Apparent. “You doubt the conclusion?”
“He was in his cell, alone. Surveillance shows no one went in or out except for the guard who discovered him. And there were no special calls or letters leading up to the event.”
“So it’s a suicide.”
Brody’s expression showed doubt. “The timing is suspicious…your recent visit with Hennessey…the upcoming raid. It’s a hell of a coincidence.”
And Hennessey didn’t believe in coincidence.
Was it possible Laguardia had somehow gotten inside? I didn’t see how. Maybe Fuentes had been so scared that Laguardia would find out that he’d done the deed preemptively. Or maybe he was just fucked up in the head.
What do you remember?
Three little girls in Tijuana.
Brody’s expression hardened. “You understand your role here.”
The question hit its target, right where it hurt the most. I was the rookie. I was the little girl who turned in her father. I was the guy wearing the red shirt in the sci fi show, only serving one purpose and destined to die.
“Understood,” I said tightly.
He nodded. “Dismissed.”
I followed after Hennessey, confused and frustrated. I didn’t even know what to think about Fuentes. I wasn’t sorry he was dead, but if Carlos could reach inside maximum security, we were pretty well fucked.
And the other part, my role. Yeah, that was coming through loud and clear. The rookie. The throwaway. Because I’d never escape my past. Hennessey was still in the hallway when I caught up to him, which meant he must have been waiting for me. He gave me a sideways glance as we continued together.
He muttered under his breath, mimicking Brody’s words. “He’s moving now, so you move now. Is that supposed to be some fucking law enforcement wisdom? As if I don’t have an arrest list a mile longer than he could ever hope for.”
Despite the tension of the moment, I had to crack a smile at the blatant competitiveness. In a way, Hennessey was so high above me, so competent that I idolized him. It helped to see him, at least in this moment, a little petty and a lot human.
He glanced at me, his lips twitching. “What are you laughing at?”
I shook my head, my smile fading. “Is it going to be bad? The bust?”
His sigh gave me the answer. “There’s always a chance that shit goes wrong. Sometimes we lose an agent. It happens.”
Only then did I remember his other rookie partner…who had died.
In the conference room, he began rifling through the papers. We’d need to reevaluate our blind spots without the snipers in place—and we’d have to do it fast.
He spoke without looking up. “Call everyone on the team. And screen them. If someone has taken so much as a Benadryl, they’re out. Everyone comes in clearheaded or not at all. If I have to walk in there by myself, that’s what I’ll do.”
“With me.”
“What?” he asked absently.
“I’ll be there with you.”
When he looked up, his eyes were smoky. Something was there, just behind the mist, but I couldn’t read him. “Right,” he said finally.
I tried to ignore the unease that pooled in my stomach as I left to make the calls. Thankfully, with the time still early evening, most of the team was available to come in immediately. Unfortunately, I couldn’t reach Lance at all. His number went straight to voicemail, as if his phone were off. Frankly, it didn’t really matter. He didn’t play a pivotal role in the original plan, and considering his rookie status, that likely wouldn’t have changed in the rushed new plan.
So what the hell are you doing here? But I didn’t have an answer for that.
It took me most of the hour we had left to organize everyone’s new assignments. The cubicles and conference room, which had been empty, now bustled with agents. Some prepared to work from the office or in the van to help coordinate. The ones going in suited up in bulletproof gear.
I hadn’t donned my gear yet, not wanting the encumbrance before I had to. There was no time to change clothes, so I was stuck in a blue dress shirt beneath my standard suit jacket and skirt. A black T-shirt and black cargo pants were laid out on my bed at home, useless now. I wasn’t sure what to do about that, but I was too busy to worry about it. At one point, literally running to get schematics from one end of the office to the other. It hurt on my two-inch heels, even with the fancy insoles I used. Everyone was running around. All our carefully laid plans were out the window, left only with this. Hennessey had been spot on when he’d predicted this would be a clusterfuck. We hadn’t even left the building and it already was.