heart a minute to catch up. Because I don’t want to believe that it’s a possibility. “Ben can’t be a suspect. He—”
“You know what Ben can do,” Barclay says. “He’s the prime suspect.”
“But he’s home—”
Barclay shakes his head. “Tenner, Ben hasn’t been in his home world for almost three months.”
05:17:09:58
I can’t breathe. For a minute, I’m not sure what I’m more upset about—the fact that the IA suspects Ben of human trafficking or that he isn’t at home and he hasn’t come back to me. Where else would he be? The whole reason he didn’t stay here was because I told him to go home—to his family.
“Look, I know Ben isn’t responsible. That’s why I need your help,” Barclay adds.
That makes me remember what I know of the IA and I realize that if Ben is the prime suspect, they probably have a shoot-on-sight command, and I focus on that.
“Ben would never do this,” I say. “You know him enough to know that.”
Barclay nods. “I’ve said as much, but none of my higher-ups will listen.”
“What do you need from me? To testify or something?” I ask. Character witnesses don’t count for much, but I know Ben. I know him better than anyone else. I know what kind of person he is, the mistakes he’s made, and the things he’s done to make up for them.
Barclay shakes his head, and something about the look on his face tells me whatever his plan is, it’s bigger, more dangerous, and maybe even less legal than something like testifying. “I need you to help me find him.”
I almost laugh. “If he’s not at home and he’s not here, I’ve got no other ideas. You have resources I can’t even imagine. How can I possibly help you? Besides, did you look around on your way in? My world is trying to rebuild. I need to be here.”
He shakes his head. “I’m not on the case anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said.” Barclay sighs. “I’ve been taken off the case because I have too many ties to it. They think that I’m personally invested since I know all the main players involved.”
He doesn’t have to say that he thinks it’s bullshit. I know he does, and he’s right. Sure, he worked a case that ended up involving Ben, but Ben was a target in that case, and if he were a suspect now, any agency would want an agent who knew the suspect to help out.
Agents are taken off cases for one reason: when they’ve become a liability.
Barclay didn’t seem to dislike Ben—once he decided not to shoot him, at least—but he didn’t have any real personal ties to him, either. If Ben did something wrong, Barclay wouldn’t hesitate to do what was needed. It’s the one quality he has that I actually respect.
Which begs the question: Who thinks he would be a liability, and why?
“What about Eric?” I say. Eric Brandt is another IA agent and Barclay’s partner. “You said he was your mentor. He could talk to someone.”
Barclay shakes his head, and when he speaks again his voice is thick. “Eric is dead.”
05:17:04:14
“What?” My voice is breathless. “How?”
“Officially, it was an accident,” Barclay says. “He was home alone, taking a shower. He slipped and fell, pulling the shower curtain down with him, and knocked himself out. The shower curtain clogged the drain and he drowned.”
And in case I hadn’t heard the skepticism in his voice or seen it on his face, he adds, “But it wasn’t an accident. Someone murdered him.”
I don’t disagree. It sounds like a scene from one of those bad Final Destination movies—too many coincidences lining up to equal an accidental death. Instead, I get to the point. “Who would do that?”
“I don’t know,” Barclay admits.
I open my mouth to offer my opinion, but then I stop and look at Barclay. He’s looking at me, waiting—expectant even. He obviously has a theory, and he wants to know if I’m going to come up with the same one.
I take a deep breath because I know that if I’m right, I might be about to dive into something huge. “When did it happen?”
“Both Eric and I wrote up our reports as soon as we realized this was human trafficking, not just one missing person,” Barclay answers. “Then we were excused from the case. I fought it. This case was huge for me, a career maker, but Eric told me to lay off the information, that he’d talk to the higher-ups.”