Counter attack, p.20
Counter Attack, page 20
“I meant to read Madden’s report before now, but I wanted a time where I could process it. Should have looked it over last night.”
“You were tired and probably had other things on your mind.” He certainly had.
“Yeah . . .” She stared out the window. “Why have two men died from my bullets?”
Her question hung in the air. Nathan had never killed a man and prayed he’d be like most career cops who escaped that fate. “It’s not like you had any choice in either situation.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself, and it can’t be undone—I’ll have to learn to live with it. Hard to do sometimes when you hear other cops calling you Wyatt Earp.”
A slow burn worked its way through Nathan’s chest. “Who would do something like that?”
“Madden and his cronies.”
Nathan hadn’t much liked the detective before this, and now he had even less use for him. “Sorry. I’ve never understood what makes some people that way. And you’d rather be commissioner over cops like that than be sheriff?”
“Maybe I could make a difference. Besides, I don’t see a lot of difference between Madden and Mark and Harvey.”
He’d walked into that one. “I’ll concede the point. Why isn’t Madden meeting us at the condo?”
“Because that would be too simple. And he likes to be in control,” she said. “I need to get Denton’s report read before we get there.”
Nathan had never been around Madden, and from what he’d learned from Alexis, he didn’t care to be. Neither of them spoke as the miles rolled away, and traffic picked up as they neared Chattanooga. Twenty minutes later, they pulled into the Chattanooga police headquarters and Alexis put away her iPad.
“You okay?” he said after glancing at her somber face. Reliving that day had to be hard.
“Sure. Let’s go see Madden.”
After they signed in and received visitor badges, the detective came downstairs and escorted them up to his office. “How do you like being sheriff?” Madden asked as they rode the elevator.
“I’m the chief deputy, not the sheriff.”
“With your grandfather out of commission, it’s the same thing.”
“It’s been interesting so far,” she replied.
“So I’ve heard. Why didn’t you ever tell us your grandfather was Sheriff Stone?”
“I don’t remember ‘us’ ever having a conversation about anything.”
Nathan didn’t know how she kept her tone light in view of Madden’s condescending air. The elevator stopped, and Madden held the open-door button until they stepped out. “You’re not going to find any answers at Denton’s condo.”
“Won’t hurt to see,” Alexis said evenly. “You did get me a search warrant?”
“Yes, and you owe me one.”
“Sure—if you ever need help from the sheriff’s department in Russell County, I’m your person.”
“You running for the office next election?”
Nathan had had enough of the detective. “You might want to hope she doesn’t.”
Madden frowned. “Why’s that?”
“I heard a rumor that if she returns, your captain is moving her into homicide—your department can use a good detective like the chief deputy here.”
The detective’s eye twitched. “We already have a good department.” Then he shrugged. “Not saying anything against you, Alex. You’d be a welcome addition.”
“Thank you.” Her flat tone indicated her skepticism. “What can you tell me about Phillip Denton that I don’t already know?”
“There’s not much to tell. You know more about him than I do, anyway—you’re the one who traced the stolen detonators to him.”
“That was a month after he was killed. The detonators had nothing to do with why I went to Denton’s condo,” she said. “The commander of the task force sent me there because one of Denton’s neighbors had reported suspicious activity after the mall bombing.”
Alexis’s phone chimed. and she stepped away from them. Nathan turned to Madden. “Weren’t you on the task force too?”
He nodded. “But we had no idea Phillip Denton was the bomber. Not until Alex investigated a burglary at the excavating company Denton worked for. She tied the missing computers and detonators to him.”
According to the information Nathan had compiled in the various reports in Denton’s file, the man had been dead a month before the company discovered computers, C-4, detonators, and wiring were missing. Alexis had returned to work after the shooting and was assigned to burglary. She’d made the connection between computers she’d seen at Denton’s condo the day he’d been killed and the stolen ones. “Did you ever find the C-4 or detonators?”
Madden shook his head. “Except for the computers and a few wires, none of that stuff was at the condo, but the detonator on the bomb at the mall matched the ones missing from the excavating company.”
“Perhaps you should’ve brought Alexis back on the case.”
44
Alex bit back a smile as the three entered Madden’s office. Even though she’d stepped away from the two men, she’d overheard their conversation. It warmed her heart for Nathan to defend her skills, but she’d learned when she first came to the Special Investigations Division, Madden’s ego was the size of Texas—putting him down wouldn’t help their cause.
“Homicide didn’t have the information I did, but as soon as they got it, they acted on it,” she said, keeping a conciliatory note in her voice. “Before we go to Denton’s condo, I need a few minutes to go by and talk to the bomb squad commander—he just texted that the detonator from yesterday looked like the same make as the ones used in the mall bomb and the one that killed a homeless man.”
Madden stiffened. “You’re kidding.”
“Wouldn’t kid about something like that.” For the first time, the homicide detective seemed interested in them. “If you find a friend or relative of Denton’s, I’d appreciate it if you passed the name on to us.”
“Of course. Mind if I tag along to the commander’s office?”
There was no way to graciously say no. “Sure.” She turned to Nathan. “It’s on the next floor.”
When Madden stopped at the elevator, Nathan said, “One floor? I’m taking the stairs.”
Alex grinned at him. “I’ll come with you.”
When they were in the stairwell, Nathan shook his head. “Is Madden always like that?”
Alex led the way up the stairs. “Pretty much. I think his shoes are too tight,” she said over her shoulder.
His chuckle warmed her heart. “That could account for it.”
“Thanks for taking up for me back there.”
“You did a pretty good job all by yourself.”
“I try not to antagonize him too much—he wields a lot of power around here. He and the commissioner are like this.” Alex crossed her first two fingers and held them up.
“Gotcha. I’ll try to be more careful.”
She shrugged. “It works better not to make enemies.” They’d reached the next floor, and she smiled as he reached over her shoulder and pulled the door open. “Always the gentleman.”
“I try.”
“Commander’s office is at the end of the hall.”
When they arrived, Madden was already there. “Get your exercise?”
The way he said it wasn’t a compliment, so she ignored it and hoped Nathan would too. She turned to the man who’d defused the fake bomb yesterday. “So, you think the detonator on the fake bomb was the same kind Denton used?”
“Personally, yes, but we won’t know for sure until it’s been analyzed.” Carl leaned back in his chair. “I’ve sent it to a lab along with two others for comparison. One from the company that Denton stole his from and what was left of the detonator on the mall bomb after the robot detonated it. Probably won’t have an answer for a month or more.”
That was too long. With Carl’s experience, she had as much confidence in him as a lab. “What’s your guess?”
He thought a minute. “I’d be surprised if it’s not the same brand as the other two. Do you have any idea where he may have made his bombs? There wasn’t anything at the condo.”
“Did you search the place yourself?” Nathan asked.
Carl shook his head. “We did a cursory search, but the task force handled the biggest part of the investigation.”
Alex shifted her focus to the homicide detective. “Did you see a safe? Or any place he could’ve hidden his bomb-making material?”
“No.”
“You searched for that?” Nathan asked.
Madden stood straighter, hooked his thumbs on his belt. “If there’s a safe or anything hidden in that condo, I’ll eat my badge.”
Nathan turned toward Alex, his eyes twinkling. It was clear he’d love to see that, but then, so would she. “Do you have an explosive detection dog?” she asked abruptly.
Carl nodded. “A Belgian Malinois. We didn’t use her yesterday because you have a good explosive detection dog.”
“Any chance we could take her and her partner with us to check out the condo?” She turned to the detective. “Unless you used the dog when you searched it?”
Madden’s mouth twitched. “That’s a pretty good idea. We didn’t have Mal then, and Belle, our first explosive dog, was retired.”
“I’ll call her handler and have him bring the dog to the condo,” Carl said. “Probably come myself.”
He would be a good buffer. “See you there.”
A few minutes later they stepped out into the sunshine. For the first time since this case started, she had hope. Her euphoria lasted until they were a block from Denton’s condo.
Nathan pulled into the same spot she and her partner had parked in the last time she was here. Alex climbed out of the truck, her insides cinched so tightly she had trouble breathing. She’d never returned to the site where she’d killed a man.
Alex turned as first Madden, then the K-9 officer pulled into the parking area, followed by Carl Wingate. Didn’t any of these people travel together? Alex almost laughed out loud. She’d only been chief deputy three days and already she was thinking about budgets?
“You ready?” Madden asked as he approached.
“As I ever will be.” She and Nathan fell in beside the detective as they approached the building that had once been a warehouse. Ten years ago, it’d been converted to expensive condos. “How did Denton afford this place on his salary?”
“Good question, and one we never found the answer to.”
“Why not? Everyone leaves a paper trail,” Nathan said.
“Not Phillip Denton. My personal theory is he was in WITSEC since his paperwork was fake and Phillip Denton didn’t exist before five years ago.”
“Wait,” Alex said. “There’s no mention of Denton being in the federal witness protection program in the report.”
“I told you, it’s my personal theory. I contacted the US Marshals, and they denied having any knowledge of him so I left it out.”
“Surely they wouldn’t protect a bomber,” Alex said.
Madden snorted. “They might, since he was dead and his activities would reflect badly on the Marshals.”
It wouldn’t be the first time a federal agency covered its rear. Madden took out a key, and Alex stiffened. She’d been so busy talking she hadn’t realized they’d reached the common entrance. Her stomach knotted again and a band tightened across her chest.
When she’d been here before, she’d admired the way the renovator kept the integrity of the building and had used part of the ground floor as a courtyard. Today she barely noticed as she followed Madden to the second floor and Denton’s condo.
The detective used another key to enter the condo, transporting Alex back to the day she and her partner came to interview Denton . . .
“You don’t really think anybody who can afford to live here is a mad bomber, do you?” he said.
She didn’t, but one of Phillip Denton’s neighbors had reported him for suspicious activity on the hotline created after the mall bombing. “Doesn’t matter what we think, the captain told us to check him out.”
The ground floor was beautiful, with a courtyard and pathways. They climbed the stairs rather than take the elevator. Denton’s condo was the first one they came to.
A TV blared through the door, and Alex rang the bell.
“Go away!”
“Police, Mr. Denton. We need to speak with you.”
Silence followed. She ran the bell again, then rapped on the door.
“Go away! Leave me alone!”
“Move out of the way,” her partner said.
She waved him off. “Come on, Mr. Denton. We just want to ask you some questions.”
Something crashed inside the condo, and she unsnapped the strap on her Glock and her partner kicked in the door. Alex rushed inside to the right. Phillip Denton stood with a gun pointed at the floor.
“Drop it!”
Instead he raised the gun and pointed it at her. She’d fired immediately, hitting him center mass . . .
“You okay?” Nathan asked.
She jumped. “I’m fine.”
But every day since she discovered his gun had been unloaded, she’d questioned whether she could’ve handled the situation differently. Why didn’t he drop the gun? Did he forget it wasn’t loaded? Or was it like she’d come to believe after they discovered Denton was responsible for the mall bomb—he’d used her to commit suicide, believing she’d come to arrest him for the terrorist attack.
And a month later, Alex made the connection between the stolen items and the bomb found at the mall and Denton.
That’s when the small coil of wire CSI had found under his bed became an important piece of evidence. Wire that matched the kind found in the mall bomb.
They never found any other bomb-making materials, making Alex wonder if Denton had a partner. Was that partner now out for revenge?
45
Phame flipped from one Chattanooga TV station to another to catch coverage of the bomb scare in Pearl Springs. A day later and it was still news. There was so much power in being one step ahead of Stone.
By now the newly minted chief deputy had figured out the reference to Phillip—or at least she thought she had. It was all about misdirection. Making everyone think the killings were in revenge for Phillip’s death when that was only partially true. There was no way anyone could connect Phame to him. An image of Stone flashed on the TV screen, and Phame paused channel-surfing and leaned forward. When did Stone give a news conference?
“This is for the Queen’s Gambit Killer. You’re not as smart as you think. I’m coming after you.”
Phame’s hands curled into tight balls. Who did she think she was? It was time to get the final plan rolling after retrieving a few articles from Phillip’s condo.
The chief deputy wouldn’t know what hit her.
46
The entryway was dark just like it had been that morning, and Alex fought to not fall back into a flashback. She automatically reached for the light switch and was surprised when light flooded the room. The room looked just like it had the day Denton died. “His stuff is still here?” she said.
“Yeah. Since Denton had no heirs, the property belongs to the state, and no one has gotten around to packing it up. The state turned it over to a real estate company. They keep the power on,” Madden said to no one in particular. He turned to Carl. “Why don’t we first see what the dog finds?”
Carl had introduced them to the dog’s handler when they first arrived, and now he gave the dog the signal to seek explosives. As the Belgian Malinois worked the room, Alex glanced at the bookshelves she remembered seeing while she waited for the CSI team and the medical examiner. Books that included titles written in Latin and French. A brilliant man, evidently. What could have gone so wrong with him? She scanned the titles. Madame Bovary, Ultricem Angelus, Les Misérables, L’Étranger—
Mal barked, jerking Alex’s attention to the dog.
“Good girl,” her handler said and turned to them. “Nothing in here.”
He led the dog to the hallway and gave the command to seek. Mal trotted to the master bedroom. Madden shook his head when she didn’t alert there. “I didn’t think she’d find anything,” he said as the dog moved to the other bedroom. “And be prepared when you go in here.”
“Whoa!” Alex blinked when she entered the room.
“I told you.”
The floor was covered in three-by-three squares of multicolored, geometric carpet that made her dizzy. “Who in the world buys something like this and puts it in a small bedroom?”
Mal barked once and scratched at a center square.
“Maybe someone who makes bombs,” Nathan said.
Madden approached the square where Mal alerted.
“Wait! It may be booby-trapped,” Carl said. “We have to evacuate the entire block.”
The bomb squad commander yanked out his phone and dialed for his team and robot while Madden phoned for backup.
Alex and Nathan took the building they were in and went door-to-door evacuating residents. By the time they had everyone out, the entire block had been evacuated and cordoned off, and the area was swarming with police cars and officers.
While they waited for the robot to x-ray the floor, Alex pulled photos of Denton from her file, and she and Nathan interviewed his neighbors. The neighbors who recognized the photo said he was reclusive. A few said they got weird vibes from him. All in all, no one knew much about him.
Alex had about given up hope that she would come across anyone who had knowledge of Denton as she interviewed the last tenant on his floor of the building, a young woman with her six-month-old baby. Brooke Masters. “Thank you for your time,” she said, closing her notebook.
“Sorry I couldn’t tell you any more about him.” The woman bent over her stroller to tuck in her baby’s blanket. When she raised up again, she shivered. “It makes me so mad, just thinking about it. What was Denton thinking, anyway? Having that kind of stuff in the building. We could’ve all been blown up.”
Alex frowned. “How did you know there were explosives?”
“You were tired and probably had other things on your mind.” He certainly had.
“Yeah . . .” She stared out the window. “Why have two men died from my bullets?”
Her question hung in the air. Nathan had never killed a man and prayed he’d be like most career cops who escaped that fate. “It’s not like you had any choice in either situation.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself, and it can’t be undone—I’ll have to learn to live with it. Hard to do sometimes when you hear other cops calling you Wyatt Earp.”
A slow burn worked its way through Nathan’s chest. “Who would do something like that?”
“Madden and his cronies.”
Nathan hadn’t much liked the detective before this, and now he had even less use for him. “Sorry. I’ve never understood what makes some people that way. And you’d rather be commissioner over cops like that than be sheriff?”
“Maybe I could make a difference. Besides, I don’t see a lot of difference between Madden and Mark and Harvey.”
He’d walked into that one. “I’ll concede the point. Why isn’t Madden meeting us at the condo?”
“Because that would be too simple. And he likes to be in control,” she said. “I need to get Denton’s report read before we get there.”
Nathan had never been around Madden, and from what he’d learned from Alexis, he didn’t care to be. Neither of them spoke as the miles rolled away, and traffic picked up as they neared Chattanooga. Twenty minutes later, they pulled into the Chattanooga police headquarters and Alexis put away her iPad.
“You okay?” he said after glancing at her somber face. Reliving that day had to be hard.
“Sure. Let’s go see Madden.”
After they signed in and received visitor badges, the detective came downstairs and escorted them up to his office. “How do you like being sheriff?” Madden asked as they rode the elevator.
“I’m the chief deputy, not the sheriff.”
“With your grandfather out of commission, it’s the same thing.”
“It’s been interesting so far,” she replied.
“So I’ve heard. Why didn’t you ever tell us your grandfather was Sheriff Stone?”
“I don’t remember ‘us’ ever having a conversation about anything.”
Nathan didn’t know how she kept her tone light in view of Madden’s condescending air. The elevator stopped, and Madden held the open-door button until they stepped out. “You’re not going to find any answers at Denton’s condo.”
“Won’t hurt to see,” Alexis said evenly. “You did get me a search warrant?”
“Yes, and you owe me one.”
“Sure—if you ever need help from the sheriff’s department in Russell County, I’m your person.”
“You running for the office next election?”
Nathan had had enough of the detective. “You might want to hope she doesn’t.”
Madden frowned. “Why’s that?”
“I heard a rumor that if she returns, your captain is moving her into homicide—your department can use a good detective like the chief deputy here.”
The detective’s eye twitched. “We already have a good department.” Then he shrugged. “Not saying anything against you, Alex. You’d be a welcome addition.”
“Thank you.” Her flat tone indicated her skepticism. “What can you tell me about Phillip Denton that I don’t already know?”
“There’s not much to tell. You know more about him than I do, anyway—you’re the one who traced the stolen detonators to him.”
“That was a month after he was killed. The detonators had nothing to do with why I went to Denton’s condo,” she said. “The commander of the task force sent me there because one of Denton’s neighbors had reported suspicious activity after the mall bombing.”
Alexis’s phone chimed. and she stepped away from them. Nathan turned to Madden. “Weren’t you on the task force too?”
He nodded. “But we had no idea Phillip Denton was the bomber. Not until Alex investigated a burglary at the excavating company Denton worked for. She tied the missing computers and detonators to him.”
According to the information Nathan had compiled in the various reports in Denton’s file, the man had been dead a month before the company discovered computers, C-4, detonators, and wiring were missing. Alexis had returned to work after the shooting and was assigned to burglary. She’d made the connection between computers she’d seen at Denton’s condo the day he’d been killed and the stolen ones. “Did you ever find the C-4 or detonators?”
Madden shook his head. “Except for the computers and a few wires, none of that stuff was at the condo, but the detonator on the bomb at the mall matched the ones missing from the excavating company.”
“Perhaps you should’ve brought Alexis back on the case.”
44
Alex bit back a smile as the three entered Madden’s office. Even though she’d stepped away from the two men, she’d overheard their conversation. It warmed her heart for Nathan to defend her skills, but she’d learned when she first came to the Special Investigations Division, Madden’s ego was the size of Texas—putting him down wouldn’t help their cause.
“Homicide didn’t have the information I did, but as soon as they got it, they acted on it,” she said, keeping a conciliatory note in her voice. “Before we go to Denton’s condo, I need a few minutes to go by and talk to the bomb squad commander—he just texted that the detonator from yesterday looked like the same make as the ones used in the mall bomb and the one that killed a homeless man.”
Madden stiffened. “You’re kidding.”
“Wouldn’t kid about something like that.” For the first time, the homicide detective seemed interested in them. “If you find a friend or relative of Denton’s, I’d appreciate it if you passed the name on to us.”
“Of course. Mind if I tag along to the commander’s office?”
There was no way to graciously say no. “Sure.” She turned to Nathan. “It’s on the next floor.”
When Madden stopped at the elevator, Nathan said, “One floor? I’m taking the stairs.”
Alex grinned at him. “I’ll come with you.”
When they were in the stairwell, Nathan shook his head. “Is Madden always like that?”
Alex led the way up the stairs. “Pretty much. I think his shoes are too tight,” she said over her shoulder.
His chuckle warmed her heart. “That could account for it.”
“Thanks for taking up for me back there.”
“You did a pretty good job all by yourself.”
“I try not to antagonize him too much—he wields a lot of power around here. He and the commissioner are like this.” Alex crossed her first two fingers and held them up.
“Gotcha. I’ll try to be more careful.”
She shrugged. “It works better not to make enemies.” They’d reached the next floor, and she smiled as he reached over her shoulder and pulled the door open. “Always the gentleman.”
“I try.”
“Commander’s office is at the end of the hall.”
When they arrived, Madden was already there. “Get your exercise?”
The way he said it wasn’t a compliment, so she ignored it and hoped Nathan would too. She turned to the man who’d defused the fake bomb yesterday. “So, you think the detonator on the fake bomb was the same kind Denton used?”
“Personally, yes, but we won’t know for sure until it’s been analyzed.” Carl leaned back in his chair. “I’ve sent it to a lab along with two others for comparison. One from the company that Denton stole his from and what was left of the detonator on the mall bomb after the robot detonated it. Probably won’t have an answer for a month or more.”
That was too long. With Carl’s experience, she had as much confidence in him as a lab. “What’s your guess?”
He thought a minute. “I’d be surprised if it’s not the same brand as the other two. Do you have any idea where he may have made his bombs? There wasn’t anything at the condo.”
“Did you search the place yourself?” Nathan asked.
Carl shook his head. “We did a cursory search, but the task force handled the biggest part of the investigation.”
Alex shifted her focus to the homicide detective. “Did you see a safe? Or any place he could’ve hidden his bomb-making material?”
“No.”
“You searched for that?” Nathan asked.
Madden stood straighter, hooked his thumbs on his belt. “If there’s a safe or anything hidden in that condo, I’ll eat my badge.”
Nathan turned toward Alex, his eyes twinkling. It was clear he’d love to see that, but then, so would she. “Do you have an explosive detection dog?” she asked abruptly.
Carl nodded. “A Belgian Malinois. We didn’t use her yesterday because you have a good explosive detection dog.”
“Any chance we could take her and her partner with us to check out the condo?” She turned to the detective. “Unless you used the dog when you searched it?”
Madden’s mouth twitched. “That’s a pretty good idea. We didn’t have Mal then, and Belle, our first explosive dog, was retired.”
“I’ll call her handler and have him bring the dog to the condo,” Carl said. “Probably come myself.”
He would be a good buffer. “See you there.”
A few minutes later they stepped out into the sunshine. For the first time since this case started, she had hope. Her euphoria lasted until they were a block from Denton’s condo.
Nathan pulled into the same spot she and her partner had parked in the last time she was here. Alex climbed out of the truck, her insides cinched so tightly she had trouble breathing. She’d never returned to the site where she’d killed a man.
Alex turned as first Madden, then the K-9 officer pulled into the parking area, followed by Carl Wingate. Didn’t any of these people travel together? Alex almost laughed out loud. She’d only been chief deputy three days and already she was thinking about budgets?
“You ready?” Madden asked as he approached.
“As I ever will be.” She and Nathan fell in beside the detective as they approached the building that had once been a warehouse. Ten years ago, it’d been converted to expensive condos. “How did Denton afford this place on his salary?”
“Good question, and one we never found the answer to.”
“Why not? Everyone leaves a paper trail,” Nathan said.
“Not Phillip Denton. My personal theory is he was in WITSEC since his paperwork was fake and Phillip Denton didn’t exist before five years ago.”
“Wait,” Alex said. “There’s no mention of Denton being in the federal witness protection program in the report.”
“I told you, it’s my personal theory. I contacted the US Marshals, and they denied having any knowledge of him so I left it out.”
“Surely they wouldn’t protect a bomber,” Alex said.
Madden snorted. “They might, since he was dead and his activities would reflect badly on the Marshals.”
It wouldn’t be the first time a federal agency covered its rear. Madden took out a key, and Alex stiffened. She’d been so busy talking she hadn’t realized they’d reached the common entrance. Her stomach knotted again and a band tightened across her chest.
When she’d been here before, she’d admired the way the renovator kept the integrity of the building and had used part of the ground floor as a courtyard. Today she barely noticed as she followed Madden to the second floor and Denton’s condo.
The detective used another key to enter the condo, transporting Alex back to the day she and her partner came to interview Denton . . .
“You don’t really think anybody who can afford to live here is a mad bomber, do you?” he said.
She didn’t, but one of Phillip Denton’s neighbors had reported him for suspicious activity on the hotline created after the mall bombing. “Doesn’t matter what we think, the captain told us to check him out.”
The ground floor was beautiful, with a courtyard and pathways. They climbed the stairs rather than take the elevator. Denton’s condo was the first one they came to.
A TV blared through the door, and Alex rang the bell.
“Go away!”
“Police, Mr. Denton. We need to speak with you.”
Silence followed. She ran the bell again, then rapped on the door.
“Go away! Leave me alone!”
“Move out of the way,” her partner said.
She waved him off. “Come on, Mr. Denton. We just want to ask you some questions.”
Something crashed inside the condo, and she unsnapped the strap on her Glock and her partner kicked in the door. Alex rushed inside to the right. Phillip Denton stood with a gun pointed at the floor.
“Drop it!”
Instead he raised the gun and pointed it at her. She’d fired immediately, hitting him center mass . . .
“You okay?” Nathan asked.
She jumped. “I’m fine.”
But every day since she discovered his gun had been unloaded, she’d questioned whether she could’ve handled the situation differently. Why didn’t he drop the gun? Did he forget it wasn’t loaded? Or was it like she’d come to believe after they discovered Denton was responsible for the mall bomb—he’d used her to commit suicide, believing she’d come to arrest him for the terrorist attack.
And a month later, Alex made the connection between the stolen items and the bomb found at the mall and Denton.
That’s when the small coil of wire CSI had found under his bed became an important piece of evidence. Wire that matched the kind found in the mall bomb.
They never found any other bomb-making materials, making Alex wonder if Denton had a partner. Was that partner now out for revenge?
45
Phame flipped from one Chattanooga TV station to another to catch coverage of the bomb scare in Pearl Springs. A day later and it was still news. There was so much power in being one step ahead of Stone.
By now the newly minted chief deputy had figured out the reference to Phillip—or at least she thought she had. It was all about misdirection. Making everyone think the killings were in revenge for Phillip’s death when that was only partially true. There was no way anyone could connect Phame to him. An image of Stone flashed on the TV screen, and Phame paused channel-surfing and leaned forward. When did Stone give a news conference?
“This is for the Queen’s Gambit Killer. You’re not as smart as you think. I’m coming after you.”
Phame’s hands curled into tight balls. Who did she think she was? It was time to get the final plan rolling after retrieving a few articles from Phillip’s condo.
The chief deputy wouldn’t know what hit her.
46
The entryway was dark just like it had been that morning, and Alex fought to not fall back into a flashback. She automatically reached for the light switch and was surprised when light flooded the room. The room looked just like it had the day Denton died. “His stuff is still here?” she said.
“Yeah. Since Denton had no heirs, the property belongs to the state, and no one has gotten around to packing it up. The state turned it over to a real estate company. They keep the power on,” Madden said to no one in particular. He turned to Carl. “Why don’t we first see what the dog finds?”
Carl had introduced them to the dog’s handler when they first arrived, and now he gave the dog the signal to seek explosives. As the Belgian Malinois worked the room, Alex glanced at the bookshelves she remembered seeing while she waited for the CSI team and the medical examiner. Books that included titles written in Latin and French. A brilliant man, evidently. What could have gone so wrong with him? She scanned the titles. Madame Bovary, Ultricem Angelus, Les Misérables, L’Étranger—
Mal barked, jerking Alex’s attention to the dog.
“Good girl,” her handler said and turned to them. “Nothing in here.”
He led the dog to the hallway and gave the command to seek. Mal trotted to the master bedroom. Madden shook his head when she didn’t alert there. “I didn’t think she’d find anything,” he said as the dog moved to the other bedroom. “And be prepared when you go in here.”
“Whoa!” Alex blinked when she entered the room.
“I told you.”
The floor was covered in three-by-three squares of multicolored, geometric carpet that made her dizzy. “Who in the world buys something like this and puts it in a small bedroom?”
Mal barked once and scratched at a center square.
“Maybe someone who makes bombs,” Nathan said.
Madden approached the square where Mal alerted.
“Wait! It may be booby-trapped,” Carl said. “We have to evacuate the entire block.”
The bomb squad commander yanked out his phone and dialed for his team and robot while Madden phoned for backup.
Alex and Nathan took the building they were in and went door-to-door evacuating residents. By the time they had everyone out, the entire block had been evacuated and cordoned off, and the area was swarming with police cars and officers.
While they waited for the robot to x-ray the floor, Alex pulled photos of Denton from her file, and she and Nathan interviewed his neighbors. The neighbors who recognized the photo said he was reclusive. A few said they got weird vibes from him. All in all, no one knew much about him.
Alex had about given up hope that she would come across anyone who had knowledge of Denton as she interviewed the last tenant on his floor of the building, a young woman with her six-month-old baby. Brooke Masters. “Thank you for your time,” she said, closing her notebook.
“Sorry I couldn’t tell you any more about him.” The woman bent over her stroller to tuck in her baby’s blanket. When she raised up again, she shivered. “It makes me so mad, just thinking about it. What was Denton thinking, anyway? Having that kind of stuff in the building. We could’ve all been blown up.”
Alex frowned. “How did you know there were explosives?”
