all.”
“Your sons should get to know you better. Understand what you do for a living. I don’t know this hedge fund guy from Adam. For all I know, he’s a saint. But he’s not risking his life for his country. He’s not sacrificing anything for anybody. Not like when you wear the shield.”
“My boys know. At least I think they do. Maybe when they get older we can hang together more.”
“It might be too late by then.”
He gave her the eye. “How about you? Is it too late for you?”
“In what context?” she said stonily.
“You could have been in the number three spot at WFO by now,” said Laredo, referring to the FBI’s prestigious Washington Field Office. “Maybe the number two by the time you were forty. You had the talent. And the drive.”
“But not the desire.”
“I never did get you. You had all that in front of you and now you’re in a one-agent RA in Nowhere, Arizona.”
“And happy as a clam.”
“The happiness of clams is highly overrated.”
That comment drew a brief smile from Pine. “So you knew I was here. Why’d you want to come?”
“I think you know why.”
“I’d like to hear it from you.”
“I was a dick to you. I was all Mister Testosterone, showing you who was the boss and not believing that women belonged at the Bureau. I did everything I could to screw with you. And despite what you just said, I think I drove you away from the place you were meant to be. And…”
“And?”
“And I never apologized for any of that. And I came down here to tell you that. And that I do apologize. You didn’t deserve it. And there’s nobody to point the finger at except me.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
She leaned forward. “But I didn’t leave WFO because of you, Eddie. Yeah, you were all those things. But you never made a run at me like some other guys did, thinking I’d be thrilled to fall into bed with them.”
“I was happily married back then, and even if I weren’t I wouldn’t have done that to you. I can be an ass, but not that kind.”
“I left WFO because I don’t like crowds. I don’t like vertical living. I like the wide-open spaces. I like to be by myself handling my own cases without some bureaucrat looking over my shoulder every second. I never cared about being in the number three, two, or one spot. I work my cases and catch my bad guys. That’s it.”
“Fair enough.” He hunched over. “Anyway, after the divorce I got some professional help. Made me see things with more clarity. It was through the Bureau. They offer that service.” He gave her a quick glance. “Did you know that?”
“Why do you ask?” she said coolly.
“Because you’ve been to see Daniel James Tor three times now.”
Her expression tightened. “And why do you know that? And what the hell business is it of yours?”
“The Bureau is a small ecosystem.”
“That doesn’t answer my second question.”
“Amber Alert in Colorado? A perp who you nearly killed? You getting time off to come here and clear your past? That’s what this is about, right?”
Pine looked away. Her expression now seemed weary. “Word does get around, apparently.”
“There’s no apparently about it. You’re here to find out what happened to your sister and salvage your career. I want you to do both, because I don’t want the Bureau to lose you.”
She sat back and looked at him in amazement. “Whatever professional help you got they need to bottle. Or else you are a world-class bullshitter.”
“It took me a while, but I finally got it right. But you still didn’t answer my question.”
Pine didn’t respond right away. When she did, her tone was distant, as though she were no longer in the moment. “You’re right about why I’m here, on both counts. And what I do know is I’ve run out of time not to try anymore. If that makes sense.”
He nodded. “It actually does.”
“I got a second shot. I don’t intend to waste it.”
“Okay. I’m down here to look into these two murders, but if you want a second pair of eyes on what happened all those years ago, well, I’m here for that, too. I can’t promise you’re going to get what you came here for. And I’m no genius. Just an agent doing his thing.”
“And is this payback for all those years ago? To make yourself feel better? Because if it is, you don’t have to. And I don’t want you to.”
“I’m an