“I’ll—”
Whatever Zane was going to say was cut off when Luke grabbed his arm. “Youare the last person who needs to go out there.”
Zane didn’t contest Luke’s assertion. “Where’s Jacob?”
Gil waved his phone in their direction with one hand, then put it to his ear. “Jacob? Yeah.” Gil walked away, filling Jacob in on what was going on.
Zane, Luke, and Benjamin stepped a few feet away but didn’t go far.
Tessa ignored all of them and sat down at her desk, closed her eyes, and inhaled. Then she concentrated on every body part. First she focused on her feet in her favorite boots. They were the unicorn of boots that she’d searched for years to find. They were not only fashionable but also comfortable, and she could run in them if necessary. And as this morning’s events had proven, she could kick the tendons and ligaments out of a knee while wearing them.
She wiggled her toes, then pressed them down on the floor. Next she rotated her ankles before settling her feet once again. She worked her way up, tensing and releasing her calf muscles, flexing her legs at the knees, squeezing her quads, concentrating on her abdominals, inhaling slowly and deeply to feel her chest expand before pressing her shoulders back to tighten and then relax her upper back. To complete the exercise, she rolled her head in a slow circle. After three rotations in one direction, she reversed course. All four of her fellow agents had returned to her doorway while she was rolling out her neck, but they’d seen her do this before and didn’t interrupt.
Taking a minute to zero in on her body and breathing gave her the ability to focus past the frustration that had spiked at the one-two punch of a dead assailant and a very much alive and in the wayHank Littlefield. And that brought some clarity to her thoughts. “Is it possible someone has Littlefield on a leash?”
Her question got the attention of the three men in her doorway. Gil spoke first. “You think he could be connected to the attacks?”
“I think it’s interesting that he keeps showing up. One time, fine. But unless he’s truly delusional, and I’m not ruling that out as a possibility, nothing about my behavior toward him can explain this level of infatuation.”
“Infatuation isn’t rational.” Zane paced back and forth, coming in and out of her vision as he crossed in front of her cubicle. “But it’s an interesting hypothesis. We need to add him to our list of possibles.”
Gil checked his watch. “Jacob should be here any minute. He’s going to chat with Littlefield, and when they talk, he’s going to mention that if Hank interferes with an ongoing investigation, we’ll throw the entire weight of the federal government behind his prosecution. There may be a few words likeaiding and abettingandcollusionheaded his way. Also words likesexual harassmentand a few observations regarding how incredibly awkward it would be for him if we let it slip that one of our agents took out a restraining order against him.”
“I haven’t done anything of the sort.” Tessa sat straighter in her chair. “I can handle him.”
“He needs to know we’re taking this seriously.” Gil was implacable. “We don’t take chances. We’d do the same thing if it was a female reporter chasing after one of us.”
Tessa couldn’t argue with that, but she didn’t want to think about it anymore. “Can we get back to our dead assailant? Benjamin? What happened? Last time I checked, blown knees aren’t fatal.”
“Sorry, Tessa. Morris didn’t have much time, but he was ableto tell me that they took our assailant to the hospital, where he was seen by medical staff prior to his incarceration. They put his knee in a brace and sent him on to jail. They all knew he’d need surgery in a few days, but that was no reason to keep him in the hospital. Any regular citizen with a similar knee injury would be sent home until the swelling went down, then surgery a few days to a week later.”
“Okay.” Tessa was following the narrative, but she still didn’t see how any of that could have killed him.
“They did their usual intake, put him in a cell alone. They have cameras all over the place, and the officer on duty noticed that our guy was twitchy. Assumed it was from pain. Maybe nerves. Then the guy’s twitching turned into full-body spasms. The officer called reinforcements and the paramedics. They did all they could, but the guy was dead by the time they got him to the hospital.”
“That sounds like poison or drugs.”
“Agreed. Morris couldn’t give me any more details and said he would let us know when he had more. And”—Benjamin looked at the floor, and when he returned his gaze to hers, there was a wicked gleam in his eyes—“to lock you down.”
Tessa would have been angry if she’d thought he was serious. Well, okay, he was serious, but he wouldn’t follow through. Still, she couldn’t let it go without some kind of response. “Morris is dead to me. Tell him that when he calls back.”
16
JACOB ARRIVED,and Gil, Luke, and Benjamin slipped away to eavesdrop on his conversation with Littlefield. Tessa declined to join them, and Zane waved them away.
They took the hint, and for the first time all day, Zane and Tessa were alone.
“You were magnificent. That kick.” Zane shuddered. “Perfection.”
Tessa huffed. “Yeah.”
“You feel bad that he’s dead.” He didn’t frame it as a question.
“I have the sense that he was being used. And whoever used him killed him.” Tessa pressed her palms to her temples and held the tension for several seconds. “We’re missing something big, and people are dying.”
“You aren’t pulling the trigger. You aren’t ordering the hits. There is a reason, but you aren’t it.”
Tessa didn’t speak.
