Page 111 of Jep

“Wait,” Em said, frantic. She should have taken her sister and escaped when she still could have. But the other agents would return eventually. Maybe if she could stall long enough…God, please help.

“Pearce,” she said. “Why are you doing this?”

“Same reason Gardener is. Money.”

They were good. She had to admit. Even now that she knew, she couldn’t see it.

“You’re the one she called from her office after she knocked Jep out?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why the act at her office? Why pretend like you weren’t involved?”

“Because that’s how we do it. I wanted to keep my options open, and she caught on as soon as I entered and played along.”

“Who was involved first?”

“If you’re trying to stall, you’re wasting your time. They won’t be back for a while. I’ve sent them all on a wild goose chase. A master stroke actually.”

“I’m not stalling. I’m just trying to piece everything together.”

“Trying to figure out how you could have stopped it? You’re not smart enough. We’ve put too many years into perfecting it, and you had no reason to suspect.”

“It was Gardener, right? She was involved first?”

“Good guess. She knew about a few of my indiscretions and thought I’d be the right man for the job. It’s been a long game, but it’s about to pay off big time.”

“What about Lawson?”

“What about him?”

“Is he involved?”

“Lawson? No.”

“I didn’t think so.”

Pearce laughed. “And that’s your problem, Em.”

“What?”

“You’re the kind of girl who likes to see the best in everyone. Even me. And don’t even get me started on Jep.”

“You don’t know anything about him.”

“Oh no? I know he’s too righteous to play along, although he’s made an excellent pawn without even knowing it.”

“Why bring him into it in the first place? He’s half the reason we found out Gardener was involved.”

“That was unlucky. I brought him in because Truman was going to shut the task force down. Right when we were so close to our goal. Gardener and I would have been transferred to different departments, and we would have lost our momentum. I only brought Jep in to keep things moving a little longer. But it turns out he’ll also make the best scapegoat. There are enough who don’t like him and assume the worst, so it will be easy to pin everything on him. I’ll say exactly what I said to you about him running the whole thing.”

“You never called the medic, did you?”

“We’re back to that, are we? No. I didn’t. Whether he lives or dies right now isn’t my concern.”

“Gardener wanted us dead.”

He tsked. “Yes. That was not my idea. I was pretty cranky about that, but I’m coming around to the idea of you both being dead. Your lives are giving me a headache. It’s a pity. Thepublic love to froth over the living when they think they’re a horrible human being.” He shrugged. “I did my best. Even at the apartment, I only knocked him out. I could have killed him then and no one would have known. I should have.”

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