Page 6 of Ultimate Justice

She stood so fast the chair she’d been sitting on scooted back, scraping on the floor. She put a finger to her lips, whispering, “I’ll try to come back later. It’ll be our secret.” Although prolonging any contact with the boy would only dredge up memories and the heart-wrenching agony she still felt some days was barely in check.

“I should be going.” She reached for the rolling trash bin just as Tish, Dr. Strobie, and two men she didn’t know came into the room. The first was tall and dark-haired, extraordinarily handsome, and held a leash attached to a large German shepherd. The dog wore a vest, the sides of which were embroidered with gold FBI badges, the same as the one on the tall man’s black, long-sleeve polo shirt. Without issuing any command, the dog sat at his side. The side with the mean-looking holstered gun. The other man wore a suit and tie, carried a leather portfolio, and was several inches shorter.

Dr. Strobie narrowed his eyes on Marlie. She could practically hear the man growl his annoyance. Tall and slender with dark beady eyes and wearing a black suit, he really did look like Lurch.

“Yes, you should be going.” Strobie strode to the other side of Noah’s bed and rested a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

Noah shrugged off Strobie’s hand and latched onto Marlie’s wrist with surprising strength. “Please, don’t leave me alone with them.” His eyes darted to Strobie, then to the tall man and his dog. The grip he had on her wrist tightened, and the absolute fear radiating from his eyes began chipping away at the stone wall she’d erected around her heart.

Strobie gave Tish a meaningful look. “She’s a hospital custodian. A janitor. She shouldn’t be talking to a patient in the first place.”

“There’s no rule prohibiting a custodian from speaking with a patient.” Tish gave Strobie her consummate moderator smile and addressed Noah. “You know Dr. Strobie is only trying to help.” She indicated the man standing on her other side, whom Marlie now realized was every bit as tall as Strobie, but where Strobie’s long limbs were bony and thin, this man’s were thick with muscles that strained against the fabric of his shirt and cargo pants. “This is Special Agent McGarry and Mr. Kinnemara. They’re with the FBI. They’ve been waiting for you to be well enough to speak with them. Do you think you’re ready to do that?”

Agent McGarry watched Noah silently from steely gray eyes. Something about the way the other man hung back, standing slightly behind McGarry, suggested McGarry was in charge.

“Of course, he’s ready,” Strobie interjected, answering for Noah and making Marlie want to punch him. “Noah isn’t a baby. He’s eleven years old. Isn’t that right, Noah?”

Strobie’s handling of Noah was so far off the mark, it wasn’t funny. Contrary to what Strobie had proclaimed, even eleven-year-old boys could be afraid. Especially of the police. This wasn’t the way to handle things with a child of any age, particularly one who’d been through what Noah had. If that man actually knew anything about counseling children, she’d strip naked and take a bath in her rolling dumpster.

“I’ll only talk if she can stay. She can, can’t she?” Noah turned his sad, pleading gaze on Agent McGarry, who’d been listening and observing the back-and-forth with an inscrutable look on his face—one with high cheek bones and framed by short, but thick, dark-brown hair. Something about the hard set of the agent’s jaw and the determination glittering in his eyes sent a protective surge through her. The man’s dog had been swiveling his head back and forth, as if he, too, were taking in the conversation.

Strobie opened his mouth to say something, but Agent McGarry cut him off. “Doesn’t matter to me if she’s a hospital custodian or Elliott Ness. If it makes Noah more comfortable, she can stay.”

“What?” she blurted out.

“Really?” Noah’s face brightened. He unclamped his fingers from her wrist, only to thread them with hers so she couldn’t escape. “You can stay! He said it was okay.”

“I, um. Have to work.” She chewed her lower lip. The instinct to protect warred with her instinct to flee. She’d taken the job to be invisible. After all, who ever talked to the hospital janitor? To further her invisibility, she’d specifically requested the night shift so she’d have even fewer people to interact with. She barely spoke with anyone these days except Tish. And Noah. That had taken her completely by surprise. Her throat went dry, and her skin prickled like someone was sticking pins in her.

Run. The word exploded in her mind like a sonic boom, yet her feet wouldn’t move. Marlie glanced to where Noah’s fingers curled around hers, and she swallowed, hearing the steady thumping of her pulse in her ears right before croaking out, “Okay.”

“Dr. Strobie.” Agent McGarry turned to “Dr. Lurch.” “How about rounding up a couple more chairs so we can all get comfortable? Thanks,” he added, ignoring the flabbergasted look on the other man’s face as he walked to the bed and extended his hand to Noah. “I’m Evan McGarry. I don’t know if you remember me. My dog, Blue, found you in that basement.”

“I remember you.” Hesitantly, Noah released her hand to shake the agent’s.

The gesture wasn’t lost on her. McGarry was making friends with Noah, already putting him more at ease than Dr. Lurch ever had. It was clear he had some training dealing with children.

“This is my friend, Sam Kinnemara.” He indicated the other man. “And you are?” He held out his enormous hand again, this time, to her.

As she watched her hand lift to his, it occurred to her that she hadn’t been touched by a man—for any reason—in years. “Marlie,” she said in a slightly less croaky voice. “Marlie Foxe.”

His hand was indeed large, and warm, his fingers long as they clasped hers. His eyes softened for an instant before he released her hand. Only then did she glimpse a weariness in his expression, as if he’d been up for days without sleep. Maybe he had been. The man’s five o’clock shadow was more like a ten o’clock shadow.

“Six is a crowd, and I can see you have things well in hand, Agent McGarry,” Tish said, giving everyone in the room the same consummate smile she’d given Strobie earlier. She winked at Marlie. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my office. Agent McGarry, Dr. Strobie, please keep me informed.”

Watching Tish abandon her, Marlie gulped. She shouldn’t be here. Shouldn’t be letting herself get dragged into an FBI investigation, let alone one involving children.

Too late now.

The time to flee had come and gone. Noah needed her, at least for this interview. After that, she’d go back to her janitorial duties, and all would be well again in her safe, invisible world.

“How ’bout those chairs, Dr. Strobie?” McGarry threw over his shoulder in a matter-of-fact, yet authoritative tone.

Strobie spun on his heels and disappeared from the room quickly, as if compelled by some invisible force to obey McGarry’s order. The agent definitely had a commanding presence, she’d give him that.

McGarry’s dog turned his big head to stare after Strobie, then gave a quick snort that struck Marlie as being humanly dismissive.

As she stifled the laugh that bubbled up in her throat, a palpable shock wave rolled through her. The feeling of almost laughing was so foreign, so unexpected.