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O’Connor repeated her original question in a firmer tone. The man shook his head. Then she said something else, and he shook his head again. I could tell he was lying. His eyes averted O’Connor and he started to fidget. And the firmer O’Conner became, the worse it became.
The guy was lying. And not just lying, but he was afraid. I don’t think it was from O’Connor. Could it be from what she was saying? Or was he afraid of someone else?
Would be very helpful if I spoke Tabiqian.
President O’Connor turned and left the room. Bennett followed, but I waited a few seconds just watching the man’s reaction. His hands started to tremble, and I had my answer.
Turning, I left the room with Draven behind me. No one spoke until we were back in the small office where we originally met.
As soon as we were seated, I said, “He’s lying. And more than that, he’s afraid of what you’ll find.”
The president lowered her eyes and shook her head. Bennett cursed softly.
Draven asked, “Is there anything further that Kinsley and I can do to help?”
“You’re already helping by bringing families back together. It’s just never easy when you find one that can’t,” O’Connor replied.
Was someone killed? “I’m sorry. I know you would prefer to keep the details private, but maybe I could help more if I knew what the issue was.”
O’Connor looked at Bennett who nodded. Then she turned to me and said, “There was an eighteen-year-old girl who went missing a couple of weeks ago. This man was seen close by where she disappeared. I had asked if he had anything to do with her disappearance.”
“He lied,” I said. “But there is something else. Not sure what it is. Maybe he wasn’t alone, or he’s working for someone, but there is something he’s afraid you’ll learn.”
“You mean more afraid than facing justice for his crime?” O’Connor asked.
“Yes. It’s not you or jail that he fears.” That hit home so closely to the last case I worked on. The one that almost cost me my life. That man hadn’t been afraid of the FBI taking him in. It wasn’t the legal system that scared him either. He had been afraid of what was going to happen to him if he was locked up for his crimes. Behind bars, he had no place to hide from the people who wanted him to keep his mouth shut. “I would say you have caught a small fish and you need to find the big one or it will continue happening.”
“Fuck!” Bennett snapped.
President O’Connor said, “Thank you Kinsley for letting us know. At least now we can take the appropriate actions.”
It was our cue that we weren’t invited to whatever that next action plan was going to be. I had plenty of questions. Answers weren’t coming now, but hopefully, Draven would be a bit more forthcoming once we were alone.
We left the office and once outside of the hospital, I asked, “Is there anything you want to share with me?”
The black SUV pulled up and TJ was once again in the driver's seat. “Not now.”
“When?”
He opened the back passenger door and replied. “Brian was right. You know your shit. But now you need to go and get food and rest. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Before I could say another word, Draven shut the door and tapped twice on the SUV so TJ could drive away.
“He’s not coming with us?” I asked TJ.
“No ma’am.”
“What’s he going to do?” I asked.
“You’d need to ask him,” he replied.
TJ was wearing dark sunglasses so I couldn’t see his eyes, but I already had my answer. I was the only one excluded from the action plan meeting.
Got it. You respect my opinion, but you don’t know if you can trust me.
I wasn’t offended. I’d encountered that a lot working with the FBI. Law enforcement wanted our help but rarely shared any of their information with us.Never stopped us from learning it all on our own.
It would be so easy for me to call Brian and tell him what was going on. Heck, he might even be able to shed some light on Tabiq’s true status. But if I did and Draven found out, then I knew he’d fire me instantly. I wasn’t sure I really wanted this job, but if I was leaving, it was because I wanted to, not because Draven made it happen.
