Assassin (37 page)

"That's a pretty incredible story," Ron commented.

He'd said the same thing the first time she'd told it, and Rain just looked at him. He held her gaze for several moments as if trying to decide whether she'd been telling the truth or not.

"Is there anything else you'd like to add?" he asked finally.

Rain shook her head.

"No. I just want to get some sleep. I've been up since yesterday morning," Rain reminded him.

He nodded, as he turned off the tape recorder and ejected the tape.

"I'm sorry, but you know we have to be thorough." He stood up. "Thank you for your time, Agent Raines. We'll let you know if we have any further questions for you."

"Does that mean I'm free to go?" Rain asked as she slowly got to her feet.

"Yes. With Carlotti dead, your assignment's over, so there's no reason for you to go back."

He escorted her out of the room and down the hall. On the way, Dawson checked in the stack of tapes with the attendant guarding the evidence room. Though most of the tapes were simply repeats of Rain's account of the day, the first one was Rain's straight transcript of everything that had been spoken in her presence, and Dawson considered it to be the most important.

"I'll walk you out," Ron offered, and Rain nodded her acceptance.

They rode the elevator down to the street level in silence, and Dawson followed her out into the early morning air.

"Hey, I have something for you," Ron said, and pulled out a small black wallet.

He handed it to her and she flipped it open to reveal her badge and photo ID. The golden emblem of her profession glinted in the bright sunlight and she looked at it for long seconds before closing the wallet back up and putting it in her back pocket.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Um, do you need a ride home? They've impounded the car you were driving, so..."

"Nah. I think I'll walk for a while and then catch a cab," Rain said.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'll be okay."

"All right. Well, you know, they don't expect you until Monday, so..."

"So, I've got three days to get my shit together after spending three years out there."

Dawson remained quiet.

"Sorry. I'm just tired," Rain mumbled and then sighed. "This was just so not how this investigation was supposed to turn out."

"I know. I was just going to say take it easy. Read a book. Watch some movies. They're going to want to do a psych eval before you're allowed back full-time," Dawson reminded her.

"Yeah, I know," Rain said.

They stood quietly, neither of them looking at each other. Then Dawson spoke.

"Rain...?"

"Yeah?" Rain replied.

"Is that what really happened?" he asked quietly.

Rain looked him straight in the eyes.

"Yes."

He kept watching her for another minute until he finally nodded his head in acceptance.

"Okay," he said.

Rain glanced around the street.

"Listen, I need to go home. Take a shower, eat, you know, the usual."

She walked to the curb and hailed a cab.

"I thought you were gonna take a walk first?"

"I think I just wanna go home. I haven't been there in three years and it would be nice to see the place again."

"Well, it should be clean. The housekeeper's been there twice a month to keep it up," Ron informed her needlessly, since she'd been the one who had set up the service in the first place.

"Good," Rain sighed and opened the car door. "I'll see you on Monday."

"All right. Take care," Ron told her.

CHAPTER 34

IT TOOK FIVE weeks for all the reports to come back from the various experts in the crime labs. Rain was on edge the whole time, though she did her best to act like she wasn't worried. Technically, there wasn't supposed to be anything for her to worry about. But all it would take was one discrepancy between her account and what forensics said had happened and the validity of her own report would be called into question.

In the meantime, she went through several psychological evaluations. She knew it was routine for any agent who'd been undercover for as long as she had, but it still annoyed her. She just wanted the whole thing to be over with already.

Finally, the last report came in and Rain was informed that the investigation was being closed, though a search for Ricardo "Little Ricky" Garavini was still going strong. Everything else had checked out.

Among other things, forensics had reported that there was only one female corpse in the wreckage. The online dental records from Cassandra Jacobson's time in juvenile hall had matched, and unfortunately, there was nothing else left of the charred corpse with which to verify its identity. The FBI had requested the original hardcopies of the files, but they'd been told the originals had been destroyed in an incident several years earlier when someone had broken in and set the place on fire.

It wasn't too difficult to put two and two together. Apparently, Case had been trying to erase her identity and hadn't known the files were kept in an electronic database as well. Lucky for the FBI, they'd still been able to ID the body despite Case's attempt to thwart their inquiry, so their investigation didn't drag on forever looking for a dead woman.

Sorting out the rest of the bodies had been a little more difficult. Most of the dead bosses were being identified based on the cars that had been parked outside the building, since their bodies had been almost completely destroyed in the blast. They were mostly going on hearsay from other agents still in the field, since a lot of the vehicles had been registered under false names, but the DA was finally satisfied that they'd accounted for the most important people involved in the mess.

Reports from current undercover agents also corroborated Rain's statement that Carlotti had been the one that set up the meeting, which had been a major point of contention among her superiors. They didn't like taking anything on faith, and since Carlotti himself was dead, and no one else had apparently survived who had taken part in the conversations, it had been important to have unrelated sources confirm the existence of those talks, even if it was just rumor from household servants who had overheard their boss's excitement at possibly becoming Carlotti's replacement.

In fact, because of the major loss of nearly every single boss within the Carlotti faction, the resultant shuffle of personnel had led to several agents being bumped up into highly influential positions, giving them unprecedented access within the remnants of the organization. Hopefully, new partnerships with other crime families would result in future arrests and convictions.

But it wasn't until a few days after the investigation was officially closed that Rain's evaluations came back. They all returned the same recommendation: temporary leave of absence for a minimum of three months. Rain accepted the recommendations quite willingly. She even doubled the amount to six months, adding up all the vacation time she'd never used, and agreed to take off immediately, much to everyone's relief.

She'd made her reservations the very next day and retained the services of the same company that had taken care of her place while she was undercover for the past three years.

Now, Rain was packing and trying to make sure she didn't forget anything important, like her favorite shampoo. When the phone rang, she walked over to pick it up. She hit the talk button and brought it to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Rain, it's Ron."

"Oh, hi Ronny. Don't tell me you're calling me to cancel my leave," Rain warned.

"Heh, no. I just thought you'd like to know they're going to be issuing a formal statement this afternoon on behalf of our department, the NYPD, and the DA's office."

"Maybe you should tape it for me. I've got a plane to catch."

"Oh, that's today? Sorry, I forgot," Dawson apologized. "So, what have you got planned for the next six months?"

Rain smiled.

"I'm going to do a little traveling. I think that psych evaluation was right. I need to relax and get in touch with who I am again."

"You know, I never thought you'd take it so easily. I figured you'd fight it all the way," Dawson commented.

"Yeah, well, maybe I'm not as stupid as I look," Rain joked, and Ron dutifully laughed. "I just... I need some time. It was... I did a lot of things that I'm not proud of." She heard Dawson take a breath, but she overrode the protests she knew he was about to make. "I know I was just doing my job, but it was still hard. For three years, I was the kind of person I normally arrest. And now that I'm me again, I... I need to work some things out. You know?"

"Yeah," he said sympathetically. "Listen, if you ever need to talk, you know I'm here, right?" Dawson offered.

"Yeah." Rain looked at her watch. "Well, hey, I've gotta go. I have a flight in a couple hours, so..."

"Right. Well, I'll talk to ya later. Send me a postcard, huh?"

"Sure," Rain promised. "Bye."

Rain pushed the off button and put the phone back in its cradle. She finished packing and then did a final check of her apartment to make sure everything was in order. She heard the honking horn of the taxi that was waiting for her outside and shouldered her two suitcases. She set them down again outside the door so that she could lock up. She took one last look around her apartment and then closed the door.

The air was clean and warm, the water was an unbelievable blue, and the sun was wonderfully bright.

Rain frowned. After the past month of nervously waiting for her superiors to find something that would prove she hadn't been completely honest with them, it was a very surreal setting.

Rain shielded her eyes, even though she had on dark sunglasses, and peered down the beach. In the distance, she could see a small figure stretched out on a lounge chair, and she headed towards it. Along her right was a thick forest of palm trees and ferns, while the clear blue water lapped at the shoreline on her left. She angled her path closer to the water, the firmer and cooler sand a little easier on her bare feet.

As she got closer, Rain recognized the familiar shape of the woman sunbathing in the nude on her stomach. She smiled. When Rain was only a few meters away, the woman spoke without turning her head.

"You made it."

Case had recognized the agent's footsteps as she came closer, and her heart was beating a little faster. She didn't know whether Rain had shown up to arrest her or not, but she was prepared to fight, clothing or no clothing.

"Yeah, I did."

Rain took the vacant chair next to the woman and leaned back.

"For how long?" Case asked warily.

"I received a six-month paid leave of absence. I'm still not sure whether it was supposed to be a punishment or a reward for how the investigation ended up. By the way, you're dead."

Case breathed an internal sigh of relief and sat up as she turned to face Rain.

"So, it worked."

"Yeah. I still want to know how you hacked into all those databases. They're supposed to be locked up tight," Rain frowned in mock reproach.

"Trade secret. Maybe I'll teach it to you sometime," Case smirked.

Rain looked into Case's eyes and removed her sunglasses, so that Case could see her eyes as well.

"I missed you, Cassandra."

Case paused. She wasn't sure how to react. She'd spent the past few weeks in a constant state of limbo. She'd wondered if Rain had lied to her about loving her in order to keep Case from killing her. Then she'd decided Rain did love her, but that Rain had just realized the whole thing had been a mistake. Rain would probably tell the story they'd come up with just to save her career, and then she'd forget all about Case.

The endless wondering had made Case shut down in an attempt to keep herself from being hurt, but now that Rain was here and quite obviously still cared about Case, the ex-assassin didn't know what to do.

"Case?" Rain inquired.

It seemed to take forever, but in only a few seconds, Case's face screwed up into an expression of intense pain. She'd stopped breathing and when she suddenly inhaled, a sharp sob escaped. The sound was the catalyst and tears poured from her eyes as she tried to curl in on herself.

Rain had come back. Rain loved her. Rain wasn't going to leave her. Rain was here.

For Case, knowing that Rain loved her hurt worse than if Rain had never showed up at all. Case had never been loved unconditionally before, and it created a safe space, which allowed her to feel things she'd never permitted herself to until meeting Rain. In order to touch the love, she also had to touch the fear, rage, pain, and hate she'd bottled up for so long. If she were going to feel anything, she would have to feel everything.

It was a testament to the strength of her love for Rain that Case was willing to go through all the pain to get to the love.

Rain watched the transformation from detached confidence to tortured pain, and she didn't think twice about reaching out to comfort Case. As soon as Case felt the arms moving to hold her, she tried to pull away, but Rain refused to give up. Finally, Rain's insistence convinced Case that it wasn't a trick, and she climbed onto Rain's lap and held on for dear life. The soft denim of Rain's cut-off jean shorts and thin tank top were almost as comforting to Case's body as the warm skin beneath them. Rain wrapped her arms around the small blonde's naked torso and held her as she cried.

After a while, Case calmed down and she raised her head from Rain's shoulder to look into Rain's eyes.

"I love you, Rebecca," Case whispered.

Rain tenderly brushed the bangs off Case's forehead and smiled.

"I love you, too, Cassandra," she replied. "Are you okay?"

Case looked down and shook her head minutely.

"No. But I will be."

Rain nodded in understanding. It would be a while before either of them could ever say they were "okay."

Case laid her head back down on Rain's shoulder and forced herself to relax in the comforting embrace. She was so successful that she was almost asleep when she heard Rain's voice again.