Expectation (Ghost Targets, #2) (16 page)

"They're not in Rick's files, though," Reed said, frowning. "They're in mine. This is
not
 supposed to be a personal investigation, but the minute I left—"

"Hey," Katie said with an exaggerated shrug and some forced cheer, "maybe it's a good thing. They'll check you out real good, clear your name, and drop all this."

Reed's frown only deepened, and for a moment Katie was afraid he might admit to some misdeed. Then he shook his head. "No," he said. "I saw them dig into some of Rick's cases that were squeaky clean. I saw how they handled
your
 investigation. Innocence doesn't interest them."

"Well, there's nothing you can do but wait, then." Katie smiled to take the sting out of the words, but it didn't help much.

"That's just the thing," Reed said, stopping a few steps from the closed break room door. "There's nothing I can do
here
. I should be in DC. You tried to warn me—"

"This is important," Katie said. She turned Reed to face her and caught his shoulders. "Maybe you were just running away when you left, but now that you're here you're helping me investigate government complicity in the neutralization of one of our country's brightest minds. You should be
here
. Do your job and let the rest sort itself out." A little late she added, "Sir."

He smiled at that. "You're right," he said after a moment. Then he gave a very businesslike nod. "We have important work to do."

Katie tilted her head toward the break room door, and he nodded back, then he stepped forward and threw the door open. Katie rushed through it, eyes searching. The room beyond was a cozy little lounge that reminded Katie strongly of Theresa's kitchen. Though it wasn't nearly as large, the colors and decor were the same, right down to the potted ivy growing in a basket above the sink, tendrils snaking along a decorative ledge that topped the cabinets on three walls.

An intimate little table stood in the far corner with a couple kitchen chairs tucked underneath. WorldWindows built into the walls above the table simulated a view of the grounds outside, although the panorama was considerably sunnier than reality offered. A low, well-padded cot stood by Katie's right ankle, neatly made, and a more practical restaurant-style booth stood against the wall to her left, next to the cabinet peninsula that jutted out into the middle of the floor. Reed slipped past Katie to get a good view on the other side of that, but he immediately shook his head. The little room was empty.

While Reed began a brisk search of the cabinets, Katie sighed and headed back to the main lab, looking for any sign of a stowaway. The bathroom was nearby, and as Katie turned toward it the door swung open. Katie's hand went instinctively to her gun, but a heartbeat later Meg stepped out of the bathroom. When she spotted Katie staring so intently, a blush rose in the young woman's cheeks.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "Was I not supposed to?"

Katie ignored the question and stepped quickly around the door and into the bathroom. It lacked the opulence of the rest of the lab, just a tiled white cube with a toilet, sink, and a clear glass shower in its corners. A wicker basket held towels, and there were no cabinets. No hidey holes. No Ellie Cohn.

Katie left the bathroom to find Reed waiting just outside. He asked with his eyes, and she shook her head. He sighed.

Meg wrung her hands, anxiety making her gaze dart back and forth between the agents. "What's going on?" Her voice came out almost a wail.

Without really looking at Meg, Reed said, "We suspect Ellie might be hiding somewhere on the base." He stepped past the bathroom door and opened one of the many huge storage cabinets that lined the walls. "These might be big enough to hide in...."

"Hide?" Meg said, her voice climbing to a squeak. "You guys are after Ellie?"

"Yeah," Katie said with a concerned frown. "The lieutenant didn't tell you?"

"Nobody tells me anything," Meg said. "Oh, god, you think...Agent Pratt, I saw Ellie. I saw her yesterday. I didn't think anything about it."

"It's okay," Katie said. "You couldn't have known."

Reed undermined her efforts with a sudden intensity. He left the cabinet open and crossed to Meg in two long steps. "Where is she," he asked, looming over her. "What did she want? Did she say anything to you?"

"N—no. Not really." Meg's eyes were darting again, to Reed in fear, to Katie in a plea for help. "She was just checking in. I'm sorry. I—I don't remember anything."

Katie stepped up behind Reed and pulled him back with a light touch inside the bend of his elbow. "It's okay," she said again, with a tone meant to calm Reed down as much as to reassure the startled girl. She tilted her head toward Meg. "Do you know what time she was here?"

Meg looked up at the ceiling, thinking. "Umm..." she said. "Ten-ish. Eleven. She wasn't here long."

Reed spoke in a gentler voice, following Katie's lead. "Did you see where she went?"

Meg looked uncomfortable in spite of his measured tones. "I don't know. I didn't think to watch her."

"But did she go somewhere else on the grounds?" Katie asked. "Did she leave the clinic, or did she go to one of the other buildings? Maybe the administrative building?"

"Yeah!" Meg nodded eagerly. "I mean, she might have gone there, yeah." She glanced at Reed and at the cabinet he'd ripped open. "She's not
here
, though. I would know if she'd stayed at the lab."

"That's not super helpful," Reed grumbled, half under his breath.

"It is," Katie said. "There are three other buidings in the clinic, but none of them are as private as this one. If Ellie's hiding in one of those, Drake should be able to track her down pretty quickly."

"Unless he's helping her," Meg said. She shrank away when Reed and Katie both turned on her, then shrugged. "I mean, those guys stick pretty close together."

"Which is why we need Hart's people here helping out," Reed growled. After a moment he nodded. "That might work, actually. We might be able to put a little more pressure on him to get into the other buildings. If we assure him we don't need to search the lab, maybe he'll let them in."

Katie chewed her lip. "I don't know," she said. "He seemed pretty determined to keep it to just us."

Reed waved away her objection. "We can do this." He pulled out his handheld and then cursed at the blank screen and dropped it back in his pocket. "I can do this," he said. "I can be persuasive. Of course, it would be easier if..."

Katie caught his eye. "Maybe...Reed, do you remember what we were talking about in the car? Do you remember that other conversation I had?" It took him a moment to nod, and in that time Katie saw Meg's eyes narrow, trying to follow. Katie hurried on. "Maybe you should just let this go, Reed."

"What do you mean?"

"I...." Katie clenched her fists in sudden frustration. "I can't explain, Reed, but I strongly suspect the lieutenant has his own reasons for trying to protect the clinic's privacy. Maybe instead of trying to get around him, you should try to work with him."

Reed frowned. "You're talking about...
him
. Oh." Martin Door. He nodded, finally getting it, then he frowed. "Katie, what are you talking about? If you know something—"

"Trust me, sir, I'd like to bring you in on this, but...I can't."

Meg gave a tiny little gasp, but Katie caught it and looked up in time to see the girl's eyes were wide. Meg tried to cover it by blinking, but Katie knew what she'd seen. The girl knew the secret. And now she knew that Katie knew it, too.

Reed saw the looks passed between the women, but he was at a loss to comprehend them. He titled his head and considered Katie. "You know I can't leave it at that," he said. "Especially given the nature of your informant and the investigation going on back in DC right now. Spill it."

Meg spoke up before Katie could answer. "You know what!" she shouted, "I do remember something. About...about yesterday. About Ellie. She was here...she was looking for something. For a file, on one of the computers. I can show that to you."

Reed started to say, "Not now"—Katie could see the dismissal in his eyes—but he stopped, then said, "Bring it up. Agent Pratt and I are going to have a conversation in the lobby."

Katie saw panic in Meg's eyes, but the girl was clearly scared of Reed. She bobbed a quick nod, almost a curtsy, and then scurried away to one of the lab tables. Reed gathered Katie up with his eyes and ushered her toward the doors.

"You're a good agent," Reed said under his breath, not slowing down, "and I'd like to think we're friends, Katie. Really. But you can't keep secrets from me."

"It's not like that," Katie said earnestly. "I made a promise."

Reed stopped so he could look her in the eyes. "To Martin, right? Dammit, Katie, that man is going to take us both down if you're not careful. You made a promise to
me
. And to Eric Barnes, and to his wife and to that frightened little girl back there, as soon as you took this case. And now you're putting Martin's priorities above that?"

"No," Katie shook her head. "I understand...look, this case is important to me. There's no way I'm letting those people down. But I'm telling you, this secret has no bearing on the case."

Reed frowned. "I find that hard to believe."

"Trust me," Katie said. "You can trust me. I know what I'm talking about."

He showed no sign of relenting, but before he could press her any further, a voice called from an intercom mounted on the wall. "Agent Reed, please contact Lieutenant Drake at the administrative building. Agent Reed, contact Lieutenant Drake at the administrative building. Thank you."

He frowned. Then he took a step away, but he didn't break eye contact. "I trust you, Katie." He hesitated and deflated a little. When he went on, his voice was weaker. "I trust you, Katie, but I'm in with the wolves now. It's not easy."

"It's okay," Katie said. She glanced over her shoulder toward Meg, halfway across the sprawling lab, and then back to her boss. "It'll be okay, sir. You can trust me."

His lips tightened in a smile, then he slipped through the door and disappeared. Katie stared at the closed door for a moment, then shook her head and turned back to Meg. "Have you got it?" Meg nodded, and Katie jogged across the room toward her, but when she got there the desktop was blank. Katie fought a smile. "There's no file," she said.

Meg shook her head, tears springing to her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have lied, but I thought you were going to tell him...."

"I understand," Katie said. She put her hands on her hips and considered the other woman for a moment, measuring. "How much do you know?"

"More than I should," Meg said. "Same as you." There was a hint of ferociousness in her voice at that last, and Katie unconsciously fell back a step. Meg said, "I don't know how you—oh. Theresa told you." Katie nodded, and Meg shook her head. "That woman doesn't get it."

"She does," Katie said, then reached out and pushed Meg's chin up so they could meet eyes. "And I do, too. I wasn't going to tell Agent Reed. I didn't. Your secret is safe."

Meg spat the word out. "Safe." She shook her head. "Too many people know, Katie. Too many. The lieutenant knows. I think you guessed that. Ellie never should have known, but he told her. Theresa...."

"Ellie and Barnes were having an affair," Katie said, and Meg only nodded absently. "We think that might have driven her to attack him. He tried to end their relationship, and if Ellie was in love—"

Meg cut her off with a snort. "She didn't love him," she said. "No more than he loved her. It was just sex." The girl said "sex" like it was a dirty word, but there was something wistful in her eyes. She clutched her hands to her heart. "Eric tried to end it? I didn't know."

"That was the day before..." Katie trailed off, considering Meg out of the corner of her eye, but the girl wasn't listening. Her eyes were on something far away. Katie caught her attention with a hand on her shoulder, and said with a gentle voice, "You had a relationship with him too?"

Meg looked up at her with wide eyes, and after a moment nodded mutely. Katie sighed. "What is it about that man?"

Meg's jaw dropped. "Are you...are you serious? He's
Eric Barnes
. I've had a crush on him since high school." She shook her head. "But it's not even that. It's this place." She looked around, at the blank walls and the picturesque, artificial windows overhead. "It's unreal. After a while, all the privacy, all the secrecy, it gets into your head." Her eyes drifted down to her feet, but she coughed out a laugh. "It's the weirdest feeling. It's like being drunk. But...just, knowing that no one can see you, no one can hear you. Knowing that it's really, truly secret. You can't imagine the feeling."

Katie bit her tongue against the answer that sprang to mind. She said, "So you...you slept with him?"

Meg looked up sharply and then away as the blush rose again. "Umm. No." She probably didn't realize how much regret Katie could hear in her voice. "We almost did," she said. "A long time ago. It was this place. But...we couldn't. We both knew we couldn't. It would have interfered with our work, you know, and Eric's only real love was his work."

"But his work is—"

"It's not a lie, Miss Pratt. If you think it is, then you don't understand. Eric didn't just hide out in here and...and...read and play games. He was working. Always working. That mind..." Her eyes drifted away from Katie's toward the bed in the back corner. She sighed. "He's a genius."

"And he didn't choose you." Katie put just enough sting in her voice to get the point across, and Meg turned back to her with narrowed eyes.

"It's nothing like that," she said. "He loved me, and I loved him. We were friends. That...the other thing, that was a long time ago, like I told you." Her breath caught, and she forced out a long breath. "Ellie was just a distraction. An escape. There was never anything real there."

Katie frowned. "Then you don't believe she attacked him?"

Meg's eyes got wide. "Who said anything about an attack?"

"That's why we're here," Katie said. "We suspect someone
caused
 Eric's current condition—"