Page 44 of Fatal Mistake
Tara stared down at her fisted hands, but Cal couldn’t tell if she was pondering the woman’s death or his heavy-handedness.
“I’m sorry for blowing up like that,” he said. “But Keeler isn’t the boy you grew up with. He’s a cold-blooded killer now.”
“I know.” Her words whispered out, and Cal had to strain to hear her. “But that doesn’t mean I can accept it.”
Shane eyed Cal. “I don’t agree with Cal’s outburst, but he’s right. Even if it hurts, you have to realize that the boy you grew up with is long gone.”
She nodded and smiled at Shane, a soft smile filled with her thanks for his consideration.
Jealousy, an emotion Cal had rarely felt in his life, settled over him. He would much rather receive her sweet smile than the frustrated look she fired his way most of the time. Not that it was her fault. He was to blame. He couldn’t seem to do the right thing around her and, of course, there would be no thanks for his constant overbearing tactics.
He had to keep his frustrations in check in the future and remember she prized her independence. She didn’t want to be coddled. She wanted to take decisive action. To end this, find Keeler, and return to her normal life. Just as he wanted in his own life, and he respected that about her, liked it even, so why did he keep trying to go against it?
“Hey, Kaci,” Rick said, interrupting Cal’s thoughts. “Any proof that Keeler’s tried to catch a plane out of here?”
Kaci shook her head. “I have the TSA at PDX and surrounding airports on alert. In case they miss him, I also have analysts running footage for as many airports as they can manage.”
“What about rental car companies?” Brynn asked.
“Got that covered, too,” Kaci replied. “Though I doubt he’ll head out on a road trip back to D.C., he could drive to another Oregon airport or one in a nearby state. While my team is trying to track that down, we’re asking for rental records for Toyota Corollas, too, but as you can imagine, we’re getting a lot of blowback about warrants. Max is working that end of things, and hopefully we can get a judge to sign off with our limited information.”
“Fortunately, I didn’t get any grief from the Oregon State Police when I called on Hickson’s rifle,” Rick said. “In fact, we got lucky. They only maintain firearms sales records for a five-year period before destroying them, and the Browning was purchased a month short of five years ago.”
Cal’s hope for a solid lead perked up. “So we have the owner’s name?”
Rick nodded. “I talked to him this afternoon. He didn’t know the rifle was missing. He has a gun cabinet in his garage, and when I called, he discovered the lock was broken. I passed this off to local agents to make a visual confirmation and to keep digging into this guy, but I doubt we’ll find a connection to Keeler.”
“What about the man who reported seeing Keeler at the cabin?” Cal asked. “Anything new on that?”
Rick shook his head. “I personally interviewed him, and Kaci’s team ran a background check. He has no record or affiliation with radical groups. Sheriff Gorton even vouched for the guy. Still, we’ll leave it in the hands of local agents, too, in case we missed anything.”
Cal looked at Shane. “You’ve been working on Hickson’s background. Anything there?”
Shane’s usual good humor vanished. “He’s a Vietnam vet. He holds a number of marksman awards and was decorated for his service, but he came back with issues, as many vets do.”
A murmur of understanding traveled through the team, who’d all served in the military, and Cal added his, too.
“He had a drinking problem that he managed to control until his wife died about five years ago, and he’s been homeless since then. He’s like the guy who reported Keeler, in that he has no affiliations with ISIS, which for a vet isn’t surprising.”
Another buzz of agreement ran through the group. Sure, at first Cal had been angry with Hickson. After all, he’d committed a crime and he had to pay, but if the woman hadn’t enticed a hungry, down-on-his-luck guy with a wad of cash, Hickson would be sitting on the curb instead of heading to prison.
“I hate that a fellow vet will be going away because of Keeler,” Shane said, echoing Cal’s thoughts. “That’s assuming Hickson is on the up and up.”
Tara returned to the corner of the sofa. “Oren is destroying lives left and right.”
“I’m leaning toward believing Hickson,” Kaci said.
“Why’s that?” Cal asked.
“None of his shots came close to hitting us. Or am I the only one who noticed that?” She looked around the group. “It was like he possessed strong enough skills to miss, if that makes sense.”
“Perfect sense. I don’t know why I didn’t catch that,” Rick said. “At some point, odds would say with the number of shots he’d fired off that he’d get lucky and hit one of us. It’s only when you master a weapon that you can miss such a close target on every shot.”
Cal believed they were right, but the only proof was Hickson’s statement, so there was very little they could do to help the guy out. “If it turns out he’s telling the truth, I’ll do everything I can to get his prison time reduced.”
Tara swiveled to look at him and offered a flicker of a smile. Why, he had no idea.
“Since we all think Hickson told us the truth,” Shane said, “we need to talk about the implication of Keeler working with a Muslim woman while also killing women of the same faith.”
