been met with a resounding no as her answer.” Chief Kelly’s eyes were cold.
“Why?” Conner looked down at the blacked-out file again. Something was not right in this situation. Not that Conner believed in any of the hocus-pocus junk that surrounded the Bloodhound’s reputation. In Conner’s opinion cases were solved by hard work and sometimes a little bit of luck, not by superpowers.
“She says she’s...not interested in renewing her working agreement with the FBI.”
Both Conner and Seth caught the slight hesitation in the chief’s statement, but neither said anything.
“Ms. Jeffries has been more interested in maintaining her horse ranch near Lodi.”
She was much closer than Conner anticipated. Lodi was only about two hours east of San Francisco. Quite a few vineyards out there and farms, too. And a whole lot of empty space. Definitely a good place for a horse ranch.
“What makes you think she’ll be interested in helping us now, if she hasn’t been willing to help before?” Conner asked. Obviously the woman was pretty cold, if she was as good as they said she was, but refused to help. Another reason not to waste time on her in Conner’s opinion.
“Her circumstances have changed in the past year.”
“Does she need money?” Seth asked. Being broke caused many a change of heart.
“No. She hired a convicted felon as her ranch manager almost a year ago.”
Conner leaned back in his chair, confused. “Are they doing something illegal?”
“No, nothing like that,” the chief said. “Her ranch manager, Rick Vincent, was convicted in the mid-1970s for breaking and entering. Did three years, was released. Everything was fine. But he missed his last parole hearing for whatever reason. Warrant’s been out for him since ’79.”
Conner frowned. “Sorry, Chief, but I don’t understand what this has to do with anything. If Vincent hasn’t been arrested since that incident in the ’70s, never had any run-ins with the law at all since then, it doesn’t seem like he would pose much threat to Ms. Jeffries now.”
The chief tilted his head. “No, we’re not worried about him being a threat to her. Reports indicate they are actually pretty friendly with each other.”
Conner frowned over at Seth. Reports indicate? What was going on here?
Seth shrugged, obviously as confused as Conner.
“Reports, sir?” Conner asked. “Has she been under surveillance?”
“Not surveillance, exactly. Just attempts on our part, from time to time, to get her to return and provide profiling assistance.” The chief looked down at his desk and began reorganizing papers, obviously not wanting to provide too much information about the reports or meetings with Ms. Jeffries.
It was damn strange, if anyone asked Conner. He waited for the chief to get to the point he was so long in coming to.
Chief Kelly finally looked up from his desk. “I want you to go out to Adrienne Jeffries’s horse ranch and ask for her help with the case. And if she says no, then I want you to use the arrest of Rick Vincent as a threat to get her cooperation.”
It was all Conner could do to keep from jumping out of his chair. He heard Seth make some sort of incredulous sound next to him. “What? Chief, that’s pretty much blackmail.”
The chief’s eyes narrowed. “No, Perigo. It’s doing your job. She has a criminal on her property, and you need to bring him in.”
“A nonviolent criminal with a B&E rap from more than thirty years ago. No law enforcement agency would waste the gas out to Lodi to pick up Vincent!” Seth exclaimed. He didn’t like this any more than Conner.
“Rick Vincent is not the primary objective here, obviously. Adrienne Jeffries’s cooperation is.”
“Chief...” Conner’s cajoling tone was cut off before he could get a second word out.
“Perigo, I get it. You don’t like the tactics. Fine, they’re not my favorite, either. But how many more women are you willing to let die, when we have a known tool at our disposal? A tool proven to get results?”
Conner sat in silence. He didn’t agree with Chief Kelly’s orders. Hell, he didn’t even believe Adrienne Jeffries could possibly be as useful as everyone said. But regardless, if it meant catching Simon Says and saving even one woman’s life, he was willing to try.
“All right, Chief. We’ll go see her tomorrow morning.”
* * *
A FEW HOURS later, long after the office began emptying and most of the other agents were gone, Conner and Seth sat at their desks. Conner reached into his bottom drawer and pulled out a toy baseball made of a foamy material. He leaned back in his chair and put his feet on the desk, tossing the ball up in the air and catching it on its way back down. Seth saw him and leaned back in his own chair.
They had spent every moment since leaving Chief Kelly’s office going back over the details of the Simon Says case. They had read through the testimony of local law enforcement again, pored over the lives of the victims to see if they could find any commonalities once more, reviewed crime scene video footage and photos additionally, as well.
It had led to nothing.
Conner had hoped to find something—anything—that would keep them from having to bring in Adrienne Jeffries tomorrow. He wasn’t interested in her help, and he wasn’t comfortable with the means they were using to get it.
Conner tossed the ball over to Seth. “This whole Adrienne Jeffries thing just doesn’t feel right, if you ask me.”
Seth caught the ball easily. “Chief Kelly seems legitimately convinced that she can help us.”
“Yeah.”
“But you don’t think so.”
“I think this is a waste of time. I think this lady was probably hot back in the day, and maybe she and Kelly had a relationship or something.”
“You think she snowed him.” Seth tossed the ball back.
“Look, I’m really not trying to talk bad about anybody, but I don’t believe in mind reading or telepathy or superheroes to solve cases.”
And dragging some middle-aged woman from her horse farm in the middle of Nowhere, California, into a case of this magnitude was not Conner’s idea of good situational management. Conner threw the ball to Seth.
“You know, there have been documented cases of nontraditional methods actually working.”
Conner dragged a hand through his black hair making it even more scruffy-looking than usual. “I don’t even want to hear it, Harrington. I’m pissed. I’m pissed that we’re wasting time going all the way out there.”
“As opposed to doing what?” Seth interjected. “Sitting around the office waiting for the perp to drop off another package?”
Conner
