Page 27 of Nothing Hiding

The next half hour would tell them if they were on a path to success or whether this decision had made their job a hundred times harder.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

It was going to make things harder.

Juliette sensed the atmosphere as soon as she walked into the ambassador’s residence. His shouted voice was coming from the living room where they’d gathered earlier.

"I will not accept this! I won't! It's impossible that it could have happened!"

Overwrought, shrill, and stressed, the ambassador sounded like a broken shell of his former dogmatic self.

Wyatt was a few paces behind her, speaking urgently to Ebury back in Manhattan. Their poor boss had been foolish enough to grab a few hours' sleep and had woken to this crisis exploding.

She paused a moment for him to wrap up his call. He’d been briefing Ebury on the leads so far, which had only included their recently cleared suspect. There’d been no other leads from the exhibition staff, and nobody suspicious had been noted.

With his call finished, he rushed in to join her, and together, they headed to the living room.

Inside,the ambassador was pacing back and forth over the Persian carpet, with his hands clasped together in front of him, his face flushed with anger and grief.

"You!" he spat at Juliette. "This is all your fault! If you had done your job properly, my daughter would still be alive!"

Juliette remained calm, even though the accusation stung. She understood his pain. There was no point in telling him that his daughter had more than likely been murdered soon after she'd been taken, that the wax coating would have taken a few hours to perfect, and that she'd probably been put in place in the exhibition before their helicopter had even touched down in London.

"This is a devastating blow for all of us, Ambassador," she said quietly. "I'm so very sorry that she couldn't be found alive."

Already, behind her, she could see the complication to the situation in the form of two plainclothes detectives, who she guessed were the Scotland Yard team.

They were sitting on chairs, whispering to each other, and assessing the situation quietly. One was a dark-haired man, probably in his forties, with the solid, chunky build of someone who was never going to be thin but who worked hard at keeping fit. The other was a woman, a little younger and much slimmer, with a lean, unsmiling and—Juliette thought—critical face. Her hair was scraped back in a tight ponytail, and she was dressed in somber black.

Neither of the detectives had any friendliness in their eyes as they glanced at Juliette and Wyatt, who were suffering the brunt of the ambassador's tirade. She took a deep breath and braced herself for what was to come.

"You've failed! You've failed this supposed task force of yours, you've failed my wife and me, and you've failed our daughter!"

Juliette gritted her teeth, trying not to let her emotions get the better of her. She knew that losing a child was the worst pain imaginable, but the ambassador's anger was misplaced. They had done everything they could, and they had been following their leads to the best of their ability.

She had been in this situation before and knew that reacting emotionally would only make things worse. Instead, she took a step forward, meeting the ambassador's fury head-on with calm politeness. "Unfortunately, we didn't arrive in time. It's likely no police intervention could have saved her. But we will continue to do everything in our power to catch her killer."

Who is likely to kill again,she thought with a shiver.

"I need results. Now! You'd better make up for this and find this man. I want him put away for the rest of his life. Rock solid case. No hope of parole, no loopholes, you understand?"

Juliette felt desperately sorry for him, despite his abusive demeanor. Tears were welling from his eyes.

"I want an update, end of day today. I want results."

He turned, his voice breaking, and marched out of the room.

Immediately, Juliette hurried over to introduce herself to the other police that they'd now be working with. She hoped that her initial impression had been wrong and that they did not resent her and Wyatt.

But the detectives, talking to each other, didn't even glance her way.

"Good afternoon," Juliette said. "Agent Hart and Agent Thompson."

She waited for the team to introduce themselves. They were in no rush to finish their conversation. It took another minute before the man finally looked up.

"Detective Grant Harris," the man said, standing up and extending his hand. "This is my partner, Detective Samantha Black." Harris's handshake was firm, and his eyes were cold and evaluating as he looked Juliette up and down.

Juliette could sense the tension immediately. These detectives were not going to make things easy for her and Wyatt. She tried to sound as friendly as possible. "It's good to meet you both," she said. "These aren't ideal circumstances, but I hope we can work together to catch this killer, fast."

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