Silenced

weekday. She went downstairs to the security office to see if they could house the cat until next-of-kin came to pick up her belongings. She reached into her pocket to text Noah, then realized he still had her phone.

“Agent-?” The manager, a sixty-year-old woman with gray hair and sharp blue eyes, questioned Lucy.

“Lucy Kincaid,” she said, extending her hand.

“Betty Dare.” She handed her a tape and file. “Here’s the information your partner requested.”

“Thank you, Ms. Dare. Ms. James’s cat-would you be able to care for it until her family arrives?”

“I’m sorry, my dog doesn’t like cats. I can call some of the other residents, but most of the people who live here work during the day. A third of our apartments are only used on a part-time basis.”

“This is a condominium, correct?”

“About half the units are owned. The company who manages the building doesn’t allow sublets or rentals, except through the company.”

“Ms. James was an owner?”

Ms. Dare nodded and gestured to the file in Lucy’s hands. “She bought the unit two years ago. No complaints.”

“Did you know her well?”

“She said hello, but I didn’t see much of her. I don’t see most of the residents unless there is a problem.”

“And Ms. James didn’t have any problems?”

“No, none.”

“This is a secure building, correct?”

“Fairly. We have cameras in the lobby, each entrance, and the parking garage. The lobby doors are locked from nine P.M. until five A.M. Each resident has a card key to enter after hours, as well as the parking garage all day.”

“Did you include a printout for Ms. James’s card?”

“No, I didn’t think-it’ll just take a minute.”

Lucy waited and five minutes later, Ms. Dare handed her a report. It was surprisingly thick. She flipped through it. Wendy didn’t arrive home most nights until after two in the morning. There was no tracking of when she left the parking garage, only when she returned.

“Thank you.”

“Let me know if I can do anything else. I know what the media is saying about her, poor girl. But what I knew of her, she was polite, quiet, and sweet. She baked me cookies last Christmas. Very kind. Not many young people do things like that anymore, you know.”

Lucy went back upstairs. She stepped into the condo, but was immediately escorted out by Noah. “Good news and bad news,” he said. “I’m running the case, but in the shadows. Stein’s the lead on paper and I report to both him and Slater. But it’s all on us. He’s not going to get in the way, except he’s coming with us to interview the victim’s employer and colleagues.”

“How’d you do it?”

Noah reached into his pocket and handed her back her cell phone. He winked, his eyes showing a rare sparkle. “Your pictures came in very handy.” Then he returned to his usual seriousness. “Watch your step around him. He can be a jerk, but when it comes to white-collar crimes, he’s one of the best. He has the same kind of instincts that you do, just in a different area.”

“I understand.” She handed him the files from the manager. “I couldn’t find a place for the cat.”

“It seemed to like you. Why don’t you take it home?”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

She had never thought about having a pet, she was too busy.

“I guess I could-temporarily.”

“We’ll come back for it after interviewing her employer.”

A cat. She’d have to give her brother and sister-in-law, whom she lived with, a heads-up. Or maybe it would be better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

CHAPTER SIX

Josh Stein insisted on driving to Devon Sullivan amp; Associates, the lobbying company where Wendy James worked as a secretary. He wanted to exchange information about the case, but he did most of the talking. In between his off-color jokes about loose women and politics and his valuable information and insight about Wendy James’s initial interview after the scandal broke, Lucy didn’t know if she wanted to kill him or praise him.

Noah was right. Stein was very smart-and very much a jerk.

“I would have cut her loose then,” Stein was saying, “because it seemed to be exactly what it was on the surface. A hot young chick sleeping with power. She was in no position to influence legislation, she’s a fucking secretary, doesn’t even have to register. But it came back to her knowledge of a particular bill Crowley killed in committee.”

“You’ve lost me,” Noah said.

“She went into the interview all charming, tits perky, eyelashes fluttering, but she was no bimbo. Too smart. We were just chatting, I made a comment about one of her company’s clients, an upstart company, and she immediately corrected me. The client was no longer with DSA, and the product they made wasn’t a computer chip, but a specialized lens for space telescopes.”

“Why’s that important?”

“It was obscure. Some things she may know, but in that detail? Considering her employer told me she was essentially the receptionist? So I asked some other questions, confirmed that she was sharp. So I’m thinking, maybe it wasn’t so much influence peddling on Crowley’s part, but maybe this girl had some other boyfriends on the side. Maybe she gathers up information like we gather up evidence, sees what fits and what doesn’t. Campaign secrets and whatnot.”

“Is that a crime?” Lucy asked.

“Maybe, maybe not. Depending on what she does with the information. If there’s money involved. If there’s national security at risk. So I asked some things I knew weren’t true, and one thing I knew was true-that she’d been involved with Congressman Randy Bristow at one point. That tidbit came from a contact of mine in the White House, who had seen the two up close and personal after a fundraiser. I asked her about a bunch of guys I doubted she’d screwed, then Bristow, and she denied it. No reason to, really-Bristow isn’t married, he can screw anyone he wants. But she cut me off, asked why I needed to know about her past sex life, she wasn’t on trial, yada yada.”

“You were fishing,” Lucy said.

“I’m damn good fisherman, sweetheart,” he said, grinning at her in the rearview mirror.

Noah jumped in. “And then you brought in the U.S. Attorney.”

“Information is power in this town, and that pretty little girl had access to a lot of information.”

“There was nothing on her computer,” Noah said.

“But you didn’t find her phone, did you? And she could have a laptop somewhere, or save everything to a disk. Maybe she wasn’t doing anything wrong. Maybe she was. Now she’s dead.”

Noah glanced over his shoulder as if warning Lucy to keep her mouth shut.

“Turning up dead right before a meet with the U.S. Attorney’s office?” Stein continued. “That tells me she knew something. Maybe she wasn’t the bad girl in this picture, but knew who was being naughty.”

Lucy’s irritation faded when the manner of death clicked into place. “The killer made her death look like attempted rape. Pulled down her shorts, but no penetration and no bruising on the inside of her thighs.”

Stein paled. “Well, I, uh, will leave those details to you.”

“Hear me out,” she continued. Stein pulled into a red zone near an office building only blocks from the Capitol