down and settled in the chair across from her boss.
The office had been recently renovated, although Pine had told the contractor to leave alone the twin indentations in the wall. The first hole had occurred when a witness Pine had been interviewing decided to take a swing at her. He had missed his target, and his fist had hit the wall instead. The second crack had been caused by Pine’s throwing the man headfirst into the drywall. It had been Blum’s idea to not repair the wall. As she had said, a picture was worth a thousand words.
“So?” said Blum expectantly. “What happened?”
Pine took a drink of her coffee before answering.
“While I was still in Colorado, I got an Amber Alert. I fortunately ran into the guy. And stopped him from getting away with an adorable little girl named Holly.”
“But that’s wonderful, Agent Pine. You’re to be commended.” She paused. “Then I don’t see the problem.”
“Yeah, well, the thing is, I got a little carried away in subduing him.”
“Carried away? How so?”
“He’s in the hospital now with a fractured skull among other injuries.”
“I’m sure you did what you had to do.”
“The fact is, I didn’t have to beat him up.”
“Why did you do it then?”
“He came at me, tried to attack me, and…I took out my frustrations.”
“Frustrations?”
“I had just spent time with Tor.”
“So…so maybe it was Tor you were attacking?”
“I could have stopped. I should have stopped.”
“But as you said, he attacked you.”
Pine shook her head. “After the girl was safe, I decided to escalate things.”
“But it would be difficult to judge your actions in the field at that moment.”
“The Bureau ‘judges’ actions in the field all the time, Carol.”
“That’s true,” she admitted.
There was a knock at the outer secure portal. The two women glanced at each other.
“Wolves at the door already?” said Pine.
Blum escorted the man into Pine’s office a few moments later.
It was Clint Dobbs, the head of the FBI in Arizona. He was in his fifties, around six feet tall, with broad shoulders, a developing paunch, and graying hair. He was so far above Pine in the pecking order that she saw the man only when there was a catastrophe. She assumed that this situation qualified as such. She was surprised, though, that he was here alone. Dobbs usually traveled with an entourage of agents. She wondered why not this time.
Dobbs sat in the chair across from Pine, who had risen at the sight of her superior. When Blum made to leave, Dobbs put up a hand. “You can stay, Carol. You need to hear this, too.”
Blum shot a glance at Pine and then remained standing by the desk.
Dobbs looked back at Pine, his expression unreadable. “Sit down, Pine.”
“I suppose this is about what happened the other night,” said Pine as she sat back down.
“Not unless you kicked the shit out of somebody else I don’t know about,” he said gruffly.
“No sir,” said Pine quietly. “It was just the one.”
Dobbs nodded. “The guy you caught was a registered sex offender, Clifford Rogers. Just got out of prison six months ago. Paroled early after kidnapping and raping a nine-year-old. Only served nineteen years. The prison system was bursting at the seams, apparently, and the dipshit lawyer the scumball got hold of seized on some technicality and ran with it. Rogers was also suspected of murdering an eight-year-old two weeks after he got out. But they couldn’t find her body. Had to let him go. In fact, that was the case with four other victims going back about thirty years. Guy was a certified monster, but the law couldn’t prove it, except for the rape charge. He snatched the little girl you saved from a soccer match. She’d be dead if you hadn’t intervened. Instead, she’s back home with her family.”
“Has Rogers regained consciousness?”
“He has.”
“And?”
“And he said you beat him nearly to death for no reason.”
“Did he?”
“And what’s your story?”
“I did my job. A bit overzealously, maybe.”
“I see.”
“Did he say differently?”
“I’m not really sure I care what the guy says,” replied Dobbs, which surprised Pine, because the man usually went unfailingly by the book.
“Did he file a complaint against me?”
“He certainly wants to.”
Blum said, “Well, minds can be changed.”
Dobbs eyed her pointedly. “And what does that mean precisely, Carol?”
“Six years ago, Special Agent Voorhies out of Tucson.”
“You have a long memory,” noted Dobbs.
“The point is, an understanding was reached. And Agent Voorhies did what he needed to do. He’s been a productive agent ever since.”
Pine said, “What did he