Chapter 11

Emery was driving out of the city when her phone rang. "Aunt Carla. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You want to know the real reason I want you to drop the ‘aunt' part?"

"Why?"

"Because it makes me feel old."

"You are old." Em laughed at Carla's sputter. "Kidding. Carla. It's nice to hear from you."

"I won't keep you long. I know you're working, but I wanted to see if you have time for a lunch date. We haven't seen much of each other lately. I need some time with my favorite niece named Emery."

"You're worried about me?"

"A little. You get into those phases where you work too hard. Let me see you to reassure myself."

"I'm not overworking myself, but it would still be nice to have lunch. Unfortunately I'm on my way out of the city. But maybe another day?"

"Where are you headed? Or is it a secret?" Her voice dropped to a forced whisper. "Are you with that guy? What was his name? Or wait, am I on speaker?"

Em laughed. "You are on speaker, but I'm alone. I will be seeing Jep soon, though. I'm on my way to his place now."

"Whoa, hang on a second. What have I missed?"

"It's business, not pleasure. I'm trying to get him to come back."

"To work?"

"Yes."

"So I have missed something."

"We had an incident at work last week, and the assistant director blew up at him, so he quit."

"You never told me that."

"I expected him to return, but he hasn't. I can't say I blame him. If Lawson spoke to me the way he spoke to Jep, I would have burst into tears."

"Yikes. But from what you said about Jep before, it sounded like he had it coming."

"I was wrong. I had Jep all wrong."

"Hang on, let me sit down. This just got interesting."

"If you're going to make fun of me, I'll hang up."

"There's no fun here. I'm intrigued. What did you get wrong?"

"Everything. I barely know the guy, but he understands me better than anyone else in the office—and before you say anything, I stand by my earlier comment that he's not the guy for me."

"Except that he knows you better than anyone else. Right. Got it."

"You know what my non-negotiables are. Besides, I wouldn't be allowed to date an agent even if I wanted to."

"You said he quit."

"Yeah, but I'm going to see him now and get him to change his mind." The line was silent. "You still there?"

"I'm thinking."

"About?"

"The unexpected turns life takes. You want me to pray for you? You need some wisdom?"

"I'll never say no to prayer. If we don't get him back, I'm pretty sure they'll shut us down."

"You'd lose your job over this?"

"No, but I'll be shifted to another department, and I really like where I work. Also, I'm afraid we'd never get to the bottom of who's doing this, and if we don't…"

"If we don't, what? Something classified will happen?"

"There's the very real possibility of a catastrophic event."

"Oh. Wow. Should I leave town? Should you?"

"As far as we know, there's nothing imminent, but...actually I would feel better if you didn't spend a lot of time in crowds or overpopulated areas."

"That sounds serious."

"I'm being overcautious right now."

"Does this have anything to do with that big explosion a few weeks back? They said it was a gas leak."

"I can't tell you that."

"Got it. I'll stick close to home, and I'll be praying. Good luck."

"Thanks."

Jep was bent over an engine, tightening a bolt, when Slate craned his neck toward the front of the shop. "Oh my. What have we got here? Whatever she needs, please let me be the one to do the job."

Jep saw the lewd grin. "Stop it." He smacked him in the chest with the wrench and grabbed a rag before moving to the side of the car to see the beautiful woman who had walked in to distract his staff.

He just about had to pick his jaw back up off the floor. "Emery?"

Slate bumped his shoulder. "You know her?"

"No—yeah. I mean…yeah." He wasn't sure what about her presence filled him with so much elation, but he was glad to see her. "She's someone I used to work with."

"You sure? Because your smile says different."

Jep chucked the rag in Slate's face and threaded his way past the clutter to the front.

"Hey, Em—Emery. What are you doing here?"

"You can call me Em."

"What?"

"I know when we first met, I told you to call me Emery, but that was because I didn't know you."

"You mean you didn't like me?"

She grinned. "Call me Em."

He was more glad to see her than he should have been. If he could have nailed down his stomach to keep it from betraying him, he would have. "Em…how's your arm?"

"Better. Healing well. And I got the lab results back. I'm all clear."

"Great. That's fantastic. It's been playing on my mind. I wanted to call and ask, but thought you'd prefer me to stay out of your business from now on."

"I don't blame you, you know."

"You'd be the only one."

She looked like she wanted to say more, but she scanned the workshop instead. "Nice place you have here."

"You think so? You like a sagging roof and oil stains?"

"It has its charm. What's back there?" She pointed at the large double doors.

"That's where we paint vehicles. You need a dust-free environment. It's the reason the rest of this place is in such bad shape. I put all my money into setting that up. I'm training a few of the guys. Giving them some skills so they can get their lives together."

"Is he one of them?" She nodded toward Slate, who was watching them, eyes wide in amusement. When Jep turned, Slate ducked out of sight.

"Yeah, that's one of them. He's got a real talent for it, actually."

"Is he getting his life together?"

"He's getting there. If you knew where he started, you'd understand how far he's come."

"Where did he start? If it's okay to ask."

"He got kicked out of his home when he was fourteen because he wouldn't let his uncle keep abusing him. Lived a very hard life on the streets for a couple of years until I found him."

She shook her head. "There's so much pain out there."

"There is."

"And you just take these guys in off the street?"

"I have rules and expectations. I've had to turn some of them away. Forcefully remove others. They're rough diamonds, but if I can get through to them, give them a chance they never had, you never know what heights they'll reach. I hope I can at least do some good."

"Is this what you've been doing since you left the agency the first time?"

"Not at the start. I opened up this shop with the last of my savings for something to do, and the boys I didn't run into out on the street turned up at my door. It got out of control, so I had to set some limits, and this whole thing kind of grew from there. I've got a couple of good guys that help me out, and I get donations of old cars and stuff for the boys to practice on."

"That's wonderful. I had no idea."

Jep laughed. "Not many outside my circle do. I know what you first thought of me."

"Then let me be the first to admit I was wrong. About a lot of things."

"I appreciate you saying that."

She picked up a fuel filter and looked it over. "So you're happy here?"

"Happy? That's a tricky question." Best to change the subject. "You have a car that needs servicing?"

"I brought a work car. I think they have someone for that."

"Wow. You confiscated a work car to come see me? How'd you manage that one? Or didn't they know where you were headed?"

"Pearce organized it for me."

"Pearce knew you were coming here, and he let you?"

"He's the one who suggested it."

"Oh." It deflated him a little knowing it wasn't her idea.

"I didn't think you'd be interested in seeing me."

"You're one of the few people I'd be happy to see at my door anytime."

"Even if I told you I'm here to convince you to come back?"

"You said this was Pearce's idea?"

"He said he called you."

"He did. But I find it hard to believe he'd let you within a mile of me. Doesn't everyone at the office think my sole purpose in life is to get you killed?

"No one thinks that. And I came with Pearce's blessing."

"But not Lawson's."

"We're working on him."

"It's good to see you, and I appreciate the effort, but there's no point me coming back if Lawson's going to keep me caged. I won't work under his direction. It wouldn't be good for either one of us."

"Pearce said he'd take care of it. And—" she took a deep breath. "I'll still be your partner if you want."

He chuckled. "Say it like you mean it."

"I do mean it. If you still want me. But I'd understand if you'd prefer someone better trained."

He had conflicting emotions he wasn't expecting. "I wouldn't ask that of you. You'd be off the hook. I could probably work okay with Pearce."

"No! I mean. No. I'd like to still be your partner. It's up to you. But if you meant what you said before. Unless…no. You're right. You'd be better off with—whatever. Forget I said anything."

"Are you saying you want to be my partner?"

"I— Yes."

"Why?"

"Because. There's no one else in the office who believes in me the way you do. No one else trusts my instincts. To them, all I am is an analyst. I'm not supposed to have gut feelings, and yet, I knew something wasn't right. I knew that the last mission was going to be a disaster."

That got his attention. "You did?"

"Yeah. But I didn't have any data to back up my feelings, so I was dismissed."

"I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"That I'd picked the right partner. How'd you know something was wrong?"

"I told you. I just knew."

"Yeah, but your instincts come from putting together what others don't notice. What did you see that the other's missed?"

"I really don't know this time. I tried to find it because it would be impossible to convince Gardener or Lawson that there was reason for concern without solid evidence. I spent hours poring through the case files. I had these ghosts of memory about details I thought were there, but then I couldn't find them."

"There were gaps?"

"I don't know. I just…I couldn't find what I thought was there."

"Come with me," he said.

She followed him into his office, where he set up a folding chair for her.

"Is this your office?" she said.

"I know it's a mess. A tidy office space is not my forte. Can I get you anything? Tea, coffee, water?"

"No, I'm fine, thanks. What did you want to show me?"

He pulled a rolling chair from behind his desk and sat close to her. "Tell me what details made you uncomfortable with the operation. I know you said you couldn't find them, but tell me what you expected to find. What were the signs you noticed? Take your time. Think back."

"It started with the previous missions. You know we were getting very little intel, and whenever we did get something, they had already cleared out before we could get there. One time, we were contacted by local police on a B&E that was in progress at a factory, but we missed it."

"Yeah. I read that."

"All of that stuff put together made it look like they knew how we operate."

"That's exactly what I was thinking. But we did find intel a few times."

"Yeah, that's what I mean. If they knew what we were going to do before we did it, why wouldn't they have removed sensitive information?"

"But what about that time our team did get in? There were no survivors on their side to remove anything."

"That was a weird one."

"Yeah?"

"I was hoping for more on that specifically because I remembered the autopsies being off, but when I went back, the details I thought I'd remembered weren't what I remembered."

"Could the reports have been tampered with?"

"It's unlikely, but anything's possible at this point."

"Who would have access to do that?"

"Who knows? It may not even be sinister if it did happen. Sometimes stuff goes missing because someone's taken it out and hasn't put it back yet. Or it could have gotten left in another file."

"But you said the details were different from what you remembered."

"I could have gotten it wrong. I'm not infallible. And if I got a sense of something, that could also have skewed my memory."

"What was off about them?"

"The dead bodies. The ones who were dead before our team got there."

"Yeah. I read about that."

"They identified some of them, but not all."

"I read that as well."

"I looked into a few and came up with some interesting information. Details about them coming into the US and their movements, but it didn't really trigger anything until the pieces started coming together."

"You did some digging? I asked Pearce about that, why they weren't looked into. He said there was nothing to find."

"Yeah. They didn't think it was worth investigating too thoroughly. I only did it because…well, I don't know, I guess because it was strange. The majority of bodies we recovered had been dead for days."

"Why do you think that was? Why would they do that?"

"All I can come up with is they wanted us to think we had a big win so we believed what we found was valuable. When I went back through the autopsy reports, I couldn't find the same information."

"That's significant enough to suggest someone's changed details."

"It's impossible to prove when it can be explained away."

"How?"

"I could have looked up the wrong person. Or if the spelling of the name was wrong at the beginning but was updated. There are so many holes that you can poke through my concerns, it's impossible to get anywhere with it."

"Has an inside man even been considered?"

"It was suggested."

"Was it pursued?"

"Yeah. Quietly. But I'm the newest member. Everyone else on the team has a long record of service."

"That doesn't mean someone hasn't been turned."

"I know. But they've been vetted, and now they've been re-vetted, so if someone is dirty, they've hidden it better than our searching can find."

"It's happened before."

"You really think someone in our office is behind this?" Em shifted uncomfortably.

"We have to consider all the possibilities. Does anyone stand out?"

"No. No one."

"You sure? You haven't noticed anything? No matter how small. Think back to everyone's actions throughout your time with the unit. You've never had a suspicion?"

"No. But I don't know everyone that well. Even my supervisor. And I have to be careful that my personal feelings don't interfere."

"Meaning there are some you don't like?"

"It's not a matter of not liking. Lawson's not the easiest person to get along with, and my supervisor can be cold and dismissive, but that's not enough to raise a red flag."

"If it's not someone within the task force now, maybe it's someone who has been before. Someone with a grudge maybe?"

"You mean like you?" She smirked.

"Yes. If I wasn't me, I might put myself under suspicion."

"No one else has suggested it. You're supposed to be our knight in shining armor."

"So I can get away with anything?"

"You'd have to come back first to get away with anything."

Jep's chair squeaked as he leaned back and rocked for a moment. "I'll have to think about it."

"I was hoping you'd just say yes."

"I want to."

"What's stopping you?"

"Wisdom."

"It's hard to argue with that. But don't think too long, okay? We need you back there. Even if some people don't recognize it, the important ones do. And you said you trust my judgement, right?"

"Did I say that?" Jep grinned.

"It's why you still want me for a partner."

"Right."

"So you have to believe me."

"I'm more worried you don't trust me ."

"I do. But while you ponder your next step, I should get back."

"I'll walk you out."

Jep gave Slate a look when they passed him, and he waggled his eyebrows.

"Thanks for letting me borrow him," she said to Slate.

"You can borrow him anytime. In fact?—"

"That's enough," Jep said, putting a hand on Em's back to hurry her to the door. "There's no telling what would come out of his mouth," he whispered to Em. He'd worked hard to remove the crude from Slate's conversation, but the young man would never pass up an opportunity like this one.

"He seems like a handful," she said once they were outside.

"He can be, but he's a good kid."

She held out her hand to shake his. It was an awkward gesture that suggested she was stalling for time.

"So, uh…," she said, fidgeting with her purse strap. "If you come back, does that mean this place goes on pause?"

"No. I've got others who can help run it."

"I think it's really good what you're doing."

"Thank you. I'm not always so sure, but it's the only option I have, so I try to make the most of it."

"Not the only option."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah. So…I guess I'll see you. I hope."

"I'll let you know."

Jep waved as she pulled out of the parking lot. Her visit raised a lot of questions. Most of those questions involved terrorists, but some personal ones muddied the water, and now was not the time to unravel them.