Chapter Sixteen

Hoover Building

Criminal Apprehension Unit

Washington, D.C.

Wednesday afternoon

Savich said, "Well put, and yes, that's what I want you to do. Keep her safe. She came to Sherlock for help because Sherlock was the one who killed Basara, really no other reason. I've forwarded the link to her files to you, and I've already been in touch with MI5, asked them to send us the details of their investigation into what happened to her in London. I'll let her tell you what she's been up to since she came to the U.S. You know the drill. Spend time with her, gain her trust, find out whatever you can from her. Get to know her well enough to predict how she will respond if something does happen.

Roman never changed expressions. "Do I call her Your Majesty when I meet her? Bow or drop to one knee?"

Savich said, "She's been through a lot, Rome, and I don't just mean Hurley. Come meet her."

Sherlock saw them and smiled, waved him and Savich over to her in the conference room. "Rome, I'd like you to meet Elizabeth Palmer. She's now in your charge. Elizabeth, this is Special Agent Roman Foxe. As I told you, you'll be counting on him. He's mean, he's tough, he can lift a car off you while whistling Bon Jovi. Well, that's what I heard. Oh, yes, everyone calls him Rome."

Elizabeth stuck out a white hand and Rome shook it. Whoa, what was that? She had calluses? So Hurley had really trained her?

"How do you do, Special Agent Foxe," Her Majesty said in a cool Brit voice.

He gave her a dip of the head. "I'm fine, thank you, ma'am."

The CAU conference room was good sized, with a big table and twelve chairs and a glass wall looking out into the unit. Roman pulled out a chair for her, earning him a raised eyebrow and a crisp "Thank you." Rome sat opposite her, pulled a small tablet out of his suit coat pocket. "I'd like to record this, if you don't mind. Tell me everything."

No one had asked this before. After a moment, Elizabeth nodded. "There were definitely two in the Aston Martin because of the fact that no more than two would fit. The same two all three times? I can't be sure. I didn't see the man who tried to talk his way through my front door before the two of them tried to shoot their way in. There could have been more, I don't know, but the feeling I had was that it was just the two. As I told you, at least one of them had a hint of an Arabic accent, like Samir Basara." She sat forward, clasped her hands. "The third time, I recognized the man's voice who'd come to my front door, but I didn't see either of their faces, and they were wearing masks." She paused, looked thoughtful. "Do you know, what I remember most about them was their utter hatred of me." She swallowed, got herself together. "As I already told you, one of them was a large man, the other smaller, but both were fit, and vicious. They were young, I'd say. Benny, Officer Bewley, shot the smaller one who was on top of me ready to cut me with a knife. The fingerprints on the knife the surgeons pulled out of Benny's chest were too smeared to be of use. MI5 officers found the attacker's blood, but there was no DNA match. Deputy Director Eiserly told me that only meant the man Benny shot isn't in the system, which didn't necessarily mean he hadn't committed any crimes elsewhere. There wasn't even anyone identified as a close relative in the DNA databases."

Rome nodded. "But no one else would know that, would they? All right, do you have anything else to tell me?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "No, I've told you everything I can think of. Wait. This might not be important, but I told Deputy Director Eiserly one of the two men in the Aston Martin was wearing an unusual ring—I only caught a glimpse of it. It looked heavy, silver, and I saw some kind of stone set in the crown. Maybe if we find him he'll be wearing that ring."

Rome typed this in on his tablet, then raised his head. "What did Hurley Janklov teach you in three months?"

"Hurley said I could outshoot him, well, nearly, and that I was a brick."

That drew him up for a moment. "A brick?"

"That's right. A brick. Mr. Maitland said it's his highest compliment."

Should she kick Rome now or wait and see if the two of them would work it out between them? Dillon had told her Rome wasn't happy about this assignment. Maybe she could just whisper in his ear to suck it up. At least she could remind him to do what Dillon had already asked. She said, "Rome, it's time for you to get Elizabeth to relax now. Let her be a tourist and decompress. Show her some sights before you come to dinner tonight. Dillon has been speaking with John Eiserly, talking him out of the information he has. He might have all of it by tonight."

Rome said, "You're saying I should don my special agent's tourist director's hat? And get paid for it?"

Well, that was snarky.