“Got it.” Alex leaned forward to hug the taller woman, but stopped at the last moment, not sure if Teren would accept the physical touch. Instead, she held out her hand. She was surprised when Teren grasped it and pulled her into an awkard hug.
Then Teren was gone down the ramp.
David and Alex waited until she had turned the corner before picking up their own bags and heading to their gate for the flight to Philadelphia.
Now, as she thought about it, Alex wondered about the whole scene. She couldn’t remember ever being worried about Teren before. It was obvious the woman was an excellent fighter and could probably handle herself no matter what the danger. So why was she still so worried?
Plus, Alex couldn’t remember the last time she ‘needed’ someone. The only one she’d ever said she needed was her father, but even then it was the kind of needing that all children have for their parents. She had always felt the need for her father, and his presence had been sorely missed since his death. But how did that compare to this ‘need’ she thought about towards Teren?
She could admit that the investigation definitely needed the former spy. After all, without her, they might have taken forever to find half their evidence, and they’d still be unaware of many of the connections they were now looking into. The task force really did need her, and that, she argued to herself, could be taken to mean that Alex, as a part of the team, needed Teren.
Alex thought she could live with that explanation. She did need Teren, but only as a teammate. Finally, the voices inside began to fade as they gave in to her body’s demand for sleep.
She was beginning to float peacefully away, when a stray thought drifted through.
If she only needed Teren as a teammate, then why had she been jealous to learn of Teren’s relationship with Ann Seffren?
As much as she wanted to play with that question, her exhaustion won out, and she finally fell asleep.
Chapter Eighteen
Alex actually found herself awake early in the morning. This was a good thing, she decided, since she had an eight o’clock meeting with Rick Price and Ken Thomas, as well as the head of the Philadelphia office. She and David wanted a few minutes with Ken before the meeting, so Alex found herself in the car by 7:15, and shaking Ken’s hand by 7:45.
“Thanks for meeting us at the airport, Ken. We were so tired we probably would have taken a taxi and been asleep before we could tell the driver the name of the hotel.”
“No problem. I’m glad you’re here. It’s been a hell of a mess.”
“Anything we should know before we go into this meeting?”
Ken sighed. “Well, for one thing, we’re getting very little in the way of police help. Davies said he doesn’t believe Brogan had anything to do with this, so he’s been in to see Agent Harnisch, who’s the Agent in Charge up here. Last time we met, Harnisch wanted to know why we were harrassing a man who’d had his car stolen. We showed him everything we had on Brogan.”
“And what did he say?” David asked.
“He didn’t say anything, except that he’d look it over. We never heard back from him, but Davies called. Said Brogan was calling him claiming harrassment, and wanted to know who to talk to about filing suit. Davies said he’d back him, because there was no evidence that Kyle Brogan was involved in the commission of a crime.”
Alex shook her head. “Damn. I knew that man would come back to haunt me.”
David eyed her ruefully. “If Teren was here, we could sic her on him.”
They shared a laugh, while Ken looked on.
“Um, who’s Teren again?”
“Teren’s —”
“Hard to explain,” Alex interrupted his partner. “Let’s just say she’s an unofficial part of our team, courtesy of Cliff.”
“And the CIA,” David had to say.
“Oh, so Teren’s the assassin, right?”
David ducked and Alex groaned. “Look, Ken, don’t call her that, okay? She was an operative, and now she’s not, and that’s all you have to know.”
Ken nodded. “Right. So, David why were you ducking a moment ago?”
“Alex threatened to let Teren shoot me the next time I call her — that. So, I didn’t want to be in the way of any stray bullets.”
“But I thought she wasn’t here?”
Alex glared at David. “She’s not, Ken, right, David?”
“With Teren, you never know.”
Jeffrey Harnisch was not a bad leader, Alex decided after the meeting. He was just slow to make decisions, which practically guaranteed he’d never make Assistant Deputy Director on the national level.
But when he did make decisions, they were usually very good ones. First, he had decided to release Rick Price to the assassination task force. Secondly, he had agreed to hold Janet Brogan and her two kids in protective custody until they could be placed in a witness protection program. Thirdly, and most importantly to Alex, he had told Police Captain Anson Davies to kiss his ass.
Davies had shown up at the meeting blaming the FBI for the bombing of Kyle Brogan’s house. He ranted about harrassment, and screamed at Alex that it was her fault, despite the fact that she hadn’t been in the city. Harnisch had told Davies to get out of his office, and that if he ever saw Davies again, he’d trump up so many charges against the man that he’d still be in Federal Court in the year 2050. Then, for the final insult, he had security escort the police captain from the building.
“Stupid, arrogant, self-righteous son-of-a-bitch.”
Alex couldn’t hide the grin. She’d called Davies that same thing, many times, but never out loud.
“Alright, Agent Reis. What do you need from me?”
“We need to find Brogan, fast. This is your city, Sir, so as far as a search, I’ll let you make the call.”
“Okay. First off, we know we’re not going to get a lot of help from the local PD.” He gave them a sheepish grin. “And I suppose I just guaranteed that, huh?”
Everyone chuckled.
“Rick, you and Ken have been watching this guy for a couple days. Any ideas where he might go?”
“I doubt he’d go to any of his regular places. Too much of a chance for the wrong person to spot him.”
“Good point.”
“He’s got a little black car, a hatchback, but it doesn’t have a license plate yet, so that’s out. Even if he swiped a set of plates off another vehicle we’d have almost no way of tracing it.”
Alex turned. “Hey, Rick, I thought he asked where he might go, not why we haven’t found him.”
“I know, Alex, but I’m not sure. I mean, we have people covering all the stations, bus, train, plane, even boat. We sent out warnings to hotels in the area, saying they should call the FBI if someone by his name checks in, but that’s not gonna help if he’s using fake ID.”
Ken leaned forward from his position against the wall. “I doubt he’d have a fake. I mean, he was out when the bombing occurred, and had no need to carry a phony license or anything. And if he didn’t have one before, he certainly isn’t going to go to his buddies and ask for one.”
“So, where does that leave us, Ken?” Harnisch asked.
“Well, I think it means he’s either left the city in his car, or he’s living rough.”
Rick nodded, rubbing a hand across his chin. “Yeah, or he could be staying in one of those ratty motels by the strip. They don’t ask for ID.”
“Good. I’ll have a couple agents go through those places, and I’ll have someone else check our street contacts. If he’s living rough, chances are he’s gonna stand out like a sore thumb, and somebody’s gonna notice.” Harnisch looked at Alex and David. “Can you two think of anything I’m forgetting?”
David shook his head, no. Alex tapped her nose, and looked up at the ceiling.
“Couple. For one, I think we should check all the hospitals and morgues for John Doe’s matching Brogan’s general description, or anyone brought in sometime in the last twelve hours. We need to be realistic — he could already be dead.”
“Alex, I can do that while you and Rick are interrogating Brogan’s wife.”
“Thanks, Dave. The other thing is this. Does Brogan have a cell phone? Did he have it with him? And do we have the number for it. I know it’s difficult, but if we can get him to answer the phone, and it’s on a GPS, —”