Taft shook his head. “Unfortunately it’s not going to work like that. The Bureau will need to conduct an investigation and that takes time, often months. If there’s been criminal activity, people at Ithaka know they are in danger of being exposed, and we want to give them as little chance as possible to batten down the hatches. It’s important no one learn that you’ve come forward. If there’s a trial, you may be called to testify.”
“So I’m still in danger?” she said, feeling her heart begin to drum.
“Possibly,” Taft said. “Like Agent Woo said, you need to be cautious. If there appears to be a serious threat to you as the case moves along, we can also discuss relocation.”
“Relocation?” she exclaimed. “You mean one of those witness protection programs?”
“It wouldn’t have to be forever.”
“But I couldn’t leave my work, my life here.” She could feel herself growing agitated, angry even, and she willed herself to calm down. The two men sitting across from her weren’t to blame for anything.
“Why don’t we table any discussion of relocation for now,” Nat interjected. “I’ll review everything with Ms. Finn later.”
The first chance they had to speak privately was when they reached the plaza outside the building and set off on foot across it.
“You handled yourself really well in there,” Nat said.
“Even when I looked ready to bitch slap someone at the very end?”
“The idea of leaving everything behind can’t be fun to consider.”
“Are you saying I should consider it?”
“Two people are dead. You can’t lose sight of that. You’ll want to stay as careful as possible until this is all resolved.”
“I wasn’t naïve enough to think that the second I left here the FBI would go charging over to Ithaka and arrest people. But I never thought it was going to take months for anything to happen.”
“Let’s hope that for your sake they move more quickly than that.”
They’d reached the street and Nat shot up his hand for a cab.
“Why don’t I drop you back at the apartment and then I can head to the office from there?”
“Oh, that’s not necessary,” Kit said. She glanced around, surveying the people hurrying across the plaza. She would have liked to say yes, but not at five hundred dollars an hour.
Nat smiled. “No charge for escort service,” he said, guessing the reason for her response. “I’ll use the ride to review notes for another case.”
“Well, then that’s an offer I can’t say no to,” she said, smiling.
As soon as they were in the cab and headed north, Nat opened his briefcase and Kit fell silent. Her mind kept replaying that one awful word over and over: relocation. It would mean going to a whole new place, away from her friends, her business, her partnership with Baby. She wouldn’t be able to stay in touch with anyone, maybe not even her parents. And how would she support herself? By trying to start another business from scratch?
In a split second, she realized for sure that she’d never do it. Once before, at seventeen, she’d been run out of the life she’d known—her lovely bedroom, her home, the college she’d dreamed of going to. There was no way she’d allow that to happen again. Yes, there was danger, but she would have to chance it.
“You doing okay?”
She was so lost in thought, it took a moment to register that Nat was speaking to her.
“Yes, thanks,” she said. “And thanks for all your help today. It was such a relief to have you there.”
“One point I just want to reiterate. It’s critical that you not discuss the case with Kelman.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not likely anyway.”
“At least it seems he didn’t throw you under the bus. And that what he told you was probably true.”
He was right. For days she had clung to the idea that Kelman could be caught up in a dangerous and illegal scheme and that he might have killed Matt Healy when parts of the scheme soured. And yet it now seemed that he was what he’d claimed to be for so long: simply a whistle-blower.
And what about Sasha? she wondered. Had he been telling the truth about her in his voicemail message? It was unlikely she would ever know. She wasn’t really sure how that made her feel, but she sensed something begin to gnaw away at her. It bore a resemblance to disappointment.
Once they reached Baby’s building, Nat walked her into the lobby and suggested they touch base by phone the next