Page 47 of Operation: Valiant Angel

He also kept them apprised of the comings and goings from the target drug house. He identified three more higher-level dealers arriving with what could have been backpacks full of product, which in that neighborhood would be methamphetamines and fentanyl.

The surveillance scored them what they hoped was the location of the next house up in the food chain, another home just a few blocks away. It was another small adobe ranch also built in the early fifties. The Digital Team at HQ ran the house and discovered that it had been sold at auction, a foreclosure, less than a year earlier. Just like the house they’d been surveilling. The names of the buyers didn’t matter. They’d all be fake.

“We need to rotate you into the surveillance, Taco,” Lambchop broadcast. “Our boy is looking paranoid, not sure if he made Mother or I.”

“Affirmative,” Wilson replied. “Big Bear wanted a video chat with me.”

“Wake Jax and have him take over the surveillance. Do your call with Big Bear and then advise me of your availability,” Lambchop ordered.

“Roger that,” Wilson acknowledged.

Wilson messaged Shepherd and then woke Jackson. Shepherd set the time for the call in ten minutes. Wilson brought his phone into the bedroom and connected it to Shepherd’s video room at the ten-minute mark. The feed displayed showing Shepherd and Garcia sitting at the conference table in Shepherd’s office.

“St. Vincent confirmed the woman going by Ashley Carona is one of theirs,” Shepherd said.

“That is, of course, not to be shared with Rae,” Garcia added.

“Of course,” Jimmy acknowledged, a little annoyed that Garcia felt he had to tell him.

“St. Vincent asked if we could give him an assist. He can’t interview Rae, but we can ask the questions and report back to him.”

“So, from that, I gather the Carona woman went dark on the Marshals,” Wilson said.

“She’s off the grid entirely. And she wasn’t an innocent witness in protection. Her remaining out of jail is incumbent on her cooperation. Moving in the middle of the night with no forwarding address to the agency is not cooperating,” Shepherd said.

“What about the little girl?” Jimmy asked.

“The child is hers,” Shepherd confirmed. “I’ll send the list of questions for Rae Ella Easton over to you, Wilson. I need the interview completed within the next few hours.”

“She’s at work until eighteen hundred,” Wilson said. “She won’t answer her phone while she’s at work.”

“St. Vincent needs these answers ASAP. Do whatever you can to get her to answer your call. This interview is a priority.”

“Will do, Shep,” Wilson answered, not sure how he’d accomplish it.

He took out his phone and tapped out a text to Rae, asking her to call him immediately. Then he waited. Fifteen minutes later, he received the reply from her he expected.

“I’m at work. Can’t talk until after 6:00,” she tapped out.

“Rae, this is really important,” he pressed. “Can you go to the bathroom or out to your car for five minutes?”

“Jimmy, I can for about three or four minutes after the classroom teacher gets back. I’m alone in here with the kids right now and can’t be on my phone.”

“Okay, I can stand by and wait. Call as soon as you can,” he messaged back. It was a full twenty minutes before his phone rang. “Hi Rae, thanks.”

“I’m in my car for a few minutes. What’s going on?”

“I’m sorry to have made you leave work to talk to me,” Wilson said. “I have some questions regarding Ashley Carona and her daughter that I need to ask you.”

“I thought you said everything with her was okay.”

“Rae, I can’t tell you what’s going on. I have to ask you to trust me.”

“Is Lilly Carona okay?” she pressed. “It’s a simple question. Yes or no, is she okay?” She had a really bad feeling.

“I don’t know, Rae. I don’t know,” he admitted. “That’s why I need to ask you these questions, to determine if she is.”

The tone of his voice was alarming to her. “Okay, shoot.”

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