“I don’t see wh—”
“Stein is your superior,” Slater interrupted. “I’m your superior. Noah is your superior. Why were you even raising a question during the interview? Noah tried to smooth it over, then when that failed, he gave you a case with DC Metro. Do you understand the limbs Noah is bouncing off for you? You’re not going to get another chance. You screw up again, you’re not only out of the field, you’re out of the office.
“Remember, you’re an analyst, and that analyst title is thin, at best. Which means Noah will take the heat if the case goes south and you’re involved. So think twice before you do anything. There is a chain of command for a reason. Use it.”
“I understand,” she said quietly. She didn’t want Noah to get into any professional trouble because of her, either.
He rested his hand on her shoulder. “Like I said, you have a good head and good sense. You’ll make a fine agent someday.”
Lucy forced a smile while she waited for Slater to go back inside. Her chest felt like it was going to split in half.
Do not cry. Do not cry.
Matt Slater was right. It didn’t matter how much experience she had, she wasn’t an agent.
She practically ran to the Metro station, wishing for the first time she had a car so she could sit behind the wheel and cry in private.
* * *
“Sorry I’m late,” Matt Slater said as he walked into the conference room.
Noah caught his eye, but couldn’t read Matt’s expression. He knew his boss was angry with what had transpired yesterday, but Noah thought he’d fixed the problem. He wished he hadn’t had to pull Lucy off the Wendy James case, especially now. Her insight would be invaluable.
Yet, she had frozen yesterday in the linen closet. Noah didn’t think she’d even noticed she didn’t move for more than a minute. Just stood there, hunched over, staring at the back wall, not doing anything.
Noah knew she still battled panic attacks on occasion, but until now he’d never seen it while she was working. But last night, the brief hesitation, and then this morning at the Red Light Motel it was obvious.
Frankly, he was concerned. If she panicked at the wrong time, it could put the lives of fellow agents in jeopardy.
He adjusted his seat. He was also worried about Lucy, personally. Working with her he realized she put the weight of every case, no matter how big or small, on her shoulders. She internalized it, rather than compartmentalizing.
He had asked Slater to bring Dr. Hans Vigo, a forensic psychologist and assistant director from national headquarters, in for a preliminary psych analysis on Wendy James’s killer, but he also had an ulterior motive. Hans Vigo had been the one to clear Lucy for the Academy, after she failed her first psych profile. Noah needed to know that she wasn’t going to have a breakdown on the job. Not just for his safety, or her future partner, but for her.
Miriam Douglas and Henry Archer from cyber crimes were in the room along with Josh Stein, Slater, and Hans. Noah pushed aside his thoughts about Lucy.
Slater asked, “What’s the word on apartment seven-ten?”
Henry said, “The cables and wires are consistent with audio and video recording equipment, but we found no equipment anywhere in either seven-ten or Wendy James’s apartment. We sent her laptop to the lab as a priority, hoping they can rebuild deleted files, but our examination indicates they were deleted by a high-end erase program. It’s doubtful we can get anything from it.”
“What about other apartments in the building?” Slater asked.
Noah was about to respond when Stein said, “I’m working with the U.S. Attorney’s office on warrants for all executive apartments, but the management company is balking. We asked, they refused, we got the warrant for number seven-ten”—he shot Noah a dirty look—“after we nearly blew the case searching without one.”
Noah wasn’t going to let that comment stand. “We had the express written permission of the manager to search that apartment, and the general warrant for James’s residence covered our subsequent searches.”
“As soon as you found the first hidden compartment you should have sealed the room and contacted me.”
Stein wasn’t budging, but neither was Noah. “We didn’t know what was in there until we found it.”
“If this case gets blown because of an illegal search, I’ll have your badge.”
Slater put up his hands. “No one is stripping badges. Precedent allows management to give access, and we got the warrant before a full and complete search. There was no fishing on this one, it’s a gray area, but the law is on our side.”
“I want Crowley. We have to do this right,” Stein said.
“If Wendy James was making sex tapes, that opens up a whole array of possible suspects,” Noah said.
“Who? We have no evidence of other affairs, other than Congressman Bristow who, by the way, has also lawyered up.” Stein was turning red in frustration.
Hans spoke up. “I think we’re all missing an important component here. Did Ms. James clear out the apartment? Was she the only one who used it?”
Slater asked, “Where are we with the rentals?”
Miriam spoke up. “The last lease was for one week, the governor of Oregon. That was over a month ago. Before that was ten days for an environmental protection organization that was lobbying Congress, before that a one-month stay, the wife of an alternative energy executive, then a long dry period. In February, a union representative stayed for two weeks. I’m digging deeper, seeing if any of them had meetings with Congressman Crowley or Congressman Bristow. We should send agents to interview each of them, none are local.”
“Miriam,” Slater said, “contact each local agency and brief them. We need the interviews stat.”
Hans said, “Tell them to go in easy, no hint that we think they were recorded. I suspect if they were being blackmailed, as soon as the Park Way apartment is mentioned they’ll show signs of distress. Tell them to be on the lookout for not only the standard signs, but subtle clues. Anyone who acts suspicious or nervous, we’ll look at harder.”
“But Crowley’s the one who’s sitting in Congress and admitted to having an affair with her!” Stein exclaimed. “It all comes back to him.”
“Who tipped off the media?” Hans asked. “Maybe Wendy tried to blackmail him and he didn’t bite, so she released the photographs.”
“The pictures weren’t taken in seven-ten,” Miriam said. “We believe they were taken at a local hotel, and we’re working on finding the exact location.”
“Let me know,” Slater said.
“None of that means Crowley didn’t kill her—or have her killed,” Stein said.
Noah had had it with Stein. “Why do you want him so badly? What if he’s just an asshole who cheated on his wife?”
“Get off my case,” Stein said.
Hans intervened. “Crowley is arrogant and didn’t want to be caught in the affair—or, if it was blackmail, he didn’t want anyone to know, but he had no reason to kill Wendy James.”
“Except for what she was going to tell the U.S. Attorney this week,” Stein said.
“But you don’t know what she was going to say,” Hans said. “She could have been nervous about being interviewed. Her personal life had just been exposed by the media and she lost her job because of it. She was under a great deal of stress, and no grand jury is going to take that one interview where she lied about an affair with another congressman as evidence that she had some damning information against Crowley.”