Hard Drivin' Man by TJ Reilly

Author:TJ Reilly [Reilly, TJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

Indianapolis, Indiana

Wednesday

Jack and Athree needed to be on the ground in Indianapolis.

Athree convinced Director Galleran to allow them access to the company jet at Andrews AFB. They chased the setting sun west and had been in the air for less than twenty minutes when the on-board phone buzzed.

“Yes, sir,” Athree said. It was Galleran.

“Glad we decided to have you on the ground there, Devereaux,” Galleran said. “The Vice President decided to meet with the NRA Board in a conference room at the hotel. Keep an eye on him for me, will you?”

“Yes, sir,” Athree answered, but Galleran was already gone.

Athree got up, went to the galley and came back with two Heinekens. He handed one to Jack and moved a few rows behind him. He’d worked with Jack for a long time, and knew Jack liked to be left alone when he was at this stage of an investigation. He was still convinced he’d made the right decision to ask Jack for help. Now he needed to let him work.

Jack had brought his laptop and a briefcase full of paperwork. He’d been over the files numerous times, and his gut told him he was close. He spread everything over the makeshift table and began to read.

They were somewhere over Ohio when he found it in a most unexpected place.

The FBI interviewers included several newspaper articles from the Delaware Times dated ten days after the Virginia Tech incident. A troubled teenager wearing a long black coat had walked into a shopping mall in Dover and opened fire with a Bushmaster assault rifle. He killed four people before putting a pistol to his head and blowing his brains all over the display window at the Gap. The victims included a professor at Virginia Tech and his ten-year-old son. The killings had gone largely unnoticed due to the saturation coverage of the Virginia Tech horror, but the FBI was doing its due diligence with anything related.

The professor, James Baldwin, was on the Virginia Tech campus that day, but had avoided the mayhem and evacuated almost immediately. He didn’t get that lucky ten days later. In eerie similarity to Susan’s death, Baldwin and his son Patrick were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the first two victims. They were gunned down in front of a Foot Locker store where they were going to buy matching tennis shoes. Both were shot multiple times and died instantly.

Jack read the rest of the article, then moved on to the others. There were copies of the Baldwin’s wedding announcement, and the birth notice of their son. He read everything one more time and sat back. There was something he was missing.

It was here. It had to be.

He read the articles again. Slowly.

Then he saw the name.

Maybe it was because he had just heard from Susan’s family, or simply a stroke of luck.

It was in the wedding announcement: Allison Baldwin, nee Baker.

The grieving widow’s maiden name was Baker!

Allison Baker.

The security consultant to Alan Peters.

“Hey, Athree,” Jack shouted to the back of the plane.

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