Читать книгу Once Lost - Блейк Пирс - Страница 10

When Riley’s cell phone started ringing, Blaine’s last shots were still ringing in her ears. Reluctantly, she pulled out her phone. She had hoped to have an uninterrupted morning with Blaine. When she looked at the phone she knew she was about to be disappointed. The call was from Brent Meredith.

She’d been surprised at how much she was enjoying teaching Blaine to shoot his new pistol. Whatever Meredith wanted, Riley felt sure it was going to interrupt the best day she’d had in a long while.

But she had no choice but to take the call.

As usual, Meredith was brusque and to the point.

“We’ve got a new case. We need you on it. How fast can you get to Quantico?”

Riley suppressed a sigh. With Bill on leave, Riley had hoped to have some time off until the pain of Lucy’s death eased a little.

No such luck, she thought.

No doubt she would be leaving town shortly. Did she have enough time to run home and see everybody and change clothes?

“How about an hour?” Riley asked.

“Make it shorter. Meet me in my office. And bring your go bag.”

Meredith ended the call without waiting for a reply.

Blaine was standing there waiting for her. He pulled off his eye and ear protection gear and asked, “Something to do with work?”

Riley sighed aloud.

“Yeah, I’ve got to get to Quantico right away.”

Blaine nodded without complaint and unloaded the gun.

“I’ll drive you there,” he said.

“No, I’m going to need my go bag. And that’s in my car at home. I’m afraid you need to drop me off at my place. I’m also afraid we’re in a bit of a hurry.”

“No problem,” Blaine said, carefully putting the new weapon in its case.

Riley gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“It sounds like I’m going to be leaving town,” she said. “I hate that. I’ve had such a wonderful time.”

Blaine smiled and kissed her back.

“I’ve had a wonderful time too,” he said. “Don’t worry. We’ll pick up where we left off as soon as you get back.”

As they left the shooting range and exited through the gun store, the owner called a hearty goodbye to them.

*

After Blaine dropped her off at her house, Riley dashed inside to explain to everyone that she was leaving. She didn’t even have time for a change of clothes, but at least she had showered at Blaine’s house this morning. She was relieved that her family seemed unruffled by her sudden change in plans.

They’re getting used to getting along without me, she thought. She wasn’t sure she really liked that idea, but she knew it was a necessity in a life like hers.

Riley checked that everything she needed was in her car and then made the short drive to Quantico. When she arrived at the BAU building, she headed straight for Brent Meredith’s office. To her dismay, she encountered Jenn Roston walking in the same direction down the hall.

Riley and Jenn made eye contact for just a fleeting moment, then they both hastened on in silence.

Riley wondered whether Jenn felt as awkward right now as she did. Just yesterday they’d had an uncomfortable meeting, and Riley was still uncertain whether she had made a terrible mistake in giving Jenn that thumb drive.

But Jenn probably wasn’t worried about it, Riley figured.

After all, Jenn had had the upper hand yesterday. She’d controlled the situation brilliantly to her own advantage. Had Riley ever known anyone who had been able to manipulate her that way?

She quickly realized – of course she had.

That person was Shane Hatcher.

Still walking and still facing straight ahead, the younger agent spoke quietly. “It didn’t pan out.”

“What?” Riley asked, without breaking her own stride.

“The financial information on the thumb drive. Hatcher used to have funds stored in those accounts. But the money has all been moved out, and the accounts are closed.”

Riley resisted the impulse to say, “I know.”

After all, Hatcher had said as much yesterday in his threatening text message.

For a moment Riley didn’t know what to say. She kept walking without comment.

Did Jenn think that Riley had double-crossed her by slipping her a phony file?

Finally Riley said, “That file was all I’ve got. I’m not holding out on you.”

Jenn didn’t reply. Riley wished she had some idea whether she believed her.

She also wondered – if she had put that information to use earlier on, might Hatcher be behind bars right now? Or even dead?

When they reached the door to Meredith’s office, Riley stopped, and so did Jenn.

Riley felt a touch of alarm.

Jenn was obviously going to Meredith’s office too.

Why was the new agent in on this meeting? Had she told Meredith about Riley withholding information?

But Jenn just stood there, still making no eye contact.

Riley knocked on Meredith’s door, and then she and Jenn went inside.

Chief Meredith was sitting behind his desk, looking as intimidating as usual.

He said, “Sit, both of you.”

Riley and Jenn obediently sat down in chairs in front of the desk.

Meredith was quiet for a moment.

Then he said, “Agent Paige, Agent Roston – I’d like each of you to meet your new partner.”

Riley stifled a gasp. She glanced at Jenn Roston, whose dark brown eyes had widened at the news.

“That had better not be a problem,” Meredith said. “The BAU is overloaded with cases right now. With Agent Jeffreys on leave and everybody else on assignment, you get each other. Consider it settled.”

Riley realized that Meredith was right. The only other agent she might really want to work with right now was Craig Huang, but he was busy watching her home.

“This is fine, sir,” Riley said to Meredith.

Jenn said, “I’ll be honored to work with Agent Paige, sir.”

Those words surprised Riley a little. She wondered if Jenn really meant them.

“Don’t get too excited,” he said. “This case probably won’t amount to much. Just this morning, a teenage girl’s body was found buried in farmland near Angier, a small town in Iowa.”

“A single murder?” Jenn asked.

“Why is this a case for the BAU?” Riley asked.

Meredith drummed his fingers on his desk.

“My guess is it probably isn’t one,” he said. “But another girl went missing earlier from the same town, and she still hasn’t been found. It’s a small, quiet place where this sort of thing just doesn’t happen. Folks there say that neither girl was the type who might run away or take up with strangers.”

Riley shook her head doubtfully.

“So what makes anybody think this a serial?” she asked. “Without another body, isn’t that a little premature?”

Meredith shrugged.

“Yeah, that’s the way I see it. But the police chief in Angier, Joseph Sinard, is in a panic about it.”

Riley’s forehead crinkled at the sound of the name.

“Sinard,” she said. “Where have I heard that name before?”

Meredith smiled a little and said, “Maybe you’re thinking of the FBI’s executive assistant director, Forrest Sinard. Joe Sinard is his brother.”

Riley almost rolled her eyes. It made sense now. Somebody high in the FBI food chain was being pestered by a relative in the heartland, so the case had gotten kicked to the BAU. She’d been stuck with politically driven investigations like this in the past.

Meredith said, “You two need to go out there and see if there’s even a case to look at.”

“What about my work on the Hatcher case?” Jenn Roston asked.

Meredith said, “We’ve got plenty of folks working on that – technicians and fact-finders and such. I assume they’ve got access to all your information.”

Jenn nodded.

Meredith said, “They can spare you for a few days. If this even takes that long.”

Riley’s feelings were decidedly mixed. Aside from not being sure about whether she wanted to work with Jenn Roston, she didn’t much look forward to wasting her time on a case that probably didn’t even need BAU help.

She’d rather be helping Blaine learn to shoot.

Or doing other things with Blaine, she thought, suppressing a smile.

“So when do we leave?” Jenn asked.

“As soon as possible,” Meredith said. “I’ve told Chief Sinard not to move the body until you get there. You’ll fly into Des Moines, where Chief Sinard’s people will meet you and drive you to Angier. It’s about an hour from Des Moines. We have to get the plane fueled up and ready to go. In the meantime, don’t go too far. Takeoff will be in less than two hours.”

Riley and Jenn left Meredith’s office. Riley went straight to her own office, sat down for a moment, and looked around aimlessly.

Des Moines, she thought.

She’d only been there a few times, but it was where her older sister, Wendy, lived. Riley and Wendy, estranged for years, had gotten in touch last fall when their father was dying. Wendy, not Riley, had been with Daddy when he died.

Thinking about Wendy stirred up guilt over that as well as other disturbing memories. Daddy had been hard on Riley’s sister, and Wendy had run away when she was fifteen. Riley had been just five. After their father died, they had vowed to keep in touch, but so far that had amounted to a video chat.

Riley knew she should visit Wendy if she had the chance. But obviously not right away. Meredith had said that Angier was an hour away from Des Moines and that the local police would pick them up at the airport.

Maybe I can see Wendy before I come back to Quantico, she thought.

Right now, she had a little time to kill before the BAU plane took off.

And there was someone she wanted to see.

She was worried about her longtime partner, Bill Jeffreys. He lived near the base, but she hadn’t seen him for several days. Bill was suffering from PTSD, and Riley knew from her own experience how tough recovery could be.

She took out her cell phone and typed a text message.

Thought I’d stop by for a few minutes. U home?

She waited a few moments. The message was marked “delivered” but not yet read.

Riley sighed a little. She didn’t have time to wait for Bill to check his messages. If she wanted to see him before she left, she had to drop by right now and just hope he was home.

*

It was only a few minutes’ drive from the BAU building to Bill’s little apartment in the town of Quantico. When she parked her car and started toward the building, she noticed again what a depressing place it was.

There was nothing especially wrong with it as apartment buildings went – it was an ordinary red brick building, not a tenement or anything like that. But Riley couldn’t help remembering the nice suburban home where Bill had lived until his divorce. In comparison, this place had no charm at all and now he lived alone. It wasn’t a happy situation for her best friend.

Riley walked into the building and headed straight toward Bill’s second-story apartment. She knocked on the door and waited.

No reply came. She knocked again and still got no response.

She took out her cell phone and saw that the message was still unread.

She felt a burst of worry. Had something happened to Bill?

She reached for the doorknob and turned it.

To her alarm, the door was unlocked, and it swung open.