Dead in a Week (Forensic Instincts 7)

Casey arched a brow. “Thanks for the confirmation. Your silence says it all.”

“I did a little poking around of my own—on the inside,” Patrick added. As a retired FBI agent, he had many contacts still with the Bureau. “It seems there’s a former FBI agent, now living and working in the Big Apple, who’s been acting as a go-between between the Bureau and a confidential informant who was privy to details of the rescue. A field operative with those kind of resources—pretty amazing, huh? Having someone of that caliber right here in the city? Maybe we should hire him.”

At that, Marc’s lips twitched. “Maybe we should. I bet he’s worth double what they’re paying him wherever he works.”

“So are the other pros who assisted him,” Ryan said.

“Aha, now we’re getting somewhere.” Claire gave Ryan a sweet smile. “Any pros you want to name? Like Ryan McKay, perhaps?”

Ryan averted his gaze, clearly annoyed at himself for speaking up.

Emma had no such reservations. “Also a pro who can use her awesome pickpocketing skills to Bluejack a phone that yields mission-critical information to… well, to her temporary employer.”

Casey was about to burst out laughing. “And here I thought I was your employer.”

“You are,” Emma added hastily. “You know what I mean. Aidan said he’d called you to brag about me.”

“Actually, he called to commend you and to warn me that you’d be bragging about you.” Satisfied, she sat back in her chair, tucking a loose strand of red hair behind her ear. “I think we’ve tortured the three of you enough. You gave Aidan your word. We’ll honor that—to a point. If the questions from the Bureau start to penetrate FI’s walls, then we’re involved. Fair enough?”

“Yup.” Marc pushed aside his empty coffee cup. “More than fair.”

“Not to sound patronizing, but I’m very proud of the three of you,” Casey said. “Just don’t get any ideas of leaving FI to go work for Aidan.”

“Not to worry,” Marc replied. “Aidan is doing just fine on his own. And so are we.”

“But you’d like to work with him again,” Casey astutely deduced. “Well, so would I. The couple of times he helped us out on cases, he was extraordinary. And that was just him. I now realize he has his own team—unnamed but stellar in capabilities. Imagine what our two teams could do together.”

“Yeah, just imagine.” Marc smiled. “There’d be no stopping us.”

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