Anne found tax returns for the last six years in the metal filing cabinet standing against one wall. These were as well organized as the rest of the man’s financial records. A quick look at the returns for the last three years confirmed Reynolds’s suspicions. The only income listed was Newman’s FBI salary and some miscellaneous investment interest and dividends and bank interest.
Reynolds put the files back and slipped on her coat. “Anne, I’m so sorry I had to come and do all this in the middle of everything you’re having to deal with.”
“I asked
you
for help, Brooke.”
Reynolds felt another stab of guilt. “Well, I don’t know how much help I’ve been.”
Anne gripped her arm. “Now can you tell me what’s going on? Has Ken done anything wrong?”
“All I can tell you right now is that I found some things I can’t explain. I won’t lie to you, they are very troubling.”
Anne slowly took her hand away. “I guess you’ll have to report what you’ve found.”
Reynolds stared at the woman. Technically what she should do was go directly to OPR and tell them everything. The Office of Professional Responsibility was officially under the umbrella of the Bureau but was actually run by the Department of Justice. OPR investigated allegations of misconduct by Bureau personnel. They had a reputation for being very thorough. An OPR investigation could put a scare into even the toughest FBI agent.
Yes, from a simple technical point of view, it was a no-brainer. If life could only be so simple. The devastated woman standing before Reynolds made her decision much less simple. In the end she went with her human side and put aside the Bureau manual for now. Ken Newman would be buried a hero. The man had been an agent for over two decades; he at least deserved that.
“At some point, yes, I’ll have to report my findings. But not right now.” She paused and gripped the woman’s hand. “I know when the funeral is. I’ll be there with everyone else, paying our respects to Ken.”
Reynolds gave Anne a reassuring hug and then walked out, her mind whirling so fast she felt a little dizzy.
If Ken Newman was on the take, he had been doing it for a while. Was he the leak on Reynolds’s investigation? Had he sold out other investigations as well? Was he just a freelancing mole selling to the highest bidder? Or was he a regular snitch working for the same party? If so, why was such a party interested in Faith Lockhart? There were foreign interests involved. Lockhart had told them that much. Was that the key? Was Newman working for a foreign government all this time, a foreign government that was also coincidentally caught up in Buchanan’s scheme?
She sighed. The whole thing was snowballing into something so big, she halfway felt like running home and pulling the covers over her head. Instead she would get in her car, drive to the office and continue chipping away at this case, as she had hundreds of others over the years. She had won more than she had lost. And that was the best anyone in her line of work could ever hope for.
Lee had awoken very late with the mother of all hangovers and decided to run it off. At first, each of his strides on the sand sent lethal darts through his brain. Then, as he loosened up, breathed the chilly air, felt the salty wind on his face, at about the one-mile point in his run, the effects of his crushed grape and Red Dog shooters disappeared. When he got back to the beach house, he went around to the pool and retrieved his clothes and his gun. He sat in a sling chair for a while, letting the sun warm him. When he went back inside, he smelled coffee and eggs.
Faith was in the kitchen, pouring a cup of coffee. She had on jeans and a short-sleeved shirt and was barefoot. When she saw him come in, she pulled out another mug and filled it. For a moment, this simple act of companionship pleased him. And then his actions of the night before washed that feeling away, like ocean waves brutally wiping out sand castles.
“I figured you’d sleep all day,” she said. Her tone was excessively casual, he thought, and she didn’t look at him when she spoke.
This qualified for the most awkward moment in Lee’s entire life. What was he supposed to say?
Hey, sorry about that little sexual assault thing last night.
He came into the kitchen area, fingered the mug, half hoping the large lump in his throat would end up strangling him to death. “Sometimes the best remedy for doing something incredibly stupid and inexcusable is to run until you drop.” He glanced at the eggs. “Smells good.”
“Doesn’t compare to the meal you made last night. But then again, I’m no whiz in the kitchen. I guess I’m a room-service kind of girl. But I’m sure you already figured that out.” As she moved over to the stove, he noted she walked with a slight limp. He also couldn’t fail to notice the bruises on her uncovered wrists. He laid the pistol down on the counter before he could impulsively use it to blow his brains out.
“Faith?”
She didn’t turn around, just kept scrambling the eggs around in the pan.
“If you want me to leave, I’ll leave,” said Lee.
While she seemed to consider this, he decided to say what he had been thinking during his run. “What happened last night, what I
did
to you last night, there’s no excuse for. I’ve never, ever done anything like that in my life. That’s not who I am. I can’t blame you if you don’t believe that. But it’s the truth.”
She suddenly turned to him, her eyes glistening. “Well, I can’t say I hadn’t imagined something happening between us, even in the nightmare we’re in. I just didn’t think it would be like that. . . .” Her voice broke off and she just as quickly turned away from him.
He looked down and nodded slightly, her words doubly devastating to him. “You see, I’m in a bit of a dilemma here. My gut and my conscience tell me to get out of your life so you won’t have to be reminded of what happened last night every time you see me. But I don’t want to leave you alone with all this. Not when someone’s out to kill you.”
She turned the burner off and set out two plates, shoveled the eggs on them, buttered two pieces of toast and put everything on the table. Lee didn’t move. He just watched her, moving slowly, her cheeks wet from her tears. The bruises on her wrists were like permanent shackles around his soul.
He sat down across from her and picked at his eggs.
“I could have stopped you last night,” she said bluntly. The tears slid down her cheeks and she made no attempt to wipe them away.
Lee felt his own eyes begin to burn with the beginnings of tears. “I wish to God you had.”
“You were drunk. I’m not saying that’s an excuse for what you did, but I also know you wouldn’t have done it if you had been sober. And you also didn’t go all the way. I choose to believe you would never sink so low as that. In fact, if I weren’t absolutely sure of that, I would’ve shot you with your gun when you passed out.” She paused, seemed to be searching for the right combination of words. “But maybe what I’ve done to you is much more awful than what you could have done to me last night.” She pushed her plate away and looked out the window at what was shaping up to be a beautiful day.
When she next spoke, it was in a wistful, faraway tone that was curiously both hopeful and tragic. “When I was a little girl, I had my whole life planned out. I was going to be a nurse. And then a doctor. And I was going to get married and have ten kids. Dr. Faith Lockhart was going to save lives during the day and then come home to a wonderful man who loved her and be the perfect mother to her perfect children. After moving around all those years with my father, I just wanted
one
home. I’d live there the rest of my life. My children would always, always know where to find me. It seemed so simple, so . . . achievable, when I was only eight years old.” She finally used her paper napkin to dab at her eyes, seeming only then to feel the wetness on her face.
She looked back at Lee. “But I have this life instead.” Her gaze roamed the lovely room. “I actually had a pretty good run. Made a lot of money. What do I have to complain about? That’s the American Dream, isn’t it? Money? Power? Owning beautiful things? I even ended up doing a little good, even if I did it illegally. But then I went and ruined everything. The best of intentions, but I struck out in the end. Just like my father. You’re right, the nut didn’t fall far from the tree.” She paused again, played with her silverware, precisely placing the fork and butter knife perpendicular to one another.
“I don’t want you to leave.” On this she rose, quickly crossed the room and then raced up the stairs.
Lee heard her bedroom door slam shut.
Lee took a deep breath, stood and was surprised to find his legs so rubbery. It wasn’t from the run, he knew. He showered, changed and came back downstairs. Faith’s door was still closed and he had no intention of interrupting whatever she was doing in there. With his nerves unraveling, he decided to spend an hour with the mundane task of thoroughly cleaning his gun. The downside to salt and water was that they were tough on weapons, and automatic pistols were notoriously finicky anyway. If the ammo wasn’t of a very high quality, you could count on the thing misfiring and then jamming—or a little sand and grit could cause the same malfunction. And you couldn’t clear an autopistol by simply pulling the trigger and bringing up a clean cylinder, as you would a revolver. By the time you got your gun all straightened out, you’d be dead. And with Lee’s luck to date, it would happen right when he absolutely needed the thing to fire true and straight. However, on the plus side, the 9mm Parabellums fired by the compact Smith & Wesson had excellent stopping power. Whatever they hit would drop. He prayed he wouldn’t have to use the gun, however. Because that would probably mean someone was shooting at him.
He reloaded the fifteen-shot magazine, inserted it in the grip and chambered a round. He clicked on the safety and holstered the gun. He thought about taking the Honda down to the store for a newspaper but decided he didn’t quite have the energy or desire to undertake even such a simple task. He also didn’t want to leave Faith alone. When she came downstairs, he wanted to be here.
When Lee went to get a drink of water at the kitchen sink, he glanced out the window and almost had a heart attack. Across the roadway, above a wall of tall, thick brush that ran about as far as the eye could see, suddenly exploding into his line of vision was a small plane! That’s when Lee remembered the runway Faith had told him about. It was across from the house and shielded by the brush.
Lee hurried to the front door to watch the landing. By the time he got outside, the plane had already disappeared. Then whizzing above the top of the brush was the tail of the plane. It flashed in front of him and then continued past at a fast clip.
He went up on the second-story front porch and watched as the plane taxied to a stop and the passengers deplaned. A car was waiting to pick them up. Bags were off-loaded and stored in the car, which left with the passengers through a small paved opening in the brush not far from Faith’s house. The pilot got out of the twin-prop plane, checked a few things and then climbed back in. A few minutes later the plane taxied to the other end of the runway and turned around. The pilot opened the throttle and came roaring down the runway in the same direction he had landed, and then lifted gracefully into the air. The plane headed out toward the water, made a turn and quickly disappeared into the horizon.
Lee went back inside and tried to watch some TV, while at the same time listening for Faith. After roaming through about a thousand channels, he concluded there was absolutely nothing worth watching, and he played a game of solitaire. He enjoyed losing so much, he played another dozen games, with the same result. He wandered downstairs and shot some pool in the game room. When lunchtime came around, he fixed a tuna sandwich and some beef barley soup and ate out on the deck overlooking the pool. He watched the same plane land once more around one o’clock. It shed its passengers and soared once more. He thought about knocking on Faith’s door to see if she was hungry and then decided against it. He went for a swim in the pool and then lay on the cool concrete and caught some rays from the intense sun. He felt guilty every minute for enjoying it.
The hours passed, and when it started to grow dark, he began contemplating cooking dinner. He would go and get Faith this time, and make her eat. He was just about to head up the stairs when her door opened and she came out.
The first thing that caught his eye was what she was wearing: a white cotton dress, knee-length and clingy, paired with a light blue cotton sweater. Her legs were bare, and she wore simple sandals that managed to look very classy. Her hair was nicely styled; a touch of makeup highlighted her features and pale red lipstick completed the look. She held a small clutch purse. The sweater covered the bruises on her wrists. Probably why she had picked it, he thought. He was thankful that her limp seemed to be gone.
“Going out?” Lee asked.
“Dinner. I’m starving.”
“I was going to make something.”
“I’d rather eat out. I’m getting cabin fever.”
“So where are you going?”
“Well, actually I thought
we
might go.”
Lee looked down at his faded khakis, deck shoes and short-sleeved Polo shirt. “I look sort of ragged next to you.”
“You look fine.” She glanced at the holstered gun. “I’d leave the six-shooter behind, though.”
He looked at her dress. “Faith, I’m not sure how comfortable you’ll be on the Honda in that.”
“The country club’s only a half mile up the road. It has a public restaurant. I thought we could walk. Looks to be a beautiful evening.”
Lee finally nodded, understanding that getting out made perfect sense, for a lot of reasons. “Sounds good. Give me a sec.” He ran upstairs, slipped off his gun and put it in a drawer in his room. He splashed water on his face, wet down his hair a little, grabbed his jacket and joined Faith at the front door, where she was activating the alarm. They left the house and crossed the service road. Reaching the sidewalk, which ran parallel to the main road, they strolled along under a sky that had changed from blue to pink as the sun sank. Landscape lighting had come on in the common areas and so had the underground sprinklers. The sound of the pressurized water was soothing to Lee. The lighting lent a nice mood to the walk, he thought. The whole place seemed to possess almost an ethereal glow, as though they were in a perfectly lit scene from a movie.