Deadly Dreams (36 page)

“Slumming?”

Turning around at the familiar voice, a smile spread over Risa’s face. “Ramsey!” She hugged the other woman, real delight filling her. Although they were colleagues, caseloads kept Raiker’s employees scattered across the country. Their paths didn’t cross often enough.

They parted, and Risa took a quick visual assessment. The woman’s light brown hair was still streaked with highlights that owed nothing to a bottle, but it was longer than her usual shaggy short style. Those shrewd green gold eyes were the same, though, and they regarded her now with a bit of trepidation in them.

“Where’s the new husband?”

She jerked a thumb toward the hallway behind them. “Dev’s getting coffee for everyone. Even the feds like him. He’s good at keeping people at ease.”

He was, Risa recalled. She’d met him only the one time at the couple’s wedding several months ago, but his charm had been readily apparent. As was his devotion to his wife.

“Marriage agrees with you.” She said it lightly, was prepared for the slight grimace she got in response. Ramsey was a self-acknowledged commitment-phobe, so everyone had been shocked when she’d announced her engagement.

“Having Dev agrees with me. He’s a traditional guy, so marriage it is.” Her expression went wry. “He’s also sneaky as hell. Had me in a white dress standing in front of a church before I knew what hit me.”

Risa laughed. Followed her friend’s gaze to Adam’s CCU room across the hall. After returning a glower with the agent stationed outside it, she ignored him. The curtains were closed over the sliding glass door. “Is the doctor in with him?”

Shaking her head, Ramsey lowered her voice. “No, I’m supposed to be in there. I strong-armed Burke into giving me his next turn since we just got here. Then in waltzes some broad I’ve never seen before, and Paulie jumps up like his pants are on fire. They go into a big hug-hug-kiss-best-buddy reunion before he hustles her away. Next thing I know, I can’t get in to see Adam because
she’s
in there.”

Mystified, Risa asked, “Who is she?”

“That’s just it, none of us know. Well, Paulie obviously does, but you know what it’s like getting information about Adam from him, under any circumstances. He’s in full mamabear mode. And he’s not saying a word.”

A sudden thought struck her. “Adam hasn’t taken a turn for the worse, has he?” Anxiety reared. She’d been splitting her time between here and her mom’s room. Logically she knew someone would have contacted her if he had. But emotions weren’t logical.

“His condition remains unchanged. That’s a quote from the doctor, and she was just by about fifteen minutes ago.” Seamlessly she shifted subjects. “How’s your mom? And what’s this I hear about you shooting a window last night?”

Risa gave a helpless laugh. “She’s fine. And the other’s a long story.”

“You had a narrow escape, I hear.” Ramsey looked across the hall again. There was no activity so she returned her speculative gaze to her friend. “Glad to hear it. Gladder yet to hear that you used your weapon.”

They exchanged a look. Ramsey was the one who’d turned in Risa’s weapon and resignation. The only one that Risa would have trusted to face their intimidating boss with that kind of unwelcome news.

Her gaze slid away. “My palms sweat every time I touch it,” she admitted softly. “And I didn’t even think of drawing it last night when Raiker was shot. What’s that say about me? That I can only put the fear behind me when it’s my neck on the line?”

“Maybe it says you’re healing.” Ramsey had a way of making things sound clear-cut when they seemed anything but. “And it was your mother’s life on the line, too, the way I heard it. As for Adam, why the hell would you have gone after the shooter when his driver was so much closer? Maybe it’s me, but I’m thinking when he wakes up he might be a bit more grateful that you kept him alive rather than chase down Jennings.”

The words made Risa feel a modicum better, even while she still doubted their truth. “Knowing Adam, I wouldn’t be so sure. He was pretty pissed about that bomb destroying his townhouse.”

There was activity across the hall then, and the two of them went silent at the same time Dev Stryker ambled up carefully carrying a tray of coffees. “Risa, you’re lookin’ lovely as ever. No ill effects from last night?”

Ramsey shushed him and his brows shot up. Risa took a coffee from the tray and nodded toward the couple coming out of Adam’s room. Paulie had his arm around a woman with shoulder-length mink-colored hair, and they were speaking in hushed tones as they walked by the trio watching them.

Although she looked closely, Risa could see little of the woman’s features. Even so, when Ramsey gave her a quizzical look, she shook her head. She didn’t recognize her either.

A tall blond man who looked like he could have wandered in on his way to a casting call greeted the duo at the end of the hallway. The three stopped and talked, and it looked like they all knew each other.

“Who
is
she?” Ramsey muttered as she took a coffee from the tray Dev balanced.

“Who, the woman?” Dev took a sip from the last cup while shoving the empty tray in a nearby trash container. “Her name’s Jaid Marlowe.”

Risa and Ramsey’s attention snapped to him. “How do you know that?” his wife demanded.

“Saw her in the cafeteria earlier. She actually ran into me and made me dump the first tray of coffees I’d bought. Real nice lady. I bought her one to calm her nerves, and we introduced ourselves. Don’t think she drank much of it, though. She seemed pretty upset.”

“Upset.” Ramsey had returned her gaze to the trio down the hallway. “So wonder what Pretty Boy’s story is.”

“Unless you’re talkin’ about me—and as a newlywed you really should be—he’s probably an FBI agent. That’s how Jaid knew Adam. They were in the bureau together.” This time he took their open-mouthed reactions as his due. “It’s the southern charm, ladies. People open up to me.”

Ramsey eyed him coolly over the top of her cup as she drank. “I may mold you into an investigator yet, Stryker.”

“I’m putty in your hands, sugar.” His tone was droll. “Do with me what you will.”

Paulie and the blond stranger were walking their way. During the short exchange with Dev, the woman—Jaid Marlowe—had vanished. When the pair reached them, Risa revised her original estimation. The stranger was older than she’d first thought, mid-forties maybe. Old enough, perhaps, for him to have been a colleague of Adam’s in the bureau.

“Special Agent Tom Shepherd.” Paulie made the introduction in an uncharacteristically brusque manner. “DC sent him out to figure how the field agents screwed up so badly.”

“I wanted to come.” The man gave them a sober look. “Raiker . . . he’s still a legend at the bureau. He dropped in to see me just a few months ago. I was still doing penance in Bismark.” Paulie nodded, as if he’d known about the visit. Probably he had. There was little about Raiker that he wasn’t apprised of.

“He hadn’t realized I’d been banished after he came in and solved that first Mulder kidnapping I worked a few years back. But six weeks after he stopped by, I received word that I was being transferred back to DC.” His eyes strayed to the CCU room across the hall. “He’d never admit it, but I know he put in a word. The man’s still got pull in the agency, even being gone as long as he has.”

He excused himself then and moved toward the agent stationed outside Adam’s door. Since it was the same one Risa had had a go-round with earlier, she was half hoping to listen in on the conversation. But when Paulie caught her eye and gave a slight jerk of his head, she gave an inner sigh and followed him back into the waiting room, with Ramsey and Dev trailing her.

It didn’t escape her that with Adam out of commission Paulie had lost a great deal of his normal effusiveness and taken over some of their boss’s no-nonsense mannerisms. It wasn’t the same. Wouldn’t be until Adam was better and snapping orders at them all again.

Jett Brandau stuck his head in the door. “You got time?”

Nate looked up from the questions he was jotting down. He hoped to have Javon Emmons and Walter Eggers back in for interviews before the day’s end. With outside investigations embroiling both men, he had to be careful in the information he elicited and the manner in which he did it.

But Jett might have details on Risa’s house fire. “Sure.” He put his pen down and nodded to a chair.

The man looked drawn as he slouched in a seat. “Been a helluva day already.”

“Tell me about it,” Nate responded feelingly.

“Thought you’d like to know . . . I’ve been in contact with the battalion chief from the fire station that responded to the call at Risa’s house. Lloyd Bennett. Good guy.”

“And?”

Jett lifted a shoulder. “And . . . not much. Yet. Place is still smoldering. They had to do a surround and drown—hose down the houses on either side of it to keep the fire from spreading. It was burning pretty hot. He’ll keep me posted when they have more details.”

“Would they be able to determine by now whether there was a forced entry?”

Brows shooting upward, Jett said, “You mean there’s a question of arson? Really? Because if there is, they need to request a fire inspector to look at it.”

“Morales asked because of the investigation,” Nate affirmed. “It should be checked out. I think it’s a stretch to believe the offender targeted Risa, but we need to take every precaution.”

“I hope to God he doesn’t have her in his sights.” Jett tapped his fingers nervously on the arm of the chair.

“You and me both. Like I say, it’s a stretch.” But he damn sure didn’t want to take any chances with Risa’s safety.

“I’ll bug Bennett throughout the day and report back. He owes me a favor.”

Jett seemed to think the city was abounding with people who “owed him.” Nate hoped that for once the man was right.

The conversation lagged. When Brandau didn’t rise, Nate knew the man had something else on his mind. And he was pretty certain what it was.

“You heard about Cass.”

The familiar weight settled in his gut. He nodded, said nothing.

“She knows she screwed up, Nate.” A smile flickered. Disappeared. “Guess she doesn’t need anyone telling her that.”

“It’s too late to tell her anything.” Not that he hadn’t tried, unsuccessfully, time and again. Too often it seemed like he was a helpless bystander watching people he cared about make one destructive decision after another. Cass wasn’t Kristin. At least she hadn’t dragged a kid down with her.

“She wants to talk to you but didn’t want to jam you up. She had to turn in her department-issued cell.”

Nate nodded. It was more likely that IA was holding it for evidence. Additionally she’d have been asked to turn in her access cards, ID, radio, and weapon, along with her shield.

“But she’d like to talk to you, if you think you can meet her and not have it come back on you some way.”

Interest sharpening, Nate asked, “Where is she?”

“Around the corner at Barney’s. That little diner? Shouldn’t be anyone from here at this time in the morning. But if you want me to let her know it should be somewhere else—”

Glancing at the clock, Nate rose. Grabbed his jacket. “I’ll meet her now.” Morales might not be thrilled with the decision, but he’d leave the politics to the brass. There were times when friendship superseded the job.

This was one of those times.

Cass Recker huddled over a coffee at Barney’s cracked laminate counter, the picture of dejection. Nate slid onto the stool next to her, caught the waitress’s eye, and she ambled over. “Coffee.”

Trying for a smile that didn’t quite come off, Cass said, “I wasn’t sure you’d come. That you could.” Then her eyes filled with nerves. “This isn’t going to get you in trouble, is it?”

“Don’t worry about me. How are you doing?” He accepted a steaming mug from the woman in the pink uniform and hoped it was at least as good as Darrell’s.