Dead End

John nodded and stood up, a clear sign that the interview was over.

Luther was half out the door when John called to him. “I’m going to ask you not to discuss this with anyone for the time being. We have the local police to deal with. We’re going to try to keep this out of the press as much as possible. I don’t have to tell you what a PR nightmare this is going to be. And then there’s the Shields family. As I’m sure you know, they’ve given more than their share to the Bureau. Brendan’s father is going to be heartbroken over this whole thing. We need to be sensitive and respectful of their situation. And it goes without saying that I have your word you will not be leaving the area.”

For a moment, John Mancini appeared to be about to cry.

Luther left the office feeling better than he had in a long, long time.

Were it not for the fact that it would surely have drawn suspicion, he’d have been skipping down the hall and whistling a happy tune. He’d gotten rid of one horrendous thorn in his side and made himself look like a hero at the same time. Oh, sure, his original plan had been to get rid of A

What the hell, at least he’d come out of it looking good. And it was actually better for him in the long run, he rationalized as he walked to the elevator. A

All in all, it had been a very good day.

24

Co

He’d been en route from his weeklong rest in Essaouira to his latest assignment when he’d gotten the call from John Mancini on his cell.

“Call me from a secure line. Now.”

It had taken Co

His cousin Brendan was dead, shot by a fellow agent who’d seen Brendan with a gun pointed at A

At first he’d been tempted to laugh out loud. How crazy was that scenario? Brendan holding a gun on A

Then came the bombshell.

From all the evidence, it appeared that Brendan had been the one who shot and killed Co

For Co

“Actually, he was. His presence was mentioned on a report. A report he may have killed to have kept secret.”

And then John had told him about Melissa Lowery’s report, and her disappearance, and her death… and her marriage to Grady.

No way would Brendan have killed the woman his brother loved, Co

“Co

“What are you doing to determine whether or not he did in fact kill Dylan?”

“We’ve confiscated the weapons from his house. We’re going to start ru

Then came the kicker.

“Co

“Me? You think he was coming after me next?”

“No. The theory is that you might have been the original target.”

“That’s just crazy.”

“Think for a minute, would you? I know this is all coming as a shock, but put your emotions aside and think. Is there any reason Brendan would have wanted you dead? Anything you had over on him, or anything that you knew that could hurt him, anything questionable about his actions, anything strange that struck you as odd or out of the ordinary. Anything he seemed secretive or evasive about?”

“Santa Estela.” The words left Co

“What about it?”

“A couple of years back, I was there right before the elections…”

“I remember.”

“On the night I was to leave, I was on my way down to the dock for the boat that was to pick me up, and I took a shortcut through an alley that ran between some abandoned warehouses. There was a deal going down; I watched from the alley. Six, seven men, a truck filled with kids. One of me. I was trying to figure out what to do when I ran into Brendan.”

“You ran into Brendan in the alley?” John had been clearly surprised.

“He walked in one end while I was at the other. Almost didn’t recognize him at first, it was dark, and let’s face it, the last person you expect to run into under those circumstances is a member of your own family.”

“What was he doing there?”

“He told me he was on the op that was just about to close down the kiddie traffic.”

“What op?”

“The operation to shut down the traffic in children coming out of Santa Estela. He told me not to worry about the kids in the truck because he was part of the team that was shutting it down that night. When I asked him about it later, he blew me off as if it wasn’t important, but an op like that could have had international repercussions and I…”

“Co

“He must have been working for another unit then, because he told me-”

“Listen to me. He was working for me. He’s always worked for me, and only for me. There was no op. He was there to keep an eye on the rebels, to keep the political situation stable.”

“John, you’re wrong. They closed it down that night, he told me they did. There’s a whole file on this, he wrote a report-”

“Did you see it? Did he show you the report?”

“Well, no, but he told me-”

“Co

“I can’t believe any of this. The Brendan I knew-”

“Just how well did you know him?”

Co

“If any of what you’re telling me is true, I’d have to say I didn’t know him at all.”

There’d been talk after that of a memorial service to be held the following week.

“You might want to think about coming home for it, Co

“I don’t have to think about it. I won’t be there.”

“I can arrange for you to come home.”

“That bastard.” Anger had started to take over. “The bastard. How could he have pulled the trigger on Dylan?”

“Well, like I said, he might not have realized he was shooting Dylan. It was dark, you were supposed to be there with Aidan that night. I don’t think Dylan was the target.”

“You think he wanted to kill me because I’d seen him in Santa Estela? You think he was part of that, selling truckloads of children? There’s no way he would have been involved in something like that, John.”

“Think it through. Why else would he have been there? We know there was no op to shut it down, so if he wasn’t shutting it down-and we know he lied to you about that-he must have been part of it. It had to occur to him that sooner or later, you would ask about that, and there was the danger that you’d figure out what was going on.”

“You really think he was involved in the trafficking?”

“I think he had to have been. And he had to know that sooner or later, you would be asking about how that all went down.”

“I did,” Co

“What?”

“I did ask. A week or so ago. I left a message on his answering machine, asking him what happened.”

“Why? What made you think of it?”

“A