Page 103 of Jep

“You two don’t have the best track record. And we did just visit the apartment without telling him. Not to mention the last time I brought him something, he wasn’t interested.”

“You said information was missing from the files.”

“I remembered wrong. Or…”

“Is that what Gardener said? That you must have remembered it wrong?”

“No, that was me but…I don’t know.”

“Is there anything else in her behavior that was suspicious?”

“She wanted me to report back to her and tell her everything we found. She was excited about me being involved. I thought it was because she was proud of me.” Her voice trailed off at the end, and her face fell. But then she remembered. “Jep. She was the only other one who knew we were going to the apartment.”

Jep shifted into gear immediately. “We need to move on this now. I’m sorry, Em, but this doesn’t sound good for Gardener.”

“I know.”

“We’ll go back to the office, and I’ll get a look at her statue. Confirm it’s the same one. Then we’ll go see Lawson. He’ll listen. He’s not a fool.”

Chapter 23

Em followedbehind Jep as they stepped off the elevator.

“Where is everyone?” she said, looking around the empty office.

“It must be all hands on deck at the apartment.” He headed to Lawson’s office but found it empty. “Lawson’s gone too,” he said when he returned to Em.

“What do we do?”

Jep pulled out his phone. “Just a second.” Lawson’s phone went to voicemail. “Lawson, I need you to call me as soon as possible. Emery and I have found something. It’s urgent.”

“Emery!” Gardener called across the office. “Thank goodness you’re okay.” She hurried over, not looking at Jep. “When I heard about what happened, I thought the worst. I had to tell Lawson about what you did.”

“That’s okay.” She knew Jep would have no trouble acting like they knew nothing, but her skin was crawling.

“He was…upset, but I thought you were in trouble or worse. I’m so sorry. I know I said I’d cover for you.”

“Don’t worry about it. You did the right thing. Luckily, neither one of us was hurt.”

“I’m so glad I insisted Agent Booth came with you.”

“I would be dead if he hadn’t.” She hoped Gardener couldn’t hear the coldness in her voice.

“Were you able to find anything?”

“No,” Jep said. “We didn’t get anything. It was another dead end. The bomb destroyed anything of value.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Where is everyone?” Em said.

“I don’t have much in the way of details, but whileyouguys didn’t find anything, apparently, someone else on the team did.”

“Do you know what it was?” Jep said.

“I’m not sure, but listen, since you’re here, could you have a look at something for me?”

Em looked at Jep.

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