Chapter 17

I lifted the files from the side of the desk and placed the pile to one side, taking off the top one to start reading it.

From the contents it seemed that someone had already done some background research but as I now had the file, I assumed that the FTA hadn't been located. Justin Bancroft was a white, forty nine year old man who had been charged with armed robbery that had resulted in the death of a security guard. He'd pleaded not guilty to the murder of the guard using the excuse that the gun had gone off accidently. Like that was believable. I mean why take a loaded gun if he had no intention of using it. It was now being investigated as to whether or not he was charged with murder or manslaughter.

It wasn't his first rodeo though, which was why the bond was high. Justin had been a thief since he was a teenager, his penchant for more expensive items to steal increasing with the force that he used. I leant back in the chair and propped my feet onto the edge of the desk as I started to read through the reports already put together. He was a local man with no prior employment, so I assumed that he lived off the benefits of being a thief. He'd had numerous addresses that seemed to coincide with when he wasn't in prison and the address given for the bond had a note next to it, occupied.

I went to his background and family next noting that he'd been raised by his mother who had died over five years ago. She'd been ill for a long time, so I wondered how much her son had supported her. No father was recorded and there were no siblings. In fact, there was no family alive in the area which took that line of thought out of the equation. That had me wondering who had put up the bond and what it was. A look at Vinnie's paperwork showed that his mother's house had been used as collateral, which seeing as it was now owned by a young family showed just how gullible Vinnie was. Vinnie should have checked the deeds that he'd been given.

Having read that section I went through the report composed by Rangeman that gave everything they'd collected through talk on the street and bars and apartments that they'd done surveillance on. A lot of man hours had already been put into finding Justin. The financial report showed nothing which meant that he didn't use a bank or cards probably because he dealt in cash only. The only way that he could get cash was by fencing the items that he stole. Maybe that was a place to start, and I knew someone who tended to deal in shady items and used cash as well.

A few minutes later I was on the phone hoping that Dougie might have some worthwhile information.

"Hello"

"Hi Dougie, it's Steph here"

"Stephanie, how goes it? You need some stuff? I got a new delivery in this week"

Trust Dougie to get right to the point of trying to sell me something. Hell, I must have spent a fortune with him with the visits that I'd made over the years.

"No, I'm good, thanks. I was after finding Justin Bancroft"

I went straight for what I needed because Dougie wasn't someone that you could trick. Whether he would know that Justin was FTA was another matter, but it didn't hurt to ask.

"Justin, yeah. You after some jewelry because that was what he was after unloading"

That seemed strange because according to the police report, yes, Justin had broken into a jewelry warehouse but any items that he'd managed to get his hands on before he was caught were with the police as evidence.

"Did you buy it?"

"Hell no. He said he was doing Digger a favor and was asking around for him. I don't touch shit like that. Hell, those items are cursed, no way am I dealing with dead people's stuff. It aint right"

I had to agree with that. I mean anything buried with a person must be extremely important to them. Why Simon Diggory felt that he could just dig up graves and steal those things was as Dougie had said, just not right.

"I agree. Okay Dougie, I'll try and catch up with Digger"

I ended the call thinking through what Dougie had said. I knew that Digger had a penchant for robbing bodies in their graves but had never come across how he sold the stolen items. I just assumed that Digger had his own contacts. So why was Justin trying to sell jewelry to Dougie and using Digger as the excuse?

I went back into the search program and input Simon Diggory into the parameters. I already knew quite a lot about him because he'd been FTA and I'd had to take him in before. He was an intelligent man who supplemented his income by doing peoples tax returns, so the grave robbing was more of a hobby along with his love for his snake. A shiver went down my back at the thought of Ethel, his boa constrictor.

I looked at the end the most recent information that had come through on Digger and was surprised to see that he was now in other accommodation, courtesy of the courts. Simon Diggory was serving time for tax evasion and fraud and wasn't due to be released for another month. So who was looking after Ethel and why was Justin trying to sell jewelry to Dougie with the pretense that it belonged to Digger?

Coincidence or not my spidey senses were telling me that I had just discovered where Justin might be hiding out. I made some notes on a sheet of paper and then placed it inside Justin's file ready to take it to Les. This was something that went totally against the grain for me. Normally when I had an idea like this, I'd go take a look on my own. Maybe I did that because I was working off a hunch, my spidey senses, so didn't have solid evidence. I suppose it was a way of not making a fool out of myself, if I was wrong then there was only me who was going to know about it. I took a deep breath before heading out of the door towards Les's office and noticing his door open knocked before walking in.

"Okay Beautiful?"

I sat down in the chair in front of his desk with the file held tightly to my chest. Okay, this was it, maybe Les would appreciate that I wasn't the person for this job but.

"Steph is there a problem"

I shook my head and was just praying that I wasn't going to make a fool out of myself.

"Justin Bancroft. I think he's staying at Simon Diggory's trailer"

I saw the surprise in Les's face and couldn't blame him really. It was a random thing to say.

"Justin was trying to sell some jewelry to Dougie with the excuse that it belonged to Digger, but Digger's in prison"

I passed the file to Les and watched as he read the paper that I'd written my notes on. I was feeling nervous and was about to get up and just tell Les that me being here was a bad idea when he put the paper down and looked at me. Maybe he would say it first and save me from resigning before I'd even spent a day here.

"I'll go and take a look. I'll organize for another team to approach from the back of the property"

I watched as Les pulled a gun out from his desk and stood up and then pulled on a vest, while at the same time texting on his phone. I wasn't sure if Les was aware of what he might find when he got there so needed to warn him.

"You need to be on the look out for Ethel, Digger's boa constrictor, she's a big snake"

"Good call Beautiful"

Was all that I heard as he walked past me and out of the office. I sat there thinking how much I would have liked to be part of the team that were going out when two things hit me. Les had said that I needed to do some training before I could go out in the field and the second thought was to question whether I was ready to face a man like Justin Bancroft, who would probably be armed. I knew that I wasn't ready to face Ethel after that last time of trying to do a favor for Digger and look after her.

I eventually got up and went back to my office. It had only taken the morning to do the work on Justin and I knew I had four more files to look at. Resigned to doing that I picked up the next file and started to read through it. A shiver went through me when I realized that this wasn't one of Vinnie's files but one from the FBI. The man wasn't FTA, but there was a warrant for his arrest, and it seemed from the paperwork that the FBI had contracted Rangeman to find him. Jeseppi Rodrigo was wanted for the murder of five people, five people that he had shot using a sniper rifle. Reading the details from the FBI they'd focused on Jeseppi because of a link to the victims. Whilst none of the victims had known each other and were from totally different walks of life the FBI profiler had discovered that they'd all known Jeseppi, but not in a good way.

The first victim, a man the same age as Jeseppi, had gone to school with him and from the research that had been done he'd apparently bullied Jeseppi badly making his school life hell. The second victim was slightly older and had married Jeseppi's first love. Here was a man who took a grudge to the extreme. A woman who had accused Jeseppi of assaulting her before she admitted that she may have made a mistake and an elderly man who had evicted Jeseppi and his family from what had become their family home. The latest victim was his old CO in the army who had reported that Jeseppi wasn't fit to continue being a soldier due to mental health issues. That was how Jeseppi was trained as a sniper, but the profiler was sure that an incident on tour had resulted in PTSD and a change in Jeseppi's behavior.

Needless to say, all of the obvious places had been looked at by the FBI and Rangeman, so this was going to be one hell of a challenge. All of the usual bases had been covered and like Justin, Jeseppi wasn't leaving a paper or money trail. So where would you find a sniper? Buying ammo or practicing his shooting? I made a note of the model of the rifle that had been used, the M82A1 known by the US military as the SASR—"Special Applications Scoped Rifle" before having a look at its detail through Google. I discovered that it used Raufoss Mk 211 .50 caliber rounds, whatever that meant, but at least now I had something to follow through with. I only knew of one place to buy ammo from and that was where Ranger had taken me when he first bought me my gun, a compact Smith and Wesson revolver, so that was the phone number that I looked up next. I had no idea where someone would buy such specialized ammo from, so was hoping to find that out.

Twenty minutes later I was making a call to a second possible source for the ammo. I decided that I needed to do some sort of distraction for this, I mean who on earth was going to give out information on a customer unless they had a good reason.

"Afternoon, Garrats Range"

Okay this was it, now to see if I could be persuasive enough.

"Hi, I really need some help and I'm so worried. I had this big fallout with my boyfriend, Jessie, and I really need to find him, to apologize, you know what I mean"

It always amazed me how men could never resist a throaty, tearful voice on the other end of the phone, so I went on with my story.

"He's thirty four and black American and really good to look at. He practices with a M82A1 and when he stormed out, he said he was going to the range"

"Lady, I'm not sure that I should tell you even if he had been here"

Shit, now that sounded as though Jeseppi had been to that range but probably wasn't there now.

"Please, you gotta help. The baby, well it was a shock, and I didn't realize how much Jessie would want to keep it. I need to tell him that I'll marry him, have our baby. Please mister"

I heard a loud long audible sigh from the other end and smiled at how gullible the man was.

"He was here this morning, let me check the sign in book. Yeah, real early, Jessie Hurston, Buckingham Dr, Princeton"

"Oh thank you, thank you"

"Yeah well, you didn't hear that from me, you hear me?"

I didn't get the chance to agree with him before the phone went dead. I supposed that it could have been a coincidence that a man calling himself Jessie had been at the range, it was a popular name. Surely those big shots at the FBI would have picked up on something this simple, wouldn't they? I had a look to find the date when Rangeman had received the file from the FBI surprised that they'd only had it a week. The last shooting had happened nearly three months ago so maybe the FBI had pushed the investigation back for more important cases or Jeseppi had only just started to use that range.

I was back at the computer inputting the name Jessie Hurston into the search program but coming up blank, so went with the surname and the address instead. Hurston, Buckingham Dr, Princeton. The address was registered to a Nigel Hurston as the owner so being ever curious, I wanted to know who this Nigel was. I suppose that I shouldn't have been surprised to discover that Nigel Hurston had been in the army and had been declared as dead. His death was just before Jeseppi Rodrigo had been written up for insubordination. I wondered if Jeseppi had been with Nigel when he had died and if what he experienced had been what culminated in his PTSD. There was no way for me to find that out because I couldn't get access to his military records.

I recorded the details before sitting back in the chair. I was wondering how Les was doing at Diggers and whether my idea for Justin was right. Not been focused on anything was when I realized that I was hungry. With finding that package this morning I knew that I hadn't eaten much of my breakfast so maybe the breakroom might have some sandwiches left. It felt strange that having only worked in the office for a few hours how comfortable I'd found it. Walking out through to the breakroom took a bit of courage but I was pleased that I didn't show myself up and any men that I met seemed to keep their distance from me. The one thing that came to me that did cause me pause for thought was that I hadn't seen Ranger since arriving on five. I didn't expect him to be all over me so I wasn't sure why I was thinking that I would expect to see him.

Fortunately, the breakroom was empty, and the two remaining sandwiches were ones that I would eat. I made a coffee and then leant against the counter wondering what to do next. I needed to get out for a couple of hours, just to give me some breathing space away from a computer. Where to go was the question. I didn't want to visit the bonds office because I didn't want to get involved with an argument with Vinnie. My parents were out because I was never going to be visiting them again. I'd already visited Mary Lou and had no desire for a shopping trip. My apartment was out for the obvious reason that I could have someone looking for me and it was somewhere Joe might go. If I wasn't going to be leaving the building, then I needed to do something that at least got me away from a computer. I wasn't in the frame of mind to go upstairs and try to put in time, but I remembered that I needed to report my gun as missing. Tidying up after eating I grabbed my bag from the floor deciding that I knew just the person who would help me to report my stolen gun.

That was when it hit me. My bag. I'd never given it any thought when I'd found it at Joe's. It was where it should have been, with me. But it shouldn't have been. That bag had been left behind at the bank, along with my jacket, before I'd been taken outside. So how did it end up at Joe's house when my jacket had been returned recently by Eddie? I wasn't sure what that meant. Had Joe taken my bag from the station and brought it to his house? Then why not bring my jacket as well?

As I took the elevator, I opened my bag and checked through what was inside. Okay, my wallet was there and the spare makeup that I kept for emergencies. A couple of pens, which on looking at one of them could well have been one that Ranger had dropped into my bag an age ago. Yeah, he had a habit of hiding trackers in my bag and on my car. I wondered if it would be possible to find my car. What was missing were my apartment keys, now that definitely had me frowning because I knew that I'd put them into my bag before my visit to the bank.

I ended up on the third floor because I knew that was where Hector had his office. I'd never been down here before and passing unmarked doors began to think that this was a bad idea. That a door opened ahead of me, and I saw Hector stood in the doorway probably shouldn't have surprised me. I was pretty sure that he'd have views from the cameras that were scattered around the building in his office so would have seen me coming. As he stepped back, I walked into a room that was definitely his domain. It was full of banks of computers, all softly humming, and several screens stacked on a wall showing scenes inside and outside of Rangeman, including the corridor that I'd just walked down.

I took the seat that he pulled out and sat on the edge wondering why I'd come to Hector and not spoken to Ranger. I was biting my lip as the uncertainty of my decision went through me.

"Estefania. What is worrying you?"

I looked up to see Hector watching me and knew that he would be someone that I could trust.

"The fob that Ranger gave to me, to get into the building and up to his apartment, I don't know where it is. It was with my apartment keys that were in my bag but they're missing"

He shrugged his shoulders and turned toward a computer where he started to hit the keys on a keyboard.

"It isn't registering so maybe it's been destroyed. I've removed it from the system, so no worries and I'll give you a new one"

Wow, that was easily sorted which made me feel easier that no one could use it to get inside Rangeman.

"What else?"

Was I that transparent? I felt a tear run down my cheek because I felt so stupid that my gun was missing. Okay, I know that I didn't use it because it scared me to death that I might end up shooting someone.

"I don't know where my gun is"

That had Hector sitting back as though thinking through how to respond to me. Would he be annoyed with me for being so blasé with where I had kept it?

"When did you last see it and where was it?"

"After the incident with Joe in my apartment I started to carry it with me and then at night I'd hide it under my pillow. It was under my pillow because I knew that I couldn't take it into the bank"

That had both of Hector's eyebrows going up in surprise which made me realize that keeping it there had not been the best place for it. I knew that Ranger always locked his guns away when he wasn't wearing them, so why hadn't I done the same thing? Because I felt safer with it close to me at night.

"Ranger and I looked for it last night but we couldn't find it and the box of bullets that were in my cookie jar were missing as well"

Okay I know it sounded a tad confusing as I said it but fortunately for me Hector didn't sound phased by what I'd said.

"We need to report it as stolen"

Les had said the same thing but for some reason that was worrying me. What if it turned up somewhere and someone used it?

"No worries. I complete paperwork and insert it into system, as though someone misfiled it. I have the serial number and will add what you've just told me along with a timeline for when the apartment was empty"

I'm sure that I raised my eyebrows just thinking that Hector could do that and that he'd do that for me. I wiped my cheek before moving forward toward Hector and as had become my habit with him kissed his cheek over the tear drop tattoo, saying gracious mi amigo.

"Now go, Santos has just returned so maybe he has news for you"

"How do you know that?"

I asked puzzled as to why Hector would know what Les had been up to.

"I monitor comms links when teams out in field"

A wink had me curious, but I knew that he wasn't going to tell me anything. I was keen to find Les and find out what had happened so was soon in the elevator going up to five. As I waited for the elevator doors to open, I was feeling nervous wondering if I'd made a total mistake in where I'd sent Les and the guys and hoping that they hadn't had to deal with Ethel. As the doors slid open, I could hear the talking on the corridor so waited just outside the elevator to catch a glimpse of Les. He was with three other men by the monitors, but I couldn't hear what was being said. As soon as Les saw me he walked toward me with a big grin on his face.

"Beautiful, you were spot on. Justin Bancroft was exactly where you said he'd be. It was one of the easiest captures that we've ever done. The stupid man was cornered by that snake in Digger's trailer. Hell, he was pleading for us to get him out of there"

I was smiling back at Les, so pleased that my work had paid off and Justin had been there.

"How did you deal with Ethel?"

Because that would have stopped me from even going inside the trailer.

"Woody, he's used to dealing with snakes, so he took some raw meat and enticed her into a large bag. She's with animal rescue now"

I felt Ranger behind me so was prepared for him to come up beside me before he placed his arm around my shoulder.

"A good day's work then Santos?"

"Sure was. See, I told you that you'd be good at finding skips for us"

I felt my face warm up with the compliment because I wasn't used to hearing someone praise me like that. It also had me remembering what I'd found out about Jeseppi Rodrigo.

"Les. I maybe have a lead on that other man, Jeseppi Rodrigo"

I felt Ranger squeeze my shoulder and could swear that Les was frowning at me, was that because he didn't believe me?

"Show me what you've got Beautiful"

So that was what I did. Les read through the report that I'd written giving my reasons for determining that the address was worth looking at.

"We'll need to do some surveillance first to be sure that he's inside the house and alone, before we plan out how to take him and be very well prepared. He's likely to start shooting at us if he sees us"

I'd never really considered how you went about capturing a man like that, a man who had intentionally shot five innocent people. I hoped that there was no one else in the house that he could use or who he might just kill because he felt trapped.

"I'll let you know how we do"

Was Les's way of saying that he'd take charge now and set up the teams. I suppose that was what the men were trained to do but it didn't make me feel any less worried that one of them might get hurt. If Jeseppi noticed them outside, he could easily use his rifle and start shooting at them.

It was too late to do any more work on the rest of the files, so I needed to work up the courage to go upstairs to Ranger's apartment. I'd just locked the files in the filing cabinet and put the key in the top drawer of the desk when I became aware of Ranger stood in the doorway leant against the doorframe. The way that he was looking at me was intense which had me looking away, pretending to rearrange things in the drawer. When I looked back up, he was still watching me.

"What?"

Thinking that maybe something was wrong. Instead of answering me he walked toward me and taking my hand pulled me into his chest, wrapping his arms around me.

"I missed you today but wanted to give you some space. I'm really proud of what you accomplished Babe"

I took a deep breath, inhaling the smell that was so unique to him, feeling myself settle. Then I remembered my conversation with Hector and felt very guilty for not seeking Ranger out and telling him first.

"I, err. I asked Hector for some help today. I wasn't sure where you were and"

"I know. He told me. I'm sorry that you felt that I'd abandoned you today"

Was that how I had felt? I suppose it was but this situation between us was hard for me to come to terms with and actually more difficult than I thought it would be. I had a need to maintain my independence so didn't want to be running to Ranger with every little thing, especially if I was capable of handling it myself.

"No, I didn't think that. I knew that Hector would be the person to talk to, besides I didn't want you to get annoyed or upset with me. I just never thought"

I was pleased when he didn't say any more on the subject and that hopefully we'd navigated my omission to inform him. Instead, he turned me and led me to the elevator. Yeah, I was ready for this day to end and was looking forward to a meal prepared by Ella. It was as we were travelling up in the elevator that I noticed Ranger take out his phone and answer it.

"Here, now?"

"Did they give a reason?"

"We'll meet them in conference room 1"

I was looking at Ranger trying to figure out what his conversation had been about knowing whatever it was that he'd be leaving me to go downstairs.

"Babe. There are two detectives here who want to talk to you"

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Why would the police want to talk to me? Was this about the bank robbery because I have admit, that I couldn't remember giving a statement. By the time the elevator had gone back down to the ground floor I'd convinced myself that was the reason so wasn't overly worried about speaking with the two detectives.