Already Trapped (Laura Frost FBI)

Laura looked at Gregory Clifton through the one-way glass of the interview room, her arms folded across her chest. He looked so normal. So many of them did.

“What do you think?” she asked, not turning to look as someone entered the room behind her. She didn’t need to. She could see Nate’s reflection in the window.

“He sounds genuine enough,” Nate said. “Like he really believes this evil twin stuff.”

“Well, I suppose he would be more of an expert than either of us,” Laura said. She meant it to sound like a joke, but it came off grim and dark.

They stood there in silence for a while. Gregory Clifton sat there on the other side, unaware of their gazes. He was alone in the room, left with just a half cup of lukewarm coffee in plastic, his hands cuffed where he could only just reach it and nothing else. Nevertheless, he seemed comfortable enough.

Not that he seemed happy, though. His shoulders were slumped, his eyes staring down at the table. The only movement he made was to reach for the cup now and then, take a sip, and set it back down. His head hung down, like he was beating himself up about something internally.

And he probably was. He’d been caught. From the way he described it to them, it seemed like he felt he’d failed in an important mission. Something only he could do.

The scary part was that Laura could relate. Though she was fairly sure that her own mission was based in reality, while his was simply a delusion.

“You spoke to Rondelle?” Laura asked, at length.

“Yeah,” Nate told her. “Plane leaves in about an hour. He’s happy to let Gausse and her team handle it from here. Sounds like they won’t need a trial, so we’re just about done here.”

Laura nodded. Clifton had confessed to everything, after all. They’d gotten enough information from him already to find Clark Clifton’s body, hidden in a chest freezer in Gregory’s basement. Somewhere the local police had never had cause to look, given that they weren’t even sure he’d been murdered until Clark told them so.

Hours of sitting in that confessional with him had left Laura with a sore and stiff back, and the plane journey home probably wasn’t going to help either. And now she had the thoughts of Clark Clifton, the way he’d terrorized and abused his brother over the years, to keep her company as well.

She doubted Nate was going to be doing much in the way of distracting her from that.

“We’d better get our things from the motel,” Laura said, because it was better than standing here staring silently ahead, neither of them doing much to acknowledge the other. Looking at a man who couldn’t see and wouldn’t acknowledge them, either.

Besides, it was done. This whole time, Laura had wanted nothing more than to get home, and now she was going to get that chance. She wasn’t going to linger here for a moment longer.

She turned and left the room, even though Nate hadn’t replied. That was the way it was now. She didn’t like it, but she was getting used to it. Horrible as that was. She wished she wouldn’t, but there it was.

Laura got behind the wheel of the car they’d been using for the past couple of days, neither particularly surprised nor completely expecting it when Nate slid into the passenger seat beside her.

“Ready?” Laura asked, just to break the silence.

“Sure,” Nate said.

Great. So the second the case was over, they were back to silent and surly.

Laura took a deep breath and started the car, pulling out before she had the chance to start screaming and never stop. She had too much going on right now to pander to Nate.

She knew he was hurting, that he felt like she’d betrayed him. But she hadn’t. She was only trying to keep the status quo, to stop him from hating her and getting hurt in the process.

She was probably going to lose Nate as a partner if this continued. But if she told him, she was convinced she’d lose him for sure. And every day she kept him working alongside her was another day that she had the chance to maybe, just maybe, save his life and send that shadow of death that hung over him away.

They drove back to the motel in silence to gather their things, which she knew wouldn’t take much time at all. Laura always kept her bag half-packed. She was sure Nate did the same. There wasn’t much point in taking everything out when you weren’t going to be staying for long.

Even as they drove to the motel, her mind was ticking over, already leaving Milwaukee behind and returning to D.C. To what waited for her there.

Two things. Two little girls.

Amy, who was with someone new. Someone who might not be safe. And Laura owed it to her to try to found out where she was, who she was with. To keep an eye on her. It didn’t seem like anyone else was going to do it, if not Laura.

Then there was the custody hearing, which was more imminent and in some ways more urgent. Laura only had two days left to prepare. She was going to have to go over everything with her lawyer, make sure she had the right documentation. Get her apartment cleaned up as much as possible, in case there was an inspection. Go over what she would say in court to convince the judge that she was worthy of this.

She had her sober chips, proving she’d been sober for five months now. She was going to make it to six, too. She could do this.

Now she just needed to prove it to everyone else—and hope that Marcus wasn’t planning to throw her under the bus, after all the peaceful collaboration they’d been starting to achieve.