Page 41 of Relentless
“So any updates?” he asked again as she pulled the bread out from a drawer.
“Yes,” she replied. “I talked to Sabina about forty-five minutes ago. They got hold of Astrid and Peter. Peter blew them off, which doesn’t surprise me.”
“Why?”
She spread mustard on a slice of bread. “He’s in administration. If it comes out that aid workers on one of his programs are being murdered—and likely by another aid worker—it won’t be good for the agency.”
“He’s more interested in protecting the agency than the people who make it what it is?”
“The world of international aid is a weird one,” she said, adding several layers of turkey to the sandwich. “It’s hard to explain. But the short response to your comment is yes, he’s more interested in the agency than the people. His position comes with power, and he wants to protect that. But also, people come and go. Even the most dedicated aid workers retire at some point. What remains is the agency and the work it does. I’m not saying I agree with him, but I can see his perspective.”
“What about Astrid?” he asked. “And thank you,” he added when she set his sandwich on the side table along with chips and a glass of water.
“That one surprised me,” Kara said, taking a seat on the other end of the couch. “I thought she’d be concerned, but Sabina said she basically blew them off, too. Not in the way Peter did, but more like Shane. As if she didn’t believe what HICC told her held any truth.”
“If we’re still on this tour with Cody when he gets to Portland, we should check up on her,” he said. He’d already inhaled half the sandwich, and she realized that they’d skipped breakfast that morning. After so many years working in the field, her body barely noticed a missed meal here or there. Apparently, that wasn’t the case with Ethan.
“Want another?” She nodded to his almost-gone sandwich. He glanced at it, then back at her.
“I hate asking, but please?”
She rose, but before moving to the kitchen area, she slid her hands into his hair and tipped his head up. “Stop apologizing,” she said, before lowering her lips for a kiss.
“I’ll make it up to you when my leg is 100 percent,” he replied when she pulled away.
She shook her head. “This isn’t a game and no one, least of all me, is keeping score. As to Astrid, yes, we should visit her if we can.”
“Between your update this morning and this one, we’ve covered Lucky, Shane, Peter, and Astrid. There was one more. Evelyn, I think you said?” he asked as she started making his second sandwich.
Her stomach clenched at the reminder of her conversation with Sabina earlier. “They haven’t been able to reach her,” she answered.
“Have they sent someone to check on her?” he asked.
“They were going to do that this afternoon. But since we’ll be in LA tomorrow morning, I volunteered us for the job,” she replied, layering more turkey onto his sandwich before spreading avocado over the top.
“Good idea. If they were okay with the wait that must mean they aren’t too worried about her? A lot can happen in a day.”
It could, and often did. And Sabina’s reason for agreeing was almost too macabre to say out loud. But Kara said it anyway. “If something has already happened then it doesn’t matter if someone checks on her this afternoon versus tomorrow morning. And if nothing has happened, both Sabina and Chad believe that the calls made by HICC today will give the killer something to think about. They don’t think he, or she, will strike again so soon.”
Ethan didn’t answer right away as she collected his empty plate. When she returned it to him, with his second sandwich, his eyes tracked her movements. There was no way she could miss the concern she saw there.
“I don’t like that reasoning, but I can’t argue with it,” Ethan said, taking the plate.
“I know. Me, neither. There’s a lot about this that I don’t like, though, so what’s one more thing?” She’d tried to lighten the mood with that last comment, but obviously failed when Ethan responded by tugging her close and tucking her under his free arm.
“Talk to me about your notes. Tell me about your colleagues,” he said. The shift in topic wasn’t much more fun, but at least it was slightly less creepy.
“I’ll start with Evelyn,” she said, getting comfortable against Ethan’s shoulder. “She’s fifty-eight years old. A nurse practitioner. She was a traveling nurse before joining the agency, and she’s been with the agency for fifteen years or so, I believe. She has two sisters and a couple of nieces and nephews, but no children of her own. She’s never been married either, although she’s had many lovers all over the world,” she added with a smile, thinking of her friend. “She has a zest for life that always makes her great to work with. Smart, practical, and a realist. But a realist in the way that she can see possibilities as easily as the problems.”
“She sounds fun,” Ethan said, before pulling her all the way onto his lap. He’d finished his second sandwich and set the plate aside. She considered offering him another but figured he couldn’t be too hungry if he’d planted her across his thighs. A spot she’d grown partial to in the past two days.
“She is. Astrid is less so. She’s not…notgood to work with. But just not one of my favorites. She’s a few years younger than me, maybe thirty-four or thirty-five. She’s also a nurse practitioner and was engaged to a doctor in the hospital she used to work at. He died about three years ago, a few months before the wedding. Shortly after, she quit her job and started working for the agency.”
“That’s tragic,” Ethan murmured, running a hand down her thigh.
“It was. Is. I don’t know what she was like before he died, but now she’s efficient and cool under pressure. But almost in a detached way. I don’t know if that’s her personality or if it’s a part of her grieving process, though.”
“And family?”
