“No.That’s not it.”
“Are you sure?”she pressed.
His lips flattened.“They wouldn’t employ resources like that for this type of arrest.”
“Then what do they want?”
“I don’t know, but you have to meet with them.”His halfhearted smile offered no support.“I’ll take you there.We’ll schedule the meeting and control as much as we can.”
“No way in the world—”
“You do it this way, or they’ll send federal marshals.”
“So theydowant to arrest me,” she said as Alicia snapped, “Marshals?What for?”
Callum held up his hands, palms out in defense.“Don’t shoot the messenger, ladies.I don’t know what they want to meet about.Any guess is based on a whole lot of inference.”
“So infer away,” Grace demanded.
He stared at the ceiling and thought.“Given who Marino is and how he wriggled his way out of a conviction, I’d bet the DOJ would like another shot at him.”
“Meaning?”
“Like I said—”
“You don’t know,” Alicia snapped.“Got it.But what is your guess?”
“No one will give us anything yet,” he admitted.“So we have to ask why.There are specific reasons litigators keep their mouths shut.”
“I don’t know what those are,” Grace said.“Extrapolate.”
“Maybe they’re convening a grand jury.”He held up his hands again.“For what?No idea.But Marino burned the DOJ.They probably want to burn him right back.”
“Can’t we just ask about that?”
He shook his head.“No.I believe the process is confidential.”
“For what?”
“What does it matter?Everyone probably has the same end goal: get Marino behind bars again.We won’t know anything more until you talk to them.”
“I can’t handle another go-round with Dominic.”Grace collapsed onto the couch.For a fleeting second, she considered hiding from the world by burying her face in Callum’s pillow.Breathing him in might be the only thing to keep her from losing her mind.
As if knowing how close to the edge Grace was, Sherlock jumped onto her lap.
She dropped her chin onto the top of his soft head.“I haven’t seen him in years.Haven’t talked to him.”
Callum remained quiet.Tension ticked in his jaw.She didn’t like that an explanation wasn’t immediately forthcoming.
“It doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s not going to make sense to us.”He rubbed the back of his neck.“What if Dominic didn’t track you down to scare you—not torepossessyou, for lack of a better word?”His lip curled in disgust before he shook it off.“Rather, he’s making himself known to keep you from speaking with the DOJ.”
That hadn’t occurred to her.Then again, she hadn’t known anyone was looking for her.The Department of Justice wasn’t even a blip on her radar.
“He won’t want you to talk to the AG’s office, even if you don’t think you know anything.It opens up a liability that he can’t control.”
The three of them stewed over his idea.It made sense, but something didn’t sit right.
