What had she been expecting to find?
She eased the freezer door shut and turned back to survey the room. There was no indeed physical evidence. She regarded the sink and noted a slow drip. She moved over and twisted one of the handles. The drip continued, one droplet at a time. Tap, tap. Droplets struck the metal basin.
“Is the witness coming?” Adele said, glancing over at Paige.
The older woman was still watching the skyline through the window. She grunted, “On her way.”
Adele cleared her throat. “What was her name again?”
“Melissa Robinson. Also American—she found the body.”
Adele set her lips. “How do you think we should approach questioning?”
Agent Paige shrugged again. “You’re the Interpol operative. I’m just here following your lead. Do what you want.”
Adele hesitated, staring across the crime scene. She nodded once, then, in as diplomatic a tone as she could summon, she said, “I think we need to have a chat.”
Paige finally looked away from the window and raised a silver eyebrow.
Adele approached carefully, coming to stand in front of the older woman, though part of her wanted to hide in the corner of the room. The scent of soap was even stronger than before as she met her partner’s gaze. “This doesn’t have to be painful, but I have a feeling you’re not putting in as much effort as you could.”
Paige betrayed no expression for a moment. At last, she shrugged and said, “I’m not in charge of your feelings. Maybe you should do a better job controlling them.”
Adele stared at the older woman. “I don’t believe this is helpful.”
“The number of things you’re unable to believe isn’t my business,” Paige said coolly. She carried the attitude of someone delighting in the frustration of another. Adele’s mounting temper seemed only to further fuel Paige’s enjoyment.
“I didn’t know it was you,” Adele blurted out at last.
Agent Paige’s expression became fixed.
Adele glanced back toward the door, and was glad to see the frame empty, suggesting the landlord was further down the hall. She lowered her voice all the same and said, “I didn’t know. I just saw someone had moved one of the accounting documents out of evidence. I thought it was a clerical error. When I reported it to Foucault, I had no clue—”
“Stop,” Paige snapped, gritting her teeth.
The quiet, quizzical expression of complacency had faded now, like ice melting over a pool, revealing the boiling anger beneath.
“I’m serious,” Adele said, “if I had known—”
“You did what you did.” Paige was scowling now. Her hands, at her sides, trembled against her gray suit. “They demoted me. I’m lucky I still have my job. Matthew was arrested. They questioned him for nearly a week!”
Adele winced. “I’m sorry. All I saw was missing evidence. I didn’t know—”
“God damn what you don’t know,” Agent Paige snapped. She slammed her finger into Adele’s chest, pushing sharply against the younger woman. “You should have come to me. I was your supervisor! You went behind my back, like a little rat.”
Adele stepped back, reaching up and rubbing at her chest, wondering if she’d find a bruise come morning. She shook her head and said, “You moved evidence to protect your boyfriend. I didn’t know what had happened. I didn’t even know you were dating a suspect—”
“He wasn’t a suspect when we started,” Paige snapped, but then trailed off, biting the words with a snarl. “It’s none of your fucking business who I date, understand? And they cleared him. He didn’t do it.”
Adele nodded, trying to keep her posture nonthreatening. “Good. I’m glad. I didn’t know that at the time. All I knew was that someone had moved evidence. If I had known it was you, I would have talked to you. I definitely would have. You didn’t tell me, though. I just saw it missing—”
Sophie snorted and waved a hand at Adele. “Not everything has to be catered toward precious little Adele,” Paige snapped. “Not everything is about you.”
Adele ground her teeth, and she wanted to protest further, but the words wouldn’t come. The situation had been a bad one. Agent Paige had been lucky to keep her job. Her relationship with Matthew, an accountant with the DGSI, hadn’t been public knowledge at the time. Adele hadn’t known her supervisor was dating a suspect in the death of a prostitute. In the end, Matthew had been cleared. But Paige had blamed Adele for reporting the missing evidence. It had turned out Paige was trying to cover for her boyfriend; in the end, though, it had come to light that Matthew had been sleeping with the prostitute. Adele suspected Paige hadn’t known this when she’d hidden receipts and documents suggesting Matthew’s involvement.
Adele had seen the evidence missing, though, and had immediately reported the vanished files. After that, Sophie Paige had been investigated as well as Matthew. Her boyfriend had been cleared of murder charges, but had been fired from the DGSI. Paige would have been fired, but Foucault—for some reason Adele didn’t understand—had gone to bat for her and kept her on, demoting her in the process.
“I don’t like you,” Paige said, simply, all pretenses gone now, her expression once more a scowling, stony one. “I’m not ever going to like you. I didn’t ask for this assignment. I have to bear it. As do you. Now how about you stop wasting my time by dragging me to crime scenes that have already been investigated? Did you find anything new?” she demanded.
Adele hesitated, glancing back toward the kitchen; she was loath to admit she hadn’t. So instead, she said, “When’s the witness coming?”
“You’re insufferable,” Sophie snapped. She turned back to the window and stared out into the city. Adele, her hands trembling from anger, moved to the door and into the hallway, preferring to wait outside for the witness to arrive, rather than spend another moment with Agent Paige.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Adele was startled from her reverie by an officer in uniform tapping her shoulder. She glanced back, turning from the window in the hallway outside the victim’s apartment.
“Excuse me,” the officer said, quietly.
Adele raised an eyebrow to show she’d heard.
The officer cleared his throat and smoothed his mustache. “The witness refuses to come inside. She says she’d rather talk on the sidewalk. Is that all right?”
Adele glanced at the man, then toward the open door to the apartment. For a brief moment, she was tempted to leave Agent Paige and go talk to Ms. Robinson on her own. But at last, she sighed and nodded. She pointed toward the open door. “Would you mind telling my partner?”
The police officer nodded once, then circled the banister, heading for the door. He gave a polite wave toward where the landlord still waited at the end of the hall, keys in hand. For all Adele cared, he could wait all day. They wouldn’t be renting out the place anytime soon. Not yet at least.
She moved back down the stairs, taking them two at a time, hoping to have a couple of moments to speak with the witness without Agent Paige’s presence clouding her thoughts.