Page 10 of Storm and Tempest (Brand of Justice #13)

Chapter Eight

J ax’s phone rang just as they climbed back in the car, this time with him in the driver’s seat. He was tempted to go back to the scene at the restaurant, talk to whoever was working it. The car connected to his phone, and the dash screen read M calling.

“Hey, Maze. Everything good?”

“I have something already.”

“That was fast.” Ramon opened the laptop on his knees. “So do we, but we’ll have to drop it off. Where are you?”

“At the RV with Jolene, locked up tight.”

Jax had surveillance on his house, new since the last system had been breached before Kenna was taken.

In fact, his place had been broken into multiple times, and he hadn’t really believed it until he saw how his system had been manipulated with his own eyes.

Now the house had cameras outside, cameras inside, and the RV in the garage bay that had been built to accommodate the tall vehicle had its own system.

All of it couldn’t be hacked without physical access.

“We’re dropping off a laptop,” Jax said. “What do you have?”

He drove toward his house, realizing he was hitting after-school traffic.

How had he lost most of a day to all this?

Seemed like a lot had happened in a short space of time.

Maizie and Bruce probably both needed a nap after being up last night unearthing a grave with no body, while Ramon looked like he usually did—not exactly well rested, though.

Jax didn’t need to start worrying about the guy’s sleep habits. They were barely friends at best. It was closer to a stalemate and purely because they had the same goal.

Maizie said, “I found the coroner who signed off on Marcus Buzard’s death. I have a copy of the certificate, and everything lines up with what was reported by Ramon and Kenna as to how he died. So the doctor definitely saw Buzard’s body at some point.”

“Or someone gave an extremely accurate description,” Ramon said.

Jax nodded.

“After that, it must have been taken,” Maizie said. “Or misplaced. Is that a thing? Misplacing a body?”

Jax shook his head, pulling up to a stoplight. “Not as far as I know.”

Ramon shook his head. “Doesn’t explain how he ended up alive and running around with Kenna.”

“You can’t believe that’s her.” Maizie’s voice had a higher pitch than usual. “It has to be faked.”

Jax winced. “The bar owner saw her, talked to her. I don’t want to believe it either, but we need an explanation.”

“Brainwashing.” Ramon sounded so matter-of-fact. Not that it was so farfetched with these people.

Jax didn’t like it. “Not something I try to think about.”

“Me either,” Maizie said. “I much prefer suspicious car accidents.”

Jax’s foot switched to the brake, but he caught himself. “What’s that?”

“The coroner died in a car accident, along with his wife, a week after he signed Buzard’s death certificate.

They were on a highway headed north, toward the Grand Canyon.

Went off a cliff. The car caught fire, and they both died pretty much instantly.

So I have two more death certificates open on my computer, a news obituary, and a social media post. The wife’s friends can’t believe such a tragedy occurred. Apparently, it was a brand-new car.”

“Cars fail.” Jax didn’t like saying it while he was driving, but it could’ve been a freak accident. If the timing wasn’t incredibly coincidental.

“And people are murdered,” Ramon said. “Especially people who get in the way of what Dominatus wants.”

Maizie was silent.

“If they wanted Kenna dead,” Jax began, “they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of taking her.

And the fact they took her from the scene outside that silo means they couldn’t wait.

So she knows something, or they needed something from her.

Either way, she’s of value to them. That means she’s alive somewhere. ”

Ramon said, “Amara better come up with some intel. I need to kick a door in and shoot somebody.”

Jax couldn’t disagree but needed to know why Maizie had gone quiet. “Maze?”

“I’m okay. I just… We all miss her. Not just me.”

“It sucks. And it hurts.”

“Are you okay?” Maizie said.

Jax had to tell her the truth. “I’m holding on. But it’s hard.”

She sighed across the phone line. “Sorry the coroner is a dead end. Bruce is looking for Elliot Adams’s car, or someone who saw him after he left the silo going after the transport. Maybe he’ll find something.”

“I’ll pray for that.” Jax heard the hollowness of his own words. He shouldn’t say that if it wasn’t going to be true. There was no power in an empty sentiment. “I will.”

He made the promise to himself as much as to her.

This wasn’t going to be solved by working in his own strength, trying to succeed in his flesh. He knew probably better than a lot of people that his flesh was so weak. He needed God to supply him supernaturally with the ability to keep the faith until Kenna was found.

To not give into despair the way her previous partner had.

He hung up with Maizie when they pulled into the drive, and Ramon dropped the laptop off to her in the RV next to where he parked his car. Soon as Ramon was back in the car, Jax pulled out again.

“Where to, Boss?” Ramon asked.

Jax ignored that comment. “I’ve been trying to work out who ordered Special Agent Adams to go after Kenna’s transport, and if that person is also responsible for his disappearance.”

“Why send the guy after the transport if you want the people who took her to be able to get away?”

“Exactly.” Jax headed for a coffee shop they’d tried but which Kenna hadn’t liked. Going to her favorite place would hurt too much. “If someone sent Elliot after them, maybe it was because instinct said the whole thing might be suspicious. Whoever is dirty found out, intervened and stopped Elliot.”

“Okay, so who in your office would do that?”

The new guy, Special Agent Farlan, must have been transferred in to take the place of Agent Adams. “I still don’t understand how an agent goes missing and no one raises an eyebrow,” Jax commented. He called a guy that worked in Farlan’s group, listening to it ring before the guy picked up.

“Browne.”

“It’s SAC Jax. Got a minute?”

“Uh, yeah. Sir. Heard you were out for a day or two. Sick or something.”

At least he didn’t mention the shoot-up at the restaurant. The Bureau either hadn’t figured out he was there yet, or this guy simply hadn’t heard.

“Or something,” Jax said. “Listen, I just have a quick question. It’s been niggling at me. Special Agent Farlan came in to fill an open spot, right?”

“That’s right,” Browne said. “You were laid up in the hospital, so Hadley took care of the whole thing.”

Of course he had. “Who did Farlan replace?”

Ramon whispered, “And when did Hadley show up in town?”

“This young guy, Special Agent Elliot Adams,” Browne answered. “That’s who Farlan replaced.”

“First I’ve heard of him,” Jax said. “Did you work with him long?”

“Maybe a year. Something like that. He didn’t talk much, but he was a decent agent. Never hung out after work, or on the weekend. Didn’t come to any team stuff like barbecues. Kept to himself.”

“When’s the last time you saw him?”

“He was on the silo operation. Not sure if I saw him after that. Hadley said he had some kind of breakdown. Like he couldn’t hack what he saw, or something. I never saw him, so I dunno. Hadley said he transferred out and went to a different office.”

“So why has he been erased from the computer system?”

“Has he? Probably someone deleted him by accident or something. It happens.” Browne paused. “That all you need, Boss?”

“Who was in charge of the silo operation?”

“Special Agent Herron.”

“Thanks, Browne. I appreciate your help.”

The line went dead, and music came back on through the car speakers. A local Christian radio station playing worship music. Jax wanted to shut it off, to cut off what God might want to say through the music. So he left it on just to prove he could deal with all of it.

Whatever it took to get her back. Even if that meant God wanted to grow him in ways he didn’t want to grow.

Things were already uncomfortable enough.

“Herron?”

He glanced at Ramon. “I’d have told you she’s solid. I’d have banked on it.”

“Maybe not as much as you thought.”

Jax sighed. “Have Maizie look into her financials. See if there’s any evidence things aren’t as they seem.”

Ramon slid out his phone and started texting.

Jax drank his coffee, heading for the after-work spot most of the agents went to. At this time on a Friday, it wasn’t going to be busy yet. Just because he didn’t want it to be Special Agent Herron who was dirty didn’t mean he’d get his wish. After all, that’s all it was—a wish.

They checked out Herron’s house, but with her at work and no cars in the drive, there wasn’t much to see. Jax stopped at the drive-through of a chain restaurant he liked because they did protein grain bowls. Ramon didn’t seem impressed, but he ate what he ordered like he enjoyed it.

Jax parked across the street where he could see the back of the bar, and the parking area where the agents left their cars while they blew off some steam playing pool or darts after work.

He shut off the engine and rolled the windows down enough they’d get some airflow, but even under a tree in the shade, it was going to get hot fast.

He took off his tie and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt, rolling up his sleeves to settle in for the long haul.

“I could go around front, see what I can see,” Ramon offered. “Or go inside.”

Jax shook his head. “We need to stick together with Bruce off doing whatever he’s doing. We need intel in a way that doesn’t let them know we’re onto them.”

“Pipe dream. Considering they’re constantly one step ahead of us.”

“Still.”

Ramon probably expected Jax to say more than that, but he didn’t. He was too busy trying to figure out who in his office was dirty and working for Dominatus. Ordering people to their deaths and squashing all kinds of investigations.

He liked Special Agent Herron, and under different circumstances would call the wife and mother a friend.

Jax tapped his fingers on his lap and watched the back door of the bar.

“How long is this going to take?” Ramon grumbled.

“Could be hours.”

“That’s why you should let me go in. Shake some trees.”

“When you told me you take out your issues on innocent people in bars?” Jax almost smiled.

“They might not be innocent.”

“How do you know?” Jax eyed him. “Some kind of instinct?”

Ramon shifted in his seat. “Maizie looks people up. If someone has an outstanding warrant and I happen to leave the guy somewhere he’ll be found and receive medical attention, I figure I’m doing the law a favor. Soon as they run his ID, they’ll take him into custody.”

“A public service.” Jax shook his head. “Sounds like a ‘Kenna’ way to do it.”

“Actually, it was Bruce who suggested it, but I guess it might be something she would say. Since you guys got married, she’s had a lot on her mind, with not feeling good and everything that was going on. I’m just glad I got to help at the silo.”

“So am I.” Jax figured that was as close as he was going to get to the apology that Ramon likely didn’t think he needed to offer.

“Wish I could find those old guys. I wanna do a public service on their?—”

“I know what you mean,” Jax cut in. Then he bit the bullet. “Thanks for coming out with me today.”

“You think she’d forgive me if I let anything happen to you?”

Jax nearly chuckled. “No, I don’t suppose she would.”

His phone buzzed, and he checked the screen.

It was the number for the taskforce that the president had set up to take care of Dominatus in the US.

Jax had connected with them after being imprisoned in the UK earlier this year.

He’d been roped into an operation in Europe that meant leaving Kenna behind, but when the president asked, it wasn’t advisable to say no.

Right now, Jax didn’t have privacy to make an update, and with what he’d learned today, he needed to find out what else he could uncover so the report would be fuller. And he needed to do it when Ramon wasn’t in the car.

Jax didn’t like that he had been keeping the updates from Kenna and her team, but given the situation and the fact that even his office had been compromised, he had to keep things tight.

The president had promised to turn over anything that related to Kenna, but Jax wasn’t going to hold his breath waiting for intel from up top.

Every call was about what Jax had found, and even those were few and far between.

Today there might actually be something to report.

Maybe the president knew who the Imperatoris might be.

“Movement,” Ramon commented.

Which jogged Jax out of his thoughts as the back door opened and Special Agent Farlan came out. They watched him gesture widely as he talked on his phone.

“This is a waste of time.” Ramon shifted in his seat. “He’s probably lying to his girlfriend about why he didn’t come home yet.”

“This is police work,” Jax said.

While Farlan talked, Special Agent Herron stepped out. She had tied back her short dark-brown hair, her sunglasses pushed up to the top of her head. When Farlan saw her, he ended his phone call and spoke to her.

Herron’s body language immediately went on the defensive.

“Lover’s tiff,” Ramon said.

Jax watched the interplay. Herron said something and Farlan moved in, his body language aggressive. She pointed her finger in his face and said something.

Farlan stomped away, chastised and unhappy, back into the bar.

“Guess we know who is in charge in that relationship,” Ramon added.

“Go make a friend,” Jax told him. “Find out what he knows.”

“Finally.” Ramon shoved out of the car and strode toward the front door of the bar.

Jax got out as well, walking to where Special Agent Herron stood alone. Hands on her hips. Looking at the sky and thinking.

“Everything all right?” he asked.

She spun around to him. “SAC Jax, you scared me.”

“Did I really?” He stopped in front of her and waited for the answer.