“Could not be clearer, sir.”
But Dobbs had already clicked off.
Pine put down the phone and looked up when someone knocked on her door.
Blum poked her head in. “Is the coast clear?”
Pine nodded. “My ass was just officially kicked all the way from Phoenix.”
“Let me guess: Clint Dobbs?” said Blum.
Pine nodded. “The one and only.”
“I worked for him once, way back, when he was fighting his way up the ladder. It was clear he wanted to be an SAIC, even back then. Some agents want to work the field. Others want to work from behind a desk. Dobbs was the latter.”
Pine remained silent.
“He was a real jerk back then. They say he’s mellowed.” Blum paused and studied Pine.
“He basically ordered me to take time off.”
“Are you?”
Pine looked at Blum. “I’m an FBI agent. I’m not supposed to work outside the lines.”
“But you’re not satisfied?”
“I was almost killed by what appeared to be my own government. The guy in charge of the National Security Branch is on the case’s email thread. My über boss just told me the DD called up and chewed him out, with the result that I’ve been told to go take a vacation.”
“So, the question is, do you work outside the lines or follow lockstep?”
Pine didn’t answer right away. When she started speaking, her words came out slowly.
“They could have easily killed me last night. I was incapacitated. But they took Ben and Ed Priest. They could have taken me, too.”
“Why do you think they didn’t?”
“You kill an FBI agent, you poke a hole in a hornet’s nest.”
Blum nodded. “I found some things out while you were on the phone with Dobbs. First, the local police received your phone call but had been called off before they got to the scene. They said it was you calling back and saying it was all a mistake.”
“What else?”
“The stretch of road you said you were on?”
“What about it?”
“I called a friend of mine who’s a state trooper. Part of his beat is that area. A buddy of his was on duty last night. He saw a road crew blocking off a section of that highway.”
“A road crew?” repeated Pine.
“Yeah. But I know for a fact they just finished repaving that road. So what would they have been working on?”
“They were working on getting Ben Priest away from me. And that would account for why I didn’t see any other cars.”
She had screwed up. Meeting Priest in public had seemed the safest route. But she had underestimated whomever they were up against. Her mistake might have cost both men their lives.
Blum interrupted her thoughts. “It takes some juice to get a road shut down, Agent Pine.”
“Yes it does.”
“Are you thinking that the FBI knows what’s going on? I mean that they know what happened last night, and they’re calling you off the case before you get hurt?”
“Or before I discover the truth.”
Blum shook her head, her features angry. “I’ve always been able to rely on the Bureau, even if I didn’t agree with everything it did. I mean, we’re the good guys.”
“I joined the FBI to do two things: protect good people and punish bad people. Pretty simple. But that makes things black and white.”
“And this situation is obviously not black and white,” said Blum. “So where does that leave us?”
“I can’t work this case within normal parameters.”
“Options are limited, then. What are we going to do?”
“We?” Pine shot her a glance. “No, that won’t be happening. If I do this and get canned and they find out you helped me, it’s over for you, too.”
“But I’m your secretary. It’s my job to assist you.”
“Carol, this is not in the normal course of your job. I’m talking about going off the grid. I can’t let you go down that road with me.”
“Why not? I’m certainly old enough to make my own decisions.”
“But it could be career suicide for you.”
“Well, I’ve actually been thinking about a job change. My husband divorced me so he could be with some floozy. My kids are all grown and living all over the place, except near me. I’m not really sure what to think about that, but I guess I’m at the age where I don’t let it bother me too much.”
“What were you thinking about doing?”
“Well, becoming a private detective. I mean, after all these decades at the Bureau, I’ve seen it all, from case files to postmortem and forensic reports. I’ve observed cases investigated well, and cases investigated deplorably. And hell, I’ve written enough reports that agents were supposed to write, to understand how things are put together. And held enough newbie agents’ hands while they tried to understand the Bureau’s eccentricities. And I listened to everything and remembered everything. And physically I’m perfect for the role. I mean look at me. No one would see me as threatening. And I can just listen and observe all I want.”
“I’m seeing a side of you I didn’t know existed, Ms. Blum.”
Blum gave her an incredulous look. “Well, it’s about time, Special Agent Pine. Frankly, I expected you to be a little faster on the uptake.”
Chapter 24
Pine was combing out her hair and staring in the mirror of her bathroom.
She had showered and washed the blood off the wound near her temple. Her head still throbbed from the impact with the truck window and the effects of the concussive device.
She had covered the wound with a Band-Aid, and then let her dark hair cover it, and the bruising there.
But on the other side, she lifted her hair and stared at the scar from her other wound.
The one from long ago.
The permanent one. Courtesy of the man who had taken her sister.
It was dark outside now. Blum had driven Pine up to the Grand Canyon to pick up her truck, and both women had returned to the office and worked there for the rest of the day.
Pine glanced away from the reflection of the scar on her temple, took out her phone, and studied the image on the small screen. This was the digital sketch that Jennifer Yazzie had done for her. This was the image of the missing man, the imposter Ben Priest, at least according to the recollection of Mark Brennan.
There were facial recognition databases that the image could be run through, but if Pine accessed those platforms using her FBI passwords, they would know what she was doing.
And if Clint Dobbs was true to his word, she might no longer be an FBI agent. So, right now, this image, this lead, was no use to her, until she found a workaround. Which she intended to do as soon as possible.
She put her phone down and traced the scar with her finger.
A cracked skull had once lurked under this fissure.
A six-year-old with a cracked skull. That was a serious thing indeed, more so since she had lain all night, bloodied, battered, and unconscious with the cracked bone and bruised brain.
Yet Pine had never once complained about that. She had been the lucky one.
Mercy had not.
She wanted to know, for absolute certain, that Daniel James Tor had been the one who had taken her sister. Pine needed to know this, because it was apt to be the only closure on her sister’s disappearance that she would ever receive.