“If she had stumbled onto something at the police department, surely she would have made notes or written something down.”
“I thought of that. If the cops are in on this, they’ve probably already gone through everything. They probably have the house staked out.”
“We’re considering breaking in to the police station and you’re worried about a little stakeout?” she asked dryly.
“I’m mainly worried about getting shot. In case you’re not up on the science of a 9 mm piece of lead penetrating the human body at two hundred miles an hour, it can be fatal.”
Even though he’d said it in a dry tone, she shivered.
“I’ll find a way into Angela’s house first.” He leaned back in the chair, set it back on two rear legs.
“That sounded singular.”
“It was.”
“I lived in the apartment above Angela’s garage for three weeks, Madrid. I know my way around.”
“I can figure it out.”
“I know a way in where you can’t be seen from the street.”
“I’m not going to have this conversation with you.” He rose, but she reached out, grasped his arm and stood, as well.
He blinked at her, then something hot flashed in his eyes. Suddenly she was aware of how hard the muscles in his arm felt beneath her fingertips. How energy ran like electricity through his body and into hers. She felt it all the way to her bones.
She didn’t want to acknowledge it, but her heart was pounding. A response that had nothing to do with sneaking into police stations and everything to do with the man standing so close she could feel the heat coming off his body.
She dropped her hand from his arm. “I know how to get in without being seen.”
He contemplated her with cool dark eyes. “Okay. I’ll bite.”
“Only if we go in together.”
“Damn it, Jess.” Sighing, he scraped a hand over his jaw. Jess heard the chafe of his heavy beard, realized that he hadn’t shaved. That his hair smelled of pine needles. That his muscles were like steel…
“Th-there’s a cellar door on the north side of the house.”
“I noticed it.”
“Then you know there’s a hedge that runs from the back fence to the door. The lock is broken on the cellar door.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because Angela and I were doing some yard work one day and she was complaining about having to fix it.”
“Can you get into the house through the basement?”
Jess nodded. “There’s no lock on the basement door.”
She could tell she had his attention now, so she kept going. “Angela kept a home office in a downstairs bedroom. There’s a file cabinet there she kept locked.”
“Do you know what’s inside?”
“All I know is that one night I went in to say goodnight to her and she seemed…secretive about it.”
He didn’t look surprised and Jess got the feeling that there was more going on than she was being told. What was he hiding from her?
“I get the feeling none of this comes as a surprise to you,” she said.
“I didn’t know about the cellar door.”
But you know why Angela kept a hidden file, a suspicious little voice added. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“A lot.”
She hadn’t expected him to say that. She stared at him, her pulse ratcheting, her mind beginning to run through possibilities. “What?”
He motioned toward the chair. “Sit down.”
Jess took the chair again, wondering what he was going to hit her with next.
“Angela was not a police officer,” he said.
“What?”
“She was posing as a cop, but it was only an assignment.”
“What are you talking about? What kind of assignment?”
“She was working undercover for the same agency I work for. It’s called the MIDNIGHT Agency. We’re federal. Part of the CIA.”
“Angela was a federal agent?” She couldn’t quite get her mind around the notion. “What was she doing in Lighthouse Point?”
“I don’t know. Her mission was covert. But I think she was working on something big.”
Jess’s head reeled with the information. “Why can’t you call the agency you work for and ask for their help?”
His gaze dropped to the tabletop. “When I found out about her death, I went to my superior and asked to be assigned the case. He refused, citing the fact that I was too personally involved.”
Another surprise tossed at her like a glass of ice water. “Are you?” she asked, wondering not for the first time about his relationship with Angela.
“No.” He grimaced. “But my superior argued the point. Things got heated. I lost my temper.”
“You quit?”
“I caught the first flight west to find her killer. No holds barred.”
The way he said it made Jess shiver. She stared at him, the knowledge that two days ago he’d thought she was Angela’s killer churning inside her.
He looked at her as if he’d read her thoughts. “I know you didn’t kill her.”
Relief swept through her with such power that for an instant she couldn’t speak.
He continued. “You were at the wrong place at the wrong time. A corrupt police department used that to their advantage.”