“I’m sure he is, but I don’t believe it’s a tractor.”
“What do you think it is?”
“I don’t know.” She listened as the audio loop continued to play on her laptop. “But most tractors have an edgier, harsher sound. Tell your sound guy what I told you about the voice being a woman’s. Tell him to raise the pitch and give it another listen.”
“Sure. But in the meantime, we’re sending agents to every farm in a hundred-mile radius.”
She sighed. “You may be wasting your resources.”
For the first time, she heard him speak in an annoyed tone. “Until I get something more concrete from you, this is how we’re playing it, Kendra.”
“Understood. Did your techs get anything else off that recording?”
“Not really.” His tone softened, as if he’d suddenly become aware of his harshness. “They didn’t even pick up on it being a woman, so thanks for that. We sent a copy off to Washington, so they may have something for us.”
“Good. Thanks, Kelland. I’ll see you in the morning.” She turned back to Lynch. “He’s very stubborn.”
“Amazing. Know anyone else like that?”
“Shut up.” She was frowning. “And you should go back to bed. You may not usually need to sleep, but you know that doctor said you should get extra rest.”
“Are you going to bed?”
“Not yet. I’m going to see if I can come up with anything else.”
“Then I’ll hang out and keep you company.” He dropped down on the easy chair and draped his legs over the arm. “When you decide to give it up, I’ll go back to bed.”
And he probably thought that would be sooner rather than later since she’d practically ordered him to go back to bed. His eyes were twinkling with mischief. He was naked to below the waist and his feet were also bare as he idly swung one back and forth over the chair arm. He was everything that was teasing and arrogant and sexual at this moment.
But he was not going to get what he wanted this time. “Do what you like.” She started to play the audio again. “If you go to sleep, I’ll cover you with that throw from the couch…”
* * *
8:05 A.M.
“Lynch and I are out of here, Jessie.” Kendra came into her bedroom. “We’re on our way back down to the FBI headquarters.”
“You heard from Kelland?” Jessie sat up straight in bed. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“No, we didn’t hear from Kelland.” She grimaced. “Well, not about the ransom drop. I did talk to him about some work on the audio I did after you came home last night. We agreed that maybe I’d made a little progress on it. Nothing earth shaking. I’ll call after we’re on the road and tell you about it. But Lynch is impatient to get back and make sure nothing goes wrong with the ransom setup this time. He wants to make sure Noah is toeing the line.” She shook her head. “I’ll be doing well if I can keep him from volunteering to do the delivery again. I told him that would be a disaster. He’s the last person those goons want to see again.”
Jessie jumped out of bed. “I’ll be right with you.”
Kendra shook her head. “You only got to sleep a few hours ago. Come a little later. I’ll call and let you know if we hear anything. We spent hours yesterday just waiting around for them to contact us.” She turned to go. “It’s going to be okay to slow down and just think, Jessie, and not let them dangle us like puppets. That’s why I decided to do a little work myself on those audio recordings. I knew it would make me feel as if I had a little control of the situation. I needed that feeling. Lynch has me convinced that today is going to be a good day.”
“Now he’s just got to convince me,” Jessie said wryly.
But Kendra had already left the room.
And there was no way that Jessie could go back to sleep. She waited fifteen minutes and then called Kendra to find out what on earth she’d been talking about regarding the audio work she’d done last night. When she hung up, it was with mixed feelings of admiration and depression. What Kendra had accomplished might not have been world shaking, but it was clever, and she’d gotten farther along than anyone else had with those audio recordings. Give her a little more time and there was no telling what she would put together. Jessie slowly headed for the shower. She was tempted to ignore Kendra’s advice and just follow them to the FBI office; she felt almost compelled to be there, like the puppets Kendra had called them. The only break had been when Jessie had been in the AV lab watching them trying to put together the calls. That had felt different, as if she was close to accomplishing something. Still, she’d really only been an observer while Kendra had changed the dynamic and actually reached out and started to bring the process under control. Now it was clear Jessie wasn’t needed and Kelland, the techs, and Kendra would be able to move forward quite well without her. Which meant sitting around and waiting again. More puppet work.
To hell with that, she told herself impatiently as she jumped out of the shower. As Kendra had said, taking control of the situation was everything. So go down another road and make it her own.
She was reaching for her phone and punching in Colin Parks’s number while she finished drying off. The call went to voicemail, so she dialed again. “Answer me, Parks. I need you, dammit.”
He picked up. “You always knew how to push my buttons, Jessie.” He was clearly smothering a yawn. “How could I resist a message like that? In all these years I don’t remember you ever telling anyone you needed them.”
“Then you should have answered me the first time. Meet me at Dee’s house and bring the video and audio surveillance recordings that you had your guy copy from there.”
Silence. “Copy? I turned over the originals to Kelland the minute the FBI was called into the case.”
“I don’t doubt it. But not before you had them copied so that you could study them yourself. You wouldn’t interfere with the case, but you lost two men that night plus your client. I know you too well. The first thing you’d do would be to go on the hunt yourself.”
“Just as you would.” He paused. “I wouldn’t withhold evidence. I went over those tapes with a fine-tooth comb and there wasn’t anything on the copies that Kelland doesn’t have.”
“Different people sometimes see different things. All I want is to examine the tapes at the sites where they were taken and see if I can notice…” She broke off and then started again, “Look, you want me to say I need your help again? I’ll do it. You have to know after yesterday that things aren’t going well for us.”
“Understatement. I actually felt sorry for Kelland.” He added gloomily, “What am I saying? He’ll at least be able to get a job. I’m not sure I will. My other clients are abandoning me like a sinking ship. They don’t believe I can protect them.” He hesitated and then said gruffly, “Okay. I’ll meet you at Dee’s, but you’re not going to find anything that I didn’t.”
“Thanks, Parks. Twenty minutes.” She cut the connection.
* * *