“Anyone around here own one of them?” Mia asked.
“Only about a third of the population of St. Dennis,” Beck said.
“Why would you buy a place on the ocean if you live on the bay?” She wondered.
“There’s been a building boom in Ocean City over the past ten, twelve years. Like I said, there are dozens of those high-rise condos on the beach. Lots of people have bought them as investments and rent them out. Then there are people who like the ocean, and a condo is an affordable way of having that weekend place. At least it used to be affordable, I don’t know what those places are going for now. If it’s rented during the summer, it can pretty much pay for itself.” He sighed. “So, yeah, many people around here own condos in Ocean City.”
“Don’t people who rent mostly go through rental offices? Would you deal directly with the owner?” Mia asked.
“You might if you knew the owner personally,” Beck replied. “Then again, there’s always the possibility that there was no condo, that it was just a ruse to get her to meet him someplace. And maybe Jessie just assumed that the person who had the key was the owner instead of a rental agent.”
“Jessie told me that she’d given the money to Colleen and that Colleen was going to give this guy a check.”
“Then we’ll check with her bank and get a look at her recent transactions,” Beck said. “We’ll need a warrant, but that won’t be a problem.”
“Do you think there’ll be a check?” she asked.
“Nah. I think the whole condo thing was a means of getting to Colleen. But it’s a thread to pull on. So let’s see if anyone knows if Holly or Mindy had any dealings with anyone in real estate before they disappeared.”
Beck glanced at his watch, then stood. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting with the mayor. Dr. McCall, unless I hear from you, I’ll see you at eleven. Agent Shields, you’ll be there?”
“I will.”
“Good.” He started toward the door, then stopped. “You’re not planning on that walk around my neighborhood in the middle of the night tonight, are you?”
“No.” Mia walked into the hall ahead of Annie. “Tonight I’ll be reviewing the file on Mindy Kenneher. And I promise, if I have any thoughts about interviewing anyone connected with the case, I’ll give you a heads-up.”
“I’d appreciate it.” Beck turned off the light at the wall switch. “The chief of police over in Cameron was pretty adamant about not bringing the FBI into his investigation.”
“We’ll bring him around,” Mia said over her shoulder as she and Annie headed for the lobby.
“No doubt you could,” Beck said under his breath as he watched her walk down the hall. “No doubt at all…”
13
“So, what’s it like, living out here all by yourself?” Annie sat at the kitchen table and watched Mia fill a pot with water and put it on the stove to boil.
“Quiet. If I didn’t work so much, I don’t know if I could stay,” Mia admitted. “You’re actually the first visitor I’ve had since I moved out here.”
She opened a box of pasta and tossed it into the pot, then added, “Unless of course, you count the wildlife. Deer. Fox. Raccoons.”
“You could always move back to Arlington,” Annie reminded her.
Mia made a face. “Too far. John’s been assigning me to a lot of the action on the Eastern Shore. Over the past few months, I’ve had several cases in Dela ware. I think once Connor comes home and wants his house back, I may consider moving to Wilmington. It would be more convenient, I think, and there are some nice areas around the waterfront.”
“You mean Wilmington, Delaware, not North Carolina.”
“Right.” Mia searched the cupboard for a jar of spaghetti sauce. She found it behind a box of cereal she’d brought with her when she moved in, but had never opened. She opened the jar, poured it into a pan, and set it on a burner.
She opened another cabinet and took down two wineglasses. She handed them to Annie and said, “Would you mind opening the bottle I picked up on the way home tonight? It’s still in the bag next to my purse there on the counter. The opener is in the drawer to your right.”
“Sure.” Annie did as requested. After she poured wine into both glasses, she handed one to Mia and said, “Speaking of Connor, any idea when he’ll be back?”
“Not a clue. I never know. About a month ago, he breezed in around 3:00 A.M., scared the shit out of me, stayed two days, then disappeared again.” Mia laughed. “He’s like a shadow, you know? He goes off and does whatever it is that he does, comes back, reports to whomever it was that sent him there in the first place, gets another assignment and poof! Gone again.”
“I’ve noticed he’s been doing much more of that over the past year or so.” Annie tossed it out there and waited for a reaction. When there was none, she added, “It’s almost as if he can’t stay in one place for too long.”
“Connor loves to travel.” Mia shrugged. “He always has. And he’s always been into that covert thing. Sometimes I almost think it’s a game to him.”
“That’s one game I wouldn’t want to play. The stakes are very high.”
Mia turned to Annie. “How do you know?”
“We talk sometimes,” she said simply.
“You mean between assignments?”
“Sometimes.”
“Does he tell you where he goes? What he does?”
“Not with a great deal of specifics, but sometimes he just needs to unload. And I guess me being a psychologist, he feels safe unloading to me.”
“The fact that you were going to marry his brother probably has nothing to do with it.”
“I’m sure it has a lot to do with it.” Annie studied Mia’s face.
“Does he ever talk about Dylan?”
“Of course. We both do.”
“Even though you’re married to Evan now?” Mia asked.
“The fact that I was lucky enough to find someone else to love, who loves me, doesn’t mean that I’ve had my memory erased. I did love Dylan; Evan knows that. He also knows that I would have been married to Dylan by now if he hadn’t died.”
“You mean if my brother hadn’t killed him.” Mia’s jaw was squarely set. “If my brother hadn’t murdered him-”
“We both know how Dylan died, Mia,” Annie said softly.
Mia picked up her glass and took several sips of wine.
“Sometimes I don’t understand how you can still be friends with all of us.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
Mia shook her head.
“I’ve worked with members of your family for as long as I’ve been with the Bureau, Mia. At one time or another, I’ve worked with every one of you. I have great respect for you and Connor and Grady and Andrew as professionals, and I care about all of you very much. And Aidan-hell, my sister is married to him, he’s soon to be the father of my first nephew. And yes, we’d have been family if Brendan hadn’t killed Dylan.” Annie took a deep breath. “I like to think you’re still family, and not just because your cousin married my sister.”
“Are you really that forgiving?”
“Mia, there’s nothing for me to forgive. No one was responsible for Brendan’s actions except Brendan. No one is to blame, except Brendan. Please tell me you don’t think that any one of you could have stopped him from doing what he did.”
Mia shrugged. “Andy and I have talked about this a million times, why we didn’t see what he was doing, why we didn’t know how evil he was…”
“Why would you have?” Annie’s eyes narrowed.
“He was our brother, we knew him better than anyone.” Mia laughed harshly. “We should have known.”
“You know of a person only that which they choose to show you. Brendan obviously had a great stake in not letting anyone see what he’d become. He was very careful to never slip out of character.” When Mia started to protest, Annie held up a hand. “I’m the specialist in behavior. If anyone should have noticed that something was off with him, it was me. But I never did, not for an instant.” She tried to smile. “Even when he set out to kill me, I never saw it. I was just lucky that his plan was interrupted.”