Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,64
in a deep freeze somewhere?”
“I doubt he has too many,” Jaylon said. “I’d think you could only pack one or two adult bodies in a big freezer and neighbors would start to question why you need more than one in your garage if you kept getting them delivered.”
“Unless you had a place meant to store large carcasses,” Carson said.
A sick feeling hit Aaron. “Like an old meat packing plant?”
“Exactly,” the profiler said.
“That’s disturbing,” Brianna whispered, and Aaron wanted to lay reach out to comfort her a little but refrained. If Captain Stedaman thought for one moment he had anything but a professional relationship with her, he’d ban her from being part of the investigation.
“We need to figure out if there are any abandoned plants in the area,” he said instead. “And see if there’s any unusual activity in them.”
“Activity?” Brianna asked.
“Like a sudden uptake of electricity usage.” He picked up his phone again. “That can be something Kirk F can do for us.”
“I thought he was visiting blood donation centers?” Jaylon said.
“He was. Texted me he’d finished and was heading over to the safehouse.”
“Whoa,” Captain Stedman said, holding up his hand. “Who is this Kirk F, what is he doing in this investigation and who authorized a safehouse? Pretty sure I didn’t agree to expanding my budget for any of this.”
Shit. He hadn’t told him about the safehouse or his assistant. Not to mention the added manpower from the Edgars. Time to face the wrath of the Stedaman.
“The safehouse is for my friend Paula, who is ill and needs to be taken care of,” Brianna said, sitting straighter, a bit of her fire back in her eyes. “It belongs to a friend of ours, a former Deputy U.S. Marshal, Frank Castello. We’d intended for it to let her get good care while she recuperates and also a place to keep Stanley safe.” She paused, inhaled, and fixed the captain with piercing determination. “Now that we know she may have been what triggered this nutcase to escalate to showing off his kills and probably came in contact with him, it’s a very good thing that Aaron was steps ahead and secured the safehouse for her protection. Don’t you think?”
Stedaman had the good sense to nod and appear a little contrite. “And this Kirk F?”
Aaron jumped in. “He maintains the safehouse for Castello, who lives in Columbus. Kid’s studying criminology in college and is excellent in procurement—both physical items and intelligence. Pretty good with a computer, too. He’s also on a paid retainer by Castello, so his salary isn’t part of this.”
Stedman nodded. “Good. But who’s going to pay for the extra manpower to guard your witnesses at this safehouse? We’re going to need round the clock protection, so three shifts of patrolmen—”
“Not really, sir.” Might as well fill him in on everyone. “Currently there is a couple of private security personnel living at the safehouse with our witnesses.”
Stedaman let out a few choice curse words. Brianna lifted her brows in surprise at his boss’s creative use of them.
“Private, means expensive, Jeffers.”
“He didn’t hire them,” Brianna said in his defense. “They sort of…volunteered.”
The captain thought about that. “What’s the name of this private security agency that’s willing to just volunteer?”
“The ESI Group,” Brianna answered. “They’re friends of mine.”
“More friends. What’s the ESI stand for?” Stedaman pressed, fixing his intense stare at Aaron.
“Edgars Security and Investigations,” he said.
His boss stood and paced the length of the conference room twice, rubbing the back of his neck as he went. Brianna arched her brows at Aaron as if asking, Is he going to be okay with all this? Aaron just shrugged.
“Let me get this straight,” Stedaman said, finally stopping in front of them. “Without clearing it with me, you got an off-duty FBI profiler,” he pointed at Carson, “to consult on this case. Secured a safehouse for witnesses and live-in private security from a friend. And an all-expense-paid assistant to boot.”
Aaron shrugged. “Pretty much.”
“You do take the old adage, better to ask forgiveness than beg permission to the extreme, Jeffers.” Stedaman turned and studied the white board. “Okay. This guy has an agenda and we probably need all the help we can get to catch him.”
“That was my thoughts,” Aaron said.
His boss cast him a quick warning glance not to push his luck. “I don’t want to get hit by a surprise bill at the end of this, so you give me a head’s up on the cost. If it’s cheaper to use our own