Page 104 of Jep

“What is it?” he said.

“I’ve been going over some of the other information we’ve gathered, and I think I’ve found a link. I’ll show you.” She turned and headed back to her office.

“Should we go?” Em whispered.

“It would look weird if we don’t. And I’m curious to know what she supposedly found. If she’s trying to lead us astray, it’s more proof of her involvement. And I’m perfectly capable of putting her in handcuffs until Lawson gets back if we need to.”

“But what if we get it wrong?”

“I’d rather get it wrong than let her go if we’re right. I’ve got no problem apologizing. Everyone already hates me anyway, so it wouldn’t change anything.”

He headed across the bullpen, and Em wasn’t far behind.

When they entered the office, Em glanced at the statue. She wanted to see Jep’s reaction to it but was afraid of drawing any attention.

“Here,” Gardener said, handing Jep a few papers, and then she turned her computer screen around. “Our techs recoveredsome writing off a burnt file we found. There’s a similar date there to other documents.”

“Yeah, I see that. Any idea what it’s referring to?”

“Maybe it’s the date of another attack?”

“Could be. That was a good catch. Well done. Do we have any information about where it could be?”

“Still looking into it. You guys sure there was nothing at the apartment you can remember that would give us any clue?”

Was Gardener digging? Did she suspect them?

“No,” Em said. “There was a journal, but we dropped it when we were making our escape.” She looked at the statue again, and Gardener caught it.

“You like it?”

“Uh. Sure. I mean, not really. It’s not really my taste.” She laughed nervously, then cleared her throat.

“Where’d you get it?” Jep said

“An overseas trip I took recently.”

“Cambodia, right?” Em said.

“You’ve always been good at paying attention to the details,” Gardener said.

“They must have those statues in every market in the country.”

“This one and about a hundred other designs.”

“What made you pick that one specifically?”

Gardener lifted it and looked it over. “I don’t know. I liked the look of it, I guess. Why are you so interested?”

“Just curious.”

“You want to know what I’m curious about? Worried, actually.”

Em bit her lip, then released it. “What?”

Gardener looked at Jep. “At first, I thought the idea of Em going out into the field was a good one.” She rested the statueagainst her hip. “But then, for some reason, everything always went wrong.”

“What are you talking about?” Em said. “Everything was going wrong before he turned up. Agents were killed. Files had gone missing.” She felt like the air had been punched out of her lungs when she realized her slip. She should have let Jep do this on his own.

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