Landon gave him a pat on the back and turned to Raquelle. He hugged her, not wanting to let her go but forcing himself to do so. “I was afraid I might lose you for a moment there.”
“So was I,” she admitted. “But it didn’t happen, thank goodness.”
With a slight smile, he asked her, “Where did that punch come from?”
“Somewhere deep inside me, itching to come out at an opportune moment.” Raquelle drew a breath, glancing at Abercrombie, who was lying there awkwardly. “He had that coming to him,” she declared.
“At the very least,” Landon concurred while thinking appropriately,And then some. He gazed at Ivan Pimentel’s right-hand man and the firearm he fully intended to use to kill Raquelle and Eddie. Landon recognized it as an FNX-45 Tactical semi-automatic pistol, equipped witha suppressor. He wondered if Abercrombie had used the weapon under Pimentel’s authority to finish off others in his criminal orbit that broke the rules.
As members of the Bureau’s Critical Incident Response Group and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Regional Investigative Unit took over, Landon told Eddie, “I’ll need you to come to the field office to give a statement on what you have for me and have been up to lately—”
Eddie nodded. “I can do that,” he said. “I borrowed my friend Rex Shepherd’s Mitsubishi Outlander. I’ll follow you there.”
“Okay.” Landon was glad that the bartender had Eddie’s back in his time of need. Just as he himself had Raquelle’s back every step of the way.
“I’d like to be there with Eddie,” she said, eyeing Landon.
Though he fully understood where she was coming from in wanting to support her brother, Landon had to say in response, wanting to keep this as professional as possible, “I think it’s best that I speak with him alone.”
Raquelle nodded acquiescently. She squeezed her brother’s hand. “Everything will be all right.”
Eddie met her gaze contemplatively. “Yeah.”
Landon felt the same way, more or less, optimistic that they had cleared a major hurdle with Eddie still around to help secure the case against Ivan Pimentel. This notwithstanding, he was well aware that they still had some hoops to go through and potentially treacherous roads ahead.
Chapter Eighteen
“First, I have to say, Eddie, that we’re glad to see you sitting across this table,” Landon said sincerely while Zach stood in a corner of the interview room and Shannon and Katie watched in the viewing room. He was sure that his CHS was nervous after everything that had gone down. But they needed to know what he knew—and how he’d managed to get out from under a real threat of death that led to three others losing their lives. “So, tell me why you decided to drop out of sight?”
Eddie ran a hand through his hair, which had grown a bit since before the explosion, and responded matter-of-factly, “After someone planted a bomb on my boat and waited to see me die there, I panicked.” He sucked in a deep breath. “I wasn’t sure who I could trust—so I bolted to give me some time to think.”
Landon peered at him and stated unequivocally, “You could trust me. I’ve always been straight with you.”At least to the extent possible without compromising the investigation, he told himself.
“I know.” Eddie sat back. “It was just hard to deal with having a target on my back.”
“I understand.” Landon leaned against the table. “So, how did you manage to get off your pontoon before itblew up?” he asked curiously. “Were you tipped off somehow?” Landon couldn’t rule out entirely that there could have been a mole within the Bureau—or from an outside source in the criminal sphere with a vested interest in protecting Ivan Pimentel’s racket in the art world.
Eddie pinched his nose for a beat and then responded straightforwardly, “I saw a man on the dock who I thought I’d seen before—talking with Ivan and Yusef. Though I tried to duck out of sight, I could swear that he looked right at me. He walked by my boat harmlessly enough, making me have second thoughts that he was out to get me.” Eddie sighed. “Still, I had a bad feeling that something was about to go down. I just knew that I needed to get off the boat. You know what happened after that…”
“Yeah.” Landon showed him a photograph of Fred Davenport, unsure just how much Eddie was privy to while being in seclusion. “Is this the man you saw at the marina?”
Eddie took a hard look at the picture and said succinctly, “That’s him.”
“Fred Davenport planted the bomb on your boat,” Landon said and got a reaction from Eddie. “He was killed by Yusef Abercrombie.”
“I heard about that,” Eddie said thoughtfully. “Guess he became expendable too.”
“True. But not before Davenport shot to death an innocent man—mistaking him for you,” Landon told him candidly.
Eddie furrowed his brow. “I’m sorry someone else got swept up in all this,” he muttered.
“Me too.” Landon took a breath. “Unfortunately, it happens. Especially when a hired killer knows no boundaries.”
“So, what now?” Eddie met his gaze. “Am I in trouble for violating our agreement by skipping out on you?”
Normally, Landon might have felt that once a CI had reneged on his or her undercover role, all bets were off regarding any consequences that might be rendered. But in this instance, running for one’s life was not a crime, in and of itself. Quite the contrary, anyone might have done the same under similar circumstances, with their back to the wall. But Eddie had returned—and in one piece.
Then there was the fact that as Raquelle’s brother, Landon couldn’t throw the book at Eddie. Not if he wanted to win her over and chart a course that they could both live with.
