Page 78 of Night Watch
Bound to?Erik wasn’t quite so optimistic, but he wouldn’t bring his brothers or Kennedy down with him. “You’re right. I’ll cool it. “
“At the risk of making you madder, my turn to ask about the anthrax for you two.” Brendan split his focus between Erik and Kennedy.
“I’m good,” Kennedy said.
“Me too,” Erik said. “And I’m ready to get to work.”
“Before we start,” Clay said, “I wanted to update you on my investigation into Finley and a potential loan shark. If she’s in debt to someone, I couldn’t find it.”
“Glad to hear that,” Kennedy said.
“I had a similar bust on Nora’s sons,” Aiden said. “They’re squeaky clean and all have solid alibis for the times in question.”
Erik frowned. “These guys were a long shot at best. Let’s get moving on the list. Kennedy and I’ll first review Wanda’s phone and email contacts for gardeners, then start on our portion of the list.”
“Time to head to the cubicles.” Drake got up and squeezed Erik’s shoulder as he passed by.
Erik cast his brother a thank you look and the same with his other brothers as they went to their respective cubicles. Erik looked at Kennedy. “The list is on the server. Let me get a computer for you to use.”
He grabbed a laptop from his cubicle, set the machine next to her, and logged her into the network.
“You really have a great support group, don’t you?” she asked.
“It sure is hard to stay in a bad mood with them around,” he said. “They’ll work until they get you out of it.”
“My mom was like that.” She frowned. “Now, I need to be the one to do that for Finley, but how can I from across the country?”
“You could just move back here.”
“Not if I want to keep diving for the bureau,” she said. “The Portland office isn’t big enough to support such a position.”
“Maybe they’d let you work from here but keep you on salary out of Virginia.”
“I can’t imagine they’d do that.”
“But you’re on the road for the job, so does it really matter where your home base is?”
“I suppose not, though Portland is a fairly expensive city to fly from on short notice. But when I’m not diving, I work in the lab, and that’s not possible here.”
She had him there. Why was he trying to talk her into moving back here? Was it for Finley or for himself?
“Besides, if Finley chooses to remain in WITSEC, this conversation is moot.”
His mood had improved some, but her comment sent it diving again. “You’ll go with her, of course.”
“Yes.” The word was so quiet, he almost missed it.
He’d hoped she wouldn’t answer. Especially not so quickly. That she would say she had to think about it. But he knew she was making the right decision. Family was everything.
“I assume you’ll talk to her tonight.”
Kennedy nodded.
He grabbed his own laptop, logged into the network, and opened the file. “You take the first half of the list, and like we did when we worked the phone calls, enter any information you learn in the spreadsheet.”
“Will do.”
He turned his attention to the names. On the sixth one, he looked up. “Here’s something. One of your mother’s fellow scientists is a botanist. Judson Purvis. He’s on faculty at OHSU, and he fits the intruder’s description.”
