Now she was everything Hans had always believed she could be: smart, focused, dedicated. She still had a reckless streak, but it was tempered by experience.
“Is Dillon here?”
“Sleeping.”
It was just past nine. “This early?”
“He has to be up at three to take a military transport to talk to one of those damn serial killers you want him to profile. It’s not as easy on him as you think it is.”
“I never thought it was easy.”
“I’m not sleeping.” Dillon came downstairs in sweatpants and a T-shirt. He shook Hans’s hand. “What brings you here?”
Hans glanced at Kate. She scowled and said to Dillon, “I didn’t want to worry you.”
Dillon put his arm around her and steered her toward the family room.
“Did you come to see Kate or me?”
“Both,” Hans said.
“Don’t drag Dillon into this,” Kate said.
They sat at the kitchen table where Hans had often found himself enjoying a meal with the Kincaids and nearly as often talking to Dillon about work. Though Dillon was a civilian consultant, he spent the bulk of his time on FBI cases. He’d been offered a permanent position when he first moved to D.C. but had declined.
“Hans.” Dillon didn’t have to say anything else. He took Kate’s hand but focused on Hans.
“Did Lucy tell you?”
“That she went to New York?” Kate snapped. “I’m furious with her. I told her to keep her head low and focus on her studies. I suppose I should blame Sean, but Lucy is responsible for her own actions.”
“That’s not what I was talking about,” Hans said. “I asked Sean to go to New York. I assumed Lucy would join him.”
Dillon eyed him closely. “What happened?”
“Six months ago, I knew the second hiring panel was going to reject Lucy’s application. A friend told me confidentially that Fran Buckley still had a lot of friends who thought either she was innocent or she shouldn’t be in prison even if she was guilty. I went to Stockton and told him I wanted to overrule their decision.”
“That’s not done,” Kate said.
Hans smiled sadly. “Not often, but it wasn’t the first time. Stockton agreed. We sealed it, but the three panelists all knew. They were told it was confidential and no one was to be told. But now Lucy knows.”
“Shit,” Kate said.
“I want to know who told her.”
“I didn’t know,” Kate said. “Dillon?”
He didn’t say anything.
“You knew?”
“Not for a fact. I suspected.” He caught Hans’s eye. “Why would someone tell her?”
“To force her to quit. Which of course she did. I simply didn’t accept it. She gave me her Quantico ID. I left it at the security desk and told them she dropped it in Tony’s office. But I don’t know if she’s going to come back.”
“Is that why she went to New York?”
“Lucy went with Sean. I had asked him to retrace Tony’s steps and try to figure out what he was thinking. I couldn’t ask Lucy to go officially, but she’s the only one who read Tony’s missing file. With her there, she might notice something.”
“What missing file?” Kate asked.
“There’s a file missing from Tony’s office that may have relevance in the Rosemary Weber homicide.”
“Is Lucy in danger?” Dillon asked.
“She’s well aware that she’s the only one, outside of Tony, who knows what is in the missing file.”
Kate stared at him. “The autopsy showed Tony died of a heart attack.”
“It did. But nonetheless, Stockton is discreetly requesting a more detailed probe. I already had the lab process his office on the q.t.”
“Tony had heart trouble, among other things,” Kate said. “You know that, Hans. And you said he’d been drinking right before he died.”
Hans knew all too well that Tony had problems he buried deeply. And Hans had been inclined to believe Tony was as responsible for his death as his weak heart.
“Though Tony may have been battling depression again, and his BAC was well above the legal limit, but I don’t think he was suicidal. He was too focused on locating Peter McMahon and the missing file to want to kill himself without answers. And I found something on his computer that’s of interest.”
Dillon leaned forward. “Why would you even think Tony might have killed himself?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time he tried.” Hans glanced at Kate, then said, “When we worked the Rachel McMahon kidnapping, Tony took the events personally. He knew from the beginning that the parents were keeping something back, and he felt helpless.”
“We all feel that way sometimes,” Kate said.
“After her body was found, Tony got completely wasted.