Collateral Damage by Jance J. A

Author:Jance, J. A. [Jance, J. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Suspense, Crime, Adult
ISBN: 9781982189174
Amazon: B09JQ8MKVH
Goodreads: 59364182
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2023-03-14T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 29

THE VILLAGE OF OAK CREEK, ARIZONA

Friday, January 3, 2020, 10:00 a.m. (MST)

Stu Ramey couldn’t remember the last time he had crashed and burned like this. Thursday had been nothing short of brutal. Faced with multiple cyberattacks from around the world and missing several of their key players, High Noon’s home team had managed to hold the line, but it hadn’t been easy. All day long, he’d received updates from Frigg, letting him know that she was still on the job and accumulating information, but there hadn’t been a spare minute for him to go through any of it, and now he was too tired.

As he was crawling into bed in the early hours of the morning, he summoned the AI. “I’m finally off duty,” he told her. “I’ll let you know when I’m available.”

“I hope you have a restful sleep,” she said.

He did, but the moment he stirred and sat up in bed at ten the next morning, a howler alarm sounded from the other room. Obviously Frigg had been monitoring his respiration and knew he was awake. Stu plugged in his earbuds.

“Okay, Frigg,” he said. “You’ve got my attention. What’s going on?”

“A bombing occurred at a private residence in Beaverton, Oregon, earlier this morning.”

“What?” Stu said.

She repeated the same words but they made no sense to him. “Please explain. Who was bombed, and why would it be of any interest to us?”

“The situation would be more understandable if you had read the material I’ve been sending to you,” Frigg said reprovingly.

What wasn’t understandable to Stu Ramey was why he was being bawled out by a computer program first thing in the morning before he’d had a single sip of coffee. He glanced at his watch. He’d told Lance he’d be back at the office by noon, so there wasn’t much time.

“All right,” he consented, “go ahead and start sending. I’ll read what I can before I go to work, but I’m going to need some coffee first.”

The first document Frigg sent was a single sheet with a dozen names listed on it. Of those, Stu recognized two—Hal Holden and Jack Littleton.

“What’s this?” Stu asked.

“It’s the federal prosecutor’s list of proposed witnesses for the 2003 trial of a former Pasadena PD officer, Frank Muñoz. Mr. Muñoz was arrested and sent to prison on a number of federal charges including police corruption, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.”

Stu didn’t want to inquire as to how Frigg had obtained the witness list in the first place. There was no point.

“You already told me Jack Littleton was dead,” he said, “but how did two local homicide cops get mixed up in a federal police corruption case?”

“They were called to investigate the 1997 homicide of Alysha Morgan, an exotic dancer at a Pasadena nightclub called BJ’s, which, at the time, was the subject of an ongoing organized-crime investigation being conducted by the FBI. Another name on the witness list against Mr. Muñoz is that of Danielle Lomax, one of Alysha Morgan’s fellow dancers and the only eyewitness to her murder.

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