The Innocent

Maria had been working this whole time and said, “Okay, we are done and looking sharp. But think about those glasses, okay?”

Julie admired her hair in the mirror. “Thanks, Maria.”

Maria took the smock off and Julie pulled out some cash. Maria waved it off.

“No, this one is on me.”

“But you should get paid.”

“I tell you what, you can start teaching me some Spanish when you come in. My mother is really ragging me to learn it.”

Julie smiled. “Deal.”

CHAPTER 45

Robie had not stayed in the Volvo the entire time he was waiting for Julie. He was roaming. And watching. He knew there were eyes out there somewhere. He just wanted to find them before they found him.

And he had things to think about.

He had two cases going simultaneously.

Jane Wind was dead along with her young son. She was with the Defense Department. She’d traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan and probably other hot spots. Robie’s handler had been turned and had ordered Robie to kill her. Now the handler was missing and Robie was investigating murders that had occurred when he’d been present. Nicole Vance was sharp and Robie had to be extra careful he didn’t slip up around her. Rick Wind had been found with his tongue cut out and hanging upside down in his pawnshop. No leads there either.

And then he had Julie Getty. Parents murdered and the crime scene policed. Killer on the bus to finish the job. Bus blows up. Robie’s gun was found at the scene, which made the Feds believe the cases were connected. And the guy who’d attacked them in the alley had disappeared. The Broomes’ apartment had been scrubbed too, and Robie didn’t know where they were. Or if they were still alive.

He glanced at the salon and saw through the window that Julie was getting ready to leave. If he were a betting man he would wager that Ida Broome had not been in there.

He met her at the car and they both climbed in.

“Talk to me,” he said.

Julie spent a few minutes filling him in.

“So we still don’t know what Leo does,” said Robie.

“Can’t you find that out on some government database?”

“Probably. I’ll check it out.”

“The Broomes are most likely dead,” she said.

“Or they could be in hiding,” said Robie. “That would be best case.”

“If Mr. Broome has some important job in the government do you think he’s the reason for all this?”

“It’s certainly a possibility.”

“But why would that involve my parents?”

“They were friends. They met for meals. He might have let something slip.”

“Great,” she said, her voice catching slightly. “My parents might have been killed because they had a meatloaf dinner with the guy?”

“Stranger things have happened.”

“What now?” she asked.

“I drop you back off. I have to get going.”

“Right. To see special super agent Vance.”

“Just Special Agent Vance.”

“But she was super, wasn’t she?”

“You won’t let it rest, will you?”

“Does this mean I go back to the apartment and die of boredom?”

“Don’t you have homework to do?”

“Going from investigating murder to doing calculus, wow.”

“You’re only fourteen and you’re already doing calculus?”

“G and T, Will, like I said. I actually don’t like math very much. But I’m good at it.”

“Education is the key to success.”

“You sound like somebody’s grandfather.”

“You disagree?”

“I’m just taking it one day at a time.”

“Not a bad philosophy.”

“My classmates’ parents have their whole lives planned out for them. Top colleges. Top graduate programs. Wall Street, medical school, law firms. The next Steve Jobs, the next Warren Buffett. Makes me want to gag.”

“Nothing wrong with getting ahead.”

“You mean there’s nothing wrong with making as much money as possible at the expense of everyone else? The planet has over seven billion people and too many of them live in poverty. Me coming up with an algorithm to make a fortune on Wall Street and tank the economy in the process, which in turn creates a lot more poor people, doesn’t exactly rock my career boat.”

“Then do something else. Something that helps people.”

She gave him a sideways look. “You mean like you?”

He glanced away.

No, not like me, he thought.

CHAPTER 46

After dropping Julie off, Robie navigated traffic until he arrived at Donnelly’s about twenty-five minutes later. The bodies were gone but the street was filled with police cars, forensics vans, and Bureau sedans. Smack in the middle of the sidewalk was a mobile FBI command post that had probably been dropped off last night.

On the other side of the wooden police barriers was an army of reporters. Media trucks with communication masts raised to the sky lined the street behind the jostling journalists. Robie flashed his creds and was passed through the barriers as the reporters with deadlines and a never-ending news cycle to service screamed questions at him.

Vance met him out front. She seemed hassled and harried. As he looked around at the chaos of the First Amendment slamming head-on into the right of the government to solve the murders of several of its citizens, Robie could hardly blame her.

“Got everything under control?” he asked.

“Don’t make me shoot you.”