Cold Spite (Cold Justice: Most Wanted #5)

Chapter 37

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

D elilah was working her way through the visitor log. Kevin Holtz appeared to visit every time he was on the West Coast. Mark Johnson had gone almost weekly when he wasn’t deployed.

Delilah’s brows raised at that. The guy visited more often than Scanlon’s own family, although making the trip from Louisiana couldn’t have been easy. Perhaps Joseph should have thought about that before he started his side hustle for the cartel.

She came across images of women. More than she could have ever imagined. Were they personal friends or groupies attracted by the publicity? She printed out their images and basic information.

Nicole and the kid never visited.

Her lawyer did though, presumably to deliver divorce papers.

Delilah bet that had made him cranky.

She dug her fingers into her scalp. No one jumped out aside from the SEALs. She was going to have to dig deeper into each of the visitors to see if any of them were likely to have assisted Joseph on his murderous quest.

Alerts dinged on one of the monitors like an old-fashioned bicycle bell .

Yael rolled over to the machine and hurriedly opened a feed. “And we have a hit! Across the street from the hotel from an ATM. He’s wearing a ball cap—which I actually added to the possible variables given the ones he and his brother wore earlier—but I’d say there’s a good chance that this is Joseph Scanlon leaving the hotel at 7:04 p.m., Tuesday night.”

So he could have made it to the East Coast in time to try to kill Demarco.

Delilah stared at the image. As much as she wanted to get excited, the picture was grainy and indistinct. “It looks like him, but I’m not sure it would pass for an ID in court. Can we clean it up?”

“It’s never going to be great quality,” Yael warned.

Delilah considered. Right now, it proved nothing. The guy could argue he just went out to dinner or for a walk around the neighborhood. “Can we see if there was any activity in the room? Room service order being placed? Calls received? Movies rented? Anything that puts someone else in the room while this guy is on the street?”

Yael nodded, but Delilah wasn’t finished. “And can we follow this individual and see where he goes? We might get lucky. Presumably, if it’s Joseph, he’s headed to SeaTac.”

Twin creases scored the skin between Yael’s eyes. “We can. None of the other facial rec programs have had any hits in SeaTac though, except for the recorded flights we know he was booked on, to and from New Orleans.”

“Could he have used prosthetics? A disguise? Facial recognition tricking clothes?”

Yael watched her patiently until she ran out of steam. “Yes, to all of those things. And if he changes disguises again before catching a flight then we might lose him completely. Or he could drive to a different airport and fly from there.”

Delilah wanted to bitch and moan with frustration, but it wasn’t Yael’s fault. Yael wasn’t her technician, and she was doing a hell of a job, a job that would normally take a lot longer. Delilah scrubbed her face. “I’m sorry for pushing so hard.”

Yael gave a soft smile. “Trust me, I’ve worked with the FBI before—where do you think I met Shane?”

Frustration had her clenching her jaw. “I worry he’s out there planning to hurt others.” While her friends lay dead in the San Diego morgue.

Yael reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll get him.”

“I’m worried about his ex-wife,” she confessed. “I think he’ll go after her next. I mean she hated me before the trial and spouted all sorts of lies about me entrapping her husband. But she changed her tune as soon as the videos were shown in court, and she began divorce proceedings the moment Joseph was found guilty.”

“She ever apologize to you?”

Delilah snorted. “No.”

“But you care about her wellbeing.”

Delilah shrugged. “It’s my job.”

“That’s not why you care about her.” Yael leaned back in that fancy chair of hers and quirked a shy grin. “You’re a good person, Special Agent Delilah Quinn.”

The comment hit her unexpectedly and made emotion lodge in her throat. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m a good agent.”

“That too.”

“I hate being side-lined,” she grumbled.

“Hey, this isn’t sidelined.” Yael raised her arms and indicated the many monitors. “This is the cutting edge of the investigation.”

“I wish I knew what was going on with the task force.”

“We could hack into the task force database if it makes you feel better.”

Delilah’s mouth dropped open. “You couldn’t.”

Yael’s blinked innocently. “I’m literally paid to try.”

Delilah clenched her fists. “You might get away with it, but somehow, I think if we were caught, I’d be off the case and out of a job before I could blink.” The temptation was there though. She liked to have all the information. She was used to being in charge.

She was also part of a large organization she believed in. One she trusted would keep working to get to the bottom of what had happened. But the wheels of justice ground excruciatingly slowly and Delilah was impatient to catch this sonofabitch.

She wanted her life back.

She wanted her friends avenged.

Most of all she wanted the danger that Scanlon represented back behind bars where he deserved to be. Where he couldn’t hurt anyone else.