CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
FBI Academy
During lunch, Lucy found Kate eating in her office. Kate was the senior cybercrimes instructor at Quantico and was part of a joint task force on tracing online child pornography. It was a particularly difficult job for anyone, even a seasoned agent like Kate.
“What do you want?” Kate asked Lucy without looking at her. Her eyes were focused on her computer.
“We need to talk.”
Kate stared at her computer for a long minute, then leaned back in her chair. She nodded and Lucy sat down.
“You worked with Rich Laughlin before—before everything.” Lucy still had a hard time talking about Adam Scott. “Before you left D.C. twelve years ago.”
“I’m not talking about Laughlin.” Kate’s face was set tight; she was trying hard not to react to anything Lucy said. Why was she being so controlled?
“But—”
“I thought you wanted to talk about Tony Presidio.”
“I’m okay. Thank you for signing Sean in; it helped, talking to him.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“You and Tony were the subject of a staff meeting this morning. You’ve involved yourself in the middle of an investigation. I don’t have to tell you that being the subject of a staff meeting isn’t good.”
Lucy shifted in her seat. “I don’t understand.”
Kate tilted her head and raised her eyebrows. “You didn’t know.”
“Know what? What’s wrong?” Had she missed something? Done something wrong? With all the pressure from Laughlin and her firearms test and Tony’s death and Weber’s book, had she missed something important?
“Hans is here to put Tony’s office in order, and work on the profile Tony began on the murder of that writer. No one knew you were working with Tony until Hans told us.”
Lucy said carefully, “There was nothing wrong with me doing extra work. I did it on my own time.”
“Not when it impacts your overall performance.”
Laughlin. It all came back to him.
“I’ve done well in all my classes.”
“Lucy, I’m not trying to ride you; I’m trying to help.” But her tone said just the opposite.
“Then tell me what’s going on between you and Agent Laughlin.”
Kate reddened and leaned forward. “How dare you,” she said through clenched teeth. “There’s nothing going on between me and anyone, and you damn well know that.”
Lucy didn’t break eye contact, though her heart was pounding. She said as calmly as she could, “I didn’t mean you were having an affair.”
Kate stared at her, but Lucy held her ground. She’d lived with Kate for the last seven years. She knew her better than she knew her family. If Kate saw any chip in Lucy’s armor, she’d find a way to defuse the situation and not tell Lucy what she needed to know. Lucy didn’t understand why Kate didn’t come clean now, why she didn’t just explain what had happened between her and Laughlin. Did she think Lucy wouldn’t approve? Or that she’d be upset?
“What are we doing here?” Kate asked quietly. “We’re family.”
“Yes, we are. That’s why you need to tell me the truth. You promised me you would always be honest.”
Kate shook her head. “Are you really pushing that button?”
“You know I’m not.”
“From my side of the desk, seems you are.”
Lucy had learned how to play hardball from the best. “Then I’ll find out what I need to know on my own.”
“Don’t think I don’t know you have Sean getting into my business.” There was disgust in her voice.
“Sean is trying to figure out why Rich Laughlin is determined to undermine me.” Lucy hoped that her honesty would prompt Kate to open up.
“What part of ‘keep your head down’ did you not understand? There’s a half-dozen people who would love to kick you out of here, and you keep pushing.”
“I’m not pushing anything!” Was Kate exaggerating? “Laughlin surprised me at the gun range. He knows my fears and is exploiting them.”
“Do you think maybe that’s part of your test?” Kate said sarcastically.
“That’s what I thought at first, but this is more than just testing me.” Lucy hesitated, then said, “When he looks at me, I know he hates me. And after I walked in on your argument the other day, I think it’s more about you than me.”
Kate slowly stood up. Again, she was angry, but Lucy saw fear in her eyes, and fear wasn’t something she equated with Kate.
“Haven’t you been listening to me? To stand out is a bad thing. Getting perfect scores doesn’t make you stand out. Involving yourself in anything outside of your daily work does. Stay out of it. The thing with Laughlin has nothing to do with you—not everything is about you. You involved yourself in an ongoing federal investigation, and that isn’t smart.”
Lucy realized that Kate was turning everything around to make it her fault. As if helping Tony, her instructor, had been a mistake.
Lucy said, “Is Agent Laughlin harassing you?”
“No one is harassing me. You think I would put up with that shit?”
But her eyes told Lucy she was on to something. Kate was in-your-face angry, but her eyes were scared.
Rich Laughlin was tormenting her, and Kate couldn’t stop it. What was it that scared her so much?
“Kate—”
“It’s all a damn test, Lucy!” Kate was losing her temper, her voice getting louder.
“This isn’t about a test,” Lucy said without raising her voice. “Tom Harden tests me. Laughlin wants me to fail.”
“You’re paranoid.”
That stung, but the well-aimed verbal attack meant she was close to the truth.
“It’s you I’m concerned about, Kate.”
Kate laughed. “You think I’m so weak that I’d let some asshole push me around?”
“No, I don’t. Except—” Lucy waited for Kate to look at her. “Except if he threatened me. Don’t fight my battles, Kate.”
“No one has threatened me, or you.” Kate stared at Lucy while she spoke, but on the last word her eyes darted to the right before refocusing.
Lucy’s suspicions were right. She stood up. “I know Laughlin was on the same squad as your former boyfriend, Evan Standler. I know you were all in the D.C. office together. What I don’t know is what Laughlin said to make you scared.”
“I don’t scare,” Kate said. Again, her eyes moved to the right. It wasn’t a tell. It was a direction.
Lucy looked where Kate kept glancing. It was a picture of Dillon and Kate, the day they got married, nearly three years ago. But they’d been together much longer.
Lucy picked up the picture. “Dillon loves you. There’s nothing you did in your past that could ever change that.” She put the picture down. “I think I understand.”
“You don’t.” Kate’s anger had lost steam. She wasn’t going to tell Lucy what had happened, but Lucy understood. Whatever problem Laughlin had with Lucy was small compared to what he had with Kate. He couldn’t get to Kate except through those she loved, because Kate wasn’t easily bullied. That meant Lucy and Dillon, the two people Kate loved more than anyone.
Lucy smiled while Kate remained stone-faced. “You may have kept your maiden name,” Lucy said, “but you’re a Kincaid now.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’re not alone.”
*
Lucy had thirty minutes before physical training, so went to her room to unwind after her confrontation with Kate.
Someone had been here.
Lucy stood in her doorway, one hand still on the knob, as the skin rose from her arms. What was different?
Nothing appeared out of place. She hadn’t made her bed, because she’d gotten up late; her desk was cluttered but relatively tidy. Her bookshelf was packed with her notebooks, textbooks, paper, her own research books—
It wasn’t that something was out o
f place. It was the air. A faint scent that wasn’t hers.
Had Margo come in to borrow something? Lucy wouldn’t be upset, though she preferred to be asked. Except—it wasn’t Margo. She cherished her privacy as much as Lucy. Margo would have at least left a note but most likely would have called Lucy first. Reva? Usually one knock, then walk right in. But she always wore flowery perfume, and this wasn’t perfume. It was something … else. Sweat, maybe, but not Lucy’s sweat.
She searched her room again, looking for even the smallest hint of something off; then she opened her desk drawers and went through her things.
In the bottom drawer, where she had kept the file Tony had given her, she noticed that something was clearly out of place.
Her handwritten notes were gone.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Lucy found it hard to focus on her physical training, and she didn’t know who she should go to about her missing notes. She mentally replayed what she’d done with them last night, before finding Tony unconscious in his office. She’d brought down his file, plus her list of people from Weber’s book, but she’d left her personal notes—questions to herself, facts from the book, comments about Tony’s notes—in her desk. She was certain of it. Almost.
Paula Kean entered the gym near the end of training and spoke with Harden. A few seconds later, Harden called Lucy over.
“You’re free to go with Agent Kean,” he told her.
Lucy glanced at the class supervisor, trying to assess why she was being pulled out. Kean’s face was impassive, as usual.
Lucy followed her out and down the hall. Kean stopped just outside her office door. “Assistant Director Hans Vigo needs to speak with you.” She lifted her chin. “I see his visit is not a surprise to you.”
“Kate told me he was here.”
“I’ll clear your absence in Warrants with your instructor, but you’ll have to make up the work. You can get the assignment and notes from New Agent Aragon—he’s a friend of yours, right?”
“Yes.” Jason would not only have good notes, but he also had the most experience with warrants and would be able to answer any questions. “Thank you.”
“We haven’t spoken since you found Agent Presidio. If you need to talk, please let me know. Tony was a good man, and he obviously saw something special in you.”
For the first time since she’d arrived, Lucy felt comfortable with Kean. Though her tone was formal, it had an edge of sincerity that Lucy appreciated.
“Thank you. He was a terrific teacher. We’ll all miss him.”
Kean smiled, a rare warmth in her pale eyes. “He had a reputation for being tough on the new agents, but you seemed to hold up well.” She stepped into her office, then stopped and said, “I know you’re a personal friend of Dr. Vigo’s, but if you’d like me to join you, I’m available.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I’m okay.” Kean didn’t say anything about the meeting Kate had alluded to at lunch, and Lucy didn’t ask.
She crossed the courtyard and Agent Trevor Seward was talking to two new agents in the lounge. “Hold up,” he told her.
She waited for him in the hall, though she was antsy to see Hans.
“Don’t you have Warrants this afternoon?”
“Yes, but Dr. Vigo called me into Tony’s office.”
“I’ll walk you down.” He touched her arm. “Are you okay?”
“Everyone is asking me if I’m okay. I am.” She glanced at him with a half smile. “But thank you.”
“It’s my job to help you and the rest of your class get through the remaining weeks. I was here only five years ago; it can be hell.”
“I can handle it. Growing pains, that’s it.”
Seward stopped at the secure staircase that led to the basement. He swiped his card over the security panel, and the door unlocked. He opened it for her. “Just remember, Agent Laughlin and I are here to help if you need to talk to someone about what happened with Agent Presidio, or anything.”
Why did everyone think she needed to talk to someone? She’d been around death and dying enough to know the process. But she simply said, “I appreciate it.”
She went down to Tony’s office alone. Hans was sitting at Tony’s desk going through stacks of files.
“Dr. Vigo.”
Hans smiled and stood to greet Lucy. “Sit down.” He returned to his seat but moved files to one side so they could talk.
Lucy had known Hans for seven years. Though they’d met after tragedy, Hans and her brother Dillon had worked together often and she’d seen Hans across the dinner table dozens of times over the years because of his friendship with her brother. Hans had helped reinstate Kate to the FBI after she’d gone rogue, had worked with Lucy’s other sister-in-law years ago, and had given Lucy a glowing recommendation into the FBI. The Kincaids considered Hans part of the family.
Hans wasn’t one for chitchat; he came straight to the point. “Tell me what you were working on for Agent Presidio.”
Lucy said, “I’m truly sorry about his death. You were friends.”
Hans stared over her shoulder, his eyes unfocused. “Yes,” he said quietly. Then he shook his head and looked directly at her. “I’m clearing up Tony’s files and taking over his classes, until we find someone to replace him. I’ve taught here before, so there shouldn’t be any disruption. Any help you can give smoothing things over with your class would help.”
“Anything you need.”
“I talked to Agent Madeaux last night about Tony’s work on the Weber case. I don’t know that I’ll be getting involved, but Tony left a message for me yesterday before he boarded the plane. I didn’t get it until after he died.”
Hans continued, “Agent Madeaux said you were helping Tony. How so?”
“Before he went to New York, he gave me his file on the McMahon case because we’d been talking about it and Rosemary Weber and whether her death could have had something to do with the Cinderella Strangler investigation.”
“You lost me.”
“I’ll backtrack.” Lucy relayed the information as if she were giving a report. She explained to Hans about Suzanne contacting her Wednesday morning, discussing Weber’s murder with Tony, and the work she’d been doing reviewing the McMahon file and the analysis of Weber’s books while Tony was in New York. “Tony thought it was suspicious that Weber’s notes from her first book were missing from the library archives.”
“He suspected her murder had something to do with the McMahon case, and not the book she was currently researching?”
“Yes, I’m certain of it, though he didn’t explicitly say that. He said something was bugging him and he wanted to look as his notes again. So I agreed to meet him in his office. When I got here, he was unconscious.”
“Where is his file? Did you bring it?”
“I had it with me last night.” She glanced around the office, but it was much messier than yesterday. She gestured to the table just inside the door. “When I saw him, I dropped the file on that table but it’s not there now. It’s a file folder about an inch thick.”
“I’ll find it.”
Lucy frowned and looked around the office. “It should be here.”
“Lucy, it’s okay.”
“I need to find it, sir.”
Hans smiled. “You can call me Hans when we’re alone. No need to be formal.”
“It’s important. I think someone was in my dorm room today.”
“Someone broke in?” Hans raised his eyebrows.
“I don’t know. But I made some personal notes about the McMahon case, and I kept them in my desk. I’m almost certain that’s where I put them, but maybe I grabbed them when I picked up Tony’s file.”
He eyed her closely. “But you don’t think so.”
She shook her head. “I remember everything clearly from the minute I found him, but I can’t remember if I picked up my notes. He’d asked for something specific—he wanted a list of every person Weber wrote about, and what she said about them.�
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“Because he thought someone might have a motive, even ten years later.”
“Yes. So I typed up my notes. I included those in his folder, not my handwritten notes.” The more Lucy thought about the series of events, the more certain she was that she’d left her written notes in her desk.
“Tony over-involved himself on too many of his cases, particularly cases involving young children, sometimes to the point of obsession. It’s one reason he was here—he’s brilliant, but…” His voice trailed off.
“I didn’t think he acted obsessed, just contemplative. Curious.”
“You didn’t know him like I did,” Hans said, his voice switching from friendly to authoritarian.
Lucy wondered if she should mention Tony’s interest in Peter McMahon, decided yes. “Tony asked me to find Peter McMahon, Rachel’s younger brother. I don’t think he believed that Peter was responsible for Weber’s murder, but…” She hesitated.
Hans wrote something down. “He thought it might have been a possibility?”
“I got the sense that he was simply concerned about Peter himself. With the media reports on Weber’s death, it might drag up old feelings about his past.”
“That’s stretching. More likely, Tony thought the boy may have grown up with deep resentment. He was a child when his sister was killed, a teenager when Weber’s book came out. Now he’s an adult. He could have been planning revenge for a long time.”
It was definitely possible. She said, “I asked Sean to look for him, find out where he lived and what he was doing. We knew he had been living in Florida with his grandmother, and may have taken her surname. Sean was able to trace him to Syracuse University, but lost him there. He seems to have disappeared.”
“No one disappears.”
“That’s pretty much what Sean said.”
Hans leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “Tony’s instincts are sharp, but like a lot of psychologists, sometimes he knows or senses things that he can’t quite articulate. Gut instinct. Do you think McMahon was involved in Weber’s murder?”
Lucy hesitated, then said, “Sean brought it up as a possibility. But I couldn’t possibly make that determination without knowing more about Peter McMahon.”
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