Mean Streak(108)

“How long have you known each other?”

Jack said, “I recruited him straight out of the army.”

“For?”

“My SWAT team.”

She looked at Hayes with wonderment. “You’re with the FBI?”

“Was.”

“You’re the unnamed SWAT officer who made the impossible shot and killed the Westboro gunman? You’re the legend?”

Hayes didn’t respond.

“Answer me!”

He shouted back, “I will when you ask a question that I feel is worthy of an answer.”

The sound that broke the resultant silence was Connell slapping his naked knees. “We’ve got a lot to talk about. Hand me my pants.”

Hayes looked behind him where Connell’s clothes were piled in a chair, along with his pistol and shoulder holster. “You should keep your weapon within reach, Agent Connell.”

“Lesson learned. God knows who’s likely to show up and assault me.”

Hayes tossed the trousers toward the bed. Connell caught them and shook them out. “Excuse me, Dr. Charbonneau.” He stood up and stepped into his pants. As he did them up, he said, “Oh, before I forget.”

He took a cell phone from one of the trouser pockets and handed it to her. “Yours. We found it in the bedroom last night after you ran off. I asked if I could keep it, monitor calls you received. Guess there’s no need to now.”

“Thank you.”

“FYI, the battery has run completely out. It needs charging.” He finished dressing, including his shoulder holster, and worked his feet into a pair of loafers. “Emory, what Bannock said about your husband, is it valid?”

“Why don’t you ask me?” Hayes said.

“Because I’m asking her.”

“I believe it’s true,” she said.

“Based on a hunch or evidence?”

“In all the confusion…” She bent down and retrieved the brown paper sack containing the rock, which she’d dropped on the floor during the tussle. She handed the sack to Connell. After opening it and looking inside, he turned to Hayes. “Her hair and blood?”

He nodded. “Found at the scene, along with a designer logo off Jeff’s ski jacket.” Jack mulled over that information for several seconds, then said, “Before we get down to business, I could use some strong, black coffee and hot food, and, since I’m the only one here not currently being sought by local law enforcement, I volunteer to go for them.”

He gave them time to argue or offer an alternative. When neither did, he put on his overcoat and gloves and scooped the keys to his rental car off the dresser. “Back soon.”

He pulled the door closed behind himself, but even the momentary blast of cold air didn’t dissipate the tension in the room. Neither she nor Hayes spoke. He walked over to the bed, pulled the bedspread up over the mussed sheets, then sat down approximately where Connell had been. Only then did he look at her.

“How did you get in here so fast?”

His head went back a notch. “Of all the burning questions you must have, that’s the one you asked?”

Without even trying to mitigate her anger, she said, “I’m pacing myself.”

“I drove around to the other side of the building, ran like hell, and came through the bathroom window.”

“Why not just accompany me to the door? He would have been just as surprised.”

“I had to make sure of you.”

“Of me?”

“I had to be certain that you would do what was right and uphold the law.”

She gave a harsh laugh. “Do you realize how ludicrous that statement sounds coming from you?”

“It’s my choice to bend the law when expedient. But I didn’t want to be responsible for your breaking it.”

“You made me into a burglar.”

“That was an exception. Even you drew the distinction between the episode with the Floyds and lying to a federal agent in order to let a fugitive escape justice.”

“So everything you said this morning was to see in what direction my moral compass was aimed?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, I’m happy I passed.”

“I know you mean that sarcastically, Doc, but I’m happy you passed, too.”

“You put me through hell for nothing.”

“Not exactly for nothing, but I’m sorry I had to be so hard on you.”

“Not hard, horrid.”

“I had to push your buttons, or the ruse wouldn’t have worked.”

“I could happily kill you right now.”

“I have that effect on people.”

He’d met her charges with calm acceptance, which only made her angrier. “You never planned to drop me off and hightail it?”

“Do you think I’d trust your safety, your life, to Knight, Grange, or even to Jack? Hell. No.”

“You must trust Connell to some extent or you wouldn’t be here. Weren’t you afraid he would arrest you on sight?”

“Arrest me? His pursuit is personal, not official. In his book, my only crime was bailing.”

“What?”

“I vanished. Disappeared.”

“You didn’t commit a terrible crime?”