Alice was back faster than I expected. She handed me two freshly printed sheets of paper—the same NDA word-for-word, except a small addendum stating that I was allowed to use my experience of the investigation for thepodcast as long as Cooper Sinclair personally approved anything that was shared.
It was a better deal than I was expecting, which had been a hard no on changing the NDA at all. And especially with that safe house thrown into the deal. Though that, I’d noted, wasn’t in writing. I signed. I took a quick picture of the contract and handed it to Alice.
“Wonderful,” she said. “Give me a sec, and I’ll take you up to the safe house. You can get settled in, and as soon as Eli is done making a few calls, you two can get started.”
“On what?” I asked, since it sounded like Alice had everything planned out.
She shrugged and winked. “On whatever. That part’s your problem.”
I followed her out of the meeting room and down the hall to her desk in the small lobby. She tucked the NDA in a file drawer and grabbed a set of keys.
“The safe houses are pretty nice,” she said as I followed her to the elevator. “It’s not the Four Seasons, but it’s a two-bedroom apartment with a nice bath and a full kitchen. I’ll have some groceries sent in if you tell me what you normally eat.”
“That’s really thoughtful,” I said, surprised both at the level of care and the fact that this seemed like a normal day for Alice. How often did they have to keep people hidden? “Do you usually have people in the safe houses?”
“More often than not, but they’re rarely full. You’ll be comfortable. The safe houses are nice, because getting stuck in one mostly sucks,” Alice said. “It’s a last resort in a lot of cases. And we’re expensive. So expensive that we don’t want our clients to be uncomfortable when we have to tuck them away for safekeeping. The kind of people who can afford us are not used to beinguncomfortable.”
The elevator stopped, and I followed her out into a small hallway with a door on either side.
Alice turned to the left and unlocked the door. “I actually lived in this one for a while before Cooper and I got married.”
“Great commute,” I said.
“It is, though I’m still close. The whole fourth floor is ours. Most of the time it’s nice being an elevator ride from work, but occasionally it’s annoying.”
“I bet.” The safe house was simply designed, with a decent-sized living room, open to the dining area and kitchen. I guessed the bedrooms were down the hall to the right, along with the bathroom. The finishings were elegant and high-end, but the place was plain, lacking the personal touches that would make it a home. I wasn’t complaining; this was so much more than I’d expected.
“We don’t have anyone else in-house, so it’ll be just you on this floor. We’ll let you know if that changes, so you don’t get taken by surprise. Are you going to rent a car?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I haven’t gotten that far.” It was a good question, and reminded me of everything I’d need to sort out.
“Well, if you do, let me know. I’ll get you a fob for the garage. Probably better if you don’t, though.”
“She won’t need a car,” Eli said from the door.
I bristled. “Why don’t I need a car? If you remember, the one I had just got blown up.”
“Exactly,” Eli said. “You don’t need a car for the same reason we’re putting you up in a safe house and not a hotel.”
“I’m not a client,” I said. “The nothing I’m paying should be a dead giveaway. We’re partners.”
Eli rolled his eyes. “The hell we are. You may not be paying, but someone tried to kill you last night. The last thing I need is you driving around in your own vehicle. Jesus, you’d be a sitting duck.”
He wasn’t wrong, but his attitude made me want to argue.Don’t be dumb, I told myself. I had a lot of gear to replace. I didn’t want to think about my lost microphones, wide monitor, laptop… If he wanted to drive me around and save me the cost of a rental, I’d let him, surly mood and all.
“We don’t know that they were trying to kill me,” I argued, mostly because I didn’t want to agree with Eli and his eye roll.
He just shook his head, and I didn’t bother to say anything else. I wanted answers about Emily Shaw. I wanted whoever had blown up my van to pay for it. But I wasn’t planning on dying to make any of that happen. In which case, letting Eli protect me and staying in the Sinclair safe house seemed like the best move, even if I didn’t like being told what to do.
“Well then, I’ll cross a fob for the garage off the list,” Alice said. She handed me a notepad with a pen that she pulled from one of the kitchen drawers. “Write me up a quick grocery list. I’ll have some things delivered, so you’ve got food in here. The shower has basic toiletries, so you can clean up. I can probably scrounge up some clothes for you to change into,” she said, eyeing my mud-stained jeans and scraggly hair.
I lifted a hand to smooth my hair, then dropped it, not wanting to feel how gross I was. I’d been trying not to think about it since fixing the situation was temporarily out of my reach.
“Do the grocery list,” Eli said to me, then looked toAlice. “Forget the shower and change of clothes. We’re headed to the police station in Midtown. There’s a big box store over there. We’ll swing by. She can stock up.”
“Eli, at least let her shower and change before?—”
“No time. The detective assigned to the case has a short window, and it’s better if I bring her to him than if he has to track her down later.”
