On the List

by Patricia Rosemoor

  And on Director Mulvihill, she thought, switching on the monitor.

  Mulvihill…

  Seeing his name already on Gabe’s computer screen, she froze. Gabe had a folder named Mulvihill displayed on his desktop?

  Pulse ticking, she clicked open the folder only to find file after file filled with articles about Embry Lake. Articles he’d collected before they’d even made the Michigan connection.

  Rather, before she had.

  “What the hell!” she said aloud.

  “Something wrong?”

  She whipped around to see Gabe standing in the bathroom doorway, clad only in a towel anchored around his hips. His body still damp, he was rubbing at his wet hair with a hand towel. Seeing him like this, she should be turned on, Renata thought. But not a fiber of her being stirred; she was too afraid of what she had found.

  His gaze flicked behind her at the monitor, and from the way his smile faded, she knew he knew.

  Her stomach knotted. She didn’t want to make assumptions. She didn’t want to say the wrong thing. So she waited for him to tell her.

  “What’s the problem?” he asked lightly.

  As if he didn’t know…

  “You tell me.”

  “Renata—”

  “No, I mean it. Tell me and tell me now.” When he stood there, staring at her, she added, “The truth, Gabe. Don’t you think it’s time you told me the truth about your interest in the City Sniper case?”

  He heaved a sigh and merely said, “It’s Mulvihill,” as if that’s all she needed to hear.

  “I can see that,” she said, indicating the screen. “But what about him?”

  “He’s the reason I sought you out,” Gabe admitted. “I figured it was time someone made him pay for the things he’d done.”

  “What things?”

  She stared at him, willed him to talk, but now he kept tight-lipped. He didn’t have to say it, though, for her to know that he’d used her. He’d wanted her to find dirt on her boss for him. But still he wouldn’t tell her why. Furious with him, feeling betrayed, Re nata grabbed her shoulder holster, fastened it and covered it with her jacket.

  She met Gabe’s gaze one last time, hoping he would tell her the whole truth at last, that he would be able to explain away what he’d done. That he would tell her why he’d lied about his brother simply because Danny had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  But he said nothing. He’d shut down. He obviously wasn’t going to try to save himself.

  Or them.

  But as she got to the door, he did say, “Renata, wait.”

  She waited, her hand on the doorknob, though she refused to turn around and look at him.

  “Last night…last night was real.”

  She closed her eyes. It had been real for her, at least. But she hadn’t known everything. If she had, last night would never have happened.

  Without so much as a backward glance, she left, slamming the door behind her.

  Who the hell was Gabe?

  And how many times had she asked herself that question?

  Now was the time to find out.

  She hoofed it over to a main street where she was lucky enough to flag down a taxi. They went north, straight to Broadway Electronics. The store wasn’t open, of course. It was Sunday; it wouldn’t be open until noon. That gave her more than an hour to kill before she could get information about Gabe himself.

  Spotting a family restaurant across the street, she decided to get something to eat. Not that she was hungry. It was too early.

  Thinking about how Gabe had used her, Renata thought she might never be hungry again.

  Commandeering a booth at the window, she kept watch while forcing herself to eat half a breakfast. Her throat was tight and that’s all she could get down as she tried to block herself from thinking about her personal relationship with Gabe.

  Pulling out her cell phone, she tried distracting herself from her teeming emotions by picking up her messages. Of course, even though she’d stopped by to let her mom know she would be gone, the worrywart had called three times, twice yesterday and once this morning.

  She took a deep breath and got connected.

  “Renata, thank goodness you’re all right,” her mom said anxiously.

  “Of course I’m all right.”

  “What’s wrong with your voice?”

  “Sinuses. Something in Michigan didn’t agree with me.”

  She didn’t add that massive amounts of smoke wouldn’t agree with anyone. Her biggest hope was that her mom never had to hear about any of the terrible things that had happened to her on this case.

  “Have you seen a doctor?”

  “Actually, I have. I’ll be as good as new in a day or two.” Assuming she was still alive.

  “So did you have a good time?”

  Renata swallowed hard and sought a truth she could tell her mother. “It wasn’t boring.”

  “That Gabe fellow seems pretty nice.”

  “Yes, he does seem that way.”

  “You sound odd, honey. Is something wrong?”

  “You know how it is when you like someone and you’re afraid it isn’t going to work out.”

  “You don’t think he cares for you?”

  “I don’t know, Mom. I thought so…but…we’ll see.”

  She was saved from further interrogation when she spotted Ned Coulter getting out of his car.

  “Mom, I have to go. Business. Talk to you later.”

  And before the woman could get in another word, Renata powered down her cell, grabbed the bill and ran to the register, where she left enough money to include a huge tip.

  Waiting until there was a break in traffic, Renata ran across Broadway, catching up to Coulter just as he opened the front door of his business. An instant of concern passed through his features before he recovered.

  “Agent Fox,” he said, looking behind her. “Nice to see you again.”

  “Gabe’s not with me this time. Let’s go inside.”

  Coulter led the way and got the lights. “What can I do for you? I told you I didn’t know anything about Ackerman other than his name.”

  “What about Gabe?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What’s his name?”

  Silence ticked between them. She practically could see Coulter’s mind racing.

  “Don’t lie to me, Coulter, or I’ll shut you down,” Renata threatened.

  “You said you would forget—”

  “No,” she interrupted. “Gabe said that.”

  “But you didn’t contradict him. I expect you to keep to the promise.”

  “And I expect you to give me a name.” If she was going to check Gabe out, she needed to know who he really was. “Don’t screw with me, Coulter. I’m serious about this.”

  “If I tell you, you’ll leave me alone?”

  “If you give me the truth, then yes, I promise.”

  “And you won’t tell Gabe I gave you the name?”

  “It doesn’t matter. He’ll know. So give, Coulter.”

  The man tightened his jaw, then said, “All right. Griffith. Gabriel Griffith.”

  “You’re sure that’s his real name?”

  “I couldn’t swear on it. But that’s the name he was using when he came to me.”

  “If you’re lying, I’ll be back,” she threatened, making for the door.

  Griffith…

  Now why did that sound so familiar?

  She thought about it as she ascended the stairs to the train platform. Griffith. Gabriel Griffith.

  But no matter how many times she rolled it over in her mind, she simply couldn’t place it.

  GABE SPENT THE MORNING beating himself up. Why hadn’t he told Renata everything?

  Now she would never trust him.

  Even as he thought it, he knew that if he had told her before, she would have been gone. She hadn’t wanted his help in the first place. Now she must be thinking she’d been a fool to
let him force his way into her investigation.

  And especially into her life.

  This had been a “lose-lose” situation for him when it came to Renata. He only hoped learning that he was still keeping information from her wouldn’t deter her from finishing her investigation.

  Wanting to go after her, he held himself back. She would be in no mood to talk so soon. She needed some time to cool down, time to put things into perspective, so she would listen to reason. Even if she never wanted to see him again personally, surely he could persuade her to let him help finish what they’d started.

  But to do that, he would have to tell her everything. Maybe she would even understand.

  Trying to distract himself from thoughts of Renata while getting further information that would help them resolve the case, he logged onto the computer and fed “Congressman Carl Cooper” into a search engine. Within seconds, thousands of links appeared. He began clicking on them one at a time, running searches through the articles about Embry Lake. About Mulvihill, too. But his efforts were futile.

  After several hours of frustration, he’d had enough.

  Not knowing what to do with himself, he headed over to the club. At least there, he had people who trusted him.

  Why couldn’t Renata? he wondered.

  She should know him well enough by now.

  So he’d left out a little detail. Well, maybe a big detail. That didn’t change who he was.

  How could she not see that?

  His mood agitated, Gabe entered the club and headed for the kitchen, where he got one of the cooks to make him a burger. He was at the bar eating when Cass walked in.

  The moment she spotted him, she headed his way. But when she got within several feet of him, she stopped and frowned. Halfway through the burger, Gabe set it down and stared back at her. The skin along his spine began to crawl.

  Swallowing, he said, “Hey, Cass, what’s up?”

  “That’s my question for you. What is up? And where’s Renata?”

  Realizing she was reading him, he tried to relax. “I don’t know. Off somewhere investigating, I assume.” He tore another bite of his burger.

  “And you let her go alone?”

  Mouth full, he said, “I’m not her keeper.”

  “I thought you cared about her.”

  The food in Gabe’s mouth went dry. He chased it down with a long swallow of water, then said, “Okay, Cass, give. What did you see?”

  “I shouldn’t have to tell you. You know she’s not safe.”

  “Sorry. Not specific enough. Did you see something or not?”

  “Just a flash…”

  “Of what?”

  “Fear.”

  Gabe cursed under his breath, then said, “Not enough. Fear of what? Where is she?”

  Gray eyes wide, Cass shook her head. “I don’t know, Gabe. Honestly.”

  “On the street? In an alley?”

  “Inside.”

  “Her apartment?”

  Cass shook her head. “But someplace familiar.”

  That was the problem with Cass’s psychic visions—they were never clear. But this one was clear enough for Gabe to make an educated guess.

  He gave Cass a quick squeeze and hurried out of Club Undercover, wondering how the heck he was going to get into the S.A.F.E. building.

  RENATA WAS THANKFUL it was late Sunday afternoon, which meant a limited number of people would be around the S.A.F.E. offices. She could get at the records she needed with no Mulvihill to stop her.

  The first thing she did was to search S.A.F.E. records for “Gabriel Griffith.” When she couldn’t find anything to implicate Gabe, relief inched through her bit by bit.

  At least he didn’t seem to be on someone’s Most Wanted list. At least not under that name.

  Renata took a deep breath. She hadn’t really expected to find anything against Gabe, yet she’d had to check. She couldn’t trust her own judgment.

  Or could she?

  Gabe had asked her to trust him and, in fact, she had. She hadn’t been sorry—not until that morning. And when he’d pulled her out of the burning motel room, she’d been quite grateful.

  Why couldn’t Gabe have been honest with her that morning, if not before?

  Because he didn’t trust her.

  She sat back and thought about it. Gabe didn’t trust her. That had to be it.

  Another why.

  Wanting to make the most of her time, lest the wrong person find her and force her to leave, she focused her attention on the case itself.

  On Congressman Carl Cooper.

  “Let’s see what we have on you, Congressman.”

  But the only connection she found was to his position on the committee that approved and funded S.A.F.E. Nothing about Embry Lake.

  She inputted “Embry Lake” on their closed computer system but still could get nothing on Cooper. But when she scanned the report and got to the list of the victims and saw the name above leader Joshua Hague’s, she was shocked.

  Hardly able to make a sound, she whispered the name, “Daniel Griffith.”

  That’s why the name Griffith had been so familiar. She’d read it over and over again for months.

  Daniel Griffith…Danny…this had to be Gabe’s brother Danny.

  Renata felt as if the breath had been knocked out of her.

  It all made sense now. Gabe had told her his brother Danny had been an innocent killed because he’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time. No wonder Gabe blamed Mulvihill—he’d been in charge of the operation gone wrong.

  But if Daniel Griffith was an innocent, why had he been at the Embry Lake compound in the first place?

  Whatever the reason, her heart went out to Gabe.

  He hadn’t trusted her because she was a government agent working for the very agency responsible for his brother’s death. No doubt he thought if he told her everything, she wouldn’t have believed him, that she would have discounted his zeal immediately as being that of a survivor of one of the victims and thereby unreliable.

  Now Renata thought she understood.

  Still, there was something missing…

  There was only one thing to do. She had to face Gabe and get him to fill in the blanks. But not now. Now she had to take advantage of being in the S.A.F.E. offices, on the S.A.F.E. computer, perhaps for the last time. This might be her only opportunity to unearth the truth. Once Mulvihill got wind of her activities, she would probably be fired, barred from the premises for good.

  So Renata continued to go through the Embry Lake records with a fine-tooth comb. She was determined to stay put for hours, if necessary, going over details until her mind couldn’t absorb another fact.

  But it was only minutes before she received another surprise. Agent Paul Broden had been at Embry Lake under Mulvihill’s command. What she hadn’t known was that Broden had passed on the information from an unidentified informant about the sup posed terrorists working with the Embry Lake Brigade.

  What did this mean? she wondered. Broden had tried to make her back down in the City Sniper investigation, had said they all made mistakes. Was that his mistake? Passing on bad information?

  She began a list of every name associated with Embry Lake—militia and other townspeople on one side, S.A.F.E. and other authority figures in the other column. One of these people had started a war that ended with nine dead. Could one of their compatriots—Hank Oeland?—have condemned them? Or had it been one of the “good guys?”

  Tag Garvey was on that list. Tag Garvey had been giving her a hell of a time. Could he have fired the first shot? she wondered, bringing up his records. He was capable of being the City Sniper. But to what purpose? Ackerman/LaRoe had information someone would pay for—the name of the person who’d fired the first shot? Tag? Had Tag killed him to shut him up? By why the others?

  She decided to scan his employment file, starting with his application.

  Within minutes, a new truth left her breathless. Every employee needed goo
d recommendations, and Tag had gotten one that would be sure to get him the job: Congressman Carl Cooper himself.

  Her mind whirled.

  Cooper had connections to three of the victims, to Mulvihill at Embry Lake, now to one of the sharpshooters. Did he have connections to all of the victims? Had he gotten Tag to do his dirty work for him?

  If not Tag, who else could it be?

  Remembering the list of sharpshooters Blade had given her, Renata rummaged through her shoulder bag until she found it. Wanting to see if there were any other possible shooters, she held it up next to the list she’d compiled of people who’d been at Embry Lake.

  Another match…one she hadn’t noticed when she’d quickly taken that glance at Club Undercover. She picked up a pen and circled the name in red.

  Could it really be…?

  Stunned, Renata mentally examined everything that had happened since she’d blown the whistle on what she’d considered to be sloppy investigative work…everything that had been said to her…everything that she and Gabe had learned over the past week…

  What if it had been more than sloppy investigative work? What if it had been a cover-up that reached farther than she could have imagined?

  She powered down the computer and gathered lists and printouts and shoved them into her shoulder bag.

  She had to get to Gabe and show him this. She had to tell him she trusted him to see her through this.

  She did trust Gabe.

  No matter how troubled she had been by his secrecy, she had trusted him all along. If she hadn’t, how could she have fallen in love with him? Maybe if she told him that, he would trust her, as well.

  Anxious to see Gabe, Renata rose to leave and stopped short when she nearly ran into the man blocking her cubicle exit. Her pulse did a loop-the-loop and she was left speechless. She wondered how quickly she could get to her weapon.

  “Going somewhere?” asked the man responsible for the Embry Lake massacre and the City Sniper shootings.