Covert Justice. Lynn Huggins Blackburn

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СКАЧАТЬ the remains of the car, shaking his head in disbelief. The smell of gasoline mixed with the scent of torn earth. The EMTs insisting he ride to the hospital in the ambulance. His sister, Caroline, clad in hot pink rain boots and jacket, tears streaming down her face when she saw him in the emergency room. His mother’s relieved voice when he spoke to her and his daughter, Maggie, assuring them he’d be home soon.

      One CT scan and several exams later, they released him as Saturday dawned clear and cool. Caroline drove with extra caution, for her, and took him straight to their parents’ home to pick up Maggie. Through it all, not one person suggested he’d been the victim of an attempted murder. The police were treating it as a hit-and-run. Given his minimal injuries, and knowing he carried plenty of car insurance, he doubted the investigation would go far.

      He didn’t know why he hadn’t mentioned the mystery woman’s involvement. Not even to his dad. There had never seemed to be a good time to bring it up.

      But she’d been there. She’d appeared out of nowhere, jumped into his car and pushed him to safety, risking her own life in the process. And somehow she’d known his attacker would turn around to try again.

      Which left him with two burning questions.

      When the driver, whoever they were, found out he had survived, what then?

      And who was she?

      * * *

      FBI Special Agent Heidi Zimmerman pulled through a fast-food drive-through minutes before they stopped serving breakfast. She’d spent the night at the hospital keeping an eye on the Harrisons while a tactical operations crew worked in the rain to install surveillance equipment at all three of the Harrisons’ homes.

      No one ran surveillance like TacOps, but the parameters of her mission hadn’t included keeping tabs on the Harrisons.

      Until now.

      When she’d called the agent in charge of the TacOps team, Special Agent Kyle Richards, and explained what had happened, he’d offered to expand their surveillance parameters to include the Harrisons.

      If anyone decided to sneak around on their property, the TacOps guys would let her know.

      She sat at the small desk in her hotel room and spread out her breakfast. She’d taken one bite when the phone rang.

      “What on earth were you thinking?” Special Agent in Charge, Frank Cunningham, her boss and godfather, sounded like he wanted to strangle her.

      “You’d rather I’d sat back and let someone kill him?”

      “You went in there with no backup—”

      “I called Max.”

      “—blew your cover—”

      “Blake Harrison’s the only one who saw.”

      “—could have been killed—”

      “Like that isn’t an everyday occurrence.”

      “—and defied a direct order.”

      Someone else spoke, but she couldn’t catch the words. Uncle Frank sighed. “Jacobs is defending you. Says he’d have done the same thing.”

      “I said I hope I would have,” her partner, Max Jacobs, said. He must have stepped closer to the speaker. “Are you okay?” In spite of her frustration, Heidi smiled. Max was the brother she’d never had. She had no doubt he’d chew her out later, but just like most siblings, he wouldn’t sit back and let anyone else rip into her. Whenever she was under fire, he always, always had her back.

      “Need some sleep.” She yawned. “Otherwise, I’m fine.”

      “And Blake Harrison?”

      “No concussion or broken bones. Wouldn’t be surprised to learn he has whiplash.”

      “Beats the alternative.”

      No doubt.

      “Who saw you?” Uncle Frank’s tone hadn’t softened.

      “No one.”

      “They didn’t notice your car?”

      “Give me some credit.” Uncle Frank’s skills included knowing how to push every button she had. He wouldn’t talk to his other agents this way. No. He reserved this level of tough love for her and her alone. “I left it in an overgrown abandoned driveway. That rain was no joke. You could barely see the road, much less a car hidden in the brush twenty feet off the pavement. No one saw me leave, either.”

      “Can you identify the car?”

      “Truck. Full-size. Dark. Plates covered in dirt. Matches the description of half the trucks in the county. Should have some paint transfer, but my guess is they’ll wipe it down and ditch it. And I doubt they bought it legally in the first place.”

      “We’ll check for stolen trucks in the area,” Max said. “Maybe we’ll get a hit.”

      She appreciated the effort Max was making to diffuse the tension.

      “Can you explain to me what you were doing there in the first place? Or why on earth someone tried to kill Blake Harrison?”

      Heidi snapped. “I don’t have a clue why someone tried to kill him, Uncle Frank. Maybe he’s got more enemies than we knew about. I’ll be sure to ask him.” Did he expect her to solve the case before she even started the job? “As for what I was doing there, I believe it’s called running surveillance. It’s what I do when I go undercover. I’m pretty sure it’s what you taught me to do.”

      Uncle Frank didn’t respond.

      “I was sitting at the edge of the parking lot and I saw a car leave at an odd time. The shift didn’t end for another hour. I thought I’d have time to follow the driver to see if they did anything suspicious and be back by the end of the shift. My plan had been to see if anyone hung around late on a Friday.”

      “Good idea, Z.” Bless Max.

      “The rain was so heavy, I didn’t realize it was Blake Harrison until I’d already pulled in behind him. He turned onto the road and I almost let him go, but this truck came up fast and...”

      “And what?”

      “And I don’t know why I followed them. I just did.”

      “She’s got the best instincts of any agent I’ve ever worked with,” Max said. “They’ve saved my life more than once.”

      “I guess it’s good for Blake Harrison that you followed your gut,” Uncle Frank finally conceded.

      Heidi knew that was as close as she was going to get to an apology.

      “You’re going to have to read him in. Soon. He needs to know who he can and cannot talk to about this.” At least Uncle Frank’s voice had returned to normal decibels.

      “I’ll take care of it.”

      “Great,” СКАЧАТЬ