available?”
“I’ll have to check. May I tell her who’s calling?”
“Yes. This is Doctor Jante with the FBI,” she replied.
My outlook on the day took a sudden turn, and it definitely wasn’t a good one.
Tuesday, March 14
10:04 A.M.
FBI Field Office
Saint Louis, Missouri
CHAPTER 13:
Felicity and I were cloistered away in the conference room to which we had been ushered shortly after arriving downstairs. I looked at my watch as I continued about my self-assigned task of wearing a ten-foot long stripe in the carpet. Fifteen minutes had elapsed since the door closed behind our escort on her way out, leaving us alone to inspect the four walls of the windowless room.
I shot a second look at the timepiece just to be sure I’d read it properly because to me it felt more like an entire hour had gone by. Of course, given that I’d already spent over two months waiting for this meeting and had for all intents and purposes given up on it ever happening, a few more minutes shouldn’t be an issue. Unfortunately, I was having an enormous amount of trouble convincing myself of that fact.
“Rowan, that’s the tenth time you’ve looked at your watch in the past five minutes,” my wife voiced her observation. “We’re actually here early as it is. Just relax.”
She was parked in a chair on the opposite side of the conference table from me, watching quietly as I ambled back and forth. While my personal display of nervous energy was far more overt than hers, she wasn’t exactly at ease herself. It hadn’t escaped my notice that she had removed her visitor’s badge and was absently twisting it between her fingers as she fidgeted.
“I’ll relax when this is all over,” I told her. “And, I hate to burst your bubble, but we’re only early by Felicity time. They’re actually four minutes late.”
“Four minutes isn’t really late.”
“Like I said, Felicity time. In real time if you arrive on schedule you’re already fifteen minutes late,” I said, reminding her of my personal philosophy where such was concerned.
“You could have stayed home, you know,” she told me.
I stopped mid step and looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “You’re kidding, right?”
I resumed pacing and covered the last few steps before pivoting to head back to the opposite end of the table. I glanced in her direction again and added, “Actually, I think I would have been a lot more comfortable if you had stayed home.”
“I’m sure,” she replied. “But if you remember correctly I’m the one they asked to come down here. Not you.”
“Yeah,” I spat. “I’m still not clear on that one myself. I asked Ben to get me access to Annalise. Not you. Not us. Just me.”
“Well, I’m not really sure what this is about. They just said they wanted to talk to me about her and that they were only going to be in town today. It seems a bit weird to me.”
“Yeah, me too. And, Ben still hasn’t called me back yet, so I don’t know if he had anything to do with this or not.”
Silence filled the space behind my comment for several heartbeats. I made my steady back-and-forth trek two more times and started on a third before the quiet was once again disturbed by my wife.
“Maybe it’s because I’m prettier than you,” she quipped.
“What?”
She grinned. “Maybe they asked for me because I’m prettier than you.”
“Uh-huh, very funny.”
She feigned a pout. “Well, I am.”
“While I’m inclined to agree with you, I’m also reasonably sure that’s not one of the qualifying criteria… Besides, this is no time for joking, Felicity.”
“Who says I’m joking?”
I held up my hand and thumbed my wedding ring. “Me, because I’ve known you for a long time. Besides, that comment was so far out in left field it had to be a joke.”
She nodded agreement, adopting a slightly more serious tone. “True… But I’m just trying to get you to lighten up. You’re starting to make me nervous.”
“Sorry, but there’s not much I can do about that right now.”
“Actually, yes there is. You could stop pacing and sit down. That would be a start.”
I ignored the comment and continued my twenty-mile hike in a ten-foot space.
Her voice suddenly took on the quality of soft concern. “So, how is your head doing, then?”
“Same old ache,” I replied with a shrug. “Much better than last night though.”
“And your neck?”
I reached up and absently touched the spot that had been the source of the bleeding, and it felt perfectly normal. “Not even a twinge,” I told her then added, “Thankfully. I really don’t need the distraction at the moment.”
“What’s gotten into you then?” she asked. “Something definitely has you wound up.”
“I don’t honestly know,” I replied with a sigh, and I was telling the truth. “Just having all this with Annalise come back to the forefront maybe.”
“It’s been there all along, Row.”
“I know, I know. But we’ve been able to put it behind us a bit… Or, pretend we have, at least.”
“ Cac capaill. Don’t lie.”
“What makes you think I’m lying?”
“Because you’ve never put it behind you and you know it,” she said. “So do I.”
“You’re imagining things.”
“I am? Well then why have you been obsessing over my necklace ever since that night?”
I feigned innocence with a forced chuckle and said, “I haven’t.”
“ Thug tu d'eitheach.”
“Seriously, honey,” I appealed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Really?” she replied then clucked her tongue. “Why don’t you show me what’s in your jacket pocket that has your hand so occupied then?”
I stopped pacing again and looked at her. She caught me flat-footed with the comment, and denying her observation wasn’t going to do me any good. My right hand was stuffed into the pocket, and I had been fidgeting with the small jar ever since we arrived. It had been completely subconscious on my part, but she had certainly noticed it. Still, I wondered how she knew what it was.
“So, you’ve been going through my jacket?” I asked, trying to turn the table.
She shook her head. “No. I was right behind you going through the metal detectors downstairs when you had to empty your pockets, remember? I’m not blind, you know.”
I hung my head and sighed at my attack of stupidity then looked back at my wife and muttered, “Duh.”
“That’s what I was thinking, but I wasn’t going to say it.”
I pulled the jar out and looked at it. “I’m kind of surprised they let me bring it in, actually.”
“I guess you were convincing enough not to make them suspicious.”
“Yeah, I guess,” I replied as I stuffed it back into my pocket. “So, you pretty much just played me just now to see what I’d say?”
She shrugged and said, “Yes.”
“Any conclusions?”
