Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 107352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“So your sister is Caitlyn Duchesne?” I asked, scrolling on my phone.
“That’s correct.”
“And she witnessed Edward Beaton shoot and kill five men.”
“She did, yes. She witnessed it from the second-story window of her hotel room and even took video for good measure.”
“That was very brave of her to go forward. You should be proud of her.”
“I would be prouder if she hadn’t witnessed the crime while she was at a hotel with her lover, whom she was having a six-month affair with. She’s thirty-nine now, and Marcello Conti is a whopping twenty-four.”
He seemed upset by the age difference, and I had no response to that.
“I—anyway, she went into WITSEC with Mr. Conti instead of opting to take her family, which apparently you can do.”
“That’s right, I have that,” I told him. “And this was eighteen months ago.”
“Yes.”
“And the case is coming up next month?”
“That’s what was originally related, yes.”
“So you and your family are concerned for your brother-in-law and your niece and two nephews?”
“Not the family. Me.”
“Pardon?”
“I don’t know if you’re aware of Roarke Pharmaceuticals, Nash, but that’s what our family does. We own the company, and I’m the CEO. My parents did not want their daughter to marry a landscaper. They wanted her to marry David Oglethorpe the Third. But she bailed on the engagement and married Luke Duchesne instead. They have three children, as you know, and I’m the only one who stayed in contact with her.”
“So your parents are estranged from their daughter.”
“Correct. My parents have never met her children and will not. I wish that was different, but I don’t ever see it changing. Caitlyn and Luke were married for seventeen years, and there was never any thaw.”
“Okay.”
“Now that she’s entered WITSEC, none of us will see her again, but when I reached out to the marshals, I was told they cannot offer Luke and the kids any protection.”
“Perhaps that’s because they’re not in any jeopardy,” I pointed out. “Not to mention the fact that if Mr. Beaton was killing—”
“My understanding is that he was working for a cartel the FBI is very interested in dismantling through him. That’s why her preferences were taken into consideration.”
“You mean taking Mr. Conti with her.”
“Yes.”
“Having worked with the marshals on a number of occasions over the years, I suspect they feel that by taking Mr. Conti with her and no one from her family,” I said, trying to be as tactful as possible, “she’s telegraphing who is, and is not, important to her.”
“Meaning what?”
I took a breath. “It’s very unlikely anyone from the cartel will come after your sister’s family.”
He was quiet on the other end.
“My understanding is that your sister’s divorce was finalized quite quickly after she left.”
“Yes. Apparently, when you’re in WITSEC, uncontested divorces move lightning fast.”
“Uncontested divorces do that generally. I doubt it has anything to do with WITSEC, Mr. Roarke.”
“Regardless, the divorce was finalized almost a year ago now.”
I cleared my throat. “I suspect your sister had been unhappy in her marriage for a while, and when she was given the gift to start over, she took it.”
“Yes. That’s what Luke said as well.”
I was confused. “So what is it you want us to do here, Mr. Roarke?”
He took a breath. “I don’t want my sister’s kids and her ex-husband to be in harm’s way simply because she didn’t think to safeguard them. I’ve paid the retainer, so I would like Torus to send a fixer to Eena, Washington, and watch over my niece, two nephews, and ex-brother-in-law.”
A brief search showed Eena, Washington, to be somewhere between the Seattle Tacoma International Airport and Newcastle. It was not a big place, with only about five thousand people, on the edge of Lake Washington. It would be the smallest place I’d ever been to. And of course it would be me—there was no one else available.
Rais had recently gotten back from a month-long job in Dallas, Texas, so he couldn’t go. We never sent a fixer on back-to-back long-term contracts. Shaw didn’t take out-of-town jobs anymore, not since marrying Benji. Cooper went out of town, but not for more than two nights in a row, so he was out. Ella had been in Hartford, Connecticut, for the last month, so she wasn’t going, and our two new fixers, Danesha Browne and Evangeline Andrade, had just returned from a protection job in Little Rock, Arkansas, with a state health inspector turned whistleblower. They had both arrived a bit ago, with dates, for the wedding reception. I liked them both a lot, and since burning them out was not a good idea, this horror show was on me.
“Question, Mr. Roarke.”
“Of course.”
“Does Mr. Duchesne want protection for himself and his family?”
No answer.
“Mr. Roarke?” I prodded.
Still nothing.
“Have you even discussed this with him?”
“No. Not at all.”
Of course he hadn’t. “What do you want done if he refuses to have a fixer in his home?”