Deadly Little Secrets Page 0,102
spoke. “Is this your statement, Agent Burton? Are there any amendments you would like to include?”
“No sir,” Ana said, forcing her tone to be level, unemotional.
“So noted.” To the woman at the far right, he said, “Please address your attention to the additional statements as they are read into the record.” The woman selected a folder, began to read the statement Agent Beverly Stanley had made before she died.
To distract herself, Ana focused on D’Onofrio again, writing: Prometheus equals California. Moroni equals New York. Pratch equals Berlin. Artful Walls equals Miami.
Wait.
The shipper in White Plains had done all the work for Moroni. Moroni and another New York gallery had used the same shipper in New York for two paintings of Dav’s for resale overseas.
The designer, the one who had dated Dav, had mentioned Moroni.
“Agent, do you agree with, or have any comment on the statements as they’ve been read?”
Shit. She’d missed it. She glanced at Reese and saw the barest shake of his head. No.
“No, I do not.”
“So noted. Moving on. Please read into record the actions of Agent Thomas James Michaels with regards to this matter.”
Wait a minute. What did TJ have to do with this? He’d been peripheral to the situation in Rome, essentially coming in at the end to help clean up and cover up, making sure everything got explained away. Confused, Ana forgot the data on the art case and focused on the current recitation.
“Agent TJ Michaels has been on approved leave of absence for several months in which time he has sought out leads in regard to this case. Upon his return to duty, he presented evidence of significant mitigating factors, factors which may have skewed the data and led to the conclusions drawn by Agent Burton. His dedication to uncovering leads on the matter of the events of the fifteenth of February, in Rome, has been above and beyond the call of duty,” the executive agent intoned. “Whereas our Agency did not approve his actions, per se, he has provided substantial additional information that leads the Panel to believe that the data Agent Burton provided was, in fact, accurate as far as could be determined. His return to approved duty to continue tracking is part of the record, in as much as…”
My God, they were saying her analysis was right, that it wasn’t the killing factor.
Ana redirected her thinking, refocused on the statements. “Furthermore, Agent Michaels’s dedication to this pursuit has been noted and now sanctioned, facilitating the ability to investigate his leads.”
Sanctioned. That meant he’d found something, something related to all that translation he’d sent her.
Another buzzing hunch flitted into her brain and immediately disappeared when the executive agent said, “Agent Burton, do you have anything you’d like to add, regarding this matter?”
She cleared her throat, took a sip of water before replying, trying to recapture the thought. The present took precedence however, with the panel members watching her, and the thought, the hunch, was gone.
“Sir, my only addition is a note of gratitude that Agent Michaels has been so dedicated to uncovering the truth, and the reasons for the events of Fifteen February.”
Reese scrawled, Good answer, in big letters on his legal pad.
She ignored that, as well as the next reading as she made more notes.
TJ. Translations. Cheating spouses. Shipper? Freight?
Wait. Shipping. Another thought occurred. Yountz. Freight. San Fran. Prometheus?
Holy hell. Yountz had been at the gallery opening. D’Onofrio had been there as well. Most of the victims, all of the West Coast victims, had been at the opening.
Was Yountz connected too? Ana knew better than to discount the idea. She had a gift for data, and if her brain brought it up, there was something in all the stuff she’d read, something small and seemingly insignificant that had put the thought in her head.
Despite Rome, she never, ever forgot to check that sort of thing.
“And from your current supervisor, Special Agent Sarai Elizabeth Sinclair Pretzky,” the first panelist read, drawing Ana’s attention back to the proceedings. She’d never heard Pretzky’s full name; she wasn’t sure she’d even known her first name. “The following statement is read into record.”
Ana held her breath throughout the narration, barely hearing words like “dedicated” and “perseverance,” “unstinting work ethic,” and “grace and aplomb.” The overall sense of Pretzky’s addition to the proceedings was positive and as fulsome as anyone could be.
Reese bumped her elbow and wrote on the pad again. Good job.
As if she’d done a good job in order to be reinstated, like kissing up.