No Rhyme or Reason

by Mairsile Leabhair

  “Let’s just say his computer was infected around the same time that Jack’s was.”

  “Why did you put it like that?” she asked.

  “Because, according to Billy, Greg’s virus was the result of his USB drive. You guys use those password-protected flash drives, right?”

  “Yes, and they’re a pain in the ass to use.”

  “Billy made a note that the drive was accessed through a non-encrypted flash drive. In other words, Greg gave himself the virus on purpose.”

  “You can’t know that,” she argued. “Maybe it was from a case he was working on.”

  “But you weren’t using your computer. The virus on your computer entered through the USB port, just like Greg’s had. You were undercover at the time. I think you need to face it. Greg is our mole.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded. “You’re right.”

  Say It Isn’t True, Part II – Ruby Grace Sutherland

  Trina was right, and I had to face it. There was no doubt that Greg had a hand in what happened to me. Whether he wanted to be involved in that part of it I didn’t know, but just as surely as if he had raped me himself, he was guilty.

  “Joey seems to think he has all the power here,” Trina speculated. “That’s why he had the hacker leave that message. I doubt Greg knew even knew it was on there.”

  “Unless he’s planning on taking the money and running.”

  “We need to get a look at Greg’s bank records.”

  “What makes you say that, Detective?” Jack said from behind us.

  How long has he been standing there? “Jack. Have a seat. We’ve got questions,” I said.

  He sat down, and the waitress immediately appeared at our table. After he gave his drink order and passed on food, the waitress left, and we filled him in on everything we knew so far. I came at him with question after question, and he had an answer for everything, except for Paul. He didn’t remember getting a phone call from Paul. Except for this morning at the hospital, he said he had never seen the guy before.

  “I’m going to get a warrant for Greg’s bank account,” Jack said. “And also, for Paul’s account.”

  Trina didn’t say a word but the redness around her cheeks spoke volumes.

  “I’m not sure how he fits in all of this, but we need to eliminate him as a suspect,” Jack explained. “And this is the best way to do it.”

  Nodding, I said, “I agree. Going into a volatile situation at the auction without knowing who all the players are is just stupid.”

  “Go ahead and get your warrant,” Trina said, looking at Jack. “It will vindicate Paul and then we can concentrate on catching the real bad guys.”

  “Are you including me as one of those bad guys?” Jack asked her.

  “Yes. But only so much as a naïve leader of a corrupt unit is bad,” Trina answered.

  I held my breath. I can’t believe she just said that. Jack tended to bark angrily at people who challenged his authority.

  He leaned back in his seat, studying her over the rim of his whiskey glass. Finally, he gulped the brown liquid down and place the empty glass on the table. “Considering everything, I believe that you are correct.”

  My mouth gaped open. I didn’t know who to be angrier with. “Damn you both! How can either of you say that? I’m a part of that unit, and I most certainly am not corrupt. Trina, you are way out of line talking about something you really know nothing about. And Jack, you’re kowtowing to her. Why?”

  He tapped on the reports, “All of this happened under my watch, which makes it my fault. If it was that obvious to Trina, why wasn’t it obvious to me?”

  “Because she’s on the outside looking in and forming a biased opinion,” I snapped.

  “Look, I admit that I shouldn’t have generalized. I didn’t mean to include you in my opinion, Ruby,” she inserted. “But you were raped under his watch. I blame him for that.”

  “And I accept the responsibility,” Jack stated.

  I clenched my fists and bit my lip to keep from screaming. Inhaling slowly to clear my head, I calmed down enough to say, “Fuck the both of you. There’s only one man who walked on water and you sure aren’t him, Jack. And Trina, if anyone is to blame then blame me. It was my fault for getting caught.”

  “I’m not blaming you for being assaulted, damn it,” she replied angrily.

  “I’m not blaming me for being raped, either. I’m blaming me for not being a better agent. For trying to prove myself and—”

  Suddenly, I heard a loud pop and a bullet whizzed by my head. Another shot and I saw Jack jerk and fall back. I grabbed my purse just as Trina tipped the table over to use as a shield. We both armed ourselves and prepared to fire.

  “Police, everyone get down!” Trina ordered from behind the table. The waitress and bartender disappeared and the only other customers, who had been sitting behind us, fled with them.

  “Ruby, you son of a bitch!”

  Greg? “Greg, stop this before you kill someone,” I shouted, glancing behind me at Jack clutching his bleeding shoulder.

  “You couldn’t just die, could you?” Greg yelled. “No, you had to go snooping around at the office, too.”

  Trina peeked around the table on the right and another shot rang out.

  “It was you who took those pictures of me, wasn’t it, Greg?” I asked, edging closer to the end of the table.

  “That’s not all I did. I couldn’t let Grady have all the fun,” he said, his voice moving from one side of the room to the other. “You were quite tasty, by the way. Too bad you were unconscious.”

  Tears threatened to blur my eyes as my throat filled with bile.

  “You mother fucker,” Trina yelled and fired at Greg.

  He fired back at her, splintering the wood she crouched behind.

  My tears dried up instantly, and I took aim while he was distracted. I fired and hit him in the shoulder. He stumbled back, shocked at first, and then he started shooting again. He emptied his clip and as he was reaching for another one, Jack stood up suddenly and shot him in the chest. Greg went down with a thud.

  “Somebody call an ambulance,” I yelled as Jack slumped to the floor again.

  Trina cautiously walked over to Greg, who was bleeding out on the floor, and kicked the gun out of his hand.

  “Jack, don’t move,” I ordered, tearing a strip from my skirt. “The bullet tore a chunk out of your shoulder, but I don’t think it’s not too bad,” I lied. I could see his bones as I wrapped it up.

  “I need to sit up,” he said, trying to get up.

  “Okay, hold on.” I grabbed the table, still tilted on its side and braced the legs against the bar. “Can you turn around and lean against the table?”

  “I think so,” he said, using his good hand to put his weight on.

  “Here, let me help,” I said, but he waved me off.

  “I’m fine. Go help Trina,” he said, using his legs to scoot himself up against the table.

  When he was settled, I took his good hand and placed it over the bandage. “Hold this and sit still,” I ordered as I stood up. “I’ll be right back.”

  He grunted but did what I told him to.

  “How’s Greg?” I asked as I walked up.

  Trina shook her head.

  In spite of it all, my eyes brimmed with tears. “It’s because of me that he’s dead. If I hadn’t shot him…”

  Trina stood up and waited for me to look at her. “If you hadn’t slowed him down, we might all be dead right now,” she said.

  “She’s right, Agent Sutherland,” Jack said as he walked over to us on shaky legs. “I had the kill shot, his death is on me. Right now, the police are on their way and I don’t need you two caught up in the process. Tuesday, after you’ve arrested Joey, you can give your statements.”

  “I discharged my weapon. I have to report that to my captain,” Trina said.

  “Your captain is aware of your arrangement with the FBI, Trina. I’ll inform her
of what happened here and what’s at stake if we get bogged down in the red tape.”

  “Red tape?” Trina asked incredulously.

  “Would you settle for the mole or the Haitian Creole king?” he asked. “They’ll put you on mandatory leave until this shooting has been justified, and it’s too late to bring in someone new for tomorrow night’s raid.”

  “Trina, he’s right. Please. I want to catch Joey more than anything I’ve ever wanted before.”

  “Yeah, I do, too. Count me in,” she said.

  “All right then,” Jack said. “I don’t think Greg was asked to come here and shoot up the place, so carry out your objective tomorrow night as planned, but you will go in wearing a wire, and I will have men ready to crash the party on your say so.”

  “That wasn’t part of the plan, Jack,” I challenged.

  “It is now,” Jack countered. “We’ve eliminated the mole, which means Joey won’t be wise to what’s happening in the FBI. Let’s use everything at our disposal to catch the bastard.”

  “Copy that,” I cheered. “And I hope I’m the one who takes him down.”

  “Hey, he’s mine,” Ruby said stubbornly. “You can take down the parents.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Not Before the Big Game – Trina Wiles

  We went back to the hotel and picked up our things before checking out. Then we drove to the opposite side of town and checked into a motel. We would hide out in the motel tonight and emerge tomorrow as father and son. I must admit, I was a bit nervous about the plan. Not because it was a bad one, but because of Greg. If Joey found out that Greg was dead, he would either cancel the auction or put on more security, making it more difficult to move around inside the auction.

  “Do you want a drink?” I asked, pulling a six-pack out of a grocery bag.

  “No, thanks,” she said, sitting down on the double bed.

  “Um, want to watch TV?”

  “No, thanks,” she said, leaning back against the headboard.

  “Oh, okay… uh, I’ll just sit over here on the chair and—”

  “Would you sit with me?” she asked, patting my side of the bed.

  “Yes, absolutely,” I said eagerly. I walked over and sat my beer on the nightstand, then I sat down and threw my legs up on the bed. I wasn’t sure what to do with my hands, so I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back against the headboard. There was a huge gap between us, and it wasn’t just physical.

  When I played soccer, I never allowed myself to have sex before the big game. The coach said it could slow my reflexes and distract my mind. But Ruby and I had too much distance between us, and I was desperate to keep her from pulling away from me. Of course, that was no way to hold onto a relationship, but I knew in my heart that we were meant to be together. I just needed to remind her of that. Unfortunately, at the moment, she was not interested. In fact, I wasn’t sure what she needed from me right then. I needed to be patient and let her tell me.

  She sat there with her eyes closed and, at first I thought maybe she had fallen asleep. It had been a stressful day, so it wouldn’t be surprising. But then she took a deep breath and opened her eyes again.

  “I was just a rookie, fresh out of Quantico, when I met Greg,” she began. “He was not very happy being saddled with a young fledgling like me, but I idolized him. I was his protégé, and he was my mentor. He didn’t like me at first, but I grew on him.”

  “How could he not like you?” I asked.

  “He was the star quarterback and I was the pimply faced tag-a-long. I swear, that first year, he tugged on my ponytail whenever I didn’t move fast enough.”

  “Didn’t that piss you off?” I asked, noticing that she had relaxed into the conversation.

  “It did, but you know how it is. The newbie gets the grunt jobs and if you complain, you get even worse treatment.”

  “Yeah, I remember how it was.”

  “Only by proving myself did he start to appreciate me and eventually, we became a cohesive team.”

  “And then Jack reassigned you.”

  “Yes, and Greg was very upset. He thought that he’d done his time babysitting a newbie, as he put it.”

  “Was he mad at you?” I asked.

  “A little. But he was furious with Jack. I thought they were going to get into a fistfight. I was offered the case of a lifetime and Greg was saddled with another rookie.”

  “Did he know about your case?”

  She shook her head. “No. All he knew was that I was suddenly working alone, and everyone knows that meant a promotion, of sorts.”

  “So, if he was that upset, why didn’t he just transfer to another field office?”

  She leaned against my shoulder and exhaled softly. It was a simple gesture, but my heart leaped with joy.

  “He never confided in me, but I got the feeling he was eyeing the assistant director’s job. Howard will be retiring next year, and anyone with seniority was going after his job.”

  “I think maybe that’s why he joined up with Joey, because he thought he was being demoted.”

  She pulled her knees up and curled into my side. “I don’t know. The timeline is right, but it took me almost a year to win Joey’s trust. How could Greg move that fast?”

  “My guess is that he was already working for Joey. With a guy like Joey, he’d throw a lot of money at Greg and pay him for his loyalty. You were different.”

  “How so?”

  “You were a woman, for one thing, and in Joey’s mind, because of your accounting skills, smarter than Greg.”

  “And yet, I doubt he paid me anywhere near what he must have been paying Greg.”

  “You’re probably right on that one,” I said, wrapping my arm across her shoulder.

  “Do you think Greg was so upset with Jack that he attacked me and killed Grady on the church grounds just to get back at Jack?”

  “It’s certainly possible,” I said. “You were attacked because Greg found out who you were. That was business. Anyone who could sell children into slavery for sex wouldn’t hesitate to violate the church in that manner.”

  “Jack said Greg was interested in going to church with him. That has to be why everything circled around that church.”

  “My brother’s church,” I said with a sigh.

  “Yes. Poor Corey. None of this had anything to do with the church itself. Greg picked it as another way to get back at Jack.”

  “I don’t think that Jack realized just how vindictive Greg could be.”

  “I should have,” she said. “He was my partner, and I trusted him with my life. How could I have been so blind?”

  “Because you didn’t know the real man. You saw only what he wanted you to see.”

  She was quiet for a moment. “Trina, am I seeing the real you?”

  “Yes, warts and all.”

  “But how can I tell? How can anyone truly know another person?”

  “You can never truly know someone because most people don’t know themselves. Life is all about change and growth and learning who you are as you grow. You know me, all of me, as I am right now.”

  “A week ago today, when I met you, I was a completely different person.”

  I smiled at the memory. “That’s right, you were different, but yet, I still see some of that person in you now. Your stubbornness, and—”

  “Gee, thanks,” she said sarcastically.

  “I happen to like how stubborn you get when you know you’re right,” I said in self-defense. “But your heart has not changed. It’s still as loving and giving as it was when you didn’t know what kind of person you were.”

  “Trina.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m sorry I got mad at you.”

  “No, you’re not,” I teased, twirling a lock of her hair in my fingers.

  She chuckled. “No, I’m not really.”

  “You know how blunt I can be. I probably should have found a better way to answer his question.”

  She opene
d her mouth to speak but a yawn came out instead.

  “Why don’t you close your eyes and get some sleep?” I suggested, kissing the hair on the back of her head. “Tomorrow is going to be a very long day.”

  “Are you worried about it?”

  “Not worried, really. Maybe just a little nervous.”

  “Me, too,” she said, taking my hand in hers and placing her hand up against it as if measuring the size. Her hand was small with thin fingers and still rough fingertips. “But I do feel better now that we’ll be wearing a wire and Jack will be just outside if we need him.”

  “Didn’t he tell you?”

  “What?”

  “He’s going in with us.”

  She sat up and looked at me. “When did he tell you that?”

  “You had gone to check on the customers in the back when he told me that he would be inside with us.”

  “But he was shot. He’ll probably need surgery, he can’t come.”

  “He was betrayed by one of his own people,” I surmised. “His reputation is on the line. He’s not going to trust something this important to anyone else.”

  “Yeah. That’s true,” she admitted, leaning back against my shoulder. “I’m glad for the backup, but I kinda feel like now we’ll have to watch out for him because he’s hurt.”

  “Yeah, another distraction to be cautious of.”

  “Speaking of distractions…” She ran her fingers up my inner thigh, immediately igniting a fire.

  “I don’t think it’s advisable before the big game,” I said seriously.

  “What if we lose the big game and miss our chance to make love one last time?” she asked coyly, cupping my crotch and squeezing.

  I inhaled sharply, surprised at how fast she heated me up. “You’re such a romantic,” I teased, watching her hand as it made its way up to my stomach. I knew it was coming, I tried to will it not to happen, but I was helpless to stop her hand from sliding up to my breast and squeezing.

  God, the euphoria. I was weak when it came to her touch. I would gladly give away all my secrets to have her skin on mine. To feel her lips on mine and her fingers inside of me. Just thinking about it made me wet. Enough thinking. With one hand, I ripped my shirt open and held my breath. Like a cat with its prey, she circled my breast with her fingers, teasing me with her tongue, moving closer and closer to the tip until she bit. I arched my back, the electrifying sensation sizzling down my spine. Oh, God. “Put me in, Coach. I’m ready to play.”