“I do appreciate that,” Jethro said dryly, pulling his phone out of his pocket to send a quick text. “What’s your plan if your team is disbanded and it turns out this horrible murder wasn’t committed by Lassiter?”
That was quite the question. Returning to solitary life in his cabin didn’t hold as much appeal as Angus would’ve thought. He was saved from answering when Jethro’s phone buzzed.
“My friend isn’t on the case, but he’s sending over the file. Give me a sec.” Jethro pushed a few buttons on his phone.
It did help to have connections, now didn’t it? Angus twirled a pen between his fingers.
“Ah. All right.” Jethro read quickly. “The victim was called Lori Chen and she was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student in business administration at Georgetown.” He scanned down on the phone. “Suspect is her ex, Levi Mackelson. They lived together briefly and there were two domestic calls. According to the file, they broke up two months ago.”
Angus set down the pen. “Any priors on Mackelson besides the domestics?”
“No.” Jethro looked up. “No alibi, at least from the little bit in this file. He only spoke for a few minutes before demanding an attorney.”
Angus needed to talk to this man. It’d been a while since he’d profiled anybody, but he couldn’t have lost his edge that much. “Anything else?”
Jethro read the face of his phone and then whistled. “The lawyer was big-time, there wasn’t enough to hold Mackelson, so he was let go.” Jet winced. “I have a name and an address. I suppose you want to go and have a little visit?”
Of course he wanted to go. Angus stood and fetched his leather jacket from the far chair. “You’re welcome to join me.”
“I have to join you, if for no other reason than to keep you from hitting this jackass. That would get me in trouble with the authorities.” Jethro stretched as he stood and took a moment to put weight on his healed leg.
Angus paused. “How’s the leg anyway?”
“Aches, which means it’s raining,” Jethro said shortly. He’d been shot while helping Wolfe on an Op. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”
Angus faltered and pulled his badge out of his jacket, then put it on the table. His HDD-issued Glock was next.
Jethro straightened. “Force?”
Angus lifted a shoulder. “If I’m with HDD, I can’t talk to him without a lawyer.” He strode out of the room before Jethro could stop him.
* * *
Nari rode the fancy elevator up to the top floor of HDD headquarters and slipped her identification back into her handbag. Soft music played from the speakers, and the spacious lift smelled like orange-infused cleanser. Oddly enough, she missed the rickety deathtrap of the team’s office. She held her breath as she ascended, hoping nobody else entered the elevator on the way up. The last thing she needed right now was to run into her asshole of an ex.
She reached the top floor and forced her shoulders down where they belonged. She’d been summoned and that was never a good thing.
The door swished open with barely a whisper, and she stepped out onto the thick, navy-blue carpet of a reception area that led in several directions, depending upon which part of the organization one wanted to visit. A bright spray of orchids sat on a credenza beneath a stunning oil painting of an Arizona sunset; the waiting area was vacant.
The receptionist looked up from behind her rounded mahogany desk, sliding a professional smile into place. What was her name? Nari had never really paid attention. The woman was in her early thirties with blond hair perfectly twisted into a professional bun. “Dr. Zhang. Do you have an appointment?”
“No.” Nari matched the smile perfectly. “However, I have a matter of urgency. Would you mind seeing if the deputy administrator has a few minutes to spare?”
“Not at all,” the woman said. She lifted a phone to her ear.
“Thank you.” Nari turned and strode to the reception area to remove her wet raincoat and hang it up on the polished coat-tree. Had that been catlike glee in the woman’s eyes, or had Nari imagined it? Man, she hated this office. If she couldn’t save the team, maybe she’d finally go into private practice and give up this quest with the HDD.
“Dr. Zhang? The deputy administrator can fit you in right now. Please go back to his office.” She hung up the phone and returned to the notes on her desk.
“Thank you.” Nari strode to the right and down the long hallway to knock on the imposing wooden door of the corner office.
“Enter,” came from inside.
Nari took a deep breath and opened the door to a spacious office with a spectacular view of the Potomac River. The sprawling desk in front of her was vacant, so she turned to the conference area with its gleaming table, where her biological father usually worked. She stopped short when she found him there with his boss, the administrator of the HDD. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
He gestured her to an empty chair at the table. “Not at all. You said it was urgent, and Administrator Clemonte and I have a few minutes right now.”
Nari swallowed and moved forward, taking the administrator’s hand in a brisk shake. “It’s good to see you, Administrator.”
