Way of the Shadows (Shadow Agents 8)

Paula really was a terrific actress.

Noelle reached for the files that were waiting on the table. She flipped them open. “You started working for Senator Duncan over ten years ago.”

“Ah...yes. Yes, I did...”

“And when you mention Patrick Porter, you always use his first name... That’s an intimate association, so I assume you met him over the years while you were working with the senator?”

Paula’s gaze darted to Thomas, then back to Noelle. “Patrick would come to see the senator every few months. They were friends.” Her breath huffed out. “I can’t believe that he killed him! And then abducted me!”

“Oh, I think you can believe it,” Thomas muttered.

Paula’s stare hardened for an instant.

Noelle asked, “You weren’t aware that Patrick was killing for the senator?”

As Noelle stared at Paula, the other woman’s mouth dropped open in a perfect O of surprise. “You can’t be serious! There’s no way—”

“Oh, I’m serious. You deleted the record of the kills from the senator’s computer, but you weren’t quite good enough at that deletion. We’ve got computer techs here... They can recover anything if you just give them time.” Noelle smiled at Paula. “Serial killers like to keep souvenirs of their kills, did you know that? Patrick... His thing was pictures. Videos. When he had completed a kill, he’d send that image to Lawrence as proof the job was done. It was all of those images that you tried to delete. The video files.”

Paula shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

She could keep up the lies for a bit longer.

“The files were deleted after the senator’s death.”

“Then Patrick must’ve done it! He got into the system and—”

Noelle shook her head. “The only fingerprints on that keyboard were yours and the senator’s.”

Paula flushed. Her cuffed hands slammed against the table. “Then he used gloves. I don’t know—”

“I think you know plenty,” Thomas drawled as he leaned forward, “because you were featured in some of those videos.” He reached for the laptop on the table. “Want to see them?”

Paula’s face changed then. The pretty veneer faded. Evil flashed in her eyes.

“Patrick liked to work with a partner, and Lawrence, well, he was the more hands-off kind of guy, right?” Noelle asked, her voice emotionless. “So you were the one who went in with Patrick. The one who helped him lure those victims out. For the past ten years, Patrick had been killing

men. The high-profile enemies of the senator. And to lure out prey like that...”

“You need the right bait,” Thomas finished.

Bait that looked innocent but wasn’t. Bait that would be too seductive to resist.

Thomas tapped a few buttons on the keyboard. A video began to play. Paula’s soft laughter filled the room. Only this time, that laughter was coming from the recording. The woman was as still as a statue across from them as her eyes locked on the screen.

“Stop it,” Paula whispered.

They didn’t stop the video.

“I’m so glad we decided to get away for the weekend...” Now a man’s deep, rumbling voice came from that video. “Leaving D.C. was the best idea you’ve had...”

“That’s General Randall Adams. He worked for the Pentagon.” Noelle shrugged. “You know that, though, right? Since the two of you were lovers. Randall’s the one who first tipped you off about the EOD. You worried the EOD was closing in on you and Lawrence, that we’d realize—”

“I don’t know anything about the EOD,” Paula said, the words quiet but hard.

Thomas drummed his fingers on the table. “Once you came up on the EOD’s radar, you knew we’d realize you’d been killing for years. We go after threats to security, and that’s exactly what you are.”

The video kept playing.