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Burke leaned forward, appearing earnest as he started his interview. He didn’t bother to try to set his witness at ease before jumping right into questioning her, but he was gentle in his questioning.
“Before we go into the details of your trip to Florida, I want to talk about last night a bit, Jennie. We need to get to the bottom of who tried to set your parents’ house on fire,” Burke said. When he continued, he looked up at Chad and then back to the fake Jennie. “Who knew you were coming home last night?”
As Agent Danners answered him, feeding him the information she’d been given for her role as Jennie, Chad continued to watch Burke. There wasn’t a single clue that he was being anything other than honest in his line of questioning.
No eye-blocking behavior like lowering of his eyelids or rubbing an eye. He didn’t engage in any pacifying behaviors like tugging at his collar or rubbing the back of his neck. It didn’t mean he wasn’t lying, especially since he would have received training in the area of body language and deceit as an FBI agent, but Chad was pretty damn good at spotting a lie. He wasn’t seeing anything but honesty as he looked at Burke.
He caught Mike’s eye and he knew Mike was thinking the same thing. Burke was questioning Agent Danners as if he genuinely wanted to get to find out who was behind the attempted arson the night before.
If he’d been the one to leak the information, it was unlikely he’d raise the issue first. It was more likely he would have had an ambush out in the parking lot that Danners and Chad would have had to deal with on the way in.
Mike spoke up, breaking into the conversation Burke was having with Danners. “Agent Burke, I think we need to follow all possible avenues here. Who did you contact after hearing from Chad about Jennie’s whereabouts last night?”
Burke’s eyes shot to Mike first then to Chad and all Chad saw was genuine shock, followed by anger. Mike diffused his anger by holding up a hand in appeasement.
“I only ask because we need to trace all possible avenues of a leak. We need to know who you passed the info on to, so we can track those leads,” Mike said.
Burke nodded and the anger seeped from him but you could still see a hint of indignation at having another agent question him. Mike outranked Burke as a Supervisory Special Agent, so Chad knew Burke wasn’t likely to argue.
Mike’s phone rang as Burke opened his mouth to speak. Mike glanced at the screen before taking the call with an apologetic look to the group. They listened as he grunted a couple of responses then looked up at Chad with startled eyes.
“What is it?” Chad asked as soon as Mike ended the call.
“I had one of my people running down anything we could find on the two men who tried to start the fire at Jennie’s parent’s house. They’re out on bail on charges of grand larceny in an auto theft ring in Florida. The AUSA on their case is Caroline Waters,” Mike said.
Agent Burke cursed. “I only told three people of your whereabouts. I left a voicemail for the Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven field office to see if she could send a field agent out to Torrington to take Jennie’s statement. I sent an email to my supervisor. The third person was AUSA Waters. I copied her on the email. If she gets her emails on her phone like I do, she would have seen it shortly after you contacted me,” Agent Burke said.
Chad didn’t wait to hear any more and neither did Mike. They moved in tandem toward the door as Chad took his phone out of his pocket. “We need to get to Jennie.”
As Mike drove, Chad tried to reach Jennie on her phone, but she didn’t pick up. He hung up and sent a text telling her not let anyone in. As soon as that went through, he tried calling again.
He couldn’t lose her now.
Not now when they’d only really just found each other.
Chapter 37
Jennie paced Chad’s condo, walking from one room to the next. She’d settle for a bit in one room, pick up a book and try to read or pull out a carton of milk and a glass to pour a drink, before abandoning it and moving to another room. She couldn’t seem to settle herself at all.
She knew the smart choice had been for her to stay behind, but waiting for Chad to come back to her wasn’t easy. It was probably the hardest thing she’d had to do in the nightmare that had become her existence since she’d met the Masters brothers.
She knew Chad would call or text as soon as they had either Burke or Bandon or both men in custody so she stared at her cell phone relentlessly.
Realistically, she knew it wouldn’t ring for at least a couple of hours, if that soon. She watched it just the same, willing it to ring. She just needed to hear his voice and know he was safe, know he was coming home to her.
Jennie startled when the landline rang in Chad’s condo a half hour after he left. She knew the landline was actually only there for the doorman to call up to the condo. Though it wasn’t used for anything else, she still worried that someone was calling that number to tell her something had happened.
That things had gone wrong and Chad wouldn’t be coming home to her.
Fear clenched in her stomach as she crossed to the cordless phone that sat in its cradle on the kitchen counter.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Ms. Evans? It’s Bernard from downstairs.” She let out a breath as she recognized the doorman. “There’s a Caroline Waters here to see you. Says she’s with the United States Attorney’s office. She has credentials and she said Mr. Thompson sent her to sit with you. She said you would understand why. Do you want me to send her up, Ms. Evans?”
“Oh.” Chad hadn’t told her he would be sending anyone, but it made sense that the attorney for the case would want to speak with her. “Are you sure she has identification?”
“Yes, ma’am, but I can tell her to wait until Mr. Thompson returns, if you’d like.”
