When Sawyer grinned and gave her the finger, she did not hesitate. “Take him out, Kane.”
Two shots rang out and blood spurted from Sawyer’s shattered knees but before he fell, he stumbled forward to press a red button on the machine. The massive grinding machine sprang to life and the conveyer belt shuddered, then moved slowly toward the sharp grinding teeth flashing menacingly inside a large hole. For the first time in her life, she heard Rowley swear as he wriggled around in a desperate attempt to roll off the wide conveyer belt.
Lungs bursting with effort, Jenna holstered her weapon and sprinted the last few yards at speed, then threw herself at Rowley in an attempt to roll him off the machine. They spun sideways but remained stuck. The machine made a terrible grinding noise and she had a close-up view of the deadly sharp blades turning inside, ready to shred them to pieces. Feet and hands slipping on the greasy belt, she couldn’t pull herself free. Panic made her hands shake. In seconds the belt was going to drop them inside the gaping maw. She turned to see Kane running toward them. “Kane, do something.”
His face was a mask of concentration as he raised the pistol in both hands. Another shot rang out and the red button on the machine exploded into a shower of red plastic. Time seemed to stop as the stinking machine came within a few inches of swallowing them alive before the engine whined, shuddered and died. Heart thundering, Jenna heaved a sigh of relief, then pushed herself up and looked down into Rowley’s blood-soaked face. “I’m sure glad Kane never misses.”
Epilogue
Friday morning, week two
It never surprised Jenna how many criminals rolled over on their partners for a deal. The DA attacked the weakest link, one Geoffrey La Rocca, the nurse, and he soon gave up the entire horrific team. Wyatt Sawyer, the rapist sex addict, had boasted about killing women in other states as well and leaving their bodies to rot beside the highway. The Roadside Strangler, after a ferocious twelve-month killing spree in Wyoming three years previously, had been unmasked.
The Sawyer interview had been interesting, conducted in a hospital room with both hands cuffed to the bed. It seemed like poetic justice. After his lawyer convinced him the jury might go easy on him if he talked, Sawyer went from angry to boasting about how he had outsmarted everyone his entire life. He gave Jenna a slow smile, then admitted to coming close to killing her and Kane. After examining Sawyer’s white pickup with the sticker mark on one door, Kane identified it as the vehicle that played chicken with them on the highway.
Jenna had listened intently as Sawyer went on to tell the story of how he stumbled onto the idea of organ harvesting after meeting the unworldly Dr. Weaver and convincing her he could help the less fortunate by supplying the desperately needed organs if she performed the surgery. He had the money to set up a small clinic and by paying substantial amounts to the right people soon gained access to the black market. The trade in illegal organs was widespread and with so many young people advertising their whereabouts on social media, kidnapping a few potential donors wasn’t too difficult.
He’d chosen women as the majority of his victims because they’d fed his need to kill and admitted that unless they died under the knife, he fed them to the hogger machine alive. The men he processed swiftly, selling off their organs and disposing of them within a couple of days. He owned both the meat and fertilizer plants, so used refrigerated trucks from the meat processing plant for organ transportation and the hogger machine in the fertilizer plant for disposal of the remains. Adding the bodies to the waste from his meat processing plant and turning them into fertilizer was easy and undetectable.
Sawyer had discovered people would do anything for money. A disgraced nurse was easy to come by, as was the ambulance chaser Burns who he used to pick up the vehicles of the people he kidnapped. The story made Jenna sick to her stomach. It was as if he was proud of his ingenious scheme and told his story with relish. When asked where he kept the cash from the sale of the organs, he informed them payments went into an offshore bank account. The FBI had searched but found no trace of the account or Sawyer’s list of contacts.
Jenna had to admit arresting Dr. Weaver had given her a modicum of satisfaction; although the woman had intimidated her to some degree, her gut instinct had been right. After searching the underground clinic at the fertilizer plant, they discovered the computer in the office held the same organ-matching data Dr. Weaver had collected. The database gave them an insight on how big Saw
yer had expected his scheme to grow. Had he planned to pluck a matched donor from town when an order came in?
The DA charged Dr. Weaver for performing illegal organ harvesting on living people and murder in the first degree. The doctor had refused to say anything, not giving a clue to how many victims they had murdered. At least they had the tooth and if Wolfe could extract any viable DNA from it, they might be able to solve another missing person’s case. The problem was that so many people just up and vanished without a trace all over the USA.
It was with some degree of relief, when Wolfe confirmed his original findings on Dr. Weaver’s history. After an extensive search of Dr. Weaver’s background and contacts over the last ten years, the FBI had found absolutely no connection between her and Viktor Carlos or the cartel. At last, Jenna could breathe easy again and likewise Kane.
Jenna had assisted Kane by listening and making notes as he delved into his new memories of the time immediately before the car bombing. Not long after, he’d passed all his suspicions to the office of POTUS. Jenna was aware Kane desperately wanted to be involved in the capture of the men responsible for his wife’s death, but obviously POTUS thought otherwise. However, when Wolfe gave him the report of the deaths of the men responsible, he’d taken the news in his usual professional manner then vowed not to speak of it again. It sure was good to see the burden lifted from his shoulders. Maybe now, he could move on with his life.
Jenna walked into the hospital room and took the seat beside Kane and Wolfe. She smiled at Rowley. After seeing him safely to the ER, she’d been so busy with arrests she hadn’t had time to visit him, but had called him and listened to Kane and Wolfe’s daily reports. “I’m so sorry I’ve not been in for a visit before now. How are you feeling today? You don’t look ready to go home. Have you been hiding your injuries from me?”
“I’m just fine, ma’am.” Rowley looked at her through bloodshot eyes peering out from a bruised and battered face. “Like I told you, I have a chipped elbow and a bruised knee. The rest of me is fine.”
“Let’s not mention the severe concussion, twelve stitches in his head and a cracked rib.” Wolfe frowned. “It’s just as well you arrived when you did.”
“The tracker you gave me saved my life.” Rowley smiled a crooked grin. “But I figure it was the sheriff’s flying tackle that broke my ribs.” He chuckled, then met her gaze. “I’m joking, ma’am, you put your life on the line for me and I’ll never forget it.”
“Thank you.” Jenna smiled. “One thing I have to ask.” She turned to look at Kane. “Why didn’t you take out Sawyer?”
“He wasn’t armed.” Kane shrugged and stretched nonchalantly. “I figured you’d want him for questioning and your order was in the heat of the moment.”
“Yeah, we sure found out a lot about Mr. Sawyer.” Jenna nodded and turned her attention to Wolfe. “What about the tooth?”
“I’ve sent the DNA profile out to all agencies and we’ll see if we get a match. I’ve left the case open and turned everything over to the CSI unit in Helena.” He smiled. “I dropped in to see Olivia and Doug and they’re doing okay considering Doug had a kidney removed, but they’ll need counseling. The doctors told Doug he’d be in the hospital for at least another week.”
“Oh, something else.” Kane smiled at her. “After hearing about our interest in Knox, the Blackwater Motel receptionist called Maggie and admitted she was the blonde Knox carried into his room.” He chuckled. “She would have come forward sooner but didn’t want to ruin her reputation.”
“I should have her charged with withholding evidence.” Exhausted by the stressful case, Jenna sighed. She just wanted to go home, sit by the fire and relax for a while. Kane was monitoring the 911 line and she turned to him. “Has anything urgent come in for us to attend to today?”
“Nope. I figure we go get a tree and maybe buy some presents.” Kane smiled at her, took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I figure we all deserve some downtime, don’t you?”
Jenna shrugged and stared down at their linked hands in amazement, he’d never as much as touched her in front of the others. She glanced up to see Rowley and Wolfe grinning like baboons. She untangled Kane’s fingers and cleared her throat. “I do have a few things to do at the office.”
“Nothing that can’t wait.” Kane’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “Don’t forget we’re having Christmas with Wolfe and the girls.”
Is it that time already? Jenna blinked. “When is Christmas?”