Page 8 of Forever Dark
Nobody at the table liked hearing that months of anxiety, inter-agency pressure, and private briefings had boiled down to one frightened man trying to bury his own life under something grander.Washington liked motives with architecture.The city respected schemes more than weakness.Selena cared for none of it.She loved the thrill of working on top cases for the FBI, especially out of Washington, DC, but she did not care for the politics of it all.In fact, she detested that one aspect, letting Meg Calloway know it quite regularly.
The silver-haired man sat back.“You’re asking us to believe two additional murders were committed only to camouflage the first?”
“I’m not asking you to believe it,” Selena said.“I’m telling you that’s what happened.Leroy left a trail of breadcrumbs to make us think it was something more.It almost worked.”
Selena caught Meg’s gaze.One corner of Meg’s mouth almost moved.Almost.
The man with a lapel pin exhaled through his nose.“You do understand the implications of reducing this case to a closeted affair and a desperate man?Months of work was carried out on this.Inter-agency.It was in the press.The public will see this as some sort of cover-up if there’s no political involvement.”
Selena looked at him.“Three men are dead.They and their families deserve answers.I’m not reducing anything.If it causes problems with optics or people on the committee don’t like my methods, well, that should be secondary.We caught the killer.”
The room went quiet again.
A younger aide near the end of the table, the only one who had stayed silent so far, finally spoke.“So, there’s no national security compromise?No foreign channel?No larger network?”
“Not from anything we found,” Selena said.“We examined devices, finance records, contacts, work product, off-site storage, travel, and known touchpoints.Nothing supports the theory you wanted.”
The pen stopped tapping.
One of the men rubbed a hand over his mouth.Another closed his folder without looking down at it first.
At last, the silver-haired one said, “We’ll look over your case notes and have a team carry out an investigation into how this all came undone.Keep your nose clean while we do that.”
Selena gave a single nod.“Thank you for your time.”
Chairs shifted.Papers were collected.Nobody rushed, but nobody lingered either.As they filed out, their faces carried the same pinched dissatisfaction they’d brought in, only now it had nowhere useful to go.
The door shut behind them.
Selena set the remote on the table and let out a sigh.Something felt off about this one.Like she’d stepped on one too many toes.
Meg pushed off the wall and came forward.“They wanted it to have a political angle.It’s all the national press has been talking about for months.”
“Well,” Selena said, “they can’t have one.Their previous team got nowhere.I went over everything and identified how the killer and Behar were communicating and that’s led to what really happened.If they don’t like that, that’s not my problem.I’m here to do a job, Meg.”
Meg stopped across from her.“And you did great work.But, Selena, try not to ruffle too many feathers.”
Selena collected the case file into a neat stack.“I won’t.You know I love working out of Washington.It’s a buzz getting important cases, not something I want to lose.But I just wish people were more straight-talking out here.Sometimes I wish we had an occasional quiet case to take a breath.”
Meg’s gaze stayed on her face a beat too long.“Be careful what you wish for.”
Selena looked up.She felt disappointment coming.
That tone meant trouble.
Not disaster.Meg never sounded dramatic.Disaster came out of her in the same voice she used to request coffee.But there was something in the set of her shoulders that made Selena put the papers down again.
A small sigh escaped her.“I know that look, boss.What is it?”
Meg drew a manila folder from under her arm and slid it across the table.
Selena rested her fingertips on it without opening it.“That bad you needed a folder?”
“There’s been a murder close to where you grew up.”
A short laugh left Selena before she could stop it.Not amused.More disbelief finding the nearest exit.“Is that policy now?Sending agents to places where they were born if there’s a federal crime?”
“This isn’t a federal crime.”
