Page 50 of The Agent
“Ms. Kincaid, do you have any idea what this message means?”
“I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m a whore,” she said dryly.
“Yes, but do you know why he might think that? Do you have a new boyfriend?”
She forced herself not to glance over at Caleb. “No.”
“Are you casually seeing anyone?”
She hesitated. “I did have a date two nights ago.”
Hernandez leaned forward. “Where did you go on the date, which restaurant? Perhaps Grier saw you with another man and—”
“We didn’t go out,” she cut in. “We stayed in and ordered take-out.”
For a moment she was tempted to stand up, point directly at Caleb, and yell, “It was him! We slept together that night, too.”
Instinctively, she knew to keep her mouth shut. It wouldn’t look good for Caleb if she announced his involvement with her. But she wasn’t simply covering for him. The truth made her look like a total idiot, and she was tired of Hernandez glaring at her with that belittling and antagonistic expression.
Right now, he just looked disappointed. “You stayed in,” he repeated. “Okay, well, my gut tells me Grier knows about that date, Ms. Kincaid. Somehow, he heard about it, or maybe—”
“He’s close by,” Caleb stated.
The room fell quiet at his words. Hernandez turned to Caleb. “You think so?”
Confidence lined Caleb’s face. “He has to be. We know from the email that he had planned to reunite with Marley soon, and he’s smart. He wouldn’t risk walking up to her door, not unless he knew for sure what the law-enforcement situation was.”
“He’d need to scout the area first,” Hernandez agreed.
“I think he’s doing more than that. He’s watching her. He knows she had another man over—” there was a slight crack in Caleb’s voice “—and in order to see that, he had to be close.”
A tremor ran along Marley’s skin. The notion that Patrick was lurking outside somewhere, watching her, was too frightening to contemplate. God, would she ever be rid of that man? She wished she’d never gone into his hospital room all those months ago, never agreed to that first date, never opened her heart to him.
“Okay, he can’t be next door, since AJ and I have occupied that space,” Caleb said in a brisk voice. He glanced at Marley. “How well do you know your other neighbors?”
Since he’d spoken to her directly, she had no choice but to meet his eyes. Damn. Why did he have to be so attractive? Her heart shouldn’t skip a beat anymore when she looked at him.
“Don and Melinda live in the house on the other side of mine,” she answered. “They have three kids, but they’re all away at camp for the summer. Next to them is Kim, she’s a widow.” She racked her brain for more names and faces. “Across the street is Mrs. White, she lives alone, kind of grumpy all the time but she can be sweet. I’m not sure about anyone else.”
“Do you know if any of the ones you mentioned are on vacation, like the Strathorns?” Caleb asked.
“I don’t think so. I saw Don and his wife the other day, and I saw Kim yesterday when I checked the mail.” She paused. “I haven’t seen Mrs. White in a few days, come to think of it, but she hardly ever leaves the house.”
Caleb and the other men sprang to action before she even finished talking. She tried to hide her admiration as she watched Caleb bark orders at everyone. “We canvass each house one by one, only the ones that have a direct visual on Marley’s. Teams of two. Hernandez, you’re with me. Officer Thompson,” he said to the thin, uniformed blond man, “you stay with Ms. Kincaid. Radio us if there are any disturbances.”
“Yes, sir.”
Marley’s chest tightened with alarm as Caleb and the others unholstered their weapons. What if they got hurt? What if Caleb got hurt? She wanted to urge him to be careful, but clamped her mouth shut. She refused to let herself feel anything for him. Besides, he was a trained government agent. He could handle himself.
Still, her heart thudded as she watched him disappear through the doorway, his strides long and determined.
Please don’t let him get hurt.
* * *
CALEB CROUCHED BESIDEthe tall hedges of Lydia White’s two-story Victorian home, silently gesturing for Hernandez to take the back. AJ and the other agents, as well as two of Hernandez’s men, were already approaching the other houses in the vicinity, moving stealthily in the shadows.
With adrenaline coursing through his blood, Caleb held his Glock in his right hand and the radio in his left. He crept to the front door while Hernandez circled the house. As he reached the porch, his radio crackled and AJ’s voice came through. “Kim just let us in. Preparing to search the house.”
