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All the homes in the Ayerses’ neighborhood sat on at least an acre or so of land. Many of the homes were surrounded by high walls.
The Ayerses’ home was not.
There were cars in the circular drive, and all up and down the street, cars in driveways, and legally parked on the road.
Colleen knew a few of the parked cars were police or agents, but she was glad they were not obvious in any way. Of course, she was watched as she entered the Ayerses’ driveway and walked to the door of the house.
Mariana came to the door and greeted Colleen politely and courteously, asking her to wait in the expansive parlor while she found Mr. or Mrs. Ayers.
“I’m really here for Miss Ayers,” Colleen told her.
Mariana didn’t have to find Dierdre Ayers; Dierdre—followed by Gary—was heading out of the wing with the kitchen and dining room as they spoke.
“Hi!” Dierdre said. “Have you caught someone else? Is there news? Please tell me it’s not another kidnapping!”
“No, no, nothing like that,” Colleen assured her. “And I’m so sorry, but we would appreciate it if you would come back in.”
“But I’ve—I’ve told everyone dozens of times what happened,” Dierdre said.
“We’re going to do something we haven’t done yet. Down to basics,” Colleen said. “We’re going to do a cognitive interview.”
“Cool,” Gary said. He looked at Dierdre. “I’ve seen it on cop shows. You close your eyes, you think back... It’s kind of like being with a shrink.”
Colleen smiled. “Well, there are four basic aspects to a cognitive interview. Reinstatement of the environment, looking at different perspectives—”
“She was alone. There were no witnesses,” Gary said.
“Oh, there was another,” Colleen said. “Whoever did this. And then we look at what happened in a different order, and finally, work on finding every last little detail.”
“Cool,” Gary said, but he looked at Colleen suspiciously. “You want her alone? I’m not sure about that. I’d like to come in with you.”
“Oh, you can bring her to the office and wait and bring her right home after if you’d like,” Colleen told him. “We do have something of a lounge with a television that gets the Bloomberg Report.”
“All right. I don’t want you coming or going alone, baby,” Gary said.
“Okay.”
Colleen was about to turn to leave when Rory and Amelia Ayers came down the stairs. “Special Agent Law,” Rory said. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“It’s all right, Rory,” Gary said. “They want to ask her a few more questions, but she said I can go with her.”
“Maybe I should go,” Rory said.
“Dad!” Dierdre protested. “Gary will be with me.”
“Sweetheart?” Amelia said, placing a hand on his arm.
Rory still looked distressed—but now knotted up. Gary was supposed to be the man in Dierdre’s life, protecting her from all things. And his wife apparently didn’t want him interfering.
“Watch her carefully!” he warned Gary.
“Will do,” Gary promised. “I’ll follow you,” he told Colleen.
When they were out of the house and the door closed behind them, he grinned at Colleen.
“I’ll follow you and cops will follow me. It will be great.”
“Right,” she admitted.
“That’s good. It will make me obey the speed limit!”
Gary seemed fine with it, even knowing he wouldn’t be in with Dierdre during the interview.
“Are you going to hypnotize me or something?” Dierdre asked as they walked to their cars.
“No, no. Just go through it all, the way I said.”
Once inside Mark’s car, she waited until she saw Gary behind the wheel before starting out.
As she drove, she called Mark.
“We’re on our way in,” she said.
“With Gary?”
“With Gary. But I’ve informed him he’ll be watching business news in the lounge.”
“And he is okay with that?”
“He was.”
“All right. Bring Dierdre to the end conference room. Angela can get Gary settled in the lounge. She’s made some interesting discoveries, by the way.”
“Oh?”
“I’ll show you when we finish. She has the information she gathered and is transferring a file to me. You can look at it during the drive to Front Royal.”
“Okay. That’s evasive.”
“No, it’s...well, let me put it this way: there was an Embracer at work years ago. We may have just discovered the tip of an iceberg.”
