cascades—but since the attack on Aubrey occurred in a national forest park, he was sure the chief would be open to sending an officer or two. And hopefully, Jasmin would be able to connect the dots between the five people whose photos were on that thumb drive.
Aubrey was going to need protection while she was at work. Would it be worth it to see if they could get a crime scene team up to where the shooting had taken place? The crime scene personnel with the state park would normally be utilized since the attack had happened under their jurisdiction. He knew from having helped out the park police that they were stretched thin this time of year.
Aubrey took a bite of her sandwich and nibbled on some chips. “You’re being awful quiet.”
“Just trying to come up with a plan for what has become a full-scale investigation,” he said.
“Do you like your job?”
“I like knowing I’m helping people,” said Isaac. “The rest of the team I work with are great. Really, it’s the best part in some ways.”
Her gaze flickered around the room. “I remember you talking about going into politics.”
He knew any talk about the past was the equivalent of walking into a minefield. “My plans changed.”
“What made you want to be a police officer and work with a dog?”
That was a safe enough question. “I was doing volunteer work with at-risk kids. We had a K-9 officer as a guest speaker. When I saw how the officer and his partner worked together, something clicked for me.”
“Maybe it was your mom and dad more so than you who thought law school was the way to go.” She put down her half-eaten sandwich.
She seemed to be hinting at something, but again, keeping the peace so he could provide protection seemed like the highest priority right now. “Plans change. You’re the only person I’ve met who knew what she wanted to be from an early age and carried it out.”
“I can’t imagine doing anything else. I would have done research at any volcano. I like that it was the one my father took me to see before he died.”
Before Aubrey’s father passed away, he’d taken her and her sister on a trip to the volcano. She carried the memory of having visited Mount St. Helens with her like most people wore a locket with a picture in it.
“I admire what you’ve accomplished,” he said. “It couldn’t have been easy.”
As she met his gaze, something in her expression softened. “Thank you. It was quite a challenge to get this far, but I would not have traded a minute of it.”
The moment that had the potential to become explosive had instead made him feel closer to her. While he had always felt the weight of expectation with his family from generations of successful bankers and lawyers, she had had the opposite. Given her background, no one had thought Aubrey Smith would make something of herself. But he had seen it from the moment he’d met her. That spine of steel determination and the clear vision she had for her future.
She pushed her chair back from the table. “I can’t eat any more. I’m exhausted. I think I will just shower and go to sleep.”
“I don’t blame you,” he said.
He watched as she disappeared into one of the bedrooms and closed the door behind her.
Carrying his sandwich with him, he rose to his feet and stared out the window at the courtyard below. One of the two streetlamps was not working, leaving the area shrouded in darkness. The window allowed him a view of the road that connected to the lodge parking lot. If someone pulled in, he would see them.
He took the last few bites of his sandwich.
Freddy came and sat beside him. “One more potty run, huh, buddy?”
He put Freddy’s leash on, double-checked that the door was locked behind him and headed down the exterior stairs so Freddy could go to the bathroom. On his way back up the stairs he stopped halfway, taking note of each of the cars in the lot. The windows to the other rooms were dark or showed the glow of a television set.
He and Freddy made their way up the remaining stairs, unlocked the door to the suite and stepped inside. He had already decided that he would set his alarm to wake every few hours and to sleep on the couch in the living room area of the suite. That way, he would be ready for another attempt on Aubrey’s life. He prayed, though, that that would not happen.
SIX
When Aubrey woke up the next morning, she could hear Isaac on the phone in the living room. She washed her face and got dressed, then went into the living room area. Isaac sat in a chair with his laptop open and his phone sitting on the table. Freddy rested at his feet. He greeted Aubrey with several tail thumps on the floor.
He must be trained not to move until Isaac gave him the command.
“I made some coffee, if you want some,” he said.
She moved to the counter where the coffeepot was. “Have you been up long?”
“About an hour. Freddy and I went for a quick run, and then I had a conversation with my boss about this case. He’s going to put together a video call with the available officers. I’ll brief them on the case so far and then see who we can get over here to assist.”
“Am I going to be able to go back to work?”
“We’ll see,” said Isaac. “Certainly not until we can get some protection in place.”
Her back stiffened. She was antsy to get back into the field and to assist the other scientists in the lab. “And what will that involve?”
“That’s something we’ll work through with the other officers and available resources. We have K-9s whose training is for protection if they are available.”
“A dog and an officer would shadow me while I worked? I want to get back up to the site where I was gathering samples.” She poured herself a cup of coffee, then took a seat opposite Isaac.
“That is still a crime scene. It would be a challenge to get a whole crime scene crew up there, but we might want to get another set of eyes on it, gather more information and evidence.”
Aubrey took a sip of her coffee. More than anything, she wanted to get back to work. But it sounded like everything was up in the air for the moment. “I guess I’ll text Mary and let her know I’m not sure if I will be in to work today or not.”
He must have sensed her disappointment. His response held a tone of compassion. “We’ll try to get you back to work as quickly as possible, but I want you to be safe.”
She wrapped her hands around the warm coffee cup. “I get that. It’s just that disruption is hard to deal with.” She was still concerned about Emily. If she could get to work and Emily was there, maybe her sister really had just been too sick to answer the phone. She had tried calling her again last night before she went to bed and had gotten only voice mail.
“The conference call is in about forty-five minutes. You’re welcome to sit in on it and answer any questions the officers might have about what happened to you.”
His phone rang. He looked at the number. “It’s Jasmin. I’ll put her on speakerphone.”
Jasmin’s voice came across the line. “Hey, I’m going to sit in on the conference call, but I thought you would like to know ahead of time that I have identified two of the men from those files.” Jasmin’s voice dropped half an octave. “I’m afraid it’s not good news.”
“Go ahead.” Isaac looked up from his phone at Aubrey, who could hear the clicking of computer keys.
“The guy in the coffee shop who lived at that apartment building is Nathan Wharton. His job is repairing arcade games, but he has a record and did some time for hacking and other cybercrimes. The other man, the one who lives in a cabin, is Hans Hilstead, a back-country guide and climbing instructor.”
“What is the bad news?”
Jasmin did not answer right away. “Both men are dead.”
Aubrey’s breath caught in her throat, and she almost dropped her coffee cup. Was Emily in some kind of danger?
Isaac’s face had grown pale. “How did they die?”
“Once I had names connected to addresses, I keyworded in the names. Their obituaries came up. They both died two days ago. The obits are vague about cause of death. Both men are under the age of forty, so we can assume it wasn’t natural causes. I am going to do some more digging.
“I’m still working on the identity of the other two men,” said Jasmin. “I’ll let you know as soon as I find out anything. Isaac, is everything okay?”
Isaac’s attention was on Aubrey. He reached a hand across the table.
“Just a little bit of a shock to hear that. Hopefully the other two guys can be brought in for questioning, so we can figure out what’s going on.”
“Has Aubrey been able to get in touch with her sister?”
Aubrey shook her head as tears flooded her eyes.
“Not yet,” said Isaac. “See you at the conference call in a bit.”
“Sure. I’ll let you know then if I’ve had any new developments,” said Jasmin.
Aubrey burst from her seat and retreated to her room to grab her phone. She sent Emily the text that had previously gotten a reply.
R u ok?
She stared at her phone as though that would make her sister respond.
Isaac stood in the doorway. His expression communicated concern. “I know that was hard to hear about those two men. Bear in mind, we don’t know anything for sure yet.”
“Two men in those photographs are dead. What if those photos are a hit list and Emily is on it? She’s still not answering my calls. That text from her might not even be real. The killer could have sent it, so it looked like she was alive.” Her hand rested on her pounding heart.
Isaac stepped toward her. “You have to keep your mind on what we know for sure and what we can do to find out more. After this conference call, we can drive over to Emily’s place.”
Aubrey checked the time. “If she does show up to work, she should be there before the conference call is over. I can call the receptionist and see if she’s there. Maybe Emily really was just under the weather. That’s my hope anyway.”
“Why don’t you hang out with Freddy? I’ll go rustle us up some breakfast.”
Aubrey returned to the living room part of the suite and sat down in one of the plush chairs.
Isaac spoke to Freddy on his way out. “Keep Aubrey company.” He grabbed his jacket and headed toward the door but turned back to her. “Remember to bolt the door after I leave. I’ll knock three times and say your name when I come back.”
Once he was gone, she locked the door.
Isaac’s precaution was a reminder of how the threat against her had made her a prisoner. She reached her hand out toward Freddy. “Hey, little buddy.”
The dog trotted toward her. Then jumped up so his paws rested on her leg. She stroked his soft head and velvet ears. He sat at her feet. The chair she was in faced the back of the hotel, where the forest was. The trees were only feet from her window.
Her breath caught when she saw movement in the evergreens. She rose to her feet and rushed toward the window just as a person slipped deeper into the forest.
It could just be someone out enjoying nature.
Her heart pounded, and she felt the tickling coolness on the back of her neck, a fear response. She watched, waiting to see if anyone emerged and walked back toward the hotel.
Freddy came to stand beside her and let out a single sharp bark.
She looked down at her floppy-eared friend with the expressive teddy bear eyes. “I know it’s kind of scary, isn’t it? Glad you’re here with me.”
She continued to study the area outside, still not seeing anyone. The man who came after her had managed to find out they were in the lower level room. He might find out they had moved upstairs through whatever means he had used the first time. What if he had been watching her window?
She jumped when she heard the three knocks at the door. Isaac said her name, and she moved across the floor and twisted the dead bolt.
Just knowing he was close helped her to calm down.
“Everything all right?”
He must have seen something in her face.
She turned slightly. “I just thought I saw someone in the trees.” She tilted her head to indicate the window. “But I’m not sure.”
Isaac set the food down and hurried to look where she had indicated. After a long moment, he drew the curtains shut. “This is why I need to get you more protection. If I have any indication he knows we moved to a more secure room, we’re out of here.”
