Page 23 of When You're Safe

The drive to London’s WellfieldHospital had been longer than he had wanted, and the rental car had caused morethan its fair share of discomfort for him. Now the seat mechanism had jammed,so he was even closer to the dashboard than before, his knees pressed against it.

Then there was the London traffic.After an hour of scenic views, the green landscape had given way to thesprawling network of London’s packed streets. People, cars, bikes, and abouteverything else Finn thought God had packed into this once clean planet hadbeen crammed into those streets.

Then he lost Winters. Her carturned at an intersection and he got caught at a set of lights.

“Why can’t you just turn at a redlight here?!” Finn said with exasperation.

The road rules of Britain bemusedhim at times.

As he sat there, the car enginechugging, waiting for the light to turn green, Finn wondered what was waitingfor them at Wellfield Hospital. In their morgue.

Just as the light pinged green,his phone rang. He glanced at it on his dashboard.

“Dammit,” he grumbled. It was acall he had been dreading all day.

Quickly, he answered it and put iton speaker. A row of cars behind beeped their horns in frustration as he didso.

“All right, all right!” he saidloudly as though the drivers in the other cars could hear him. He gripped thesteering wheel with both hands.

“Are you talking to me?” a calm,wise voice said on the speaker.

“Director Seward,” Finn said. “Sorry,I’m driving a French car on British streets.”

“Sounds delightful,” the directorsaid earnestly.

“You’d think,” Finn said. “Englandis beautiful, but the roads don’t make sense to me, and I’d be better walkingthan driving this car.”

“How are things otherwise?” Sewardasked.

“Fine,” Finn lied, thinking of Demiand also of his upcoming court case. Then there was the current DeGrey fiasco.

“I hear the UK Home Office has askedfor your services again?” Seward said, his voice commanding even over the phone’sspeaker and thousands of miles away.

There was a moment of silence. “Didmy lawyer tell you that?”

“Philip mentioned you getting acall in a coffee shop to join a case this morning. Is that correct?”

Finn sighed. He was hoping hewouldn’t have to explain himself to his boss and mentor at the FBI. He knewthere was trouble brewing between them.

“Yeah, that’s right.” There was nopoint in pretending otherwise. The second the British press found out the twoDeGrey deaths were murders, it would be all over the place.

“Finn,” Seward said in a fatherlytone, “you’ve got to stop this. Come home and prepare for your case.”

“Why should I?” Finn replied, aggravated.“The FBI is hanging me out to dry for what happened during the Nancy Milliganhostage situation. I saved that girl’s life.”

“You disobeyed a direct order bygoing in and not waiting for hostage negotiators,” Director Seward said. “I don’twant to go over this again.”

“And now I’m being heldaccountable for damage to public property, and my badge as a special agent isin jeopardy? All for doing the right thing? At least here I feel appreciated bymy new partners.”

Another silence. “Spending yourtime moonlighting with the British constabulary is not going down well with mysuperiors. One false move and you could cause an international incident. I’vedone everything I can for you on my end, Finn. It’s time for you to meet mehalfway.”

Finn took a deep breath as hecontinued through the traffic. “I appreciate that. I appreciate you andeverything you’ve done for me. I’m not turning my back on that, but… I… I’vegot to work through all this stuff that’s running through my head, and I’drather do that here for a few more days than head back to the US and runthrough questions with my lawyer, when, to be honest, the outcome seems decidedalready.”

“You can’t know that.” Sewardsighed. “Look, take a few more days. But if you don’t come back by the end ofthe week, there’s going to be no time to prepare.”

“What do you mean?” Finn asked,surprised. “The hearing isn’t for another three weeks.”

“No, Finn. We just got word, it’sbeen moved to next week.”

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