Page 28 of Dichotomy

I shrugged. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but there’s been some evidence brought to light that we need to ask Miss Harper some questions about.”

He frowned. “What evidence?”

I paused, duty and understanding warring within me as I thought about how to answer. I had spent the weekend diving into the Archers a bit more. It was clear from the little snippets I could gather that the Archers did a lot of good in the city. But did that justify the means they used to do it? I wasn’t sure yet. The FIA was supposed to do good, but evidence was pointing to someone in the FIA being corrupt, so it was hard to judge the Archers too harshly. I blew out a breath and took a gamble.

“I don’t know,” I said, staring at Adrian and then Evelyn. Evelyn’s breath hitched slightly, and Adrian’s eyebrows shot up before he schooled them.

“I see,” Evelyn said slowly, and I had no doubt that she did. “Well, let’s get this over with then.”

I escorted them back to the interrogation rooms, opening the door for Evelyn and revealing my partner, Mike.

“Finally,” he grumbled, rising to his feet. “It’s about time.”

“I’m sorry,” Evelyn said, her brown arching, “I thought we said 9:30 a.m.” Her eyes pointedly moved to the clock on the wall, which read 9:28 a.m., and I stifled my grin.

Mike grumbled something again under his breath but reluctantly gestured to the seat across the table from him. There were two seats on Evelyn’s side of the table and three on Mike’s. I frowned and stepped forward to move a chair over to the other side, so all three of them could sit. The door opened behind me.

“Ah, Director Keller, right on time,” Mike greeted.

Director Keller was here? Why? He was the FIA director and didn’t get involved in field cases. What was he doing here, and why was Mike not surprised to see him?

“Sorry to drop in like this,” Director Keller said, his grin wide. “But I just wanted to check in on this investigation, make sure everything was going smoothly.” He winked at Evelyn, clearly trying to put her at ease.

The furrow in her brow eased, and she looked at Adrian. They had a silent conversation before she looked at Julie, who nodded. Adrian pulled out Evelyn’s, then Julie’s chairs before taking up a spot on the wall behind them. His presence was intimidating, and the director’s smile dipped slightly before he spoke.

“Please act like I’m not here.”

I took a seat next to Mike while Director Keller pulled his chair off to the corner of the room. It was really fucking strangehaving him here in the room, and I shifted in my chair. Mike seemed totally comfortable, though. Had he known the director was coming? Had he asked him to come here?

“Do you know why you’re here?” Mike started out, his tone hostile as he glared at Evelyn.

Evelyn simply arched an eyebrow. “Because Agent Hayes requested that I come in and speak with you,” she said simply.

I felt the director’s eyes on me, so I stifled my grin.

“Gentlemen,” her lawyer said, “my client is giving up her valuable time this morning to come down here. Can we get to the point of this meeting?”

“Sure,” Mike said, pulling out a laptop. “Can your client tell us what this is?”

He pressed play on an audio file.

“And it just made sense for Citadel to go after your bosses without warning?”

Evelyn’s eyes widened slightly at the sound of the voice on the tape. The voice didn’t sound familiar to me, but it was clear she recognized it. Where was this audio from?

“With what Citadel has been involved in over the years, it wouldn’t be out of character.”

I recognized Evelyn’s voice. Was this from the night she was kidnapped? Who was recording the audio? There was some rustling, like it was taken on someone’s phone in their pocket.

“Ah, yes. The Archers have had their fair share of run-ins with Citadel before, yes? You probably more than most as their leader.”The first speaker spoke again, and I realized where Mike was going with this the same moment Adrian did. He straightened from the wall, ready to throw down and, I was sure, to get Evelyn out of there.

There was a long pause before Evelyn’s voice crackled through the laptop’s speakers again.“Yes, we have,”she said.

Mike pressed a key on the laptop, and the audio cut off. “So you admit that you’re the leader of the Archers?” he said, a gloating grin on his face.

Evelyn just stared blankly back at him. She looked over at her lawyer, who nodded. How much did her lawyer know about that night?

“I was taken at gunpoint,” Evelyn said slowly, like she was speaking to a child. “I had already been hit once. So hard that I had a concussion. I would have said anything to stay alive.”