Searching For Jenna novel Chapter 15

"I'm sorry, man. I thought if I helped her, I'd know where she was staying," Defoe said trying to pretend to be stupid.

"Well then, where is she?" Matthews demanded.

Defoe dropped his head. "She ditched me at her work. I guess she caught on that I was really trying to help you, not her."

"Fucking bitch!" Matthews yelled and slammed his hand down on the kitchen counter.

Matthews started pacing like a caged animal. Defoe watched him carefully and listened to every word he said. He was pretty sure that Matthews had been completely unconscious when Defoe took Jenna out of the room. If Matthews were to think that Darren Parker had any role in Jenna's escape, it would be detrimental to the FBI's investigation. Somehow, he had to figure out what Matthews did with the body that Jenna saw.

When Defoe was recruited for this assignment, the FBI was still trying to figure out what Michael Matthews' role was in the Cobra Cartel. Since Defoe had become friends with Matthews and infiltrated the hunting group that seemed to be at the heart of the cartel, they'd come closer to proving that Matthews was a recruiter as well as a disposal man.

Jenna finding that body in her father's freezer and calling it in almost blew their undercover operation. Finding the body was something they could have used as leverage against Matthews and possibly would have convinced him to give up the cartel leadership, but they were not quite ready for that step. The body disappearing put a major kink in their case. Fortunately, Jenna had not trusted the Evansville city police or the Vanderburgh Sheriff's Department with the information because her father had worked for both organizations. She was a smart girl.

Unless Jenna had convinced someone from one of those departments to come to her house and look in that freezer, there was no way anyone of the officers from either organization would have taken her seriously. Matthews was a decorated police officer who had not had more than a slap on the wrist in his twenty years in law enforcement. No one in that police community was going to believe he had the body of a woman in a freezer in his garage.

Matthews had been one of the last people to see the girl, whose body the FBI believed Jenna saw. The police busted a drug dealer who said he saw Matthews talking to the girl in between a couple of buildings that were known for drug deals. He confessed to getting drugs for the girl. He said he didn't see her again after that night and just assumed she'd gotten busted and was in jail, until he saw the story in the paper about the girl being missing.

Matthews said that he'd given the girl a warning about being in that area, but didn't see her again after he told her to leave. No one questioned his story, except the FBI, who already suspected he was involved with the Cincinnati cartel. But, with no evidence to prove Matthews was involved with the girl's disappearance there wasn't much the FBI could do.

Suddenly Matthews' phone rang. "What?" he barked.

Defoe watched Matthews stop pacing, and his face turned dark with anger.

"Is that right?" Matthews said. "Send me a picture." His face turned a darker red. "Figure out how to get one." He punched the smart phone with a jab of a long thick finger.

"What was that about?" Defoe asked.

"One of the dealers we talked to last week said he thought he saw one of the kids we almost busted making a deal. He's going to get a picture and send it to me," Matthews said seamlessly, but Defoe knew he was lying.

"Sheriff Nichols said I could take the day off and hang with you if you want me to," Defoe said. "He knows you're going through a hard time right now, especially being on administrative leave."

"I'm fine," Matthews said and pulled a beer out of the refrigerator. "I think I'm going to find a movie to watch and just relax for a while."

"Damn. Why are the feds involved in this?" Matthews asked, mostly to himself.

"According to those people, it was because the girl's supposed boyfriend took her across state lines," Ruby said.

That would be true, Matthews reasoned. But it was too much of a coincidence that a girl who matched the description of Jenna was in a hospital with a broken jaw just an hour away. "Do you think there's any blood evidence left that I can use to see if it was Jenna?"

"I don't know. It didn't look like they left any of her clothes, or anything else behind," Ruby said. "I might be able to get to the IV needle I took out of her this morning. You might be able to use any fluids left in that."

"See what you can do and let me know," Matthews said.

"Sure," Ruby replied and stubbed her cigarette out. "And don't forget about the package you're supposed to pick up tonight. C1 wants it taken care of."

"C1 needs to learn how to control his temper," Matthews said. "If that girl you saw at the hospital is Jenna, she knows too much, and the feds will be snooping in my business for sure."

"I know what you mean, but he's the boss. He whacks 'em. I slab 'em, and you ditch 'em. Just the way it is," Ruby said. "I'll text you if I find the needle."