“Well, I know you have kind of a bond with Amy,” Chris said. He gestured helplessly in the direction of where Amy had gone. “Actually, you’re kind of all she talks about. Christ, I think she likes you a lot more than she likes me. It’s kind of intimidating. And now I know you have a young daughter, too, it’s perfect. Isn’t it?”
“What is?” Laura asked guardedly.
“I mean, you must know… everything,” Chris said. “Everything she’ll need, how to look after her, even what she’s like. I wasn’t around much before the last few years, and lately I’ve been busy at the hospital. I didn’t even know what kind of toys she would like. But you can help me. Can’t you?”
Laura must have been looking at him somewhat askance becau
se Chris laid his hands down on top of the counter and stared at her, like he was trying to stare into her very soul.
“Please?”
Laura sighed, shaking her head. “You don’t even have to ask. Of course, I’ll help out. Anything to make sure Amy is safe and happy from now on.” And, she added privately in her own head, anything to make sure that she could keep an eye on him.
Even if he was putting his best foot forward now, that might not last. And Amy was too important, too vulnerable, for Laura to leave that to chance.
“Thank you,” Chris said, breaking out into another grin. He genuinely looked relieved. “Thank you, so much. Can I take your number, so I can annoy you with stupid questions and call you if I need emergency help?”
Laura dug her cell phone out. “Not just in emergencies,” she said. “You can call me about this any time. I’ll answer. I might not be in the state, but I’ll answer.”
“That’s good enough,” Chris beamed, typing on his screen as she pulled up her own contact book. They exchanged numbers quickly, and Laura was about to set the phone back into her pocket when she felt it buzzing.
For a second, she assumed it was just Chris testing her number by calling it. But then she saw the caller ID and frowned.
“Hang on,” she said. “I’ve got to take this. It’s work.”
“Oh, sure,” Chris said, gesturing for her to step out and lifting his coffee mug in a kind of salute. “Please.”
Laura moved only as far as the hall before she answered, knowing whose voice she would hear on the other end of the line.
“Agent Frost, I hope you’re enjoying your day off,” Chief Rondelle said, his familiar tone carrying just the lightest edge of humor.
Which meant only one thing.
It wasn’t her day off anymore.
CHAPTER FIVE
When Laura arrived at the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the FBI headquarters, Nate was already there. She pulled up next to his car in the parking lot and rushed to the elevators, knowing she was behind. She’d been further out than usual, in the suburbs where Chris and Amy now lived. From what Rondelle said on the phone, this was urgent.
She’d wanted to get some time alone with Nate before they went inside. A chance to meet him in the corridor, ask him not to start mentioning therapy to their boss. But now she was just going to have to hope that he’d stayed quiet on his own.
She half-ran down the hall, her blonde hair flying in a ponytail behind her, arriving at Rondelle’s door and then pausing for only a moment. It was closed. She could hear them talking on the other side.
She knocked and then opened the door and went in without waiting to be told, hoping she would catch them in the act if they were talking about her. But though both of them looked up at her with a startled expression, neither of them looked guilty.
“Agent Frost,” Rondelle said, from behind his desk. He was seated casually, behind a stack of paperwork as he always seemed to be. He watched her with inquisition in his sharp eyes, like he was reading more than she would have liked into her quick entrance. “We were just about to discuss the case. Do come in.”
Laura closed the door behind her, having to pretend not to hear the quiet rebuke in that statement. The fact that she hadn’t been invited in before entering. “It sounded urgent, sir. I rushed over as quick as I could.”
She glanced at Nate, standing in front of the desk in an easy, relaxed pose. He, too, was still wearing street clothes, probably not having come from home either. He met her glance, no longer avoiding it, but he didn’t give anything away either.
“That it is,” Rondelle said, leaning back in his chair and looking at both of them. The light by his desk highlighted the grays in his dark hair – or the dark in his gray hair, since the gray seemed now to be winning. “We have a very interesting case unfolding in Atlanta, Georgia. After you tackled the twins’ case so easily, I figured you’d need something more of a challenge.”
Nate snorted. “Thanks for that, Chief.”
He was playing around with them, and all of them knew it. The last case hadn’t come easy at all. It had been hard. They all were. That’s what it was like, being an FBI agent. Taking on the cases that were too complex for the locals to figure out. It was never going to be easy.
Chief Rondelle smiled. At least he seemed to be in good spirits, for whatever reason. Maybe because he could see that his two favorite agents were talking to each other again, if nothing else. “We had a report a couple of hours ago about a murder victim discovered in very unusual circumstances. She had a clock placed around her neck and was bound and gagged, hanging from the ceiling in an abandoned warehouse. She's the second such victim found in two days. It looks like we have a pattern on our hands, and it's a very specific one. Both women, both with the clock, both hung by the neck as a method of death. As for the clocks themselves, they appear to not only tell the time, but count it down.”