Traces of Guilt by Dee Henderson

Author:Dee Henderson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Baker Books
Published: 2016-05-02T23:00:00+00:00

NINE

Gabriel Thane

Dragging a bit from lack of sleep, Gabriel arrived at the house on Kearns Road at seven o’clock the next morning. He noted the security team’s car in the drive, traded nods as he was recognized. If he’d had any questions about Paul Falcon being on-site, he had his confirmation. As head of the FBI’s Chicago office, the man had no choice about the security that traveled with him.

Paul opened the door, wearing dress slacks and a white shirt—no jacket yet, but the cuff links were in place, his shoes polished. Paul wore authority comfortably and it showed. “Come on in, Gabriel. I’m in the kitchen following instructions I got from the women last night.” The two men chuckled, and Paul glanced at the stairs. “They aren’t down yet.”

“Ann fall asleep again?”

“I made sure her feet touched the floor before I came down. It’s more likely there’s a caucus going on that doesn’t involve us guys.”

They moved into the kitchen, where Gabriel accepted the mug Paul offered, drank the coffee with appreciation. “You’re looking good, Paul. Marriage and running the Chicago office appear to agree with you.”

Paul turned the heat up under the skillet, poured in pancake batter. “I’m helping Matthew Dane train for the Boston Marathon, and it’s got me in the best shape of my life. You, on the other hand, look a bit . . . rough,” he decided after a scan, but his grin softened the words.

“Bad day yesterday,” Gabriel said.

“I heard.” Paul flipped the pancakes, got out another plate, stacked them, and pushed it over. “Not a thing you could have done about it, Gabe, nor your father.”

He chose blueberry syrup and selected several pieces of crisp bacon from another plate. “We both know there are men like Arnett out there, with victims left in their wake. But you don’t expect them to be next door. We were childhood friends with Grace. It’s overwhelming to me—to all of us—that we didn’t see it, didn’t help her. Even worse is not knowing how to help her now.”

Paul slid a glass of orange juice Gabriel’s way. “Ann and I didn’t see it either, not at first. Rachel knew something was back there, would have said it was likely since her training picks up on that kind of trauma. But until Grace wanted to talk, it wasn’t a secret that was going to surface. Grace started trusting her doctor four years ago, let Ann in two years ago. She’s made progress, but I’m with Ann—I don’t think Grace is ready to face head on what she’s decided to do. This is going to be brutally hard on her.”

“Josh said she cried most of the evening with him.”

“That’s probably the best thing she could do at this point. She stops letting those tears show, then it’s time to get worried.” Paul picked up a piece of bacon. “Ann said you’re heading over this morning to see Will, tell him about Karen.”

“That’s the plan,” Gabriel replied as he switched focus, equally concerned about how that conversation was going to go.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.