Page 78 of Heartbeat

“Call me whatever, but I’d sure settle for Mom,” Shirley said.

“I never had one before. I would love to,” Amalie said.

Shirley glanced at the clock. The cake was still baking, but it was already after eleven.

“If you don’t have plans, I can make sandwiches,” she said.

Sean glanced at Amalie. “Okay with you?”

She nodded.

Sean gave her hand a quick squeeze. “Then I’m going to start loading up equipment while sandwiches are happening, and whatever they are, I’ll take two.”

Fiona Rangely’s world had just been rattled in a way like never before. She’d been put in an interrogation room alone and was still awaiting the arrival of their lawyer, Arnie Walters, when Colin Ramsey walked in.

“Ma’am, the lawyer you requested is unavailable. Is there another you wish us to call, or do you want a court-appointed lawyer?”

She jumped up from her chair, aghast at the news.

“What do you mean, he’s unavailable? He is our lawyer! Find him!”

“I mean, he knows you’re here. He’s not coming,” Colin said.

Fiona reeled. That sucker punch had come out of nowhere, and she didn’t know what to think.

“Then call Mervin Reams. He handles my business ventures. If I had my phone, I’d give you the number, but since you took it, I—”

“We’re the FBI. We’ll get his number,” Colin said. “Have a seat, ma’am.” And he walked out.

Fiona plopped back down in the chair and closed her eyes. None of this should be happening. She’d covered her bases. Hadn’t she? What could have possibly…?

The hair crawled on the back of her neck.

She never got Townley’s phone back, and Romo skipped out.

What the fuck had gone wrong?

Stinger arrived in Jubilee just after 9:00 a.m. Located the target’s home and saw a vehicle parked in the driveway, then went to locate the work address, noting the office was closed. But when Stinger drove back to the home address and the vehicle in the driveway was gone, frustration set in. Now nobody was at either site, and it wasn’t looking good for turning this hit into an accident by sundown tomorrow.

The town was full of tourists, and cop cars were everywhere. Two days to pull this off, including travel time, was a ridiculous demand with so many people watching every move. But the money was already in the account, and Stinger didn’t renege on deals, which meant the method of removing Amalie Lincoln was changing to Stinger’s choice and rules, and screw Fiona Rangely. Her attitude had become a liability to work with anyway.

Time to move to plan B.

Sean and Amalie drove back to Jubilee after lunch and went straight to her office. It took Sean a couple of trips to carry everything inside, and then another hour to hook it all up and sync her printer to his system.

Amalie settled at her desk as he was working and began going through her email. A couple of the clients who’d signed up yesterday were confirming theirappointments, and another had requested the questionnaire she used for tax preparations.

It felt good to be in control of something again, and by the time Sean was finished, she felt better about herself and the day.

Fiona had been in custody for over two hours before Mervin Reams arrived. He was wide-eyed and in shock to see her in an interrogation room, and immediately demanded some time with her before the agents were allowed to question her. About twenty minutes later, Reams knocked on the door and told the guard they were ready.

Ramsey and Brokaw entered carrying file folders and sat down across the table from them. Brokaw turned on a recorder, and Colin Ramsey opened his folder, sifted through a couple of pages until he found what he was looking for, and laid it on top of the pile of papers. Only then did he look up. Fiona Rangely was hard to gauge and, from what they knew about her now, good at lying.

“For the record, Special Agent Ramsey and Special Agent Brokaw are in the room, along with Ms. Rangely and her lawyer, Mervin Reams. Mrs. Rangely, please state your full name and address.”

Fiona did so, with her chin up and her eyes blazing with rage, and followed it up with a question of her own.

“Why am I here?” she snapped.

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