LITMIR.BIZ

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yourself.” Kate slid into the limo, tucking in her long legs. Thad sat on one side of her and Daniel on the other. He didn’t like that Patrick was leaving alone. But Daniel refused to leave Kate’s side. As long as he was assigned as her bodyguard, he would provide the best protection he could. Normally, he hated playing bodyguard to politicians. But Kate Winston wasn’t a normal politician. She was smart, down-to-earth and personable.

      Still, Daniel would rather be investigating the case than babysitting the target. Given his latest injury, he was lucky to be working at all. A torn ligament meant being relegated to the sidelines, gimping along until he could return to investigations.

      By the time they’d arrived at the Wake County Jail, Daniel had contacted the director of the Secret Service and relayed the information about Shelby O’Hara’s disappearance. Director Kincannon agreed to meet them there.

      “What’s going on, Mother?” Thad asked on the drive across town. “Why did O’Hara say you had a granddaughter?”

      “It’s a long story.” Kate looked straight ahead. “I’d rather not talk about it just yet. The most important thing to focus on is finding the girl.”

      Daniel suspected that, like most high-powered politicians, even Kate Winston had a few skeletons in her closet. Skeletons not even her sons knew about.

      Once inside the building, Kate insisted Daniel go with Thad to interrogate the prisoner. “If Robert D’Angelis has any information concerning the missing girl, the sooner we get it out of him, the better for Shelby.” A sheriff’s deputy led her to small room where she could watch the interview through a two-way mirror.

      As promised, Director Kincannon met them outside the interrogation room. “Agent Henderson, Detective Winston.” He nodded to each of them. “They’ve moved the suspect into the interrogation room. Do you want me to question him?”

      Daniel paused outside the interview room his hand on the doorknob. “I’ve had more recent experience interrogating suspects.”

      Director Kincannon nodded. “Then, by all means, question him.”

      Daniel turned to Thad.

      “Go for it.” Thad held up his hands. “I’ll stand back and listen.”

      “While you two conduct the interview, I’ll watch from the observation room.” Director Kincannon moved back toward the room where Kate Winston waited.

      Daniel gathered his thoughts and entered the interrogation room, Thad close behind him.

      Former Secret Service agent Robert D’Angelis sat in a metal chair with his hands cuffed and resting on the table in front of him. His face was pale with a slightly green tint. A half-empty paper cup of water sat on the table within his reach.

      The tall man was hunched over, his fit body seeming to sag with the weight of his muscles. A fine sheen of sweat covered his face, and his eyes were yellow and bloodshot.

      “Why am I here?” he said. “I’m not talking to anyone without my lawyer.”

      “Agent D’Angelis, we have a few questions for you,” Daniel said.

      D’Angelis blinked and squeezed his eyes tight, then opened them, squinting. “Light is so damned bright.” He shook his head and blinked again.

      “Are you all right? Do you need a glass of water?” Daniel asked.

      “Just had one.” He lifted his cuffed hands and tugged at the collar of the bright orange jumpsuit supplied by the Wake County Jail. “So damn hot in here. Don’t they have an air conditioner?” He rolled his head around on his neck and stopped to stare across the table as Daniel took the seat opposite him. “I got nothing for you.” He spit in Daniel’s face.

      Daniel removed an old-fashioned handkerchief from his back pocket, wiped the spit from his cheek and folded the handkerchief neatly before returning it to his pocket, maintaining his silence until he was finished. Then he leaned close until his face was within inches of D’Angelis’s. He didn’t blink, staring straight into the suspect’s eyes. In a firm, direct voice, he asked, “Where’s the girl?”

      D’Angelis sat back in his chair. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

      “Do you know what they do to police officers and Secret Service agents in jail?”

      “I have more years of experience than you do, Henderson. I know exactly what they do,” D’Angelis ground out, his voice raspy. He coughed into his sleeve. When he pulled his mouth away from the crook of his elbow, blood stained the orange fabric. “I don’t feel well. I want a doctor.”

      “You’ll get a doctor as soon as you tell us where the girl is.”

      “I don’t know about a damned girl.” D’Angelis coughed again, more blood staining his sleeve and dribbling from the corner of his mouth.

      Daniel nodded toward the mirror. “Get a doctor,” he said, then turned back to D’Angelis. “I’m getting that doctor for you. Give me something on the girl.”

      D’Angelis raised his hands and slammed them, cuffs and all, on the wooden table. “What’s it matter, anyway? They’re gonna use her to get to Kate. Then they’ll kill her.”

      “She’s still alive?” Daniel’s pulse raced through his veins. “Where is she?”

      “It’s hot in here.” The man slumped across the table. “I feel awful.”

      “Damn it, where is she?” Daniel grabbed D’Angelis’s shoulders and forced him to look up.

      The man’s eyes were completely bloodshot and watery.

      “Basement.”

      “Basement of what?” He shook D’Angelis, trying to get him to focus and tell him the rest of the address.

      “House on East Cabbarus Street,” the man said.

      “Which house? What address?” Daniel demanded.

      “Sixty-two fifty.” D’Angelis’s head lolled and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. His body went limp and he slid out of his chair onto the floor.

      “Damn.” Thad ran for the door. “Get a medic in here!”

      Daniel pushed the chair away from the fallen man and squatted beside him on the floor, loosening the zipper on the orange jumpsuit.

      D’Angelis’s hand grabbed his wrist and he raised his head long enough to say, “Don’t trust—” He choked on the phlegm in his throat and blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth, then he coughed again and passed out.

      The door burst open. Two paramedics raced in and bent over D’Angelis. Daniel and Thad left the room, moving to the side of the hallway to get out of the way of the emergency staff.

      They entered the room where Kate, Trey, Sam, Patrick and Jed Kincannon, the director of the Secret Service, stood watching the staff work on Robert D’Angelis’s inert form.

      “What happened?” Kate’s hand rested on her throat. “One minute he was all cocky, the next he seemed to fail in front of us.”

      “I don’t know,” Thad said.

      “I do.” Daniel nodded to Thad. “We’re going to Cabarrus Street to find Shelby O’Hara.”

      Daniel led the way out of the county jail.

      Thad followed, dialing for assistance from the Raleigh Police Department dispatch.

      When they got outside, Daniel remembered they’d come in Kate Winston’s limousine. “We can’t go in that, and Mrs. Winston can’t go with us.”

      “Take my vehicle.” Trey tossed the keys. “I’ll stay with Mother to make sure nothing happens to her.”

      “Thanks.” Daniel caught the keys and ran

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