He tried the door. It was locked. He couldn’t remember her ever locking her door. “Lucy, let me in-I won’t stay long.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Sean frowned. She didn’t sound like herself. He hesitated a brief moment before pulling out his lockpick kit. Ten seconds later, he was inside.
Lucy sat on the far side of the dark room in her oversized chair, the only illumination coming from the streetlight outside.
“I can’t believe you picked my lock.”
He closed the door behind him. “I was worried about you.”
“I’m fine. You can go.”
Lucy’s face was pale and splotchy, her black hair hung in tangled waves down her back, and she was sitting with her chin on her knees. She was anything but fine.
He crossed the room, then stopped. Her body language was unlike any he’d seen from her. She was truly angry with him.
“You don’t know any boundaries, do you?” she snapped.
“Are you upset about the video you found? I’m sorry, Lucy, I didn’t know that was there. I should have; I should have thought twice about asking for your help-”
She stared at him and shook her head. “No, I’m not upset about the video.”
“Please tell me what’s wrong. I didn’t do anything, did I?” Maybe he’d hurt her and didn’t know it. “Talk to me, please.”
She let out a long sigh and closed her eyes. At first he didn’t understand what she was doing with her hand, but then he realized she was pointing at her desk.
He went over and saw a notebook full of detailed information in her small, clear block printing. He looked at the pictures of her family, some framed and some loose on the desk. There was a series of four black-and-white pictures of her and Sean from a booth at the mall when he’d taken her window-shopping so he could figure out what she wanted for her birthday without directly asking her. That had been a fun afternoon, and the smile on her face was proof.
And then there was a letter, facedown.
He picked it up. It was from the FBI. He didn’t need to read it to know that it contained bad news.
“Lucy-”
“Now you know,” she said, cutting him off, “and you can leave.”
“No-”
“Sean, can’t you just leave me alone? For tonight? You don’t understand. I have nothing left. I need to figure out a bunch of stuff, and I need to do it by myself.”
“You’re in no condition to make decisions tonight.” He walked over to her and knelt in front of her, putting his hands on her shoulders. She was so tense and rigid, her eyes red from her anguish. “I don’t know what was going on with that panel, but they’re a bunch of incompetent jerks who don’t know what the hell they’re doing.”
She didn’t say anything, but her body began shaking.
He kissed her on the top of her head, holding her face against his chest, wishing he could draw all her pain into him. He didn’t know what to say or do to fix it. And that hurt nearly as much-that he couldn’t solve this.
“We’ll work this out,” he said.
“This isn’t your problem,” she whispered.
“Your problems are mine.” What did he need to do to prove to her that he was committed to her, through thick and thin, the good and the bad?
“No, Sean.”
He ignored her comment. He wasn’t going to get into an argument, not when Lucy felt so miserable. “We have a lot of work to do over the next couple days; maybe by the weekend you’ll have a different perspective.”
She pushed him away. He tried not to take it personally, but it was hard. “I can’t help you anymore,” she said.
“Of course you can-”
“Don’t you get it? I’m done. I’m not going to be an FBI agent. I’m not going to be a cop. I’m not going to be working in cybercrime. It’s over.”
“I never thought you were a quitter.”
“Leave me alone.” She turned away.
He stood. “Does your family know?”
She shook her head. “I’ll tell them, but not now.”
“I won’t say anything.”
“Thanks,” she mumbled without emotion.
He walked toward the door, then stopped in front of her desk. “I need your help on this case. You’re smart, you understand these teenagers, and you understand these websites. I could have found all this, but it would have taken me a lot more time because I don’t know exactly what to look for. You saved us hours of work, bringing us many steps closer to finding Kirsten.”
“And what if I get something wrong?” Lucy countered. “What if I miss something completely?” She shook her head. “I don’t want that kind of pressure. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“That’s a lie, and you damn well know it. Go ahead and feel sorry for yourself tonight.” Sean wanted to say something reassuring, but he realized that the last thing Lucy needed right now was someone telling her everything was going to be all right. Self-pity and Lucy didn’t go together, and she’d see it herself soon enough. “I’ll be here at eight o’clock in the morning and I expect you to come to Woodbridge with me. I need your help or I wouldn’t have asked in the first place.”
He reached into his pocket and took out the present he’d picked out that night, after they’d taken the pictures in the booth. He had wanted to see Lucy’s face when she opened it, but maybe now it was better that she opened it alone.
He put it on top of her notes and left.
Lucy stared at the door. She wanted to be angry at Sean, she
She slowly rose, her limbs stiff from sitting in the chair for hours, and walked to her desk. She picked up the watch-sized box that Sean had left. It was tied with a blue ribbon.
It figured that he would do something like this. She hadn’t wanted to open presents today. She hadn’t wanted to face anyone and pretend everything was just fine. But she couldn’t resist opening it, not knowing what to expect. With Sean, it could be anything.
She untied the ribbon and took off the lid. Inside was a necklace. The pendant was a single daisy made of six amethyst gems, a small diamond in the center. The jewels were set in gold.
She’d never seen anything like it. It was seven stones in a simple design, but the delicacy and complexity of how they were held together was exquisite.
Inside the box was a small card declaring that the necklace was from a local antiques shop she’d been in many times, though she rarely bought anything for herself. A couple of weeks ago they’d gone shopping at the mall, and while walking to a nearby restaurant they’d passed the store. She hadn’t seen the daisy, but she had commented to him how she enjoyed browsing and bought most of her Christmas presents there.
Sean had not only remembered, but he’d picked out a piece that she loved, that symbolized his declaration when they first met that he would give her only colorful daisies because they made her smile.
Putting on the necklace, Lucy wept.
Lucy was understandably upset over the idiotic panel’s decision, but Sean was downright furious about it and remained so for hours. He continued to work, following up on requests for phone records and ISP information in the Kirsten Benton case. But he couldn’t stop thinking about Lucy’s denied application.
The FBI had proven to him, yet again, that they had their collective heads up their collective asses. Not so much the investigating agents-he had a grudging respect for them after working a few cases with them in the field-but the mindless bureaucrats who ran the agency. Sean knew there was no other applicant out there better
