Page 6 of Nothing Left

They exchanged phone numbers, but just after Juliette had saved his number, her own phone started ringing. It was special agent Ebury calling, her boss who was based in the Manhattan FBI office. He might just be calling for an update, but Juliette knew there was a strong possibility that on a Saturday morning in Paris, and probably around two a.m. in the States, it meant a case had landed.

Quickly, she said goodbye to her new neighbor and turned away to take the call.

"Juliette," Ebury said as she walked into her own apartment. "Have you seen the news this morning?"

She actually hadn't. She'd left in a rush after getting hold of Paulette. But it took only a moment for her to touch the remote and for the news channel to flicker to life on her TV.

"American student arrested in Spain?" she asked, feeling shocked as she saw the headlines. "Is that the news you're referring to, Ebury?"

His voice was taut and worried. "Yes, it is. We were called an hour ago. The situation is exploding into a media storm. Her parents are begging us for help. She's claiming she's innocent. Her parents insisted that she'd never do something like this. But all the evidence says otherwise."

Wide-eyed, Juliette watched the footage of the apartment, the bloodstained bathroom, and the diagram of the shower where the body of Heather Andrew's flatmate, Samantha Cole, had been found.

"I can see why they've asked for help," she said, seeing at a glance the complexity and seriousness of the situation.

"I'm booking the task force on the twelve-noon flight to Barcelona," Ebury said. "I'm going to organize a police pickup at the airport, and I’ll also call ahead to let the prison warden know you're coming so that you have permission to go straight there and speak to Heather. Please, get some answers as quickly as you can."

"I'll do so," Juliette promised. Briefly, as she hustled around the apartment, packing up her laptop and putting on her work boots, Ebury provided some more background.

"Heather is a scholarship student who was sponsored by her university's exchange program on a two-year exchange to do her Master's program. That's the Florida International University, and they're highly concerned because the program is so new, and so far, it's been a success. But this could sink it. Their dean, and two other board members, are flying up here to Manhattan to meet with us tomorrow."

“And the parents?” Juliette asked. “Are they on their way to Barcelona?”

She assumed they would be, but Ebury’s answer surprised her.

“They’re hoping that Heather’s father will be able to fly out tomorrow. They have other issues going on as well. Heather’s grandmother – her mother’s mother - is in the hospital for a heart operation at the moment. They’ve got a lot on their plate apart from this, and I also sense that costs are an issue, and the money for a last-minute, expensive flight would have to be borrowed or loaned. I'm going to try to allocate a budget for one parent to fly over tomorrow because having a close family member with her might help Heather recall some of the details of that night if she feels more secure and supported,” he explained.

Juliette felt grateful for her boss’s perceptiveness and his kind heart, but already, she could see that this was going to have major international repercussions. The case would be closely scrutinized. Lives and reputations were on the line.

And the evidence pointed to a twenty-two-year-old girl - a pretty brunette, from the photos. She didn't want to think about what might happen to Heather if they couldn't find any evidence to prove her innocence. Or else, Juliette had to acknowledge the hard truth - confirm her guilt. She couldn't show favoritism here and would have to find out all the facts, even if they ended up proving that Heather Andrew was a killer.

"I'll be ready to board at noon," she said. "And I'll keep you updated every step of the way."

What on earth had played out in that apartment that night to result in such a brutal and bloody murder?

CHAPTER FOUR

At the airport, Juliette caught up with her fellow task force members, Wyatt Thompson and Sierra Lowry, in the boarding area. Wyatt and Sierra were sitting together, talking in quiet voices, and both looking concerned. They had probably read more of the news than she’d had time to do.

Quickly, she rushed over to meet them.

Tall, muscular Wyatt, with his closely cropped haircut and strong-jawed face, was ex-Army and had worked for the FBI for a couple of years before joining the task force. He sprang to his feet as she approached. Sierra, the team's tech genius, who was in her early twenties with dark eyes and a cloud of dark hair, scrambled up a moment later after setting her laptop aside.

Juliette exchanged brief hugs with her team, giving Sierra an affectionate grin. While Wyatt was her partner in combat and dangerous situations, and she knew for sure, they had each other's back no matter what, she had a huge soft spot for the youngest team member. With her tech know-how and her adventurous spirit, Sierra added so much value and a very different and unique perspective to their team.

Then, she took the seat next to Sierra.

"This case is exploding," Sierra said, her voice worried. "Heather Andrew is the biggest trending name on the search engines at the moment. The number of theories flying around online is unbelievable."

"What are they saying?" Juliette asked, peering down at the laptop as Sierra turned it to show herself and Wyatt.

"People are saying she was on a drugs rampage and that there was a fight over a boyfriend."

Juliette's eyebrows rose. While the rumor mill was clearly working overtime, she also had to acknowledge that there might be some truth behind it. With students partying hard, drugs could be a real possibility, and who knew what had been taken or how this suspect, Heather, had responded?

And as for the boyfriend, she had to admit that at this point, the press would have done more research than she'd yet been able to do. It could well be that one of the other people who'd attended the party had been the boyfriend or the ex or that there had been a complicated relationship.

So that would also need to be thoroughly investigated. The saying ‘where there’s smoke, there’s fire' needed to be taken seriously.

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