Chapter Eleven
“Your house was broken into last night and you didn’t call me?”
Taylor tried not to squirm under Meredith’s stern glare as she sat across from her in Meredith’s office. “They didn’t take anything and I wasn’t home. Nothing was damaged.”
“What were they after?”
Goosebumps rose on Taylor’s arms from the air conditioning. Meredith must have had another hot flash and cranked the thermostat down to sub-arctic temps. “Most likely information on the Jarvis case. My laptop was up and running when I entered the place and my file on the Jarvis case was open. I always close out everything and all my stuff is password protected. Whoever broke in disarmed my security system and got around my laptop’s security.”
“Damn it.” Meredith’s face grew even more grim. “I can’t believe how this case is spinning out of control. Cunningham is going to have my badge before this is over. You should have called me.”
“Yes, ma’am, I should have, but I was exhausted and all I wanted was some sleep.” Mostly the truth. “I locked up and went to a friend’s for the remainder of the night. I didn’t see any reason to wake you and put a lot of other people out that late. I came here first thing this morning to inform you.”
Meredith’s lips worked. “You didn’t call me because you knew I would chew your ass out about this.”
Taylor decided to take the 5th and stay silent.
“Well, at least you were smart enough not to stay at your place afterwards. Tell me you didn’t touch anything.” Mer leaned forward and grabbed her phone. “I’ll get a tech team over there right now.”
There was no way Taylor was confessing that she’d already had Charlie Schock at her place dusting for prints. Better to keep quiet about that. Besides, the place had been a mess with fingerprint residue and she’d wiped everything down after Charlie was done. There were no prints to find. “Don’t waste FBI resources on me. There won’t be any prints, trust me. Whoever did this is good. I kicked a couple of rocks yesterday on the Jarvis case and someone obviously didn’t like it. I’m sure the break-in is related to that. I want to bring Dottie Hernandez in for—”
Meredith held up a finger as she spoke into the handset. “Yeah, Cora, it’s me. I need a team over at Taylor Sinclair’s place as soon as possible. It was broken into last night. Nothing was damaged, but I want you to dust for prints and collect any evidence you can find.”
Cora said something, Mer gave her an affirmative, and the two disconnected. “Who’s Dottie Hernandez?” she asked, dropping the handset back into its cradle.
Oh boy. Mer was forcing her to come clean about the fingerprinting. It was either that, or Cora would figure out that Taylor had already wiped everything down. “Look, Mer. The tech team won’t find any prints other than mine. I already had a friend check.”
“Youwhat?” Meredith looked like she was about to come out of her chair.
And, wow, Taylor had to admit, she’d never seen her boss look so completely vexed at her. That was saying something since Taylor had a way of vexing most everyone.
“Like I said, this break-in is the direct cause of my investigation yesterday, I’m sure of it. I’m also sure the perp was too good to leave behind fingerprints, so let’s not worry about that. Dottie Hernandez is the manager of the TriCare Birthing Center where Felicity and Walt made plans to have their child. It caters to the rich and famous and, according to what Mrs. Hernandez explained to me yesterday, they create binders for each mother that contains numerous pages of personal information on everyone involved, right down to the people who might visit after the kid’s born. They say it’s for security, but that kind can backfire if it falls into the wrong hands.”
“What does that have to do with Felicity’s kidnapping?” The words were clipped. “And who is this friend you had fingerprint your place? Please tell me it wasn’t Grey.”
“Believe it or not, I do have law enforcement friends outside of this office, and no, it wasn’t Grey.” She didn’t have any friends in law enforcement outside of Matt, but Mer certainly didn’t need to know that. “The Jarvis baby could still be alive and Felicity may have been picked by our perp because of a dozen things, all listed in her TriCare birth planner. He learned all he needed to know about Felicity and Baby Jarvis from it. They were handpicked for a reason, and if I can figure out what that is, I can track down our killer.”
Mer tipped back in her chair and studied Taylor. Taylor could almost see the imaginary steam pouring from her ears. “You have less than 12 hours to take solid findings to AD Cunningham, or he’s going to pull the plug on your investigation. Do you really want to waste that time talking to this Hernandez woman?”
There were two types of FBI agents. Guys like Mitch who always had a smartass comment and their own agenda for solving cases, and guys like Justice Greystone, who were levelheaded and smart when dealing with superiors.
The Mitch Monroes typically didn’t last long, but for a moment, Taylor sympathized with them. She wanted to rail against the injustice of AD Cunningham’s demand and Mer for taking his side in their last meeting. Meredith knew Taylor was a damn good agent and would bleed for the Bureau. This case, because it involved a United States senator and the media, was interfering with the search for justice.
A dozen reasons why questioning Dottie Hernandez wasexactlywhat she wanted to do in her last 12 hours skittered through Taylor’s head. In fact, they damn near begged her to channel Mitch Monroe and say them out loud. Instead, she chose the smart, professional, Justice Greystone route, “Yes, ma’am. I do.”
Grey would be so proud.
Meredith shook her head, her gaze dropping to her desktop as she let go of a pained sigh. “I can’t fucking believe this, but it’s your neck, Taylor.”
Disappointment hung in the air between them. Resignation.
Red-hot anger underneath it all.
Taylor wasn’t the shining star in Meredith’s crown anymore and the realization stung, but it was just another wound in her growing list of them.
I need a drink.
Or Matt. Mad Dog had a way of soothing her like nothing else.
