by Mary Stone
If she were to somehow disappear, she had a kill switch in place. He’d still be caught.
But, to his mind, it was better to have a poisonous snake where you could see it than to know it was slithering around, but not exactly sure where. He and Heidi were partners…for the time being.
He’d play along with her game, but he wouldn’t be played.
In the meantime, he had an errand to run.
5
Sun was going over her notes again when Agent Black came into the conference room at a quarter to seven. Sun had been in the office since five-thirty and had looked forward to Winter being late. She was mildly disappointed to find that her new “partner” was also an early riser.
“Sit down,” Sun snapped. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
“Good morning to you too,” Winter replied, her tone even. Her eyes were a calm, dark blue in the harsh overhead lights. She took off her jacket with deliberate movements and pulled a notebook and pen out of her bag. She sat down across the table and opened her notebook. “What do we have?”
“I’d like to lay down some ground rules first, rookie.” Sun had the satisfaction of seeing Winter’s gaze fly up to hers, her eyes narrowing. “I’m the case agent on this. I want that to be crystal clear. This means that there will be none of the behavior you’ve shown on other cases since you’ve been with the department. You answer to me.”
Winter set her pen down and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. “Would you like to clarify what behavior you’re referring to?”
“I’ve watched you since you started.” Sun ticked items off on her fingers. “In less than a year, you’ve shown a decided inability to participate within this unit as a part of the team. You have a hotshot mentality, going off on your own and breaking with protocol to apprehend a suspect. You put another agent in danger and nearly got him killed.”
“Did SSA Parrish tell you that?” Winter asked. Her voice was quiet. Deadly quiet.
“He didn’t have to,” Sun replied. “I read the reports.” It had been a calculated guess on her part, and her lips curled as she scored the point. “You will not go off on your own, and you will curb this immature need for attention you seem to have. You are an unseasoned agent. Fresh out of Quantico. You have untrained instincts, no law enforcement or military background, and no practical work experience to speak of. I have no idea why they hired you and still believe it was an absolute mistake.”
She watched Winter as she said it, looking hard for any reaction. There was none. Winter had a helluva poker face. Sun had hoped for more of a fight.
“I don’t like you,” Winter responded after a moment. Her voice was flat, and she sounded almost bored. Her posture was relaxed, her fingers laced together on the table in front of her, loose and easy. Her face was like marble for all the expression she showed. “You don’t like me either, but we have a job to do. I’d appreciate if you filed a complaint with Osbourne, requesting another agent to assist…if you can find one willing to come near you. Or you can get on with the briefing. I have no interest in your opinion of my conduct, and you’re wasting my time.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Sun kept a furious tremble out of her voice by force of will. “Let you off the hook on this so you can go back to working your way through every man in this office?”
Winter’s eyes widened, and she burst into laughter. It rang through the small room, and from the corner of her eye, Sun could see other agents—John “Bull” Durham and Brian Camp—pop their heads over the sides of their cubicles to see what was happening.
“You’re mental,” Winter gasped out, sparing the other woman a rare grin. “Completely mental.”
Conscious of their coworkers’ stares, Sun stretched her lips into a thin smile. “You act like you’re sweet and innocent, but I know how you got this job.”
“Hard work? Excellent college credentials?” Winter suggested. “Tying with Dalton for the top of our class at Quantico? Get on with the brief. I’m having a hard time taking you seriously right now. I can’t believe I heard you were brilliant.”
Sun seethed beneath the thin veneer of calm. This was not going as it was supposed to. The bitch was laughing at her.
Sun pulled out the binder that held her case notes and slammed it down on the desk, hard enough for the sound to echo like a gunshot. “Armed robbery. American Bank and Trust in San Clemente, California.”
“Two fatalities,” Winter supplied, making no movement to even look at the file. “Security guard and branch manager. Suspects wearing Richard Nixon masks got away with two hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Three witnesses, no leads. Why did you request this case?”
If looks could kill, Winter would be writhing around on the floor in her death throes. Sun had lost the reins of the conversation, and she needed to get them back. Winter, in just minutes, had hit on something dangerous.
Sun reined herself in. Any display of additional temper now would just make the rookie more curious. She’d already shown a tendency for making logical jumps that escaped others.
“Have you ever heard of the United California Bank burglary?” Sun bit out the words, modulating her tone a little.
“I’m familiar with it. One of the biggest bank robberies in U.S. history. Happened back in the seventies.”
“You should be familiar with it, if your ‘college credentials’ are really that excellent. In 1972, at the United California Bank in Laguna Niguel, nine million dollars in cash and valuables were stolen by a group of professionals led by Amil Dinsio.”
“Right. The guy wrote a book about it a few years ago.”
Sun nodded. “The thieves were under the impression that Nixon’s reelection campaign money was kept in that vault. It wasn’t, but they managed to blow a hole in the roof of the place with dynamite and go back in over the course of the next couple of days to take most of what was in there. The banks were closed on the weekends back then.”
“What’s the connection between this robbery and the 1972 one? Besides the Nixon masks?”
Sun had been thinking hard during the conversation and had already decided what information to give Winter and what to hold back.
“The Dinsio gang didn’t find Nixon’s money, because it wasn’t there. It was at a American Bank and Trust in San Clemente. I think the Nixon masks worn during the San Clemente robbery were a nod to the United California Bank burglary.” Sun tried not to react to the way Winter was watching her with a steady, questioning gaze.
Winter put down her pen. “It’s more than a stretch. These bank robbers didn’t blow a hole in the roof with dynamite. The Dinsio gang didn’t execute two bank employees. It didn’t take these three days, and they definitely didn’t make off with nine million. Plus, the Nixon masks could have just as easily been inspired by the movie Point Break.”
“The American Bank and Trust robbery is just the first.” It was hard to keep the excitement out of her voice, but dammit, this was it. This was going to be the case of Sun’s career. “It’s a practice run for what’s coming next.” Even just saying that out loud made her blood tingle in anticipation.
“How do you know?”
“Call it a hunch. You’re familiar with those, I’m told,” Sun added, sneering.
Winter shrugged. “Have it your way. When do we leave?”
She’d accepted it. Sun could let herself relax. A little.
“We check in for our flight at nine. We’re meeting with local law enforcement tonight. I hope you don’t mind, but there was only one seat left in business class. You’ll be flying coach.”
“Not a problem,” Winter replied, matching Sun’s tone as she gathered her things. “I’d never be a bitch over something as petty as an airplane seat. See you in San Clemente.”
She’d gotten the last word in, for whatever that was worth.
Winter fumed as she swung by her desk to pick up her laptop. Sun was unbelievable. She knew the situation wasn’t going to be a picnic. She didn’t
need any special abilities for that. But the reality was shaping up to be far worse.
“Hey.” Noah was there, his usual grin in place. It faded a bit when he saw her face. “Not an auspicious beginning, I take it?”
Winter glared back and slammed her purse down on her desk. “Understatement,” she gritted out.
“Got time for a cup of coffee? I know a little chocolate and caffeine always perks you up.”
“I have to be at the airport at nine. Coffee will not fix this.”
“It can’t hurt.” Without waiting for an answer, he picked up her bag himself. “Come on. We’ll hit a drive-through on the way to the airport. I’ll drop you off. You haven’t gotten to ride in Beulah yet.”
He kept chipping away at her with that annoying good mood of his, the entire way to the parking lot.
“Don’t you have work to do?” she asked, after climbing into the impossibly high up Ford and buckling her seatbelt.
“Sure,” he responded, his tone cheerful. “I’m part of a surveillance team later this morning, but I happen to have just enough time to chauffer you first. What do you think of Beulah?” He patted the dashboard with such transparent pride, she had to stifle a laugh.
“She’s big.” The truck could eat her Civic for breakfast and still be hungry. “What’s my reputation like around the unit?”
Noah glanced at her in surprise at the non sequitur. “Um—”
“Be honest,” she demanded. “I don’t want any of your kumbaya bullshit.”
“Okay,” Noah drawled, and she thought he might be stalling for time. “I guess people think of you as kind of standoffish. Smart. Good instincts. I’m pretty sure Doug in computer forensics thinks you’re cute. No one knows about your extras. As far as I’m aware, anyway.”
“Sun said I’m working my way through the guys in the office.”
Noah’s jaw dropped for a full five seconds, processing that before he burst into laughter. “Darlin’, if that’s the case, consider me first in line. Did she somehow find out that we shared a hotel room in Harrisonburg?”
Winter scowled at the reminder. “There was nothing to that, and you know it.”
“Yeah.” His sigh was mournful, but his green eyes twinkled at her. “We would have had more fun if there had been something to it.”
The tension in her shoulders eased, just a little, and she sat back farther in her seat. The truck was comfortable, not that she’d ever drive something as huge.
“I thought you were seeing that waitress from Louie’s. The little blonde. Janet?”
“Jessie,” he corrected with a wistful smile that showed the dimple in his right cheek. “It was a fun two weeks, but she dumped me for the bartender.” He hit the left-hand turn signal and pulled into a Starbucks. “She said I was too old for her.”
“You are too old for her. What are you? Thirty?”
“Thirty-one.”
“Sun’s holding something back from me on the case. Something important.”
“Another non sequitur?” His smile widened into a teasing grin. “You don’t even want to hear me whine about my broken heart?”
“If I wanted to hear whining about broken hearts, I’d just turn on your radio.”
He tapped his thumb on the steering wheel. “So, is this a regular old hunch, some serious intuition, or did you…um, see something?”
“I didn’t see anything.”
That would be awful. To have one of her blinding headaches and wake up on the floor with her nose bleeding and Sun staring at her with those smug, dark eyes of hers. She shuddered.
“It’s more of a strong feeling. Her reasons for wanting this case are flimsy at best and farfetched at worst. I’m thinking Max agreed just to get her across the country for a while and out of his hair. I’m just the sacrificial goat picked to go along for the ride.”
“Darlin’, it shouldn’t have taken any special skill to figure that one out.”
Once they had their coffee in hand, Winter filled him in on the case info Sun had given her. She left out the argument and the bitchy sniping. Not because she thought he’d pass it around—he was too good of a guy for that—but because she didn’t want to sound like she was complaining.
“Just keep your head down, but your eyes open,” he advised. “If you feel like there’s something there, there probably is. And be careful.”
At the airport, he pulled up in the passenger drop-off lane.
“Thanks for the ride. And the verbal valium.”
Noah snorted. “Really? Verbal valium? Maybe that’s why Jessie broke up with me.”
6
It was agents like Sun that gave the FBI a bad reputation for bossing around local police departments. Winter wasn’t a people person. At least it didn’t come to her without effort, like it did with Noah. But when Sun put herself in the role of bad cop, it was clear that left Winter to have to pick up the slack and play damage control.
Sun had already pissed off everyone she’d come in contact with. Apparently, she didn’t just save her attitude for her co-workers. She spread it around with liberal generosity.
“I need to interview the witnesses again,” Sun said. “Whoever did this the first time shouldn’t be allowed to wear a badge.”
Shannon Marchwood, the San Clemente Sheriff, reddened under her tan. She was a slim woman in her forties with dark hair scraped back in a ponytail and a no-nonsense attitude. She wasn’t tall, but she still topped Sun by two inches when she straightened up in a fury.
“Look, I already talked to two San Diego agents about this,” Shannan spat. “They did their report, asked some questions, and promised to assist if we needed help. Same with the ATF guys. We didn’t ask for assistance. My department has everything under control.”
Sun scowled and started to speak, but Winter jumped in to referee the situation. “Sheriff Marchwood, we’re here to serve as a resource, not a threat. We won’t do anything to invalidate what you’ve done so far or jeopardize your investigation. Maybe what Agent Ming meant to say is that we’d like the opportunity to sit with you while you interview the witnesses again. To see if they’ve thought of anything else that might be helpful during the time since you talked with them last.”
Sun hadn’t missed the fact that the sheriff’s name was on the interview reports. She was deliberately goading the woman.
Shannon took a deep breath and sat back down behind her desk, her posture stiff and defensive. “Of course. I’ll make the arrangements for tomorrow morning.”
“You’ll make them—” Sun looked militant when Winter interrupted again.
“Tomorrow morning will be fine,” Winter corrected. “We have the security recordings to go over, right?”
Sun shot Winter a warning look that promised retribution later.
Oh, well.
The sheriff took them to a conference room, where a TV had been set up. She pulled the video up on the laptop. “There’s nothing here,” she stated. “Whoever did this was thorough enough to hack the security system and erase the footage.”
They studied the screen, where the sped-up recording showed customers streaming in and out of the bank. The security guard to the right of the entrance lounged at his desk and didn’t seem particularly alert. The tellers all worked with practiced efficiency. There was no odd behavior or anything that stood out to Winter. Except for the timestamp at the bottom of the screen.
“So, they replaced the footage with the previous day’s recording,” Sun muttered.
“Right,” Shannon replied. “I’ll email you both the files, but we’ve gone over it all and haven’t caught anything out of the ordinary. We’ve also checked out every employee and past employees, in case it was an inside job or a grudge thing. It doesn’t seem to be.”
They continued to talk, but the conversation blurred as something on the video caught Winter’s eye.
Still playing, sped up, security footage was now showing the day after the robbery. The picture was in black and white, but a red dot
shimmered on the screen, just below the teller cubbies. The farthest one toward the left. It flickered when people moved in front of it but stayed in the same place. It was tiny, maybe coin-sized.
Winter had seen this happen before.
Like in college, when a student had been holding people up for cash and jewelry, she’d found the guy out. Because the stolen items glowed so distinctly, she could see the light leaking out of his closed desk drawer in his bedroom, where he’d stashed them.
It hadn’t been the last time something like that had happened. For some reason, sometimes things connected with violent crimes glowed with a crimson light that no one else but Winter could see.
By now, she didn’t question it, but she couldn’t very well tell Sun and the sheriff. At best, she’d be treated as a woo-woo freak. At worst, she’d be tossed into a looney bin…and treated as a woo-woo freak.
Winter felt enough like a freak on her own.
Sun was playing nicer now but still had an irritating, condescending edge to her voice as she questioned Marchwood.
“Would it be possible for us to still see the crime scene today?” Winter asked as soon as she could get a word in without interrupting either combatant.
The sheriff nodded. “I can take you through it. You know how to get there from here?”
Sun, who’d insisted on driving, did.
The silence in the car was loaded and angry. After a few minutes, Sun spoke first. “Do we need to go over our talk from this morning?”
Winter bit back a retort. “Noted,” she said instead. “But you’ll never get anything out of the local LEOs if you don’t tone down the attitude.”
“I didn’t ask for your advice. From now on, don’t try to make me look bad.”
Sun turned on the radio and cranked up the volume on the NPR station that was programmed into the rental car stereo, signaling the end of the conversation.
Nice talk, Winter thought as she looked out the window.
It was the first time she’d been to California. With the time difference, it was still only five in the afternoon. She was thankful that she’d swapped out her wool blazer for cotton before leaving Richmond because it was almost eighty degrees. The roads were lined with palm trees, and adobe-themed buildings with iron railings gleamed white in the sun.