one of his informants wore a wire to a meeting in the French Quarter. The wire was discovered, and Kaiser burst in to try to prevent his informant from being killed. Kaiser himself was taken hostage, and the detectives barricaded themselves in an apartment on Royal Street. Alex had been doing some extra training in Atlanta at the time, but her rep within the Bureau was at its peak. A Bureau jet flew her to Lakefront Airport, which was right next door to the New Orleans field office, and then she was rushed to the French Quarter in the SAC's personal car. The negotiation lasted just seven hours, but her psychological duel with the sociopathic detectives proved the most grueling of her career. Twice during the ordeal she had believed that Kaiser was about to be executed, and once had even believed him dead. She learned later that one of the detectives had held his weapon to Kaiser's head and discharged it at a slight angle, which resulted in permanent hearing loss in the FBI agent's right ear but preserved his life. Kaiser had overheard the entire negotiation, and he gave Alex sole credit for saving his life. The two detectives were still serving out the sentences that resulted from the deal that ended the incident.
Alex thought of Kaiser, she realized that a digital image had been downloading to her phone. After it finished, she studied the tiny screen with absolute concentration. Though the resolution was poor, the picture showed a nude blond woman standing with her elbows on a balcony rail, while a naked man thrust into her from behind. The woman was unmistakably Thora Shepard. The balcony glinted dull silver, as though made of steel, and its architectural look gave Alex the feeling she was seeing a balcony of the Alluvian Hotel. If a still photo carried this kind of punch, what would watching the video do to Thora's husband?
She took several deep breaths, then called John Kaiser's cell phone.
'Kaiser,' he answered.
'It's Alex Morse, John.'
He didn't respond at first. Then he said, 'I heard what happened this morning. I'm sorry.'
'Not a good day, amigo.'
'Something's fucked up when this kind of thing goes down.'
'I'm afraid you're the only one who thinks so.'
'I doubt that. Do you plan to stop working your case?'
She hesitated. 'Are you going to report anything I say today?'
'You know better than that.'
'I can't stop, John. I know I'm right, and now the doctor who's the next target believes it, too. He started out skeptical, but now he knows. This case is crazy. You wouldn't believe the crime signature. It's a team scenario-a lawyer and a medical professional-and they're killing people by giving them cancer.'
'Cancer,' Kaiser said softly. 'Alex, are you sure?'
She closed her eyes. 'Positive.'
'What's the motive?'
'I think it's mixed between the perpetrators. But at bottom, it's a divorce attorney saving rich clients millions of dollars by killing their spouses.'
There was a long silence. 'What exactly do you want me to do?'
'You're not supposed to do anything.'
Dry laughter came through the ether. 'Let's say I don't know that. What would you want me to do then?'
'Are you in New Orleans now?'
'Drive up to Jackson, Mississippi. I'm on my way there now, nonstop flight. And, no, the Bureau doesn't know.'
'What would we do at this meeting?'
'I want you to meet this doctor. Listen to him, then listen to me. I need your brain, John. Your experience with homicide. It's three hours by car. Please tell me you'll come.'
After a long silence, Kaiser said, 'Where do you want to meet?'
Alex suggested the Cabot Lodge near the University Medical Center. Kaiser said he could make no promises, but that he would try to be there. Then he hung up.
Energized by the prospect of Kaiser's assistance, she started to dial Chris. Then she remembered the balcony photograph. Chris would demand to see the video as soon as he heard of its existence. What would he do after he saw it? Drive to Shane Lansing's office and beat him senseless? Get drunk and simply shut down from despair? She had seen men react both ways, and there was no way to predict the reaction. Of course, she could 'forget' to mention the photo when she asked Chris to meet Kaiser, but she would pay a price for that later. No…she should let Chris deal with the pain now. That way, by the time he got to Jackson, he might be as committed as she to nailing Andrew Rusk and his accomplice. Alex glanced around the cabin again, then speed-dialed Will Kilmer.
CHAPTER 35
Chris and Ben were sitting on the leather couch in Chris's medical office when the cell phone rang. Chris had taken eight hundred milligrams of ibuprofen, and his head was still pounding. Ben's headache was just as bad. Chris was starting to worry about food poisoning, but neither of them had any gastrointestinal symptoms.
'It's that hospital phone,' Ben said. 'Are you going to answer it?'
Truthfully, Chris didn't feel like it. But since there was no way Alex could have landed in Jackson yet, the call had to be important.
'Dr. Shepard,' he answered for Ben's benefit.
'Chris,' said Alex, 'I need to talk to you. Are you alone?'
'Hang on.' He touched Ben on the thigh. 'You lie down here. I'm going to turn off the lights and go in my bathroom to take this call. Okay?'
Ben nodded dispiritedly.
Chris switched off the lights and stepped into his private cubicle. 'Okay, go ahead.'
'Will sent me a digital photograph a few minutes ago. It's a still image captured from a videotape. He's probably e-mailing the video to your address right now. It's not something that you want to see, but you need to see it.'
'What is it?' he asked, fear roiling his gut.
'It was shot last night at the Alluvian Hotel.'
Chris wanted to curse, but Ben would pick up the fury in his voice, even through the door. He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. His eyes looked like those of a stranger. 'Okay, thanks,' he heard himself say. 'I'm going to check my e-mail.'
'Can you stay on the phone while you do it?'
He rubbed the base of his throbbing skull. 'I'd rather not. Is there anything else?'
'Yes. I need you to come to Jackson this afternoon. Tonight at the latest.'
'Why?'
'To meet an FBI agent named John Kaiser. He's going to help us.'
'Who is he?'
'One of the top agents in the Bureau. Kaiser's a specialist in serial murder.'
'Why would he help you? I thought they fired you.'
'They're going to. But Kaiser owes me big. Just watch the video, Chris. After you see that, you're going to want to do something. The best thing you can do is come to Jackson. You owe it to yourself, and to Ben.'
'I can't go anywhere, even if I wanted to. Ben is sick. I had to pick him up from school.'
'What's wrong with him?'
'He's got a headache. A bad one.'
There was a pause. 'You told me earlier that you had a headache, didn't you?'
'Yeah. Since this morning.'
'Huh.'
