Page 6 of Arsonist’s Match (Blaze and Badge #1)

T he click of Athena’s heels echoed across the polished floors of the headquarters building’s main lobby at six-fifty that evening, accompanied by the barely audible roll of Paulson’s rubber-clad wheels.

A security guard nodded respectfully to them while a janitor pushing a dust mop seemed oblivious.

Although a few office lights shone from the floors above, most FBI personnel had gone home for the night to families, loved ones, and lives outside of the job.

For years, Athena hadn’t considered a life beyond the bureau, and, even when she started to entertain the idea, she hadn’t taken action and probably wouldn’t have if she hadn’t butted heads with the stubborn, self-assured firefighter Flash Cash.

It wasn’t just her perfectly muscled, lean body, attractive facial features, or winning personality that had swayed the long-time bachelorette.

It was the protective grit and fierce dedication she’d shown when standing up for her little dog.

Later, Flash had displayed equal tenacity in defending her.

But there would be no irresistibly hot younger firefighter waiting at home for Athena tonight.

No, the heroic Amazon acted as if no fire department in the country could get along without her unique skills and bravery under pressure, and she’d taken off to California to help tackle a wildfire.

Even though Flash had promised it was only because they’d asked for volunteers and she’d never worked a forest fire before, Athena had to wonder if her first girlfriend in over ten years was trying to avoid something …

or someone. Me? She couldn’t think about that now.

Agent Hernandez met Athena and Paulson when they exited the elevator. “We’ve got them in two separate interview rooms,” he reported. “ Assistant Special Agent in Charge McCulloch is in with one, and Travis is watching over the other.”

“Thanks,” Athena replied. “Head on home, now. You might as well too, John,” she directed Paulson. “No need for the entire office to stay late. Speaking of …” Glancing around the situation room, Athena noticed Agent Karen Shoops still at her desk, doing something on her computer.

“If you insist,” Paulson responded. “Come on, Sam. See you in the morning, boss.” He waved, and Agent Hernandez joined him.

“It was a good take down, ASAC Bouvier,” Hernandez commented with a satisfied smile. “If my wife wasn’t expecting me any minute, I’d stay and watch the fireworks.”

“Tell her hello for me,” Athena requested before the elevator doors closed.

Where’d that come from? she wondered, an unfamiliar feeling stirring in her chest. Athena had established herself as an untouchable authority figure, a professional who never allowed herself to become involved with agents’ families, who couldn’t tell you a personal thing about any of them.

Losing dedicated, amiable Agent Cruz had given Athena pause regarding the distance she always put between herself and other agents, not to mention gregarious Flash inserting herself into her life.

“Agent Shoops,” she called with a chill of reprimand in her tone. “What are you still doing here?”

“Oh!” The petite young woman with mousy brown hair jumped in her seat, head jerking.

She pushed her wire-rimmed glasses up on her nose and swallowed.

“Just finishing some in-depth background runs on the two suspects Agent Ice put into interview rooms. I presumed you’d want as much information as possible before interrogating them. ”

A discerning look settled on Athena as she paused at Shoops’ desk. “Good initiative. What have you found?”

“Benjamin Baylock, from Odessa, thirty-four, did time in Midland for robbery, before moving to Baytown, where he shares an apartment with suspect number two—Aleck Smith.” As she read the information on her screen, Shoops clicked her mouse, and Athena’s phone vibrated in her purse.

“I just sent you a copy, by the way. So, Smith, originally from Monroe, Louisiana, has lived in Houston for six years, working as a water plant operator. He’s divorced, with arrests for drunk and disorderly and trespassing, but no time served. ”

“Good to know,” Athena stated. “What did Baylock do before entering a life of crime?”

“Scattered things,” Shoops replied. “Worked for a cattle yard, drove a truck for a year, and engaged in seasonal farm labor. After being released from prison, he moved to Houston, where his cousin lives, and got a job as a bouncer at a bar in Baytown. I can’t discover how he and Smith met or moved in together. ”

“It doesn’t really matter. These two are the muscle, not the mastermind of the operation. Thanks, Agent Shoops. You might as well head home now.”

At the thud of approaching boots, Athena glanced up at burly, bearded Travis Ice as he entered the main room.

“McCulloch and one of his guys are interviewing the nervous one,” he reported.

“Bennie Baylock is waiting for you in the room across from his. Taz is running the recordings. Do you want company? I don’t have anything pressing to do. ”

Athena eyed her agent. The ex-Marine stood over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and the quiet confidence of a man who’d seen plenty of combat, while she was an average-sized, older, feminine woman who didn’t appear as dangerous as she was.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. I’m just going to freshen up and will meet you in ten. Let him sweat a little longer.”

A corner of Ice’s mouth drew up. “Will do.” With a wink, he headed back down the hall to stand vigil.

After a comfort stop, Athena washed her hands, let down and brushed her hair, touched up her powder and lipstick, and dabbed a drop of perfume on the pulse point of her neck.

Inspecting herself in the mirror, she unfastened a button on her blouse and nodded.

She had long ago learned to use the assets God had given her to her best advantage.

Agent Ice opened the interview room door and held it for her while the woman in charge sashayed in. He pulled out her chair—like a good Southern gentleman should—before taking his seat.

The scowling White man, his hands cuffed to a bar in the center of the steel table and his brown hair sticking up in disarray on his head, uttered one growling word. “Lawyer.”

When Athena merely studied him silently, Agent Ice asked, “Do you have one, or shall I call a public defender?”

“Why should I spend my money when it’s the state’s responsibility to provide me with one?” He raised his stubbled chin defiantly and clenched his jaw.

“All right, Mr. Baylock. I’ll give the public defenders’ office a call, although it might be tomorrow morning before we can get anyone over here. It’s seven p.m. already, but I’ll see if someone answers.”

“Yeah, you do that,” Baylock snapped angrily. When Athena continued to regard him without a word, he sneered at her. “What are you starin’ at?”

“Just curious,” she answered with a shrug. “Your partner is across the hall, spilling his guts to Special Agent McCulloch, saying how he was never in any trouble until you showed up and dragged him into your criminal activity.”

“Bull shit!” he snarled, brows narrowed and tucked low. “He’s the one with Houston contacts, not me. Besides, you’re lyin’. Aleck isn’t one to rat out his buddy.”

“That was probably true until the murder charge got tacked on,” Athena speculated conversationally.

“What murder charge?” roared Baylock. “We didn’t kill that dude—we didn’t even hurt him that bad.”

“Oh, not Mr. Zhang,” she corrected, holding out her nails for assessment without a glance at Baylock. “Zach Carpenter, hedge fund manager, midtown, two months ago.”

“Now I know you’re lyin’.” The frazzled perpetrator sat back in his chair. “We never killed anybody.”

“That poor old man lay on the floor of his office for twelve hours before anyone found him the next day,” Athena commented, “and, by the time he got to the hospital, he was too far gone for the ER to save him. Your friend blames you for everything. ”

“I just talked to a night clerk at the public defenders’ office,” Ice said, returning to the table. “She said they can have you a dedicated public defender over here around ten in the morning. I’ll just take Mr. Baylock to holding for overnight.”

Baylock’s eyes flashed at Ice, then Athena. “What about Aleck? I need to speak with him. Did his lawyer show up?”

“I’m afraid you aren’t allowed to confer with your accomplice, Mr. Baylock—only your legal counsel, who’ll be here in the morning,” Agent Ice informed him.

“But what is he saying in there? He’s tellin’ lies about me, isn’t he?

” Panic erupted on the man’s face as Ice moved to unlock his restraints.

“Wait, wait! I’m the reasonable one. He’s the one who likes hurting people.

I swear, that guy was alive and well when we left his office.

All we did was shake him down to unlock his crypto account.

He must have had a heart attack or something. ”

“Mr. Baylock, don’t you know?” Athena stared at him with a curious expression, her lips parted and chin cocked.

“If anyone dies during the commission of, or as a result of, a felony, the law holds every felonious party responsible. In other words, whether you intended to kill him is irrelevant; it’s first-degree murder. ”

“That’s twenty years or more!” Fear shone in his eyes as he rattled his cuffs against the bar.

Ice added, “Then there’s the kidnapping and grand larceny, so I’d say more like life.”

“But if I talk, tell you who we’re workin’ for, who recruited us with promises of riches, then I get a deal?”

“That’s the gist of it,” Athena concurred. “But I don’t think we’ll need your testimony. Mr. Smith has already told Agent McCulloch enough to make charges stick against your boss.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t know everything.” Baylock’s expression lit up while sweat rolled down his temples.

“I can get you the broker who converts the bitcoin to real money for Silverton. Aleck doesn’t know.

He can’t give you that. Now, write something down and make sure someone with authority signs it.

I’m not giving you my ace without a formal guarantee. ”

“What do you think, Special Agent Bouvier?” Ice asked, leaning back slightly in his seat, eyeing her keenly.

“I don’t know,” she answered dismissively.

“I’m afraid he’ll change his mind by the time we get someone from the state’s attorney’s office in here.

He’s already changed it three times. What can you expect from an ex-con drifter from tumbleweed land?

” Without a glance at Baylock, she pushed up from the table.

“Look, lady,” he urged in a pleading tone. “You can believe I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in prison. I revoke my right to counsel. I want the deal, and I’ll tell you everything I know. Just put it in writing.”

Agent Ice nodded. “I’ll go get some forms and pens, but someone from the DA’s office has to approve it before it’s final. You will do time for this, Mr. Baylock, just maybe not life.”

An hour later, Athena bumped into Assistant Special Agent in Charge Duncan McCulloch in the hallway. “Much obliged for the assist,” he said. “This was my day off, or I’d have gotten the call instead of you. I’ve been after these guys all summer.”

She considered the older man with his bald spot encircled by graying hair and the caterpillar mustache on his face. Retrieving a white handkerchief, he polished his glasses while she gave a polite response.

“You’re quite welcome. We lucked up when the cleaning woman called in the disturbance.”

“Well, tell your guys they did a smash-up job, and I’ll take it from here.” He smiled and patted her upper arm.

A sharp tension ran through Athena as she gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to lash out at his chauvinism. “I can’t do that, McCulloch.”

His eyes rounded in surprise, and his feeble jaw dropped an inch.

“We just cut a deal with Bennie Baylock, and he gave us a world of information you need to close the entire cryptocurrency theft ring. I can’t have you ruin my reputation by denying him the arrangements we promised.

However, I’d be more than happy to work with you to bring down the sophisticated ring that’s been perpetrating these crimes. ”

A sly smile curled on Athena’s painted lips as a surge of satisfaction ran through her.

“Well, yes, of course,” McCulloch backpedaled. “I didn’t mean to diminish your role and would certainly never negate a deal you’d made. I only meant—”

“But of course.” Athena flashed him a triumphant grin and spun on her high heel. “I’ll see you at eight-fifteen tomorrow to compare notes and plot the takedown of the gang leader. Good night.”