“Was there some warrant for her arrest that I don’t know about?” Shelby shot back. “We’ve already had one agent who made this all about personal shit, and he’s currently cooling his ass down at central lockup. If you want to join him, tell us now before some other innocent person gets shot.”
“Innocent? Do you want to fuck her so bad that you’d sit here and tell us Casey is innocent?” Tony stood up so fast his chair clattered to the floor.
“God, Tony, you should just turn in your badge and give Bracato a call. I hear he’s got an opening after Kyle got caught. After all, if a person has been under the microscope before, they deserve everything they have coming to them, am I right?” Shelby slammed the door behind her.
“Anthony”—Joe said the name with a good amount of sarcasm—“that was way out of line. I suggest you tell Agent Hicks you’d rather serve on some other team. I can’t speak for Lionel, but I have no use for you. Any man, or woman for that matter, I can’t trust to watch my back isn’t someone I want standing with me.”
Lionel looked from one man to the other before standing. “That’s right, Joe. You speak for me too. I’d rather not have you on our team, Anthony. And you owe Shelby an apology. We all do for ever doubting her loyalties.”
“Joe, come on. You know as well as I do Shelby has some personal bias.” Anthony’s volume rose a little when Lionel left the room. “And she has the nerve to accuse me of not looking at this with a level head.”
Joe glared at Anthony and wondered what had happened to make him so bitter. Everything had been fine until the day Muriel had waltzed into the warehouse where Kyle had shot Cain and handed their asses over to them on a platter. “I don’t know what your problem is, but you’d better figure out how to make it right before I go to Agent Hicks myself and file a complaint. Lionel’s right. You owe Shelby an apology, and it better be heartfelt.”
Joe had started for the door to see where Lionel and Shelby had disappeared to when he thought of one more thing. “Maybe you ought to take some leave. You know how these petty personal vendettas get around to the other agents.” It was a low blow, but Joe wasn’t in a generous mood. “Isn’t that what got your father in trouble in the first place during his stint with the bureau?”
“Fuck you, Joe.”
“No, Tony, if anyone’s getting fucked it sure as hell isn’t going to be any of the three of us. Unless one of us gets lucky, then it’ll all be voluntary, don’t you worry.”
“It’s Anthony. Is that so fucking hard to remember?”
*
Shelby gripped the steering wheel hard, trying to bleed out her anger through her fingers. What Anthony had just spouted off about had hurt, but it wasn’t all wrong. When she’d become an agent, she’d thrown herself into the job.
The night on Vincent Carlotti’s plane when Cain held her life in the palm of her hand, along with the bugs she’d planted, those lines between right and wrong had been blurred but not erased. This case had become a little personal for her as well, but not because she wanted to bed Cain Casey. She’d just come to see that the members of the Casey family weren’t the monsters so many had made them out to be.
After glancing in the rearview mirror and noticing that the redness of frustration had faded from her face, she started the car and headed to the one place where she might find some clues as to what had happened to the amazing disappearing Caseys. She was certain that Muriel had set up temporary offices at the scene of the FBI’s embarrassment to rub it in their faces.
The warehouse along the river where Cain had shipped her load of legal liquor, only to be shot for it by Barney Kyle, had a few men walking along the roof with high-powered rifles strapped to their backs and a collection of BMWs parked in front. The kind of car young, snotty attorneys working for Muriel would drive.
“I’d like to see Muriel Casey, please,” Shelby told the receptionist.
“Do you have an appointment?”
The question made her wonder if Muriel was there and surveillance had just missed her. “She’s here?” she asked, unable to hold back her curiosity.
“I didn’t say that. I just wanted to make sure I hadn’t missed rescheduling you.” The receptionist ran her finger down the old appointment book page. “And you are?”
“Agent Shelby Daniels.”
Finally escorted into the office of one of Muriel’s associates that she had met earlier, Shelby bluntly said, “I need to talk to Muriel or Cain Casey.”
“Of course you do, but they’re both out of town, so I can’t help you there.” The young man pulled his wallet out and retrieved one of his cards. “As you can read there, I’m an attorney, not a travel agent, and I’m a peon in the firm, so they didn’t run their itinerary by me. If Muriel calls I’ll pass along the message you’d like to talk to her.”
“You have no idea where they are?”
“Not a clue.”
His smile made Shelby want to pull back and punch him. “And I’m sure you’d just give up the information if you did.”
“Of course I would, so there’s one possibility you might want to follow up on. Spring’s almost here,” he replied, to her confusion.
“What in the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I believe that’s when pit vipers shed their skin. Since I haven’t officially received my fangs, I’m not real sure where one goes to do that. But a boy can dream, can’t he?”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” She threw her own card at him and stood up. “Just give her the message.”
The one good thing about dealing with a lawyer like this one was that she’d completely forgotten how pissed she was at Anthony.
She slammed her car door, then punched the steering wheel. As she shook out her hand, she thought of a simple solution and sped back to the office.
With Joe and Lionel looking on, Shelby called the sheriff in Haywood, Wisconsin. Cain had probably taken her family there.
“Sheriff Dobbs, I need you to drive out to the Rath and Verde farms.”
“Jerry or Ross in trouble?” Ignatius Dobbs leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk.
“No, sir. We believe that Cain Casey’s back in the area and need to confirm that fact.” Shelby rubbed her forehead, trying to keep her headache to a minimum.
“I’ll go out there myself and look around, but I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary in the last week or so.”
“It would’ve been today, Sheriff.”
“Let me get to work, then.”
If that’s where Cain had run to, surveillance was going to be the logistical nightmare it had been the first time around.
*
Ignatius pulled off to the side of the road near the Rath house and watched the activity there. He laughed when Cain Casey stepped out onto the porch and waved, clearly inviting him to join her.
“Sheriff, it’s good to see you again.” She held the screen door open when he pulled up and rolled his window down. “Can I interest you in a cup of coffee?”
“You don’t seem surprised to see me,” Ignatius said.
“I just wonder who called you, but I think I can narrow it down.” Holding her side, she grunted as she sat across from him. “Was it Shelby, Lionel, or Joseph?”
“Agent Daniels wanted me to come check if you’re doing okay.”
Cain laughed and nodded. “Wanted to know where to send flowers while I’m recuperating, did she?” When Emma stepped into the room and patted Cain on the shoulder before handing the sheriff a cup of coffee, she continued, “Did the concerned FBI agent tell you anything else?”
“Nope.” He took a sip of the coffee and lifted the cup in Emma’s direction in salute. “Just wanted a report of your whereabouts before they made the trip for no reason, I guess. Before you came along we didn’t have too many FBI stakeouts. After I got a taste of Agent Barney Kyle, I can see why some peace officers have trouble working with the feds.”