All I've Ever Wanted - Adrianne Byrd [52]
Turning, he surveyed the room again. This time he noticed the discarded flannel pajama top she had worn. It was lying beneath the open window.
Chapter 24
Aaliyah was staked out across the street from the Underwood estate with camera in hand. Adrenaline raced through her veins and accelerated her heartbeat. She was moments away from a story of a lifetime.
As she waited, visions of being a guest star on the Larry King Live show danced in her head.
Time ticked on at a snail’s pace. And it was minutes still before she remembered that there hadn’t been another car parked in the driveway when she arrived.
She frowned, and then suspected that the unknown visitor had parked in Underwood’s garage. Why hadn’t she thought to check the garage? She shook her head and answered her own question. She couldn’t chance being caught. Lord only knew what they would have done to her. Her mind continued to reel over the wealth of information she’d learned. Her excitement waned at the realization that she was still missing a large piece of the puzzle. What had Underwood known about his ex-wife and this stranger?
“Most likely it’s a crime of passion,” she mumbled, and then shook her head when she remembered what the man had said. Underwood had contacted the FBI. She pondered that for a moment. She needed to get her hands on whatever information Underwood had found. But how?
A sleek, black Mercedes rolled down the driveway. Aaliyah readied her camera to snap a picture of the driver.
She snapped a picture, but the car’s tinted windows were rolled up.
“Damn.” She slung the camera into the passenger seat and started the car. She didn’t come this far to lose her story now.
Aaliyah pulled her car out into traffic and followed the Mercedes.
FBI Agent Jonathan Mason had done his share of tough interrogations. He even had earned himself quite a reputation for being one of the best. But he never entertained the thought that one day he would have to question his mother.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said, entering the small room.
D.A. Judith Mason looked up with a weak smile. “Think nothing of it.” She waited until he sat down before continuing, “I have to admit, I’m a little curious of what this is all about.”
He tossed a thin manila folder onto the wooden tabletop between them. “I’m following up on a case. Sort of.”
“Sort of?” She crossed her arms. “Care to expound on that?”
“Well.” He leaned forward and braided his fingers. “Eight days ago, I got a strange phone call from the most unlikely person. He told me that he was in trouble and didn’t know who else to call.” Jon studied his mother.
“Go on,” she encouraged.
He shrugged. “He also said that he had stumbled onto some information that the Bureau would be interested in. Putting my personal feelings for the guy aside, I listened. But he said that he needed more time. He wanted to get some more information together before coming in to see me. So he scheduled an appointment to come in and talk. Problem is, he never made it to that appointment. According to the autopsy report, he was murdered just hours after calling me.”
“Underwood?” she questioned.
Jon nodded. “One and the same.”
“Information on who—about what?”
“That’s what I was hoping you could fill in.”
“Me? What makes you think that Marion would confide in me?”
“Same reason he wanted to confide in me. He was desperate.”
Judith leaned back in her chair and released a loud sigh. “I wish I could be of assistance, but I haven’t a clue of what Underwood was talking about, or what he was involved in.”
“Have you found anything strange in his office records since his passing?”
“Nothing. And trust me I looked.”
“Why is that?”
Judith laughed. “We are talking about Marion, right?”
He conceded her point. “Well, it looks like I may never know what Underwood stumbled onto.”
Kennedy sat near the back of the bus and fidgeted nervously. She couldn’t help but stare at every black male who got on or off the bus or wonder if any of them were one of Keenan’s men. She had no illusions of how much