Alpha and Omega 05: Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs

Author:Patricia Briggs [Briggs, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2015-03-01T14:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

8

So that was who Charles had been waiting for. Anna frowned at him. How had he known? He smiled at her, just a crinkle at the corner of his eye. He hadn’t known, just made a very good guess. She was almost sure.

“Leslie,” said Anna. “It’s very good to see you. Tell me you didn’t fly all the way over here from Boston.”

Leslie smiled. “Hey, Anna. Charles. Not from Boston, thank goodness. I’m stationed in Nevada now, in a town of two hundred that just happens to be the closest town to the James Earl Carter Jr. Fae Reservation. Apparently our little run-in made me one of the FBI’s experts in fae relations, so they moved me out there.”

“I’m sorry,” Anna apologized. That’s how Charles had known. He’d kept track of Leslie. Knowing that she was living nearby, he’d have figured she’d be brought in.

“Yeah, well.” Leslie shrugged without losing her smile. “That’s what it means to be FBI. We go where we’re needed.”

“How did Jude take that?” She had liked Leslie’s husband, a huge man with a sense of humor and a backbone of steel. He’d been a linebacker in college headed for the pros when an injury had changed the direction of his life. He taught elementary school.

“He was torn up about leaving his kids.” Leslie smiled, a private smile. “But he got a job right off. Apparently there aren’t a lot of teachers willing to live where it gets to be a hundred and twenty degrees in the shade and the nearest restaurant I would consider eating at is a four-hour drive. The kids out here need him a lot more than the kids in Boston did. Once he saw that, he was okay. Moving him out of there when the time comes is going to be harder than moving him in was.”

“I take it you both know Agent Fisher?” Marsden interrupted.

“Yes,” Leslie agreed. “We’ve worked together before. I haven’t met you, though.”

“Agent Jim Marsden, Cantrip, and this is my partner, Hollister Leeds. This is our investigation. What is the FBI’s interest here? We’re not even sure if we have a kidnapping.”

Leslie gave a quick, professional smile that was remarkable in the amount of information it imparted: I’m sorry, I respect you and the job you do, but I am competent, too, and this time you have to back me. It was such a good expression that the words felt like an afterthought.

She used them anyway. “Sorry, gentlemen. The DOJ has determined that this is part of a larger terrorist operation, and that puts me in the driver’s seat. I would be overjoyed to have your assistance.”

Marsden paused and looked at Leeds, who was still on his knees by the bundle of sticks. He’d taken out a sketchbook and was drawing it.

“Terrorists?” Marsden asked. “How do you figure?”

She smiled at the civilians in the room. “Did these gentlemen already take your statement?”

“Come, Miss Baird,” said Ms. Edison. “I think we are in the way. I’ll send Miss Baird home, but I have some work to do in my office.

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