Page 109 of The Saint

A minute later, the door opened, and Beth gestured for him to step inside. “It’s fine. He’s with me.”

Camden sidestepped the guard and, without saying hello, said, “We have an Esme problem.”

She gave him an annoyed look over her shoulder. “You shouldn’t have gone to see her.”

“Why?” He stepped around agents holding imaging devices over the floor and against the baseboards.

A woman was standing on a step stool and imaging the ceiling.

“She’s on our payroll,” Beth explained.

“That wasn’t hard to figure out when you arranged for an introduction.”

“The problem is Esme might be on someone else’s payroll also.”

That stopped him cold. “Whose?”

“I don’t know. Whoever killed Jonathan, Hailey, and their handler?”

They walked by the Dumonts’ home office. No fewer than five agents were crammed into the space and tearing the desk and walls apart.

“But logic says if there were Russian sleeper agents working in her house of fun, then she might have something to do with that.”

They reached the kitchen. A man was inspecting the inside of the oven. All the kitchen drawers had been pulled out and stacked on the dining table as a young agent sat, tediously bagging what had to be dozens of items.

Camden gestured to the house. “Why’s this happening now?”

“Jonathan’s dead.”

“As a doornail,” Camden confirmed. “I went to his funeral.”

“Hailey’s missing. No body has surfaced. Amelia’s missing. Again, no body.”

Pinpricks of cold fear skipped over his shoulders. “Why are you talking to me like this is news?”

“Forget whatever your situation with Amelia has become and think: Hailey and Amelia could have been sleeper agents, and the men ‘chasing’ her”—Beth put air quotes around “chasing”—“were her extraction team.”

His mouth fell open. It snapped back into place. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“Event planning in DC? That puts her in contact with highly targeted assets. It’s an angle we hadn’t considered.”

“So you’re telling me that you’re not looking for Amelia… but treating her like a target?A spy?”

“Yes.”

“Goddamn, you people are so stupid.”

“If you and Jared Westin hadn’t interfered, she would still be in US custody.”

He smacked his hand against his forehead. His heart raced at the absurdity. “You’re insane. This is ludicrous.”

“Actually, it makes a lot of sense, but you’re too close to the situation.” Beth put her hands on her hips. “She seduced you,Camden. She used you. And now, she and her sister are gone. Frankly, you’re lucky to be alive.”

Camden pressed his fingers to his temples. He believed no part of Beth’s explanation. “And that’s why you’re tearing apart this house? To find proof?” He shook his head. “Why you destroyed Amelia’s house? Absolutely unbelievable.”

“Amelia’s condominium?” Beth pursed her lips but then shook her head. “The Stone sisters are sleeper agents. They could have been radicalized in their teens and put to work during college. Their cover was blown. They killed Hailey’s handler and husband and disappeared with everything needed to prove the work Jonathan died for.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

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