Blowout (21 page)

She might be twenty-three, Savich thought, but she was still so very young, so insecure in her youth.

“Danny shook his head. ‘No,' he said, ‘this is something else entirely.' But he wouldn't say what. And he grabbed my hand and dragged me into the bedroom.” Again, her voice was a whisper. “We did it again before he finally fell asleep.”

“He said nothing about what this something else might be? No hints? Nothing else at all?”

Annie shook her head. “No, I was lying there listening to him snore. When I woke up the next morning, it was late. I put on one of his T-shirts and went into the kitchen. He was standing there, looking at the TV, and he was saying, ‘My God, my God, my God'—over and over. We stood there and watched the news about Justice Califano's murder. I couldn't believe it. Danny looked like he'd been kicked in the gut, like his world had ended. But then everything changed on his face, and his posture became really straight. He got taller, I swear it, he stood there and got taller.”

“You realize now that he'd come to a decision of some sort? That he realized he could use what he knew?”

“Yes, I can see that now. Poor Danny. It sure didn't take him long, did it?”

“Evidently not.” Savich knew there was more, but not in her conscious mind, not yet.

“Then what did he say?”

“I asked him what the hell was going on with him, but he shook his head at me and said I had to leave, he had stuff to do, real important stuff.”

“I was so mad. I yelled at him that I wasn't going to do his laundry for him anymore. I went in the bedroom, got dressed and left, didn't say another word to him.”

“Where was he when you left?”

“I heard him moving around in the kitchen. I think he was on his cell phone.”

“You didn't hear anything he said on his cell?”

She frowned, clasped his hand even harder, but slowly shook her head. “No. I remember how his voice fell, then it rose, but I was really so mad that I just slammed out of his apartment and went back to mine.”

“But you went over again Sunday morning.”

She was chewing on her lips. They were chapped. “Yeah, I did.”

“Why?”

“I guess I wanted to know what was really happening with him. I suppose I was worried about Fleurette again. Have you ever seen Sonya McGivens, Justice Wallace's law clerk? Have you seen how she dresses when she's outside the Court?”

He was hard-pressed not to smile. “Yes, I have.”

“She works out,” Annie Harper said. “She really works out hard. Over at Interior, nobody works out.” And she turned her face away from him, squeezed his hand until she was nearly cutting off the circulation, and began to weep.

Savich waited, trying to comfort her, when her mother turned toward them, the tortured look on the woman's face painful to see. He nodded to her and mouthed, “Annie will be all right.”

When Annie quieted again, Savich said, “I would like to hypnotize you, Annie.”

“No, there's no way you're going to do any hocus-pocus on my daughter! She's been through enough!”

Savich looked up at Mrs. Harper. “It's a very safe way for me to help her remember things she can't recall right now. Please remember, Mrs. Harper, Danny O'Malley was brutally murdered like Justice Califano. If Annie can remember more, it could help us immensely. You and your husband could be present, of course.”

But again, it was Annie who answered. “That's fine with me, Agent Savich. I want to know who did this to Danny more than you do.”

H
OOVER
B
UILDING
F
IFTH
F
LOOR
L
ATE
M
ONDAY MORNING

“I
DON
'
T BELIEVE IT
,” Frank Halley said, looking through the sheaf of papers in his hands. “MAX gives recommendations? You've got an alien inside that laptop, don't you, Savich?” Savich, who'd just slipped quietly into the big conference room, merely nodded at Sherlock, who was at the head of the room, in charge of the meeting.

Sherlock said, “Nope, Frank, Dillon programmed it. Maybe he's an alien. But I've never before met an alien that good in bed.”

Savich grinned at his wife and felt his chest expand. He knew some of the agents had already seen him and were hooting and giving him high fives. When the laughter died down, Savich realized Sherlock had already handed out all the updated assignments five minutes before he'd gotten there. There was optimism in the air now, not the stark confusion that had reigned in
yesterday's meeting. From listening to the other agents talk, Savich realized Sherlock had covered everything perfectly.

When the meeting broke up at last, Savich said, “Sherlock, you're coming with me.”

“Where are you going, Savich?” Frank Halley still wasn't over his snit, given the aggression in his voice.

Savich said mildly, “We have a date with Dr. Emanuel Hicks out at Quantico. He's going to hypnotize Annie Harper for me.”

“O'Malley's girlfriend?”

“The very same,” Sherlock said. “You want to come along? You can deal with Annie's parents while Dr. Hicks and Dillon work with her.”

“No, now that I think about it,” Frank said quickly, “I've got more than enough to go over with my team.”

“You do that so well,” Savich said, kissed Sherlock's ear, and whispered, “I'm better in bed than any alien you've ever met?”

“So far,” she said, and gave him a wicked smile over her shoulder as she walked out of the conference room.

J
EFFERSON
D
ORMITORY
Q
UANTICO

S
HERLOCK SAT WITH
Mr. and Mrs. Harper, having directed them to the farthest side of Savich's office. Savich heard her soothing low-pitched voice, the same voice she used when she was trying to talk Sean into doing something he really didn't want to do.

He turned when Dr. Hicks sauntered into the room. Dr. Emanuel Hicks always sauntered, it was one of his trademarks. His other trademark was the three very long hairs he combed from
near his left ear over the top of his bald head. The three hairs didn't go all that well with the saunter, but since he was so gifted, Savich wouldn't have cared if he danced the salsa when he came into a room wearing a pink turban. He'd admired Dr. Hicks since he'd been in the academy. He'd realized what a valuable resource he was.

He rose and shook hands. “Thank you for coming, Dr. Hicks. Anything else you need to know about this situation?”

“No, Savich, you covered it well.” Dr. Hicks nodded toward the parents and without pause pulled a chair up to Annie's. He smiled at her. “I'm Dr. Hicks and I promise you that none of this is going to hurt. It was part of the oath I had to take to work for the FBI. How are you feeling, Ms. Harper?”

“Okay. Well, I really feel bad, like I want to cry all the time, but there aren't any more tears.”

“No wonder, you've been through a terrible experience.”

“I'm not the one dead, Dr. Hicks.”

“The dead don't care anymore, Annie, only the living,” Dr. Hicks said. “Now, you think you're ready?”

“I've never done this before. Don't you want me to lie down or something?”

“No, that's not necessary. Just get yourself comfortable in the chair. May I call you Annie?”

She nodded.

“Okay, now, I'd like you to look closely at this silver dollar. It originally belonged to my great-grandfather. Look at it, nothing else. That's right, follow it with your eyes.”

While he gently swung the silver dollar on its chain about four inches from Annie's face, he began talking about the people he
knew who worked at the Department of the Interior—there were at least a dozen of them. His voice was soft, without inflection. Within four minutes, Savich thought she was under. Dr. Hicks slipped the silver dollar back in his vest pocket and said in his slow soft voice, “Annie, how do you feel?”

Annie was still looking at the place where the silver dollar had been swinging. “Cold. On the inside. Could Agent Savich hold my hand?”

Savich clasped both of her hands between his. The three of them were very close now. He saw from the corner of his eye that both the Harper parents were staring toward them, but thankfully, Sherlock was keeping them under control.

“Better now, Annie?”

“Yes,” she said in a matter-of-fact voice. “I wish Danny could have been more like Agent Savich. This wouldn't have happened if he'd been like Agent Savich, but Danny was an opportunistic jerk.”

Now this was interesting, Savich thought. He kept stroking her hands, which were becoming warmer by the minute.

He waited until Dr. Hicks nodded to him, then said, “Annie, did you realize Danny was an opportunistic jerk only yesterday, or some time before?”

“I guess I've always known, Agent Savich. He played a good game, what with his sweet Irish lad act. He liked me, don't get me wrong; I know he did. But he didn't love me, not like I talked myself into thinking I loved him. Can you believe I even did his laundry because he told me he loved the way I folded his clothes? What an idiot.”

“What did Danny do to make you question his integrity?”

“Well, he lied to Eliza, told her he'd done stuff when he really hadn't, but not that much because Eliza's really smart, and he knew he couldn't get away with it. Then he'd kiss up to her big time because he knew she had real power over his life. She could get him fired if she wanted. Justice Califano really listened to her, at least that's what Danny was always telling me.”

“Eliza never noticed when Danny didn't follow through? That he lied?”

“Not that he ever told me. He'd laugh about it, you know, like a little kid in grade school who'd pulled something over on the teacher. Eliza was always really nice to me. I think I could have been a close friend to her, only there wasn't time in her life, and I understood that. As for Fleurette, I don't think she knew Danny all that well, but I could be wrong.”

“What about Justice Califano? Did he ever catch Danny in a lie that you know of? Catch him doing something he shouldn't have been doing?”

Slowly, Annie shook her head. “I don't know. I wasn't part of the inner circle. All my information came from Danny. If Justice Califano had caught him in a lie, he sure wouldn't tell me about it, would he? And the fact is, Danny wanted Justice Califano to like him. He wanted a great recommendation from him when the year was up. So it seems to me the last thing Danny would want to do is lie to Justice Califano.”

“Okay, I want you to tell me about Friday. You picked Danny up at the Supreme Court Building. What sort of mood was he in?”

“The fact is I'd never know which Danny I'd see. The happy Danny or the brooding Danny. He wasn't either one on Friday. He was distracted, like there was really something on his mind. But
he wouldn't talk about it, just kept eating those disgusting anchovies. I hate anchovies.”

“Do you think he put something important in his briefcase?”

She looked thoughtful, then shook her head. “I don't know. Where is his briefcase?”

“We couldn't find it. It wasn't in his apartment.”

“That's too bad. Danny would like to be buried with that briefcase. Oh, God, I didn't mean it like that.”

“I understand. That's all right, Annie.”

“I know he took it out of the trunk, I watched him carry it into his apartment. When I bought it for him I never thought the stupid thing would become some sort of icon to him.”

“Let's move forward to Saturday morning. There wasn't any talk between you during the night, right?”

“No, he was snoring.”

“You said he was saying ‘Oh God, oh God,' when he saw that Justice Califano was dead.”

“Yes, over and over. I couldn't believe it either. It didn't seem real, like one of Danny's stupid foreign flicks that doesn't make any sense at all.”

“But then he changed. Right before your eyes, he changed.”

“Yes, completely.”

“I want you to picture Danny in your mind, Annie. You're right there, watching the TV, then looking at him. What do you see?”

“He's acting like he just hit a really big jackpot in Las Vegas. He looks like he's conquered the world. Smug, that's it, he looks smug.”

“So he might be thinking about what he knows? And that something could make him rich?”

“Yes, that's exactly it. It's so clear to me now. He thought about it for maybe three seconds, and then he decided to go for the money.”

“What did he say?”

“He had stuff to do. I went to the bedroom, got dressed, and slammed out.”

“But you heard him on his cell.”

“Oh yes.”

“Okay, Annie, you're standing there, you don't want to see him, but you hear him on the phone. Where are you standing?”

“In the front entrance.”

“How far away is Danny?”

“The kitchen isn't more than fifteen feet away from where I'm standing.”

“He's on a cell phone.”

“Yes.”

“Did the phone ring or did he initiate the call?”

“I never heard it ring, so he must have made the call.”

“Just a moment, Annie. We checked his cell phone records and there was no outgoing call made on Saturday morning.”

“I'm sure he was using a cell.”

“Do you think it could have been a throwaway cell phone? Did he own one?”

“Yes, he had several of them, got them really cheap from a guy on the street.”

Interesting, Savich thought, and dropped it. “Does he carry an address book in his pocket, along with his cell?”

“Yes, it's just a skinny little black book.”

“So he pulled out the black book, looked up a number, and called it?” But not using his own cell phone, Savich thought, and
realized Danny knew exactly what he was doing and wasn't about to take any chances on it coming back to bite him.

“Yes, that's what he would have done.”

“Okay, you're standing there, angry, wanting to leave, but you pause. Because he's on the phone and you want to know what's going on, right?”

“Yes, that's exactly right. I wanted to know what he was planning on doing.”

“You're listening. What is he saying?”

“I can't—”

He squeezed her hands, and began to lightly stroke his fingers over the now-warm flesh. “You're standing there, Annie. You're listening. What is he saying?”

She sucked in a deep breath, fell silent for a good minute. Savich didn't say a word, just kept holding her hands, waiting.

“He said ‘I think we can come to some sort of agreement here.' ”

There was a sharp cry of anguish from Mrs. Harper. Savich heard the soothing voices of both Mr. Harper and Sherlock.

“Anything else, Annie? You're still there, right?”

“No, I'm out the door.”

“What were you thinking?”

“That I was pissed. That he was an idiot for thinking I loved him. Nothing, I don't know. Really, I didn't hear anything more. I didn't know what he even meant, but I knew in my gut he was doing something bad.”

“But you didn't want to know what it was.”

“Not then.”

“Is that why you came back on Sunday?”

She nodded. “Yes. I wanted the truth. And, I'll admit it—I was worried about him. I thought he was going to do something, I
didn't know what.” She stopped and looked toward her parents. “I'm lying to myself. Yes, I knew he was doing something wrong, I didn't want to admit it to myself.”

Savich nodded to Dr. Hicks. Slowly, Dr. Hicks brought her out of hypnosis. He told her she was a very brave woman, that what had happened was going to fade from her mind in time, and that she was strong enough to see things the way they'd really been, and would be able to put them in perspective. Savich smiled a bit as Dr. Hicks engaged in some therapy. He felt compassion for this waif, this young woman who'd fallen for a man who'd used her and then had died. Dr. Hicks went on to tell her that she would feel good about herself now, that she was hungry. A pepperoni pizza at the Quantico restaurant, The Boardroom, was what she wanted, and Savich would buy it for her. He looked over at her parents, who were listening to every word and nodding. He told Annie her parents would like the pepperoni pizza, too, that they were here for her, that they loved her and would stand by her.