Patrick rolled his eyes. “Jeez, you stole my thunder!”
“How was he in law enforcement if he’s an offender?”
“First, you’re only partly right. He was an offender, but not a sex offender that we could find at any rate. He was suspected of domestic violence. His wife finally left him after eight visits to the emergency room in three years.”
“How did he get to be a cop?”
“She never filed charges. She never named him. He’d been a cop at the time, in Austin. He had friends, and they helped move him over to Beaumont and into corrections. His wife changed her name and is living in another state.”
“And you think that Paxton knew about this?”
“I don’t know how Paxton knows half the stuff he knows—even when he was running the vigilante group in D.C., I didn’t know how he got all his information.”
“Key people in key positions,” Lucy said.
“Or Sheffield found out.”
“Sheffield sees the worst in people, but would expect the best in his colleagues,” Lucy said. “Or he was working with his girlfriend Erica and Hunt’s people said someone needed to die. So he found the corrupt cop to kill in the process, a win-win.”
“Maybe. Or maybe Paxton has something on him. At any rate, I think Dobleman was a sacrifice, and stating that Sean killed him puts a target on Sean’s back,” Kate said.
“I need to call Dillon,” Lucy said. “Thompson wouldn’t talk, but it was clear from how he responded that he’s working for Paxton.”
“Do you have anything solid?” Kate asked.
“No,” Megan said, “but I agree with Lucy. She affected him. He barely spoke, but there was something about his demeanor, and he knew Lucy’s name when we introduced ourselves. What we can’t figure out is why Paxton would work with a scumbag like Hunt, and why he would target Sean. Unless there’s a bigger play here. Maybe he needs Sean’s hacking skills.”
There were other hackers out there, more willing to break the law and work for someone like Paxton.
Kate pulled out her cell phone and dialed. “Hey, babe, it’s me. I know it’s late … nothing solid, but we’re making progress. Lucy wants to talk things through, can we Skype? Just want to make sure you’re decent.… Okay, great. Love you.” To Lucy she said, “He’s going to his computer. He’ll call when he’s logged in.”
A few minutes later, her computer beeped, and she opened her Skype. “It’s so good to see your face, Dillon,” she said.
Kate, Megan, and Patrick stood behind her. Lucy was getting a bit claustrophobic with everyone closed in on her, but she tried to contain it. Focus on Dillon.
“I’m so sorry you’re going through this.”
“I have no idea why. I need to tell you everything we’ve learned, and I need your help to figure out what Senator Paxton wants.”
“Paxton? Jonathan Paxton?”
Lucy brought her brother, a brilliant forensic psychiatrist, up to speed as quickly as she could. Everything they’d learned, focusing on how they determined that Paxton was involved, Thompson’s silence, and the new information about Dobleman.
“Paxton worked with criminals,” Lucy said, “but he never worked with sex offenders. He would never work with someone like Jimmy Hunt. And for all of Paxton’s flaws, I couldn’t see him condoning killing a prison guard. It’s not in his nature—even though he’s a vigilante, he has a code he lives by. Kate and Patrick ran with that information and learned that the dead prison guard was suspected of domestic violence. We know the other guard, who said Sean killed him, and a guard at juvenile hall when Elise Hunt was there, were lovers. They were clearly working for the Hunt family, though the reasons are a bit sketchy.”
Kate said, “I spoke to Erica Anderson this afternoon. Anderson was dissatisfied with her job, upset that she didn’t have custody of her kids, had just started dating Sheffield, whom she met through an online dating app. She mostly did odd jobs for the Hunts, but she’s the one who planted the gun in Sean’s plane, and she’s already made that statement.”
“So you’re saying Anderson and Sheffield worked together for the Hunts,” Dillon said.
“Yes. Erica alluded to a crime Sheffield may have committed, that the Hunts had something over his head, but refused to give specifics. Houston FBI will continue to work on her.”
Lucy said, “But why frame Sean for murder? When it was Elise Hunt, yes, I believe it. She’s vindictive and unpredictable and Sean was responsible for stealing their drug money and giving