* * * * *
Eric
Eric forced a bowl of cereal on Stel a.
Then he sat on the couch and watched a movie with her which she fel asleep halfway through.
Then he carried her to his bed, pul ed a blanket over her stil -clothed body, left the room, closed the door and walked into the living room.
He made a couple of cal s and got the number he needed.
Then he dialed Lee Nightingale’s cel .
“Yeah?” Nightingale answered.
“It’s Special Agent Turner.”
Lee’s voice went on alert. “Stel a?”
“She’s fine,” Eric responded. “You stil got that boy wonder at your computers?”
Lee didn’t reply.
“You do, you get him to work on Preston Mason and whatever the f**k he’s holding over Stel a. Something happened in that car. She’s not talkin’. There’s gotta be a link.”
“We’re already on it,” Lee responded.
“She doesn’t know about Caitlin Mason,” Eric went on.
“I know,” Lee replied. “You said ‘doesn’t’, you didn’t share?”
“Not my place.”
Silence then realizing from Eric’s words the lay of the land, Lee went on, “Mace wants the papers kept from her.” Eric thought about the papers the last two days, rehashing every last, juicy, devastating detail of Caitlin Mason’s kidnapping and murder and Kai Mason’s involvement as part-martyr, part-hero. Worse, his now very public relationship (making out onstage with a local rock star, for f**k’s sake) was quickly becoming legend. Stel a was cast in the dual role as balm to soothe the wounded soul alongside damsel in distress. A dual role that would only be intensified after her version of “And So It Goes” (Eric didn’t see it, the agent he’d assigned to watch her had reported to him about it, in detail) and her post-gig kidnapping complete with the Nightingale Men publicly (and therefore open to cel phone cameras) engaged in pretty f**king brutal physical skirmishes in an effort at her protection.
“I don’t blame him,” was al Eric said but his point was made. While she was with him, Eric wouldn’t let Stel a see the papers.
“You get more –” Lee started and as much as Eric hated it, he interrupted.
“I’l cal .”
He beeped off his phone, set it on the end table, went to check the house alarm, looked out the window in the door to check for the car on the street, two houses down, two agents sitting inside. Spotting the car, he got his gun, put that on the end table too, grabbed a blanket, yanked off his boots, lay down on the couch and finished watching the movie.
Chapter Sixteen
Squirtable Cheese
Hank
The next morning, Hank and Mace walked into Lee’s office. Lee was sitting on the front edge of his desk, his head bent toward a file in his hand. It came up when they entered. He closed the folder and dropped the file on his desk.
“What did George say?” Lee asked.
George Riverside was a prosecuting attorney. Hank, Eddie and Mace had a meeting with him that morning to discuss the Sidney Carter case. Primarily, the discussion centered around if it was strong enough to arrest him.
“He says we don’t have enough,” Hank replied and Lee’s eyes narrowed.
“You are f**kin’ shittin’ me,” Lee muttered.