Saving Faith By: David Baldacci

Lee started to rise from his chair.

She gripped his arm. “Wait, please wait.” The thought of being left

alone just then was paralyzing.

He sat back down and waited expectantly.

“How much do I have to tell you before you’ll help me?”

“Depends on what sort of help you want. I’m not doing anything against

the law.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to.”

“Then you’ve got no problem, other than somebody wanting to kill

you.”

Faith took a nervous sip of her tea while Lee watched her.

“If they know who you are from the video, should we be just sitting

here?” she asked.

“I messed with the tape. Ran my magnet over it.”

Faith looked at him, a glint of hope in her eyes. “You think you were

able to erase it?”

“I can’t tell for sure. I’m not an expert in that stuff.”

“But at the very least it might take some time for them to reconstruct

it?”

“That’s what I’m hoping. But were not exactly dealing with the Camp

Fire girls here. The recording equipment also had a security system

built in. Chances are if the police try to force the tape out, it

might selfdestruct. Personally, I’d give the forty-seven bucks I have

in the bank if that did happen. I’m a man who likes his privacy. But

you still need to fill me in.”

Faith didn’t say anything. She just stared at him, like he had just

made an unwanted pass at her.

Lee cocked his head at her. “I tell you what. I’m the detective,

okay? I’ll make some deductions and you tell me if I’m right or not,

how’s that?” When Faith still said nothing, he continued. “The

cameras I saw were only in the living room. And the table, chairs,

coffee and stuff were set up in the living room only. Now, I tripped

the laser or whatever it was going in. That apparently set off the

cameras.”

“I guess that would make sense,” Faith said.

“No, it doesn’t. I had the access code to the alarm system,” said

Lee.

“So?”

“So I put in the code and disarmed the security system. So why have

the trip device still operating? The way it was set up, even when the

guy you were with disarmed the security system, he would still have

engaged the cameras. Why would he want to record himself?”

Faith looked deeply confused. “I don’t know.”

“Hello, so they’d have you on film without you knowing it. Now the

out-of-the-way place with the CIA-level security in place, the Feds,

the cameras and taping equipment, all point to one thing.” Lee paused

as he thought about exactly how he was going to phrase this. “They

brought you there to interrogate you. But maybe they’re not sure of

your level of cooperation, or they think somebody might try to pop you,

so they film the interrogations just in case you turn up missing later

on.”

Faith looked at him with a resigned smile. “Terribly prescient of

them, don’t you think? The ‘turning up missing’ thing.”

Lee stood and stared out the window as he thought things through.

Something very important had just occurred to him. Something that he

should have thought about a lot sooner. And even though he didn’t know

the woman, he was feeling kind of crappy about what he had to say.

“I’ve got some bad news for you.”

Faith looked startled. “What do you mean?”

“You’re under interrogation by the FBI. Presumably you’re also in

their protective custody. One of their guys gets popped protecting you

and I probably wounded the guy who killed him. The Feds have my face

on their tape.” He paused for a moment. “I’ve got to turn you in.”

Faith jumped up. “You can’t do that! You can’t! You said you’d help

me.”

“If I don’t, then I’m looking at some serious time in a place where

guys get way too friendly with other guys. At the very least I lose my

PI license. I’m sure if I knew you better I’d feel even worse about

doing this, but at the end of the day I’m not sure even my grandma

would be worth that much trouble.” He slipped on his jacket. “Who’s

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