wasn’t on duty. I can refer you to someone here who can answer your
questions.”
Lee pulled his arm free. “Look, she can’t be dead, okay? That was
just a story. To keep her safe.”
“What?” The woman looked puzzled.
“I’ll take it from here,” a voice said.
They both turned and looked at Brooke Reynolds standing there. She
held out her badge for the nurse to see. “I’ll take it from here,” she
said again. The nurse nodded and walked quickly away.
“What the hell is going on?” Lee demanded.
“Let’s go to a quiet place and talk this over.”
“Where is Faith?”
“Lee, not here! Dammit, do you want to ruin everything?” She pulled
on his arm, but he wasn’t budging, and she knew she couldn’t physically
make him.
“Why should I go with you?”
“Because I’m going to tell you the truth.”
They got in Reynolds’s car and she pulled out of the parking lot. “I
knew you were coming today, and I was planning on being at the hospital
ahead of you, waiting. I didn’t quite make it. I’m sorry you had to
hear about it from a nurse; that’s not what I intended.” Reynolds
looked down at the flowers he still held tightly, and her heart went
out to him. She wasn’t an FBI agent for this moment-she was simply a
fellow human being sitting next to someone whose heart, she knew, was
being torn apart. And what she had to tell him would only make it
worse.
“Faith has been placed in Witness Protection. Buchanan too.” “What?
Buchanan I can understand! But Faith isn’t a witness to anything!”
Lee’s relief was matched only by his outrage. This was all wrong.
“But she is in need of protection. If certain people knew she was
still alive-well, you know what could happen.”
“When’s the damn trial?”
“Actually, there isn’t going to be a trial.”
He stared over at her. “Don’t tell me that sonofabitch Thornhill
copped some sort of sweetheart deal. Don’t tell me that.”
“He didn’t.”
“So why no trial?”
“A trial needs a defendant.” Reynolds tapped her fingers against the
steering wheel and then slid on a pair of sunglasses. She proceeded to
fiddle with the heating control.
“I’m waiting,” Lee said. “Or don’t I qualify for an explanation?”
Reynolds sighed and straightened up. “Thornhill is dead. He was found
in his car on a back-country road with a single gunshot wound to the
head. Suicide.”
Lee was stunned into silence. After a minute he was able to mutter,
“The coward’s way out.”
“I think everyone’s relieved, actually. I know the people at CIA are.
To say this whole thing rocked them to their super-secretive bones is
an understatement. I guess for the good of the country, it’s better to
be spared a lengthy, embarrassing trial.”
“Right, dirty laundry and all,” Lee said acidly. “Hooray for the
country.” Lee gave a mock salute to a flag flying in front of a post
office they passed. “So if Thornhill’s out of the way, why does Faith
need Witness Protection?”
“You know the answer to that. When Thornhill died, he took the
identity of everyone else involved in this with him to the grave. But
they’re out there, we know they are. Remember the videotape you
orchestrated? Thornhill was talking to somebody on that phone, and
that somebody is still out there. The CIA is doing an internal
investigation to try to ferret them out, but I’m not holding my breath.
And you know these people will do their best to get to Faith and
Buchanan. For pure revenge, if nothing else.” She touched his arm.
“And you too, Lee.”
He glanced over at her, read her mind. “No. There is no way I’m going
into Witness Protection. I can’t deal with a new name. I have a hard
enough time remembering my real one. Might as well wait for
Thornhill’s sidekicks. Least I’ll have some fun before I die.”
“Lee, this is no joke. If you don’t go underground, you’ll be in great
danger. And we can’t follow you around twenty-four hours a day.”
“No? After all I did for the Bureau? Does this also mean I don’t get