“What do you think?”
“I thought she couldn’t possibly be guilty. Now I don’t know.”
“Then be smart. Let’s go see what’s so important and hush hush that your FBI buddy can’t say over the phone. We’ll hope she’s not as smart as you think she is.”
They headed to Jane’s car, but Raine didn’t get in.
“I’ll meet you there. I’ll park away from the address. But I’ll be there. Count on it.”
“I will. I do. Count on you, I mean.” Jane didn’t know why she suddenly choked up. They’d rarely worked together, but when they had, Raine had had her back. And Jane would have hers.
“You should, little cousin.”
The moment passed. “I hate when you call me that.”
Raine grinned. “I know.”
The drive passed in relative quiet, the moon’s light shrouded by clouds and overhanging branches. Despite the lack of snow, the Ponderosa Pines and Douglas Firs felt heavy, hiding private driveways and plots of land in between forests and ferns.
Sullivan had been out of touch for over an hour. The area the woman directed Jane to was located in one such hideaway, surrounded by a thick forest. Jane turned twice and had to backtrack once, having missed a turn onto a narrow drive lined with gravel.
The driveway went back a good hundred feet or more. For a while, only her brights penetrated the gloom. Then she saw the bright lights of the home, a large, two-story barn house surrounded by open grass and patio stone. To one side sat a detached two-story garage with an ADU above.
She had no idea where Raine might park. Trusting her cousin, Jane took her time leaving the car, scanning. Listening.
Silence. Not even a television from inside the house.
The place had to be worth a good bit. Looked to Jane like something out of a designer magazine. Sullivan didn’t have that kind of money, so whose house was it?
Jane itched to grab her gun, tucked away under her jacket, but she forced herself to remain loose as she walked up the porch steps onto the spacious landing and knocked.
Sullivan answered the door, her features wan.
She didn’t look to be planning Jane’s demise, but she didn’t look glad to see her either.
No, Sullivan looked…scared.
“Ah, Jane. I’m so happy you’re finally here.” Rob Williams smiled at her over Sullivan’s shoulder. “Come on in and join the party.”
As she stepped inside, he closed the door behind her. In the living room stood two men Jane had never before seen. Along with Junior Mazzuca.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
Gunther Rapp surveyedthe scene in front of him: SWAT positioned around the University of Washington Medical Center’s main entrance, flashing police cars parked to cordon off the area, medical staff and patients gathered under warming tents while others were escorted to adjacent buildings for protection.
“This isn’t going to end well,” Gina Holtz murmured, standing with him by the perimeter while they watched the LEOs do their job.
“I know. I’m surprised he let us get this close.”
Gina turned to him, a surprised look on her face. He’d come to know the three people in the small task force well in the short time they’d worked with him. Gina dotted her I’s and crossed her T’s, a professional to the core who believed in the Agency’s values and mission without a doubt.
She’d go far in the organization…if she could get out of her own way. Gina followed orders and gave her all, but if she spotted anyone coloring outside the lines on her watch, she turned stubborn and hard to work with. Case in point—Jane Cannon, who made her own lines and colored wherever the hell she wanted to.
He glanced around, not seeing the cause of his most recent headaches, and spotted Diego chatting with a few officers outside a tech van. He didn’t know if he should worry or not that he didn’t see Jane.
“You don’t think we found him on our own?” Gina asked. “Phillip wanted us to find him?”
