Arnaud. Arnaud knew where we went, when we’d be at that intersection. He’s got a plant within the fucking FBI.
The EMTs loaded Magnus into an ambulance.
“I want to stay with him.”
An EMT trotted across to his fellow. “Let her ride with him. She’s okay.”
My fireman escorted me to the ambulance, then briefly held my hand. “You take care, Jade.”
Then he left, leaving me in the care of the paramedics who helped me inside to sit beside Magnus. He blinked at me, then lifted his hand. I took it.
Neither of us spoke as the ambulance, its siren shrieking, rolled away from the site of Arnaud’s latest attempt to kill us.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Magnus
“You’ve got a mole, Anderson.”
Jade sat beside my hospital bed, holding my hand. Her face, pocked with cuts from broken glass, looked wan and pale. She’d badly sprained her right wrist in the attack and admitted to being bruised and very sore all over. Me? I had a concussion, needed stitches to close my myriad number of cuts, and wished the nurse would grant me morphine.
Anderson shook his head. “Impossible. I’ve worked with those people for years. They’ve no connection to DeLario.”
“That you know of,” Jade remarked calmly. “What’s that guy saying?”
“Not a word.” Anderson leaned his butt against the windowsill, his hands in his pockets. “Nothing. He sits in interrogation and won’t even say his name.”
“Let’s offer a big what if,” I said. “What if the dude just went ballistic and decided he wanted to roll people over? How likely is it?”
“From what we know from his coworkers and his wife, he’d been quiet, did his job, ate supper, watched TV. Nothing remarkable about him. He’s worked for the construction company for ten years, never a problem until now.”
“Any extra money added to his account?” Jade inquired.
“We’re working to get a judge to authorize a search warrant for his house, his bank accounts, and his car. I’m keeping the DeLario angle quiet for now. Until we have some evidence your old man is indeed behind this.”
“I don’t suppose you’re looking at the lists for any familiar names,” Jade commented.
Anderson sighed. “Yeah. We are. My partner and I, and I trust him absolutely. So far, we haven’t found a name associated with any government agency. Until I have proof otherwise, this was the fault of a dude on a bad trip.”
“Drugs in his system?”
“Not that we’ve found, but toxicology is still looking at that.”
“Look at the blackmail photos,” Jade said slowly, her eyes vacant. “Look for our boy among them.”
“Why would DeLario want to blackmail a road construction worker?”
“Arnaud has him screwing a sex trafficked woman,” I continued for Jade, my head pounding. “Tells him, ‘I might need you. When I do, you do what I say or your wife finds out’. Is it a coincidence this happened mere blocks from your FBI headquarters?”
Anderson frowned. “So DeLario kept this guy handy in case you showed up here with evidence? That’s a stretch.”
“Not just us,” Jade replied. “Anyone who might be a threat. If any loose cannon rolls on him to the feds.”
“I still think you’re reaching. DeLario wouldn’t have had time to set something that elaborate up.”
“We were in your office for hours,” Jade pointed out. “His plant in your agency reports us. Arnaud calls this dude. ‘Run ‘em over’.”
“And just how would DeLario know you’d take that particular route?” Anderson demanded. “You could have gone anywhere.”
