Page 5 of Girl, Accused

‘Hi?’

‘Mr. Hawkins?’ the tallest one of the three said. His wrinkles carried the kind of mileage that Luca saw on haggard faces every day at HQ. He noted the usage ofmisterand notagent.

‘Yes?’

‘I’m Detective Strauss. These are Officers Marty and Curtsinger.’ He flashed his badge. ‘We’re with the Washington State Police.’

‘State Police?’ Luca's mind spun through scenarios like a roulette wheel looking for a winner.

'Yes. We're working alongside the FBI. Could you step outside, please?'

‘What? Why?’

The tall detective produced a folded sheet of paper from his jacket and handed it to Luca. ‘Because we have a warrant to search these premises.’

Luca unfolded it with hands that had lost their usual steady grace. He picked apart the legalese.

WHEREAS, probable cause exists to believe that evidence of criminal activity may be found at the above-listed residence, including but not limited to: electronic devices, data storage media, written correspondence, financial documents, photographs, and any items that may establish a connection to ongoing federal investigations.

Search and seizure authorization, federal court seal, case number. Everything in bureaucratic black and white.

The timestamp said 01:17, a time when most judges were dead to the world. But there at the bottom, authorizing this invasion of his life, sat Director Edis' signature.

Directors didn’t sign search warrants. That was judicial territory. So what was happening here went higher than state police playing jurisdictional games.

‘Don’t make this difficult, Mr. Hawkins.’ Strauss said. ‘Please step outside.’

Luca kept scanning, trying to parse the layers of meaning buried in the legalese. The warrant authorized search of all rooms, storage areas, vehicles. Permitted seizure of computers, phones, documents - basically his entire life reduced to potential evidence.

But evidence of what?

‘Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Does this involve Ella?’

‘This involves two homicides. That’s all we can tell you.’

Luca felt the world tilt. ‘Homicides? What homicides?’

‘That’s our business.’

His fist found the doorframe before he was consciously aware of it. ‘Like hell it is. I’m a federal agent. Tell me what’s going on.’

‘We’re aware you work for the Bureau,’ Strauss said.

‘So I’ll co-operate. I’ve got nothing to hide.’

‘Then you won’t mind if we look around your place. You can stay here or we can put you up somewhere while we conduct our search.’

Luca fought the idea, but what choice did he have? Resisting a search warrant was a one-way ticket to a jail cell followed by the unemployment line. He mentally ran through scenarios; Ella locked away upstairs at HQ, Edis signing warrants in the dead of night, state police talking about homicides in that carefully vague way that meant something had gone seriously wrong. The pieces were there, but they formed a picture his brain refused to accept.

He stepped aside and let the officers in. ‘Go ahead.’

‘Make yourself comfortable,’ Strauss said. ‘We'll be a while.’

This wasn't about throwing Winters through that specimen table. This was something else. Something that had Ella locked away in the Hoover Building while state police dismantled their home looking for God knows what. All he could do was wait and watch, try to piece together the puzzle from whatever scraps they left behind.

CHAPTER THREE

Ella Dark had long mastered the art of waiting. Stakeouts, interrogations, the endless bureaucratic holding patterns between breakthroughs. A decade in the Bureau had taught her patience, taught her how to quiet her mind and still her body, how to let the minutes wash over her like waves until her quarry finally broke cover.

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