By Request Collection April-June 2016. Оливия Гейтс

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СКАЧАТЬ And Reid and I were certainly not immune to it. Plus, we got to take turns killing Cam in order to win back the treasure and rescue little Nell. Not a bad day’s work. We did reach a compromise on the safety issue. After the first time, Reid made sure that Nell always drew the short straw and then offered to climb with her to the cave before you or Adair jumped in to protect her yourself.”

      Piper thought back, seeing the game through a different lens now. “As I recall, Reid spent a lot of his time that whole summer making sure that Nell was safe.”

      Duncan nodded. “Six was a little young to be rock climbing, not to mention some of the other things we did, and it turned out to be good practice for him. Even at ten, he already knew he wanted to go into the Secret Service. Now he’s working on the vice president’s detail.”

      She heard the pride in his voice and asked, “When did you know you wanted to be FBI?”

      There were a couple of beats of silence before he glanced sideways at her and replied. “I probably decided the day the FBI came to our house and arrested my father for embezzling from his family’s investment firm.”

      Surprise had her stumbling. But Duncan gripped her arm just in time to help her regain her balance. “How old were you?”

      “Nine. It was the summer before we all came here. My father had always put his business as his first priority, especially after my brothers and I were born. He traveled and entertained a lot. He even kept an apartment in Manhattan. Every time he came home for any length of time, he would make my mother very unhappy.”

      He took a bottle of water out of the backpack, handed it to her, then fished another one out for himself. “I’d hear her crying in the middle of the night, and I felt helpless because there wasn’t anything I could do.”

      She studied him as he sipped water. “Makes sense that you’d want to protect her. So you admired the FBI agents who took him away and wanted to grow up to be like them.”

      He began to walk again, this time veering off the path to take a shortcut to the cliffs. “I may not have been fully aware of it at the time, but I wanted to know what made someone do what my father did. Not just the stealing part. Greed is one of the things that makes the world go round. I wanted to know why he made my mom cry.”

      Understanding moved through her and tightened something around her heart. “So you were attracted to behavioral sciences.”

      “Ultimately.” They stepped out of the trees into the sunshine. A few feet away, the earth fell away in a sheer drop to a strip of sandy beach below. “Sorry to put a dent in your white knight theory.”

      He hadn’t. But she was prevented from pointing that out to him when her cell phone rang.

      He put a hand on her arm before she could answer the call. “I meant to tell you before. Don’t let anyone know where you are—not even your boss. I’ll explain.”

      A glance at her caller ID told her that it was Abe. Guilt moved through her when she realized that she hadn’t bothered to check her messages since they’d arrived at the castle. That wasn’t like her at all. “Hello?”

      “Piper, where are you?”

      It wasn’t Abe but an annoyed Richard Starkweather, her coworker. And he was using Abe’s cell phone. “Hi, Richard. Is Abe all right?”

      “Where are you? I stopped by your apartment to check on you last night and you didn’t answer. So far, I’ve left three messages on your cell.” There was concern in his voice, but beneath it, she heard a trace of annoyance.

      “I’ve been … busy.”

      “Very busy,” Duncan murmured in a voice only she could hear. She made the mistake of meeting Duncan’s eyes and the glint of laughter had her choking back on a laugh.

      “Where are you?” Richard asked again.

      “Where’s Abe and why are you using his cell phone?” she countered.

      “Abe asked me to call. We need your help on the Bronwell case. You have to make yourself available. We need to know where you are.”

      Piper kept her tone patient. “Richard, you were in the meeting I had with Abe yesterday afternoon. I’m taking a few days off at Abe’s request. As far as the Bronwell case goes, I turned over all my files to you. It’s all there. Why aren’t you using your own phone?”

      “Because you haven’t returned any of my calls. Obviously, you were avoiding me. If I have questions, I need to get a hold of you.”

      She bit down hard on annoyance. “You’ve got hold of me now. What do you want?”

      “How long will you be out of town?”

      “Until the publicity fades and Abe thinks I can return.” But in her head she said, Until I can take over second chair again. Then you won’t have to ask me any questions.

      “Sorry, I’m losing the connection,” she said aloud. Then she broke the connection and took a long drink of her water.

      “You don’t like Richard,” Duncan said.

      She paced away, and then whirled to come back to him. “Actually, I think it’s the other way around. In Richard Starkweather’s view, I have two strikes against me. He was Abe’s right-hand man until I was hired, and then I refused to go out with him. Several times.”

      “What was the I’m-so-concerned-about-you act he put on in your apartment yesterday?”

      “That was about impressing Abe.”

      “Some men don’t take either rejection or competition well. Does he dislike you enough to stage that scene yesterday morning and send the flowers?” Piper stared at him. “Good heavens, no. Why would he?”

      “To get you out of the way so that he could take over second chair at the Bronwell trial. My boss, Adrienne, suspects that someone in Abe’s office may have leaked the fact that you wrote the brief—to either the Macks family or to one of the other victim’s families. No one in my office was aware of your involvement. I didn’t even know you worked for Abe.”

      “I can’t believe that Richard would do something like that,” she said.

      “Abe’s a suspect, too. It’s very convenient that the media is focused on you now and not him. He can go forward with the Bronwell trial with a cleaner slate, so to speak.”

      “That’s ridiculous. Abe would never do anything like that.”

      “Maybe not. But until we figure out who staged that scene in your apartment and is sending you flowers, my boss would like to keep your location a secret, even from your coworkers.”

      “How? This is my home. Even Richard could guess that I might come here.”

      “Yeah.” Duncan smiled slowly. “I’ve given that some thought. I didn’t mention it to Adrienne, but it might work to our advantage if our RPK imitator does follow us up here. In D.C., it’s fairly easy to remain anonymous. Up here, strangers are remarked upon. Earlier today, I spoke with Sheriff Skinner in Glen Loch and filled him in on the situation. He’s putting the word out through Edie at her diner. He СКАЧАТЬ