allegedly putting the dead pig in Peter’s bed-Lucy needed Alexis’s medical records to know for certain.
Or they could call her ex-husband.
“Excuse me,” Lucy said.
Suzanne looked at her oddly, but Lucy slipped out.
Noah and Joe were watching through the one-way mirror in a room next door.
“What are you thinking?” Noah asked Lucy.
“The time frame-what if Alexis wasn’t the one who put the pig in Peter’s bed?”
Noah was skeptical. “She scrubbed down the apartment, lied about where she lived, was never a student. She lied about everything.”
“They were having sex. I think he’s Missy’s father.”
“That’s a big leap.”
“The timing is right.”
“She’s involved, Lucy. Even if Tony was poisoned in New York, or if his death was truly a coincidence, she attacked Hans.”
“I think she did both, no doubt in my mind. I think she’s as much involved in all of it as her brother. Except for Peter. I think she truly wanted to warn him, to protect him.”
“I trust your hunches,” Noah said, “but that doesn’t help us find her, or her brother.”
“I have an idea to draw Alexis out,” Lucy said. “But I need to confirm my theory.”
“All right,” he said. “What do you need?”
“To talk to her ex-husband.”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Peter had quietly agreed to the plan when they debriefed him, but Lucy wasn’t at all sure that he was psychologically ready to confront Alexis. She’d been the first person he’d trusted after what happened with his sister, and Alexis had done more than destroy his trust-she’d killed his hope. He’d become a hermit, outside of teaching young kids. He had no friends, no social life, no future.
Because Alexis and possibly Kip had seen Sean, Sean would be Peter’s visible bodyguard. Alexis also could have seen Sean at Quantico and know that he was involved with Lucy, but they would have to take that chance. Lucy was banking on her psychological analysis that Alexis would come to warn Peter or try to justify what she’d done.
Lucy had enough experience with psychopaths and sociopaths, plus a master’s in criminal psychology, to make this call, but she’d always had backup. She’d always had Dillon or Hans to help talk things out. Now she had no choice but to go it alone.
Sean and Peter went up to Peter’s apartment. Joe was coordinating NYPD on the street. Sean set up a camera so that Noah and Lucy, who were in a vacant apartment down the hall, could watch and listen. Suzanne would remain hidden in Peter’s apartment.
Lucy’s theory was that Alexis would act quickly, possibly tonight and no more than twenty-four hours from now.
Noah shook his head at the screen as he watched the living room of Peter’s apartment through a phone that Sean had programmed to transmit to his laptop. “Sean has all the toys,” Noah told Lucy.
“Private sector,” Lucy said. “It pays better.”
Sean was trying to get Peter to loosen up a bit, but Peter was wooden and worried. Finally, Sean turned on a baseball game that had been played earlier in the day, keeping the volume on low. It was late, after one in the morning, and Peter drifted off to sleep in his chair.
Lucy asked Noah, “Have you heard about Hans?”
“Same condition, but the swelling has gone down. If it continues, they’ll perform surgery tomorrow morning.”
“That’s just as dangerous as the accident.”
“It’s the only thing that will save him.”
“That’s what they told us about Patrick, and he ended up in a coma for nearly two years.”
“You never told me what happened.”
“I assumed everyone knew. It’s in my file.” She didn’t know where the bitterness came from. She was used to this.
Noah said quietly, “I only read what I had to know when I was investigating the vigilante murders. I knew about the coma, but not why.”
Lucy stared at the screen.
“You don’t need to talk about it, Lucy.”
She shook her head. “Adam Scott had me on an island outside of Seattle. He falsified coordinates and sent them to Kate. Kate didn’t believe the information, she thought there was something wrong, but the FBI verified them and the agent in charge of the investigation took a team down to Baja, California. It was a trap. Scott had used the cabin in the past; he rigged it to explode. He was watching through a video feed. My brothers Patrick and Connor went down with Jack’s mercenary team, along with four agents. Scott watched through a video feed-I know, because he showed me-and when they breached the cabin, he blew it up.” Lucy would never forget watching Patrick half-running, half-thrown from the cabin. It still haunted her.
“Patrick had a severe head injury that required surgery, but he was conscious and joking on the way to the hospital. He didn’t regain consciousness after the surgery. The doctors didn’t know for certain, but suspected it was a rare reaction to the anesthesia. When he was younger, he’d had his appendix out and slipped into a coma for several days.”
“Did they operate again?”
“No. He just woke up one day. Out of the blue.” She smiled. “The last couple years hasn’t been easy for him. Not just the physical deterioration. San Diego PD replaced him in the cybercrimes unit. Patrick had taken it from next to nothing to state of the art. But as you know, cybercrime is constantly changing. Patrick could have had his job back, but working for someone else. He was a lot like Sean-had an intuitive understanding of computer security. He lost his edge.
“Connor, our other brother, is a P.I. and asked Patrick to join him, but Jack wanted Patrick at RCK, and Patrick needed to get out of the family nest.” She paused. “I love my family, but it’s hard to forge your own path when everyone tries to do it for you.”
“He’s a good man.”
Lucy smiled. “Yeah. He and Sean became close. I don’t think Patrick realized when he went to Sacramento to work for RCK that he was going from one over-protective family to another. Sean and Patrick opened up RCK East to get out from under the thumb of their big brothers.” She glanced at Noah. “You and Sean are good now, right?”
“As good as we’ll ever be,” he said.
“Why does that sound ominous?”
Noah didn’t say anything, and Lucy didn’t push. She didn’t want to make waves. She liked Noah and owed him a debt for training her, supporting her, helping her become a good agent. She considered him her closest friend, outside of her family.
But she loved Sean. He was her best friend. It was as simple as that. She didn’t want to choose sides between career and Sean. She wanted both.
Everything mattered more-her career, her family, her life-because she had someone to share it with.
Noah’s phone, set on intercom, beeped. It was DeLucca. “Heads up, possible Sanchez entering building. She has a key.”
“Roger that; hold your position.”
Noah said to Suzanne, “Did you get that?”
“Roger.”
They waited. It felt like forever but was only three minutes before Alexis used a key to get into Peter’s
