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“Cami, I don’t think you have realized how seriously we have taken everything you’ve said and hinted at. We lost a good agent, Ethan, because of what was related to this. The fact that you, who are clearly an outspoken person, were too scared to talk about this was extremely worrying to us. So rather than pressure you, we started looking extremely closely at everything surrounding you. Everything you were involved in, and everything you didn’t say.”
“I – er – well, I meant to tell you everything,” Cami mumbled, now feeling worried that all her clandestine activities, of which there were quite a few, were being tracked. Would Connor be mad about this – if not now, then down the line?
“Of course you did. But there were things you couldn’t tell us. We looked into those – when I say, ‘we’, I mean Jacenta and me. Nobody else. We knew that we could not trust anyone except ourselves. So we did our best, pooling our information and also looking into your background. Into the disappearance of Jenna. And the weird way that case was handed over and then disappeared.” His voice was sympathetic.
Cami was astounded. She hadn’t known or guessed that he would ever look into that. She felt utterly stunned that he’d even known about it in such depth. It had been a private pain point for her that she’d never chosen to speak to him about, firstly because she hadn’t trusted him and then when she had, it felt like too little too late. Rather, she’d believed she needed to prove herself to him for what she was, not what lay in her past.
But Connor had been looking and researching, and he'd found out. And in turn, he'd also kept that to himself and had never told her. There had been things going on behind the scenes that she'd not had the faintest idea of. That Connor had been feeling his way carefully into her past, knowing that important things might be concealed there.
“You found all that out?” Stating the obvious, she knew.
"Yes. Not all at once. Over time and very discreetly. Jacinta was absolutely insistent on the need for that. Even when I just thought you were being stubborn, she was the one who picked up that you were terribly scared."
The things she hadn’t known! The compassion with which people had treated her! Cami felt lost for words yet again as Connor continued.
“So we found out that there was definitely someone within the Bureau who had gone bad. We picked up on a few related cases that had been dropped. We realized that this person must still be in the Bureau and that they were clearly still involved in this. We started searching for people who’d known Liam in particular. But although we got a shortlist of people, we couldn’t find the name we needed.”
“Until?” For some reason, Cami thought that word might be hovering in the air, and so it proved. Connor nodded, his gaze fixing hers.
"Until last week, when you went into the meeting with Jacinta." He paused. "She didn't realize immediately. Not at the time. She was frustrated and thought you were just shutting down again in the way you'd done previously. It was only after you'd left, and she went back to her office, that she started putting two and two together. And even then, it was difficult." Connor's voice was now resonating with an emotion that Cami weirdly recognized as stress. "Such a senior agent? It seemed impossible.”
Cami took a deep breath. “Maybe it was just as well you were in Atlanta,” she said.
Connor nodded. “Considering that my office was bugged, it was just as well.”
Cami couldn’t believe it. It was impossible than an office – maybe more than one – within the FBI itself had been bugged. That just blew her mind. It was so strange, so surreal.
“What about Jacenta’s office?”
“Also bugged. She’s supposedly been sent to Delaware to help with a financial case. That’s the story we’ve put out. She’s not in Delaware. She’s still here. Because now we’ve realized that Bill Oertel must be the agent behind a network that is bigger and more powerful than we’ve ever thought. And it’s not going to be easy to pin this on him. Plus, seeing our offices were bugged, he’s already alert and aware.”
“How are you going to do it?” Cami asked.
“We’ve set some traps,” Connor said. “I won’t say more. But we’ve been very careful. We’ve made sure that only the people we implicitly trust, at the highest level, are involved. And we’re taking it slowly. Very slowly.”
"Of course," Cami said. Something like this, she guessed couldn't be done in a day. Much as she would have loved for a team of agents to storm Bill Oertel's office and arrest him and lock him up, she could see that would be vastly premature. He had covered his tracks incredibly well. Uncovering them would take time.
“Is he in the office at the moment?” she asked.
"Called in sick yesterday. He's going to fight this hard. He's probably working on this at the moment, but so are we. And if we can, we're going to get him. But it'll take time. We can't try to force his hand. But we can create a situation where he incriminates himself." Connor's voice was as iron-hard as Cami had ever heard it. Listening to the resolve in his tone gave her hope and confidence.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked, thinking of her IT skills and that they might make a difference here.
But Connor shook his head. “For the time being, we don’t want you involved at all. The first thing Jacenta and I agreed is that we do not want you in danger. That’s partly why we are not doing anything that might alert Oertel.”
“What if he knows already?” Cami’s first thought was for Kieran. “What about Kieran, Connor? He’s Ethan’s brother and Oertel might target him!” Anxiety surged inside her. She wasn’t nearly as worried for herself as she was for him.
“That was one of the first precautions we took,” Connor said to her relief and surprise. “There’s an undercover agent posted outside his workplace. We’ve had one outside your apartment also.”
“So – is that why we’re here now?” she asked hesitantly. “So that you can update me on this without Oertel overhearing us?”
Connor shook his head. For a moment, his grim demeanor lightened slightly.
"No. I didn't have time to tell you yet because this update came first. But there's a case on the go. As of this morning."
“A case?”
"Yes. And that's why we're here. So that we can investigate it and do our work without being overheard. Even if people are maneuvering in the background, what we do comes first. And this case is a strange one.” Connor took a deep breath, as if renewing his focus on what they had to do. “There’s no proof yet that the murders are linked, but they’re very similar and they’ve taken place within a short timeframe,” he said. “And, if it’s a serial, there’s a risk this killer will strike again.”
