Karen Vail 01 - Velocity (24 page)

“I know you don’t want to hear this, but the more vics he leaves in his wake, the easier our job wil be catching him.”

“Yeah—not very comforting.”

“It is what it is.” Vail held up the manila envelope. “Here you go.”

Bledsoe waved a meaty hand. “Those are yours.”

“Oh, goodie. I’l put them in my photo album as soon as I get home. You know, the fancy leather one on my coffee table.”

“Now there’s the Karen Vail I know and love.”

“The Karen Vail you know and love is official y on leave.”

“DeSantos wil come through,” Bledsoe said. “I just got a feeling.”

Vail twisted her arm and stole another look at her watch. “Gotta run. Doctor’s appointment.”

“Everything okay?”

“Bumps and bruises, but nothing that won’t heal. This is for my mind. Mandatory.”

“The shrink has to see a shrink. Ain’t that a kick.”

“You’re being an asshole, Bledsoe. Don’t ruin my opinion of you.” She turned and headed out of the fitness room.

40

V
ail had a hel of a time finding a parking spot on M Street, but final y walked into the tiered, gray marble-tiled lobby. She took the elevator up and entered the smal , warmly lit waiting room of Leonard Rudnick, PhD. Wel -maintained Persian rugs were arranged atop satin-finished mahogany floors.

Vail had just sunk into the seat when the office door opened. Standing there was a gaunt older man who barely broke five feet.

“Ah, Karen. Good to see you’re back. I’ve been meaning to remind you that I’ve got a special entrance for agents.” Rudnick thumbed an area over his shoulder.

“It’s around—”

“Why do I need a special entrance?”

Rudnick broadened his face into a forced grin, as if summoning patience for a petulant child. “Many agents I’ve treated over the years have preferred not to be seen entering a psychologist’s office.”

“I deal with the mind al day, doc. I’m not afraid to admit I have to see someone to get mine straightened out.”

“But your ASAC sent you here. It wasn’t a voluntary act.”

“I was in denial. But Robby sat me down and we had a heart to heart. My boss was right in sending me here. Believe me, if I thought he was wrong—”

“You wouldn’t have come?”

Vail let a smile tease her lips. “Something like that.”

“Come,” Rudnick said, motioning her in with both hands, a hyper-welcoming gesture. “Let’s start.”

Vail sat down in a firmly upholstered seat opposite an identical counterpart a few feet from her.

“So,” Rudnick said, patting his thighs. “Tel me. How’s the anger management going?”

Why’d he have to start with that? How do I begin to answer? Should I tell him
about my interactions with Scott Fuller—where I held my tongue but ended up in
a fistfight—or about my confrontation with César Guevara, where I rammed my
Glock into his forehead? Tough choice.

“You’re hesitating. Does that mean it’s been a mixed result?”

Vail grinned. “I couldn’t have put it better.”

“Wel , then. That’s okay, Karen. It’s a work in progress. You at least have seen some improvement, hmm?”

“Definitely. I find I’m able to hold my thoughts without them spil ing out. I’m getting better at filtering the sharp retorts. Except when it comes to my boss. I can’t help myself.”

Rudnick’s brow rose about a foot. “You—you talk back to Mr. Gifford?”

Vail waved a hand. “Al the time.”

Rudnick nodded slowly but did not respond to that. “Yes. Wel . Let me ask you—”

“It’s not a big deal. I just—you know how it is with some people. You’ve got a different way of relating to them. Some people you can joke around with, others you can’t. My boss, I can give him some abuse. I can usual y tel when I push him too far.”

“So this is humor? You poke fun at him?”

“I guess there are times when I do that. Mostly it’s sarcasm.”

“And he’s okay with that?”

Vail shrugged both shoulders, a slow, demonstrative movement. “I’m stil gainful y employed as a supervisory special agent. But—honestly, that’s the least of his issues with me. He probably figures it’s best to choose which battles to fight.”

Rudnick chewed the inside of his cheek. It wasn’t pronounced, but Vail could see his jaw moving, and a slight concavity in the skin.

“I’m scaring you, aren’t I?” Vail asked.

“Scaring?” He laughed. A short burst. “Not the word I would choose, no. But you are . . .
concerning
me. Respect for a superior is a basic tenet of an organizational structure. Surely you have a feel for that. So when you purposely abuse your ASAC, it tel s me there’s more going on beneath the surface. Would you agree?”

Rudnick tilted his head, sliding his chin slightly to his right.

Vail checked her watch. She couldn’t help it. Robby was on her mind—no surprise there—and she needed to get back to his case.

“Someplace you’d rather be?”

Vail looked up. “Hmm?”

“Checking your watch. It tel s me—”

“Yes. You want me to be honest with you, so I’l tel you what’s going on. Robby went missing. While I was in Napa—”

“During your vacation?”

“Yeah, wel , things didn’t real y work out the way we’d planned.” She sighed, rubbed hard at her left eye.
Do I have to go through this again?
P

“Did you and Robby have a . . . disagreement? Does that explain those bruises on your face?”

Vail sat up in her chair. “No, no. Nothing like that.” She took him through the events of the past ten days, realizing it was going to eat up a good portion of the remaining appointment time.

Rudnick listened with riveted interest. When she finished, he leaned back and seemed to absorb her pain. His eyes were glazed with nascent tears. “You’ve dealt with cases where families never learn the fate of their missing loved ones, yes?”

Vail nodded almost imperceptibly.

“Then this episode, at its very least, wil make you a better agent. It wil give you instant credibility when confronting a similar situation. That type of empathy can’t be faked or created. It’s genuine or it’s not there.” He paused a moment, studied her face, then continued. “As to you personal y, how are you dealing with Robby’s disappearance?”

Vail wrapped a lock of hair around her right index finger, then pul ed it behind her ear. “Not very wel . That was one of those times when my anger management counseling didn’t help.”

“Understandable,” Rudnick said. “What else?”

“As you’d expect. I’m on edge. I’m not sleeping wel . When I get the chance to actual y sleep.” She turned toward the wal where the doctor’s numerous certificates and licenses hung in ornate gold leaf frames. There was even a commendation or award of some sort bearing the Bureau seal, but at this distance she couldn’t make it out.

“I see. And how wil you feel should you find out that Robby has died?”

Vail felt a bal in her throat, blocking her airway. She coughed, a dry rasp that cleared her trachea but didn’t completely dislodge the lump. “I refuse to accept his death. Not now. When I see a body,” she nodded. “Then I’l accept it. Then I’l deal with it. Until then, he’s alive.”

“I think we may need to eventual y discuss at what point you stop looking and possibly accept a fate we don’t want to acknowledge.”

Vail started to answer but Rudnick held up a hand.

“That’s not for us to discuss right now. I’m planting a seed. At present, you have a goal. You’re driven to find someone who means a great deal to you.” He tilted his head, looked her face over, side to side, then top to bottom, before coming to rest on her eyes. “But don’t let it consume you, Karen. You have a son who depends on you. From what you’ve told me, he’s developed a special relationship with Robby, that Robby fil s the void left by your absent and il -intentioned ex-husband. Yes?”

“Yes.”

“Then remember that Jonathan wil be hurting, too.”

Vail dropped her gaze to her lap.

“Does Jonathan know? About Robby?”

“He asked me if Robby was coming by. I danced around the question but didn’t say anything about his going missing.”

“There’l come a time when you realize it’s best to level with your son. And he’s going to need you. You can bring him with you, if you’d like. And you can break the news to him here.”

Vail looked up, pursed her lips. “Thanks. I think I’d rather do it. At home.” She shook her head, as if waking from a trance. She bal ed her right hand. “But that’s not going to be necessary because I’m going to find Robby. Alive.”

Rudnick sat back. “Keep your head, Karen. Rational thought wil help you find answers. Stay within yourself. Remain focused. And remember: emotion wil cloud your thinking, blind you to what’s there in front of you.”

“I see you know me quite wel .”

Rudnick lifted both hands palm up and smiled. “I’m a student of behavior, Karen.

Just like yourself.”

“Everything’s a learning experience.”

“That’s true,” Rudnick said. But his face stiffened and he leaned forward with an index finger raised. “Just make sure you take away the correct lesson.”

41

A
s Vail made her way back to her car, she mused on the lure of counseling.

Talking through your feelings felt good, if you had a skil ed therapist who put you at ease. Stil , the lure had to be tamed, because if you were not careful, it could become a crutch. And she prided herself in being able to solve her own problems.

That was part of what made her a good field agent—instead of always asking for directions or assistance, she knew the constructs of her rules and regulations—

and she acted accordingly.
Fine, sometimes I act outside those regs . . . but, fuck
it. Aside from my visits to Guevara, I never strayed too far and OPR’s
investigations always cleared me.

The drive back to Aquia, Virginia, where the behavioral analysis unit was located, al owed her to be alone with her thoughts in a relaxed, posttherapeutic state, for the first time she could remember. She had been in motion, in meetings, and in confrontations for eleven days straight, with little sleep. The amount of adrenaline her body had manufactured and released over that time period would be precedent setting.
Does Guinness track world records for biologic fluid production?

Probably not.

Vail took the 143A exit off I-95, then swung her car into the unit’s parking lot. Two minutes later she was walking the hal to her office. The lure of her boss’s door was too great. She grabbed the knob, pushed through, and greeted Lenka. “Can I have a minute?”

“Let me see if he’s free.” She lifted her phone and pushed a button. A moment later, she said, “You can go in.”

Vail took a seat in front of Gifford’s oversize desk. “Anything new from the San Francisco field office on Robby?

Gifford peered at her over his reading glasses. “Nothing. They were just given the case yesterday, Karen. Cool your jets.”

“Who’s the lead agent?”

Gifford held up his hands. “No. I’m not going to tel you. I want you hands-off. Let them do their jobs. They don’t need Karen Vail giving them the third degree every day.”

Vail opened her mouth to object.

Gifford pointed at her across the desk. “And don’t tel me that wouldn’t happen.”

Vail swal owed her words and shrunk in her seat.
Oh, yes it would happen.

Yessiree. I’d keep them on their toes. I’d drive their asses to work the case hard.

“Do you know if they’ve at least gotten hold of Robby’s cel phone logs? I haven’t heard back from the lab about whether or not they’ve been able to recover the cal data off his phone. I haven’t even gotten his logs from the wireless carrier.”

“Al of that’s going directly to the agents out of San Francisco.”

Vail clenched her jaw. “If you don’t mind me asking, sir—”

“Whenever you start a sentence like that, my answer should be, ‘Yes, in fact, I do mind,’ so don’t bother asking.”

Vail ignored the remark. “I don’t get why it was so important for me to abandon Robby’s search. Yeah, the PFL vic looks like the work of a sexual predator, and the UNSUB is likely someone who could become serial, but it’s not a serial case. Not yet. If ever.”

“I told you—not that you were listening—but it’s a high-profile murder. I had no one else to assign it to and I wanted to get out in front of it ASAP.”

“But the body’s been moved. Another few days wouldn’t have mattered.”

Gifford removed his glasses. “Another few days. Real y. When do you think you’d have been ready to come home, Karen? If you hadn’t broken Detective Hernandez’s case, you’d stil be stal ing, hoping you’d find something. And I’d be short an agent.”

Vail felt her blood pressure rising. “You’d be short an agent? Big fucking deal.

Robby—Robby could be holed up in a shed somewhere in Napa, without food and water. He won’t survive much longer.”

“And he could already be dead.” Gifford looked away and rubbed a hand across his forehead. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

He met Vail’s eyes, and she could see his face was flushed, his remorse genuine.

“I’m as concerned about Robby as you are,” he said in a low voice. “There are agents working the case. If there’s something to do, something that only you can do, I’l let you know. But you’ve got other work. I have three units to run. And your unit chief’s not a happy camper, trying to juggle cases with a skeleton crew. It’s my job to make sure he can do
his
job.”

“Wel then.” Vail pushed herself up from the chair. “I guess that means I should get back to work. I don’t want my unit chief to be
unhappy
. Thanks for keeping me in the loop.” She walked out and closed the door behind her a tad harder than was necessary.