Out of the Black - Lee Doty [76]
"Indeed," Hawthorne paused, examining Anne, "But we both know there's more."
Yep. Wasn't that the truth? Anne sat in uncertain silence.
"This wasn't the first strange thing that happened to you, is it?" Her gaze and her smile didn't waver.
"I just want to go home." Anne said, desperately trying to keep her eyes away from her destroyed locker.
"We'll get you there, Anne. But first you've got to come clean. First you've got to trust us."
"I trust you to throw me in a rubber room." Anne said, partially committing herself.
"You think we could? I never got high marks in hand-to-hand combat, and Mendez..." She spared her partner a glance over her shoulder, "I've seen him shoot... you've got nothing to worry about." Hawthorne said, voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.
Mendez shook his head sadly. "You put one hole in the shooting range roof and nobody forgets."
"See? We work for the Keystone division at the Bureau. I'm afraid we're only a danger to ourselves." She gave her head a resigned shake then looked at Anne with a small, steady smile.
If this was a ruse to get Anne to lower her guard, it was working. She was so weary that it would be a relief to set all deception aside, come all the way clean. Of course, talking doesn't always lighten your burden; this she'd learned when addressing the dry-leaves voice in the ER.
"How did you sleep the last couple of nights?" Hawthorne asked.
Wha? What did she know? There's no way she could know about her nights of a thousand near death experiences. Anne felt exposed and guilty, but stayed silent.
"They say you missed work yesterday."
"Ah!" Anne said in far too obvious relief. "Right! I was way sick."
"You seem... better." Mendez said. Something seemed to catch his attention and he pushed off the counter and approached the table where Anne and Hawthorne sat. He stopped short of the table, looking at something on the floor on the other side. Hawthorne turned to look at her partner, a small, confused smile on her lips.
"Someone's wasting food." he said.
"Wow." Hawthorne said in the 'why are you talking?' voice, "Really?"
Mendez bent down and after some rustling in the trashcan, stood back up with half a six-pack of Mega Slim Quick in his hands. "I love these things." he said.
For Anne, this was a far more terrifying moment than the attack of the demonic Harms in the ER. Her hands covered her burning face as she focused on not hyperventilating.
"You'll have to excuse my partner," Hawthorne said as her partner broke a Slim Quick shake from the six-pack and put it in the chiller on the counter. "He's a bit uncouth when it comes to free food." Her voice was friendly, but both Feds were now staring at the gargantuan coat in Anne's destroyed locker.
The chiller beeped and Mendez removed the frosty can. "Anyone want some? There's plenty to go around." he said, popping the can open.
Ignoring her partner, Hawthorne made a few taps on her tablet, extended it to full size, and slid it across the table beneath Anne's sheltered face. Anne held her breath and moved her fingers so she could see. On the largest open window was a picture of a horribly overweight woman, gone-swimming wet, with cuts on her face and hands, and a large gash on her knee. Blood covered the woman's clothes. She looked miserable and very scared. She also looked like she'd never had a date... was it that obvious?
Anne's heart sank. Caught. Anne was pretty sure they'd already nailed her for destruction of property and conspiracy to hide poor dietary choices, but what if they connected her to the body of the fallen man? Of course they'd think she'd killed him. They don't even give double homicide convicts dessert in prison... she was screwed.
After allowing enough time for Anne to confess to anything she desired, Hawthorne continued, "This wasn't your first fight, was it Anne?"
Revising her odds away from witness protection in favor of prison, Anne had no immediate comment. Her vision narrowed; she wondered if she was going to faint.
Realizing that Anne wasn't "0"peak, Hawthorne dropped another bomb.