Home > A Thin Disguise(9)

A Thin Disguise(9)
Author: Catherine Bybee

“Right. Do you know where you are?”

Janie tried to smile. “A hospital.”

“What city?”

“Atlantic City,” Janie said a little too quickly.

Leo heard Fitz sigh.

“Vegas. But I would guess they’re a lot alike.” Maureen looked at the two of them. “She keeps saying Atlantic City.”

“Is that where you live?” Fitz asked.

“I don’t think so.” Janie started blinking as if forcing away tears.

Maureen reached for the water at the bedside and helped her drink.

“Do I know you?”

Leo stepped closer, took a seat in the only chair in the room. “We met last night. My name is Leo. This is my partner, Kelsey. We’re federal agents.”

Janie’s eyes grew wide. “Agents?”

“Yes.”

She started breathing a little heavier. “I was shot?” It was a question.

“That’s right,” Maureen told her.

“Am I . . . did I do something?” Her hands fisted in her lap.

Leo placed a hand on her bed. “No, no . . . you didn’t do anything. That’s not why we’re here.”

Janie’s eyes tracked his and stayed there. “You’re sure.”

Leo found a smile, tried to calm her down. “I’m sure. I was there. We were talking. It just happened. Wrong place, wrong time.”

Maureen reached for the monitor that showed Janie’s pulse elevating. The blood pressure cuff on her arm started to inflate.

“Were you there?” Janie asked Fitz.

“Ah, no.” Leo knew she wanted to say more.

“What were we talking about?” Janie asked him.

Fitz started to laugh behind him.

Leo turned to stare her into silence.

She motioned out the door. “I’m going to call in, give Brackett an update.”

Leo nodded his agreement.

Another nurse popped her head into the room. “Maureen, your patient in five needs you.”

“Be right there.” She turned back to Leo. “She might ask you the same questions over and over and likely not remember what you said, so don’t press her for answers, it only frustrates her and causes her blood pressure to go up. We don’t need that.”

Leo smiled. “I won’t.”

When he turned back to Janie, she was smiling at him. “You’re a cop?”

“Federal agent.”

That smile faded. “I was shot.”

Leo nodded and started to see the repetition and surprise in her eyes with everything she said.

“You hit your head pretty hard.”

“What did I do?”

Leo patted the hand lying at her side. “Nothing.”

He looked around the room at a loss. There was no use in asking questions when she didn’t even know her own name.

His gaze landed on a white plastic bag that said “Patient Belongings” on the front.

Leo stood and walked to the bag, opened it up.

He expected to see the clothes she was wearing the night before. All he found was a wallet and a cell phone.

The phone he couldn’t get to work.

“Have you tried to open this?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

He pressed the power button. It still had enough juice to turn on.

“Maybe we can find someone who knows who you are.”

She shrugged. “Okay.”

Leo moved closer, swiped at the screen, and held the camera close enough to her face to pick up the features that would open it.

It took three times for it to work.

“Okay . . . good. Do you mind?” he asked before he started prying.

“No.”

Good. He sat down and clicked into contacts.

Only it came up blank.

Not one contact. How was that possible? “Interesting.” Leo glanced at the patient, saw her eyes drifting shut. He noticed the collection bag hanging from the side of the bed. Inside showed a small amount of blood he assumed was from the chest tube inside her lung.

He pushed her condition out of his head and moved around the contents of her phone.

Pictures . . .

Empty.

Internet searches?

No history. Though he knew those could be erased.

None of this made sense. Why would a cell phone be completely void of anything?

He fished around to see what apps were on the phone.

Every one he clicked into acted as if it were being opened for the first time.

He moved back to the phone calls. One number showed up in recent calls.

He pressed the number and put the phone to his ear.

Leo looked over, saw Janie fast asleep. Her pulse on the monitor a slow, steady beat.

The telling sound of a call being connected shot Leo’s hopes high.

“What the hell, Olivia. Where are you?”

Olivia. Her name was Olivia. He liked it.

“Olivia?” The voice was male, deep . . . and pissed.

And familiar.

Leo cleared his throat. “I’m sorry . . . I’m calling—”

“Who is this?” The question was slow and measured.

The hair on Leo’s neck stood on end.

“Who is this?” Leo asked back.

Silence suggested the person on the other end might not answer.

“You hurt one hair on her head and I’ll—”

The voice triggered in Leo’s head and he turned stone cold. “Neil?”

A pause.

“Grant?”

Their earlier conversation came back to him.

“If my contact was compromised, you need to go underground.”

“Why?”

“If they’re gone, then you don’t stand a chance.”

“Your guy is that good, huh?”

“Yes. She is.”

Leo stared at the woman in the bed.

“Ah, fuck.”

“What the hell are you doing with Olivia’s phone?”

Voices outside the door brought Leo’s attention behind him.

“I’ll call you back.” Without anything else, Leo disconnected the call and slipped the phone into his pocket.

Fitz walked in, and Leo placed a finger over his pursed lips before pointing to the sleeping patient.

 

“There isn’t a reason for us to stay,” Fitz told him a few minutes after Leo discovered the name of the patient.

For reasons he couldn’t identify, Leo kept the new information to himself. His people knew Neil and his team were watching the trial and doing what they could to keep the victim safe from any foul play. But so far, Neil was the only visible member of the team. Everyone else was in the shadows. And from the sound of it, Olivia was deep undercover.

Leo knew a thing or two about being invisible to those around him. Hell, he’d spent nearly a year of his life acting as a high school teacher in an effort to flush out a bad cop responsible for girls like Marie Nickerson.

All things considered, Leo made a decision to hold off on the truth until talking with Neil.

“What are the chances of Navi being the one behind this?” Leo indicated Olivia, who was asleep. The two of them stood at the far end of the room talking in hushed tones.

“Him or someone associated with the case.”

“Right. These are professional dirtbags. They missed the shot because she saw the gun and grabbed me. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume the people responsible for this might conclude that and come around and eliminate an eyewitness.”

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