Max shoved him back in the chair. “She’s not going anywhere with you.”
Ben was intrigued by Max’s behavior. He apparently had decided he didn’t like or trust Greg, and that didn’t make any sense at all. Then he noticed the way Max was looking at Ellie. Ah, now he understood. Damn, he was slow today. He should have picked up on the signal much earlier. He stood and fished the keys out of his pocket and started toward Ellie, but Max stopped him.
“I’ve got this,” Max muttered. He took Ellie’s arm and practically pulled her across the room toward the stairs.
“It’s amazing,” Ellie whispered so only he could hear.
“What?”
“One minute you’re this aloof federal agent, and the next you’re Neanderthal man.”
He flashed a smile. “I just want to get you out of here before Hughes shoves the Landry photos in your face.”
Once they were in his car and on their way, she said, “Maybe Greg will be able to identify the Landrys.”
“Yeah, maybe. He says he got a good look at Cal before he put on the sunglasses.”
“Are you going to tell him witnesses have a way of disappearing?”
“Hughes will talk to him.”
“When does your flight leave?”
“In a day or two. It depends on how much we need to do here.”
She hated that she was going to have to say good-bye again. No kisses this time, she vowed, and no angst.
“I forgot to say good-bye to Ben,” she remarked.
“I’ll tell him. Listen, Ellie…”
“Yes?”
“I’m not forgetting about Evan Patterson. I will find him, and as soon as I do, I’ll call you.”
“Maybe he’s back in a mental ward somewhere,” she suggested.
“I’m checking,” he promised.
He pulled up to her building.
“I’m not going inside,” she told him as she unhooked her seat belt. She fished her car keys from her purse and got out before he turned off the motor.
“You be careful,” she said in farewell. She was able to stop herself before she added, “Chasing bad guys.” How lame would that have been?
He didn’t say good-bye to her. At least she didn’t think he did, but then she practically dived into her car and drove away. She forced herself not to look in the rearview mirror, and after she’d turned the corner, she sighed. Not too awkward, she decided. But in the back of her mind an unwanted thought nagged at her. She should have slept with him.
TEN
Greg Roper was a dream come true. Agent Hughes was overjoyed to have found such a strong witness to testify against the Landrys. The twenty-six-year-old had come forward the day after the shooting and had told Hughes he had seen both Cal and Erika Landry in the park.
When Hughes met Roper at the police station to look at the photos Sunday afternoon, the agent had his suspicions that Roper was a bit of a flake because of the way he kept hitting on Ellie Sullivan, but as soon as she left the station, Roper got down to business and quickly pointed out the suspects.
As far as Hughes was concerned, Roper was an ideal witness. He had never had any trouble with the police, had never even gotten a speeding ticket, and he had held down a good job for more than four years. Most important to Hughes was the fact that Roper wasn’t at all ambivalent about what he saw. He explained that he was crossing the park and was taking a shortcut through a thicket of shrubbery to get to his car when he saw Erika Landry. She was sitting in the passenger seat of a big Mercedes that was driving slowly down the street.
“What was she doing?” Hughes asked.
“She pulled down the visor to look at herself in the mirror, and then she tugged on her hair, and it all moved at once. It was a wig, and I think she was trying to fix the thing.”
“And Cal Landry?”
“I didn’t see his face yet, but when he parked the car at the end of the block and got out, I saw him. He stood there surveying the street, but he turned as he was bringing up his sunglasses. I was close enough to see the scar on his cheek.”
“Why did you stay where you were? Why didn’t you keep going?”
“I was curious. At first I thought maybe the woman was going through chemo or something and didn’t have any hair, but when she adjusted the wig, her long red hair fell loose, and she pushed it back in. She had pretty red hair. Why was she hiding it under a wig? Then I saw the man reach into his pocket and look down at something, like he was checking on it. I couldn’t see what it was, but it made me even more curious. I could tell they were up to something, and I had time, so I decided to follow them and see what it was. I guess you could say I was being nosy. They didn’t know I was there. They walked into the area of the park where the trees are pretty dense, and then suddenly they turned around and started walking really fast in the opposite direction. That’s when I saw the FBI agent running after them.”
“Did you see Landry shoot Agent Goodman?”
“I sure did. I saw him fire his gun in that direction where the agent was, and I saw the agent drop down, so, yes, I saw him shoot him.”
Roper insisted that the Landrys never saw him. “Never even looked my way, but the bushes hid me. I don’t think they would have seen me if they had looked.”
Hughes suggested strongly that Roper not discuss what he had seen with his family or friends.
There was a BOLO on the Landrys, but Hughes fully expected the couple to appear at a police station somewhere with their attorneys flanking them. They’d say they’d heard the feds were looking for them. Even though they’d accuse the FBI of harassment, they’d cooperate and answer questions. They might even admit they were in the park, but they’d confess their innocence, and they’d have a couple of witnesses to back them up.
Greg Roper was going to be their downfall… if Hughes could keep him alive long enough to testify.
ELEVEN
Ellie drove directly to the hospital and was finished with her surgery by five thirty. She was walking out the door when she was called back in. A bus filled with teenagers returning to St. Louis from a football camp had been broadsided by a semi, and there were four life-threatening injuries. Ellie did two more surgeries and didn’t get home until after three in the morning. She crawled into bed and slept twelve straight hours.
When she awoke, she felt restless and didn’t want to be alone, which was a rare feeling for her. She decided to go to her home away from home. She called Uncle Oliver and Aunt Millie Wheatley, the dear people who had taken her in when she was twelve years old. They loved her, nurtured and protected her, and she suddenly missed them horribly.
It wasn’t as though she hadn’t seen them in a while. She talked to them at least twice a week, sometimes more, and ate dinner at their house every other Sunday, depending on her schedule. But she had the sudden urge to spend some time with them before she left town.
Aunt Millie answered the phone when she called.
“May I spend the night?” Ellie asked. What was wrong with her? She sounded so pathetic.
“Of course,” Millie answered. “Your room is always ready for you.”
“I’ll be there in twenty.”
Ellie immediately felt better. Just hearing the voice of someone who loved her made a difference.
An hour later she was sitting in the Wheatley kitchen, drinking hot tea. Uncle Oliver wanted to know about her latest surgeries and, of course, wanted the details about the incident outside the hospital. She talked about the surgery but didn’t tell him she had seen the shooting. If he knew that she had been so close to the gunshots, he would have been very upset.
When her uncle had gone to bed, she and Millie discussed the upcoming wedding in Winston Falls.
“You’re nervous about going home, aren’t you?” Millie asked.
“Yes. I’m afraid,” she admitted.
“Your father would know if that monster is back in town,” she said, referring to Patterson.