Agent Ren Bryce Thriller Series Books 1-3: Blood Runs Cold, Time of Death, Blood Loss

‘Last time I saw him,’ said Mike, ‘he was in the kitchen down the hall.’

‘Thanks, see you later.’

Gressett was on his way out of the kitchen with a coffee.

‘Tiny?’ said Ren.

He stopped, but didn’t turn around. ‘Yes?’

She walked around him to face him. ‘I know you probably didn’t have that kind of relationship with her, and that women can be tricky to read at the best of times, right? But can I ask you about Jean’s personal life?’

Gressett nodded. ‘For what it’s worth.’

‘Did she talk about boyfriends or dating? Did anyone ever come pick her up from work, or meet her for lunch?’

He frowned. ‘Not that I can think of.’

‘She never went to lunch with anyone else?’

‘She ate at the office a lot … or we went together.’

God help her.

‘I don’t know after that,’ said Gressett. ‘She could have. I’ve seen her in Sacred Grounds a couple times with a magazine. It’s a coffee shop in Glenwood.’

‘So, alone?’

He nodded. ‘Yes. Always.’

‘Did she seem interested in dating?’

‘In dating? Well, she kept to herself. Maybe she liked it that way.’

Ren nodded. ‘Did you ever get the feeling, maybe, that …’

‘That what? She didn’t like dating?’

‘Do you think there’s any possibility that Jean could have been gay?’

‘I would say absolutely not.’ He almost recoiled.

You asshole.

‘Nothing wrong with it, if she was,’ said Ren.

He looked at Ren sideways, then tried to recover. ‘I … I know that … It’s just … she wasn’t.’

‘Maybe it was something she kept hidden,’ said Ren. Because of your biased ass. ‘So, just as far as you know, she didn’t go on any dates, that you were aware of, while she worked with you.’

‘Our relationship was strictly professional, if that’s what you mean.’

No, that’s not what I meant, but knock yourself out.

‘So she wouldn’t have talked to you about her personal life?’ said Ren.

‘No. No, she would not.’

‘And to Todd?’

He snorted. ‘Does he look like someone you’d confide in?’

Tiny Gressett, your mask is slipping.

Chapter 19 (#u8bb60e53-87b4-54e1-a600-62c12d8c99b9)

Ren stood at the top of the conference room, waiting for everyone to make their way in. After ten minutes, her patience had taken a turn for the worse.

‘Hi,’ she said. ‘I don’t have time to wait for everyone, so I’m just going to start. Thank you, first of all, for the information that’s been coming through. We have Jean’s phone records from her home and office, so we’ll be working through them to see what we come up with. We have yet to locate the second cellphone.

‘From the detectives here at the Sheriff’s Office, we have a list of people in Breckenridge with priors, and we’re following those up.

‘We got a positive ID from several of the staff members at the Rifle Creek movie theater. And Jean was alone that night.

‘We also found out that she had been to Breckenridge, Wednesday, January third and had shopped at Wardwell’s, an outdoor clothing store on Main Street, owned by Malcolm Wardwell, run by him and his son, Jason. I looked into them both, and it appears Malcolm Wardwell was locked up briefly for child pornography in the seventies. Does anyone from the Sheriff’s Office here have any more details?’

Mike and Bob shook their heads.

‘Has there been any trouble since?’ said Ren.

‘No,’ said Bob. ‘Model citizen …’ He shrugged.

‘And do people know about him?’ said Ren.

‘It’s not like people are stoning the store,’ said Mike. ‘Some of the locals know, but obviously there’s always new people drifting in and out, people moving away. And I think he was living in Frisco at the time, so that bit of distance helped him out.’

‘OK,’ said Ren. ‘Jean was working on some child abuse cases – the most recent in Silverthorne and Dillon. Nothing in Breck, nothing in the last three months, and nothing to do with Wardwell – right?’

‘That’s correct,’ said Gressett.

‘OK,’ said Ren. ‘What we don’t have: there was no cellphone found at the scene. It’s unlikely the unsub left either of them with her, if she was carrying them. And even if he did, the phone was probably lost in the slide. We don’t have Jean’s vehicle – a silver Subaru Forester – but we do have someone who came forward to say, among other things, that he may have seen it in the parking lot at a bar called the Brockton Filly. His name is Salem Swade – a Vietnam vet who lives in an old miner’s cabin up on Quandary.

‘The Brockton Filly is right near the base of Quandary and is run by Jean’s one-three-seven – confidential informant. His name is Billy Waites. Gary Dettling from Safe Streets has more on Waites’ background.’

‘OK,’ said Gary, ‘In the late Nineties, Billy Waites was part of a narcotics operation, run by an ex-Navy Seal, ex-SAS guy, and a German communications expert. And then their distribution network. They were bringing drugs in from Colombia. The drugs would come in on a tugboat to whatever port; the guys who ran the operation would have already rented some luxury home in the area. They’d set up their communications, whatever they needed to do. And they’d go from there.’

‘How were they caught?’ said Cliff.

‘One of the shipments was intercepted by the coastguard and some of the guys turned. They were allowed to complete the drop – this particular time it was in Atlanta. The subordinates were all using throwaway phones so we couldn’t trace them back to anyone. Eventually, OCDEF convinced a judge they had probable cause. They did a Title III, the place was bugged. They had guys sitting on the wires every day who couldn’t get shit. The gang were using codes, talking about their families every couple of minutes – they knew the drill. And that’s where Billy Waites came in. Waites is smart. He was the codes guy. But the code was finally cracked and we were able to take them down. And Waites turned.’