Edge of Mercy (A Kate Reid Novel Book 11), Robin Mahle [freenovel24 .txt] 📗

“And by broadcasting over the scanners that there’s a BOLO out, you think it’ll only amplify the coverage?” Fisher asked.

“It’ll become a national story and I believe he’ll go into hiding,” Kate added.

“That’s where Reid and I differ in opinion,” Bingham said. “This is Sarah Bingham.”

“Well, Bingham, tell me what your thoughts are,” Fisher replied.

“Reid is correct in that the enhanced coverage could force Bishop into hiding. I think by getting the story out there, people will know to be on the lookout for him. We need eyes, Agent Fisher. Everywhere.”

“And what are your thoughts on this, Scarborough? You’re the senior agent. I’d like to know what direction you want the team to take. Bearing in mind you have a lot of resources at your disposal currently.”

“We do. Yes.” Nick cast a glance to Kate. “There is another theory and that is Bishop would likely head to another disaster site.”

“And what if one never develops?” Fisher asked. “He’s already killed a coworker and I’ll bet if we look hard enough, we’ll find that the wrongful death suit will turn out to be a murder. We need to act now.” He paused a moment. “Bingham’s right. Take it to the state police. In the meantime, what do we know about any family he might have? Someone who might help him get from point A to point B?”

“That was our next objective,” Nick added. “We’re on that now.”

“Good. Keep on it. We need all the help we can get to find Bishop.”

“Got it,” Nick said. “We’ll keep in touch.” He ended the call and peered at the others. “There you go.”

“I’ll work with Bingham and the state police,” Palmero said. “We can still get out that BOLO tonight.”

“That’ll leave the rest of us to work on the family members Bishop might turn to.” Nick checked the time. “Palmero, you and Bingham can work with the police, but then I suggest we call it for tonight. It’s late. Too late for us to keep calling around. We’ll meet at 6am tomorrow.”

“Copy that,” Palmero said. “Looks like my field office is footing the bill for a hotel stay. I had my people arrange some rooms at the Doubletree.”

Kate walked into the hotel room with Nick closing the door behind her. She removed her coat and set it on top of her bag. “Glad I brought the overnight bag.”

“You never know where a case will lead.” Nick pulled off his coat and tie and slid off his dress shoes. “You all did good work today.”

“We didn’t get our guy,” Kate said.

“Since when does it ever happen that easily?” He reached inside the bar fridge and grabbed a bottled water. “Palmero will be happy I’m drinking an $8 bottle of water.” He smiled and gulped down most of it.

“Are there any peanuts or candy bars in there?” Kate asked. “Let’s give him a nice, fat bill at the end.” She smiled.

“You haven’t eaten,” he said.

“Neither have you.” She picked up the phone. “How about room service?” A knock sounded on the door. “That was fast. I haven’t even placed the order.”

Nick walked to the door and opened it. “Hey, man. Come in. Kate and I were just about to get room service. You want anything?”

Walsh walked inside. “Actually, I was thinking you two, myself and Duncan should huddle up downstairs at the bar for a few minutes.”

“Sure. Is everything okay?” Nick asked.

“As far as I know. I just think it’d be a good idea to come to a consensus within our team.” He looked at Kate. “You game?”

“Yeah. Of course.” Kate stepped back into her ankle boots and waited for Nick to put on his shoes.

They followed Walsh to the elevator.

“Duncan’s waiting for us already. I told her to get a drink while I fetched you two. She looked like she needed one.”

“I think we could all use one,” Nick said.

Kate shot him a look.

“It was just a joke, Kate,” he replied.

Walsh noted the uncomfortable exchange. “Well, I’m dying for a beer. I see Duncan over there.” He waved.

“I’m sorry—I didn’t…” Kate began.

“Don’t worry about it.” Nick dismissed her and caught up to Duncan. “Hey. Good work today.”

“Thanks.” She sipped on her bottle of beer. “I’m exhausted as hell, Walsh, so I hope you have a good reason for calling this little pow-wow.”

Walsh slipped into the booth while Kate sat next to Duncan.

“I think we need to present a united front,” Walsh said.

Kate’s brow creased. “Isn’t that what we’re doing?”

“Eva, what do you think about Bingham’s suggestion?” Walsh began.

“About the BOLO?” She shrugged. “It’s probably the right call. I mean, Cam agreed. It’s too late to change it, Levi. Palmero and Bingham are already on it.”

“I know,” Walsh added.

“Then what are you getting at?” Nick asked.

“Look, I didn’t want to upstage Palmero. This is still his investigation. And I didn’t want to say anything in front of those guys and not even Fisher until I knew more. Which I do now.”

“What is it?” Kate pressed on.

“I just got off the phone with a guy. I called in a favor and he just got back to me. He’s NSA and I asked him to run facial recognition on passports for any flights departing from the east coast in the past week.”

“That’s a big job,” Kate began. “You think Bishop took off somewhere during this supposed family emergency? The one he told his supervisor about? I thought TSA had been alerted.”

“I think he went somewhere. I asked him to check Bishop’s photo against passports that had been scanned.”

“What did your contact say?” Duncan asked.

“He said Bishop’s passport hadn’t been used in years and nothing came up as far as a driver’s license. So my friend ran the facial recognition software. He picked up a passport photo that was a 95% match to Bishop. There were a few others that weren’t nearly as close, so I said, let’s move on that one. The name on that passport was Eli Parnell.”

“Son of a bitch,” Nick said. “He got