Page 7

Six

Jude felt it, naturally, when he hit the ground and rolled.

But he quickly leaped to his feet, grateful he had felt the subtle change in the car when he was no longer in control of the vehicle.

Vicky had moved quick as a whip. But…

She was rising from the soft grass of the embankment even as he anxiously rushed toward her.

“Are you—”

“Fine. A scratched knee. Two scratched knees. I’ll live. Oh, my God, Jude, if you hadn’t…”

She broke off, staring at the smashed-up car and the fire still burning in the trees.

“I could feel it,” he told her. “I was forewarned because we knew what had happened to someone else. The judge wouldn’t have known what was coming.”

“But same place, same thing?” she asked him. “Maybe we were wrong! Maybe what has been happening has more to do with what happened here.”

“Or what’s happening extends wherever it needs to go,” Jude said. “I can’t shake it, though. There’s just something about the law firm where Marci worked. Shady!”

“Right, but we’re here now…”

“And local police will be out, hopefully aware of what’s going on so we don’t spend the day in long explanations and can get going on what we need to get done.” He smiled suddenly. Somehow, she still looked great. She’d been wearing a navy blue pantsuit. It barely looked the worse for wear—especially considering the “wear” it had just gone through.

But a long lock of her hair had swung crazily over the top of her head. Without thinking, he reached out to return it to its normal place.

He winced inwardly; maybe not the politically correct thing to do.

Thankfully, she just laughed. “Thanks! I’m going to guess that was an interesting hairdo I had going there!”

“Eh. You could have pulled it off,” Jude returned lightly. Then he grew more somber. “You’re sure you’re okay? Should we head to a hospital? The health and well-being of an agent—”

“I’m seriously fine. What about you?”

“Scratches, nothing more and I do not want anyone to suggest we waste time heading in to be checked out if it’s not necessary. So…”

Vicky arched a brow to him.

“Country road!” she reminded him, drawing out her phone.

“Oh, ouch, yeah—who knows when someone may be by.”

“Calling Aidan,” she assured him.

Either Aidan really did possess magic, or the state police they had so recently parted ways with had seen the explosion in their rearview.

Vicky had barely finished her call to Aidan before sirens were blaring, and Como and Banks were back. They were soon accompanied by the arrival of the forensic and arson crews they had called in from the state.

As Jude had feared, Banks and Como—after being appropriately horrified and worried that they were all right, began to talk about reports and paperwork. And because the vehicle they’d been in was in fragments that were still smoldering, they were at the mercy of the state police.

At first.

But Aidan was proving to be magic. A car arrived, driven by a man who introduced himself as Special Agent Tom Conner of the Nashville office. He’d been given orders to collect them, to bring them to the federal prison, and to leave them with the vehicle he’d brought—a fully restored ’57 Chevy.

A vehicle created long before computers controlled everything on four wheels.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a beautiful car!” Vicky assured Conner. He grinned in return. He was a young agent, probably had not been with the Bureau more than a few years. But she imagined he, just like Jude Mackenzie, might be a true asset in an undercover situation.

“Yeah. I’m going to be heading to my dad’s garage for an old baby like this myself, until all this is figured out!” Conner told him.

Banks and Como were looking from Conner to Vicky and Jude.

“Maybe…” Banks murmured.

“How many of these puppies do you think are out there?” Como asked.

Banks shrugged. “I never heard of two cars taking off like demons to crash into groves of trees before, so I admit, I haven’t looked into purchasing classic automobiles lately. But I will. And forgive me, my new friends, but we must have the proper paperwork—”

And that’s when the magic of Assistant Director Arnold kicked in.

“They’ll be by the precinct in a few hours. I have direct orders— federal orders—to get this duo where they need to be. We can’t stop a minute on this—as you can see by that fire of twisted metal still burning in the trees. They’ll get their paperwork done,” Conner promised, “just not right this second.”

With a wave to indicate the classic Chevy, Jude and Vicky both thanked Como and Banks as they hurried to the car. Jude slid into the back, allowing Vicky to take the front passenger’s seat.

As he drove, Tom Conner glanced at Vicky and then through his rearview mirror at Jude.

“I understand you’re going to see Victor Rodriguez about all this. You know what the man did, right? Most horrendous murders in my career, certainly. But he’s been in prison, and I’m not sure how he could have caused any of this. His father has been under investigation for years, but no one has pinned anything on him yet. He knows how to use money to keep his hands clean.”

Jude leaned forward. “It’s our understanding nothing changed with the death of the judge. Victor remains on death row, and all his father’s machinations haven’t managed to change anything for him yet,” he said.

“That is correct,” Special Agent Conner said. “Carlos Rodriguez has managed to stay above the law time and time again. People go to prison, terrified to talk, or they wind up dead. In the judge’s case it was Assistant Director Arnold who was suspicious. Otherwise, everyone was assuming it was an accident—the judge’s brakes simply failed, something that does happen. But we’re all aware of everything going on now—the woman killed in her home by electric knife and electrocution, the boating accident, the judge, and now this,” Conner said seriously. “Doesn’t take anyone on the top tier of brilliant to hack a car system. Many cars have been stolen through their computer systems because all a hacker needs to do is get into a phone system, find and start a car, and off they go. Thankfully, it’s usually thieves rather than murderers who seem to be the best car hackers, but…since it is possible to hack car computer systems, then it’s easy enough to do what’s now been done twice. Disable the brakes and set the speed at a zillion miles an hour, and there you go.” He glanced at Jude in the rearview mirror again. “Man, you two are lucky!”

“We are,” Vicky told Conner, looking back at Jude. “Very lucky!”

He shrugged. “Someone knew we were here and why we were here. We do, seriously, have some of the best people working with AI today, but whoever is doing this is using servers from all over, bouncing through systems all over the globe. But our people will prevail, I believe it with my whole heart. I’m just hoping we stop them before more people die.”

“Amen,” Conner murmured. “Almost there.”

Jude had been to the prison in Nashville before, but he saw Vicky was looking closely at everything as they moved along with the three of them being required to show ID and badges before getting the car through the gates. Once parked, Conner handed the keys to Vicky and leaned against the driver’s door.

“I’m being picked up. Bosses say you’re good on your own so long as you can drive a car that doesn’t wind up in a tree. But the administration has sent you my info. I’m a call away and a homegrown boy. I know Nashville and environs all the way across the state when necessary. If things should get settled, I could take you to hear some of the top new music in country western, but…”

“If we get through this, I’m coming back to Nashville to take you up on that,” Jude assured him.

“You bet!” Vicky echoed.

Tom Conner pointed for them. “Head straight that way, kind of a given. They’ll have you check your weapons, verify your IDs and badges, and get you on through. What you’re expecting, though… Well, good luck with whatever! The cartel scares the hell out of even the cartel!”

“Right. But then again, how can a death threat be scarier than the certainty of death?” Jude asked.

“Unless you have a wife or kids,” Vicky reminded him.

“Okay, good point,” Jude agreed. “But—”

“Victor Rodriguez isn’t married anymore. His wife is already dead. They’d only been married about a year. She was just twenty-four. The couple had no children,” Conner told them. “I guess they never really got the chance to have a family. Well, I hope you get somewhere we haven’t managed to get!”

He waved and left them. Jude looked at Vicky.

“Ready?”

“Let’s do this,” she said. “I’m not at all sure, but…”

“Do you think she was cheating?”

Vicky hesitated and shook her head. “No idea whatsoever. But…wow. That was a violent death. One would think…”

“Yeah?”

“Well, we’ve had files on these people. The younger Rodriguez—hey, he never even got a parking ticket. And along with his dad, he was obviously on the DEA’s radar. No record. On paper…he just looks like any other kid who majored in business, met a girl, fell in love, got married. I don’t know. You do have crazy hunches, but…” She broke off, shrugging.

“Carlos Rodriguez is not just old-school—he’s cartel old-school. Drug lord. Rich man, smart as a whip, knows how to keep his hands clean, but…from what I’ve read, there seemed to be a lot of corpses falling around him. He always had an alibi, but…”

“No way out of the fact he’s a violent man,” Vicky agreed. “We’re here, so…”

Jude didn’t understand what he was hoping for. It was unlikely this man would rat out his father, especially since he’d been found with the knife that had killed the two women, covered in their blood. But…

“Nothing gained if nothing tried,” he murmured.

Of course, the authorities knew they were coming; it was quick business to show their badges and IDs and turn in their weapons.

Aidan had evidently spoken with Assistant Director Arnold who had in turn spoken with his bosses. And it seemed true this case was uppermost among cases in the country, even if it seemed that they were the ones working in the field. Alone.

But it was a cyber case.

And Jude knew the “cyber” portion was being investigated nonstop.

They arrived in the interrogation room. Through the window, Jude could see Victor Rodriguez was already there with his handcuffs attached to a bar on the table.

A quiet, somber, and courteous guard waited at the door and opened it with a nod and allowed them entry. They took the chairs opposite the table from Rodriguez, studying him as he studied them.

He was young, mid-twenties. A handsome young man with dark hair and eyes, and a good face. Among young women, he probably did quite well.

But he’d had a wife, a beautiful wife , Jude thought to himself. Had he loved her? Had the machismo thing in him raged with such a fury that he’d really cut her to ribbons?

Or…

“Mr. Rodriguez,” Vicky said. “I’m Special Agent Tennant, but you can call me Vicky. And this is my partner, Special Agent Mackenzie, but you can call him Jude. Thank you for seeing us.”

The man grinned. “Yeah, you know, it wasn’t easy fitting you into my calendar here, but… Okay, it’s boring as all hell, so… Well, you know. Why not talk to you?”

Vicky smiled graciously at him. “Well, I’m certainly glad we could break up your boredom.”

He shrugged. “Right. Except… I don’t see what you’re going to get out of me. I thought you were with some kind of innocence project. I admitted I was guilty.”

“Did you love you wife, Mr. Rodriguez?” Vicky asked.

He lowered his head.

Yes, he had loved her , Jude thought.

“You were born in this country, weren’t you?” Jude asked him.

“Yes, I loved my wife. Yes, I was born in this country. Grew up with great country music, beautiful little farm with horses and dairy cows…all that good stuff. No excuse for what I did except…well, I was in pain. She cheated on me!”

“You caught her cheating?” Vicky asked.

He leaned back in his chair with eyes lowered again. “I… Well, you know. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And my dad’s friend, Mark Mason, heard about Peggy being with Tony Alvarez and he told my dad so that my dad could tell me and…”

“Let’s see. Before that, you’d never even gotten into a bar fight,” Vicky said.

“Matters of the heart,” Rodriguez said.

He wouldn’t look at them. Vicky glanced at Jude and he almost smiled; she believed him. It was the older Rodriguez who had done the killing. For his son’s honor.

But the son, either through respect or coercion or even fear, hadn’t been about to let the blame be placed on his father.

“You loved this woman, but she cheated on you. And loving her, you still dismembered her bit by bit until she bled to death?” Vicky whispered. “And then her sister.”

He shook his head suddenly. “Ada just happened to be there. And, um, I guess, I mean, she would have known what Peggy was doing, and Ada…” He broke off, shaking his head. “What does it matter? It was horrible. I did it.”

Jude nodded slowly and then leaned forward, causing the man to look up. “I don’t think that’s true at all. First, you didn’t know for certain your wife was cheating on you. And the whole thing of being a man, a true chauvinist… Your father might have seen it somewhere else, in his sphere of people in his old country, but this is Tennessee, the old USA. We have our problems. But the marital kind, those end with divorce most of the time. You didn’t kill your wife. You walked in when it was all over. You saw her and the blood was all over you because you had to hold her, had to caress her torso, maybe, whatever was left, touch her face—because you did love her. You couldn’t believe what you were seeing.”

“No, no, I had the knife on me,” he protested, shaking his head.

“Because you picked it up from where it was lying by the body,” Jude said quietly.

“And you knew the cops were there. And by some old country ways, your father did what he did because he didn’t think you had the balls to do it, but it needed to be done,” Vicky said. “And you believed he could get you out of all this, but you had no power to get him out of it. Also, you figured that pretending you did the crime would restore some of your honor—come on, seriously! By the old ways, she deserved what she got. Women don’t cheat on men. Makes the guy a cuckhold, a fool. You don’t really have a violent bone in your body but taking care of business was expected of you. Except something went really wrong. The judge sentenced you to death. And even with that judge dead now, you’re still sentenced to death, and it doesn’t look like the appeals are going well. You may spend some time on death row, but then… Well, who knows what it will be then. Not all lethal injections have been all that humane lately…pity!” she finished, looking at Jude.

“And you’re what, twenty-seven, I believe,” Jude said. “While your dad… I hear he’s in his seventies, you were kind of a later-in-life kid for him, but…”

“He thinks you’re expendable?” Vicky asked softly, as if she was completely confused by such a possibility. “Well, there are people like that, though it’s rare. Human instinct is to protect our offspring! I mean, I’d die before I’d see something horrible happen to a child of mine, and that isn’t just me. That’s being a human being!”

Her words were passionate, ringing with emotion. The expression on her face was so sincere. For a moment Victor Rodriguez looked up at her, and he saw her face, heard her voice…

“You don’t understand!” he cried. “I wasn’t being a man!”

“So, your father thought he had to be a man for you. But Victor, being a man means you also stand up for your actions. Your father killed those women, and he left you holding the guilt for it—”

“Because I should have done something, I should have taken care of it!” Victor cried.

Jude leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest.

“No, Victor. You’re an American. First, we don’t presume people are guilty. When we have a case of someone said something, we investigate. Remember? Innocent until proven guilty. You loved your wife. You had no proof she was being unfaithful. Your father killed her. And you’re sitting on death row,” he reminded him.

Victor shook his head. When he looked up, his eyes were damp. Jude was pretty sure it was because he had loved his wife—but he’d been given such strict machismo training he felt guilty for having loved her, for having wanted to give her a chance. He might have grown up to be a good and decent human being—had he ever been given the chance.

“You—you don’t understand!” he whispered.

“Oh, no, we understand perfectly. Your father was convinced he knew something—that most likely wasn’t true. And because he’s got an image of who he is in his mind, he decided your beloved wife had to die—in the most torturous, horrendous way possible. And then he put it all on you. That isn’t being a man. As far as your father goes, Victor, that’s taking a cop-out. You didn’t do a damned thing. And here you are—”

“He’s going to get me off death row!” Victor claimed. “He, um…he takes care of things.”

Vicky leaned closer to Victor, speaking gently. “No, Victor, I mean, he may have arranged to kill the judge, but that doesn’t mean anything at all. Yes, the judge is dead. That doesn’t change your sentence—it only means your father committed murder. Even if he didn’t physically kill the man, but rather he arranged for the judge to be killed—murder for hire, murder by machine. Victor, please you must see, none of this means he cares about you. It’s what he has in his own twisted mind along with the belief that anyone who falls in his service doesn’t matter at all—not even his son. Your death sentence still stands. The appeal is going to fall through. And you will rot on death row until your execution. All of this will happen to you just for having the person you loved most in the world taken away from you.”

Victor put his head down and a sob escaped him. “I—I just don’t care if I live or die anymore. She’s gone. And what was done to her… Oh, God, I…”

“Your father apparently knew FBI agents were in town,” Jude told him. “He hired his murder machine people to kill us, too. We managed to escape.”

“But…”

Vicky stood and spoke gently again. “Think about all this, Victor. Please. You somehow grew up to be a good man. There’s no reason for you to be here.”

“I just don’t care…” Victor began.

“But you should. You said you loved her. You still love her. Life isn’t worth living without her. Because of that, don’t you think you owe her justice? That in her name, Victor, you should see to it that more innocent people don’t die?” Jude asked quietly. “Victor, think of what was done to the woman you loved, the woman you held in your arms, the woman with whom you would have had a family one day, her little ones to love and nurture.”

Jude stood next to Vicky. “Just think, Victor. Think about who is owed what. And if you don’t care about yourself anymore, please, think about your beautiful young wife tortured mercilessly and most probably for nothing, and then she was taken from you. We won’t ask anything more of you now. Just please, think about the things we’ve said, and what we’ve talked about.”

Victor winced, looking downward for a minute.

Then he looked up at Jude.

“It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. Everyone knows my father ordered the killing of that judge—it was no accident. Everyone is terrified of my father. No lawyer will stand by me. No one could help me if I wanted to be helped.” He shook his head. “Maybe I’ve been terrified of him, too. Maybe I knew from the beginning I had to ‘man-up’ and take the blame because…”

“You think your father could and would order your death before you ever made it to the death chamber?” Vicky asked quietly.

Victor Rodriguez shrugged. “My mother died of cancer a few years ago. My father didn’t really answer to her when she was alive, but…but it doesn’t matter. She’s gone.”

“Victor, I am so sorry to say this, none of us ever wants to believe such a thing, but in your heart, you know your father is a monster. You even know that he stole the most important thing in the world from you, Peggy’s unconditional love. We will do something,” Vicky said.

“I believe you mean what you’re saying. But don’t you understand? It’s impossible. The world is afraid of my father,” Victor said.

Jude smiled. “Not quite true, Victor. I’m not afraid of your father.”

“And neither am I,” Vicky said resolutely. “He tried to take us out already. He failed. And he brought an army against us, but guess what? We have our own army—we have the Bureau, the DEA, police, Homeland Security… We’re not afraid.”

Jude grinned. “The only thing that scares Vicky is when there might be an injustice—and that just puts her in fighting mode!”

“Just don’t fight to the death!” Victor pleaded in a whisper.

“Oh, we might,” Vicky said. “But it won’t be our deaths, I promise you that! Thank you. I’m not sure you intended to be honest with us, but…you may have saved a lot of lives today!”

“From death row,” he murmured.

“And that might change, too,” Jude told him.

“I’d still be on death row the rest of my life,” Victor said.

“WITSEC,” Vicky said.

“Witness protection,” Jude explained when Victor appeared to be confused by her words. “A brand-new identity that no one knows in a place where no one could ever find you. Look, we’re law enforcement. We don’t go after people to kill them. We go after them to arrest them and bring them to justice. And I know you think you’d be a target as long as your father lived. But trust me, a man like your father would be in solitary confinement, no access to corruptible people or computers. He can be stopped, Victor. And you can have a brand-new life as a brand-new human being.”

“The good one you were meant to be,” Vicky said softly.

Jude wasn’t sure they had convinced the man as they said their goodbyes and left, but he was certain they had him thinking.

And he was also damned glad his hunch had paid off.

They retrieved their service weapons and left the prison. In the car, Vicky turned to him shaking her head.

“I can hardly believe this!” she said.

“That Carlos Rodriguez killed Peggy and her sister and not Victor?”

She laughed. “No! That another one of your hunches proved to be correct! What? Do you read minds or something? Sound waves, airwaves?”

He grinned, looking at the road. “No… I’ve just come across men like Carlos Rodriguez before. And they’re not… I don’t know, normal human beings? I mean, it is human instinct to protect one’s offspring. But not with a man like Carlos. That a woman just may have stepped out on his son… Carlos couldn’t abide such an idea and he wouldn’t have needed proof—just the suggestion. I wasn’t sure about Victor, but now…”

“He could have led a normal life. Or something like a crime-free life, anyway,” Vicky said. “So. Now we have this information. Still…what the hell do we do with it? We have no evidence, nothing legal to stand on…”

“Ah, well, pretty girl,” he teased, “that’s where you come in. It’s almost time for you to go flirt with the old dad at his favorite bar!”

“And that could be almost worthless, too,” she murmured.

“You underestimate yourself,” he said. He realized he was being truthful. Vicky was more than just a beautiful woman. She had an air about her… Professionalism, yes. But humor, too, and a smile that could charm…

“The man would need to be an ice cube not to fall for you,” he said. “You’re going to do just fine.”

She looked over at him, arching a curious brow, and offering him a smile. “Thanks… I think! Well we have one thing going for us,” she told him.

“What’s that?”

“In this car, we have a real chance of getting where we’re going!” she said. “But…hmm, I should have changed for the evening. But since our overnight go-bags blew up with the car…”

“I told you. You’re gorgeous, you look great.”

He smiled as she leaned back and said softly, “Thanks for the vote of confidence!”

“Oh, and you can be confident, too. Trust me,” he assured her. “I will be close.”

“But I do sincerely doubt the man is going to fall head over heels for me and admit to killing his daughter-in-law and allowing his not manly-enough-for-his-taste son take the blame.”

“Wires and earpieces,” Jude said. “Again, remember, I will be right there. I think you just need to get him talking about relationships between men and women, the role of women in the world, how a man takes care of himself and his family and demands respect and…”

She laughed. “Maybe you should do the flirting!” She grew serious, then. “Jude, this is a man who diced two women into a dozen body parts. And you think he’d also hire someone to cause cars to go off the road?”

“Yes. The first one was personal. In his eyes, she made his son look unmanly.”

“Do you think the poor woman ever really did anything wrong?”

He shook his head. “To someone like Carlos Rodriguez, appearances matter. I don’t know what I think. I never knew Peggy Rodriguez, and we certainly can’t track down her movements now. And yes, I think Carlos Rodriguez was quite capable of doing his own dirty work. But when he killed Peggy and her sister, he knew Victor would have to ‘man up’ and take the rap. I don’t know why, but I don’t think he ever expected his son would get the death penalty. Will he let him die to save his own butt? Oh, you bet. But in his warped mind, the judge needed to pay as well. And if there was a car accident, well how the hell does anyone prove he hired the kill?”

“I understand, and you have a good point…and how the hell do we prove it now? I know cybercrimes techs have been searching, and the man’s money is all in offshore accounts. They haven’t been able to trace anything, so…”

“You never know what he’ll tell a beautiful woman he’s happy to seduce.”

“One he tried to kill.”

“But he never saw us. He just knew agents were here, and he knew what we were driving. He has no idea what we look like. And again, if it looks as if he’s about to harm a single hair on your head, you know I’ll be there!” Jude assured her.

“You’ll have my back. I have faith,” she said.

“I swear it,” he assured her, adding solemnly, “On my life!”