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I smile. “I have your file from the Island, Lindsay. It’s all in there.” I know – and she knows – that I don’t have all the information. That’s okay.
Eventually I will.
Right now, though, I have to make her think I know more than I really do.
It’s the only way to mine her for new information.
“You want me to think that.” But she’s shaky. She might as well give it up. I figured it all out two days ago.
Almost all of it.
Every bit except for the identity of her internet helper, but that’ll come in time.
“Finding Your Inner Bitch: 365 Ways to Be Angry,” I quote with a chuckle. Paulson smothers a grin. “Nice book. We decoded your review.”
Lindsay just shakes her head slowly. She’s fighting a grin, though.
“Want to know what it actually says? You used one of the simplest codes in the world. The third letter after each punctuation mark in the review is the message.”
Lindsay’s face twists into a mask of anger and she snaps, “Cipher.”
“Excuse me?”
“If you’re going to talk about how I communicated with him, have the intelligence to use the correct words. It wasn’t a code. It was a cipher, dumbass.”
We’ve progressed to name-calling. Great.
“She’s got you there,” Paulson mutters.
“I wasn’t in this branch of military intelligence,” I bite off.
“Biggest oxymoron ever,” she says with a sigh.
“You pulled that old joke out? Oh, my hurt heart,” I say, hand over my chest. “Bottom line: we figured it out. We know what you asked your contact to research, and we know you’ve been surveilling Stellan, Blaine and John for the last few months.”
“Not surveilling. Just wanted to know where they were.”
“But you acted like you didn’t know about their success.”
“I didn’t! I only knew where they were. Not who they’d become.”
“You’re lying.”
“I swear!”
“You’ve sworn before.”
“But I mean it now!” She frowns. “I knew they were in the press. The first year there, I got secret Internet access. But the last two years they completely cut me off. That’s why I started doing the book review things.”
I give her an I told you so look.
“Fine. Yes, you figured it out.” She half smiles. “I fooled everyone but you, Drew.”
“Remember that, sweets. I will always know your secrets, especially if having them puts you in danger.”
“Don’t call me sweets! And I was never in danger. At least, not on the Island.”
“What do you know about your internet informant?”
