to let me know when he’s discharged—”
“They’re not going to have to take it, but they’ll have a way to download any pictures that you took on race day.”
“I haven’t even looked at the pictures that I took.” She tried to think back, then blinked in surprise. “Oh, my God, that was just yesterday.” She sighed heavily. “It seems so long ago. I didn’t take a lot of pictures. Well, I took quite a few before the race when we were getting ready and even some videos of the runners' area in the park near the starting line. But that was all before the race.”
“And during the race?”
“Only when we caught up to Bekki and Caitlyn. We kept running, but it wasn’t much more than a jog at that point. I pulled up my phone, and we huddled together as we kept moving, and I snapped several pictures. But that wasn’t where the explosion occurred.”
“And you didn’t take any more pictures?”
Before she had a chance to answer, the doorbell rang and Sean hopped up. It only took a moment for him to return with a man wearing a dark suit. Her father stood and walked around the table, his hand extended in greeting. “Agent Bancroft. I didn’t know who’d they send but it’s good to see you.”
“Agent McBride—”
“Nope, not an agent any longer. I serve as a consultant only since my retirement. Just call me Colm.” Her father turned and introduced the other members of the family.
Agent Bancroft looked around the table, then apologized. “I hate to ask everyone to leave, but I need to interview Erin, and it would be best if she was not surrounded by others who might unwittingly distract her ability to focus or concentrate.”
Sharon was about to object, but Colm put a hand on her arm, and when she looked up at him, he nodded.
“Mom, I think it’ll be fine. Agent Bancroft isn’t going to beat Erin with a rubber hose,” Caitlyn said, looking over and squeezing Erin’s hand. As she stood, Caitlyn looked back toward the FBI agent and lifted her brow. “At least, he’d better not mess with my sister.”
Erin noticed the agent’s eyes darted to Caitlyn then held her sister’s gaze for a moment before looking at the others in the room as they left one by one. Sean and Kyle stayed nearby.
Kyle leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. “We’re HCPD detectives. There’s no reason we can’t be present at this interview.”
Agent Bancroft offered a hard stare toward both of her brothers, then dipped his chin once before looking down at her. “Erin, I know what you’ve been through is traumatic. I want you to be as calm as possible. Is that best with your brothers present?”
Her tongue darted out to lick her dry lips, then she nodded. “Yes, please.”
He looked back at her brothers, whose stance and hard faces showed they were obviously not intimidated. “Then you can stay. But you know the drill. You know what I’ve got to do.”
Sean nodded his agreement and slid into the chair next to Erin while Kyle continued to scowl, leaning against the doorframe. With her brothers as sentinels, she could not help but grin. She was just surprised no one had called for Rory and had him come rushing in as well.
For the next half-hour, she described everything she remembered. The race. Following along in her app. Checking to see where Caitlyn was running. Catching up to them and taking selfies.
“And what about the time of the blast. What can you remember?”
By now, her head was pounding, and she was unable to hide the trembling of her lips. Sean said nothing but reached over and linked fingers with her. Before she had a chance to answer, the front door opened and she looked up to see Rory rush in, his eyes wide.
“I got here soon as I could!”
Kyle lifted a brow. “Who called you?”
Rory shook his head and replied, “Who do you think?”
The four McBride siblings in the room all said in unison, “Mom.”
Rory walked over and looked at Erin before glancing behind him toward the agent. “I know she’s a nurse, but she shouldn’t be in charge of her own health at this moment. I’d like to ask for a quick break so that I can check her out since she suffered a concussion.”
Without waiting for Agent Bancroft to agree, Rory placed his fingers on her wrist to take her pulse, then slipped a blood pressure cuff