Chapter Eighteen

ARI

Eoghan was just finishing up with the neighbors when he peeked out of the apartment. His partner must have felt the weight of his stare because he looked up and nodded at the woman he’d been talking to. She smiled, reached out a hand, and shook his before dispersing with the rest of the neighbors as Eoghan tucked his phone away. He walked over to Ari, who stepped outside the apartment.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Ari replied. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

“It’s fine, Ari. I finished the interviews.” Eoghan smiled at him.

“Anything promising?” he asked, hopeful that someone saw something. Nothing inside the apartment had helped him pinpoint who might have taken Priest or if she’d been working on something they hadn’t been privy to.

“Well, I think I can pinpoint when she was taken,” Eoghan said. “One of the neighbors remembered seeing her in the downstairs laundry room at seven-thirty yesterday morning. After that, the lady who lives below this unit, says she heard thumps coming from her bedroom at around eight, a half hour later.”

“So, she was taken at eight which means someone may have gotten into the apartment while she was in the laundry room or she opened the door to someone?” Ari asked.

“That’s a possible scenario but I don’t think she was taken out of the apartment then,” Eoghan replied. “These units are too close and as you can testify to, the neighbors seem to be in each other’s business a lot. The downstairs neighbor reports that she heard more noises around one in the afternoon, five hours later. She said it sounded like objects hitting the floor and she almost came up here to investigate.”

“It’s a good thing she didn’t.”

“That’s what I told her.”

“So, you think Priest was taken out or forced out of the apartment later in the day or under the cover of darkness,” Ari stated.

Eoghan nodded. “That would make sense.”

“It would.”

They’d only just reentered the apartment, when there was a tapping at the door and they both turned to find the last person they expected to see standing in the doorway. Kellen McGillis was wearing his yellow hazmat suit with the hood tucked under one arm, looking just as smug and full of shit as he usually did.

He smirked at them. “I hope I’m not interrupting,” he said as he sashayed into the room. He was a devastatingly handsome man, but all Ari saw was a guy who was way too full of himself with a crappy personality. In fact, the last time they’d seen him, Eoghan had knocked him on his ass for making shitty remarks and outing him publicly. It had been an utterly crappy thing to do which is most likely why he’d lied to Priest about the incident, claiming that he’d slipped and fallen on his ass when she’d clearly seen what had happened.

“What are you doing here?” Eoghan asked.

“I’m here to help with the forensics. You know we don’t have a team…technically. I’m here to assist Doctor Patterson to determine whether this was a kidnapping or—” He glanced around and whistled. “Wow, this is a mess. Maybe someone followed her home and robbed her.” He walked deeper into the apartment before stopping and pivoting to face them. “Then again, the boss might be on an unauthorized leave of some sort. Either way, it’s a big mess for us, right?”

“Fuck you, Kellen,” Eoghan said.

“Why would you even think she left by choice?” Ari asked, incensed. “Look at this place!”

Kellen shrugged nonchalantly, then turned, walking around the room, stopping at the pile of books and magazines in the middle of the living room floor. He stared down at them for a few seconds before turning to look at them. “Who knows why people do what they do. She’s been under a lot of pressure. We’re short staffed on marshals and she’s been putting in the work of ten men, staying late at the office, coming in on her days off, working early in the morning. She behaves like a machine. Maybe she snapped and went off on her own to do whatever it is she does when she’s not there.”

“That’s a really stupid observation,” Eoghan said. He pointed to the pile of books on the floor. “I suppose you think she trashed her own apartment before she left on this—how did you put it? Oh, yeah…unauthorized vacation?”

“Well, that’s a mystery,” Kellen said. He walked into the kitchen and looked at the open cabinets and the floor where the contents of canisters of sugar, flour, and coffee had been poured onto the floor as if someone were searching for something small inside them.

“If you’re helping Doctor Patterson, where is she?”

“Gathering her lab kit and probably trudging her fat ass up the stairs as we speak,” McGillis said. “A woman of her age and level of obesity doesn’t move as nimbly as say…me.”

“You’re a real ass, McGillis,” Eoghan said. “Whatever good qualities I ever saw in you are totally lost on me.”

“That’s because there aren’t any,” Ari said. He had to agree with Eoghan. McGillis was a terrible person.

“Look around. What do you see?” Kellen asked. “I see that the chief was so desperate to abandon her job, that she made it look like her apartment was trashed. That’s my opinion.”

“You’re a piece of shit,” Ari said.

“Sticks and stones, Ari, dear,” he sneered.

“You don’t think she was kidnapped?” Eoghan scoffed.

“No, I don’t think so,” Kellen said with a laugh. He waved his hand around. “This is totally staged.”

“God…what could I have ever seen in you?” Eoghan asked.

“Let’s see,” McGillis said, tapping a finger on his chin. “What on earth could the perfectly gorgeous blue-eyed devil Eoghan Sapphire have seen in me?” He suddenly grinned. “Oh, yeah, I remember. It was my big cock.”

“Shut up, Kellen,” Eoghan warned as Ari’s heart did a flip-flop in his chest. He knew they’d dated and even slept together but the very idea of them in bed together made him ill.

“Why? Don’t you want me to talk about how you loved getting on your knees every chance you could? How you loved it when I came in your mouth.” He smirked nastily at Ari. “Does the little bitch bend over for you? Eoghan loves taking it up the ass.” He laughed.

Ari couldn’t take the taunts anymore. He ran at him, grabbed him around the waist, and slammed him onto the ground so hard his breath came out in a whoosh as he landed on top of him. He leaned back, snarling as McGillis gasped for breath and pulled his fist back, ready to smash it into the too perfect face when there was a loud whistle. All three of them turned to find Doctor Patterson standing in the doorway with two fingers in her mouth, glowering at them.

“What in the hell is going on here?” she shouted, rushing forward. “Hey, you, get off that man…oh—” she said as she realized it was Ari straddling Kellen, about to beat the crap out of him. “Brown! What are you doing. Stop that immediately and let that man up.”

Reluctantly, Ari rolled off him, feeling surprisingly unapologetic about being found ready to take out all his frustrations on a coworker. Unfortunately, both he and—earlier in the week—Eoghan, looked like the ones who let emotions rule their lives. There was just something so shitty about the personality of Kellen McGillis. The man brought out the worst in people. He got up and then held a hand down to him, encouraging him to take it.

Kellen ignored it, batting his hand away dramatically before rolling to his knees and letting out a loud groan. He picked up the helmet he’d let roll away when he’d been tossed to the ground, and stood, brushing off his hazmat suit as he made the most of his victimhood.

“What in the hell did you think you were doing, Brown?” Doctor Patterson asked, frowning deeply at him. “It’s a damned good thing the chief isn’t here right now because if she was, I’d make sure you were brought up on assault charges,” she said, shaking her finger in his face. “You can’t just attack people!” She whirled on Eoghan, stomping over to him. “And as for you…where were you when your partner was trying to give a beat down to a coworker?”

“Look, Doc,” Eoghan said. “Ari was provoked. Kellen all but accused the chief of faking her own kidnapping and making this mess.” He was so tempted to say something else to the doctor about what Priest had been dealing with and all the secrecy around everything she’d been hiding over the last six months. Unfortunately, they still didn’t know who their mole in the office was, not to mention the fact that someone had to be a mole deep within the Agency. Their traitor could be anyone…sadly, even the doc.

“Well, there’s no excuse for physical violence of any kind and no excuse for attacking a coworker,” she said, sounding slightly calmer than she had. Turning away from Eoghan, she looked over at him and McGillis. “I know you and your partner have an issue with McGillis,” she went on. “Everyone knows about his supposed slip and fall in the cafeteria earlier this week. The chief witnessed it, and she should have done something about it then but I’m here to tell you, there will be no more nonsense like that in my presence. Understood?”

“Yes, Doc,” Ari said, feeling shitty about losing his temper and hating McGillis who always seemed to push his buttons.

“Yes, ma’am,” Eoghan echoed.

Ari watched him walk over to where the door stood open. She’d dropped her kit just inside the door when she’d rushed in, so Eoghan went to pick it up.

“Leave it,” she snapped.

She walked over and opened it, withdrawing a roll of yellow police tape, and handed it to Kellen.

“When we’re done, you’ll tape off the doorway, so the apartment isn’t disturbed, understand?”

“Yeah, Doc,” Kellen said, bobbing his head as he took the tape.

Ari watched her pull out a fingerprint kit and hand it to Kellen as he shoved the roll of tape into a large pocket in his yellow suit. He took the kit and walked over to the kitchen table, starting to get to work on collecting prints. It appeared the doc was ignoring them.

He glanced at his partner, feeling bad for his role in all the mess today. Ari knew he shouldn’t have snapped but he’d seen red when he’d pictured Eoghan and Kellen together. He hated that such a vile man had been his ex. Eoghan must have felt the weight of his stare because he looked up and it was only then that all the stress of the past hours really sank in. Eoghan had dark circles under his eyes, and he looked totally miserable, like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. He walked over to stand by his side when the doctor looked up.

“You can go. We’ll take it from here,” she said harshly.

“Go?” Eoghan asked. “You don’t want us to hang around and help or wait until you finish here?”

She set her gloved hands on her hips as she turned to face them. “I think you’ve both done quite enough here. We have the chief to find, and we need to get the fingerprints and whatever physical evidence I find here back to my lab as soon as possible. So, no, I don’t need you and your partner getting in our way. Go now.” She shooed them like they were kids being scolded.

Ari felt himself blushing and when he chanced a glance at Eoghan, his pale skin was bright red. He felt sorry and angry and embarrassed for Eoghan. He didn’t deserve to be talked to like that by anyone. And they still weren’t any closer to finding their boss than they’d been this morning.

“Let’s go,” Eoghan said, not even looking at him as he walked out of the apartment.

Ari cursed Kellen McGillis and all his descendants under his breath as he followed in Eoghan’s wake, feeling helpless and miserable enough for both of them. They went downstairs and out to the car in silence, getting into Eoghan’s Prius. It felt wrong, very wrong not to talk with his partner. It was almost like Kellen’s slimy presence filled the space between them as Eoghan started the engine. Ari sighed and looked out of the window as they pulled away from the curb.

He watched the passing cars and buildings with little interest as he thought about who would have taken the chief and why. Her disappearance didn’t make any sense at all… Unless she really had been kidnapped or was dead and her killer or killers had taken her body away to bury or otherwise dispose of. He thought about the apartment and the way it had been totally trashed. Could it have been a robbery? He speculated about what Eoghan had said when they’d first arrived and seen the place. “Maybe someone followed her home and robbed her.” A beat after he thought it, he felt his entire body go cold as if washed with a bucket of ice.

“Oh, my God!” he exclaimed out loud.

Eoghan swerved suddenly, forcing Ari to brace himself on the dash with one hand and grab the door handle with the other. Eoghan immediately righted the car as several horns went off.

“Crap. I’m sorry,” Ari said, quietly, feeling terrible for startling him.

Eoghan turned to look at him. “What? What is it?”

“Sorry, Eoghan,” Ari apologized again. “I didn’t mean to shout like that. I just thought of something.”

“Jesus, Ari, I almost drove off the road,” Eoghan said, blowing out a relieved breath.

“I know…I just—” He stopped.

“Well…what is it? What did you think of?” Eoghan asked with a quieter tone. He dragged his eyes off the road for a second and pinned him with a perplexed look before reaching over and placing a calming hand on his thigh, giving it an encouraging squeeze. “Tell me, Ari.”

Ari sighed and twisted a little in the seat to better face him. “Okay, do you remember what you said when we first got to the apartment?”

“I said a lot of things. What’re you talking about?” Eoghan asked frowning just a little as he glanced at him quickly again before returning his gaze back to the road.

“When we were in the living room, looking at the mess, your exact words were ‘maybe someone followed her home and robbed her.’”

“Okay, yeah, so what?”

“Kellen McGillis used the exact same phrase, ‘maybe someone followed her home and robbed her.’”

Eoghan was silent for a few seconds, biting his lower lip. “Yeah, okay, so, we had the same thought. What about it?”

“No, McGillis’ first instinct was to say he was there to help Doc Patterson with the forensics…to help her determine whether the chief was kidnapped. But then, he pivoted and said, ‘maybe someone followed her home and robbed her.’ When he said it, I downloaded it to examine later.”

Eoghan glanced at him just long enough to roll his eyes. “Downloaded it?”

“You know what I mean. You hear some part of a fast-moving conversation or think of something and then save it to examine in more detail later on. Anyway, that stuck with me because you’d also said those exact same words. I didn’t remark on it at the time because he immediately followed that up by talking about how the boss might be on an unauthorized leave which made me furious. And it forced the first thought to the back of my mind. He then went on, making a big deal about how she’d staged the whole incident and that she hadn’t been kidnapped at all.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Eoghan said. “Are you sure he used my exact words?”

Ari felt relief wash through him. He finally had Eoghan on the same page.

“Yes. It matches what you said, word for word.”

“Okay,” said Eoghan, still sounding unsure.

“To say someone followed her home? The same way you said it? The chances are small.”

“You think McGillis overheard me say that before he arrived?” Eoghan asked. “Oh, wow, Ari…you think McGillis is our mole.”

Ari nodded emphatically. “The one in the office…oh, hell, yeah. I do think so. The goddamned guy puts himself in our path every time we’re in the office. He’s constantly starting shit. And he knows way more about our relationship than he should, Eoghan.”

“What are you saying, Ari?”

“Just that. Think about it.”

“Do you think my house is bugged?” Eoghan asked, turning to him with wide eyes. “How would that even be possible with Bear there all the time.”

“Well, I haven’t taken the time to work it all out but I know this…he’s not there all the time. In fact, I think he’s with Ted and Al a lot more than we even know about,” Ari said. “If someone was watching the house when we were away, all they’d have to do is wait until Bear joined the couple for a little scratch and tickle and then let themselves in to plant a bug.” He nodded. “The more I think about this, the more I think I’m right.”

Eoghan abruptly changed lanes, heading for the nearest freeway exit.

“What are you doing? I thought you were heading to the office,” Ari asked.

“I was.” He pulled off the freeway and stopped at the bottom of the ramp before looking at Ari.

“And now? Where are you going?” Ari asked, frowning.

“Home. I’m heading home to talk to my fucking cat and sweep my house for bugs.”

Ari couldn’t help but chuckle as he sat back in the seat. He shook his head, really hoping he’d been wrong about everything.