Читать книгу Once Stalked - Блейк Пирс - Страница 15

As Riley approached Private Pope, she decided not to let on that that she knew anything about him – certainly not that he’d been demoted by Sergeant Worthing. She thought it would be best to see what the young soldier would be willing to reveal.

She stepped right beside him, but he didn’t seem to notice her presence. His bitter expression remained unchanged and his eyes stayed fixed on the grave.

Finally, she asked, “Taking the sarge’s death kind of hard?”

He turned his head and looked at her and then his expression shifted for a moment. He regarded her with obvious distaste, but he didn’t reply to her question. Then he turned and stared down into the grave again, brooding as before.

“Not everyone seemed to like him,” Riley said. “Did you?”

Private Pope still said nothing.

Riley said, “It’s probably a hard thing to talk about. But I think maybe I understand. I lost my dad recently – and he was a Marine, a captain who served in Vietnam. Folks didn’t like him much either.”

Then she added with a lie …

“Still, I miss him.”

Pope didn’t look up from the grave.

“You don’t know anything about it,” Pope said. “How could you? You’re not one of us.”

His resentment of Riley was practically radiating off of him.

“I might surprise you,” Riley said. “I know a thing or two about comradeship. There’s a deep bond among FBI agents. And I’ve lost colleagues in the line of work. I know it’s hard.”

He didn’t reply at all.

“Come on,” Riley said. “Let’s take a little walk.”