Ghost Witching by Ally Shields

Author:Ally Shields
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Paranormal Mystery
ISBN: 978-1-944138-61-5
Publisher: Etopia Press
Published: 2016-10-17T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Josh put out a BOLO for Duncan Brice early Wednesday morning, and he and Maggie followed up with numerous calls to local hotels and motels. Despite those efforts, Wednesday and Thursday went by without a single sighting. Sometimes police work required patience, not a commodity in large supply with the media and upper police brass screaming for answers.

As anticipated, the search for the black-robed escapees garnered zero responses from the public. Unless one of the conspirators let a careless word slip, the tip lines—already ringing off the hook with crazies, wild theories, and honest citizens who thought they’d seen something—wouldn’t yield anything until they had better descriptions.

Maggie, Josh, and the other task force members checked on the activities of Fiona Gordon and Marvin Sutter as often as possible given their already busy schedules, while tearing apart the suspects’ backgrounds. Surprisingly, Gordon’s was rather ordinary—middle class upbringing, public school, mid-level supervisor at a local department store—and Sutter’s was sparse, at least prior to his marriage three years ago. He’d grown up in Wyoming, but his name didn’t surface on any pre-marriage public records as an adult—no arrest record, no property or utilities in his name. It was a rare search result, but not necessarily suspicious. There were living arrangements that left little or no paper trail.

Josh and Maggie had settled into a satisfactory working relationship. He came close to bringing up Boston. Several times. He hadn’t handled it right, and he owed her an explanation. But someone was always around, or he and Maggie were focused on the case. He didn’t want to jump in with some half-assed comment and make things worse. So he steered away from the personal…for now. Not to say there weren’t moments of heightened sexual awareness when they brushed against one another or simply got too close. He’d pretended not to notice every time Maggie reacted with a quick move away or intake of breath. But it was a start.

By Friday, leads had grown thin. When Annie unexpectedly called the station mid-morning, Maggie put her on speaker.

“I got him,” Annie said excitedly. “He tried to make another transfer, and I’ve been following his electronic signal as it bounced around the web. Getting his address from his provider was a bit tricky—uh, never mind. You don’t want to hear the details. But the hacker’s right here in New Orleans, using an Internet cafe. Oh, no. No. Hang on…” After those cryptic words, all they heard was the clicking of computer keys.

Maggie frowned at the phone. “Annie? What’s wrong?”

“Which cafe?” Josh demanded. “Maybe we can catch him.”

“Annie?”

“Give me a minute,” Annie said tensely.

They heard more clicking of keys, then Annie swore, which she rarely did.

“Now I know something’s wrong.” Maggie was on the edge of her seat. “Talk to me, girlfriend.”

The clicking stopped. Annie came back on the line, her voice held shocked disbelief. “That prick hacked my firewall. I’ve locked him out again, but it may have been too late. He backtracked on me and pulled several packets.

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