LURING

by Blake Pierce

  Actually, the whole thing was probably stupid in the first place.

  Pointing at Riley’s handbag, Senator Gardner exchanged looks with the bodyguards who sat flanking her.

  Obeying his silent command, one of the bodyguards grabbed her bag and scrounged roughly through it until he located her wallet. He quickly found Riley’s FBI Academy ID card and showed it to Gardner.

  Gardner squinted at the card and said, “FBI?”

  The guard said, “According to this ID, her name is Riley Sweeney. She’s just an agent in training, sir. At the Academy in Quantico.”

  Gardner’s eyes widened as he stared at Riley.

  “Nonsense,” he said.

  Riley shivered deeply.

  This isn’t good, she thought.

  “It’s true, sir,” she said in a shaky voice. “I just started at the Academy this week.”

  Gardner glared at her silently for what seemed like a long time.

  Then he said, “Tell me everything you know.”

  Riley felt overwhelmed by sheer perplexity.

  She wanted to ask …

  Everything I know about what?

  In fact, she really knew nothing at all—except that she’d heard the senator’s name mentioned in a police station in Dighton, West Virginia. Should she tell him at least that much? No, somehow she suspected that would get her in even more trouble.

  She said, “I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t know anything.”

  Gardner pointed an accusing finger at her and said …

  “You’re lying. Why were you asking me those questions back there?”

  Riley’s brain clicked away, trying to think of some plausible excuse.

  She said, “I was just curious, I guess. I’d heard about the two murders, and since you’re a senator from West Virginia, I just wanted to know … how you felt about all that.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Gardner said.

  Riley suppressed a groan of despair …

  Of course he doesn’t believe me.

  I wouldn’t believe me either.

  But given the circumstances, she didn’t dare ask the questions that she’d really wanted answers to—for example, did the senator have anything to do with the two murders?

  She knew she’d better keep her mouth shut about all that …

  If I want to get out of this safe and sound.

  Gardner’s face twitched as he said …

  “Erik Lehl put you up to this, didn’t he?”

  Riley tried to think … where had she heard that name before?

  She thought maybe she’d heard Agent Crivaro mention Erik Lehl at one time or another …

  Like maybe he’s Crivaro’s boss.

  She said, “I don’t know anybody named Erik Lehl.”

  At least that’s the truth, she thought.

  Gardner turned his head and told the driver of the limo to pull over to the curb. When the car came to a stop, he ordered one of the guards to open the door.

  “Get out,” he said to Riley. “But from now on, keep your questions to yourself. And don’t think you’ve heard the last of this.”

  Riley gasped with relief as she hopped out of the limousine and watched it drive away down the busy street.

  The whole world felt shaky as she stood there on the street corner, trying to understand what she’d just been through. All she knew was that she’d stumbled into something scary and dangerous—something she’d better not try to tangle with on her own.

  Should she call Jake Crivaro and tell him what had happened?

  Somehow that didn’t seem like a good idea.

  Perhaps it would only get Crivaro into trouble as well.

  She looked around to get her bearings and realized the limo had let her off within walking distance of Union Station. She figured maybe the best thing to do was to catch a train back to Quantico, see if she could make her way back into the program, and try to forget about this weird and terrifying incident.

  But as she walked on to the station, the senator’s words rang through her head …

  “Don’t think you’ve heard the last of this.”

  *

  Jake was eating breakfast in a restaurant in Dighton with his forensics team, discussing what little progress they all were making. Suddenly his cellphone rang. He felt a twinge of worry when he saw that the call was from Special Agent in Charge Erik Lehl.

  This probably isn’t good, he thought.

  When he took the call, Lehl said …

  “Crivaro, what the hell have you done?”

  Jake was startled by the anger in the normally reticent man’s voice.

  He stammered, “Sir, I—I don’t understand.”

  Lehl continued, “I thought I made myself clear when we talked in my office. What I told you about Senator Gardner was not to leave my office.”

  Jake was truly baffled now.

  “I promise, sir, I didn’t talk about it with anybody.”

  “That’s not what Gardner tells me. I got a call from him just now. He says that protégé of yours, Riley Sweeney, badgered him about it in public this morning in DC. Then I checked with the FBI Academy and found out she hasn’t been there since yesterday morning. They told me you took her out of her classes and she’d been working with you in West Virginia. You must have told her. How else could she have found out?”

  Jake stifled a sigh.

  He was starting to understand at least part of what had happened.

  He began, “Sir, let me try to explain …”

  Lehl interrupted, “Oh, you’re going to explain, all right. But not over the phone like this. I want to hear it from you face to face. A helicopter is on its way to you now to pick you up. I expect to see you in my office ASAP—and you’d better have that girl in tow with you. I want to talk to her too.”

  Lehl tersely gave Crivaro details about the helicopter that was on its way, then ended the call.

  Jake looked at his what remained breakfast. There was no time to finish eating—and besides, he’d lost his appetite. He asked one of his forensics guys to drive him to the spot where the helicopter was due to land. On the way there, Jake called Riley’s cellphone.

  When he heard her scared-sounding voice he asked …

  “Riley, where the hell are you? What did you just do?”

  Riley said, “I—I’m on the way out of DC. I’m not quite sure what just happened. How did you find out?”

  Jake let out a groan of annoyance.

  “I found out in just about the worst possible way,” he said. “Special Agent in Charge Erik Lehl called me to chew me out about it. Now we’re both in trouble. And I need to know what it’s all about.”

  He heard Riley take a sharp breath.

  “I talked to Senator Gardner,” she said.

  “Where? When?”

  “In DC. In front of a church where he was making a political announcement. I pretended to be a reporter and …”

  Jake blurted, “You pretended to be what?”

  “I just wanted to know, that’s all. Remember what we overheard in the police station in Dighton? You know, when the mayor asked the chief about the senator not coming to the funeral? It was driving me crazy. I knew it must mean something. So I asked Senator Gardner whether he had anything to say about the murders in West Virginia and …”

  Her voice trailed off.

  “And what?” Jake asked.

  “Well, if he had any personal connection with the two victims.”

  Jake felt his mouth drop open.

  What a mess, he thought.

  This whole thing was worse than he’d even imagined.

  Riley continued, “A couple of his bodyguards grabbed me and dragged me to his car. He asked me questions. He was really angry. Then he let me out. He said I hadn’t heard the last of it. I don’t know what it was all about. But Agent Crivaro, I’m onto something important. I just know it.”

  Jake shook his head miserably.

  You’re onto something, all right, he th
ought.

  And now all hell was breaking loose.

  He said, “Riley, I told you to leave it the hell alone.”

  “I know, but—”

  Jake interrupted again, “I meant what I said. I had good reasons for saying that. You’ve got to learn to follow orders.”

  Riley was quiet for a moment.

  Then she said, “I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, you’re going to be a lot more than sorry,” Jake said. “So am I, for that matter. What were you doing in DC anyhow?”

  “Um, I went to see Ryan, but … don’t ask.”

  Jake didn’t want to know anything about Ryan. Instead he asked, “Exactly where are you right now?”

  “I’m on a train to Quantico.”

  “Stay in the station when your train arrives. Somebody will be there to pick you up.”

  He heard Riley gasp.

  “Am I going to be arrested?” she asked.

  Jake growled, “Not yet. But the day is still young.”

  He ended the call, then readied himself to call in a couple of agents to meet Riley at the Quantico train station. Jake knew that he and Riley were both in for a grilling by Special Agent in Charge Erik Lehl …

  And it’s not going to be pretty.

  Jake wondered—was he even going to have a job later today?

  *

  When Riley got off the train in Quantico, she spotted them right away—two men wearing business suits and sunglasses, too stiff and robotic-looking to be ordinary civilians. Sure enough, they came up to her flashing their FBI badges, asking whether she was Riley Sweeney.

  When she said yes, they whisked her away to a car they’d left waiting in front of the train station.

  Yet again, Riley felt as though she were dreaming.

  It was the second time today she’d been snatched up by men who seemed markedly less than friendly.

  At least these guys are with the FBI, she thought.

  Surely she’d be safe in their custody—at least for now.

  They drove her to the vast BAU complex, escorted her through the broad lobby, up an elevator, and through a maze of hallways. Finally they arrived in a plain little room with a table and three chairs and a large, rectangular window that Riley guessed to be a two-way mirror.

  Riley wondered—was anybody on the other side of that mirror?

  One of the agents asked her, “Do you have a cellphone?”

  Riley nodded.

  The other agent held out his hand and said, “We’ll take that, if you don’t mind.”

  Riley gulped.

  That doesn’t sound like a request, she thought.

  She took out her cellphone and handed it to the agent. Then the two men left her alone in the room.

  Riley sat there, feeling stunned by the sudden silence. Was she alone, or was somebody watching her every move through that mirror?

  What have I gotten myself into? she wondered.

  She remembered asking herself that question earlier, but she still had no idea of the answer.

  She remembered Crivaro saying …

  “Now we’re both in trouble.”

  Was he in the same situation at this very moment—sitting in another interrogation room in this same building waiting for something to happen?

  It didn’t seem likely.

  After all, wasn’t Crivaro still in West Virginia?

  The truth was, she really didn’t know where he’d been when he’d called her.

  Long minutes began to drag out. Riley especially missed her cellphone. She had no connection to the outside world, and that really scared her.

  But who would she call if she still had her phone?

  There wouldn’t be much point in calling Crivaro.

  Maybe Ryan, she thought.

  She felt a wistful pang at the idea. She couldn’t thinking—wouldn’t it be nice to be able to call Ryan right now, tell him that the whole FBI Academy thing had been a foolish mistake, that she knew better now and was coming home, and that from now on she’d be exactly the kind of wife he wanted her to be … ?

  What a stupid idea, she thought.

  After all, like her father had once told her …

  “You’re just not cut out for a normal life. It’s not in your nature.”

  Besides, what about the woman who’d been with Ryan in their apartment?

  The more Riley thought about it, the more sure she felt that Ryan had decided to move on with his life without her. If so, what was she going to do with her own life? It seemed likely that her time at the FBI Academy had ended almost as soon as it had started. And Riley couldn’t think of anything else she felt the least bit passionate about …

  But maybe passion’s overrated.

  After all, Crivaro had told her that his own passion for his work had been the ruin of all his relationships …

  “I put people off, I push people away, I expect too much, and I get impatient.”

  Of course, it must have taken years for Crivaro to alienate all the people he most loved and cared for.

  Riley had already done that, and she was only 22 years old.

  After a while, Riley began to fidget uncomfortably in her chair. She was awfully stiff and sore after a whole night sitting asleep on a bench in Union Station. She wanted to get up and pace, but felt oddly afraid to even move.

  She still wondered whether she was being watched through the two-way mirror. If so, did she need permission to even get up and stretch a little? She almost called out to ask whoever might be there. But she was scared to do even that.

  She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there alone when the door finally swung open.

  Jake Crivaro came in, looking both worried and angry.

  As he sat down at the table beside her, she blurted …

  “Agent Crivaro, I swear to God, I’ve got no idea …”

  Crivaro interrupted, “Save it. You’ll get a chance to tell your side of the story. It had better be good.”

  A few seconds passed, and the door opened again. Another man came inside—a tall, gangly man with a dour expression. The chair seemed almost too small for him as he sat down across the table from Riley and Crivaro.

  The man stared at Riley for a moment, then said …

  “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Special Agent in Charge Erik Lehl. And you, I believe, are Riley Sweeney—an academy NAT who has gotten way, way out of her depth.”

  Lehl folded his hands on the table, glanced back and forth between Riley and Crivaro, and said …

  “And now—which of you wants to start explaining things?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  As Lehl sat waiting for one of them to speak, Riley thought that Agent Crivaro looked uncharacteristically intimidated. But she sure didn’t want to be the first to say anything.

  Jake finally said, “I guess this whole thing is my fault, sir. I felt like I needed help on the West Virginia case. As you know, Riley Sweeney has worked with me on two murder cases. She’s … well, she’s very talented, among other things.”

  Lehl nodded and said, “Go on.”

  Crivaro shifted in his chair and continued …

  “I pulled her out of her classes yesterday and took her with me to West Virginia. While she was there, she got … curious about a conversation she overheard about Senator Gardner. She sounded a little too curious for her own good. So I brought her back to the Academy in Quantico that very night.”

  Riley felt a jolt of surprise.

  This was the first hint she’d gotten that Crivaro had hauled her back to Quantico on account of her questions about Senator Gardner.

  Lehl drummed his fingers on the table.

  He said, “Let’s start right there—with Agent Crivaro leaving you at the Academy. Why didn’t you stay put there? What were you doing in Washington the next day?”

  Riley said, “My fiancé lives in Washington. Actually, I … I do too, I guess. We rent an apartment there together. But the night before I came to the Academy, Ryan—my
fiancé—and I had a fight. So after Agent Crivaro dropped me off, I decided to take a train back to Washington and try to straighten things out with Ryan and …”

  She paused and wondered …

  Do I need to go into everything that happened then?

  Did she have to explain that she’d found Ryan with another woman?

  Surely such details didn’t matter right now.

  Instead she said, “Well, things didn’t go well with Ryan when I got there. So I headed back to the train station and slept there all night, figuring I’d get a train back to Quantico in the morning. After I woke up and I was eating breakfast in the station, I saw on TV that Senator Gardner speaking at that church, and … well, I got curious.”

  Lehl squinted at her and said, “Curious?”

  Riley swallowed hard and said, “Look, it’s like Agent Crivaro said—we overheard something. When we walked into the police station in Dighton, we heard Mayor Nelson and the police chief talking about the senator. Chief Messenger said he was surprised the senator hadn’t come to Hope Nelson’s funeral. The mayor was upset that he’d even mentioned it. And both of them looked worried when they realized they’d been overheard.”

  Riley shrugged nervously and added, “Well, that seemed strange to me, that’s all. I felt like maybe it had something to do with the case. Agent Crivaro told me to forget all about it. And I guess I should have, but …”

  Lehl interrupted, “Yes, you emphatically should have.”

  “I know now, and I’m sorry,” Riley said.

  Lehl leaned across the table toward her with a curious expression.

  He said, “So Agent Crivaro didn’t tell you anything about Senator Gardner? He didn’t tell you why you should mind your own business about him?”

  Riley was surprised by the question.

  “No,” she said. “He didn’t tell me a thing. And I still don’t know anything else.”

  Lehl leaned back again, seeming to study Riley’s face closely.

  He said, “So when you walked up to Senator Gardner and asked him those questions, you were just following some kind of gut impulse.”

  Riley felt a flash of relief that he seemed to understand.

  “Yes, that’s right,” she said. “I was just going on pure … instinct, I guess.”