Page 51 of So Vicious
Julie took a deep breath and squeezed more tears from her eyes.She nodded.Then the dam burst.She sank into Carrie’s arms, and her friend pulled her close and held her tightly, glaring at Faith.
Faith was impatient to get the lead from Julie, but the poor woman was on the edge of complete collapse.Faith could give her a moment to collect herself while she waited for Turk and Jessica.
She called Jessica, and her partner said, “That was a long conversation.You must have found something good.”
“Looks that way,” Faith replied.“Bridgette got a name for us.Jimmy Sullivan.”
“I’ll look that up.”
“No need.It turns out that Julie is Jimmy’s sister.”
Jessica paused for a second, then said, “Oh, holy shit.That’s how he got into the records.”
“Yes.It looks like he was able to find Julie’s password without her knowledge and use that to log into her intranet.”
“Yeah, the Cybercrimes guys said someone from the outside used a Tor browser to download the data.Does Julie know where he is?”
Faith glanced at the weeping young woman.“Yes.She’s about to tell me.Bring Turk downstairs.Actually, go get the car and meet me in the staff lot.You’ll see me with Julie and Carrie.”
“Will do.Everything okay, Faith?This is good news, but you sound like your dog just… I’m going to pick a new metaphor.”
Faith smiled faintly.“I’m just reminded of how many people are hurt by violence.”
“Yeah, well, that’s why there are people like us.”
But there’s only so much people like us can do,Faith thought.Only so many wounds we can heal.
“I’ll see you soon, Jessica.”
She hung up and said, “Julie?Can you give me an answer now?”
Julie sniffed and wiped tears from her eyes.Her breath came in halting gasps, and her lower lip shuddered badly."He's… staying… at a… cabin… in… Watson."She swallowed and took a deep breath.It helped a little."He's been unemployed for a while.I send him some money, but he's been doing odd jobs lately, so I haven't had to send him as much.The cabin's on public land, but it's in an area that people don't really check.It's kind of like a hunting lodge, so the BLM usually leaves it alone unless there's evidence of squatting.I guess they just haven't been there in a while."
She was rambling, and Faith had to quell her impatience.She was grappling with the realization that her brother was a violent murderer.That was a little different from Bridgette’s attention-seeking behavior.
“Where exactly is the cabin?”
"It's off of Watson Road.Near Little River."She sniffed and added, "I see him every few weeks just to make sure he's okay, and he's not doing drugs again."She lifted pleading eyes to Faith."He was doing fine.After he came back from Afghanistan, he was doing fine.He had a job, he was getting into art, he was… he was making friends.Then he went back."She wiped more tears from her eyes."I told him not to go back."
Faith put two and two together.“He went to Syria.”
She nodded.“He thought he was good enough to help people again, so he re-enlisted and went to Syria with the Army.When he came back, he was… he was…”
She fell silent and squeezed more tears from her eyes.Carrie rubbed her shoulders and murmured, “That’s all right, sweetie.”
“I never thought he would kill people,” Julie said.“I really thought he was better.He sounded better.Notgood, but better.”
The Prius pulled up.Jessica started to get out, but Faith waved at her to stay in the car.She put a hand on Julie’s shoulder and squeezed.“It’ll be okay,” she said.She hoped that wasn’t a lie.
She looked at Carrie and nodded.“You can take her home.Stay with her, okay?”
Carrie nodded and led Julie around to the passenger side.Faith got into the passenger side of Julie's car, took a deep breath, and said, "Okay.Here's where we're going."
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Turk's nose came in handy when they reached Watson.Watson was a small unincorporated community just outside of Dulles and consisted of a few small farms clustered around Watson Road, the only paved road in the entire community.Just past those farms were a thousand acres or so of forest that backed up into slightly more established rural communities.It was fairly small as far as wildernesses went, but the forest in those acres was dense, and the path Julie described when Faith called her again was overgrown and only barely passable.Turk had a much easier time navigating it than his humans did, so he took the lead while Faith and Jessica followed, and the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office formed a perimeter.
It was early afternoon by the time Faith and Jessica reached the area, and about eighteen hours since Sarah Brennan was attacked.Faith hoped that Jimmy—if he was the killer—had chosen to return to his lair.She imagined he would feel at least relatively safe here since it was off the grid and nearly inaccessible.
