Intersection (17 page)

Alex sat at a long table in the back of the office with all of the letters spread out before her. Her laptop was open with a copy of the accident report visible on its screen. She needed to focus on this case. Her feelings for the congressman’s ex-wife had deterred her and that had been a mistake on many levels she thought now. She sipped her coffee and studied one letter picking it up and holding it against another. She repeated it with two more, and again, and again. One letter kept sticking out to her.

There she is

She’ll be mine

You don’t know

Give it time

She wants me

It’s never you

Now read this

It’s your clue
.

“Three words…all three words,” she said to herself. She pulled out another.

This and that

I know you

Can you find me?

Back and Forth

Hide and Seek

I’ll find you

Before you see
.

“Three words again… every line but one,” Alex looked at them again. She picked up the letter that had been delivered over the weekend to the congressman’s office.

Every night

You left her

Out of sight

I’ll take mine

She’ll have me

Before you know

What you can’t see

“No… this isn’t right.” She combed through the pile. “The first came to the house… shit… shit… the first came to the house…three have… all three words.” She picked up the picture with the handwriting scrawled under her face, “I SEE YOU… three words…Oh my God… they’re not the same person.” She reached for the phone.

“Tate,” the voice answered.

“A.D.?”

“Toles? Where are you?”

“There’s two… Tate… two… the letters they are not the same person.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Where are you? Aren’t you at the hospital?”

“Just listen… they are not the same. The first, the fifth, the picture on Cassidy’s door… the same, the same person…all three words… every line, three words. The rest, they sound the same but the pattern changes. It’s not the same person. It started with Cassidy… whoever is stalking her… but the
others… they’re only meant to look that way… they are not the same…Tate…”

“What are you saying?” The Assistant Director asked. Alex moved over to her laptop and started scrolling through the accident report. “Toles!”

“Right here. Why would anyone be going 80 down Pennsylvania Avenue, PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE?”

“Toles… What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking you’d better reopen this accident case, Sir… and quick.”

Cassidy walked into the congressman’s apartment and sighed. Fallon had carried Dylan up the stairs for her to his room. Cassidy sat down on the large sofa and put her face in her hands. Her ex-husband’s prognosis was extremely guarded. She was worried about him and she was worried about Dylan. He had told her he was sorry for everything in the visit, struggling to make sound. She wanted to believe that was true, but she also knew that he could never change. Christopher O’Brien was who he was and no accident would change that. Agent Fallon came back into the room and regarded the woman sitting quietly. He cleared his throat a bit and she looked up at him. “Are you all right, Mrs. O’Brien?”

Cassidy struggled to smile. “Yes… and just Cassidy, Agent Fallon…please.” She closed her eyes again and looked toward the ceiling as if attempting to summon some type of answer. Fallon could tell that the day’s events had taken their toll. The woman was exhausted.

“I should let you get some rest,” he began. “Dylan’s asleep and the Secret Service is outside, plus two of our agents. You’ll be more than safe.”

“Agent Fallon,” she called after him.

“Brian,” he offered, “Yes?”

“Where is Alex?” Agent Fallon had spent many years learning how to read people and right now Cassidy O’Brien was an open book. He didn’t know what he should say or how much. What he did know was that he saw a vulnerability in his partner he had never seen before at the hospital. He loved Alex Toles like a sister. She had been there for him through a great deal over the last three years. She had been there for his family when he had been injured. More than any case ever could, his partner’s happiness mattered to him. Cassidy saw the agent was wrestling with something. “Brian, where is Alex?”

He inhaled and nodded his head trying to muster the courage to say what he knew needed to be said. “She went to the office….to look at the letters.”

“Okay…when? She hasn’t called or...”

He sighed nervously still nodding and looking deliberately at the floor beneath his feet, “Alex… you know… she…”

“Just tell me…please,” the woman implored him. “When did she leave?”

“After… well… you know, you were gone a while and we were waiting, and she decided to go…get something….and ….”

Cassidy took a deep breath and released it upward. “Shit.”

He looked up at her as she shook her head at the ceiling above. “She saw me…. with Chris; that’s it, isn’t it?”

He nodded. “But only part of it… I mean she was really worried ….about all of you… and when Alex gets…”

“I know…but that’s not why she hasn’t called…why she’s still not here.”

“No,” he said plainly.

“Have you talked to her?”

“Only for a minute.”

“Do you know where she is?” Cassidy hopped to her feet. She knew exactly what Alex was thinking and she knew how that felt. When she had seen Alex with Agent Brackett she thought she would break in two. They had just made it over one hurdle and now here they were again. “Brian, please, where is she?”

“She’s at her apartment now….but Cassidy…she’s still working… I know her.”

“Yeah… well, so do I…better than I should.”

“What?”

“Brian…can you stay here… just for a bit…please?”

“Cassidy…”

“Where is Alex’s apartment?” Cassidy was growing insistent.

“You can’t go over there alone, Cassidy… let me go get her.”

“You and I both know that will never work,” Cassidy said flatly. She couldn’t believe it but she started up the stairs.

“Where are you going?”

“To get Dylan. If I can’t go by myself than you can take us both.” Agent Fallon scratched his forehead. There was a determination in Cassidy’s voice that told him there was no way he could win this argument. He couldn’t let her go alone and she would never leave a stranger with her son. There was no other choice. And he hated to admit it, but he agreed.

iles were spread across Alex’s coffee table and floor. She knew there was something more here and now she was more worried than before. She was certain that Cassidy had a stalker and she was convinced that someone was leveraging that to make an attempt on the congressman. The only questions still milling in her mind were if the stalker was real or just a diversion, who and most importantly, why? There was little doubt in her mind that someone in the press held the clue, or perhaps someone hiding in the press. She thumbed through profiles and backgrounds looking for any thread.

The agent sat on the old blue couch that sat in the center of her room and threw her head back in frustration. She closed her eyes in an effort to concentrate but all she could see was Cassidy in the congressman’s room. The right thing for her to do was to step back, for so many reasons. She tried to gather herself. Her heart ached for the woman, in so many ways. She missed Cassidy now, and as she returned her attention to the files spread across the room she suddenly felt terrified. It didn’t matter whether she stepped away or not; she loved Cassidy. There was simply no way to avoid that reality. The thought of anyone hurting Cassidy, even Alex herself, was unbearable to the agent. She resumed her task and looked some more, her frustration building. “Who are you?” She yelled at the pile before her. “Dammit!” She threw a file across the room as a knock came at the door. She released her breath in a frustrated huff and headed for the door.

***

Cassidy had managed to milk the whole truth from Agent Fallon in the car. She knew that Alex suspected that the letters came from two places and she knew that Alex was concerned about a lot more than just the case. Agent Fallon found Cassidy engaging. He could understand his partner’s feelings and he did not want to hold back from the woman. He trusted her. He knew Agent Toles did as well. Cassidy grew quiet as the car slowed, approaching Alex’s building. “Listen,” Brian Fallon began, “I know it’s not my place…”

Cassidy forced a smile. “Say what you’re thinking, Agent.”

He pulled in front of the building and looked at her. “I think she loves you.”

Cassidy smiled. “Yeah? You think so?” He nodded. Cassidy smiled as she got out of the car. Fallon opened Dylan’s door as Cassidy threw the backpack over her shoulder. She scooped Dylan up and onto her hip and reached for the handle of the booster seat.

“At least let me help you,” Fallon offered.

The woman smiled and jostled her son upward slightly. “One set of stairs, right?”

“Yeah, 1st door on the left… 210,” he answered. She started to make her way up the front stairs and Fallon ran up behind her. “Code… here,” he pressed the code for the front door and held it open for the fully loaded woman. “Do you want me to wait?”

She smiled sweetly realizing that he was as genuinely kind as Alex had described. “No,” she said. “Just wish me luck.”

The agent reached the door, irritated and expecting Agent Fallon to be behind it with some lecture. “You know…it’s not,” she began to scold him verbally as she opened the door.

“It’s not easy carrying all this is what it’s not,” Cassidy said looking at the agent who was in complete shock. “Well?” Cassidy urged.

Alex grabbed the booster seat and closed the door behind Cassidy. “Cassidy, what are you doing…”

The teacher did not allow the agent to finish. “What am
I
doing? What are
you
doing?” She asked looking at the files spread across the room. Alex was suddenly far more nervous than irritated. She tried to avoid Cassidy’s gaze but failed. “We need to talk, Alex.”

The agent felt as though her insides had turned to gelatin. She could not believe that Cassidy was actually here. “Cassidy… how did you?”