Page 35 of Just Now

He sighed. She could see he was looking serious and thoughtful.

“You’re right.” The words shocked her as she waited for him to continue. “If you tell me, I’m responsible for trying to deal with it. And this puts us both in a very difficult situation. If there’s corruption or misdoings within the FBI, I’m not currently aware of it. And I do see why you don’t want to tell me.”

Cami felt astounded. She’d never believed that Connor would be so understanding, that he’d acknowledge the complexity of this situation. She’d dreaded that he would simply force her outright to tell him what was going on.

“I’m so glad you understand. It feels—it feels like a lead weight crushing me. But I don’t want—I don’t want whoever killed Ethan to come after me. I don’t think I’d be able to defend myself. Not even Ethan could, and he was trained and—and had a gun and—you know.” Her voice trailed off. She couldn’t speak about Ethan without turning into a wreck. She knew she wasn’t coherent. Tears were pricking her eyes.

Okay, I’ll make you a deal,” Connor said. “You trust Jacenta, right?”

Her FBI-allocated parole officer? The name brought the sharp, savvy, compassionate agent to mind, with her dark hair and piercing dark eyes. She knew that Jacenta would touch base with her tomorrow now that she was involved in a case. Even when there were no cases, she called and texted Cami regularly.

And she had hinted to Jacenta, recently, that there was trouble. Jacenta was approachable and Cami knew she’d be easy to talk to and wouldn’t judge.

Yes, she did trust Jacenta. And most importantly, Cami didn’t think she was involved in anything criminal.

“I trust her,” she agreed, clasping her hands tightly, wondering where this strange conversation would lead.

“Jacenta has connections to internal affairs, and that gives her protective privilege in situations like these which I don’t have. I would be compelled to take things further. She will not be, and in fact she’ll be able to keep the confidentiality and investigate the issue more safely. So, Cami, I need you to tell her what the situation is, and then take her advice on how to take this further. She can give you better advice and she won’t be in a situation where she’s forced to act, like I would be. Will you do that?”

“Yes.” Relief flooded her. She felt as if there was a way forward now, a light at the end of the tunnel. “I promise I will.”

“Do it in the next couple of days. As soon as this case is over. Go have coffee with her and discuss it. Cards on the table. Full disclosure. You promise?”

Cami nodded. “I promise.”

“Good. Now, let’s get back to work,” Connor said, standing up and walking toward the door. “We have a case to solve.”

Cami followed him out of the room, feeling a lot lighter and more relieved than she had when she’d walked in.

“Where are we going?” she asked. To her, the case had felt stalled. She hadn’t seen a way forward. She didn’t know if there was one. Had Connor found something?

“I want to take a drive,” Connor said. “I want to look at all the routes that Priscilla took in the last few days. The places she went to. The office parks she stopped at. You can get that on the GPS, right?”

“Yes, I can get all the points where she stopped,” Cami said, questioningly.

“Sometimes feet on the ground get better results,” Connor emphasized. “Points on a map don’t always look the same as they do when you get there. And I’ve got a hunch that there might be something we’re missing. If so, I want us both to look out for it.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Cami felt eager to know if Connor’s hunch was right. Would there be something that they could pick up when those points on a map turned into real-life places?

She was glad to get out of the police station’s office, which was starting to feel claustrophobic.

Outside, it was fully dark, and Cami was surprised that the rush hour traffic heading out of town had ebbed, and that there was now a nighttime vibe as they headed into the city. Restaurants and bars were all doing a brisk trade. As they headed to the innermost point of the map, she smelled the delicious aroma of braising meat.

“Food. Everyone needs to eat, right?” Connor asked. There was something about the way he said the words that made her curious.

“I guess so,” she said. “Yes. Everyone does.”

“Including us.” To her surprise, Connor turned off the main road and veered into a drive-through. “What do you want? Soda, burger, fries?”

Cami hesitated, feeling hungry, but also feeling guilty that they were taking time off the case. “I’m not sure,” she said.

Her brain was working furiously, trying to figure out what tangent Connor was going off on. She knew he was up to something and she felt very curious about what it was. What, exactly, was he trying to find out on this drive?

“You can’t work effectively if you’re hungry,” Connor pointed out. “So let’s eat while we can. Going into the town center to start the journey, then out again and going to all those points, will take fifteen minutes. We might as well eat on the way in, so we can get that done, and then focus on the way out.”

“Then I’ll have all three please, if that’s okay,” Cami said, giving in to her now growling stomach.

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