Page 55 of What's Left of Me

“None of them sounded close and their eyes…his were fathomless, and blue. These guys, they weren’t right.”

Carmichael sighed. “It makes no sense. Two of the men you just saw were the ones that were with Jaron Zaffy at the café.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, but none of those guys were him. I’m not trying to be difficult.” Phoenix’s cheeks reddened, and his hands began to shake.

“Hey.” I cradled his face in my hands. “Nobody thinks that. It’s possible the voices sounded different from recording to in person. But it doesn’t matter, because you looked at them and none fit. You eliminated them as suspects, and now the FBI can focus on other possibilities.”

I glared at Carmichael until he spoke up, “Yeah, this happens a lot, Mr. Briar. At least we aren’t staying stuck on this if it’s a dead end.”

Phoenix closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I pecked his lips, earning a smile.

“Okay.” He scrunched his nose. “Can we leave now?”

“Yeah, of course.” Carmichael opened the door and led us to the conference room where Hazel, Shep, and JJ were waiting.

“How’d it go?” Hazel was up and hugging Phoenix before we were fully in the room.

“None of them were him,” I answered.

JJ quirked his head. “How’s that possible?”

I shrugged. “There are always reasons. The tone was different in person is one, but Phoenix looked at them, their eyes, backs of their heads. None matched.”

“Shit. Sorry, Phoenix. I’m sure you were really hoping this was the end of it.” JJ walked over and offered him a hug, which he took.

“It’s okay. I just don’t want anyone to think I was wasting their time.”

“Fuck ’em,” Shep grunted.

JJ winked. “You tell em, honey.”

Shep rolled his eyes and when Phoenix laughed, I was so grateful.

“Let’s go home.” JJ held the door, and we filed out.

As we walked out I noticed that neither Carmichael nor Rose were anywhere to be seen, and I was sure they were frustrated and perplexed. That wasn’t my problem. While I had hoped today would be the end of all of this, it wasn’t, so I’d take Phoenix home and do what I’d been trying to do all along, protect him and find this motherfucker.

“There’s a verysimple explanation for all of this,” Matt said as we were sitting around the dining table eating a delicious shepherd’s pie that Mason had made.

“Is there?” Nick smirked.

“Yes, smartass.” Matt put his silverware down and with all the confidence in the world explained, “It was a coffee shop, and everyone assumed the background voice came from one of Jaron’s associates. At no time did anyone think that another patron’s voice or the barista’s was picked up on the recording? They stated that there weren’t a lot of people there, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t more than just those guys.”

“Oh, my God,” JJ gasped. “How are all of us so stupid?”

I looked at Phoenix, whose brows were furrowed, and he was staring at his food. It made a lot of sense.

“But there was a conversation. One guy said black was the way to go, and the other responded with gross, something like that. Aren’t we to assume Carmichael made sure he brought those two in?” Mason asked.

“Probably, if they had brains in their orb sacks.” Angel scooped more food into his plate.

“Orb sacks?” Four grimaced.

Angel tapped his head as if that made it all make sense.

“Should we call Carmichael?” Matt’s gaze moved from one of us to another.

“Why is it that these agents are failing so epically? Like, statistically speaking, they should have accidentally done something right at this point.” Gabe pinched the bridge of his nose.

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