“You’re still convinced she had nothing to do with this,” Calder wanted to know.
“To tally convinced.” Joe set his cup in the sink. He’d had all of that brew he could stomach. He moved to the table. Though he still felt too restless he needed Calder to see just how convinced he was. “She had no idea what Maddox was up to. I think you know that.”
Calder nodded. “I do. It’s Allen who’s still not on the same page with us. But I’ll take care of him.”
Joe breathed easy for the first time since this operation started. He knew what Maddox had done. No way would he stand idly by and let Elizabeth take the fall for any thing that bastard did.
“Is it essential that we wait the next three days before I go in?” Joe ventured. He knew the plan as well as any one, but he wasn’t sure staying here with Elizabeth for seventy-two more hours was a good idea.
“We have to trust our intelligence, Hennessey,” Calder said, telling him what he already knew but didn’t want to hear. “Word is that she’ll be in-country in just over forty-eight hours. We don’t want to rush this thing.”
The director was right, no question. But Joe’s instincts kept nagging at him to get into position. There was nothing specific he could put his finger on. The best analysts in the world were processing new intelligence every hour of every day. If any thing had changed, Joe would know it right after Calder.
The fact that Calder was literally sitting in on this one personally made it the highest priority mission. So far three agents had been am bushed, two while involved in an on going mission. Stopping those assassinations was imperative. Additionally, Dr. Elizabeth Cameron had been Calder’s brain child. He had personally brought her into the Agency’s family. He and Dawson, discounting Maddox, were the only ones allowed to approach her, until this operation. Joe had a feeling that Calder felt responsible for the woman’s safety as well as her actions, good, bad or in different.
When Calder had gone, Joe went back to his room to study his reflection in an attempt to grow accustomed to the face staring back at him. It wasn’t easy, considering he would have liked to rip Maddox apart him self if someone hadn’t beat him to the punch. That the bastard’s body hadn’t been recovered only infuriated Joe all the more. But three credible eyewitnesses had testified to what they had seen. The shooter had been found but he’d refused to talk and ended up offing him self the first chance he got.
Who ever had sanctioned Maddox’s termination was powerful enough that his reputation alone had ensured the shooter wouldn’t turn on him.
The remaining questions were about Maddox’s associates. Who had wanted the list of agents with new faces? Even if Joe infiltrated the group, could he be sure they would talk? Not even the CIA could stop a nameless entity. A name, a face; they needed something to go on.
Before more bodies piled up.
“I’m sorry, Agent Dawson,” Elizabeth said finally. “That’s everything I remember. If there was any thing else during that time frame I can’t recall.”
“That’s all right, Dr. Cameron.” He closed the document on the computer. “What you remembered will be useful.” He stood then. “We should probably get back.”
Elizabeth followed him from the borrowed office in the rear of the downtown library. She wasn’t sure why he had insisted they review all the news paper reports from the three months prior to David’s death. Maybe to prod her memories. She hadn’t remembered any thing she hadn’t told them already. But she hadn’t minded taking another shot at it. She was only human. It was just as likely as not that she could have forgotten something relevant.
But she hadn’t.
If she were honest with her self she would admit that getting away from the safe house for a few hours was a good thing. Other than her one excursion back to her brown stone she hadn’t left in three weeks. She was thankful for the respite.
The other night when she’d had to face the reality of what she’d denied about David for months she’d almost asked Hennessey to sleep with her. She’d so desperately needed someone to cling to, she’d resisted that crushing need by the slimmest of margins. Thank God he’d had his head about him. All he would have had to have done was touch her, in the most innocent fashion, and she would have surrendered with out a fight.