Page 25 of Justified Lies

“Don’t discount her clearing you. She did a deep dive, and let me say that when the CIA burned her, they lost one of their best analysts. Like, ever. MI-6 tried to hire her away a lot of times before the unfortunate incident.”

“What was that?”

“Her being burned. That’s what she calls it.”

He drew in a deep breath and released it. “So, we have a person killing CIA agents, and now your brother to control.”

“Emily will be able to handle him.”

“They know each other, too, I take it?”

She nodded.

“Brilliant. Hopefully, she can get him home in one piece.” He looked back at the board she had up. They had spent years compiling the information, including a map that marked the locations of each kill. “I guess we should get started.”

By the time Kap made it home, it was close to midnight. After a quick interview with Devon Stryker and his wife, they now knew for sure that both Eden and her brother had been off the island during the attack. And basically, they had nothing. As there were no prints, no bodily fluids, and the bullet didn’t match anything in the system. So, Charity had been telling the truth.

They had fuck all to help with a CIA agent’s murder.

After stepping into his apartment, he knew something was off. Then he realized the alarm hadn’t beeped. He turned to look, but a voice stopped him in his tracks.

“Don’t worry, Hanson. I disabled it.”

He pulled out his gun before turning to find El Carlyle sitting in his living room, making himself at home. The other man turned on the table light. He was smiling at Kap, but there was nothing friendly about it.

“I think we need to have a chat.”

Five

Keeping his gun trained on El, Kap walked into the room.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

He shook his head. “I just told you, we needed to have a talk.”

“You’ve been cleared, so why are you here?”

“I wanted to touch base with you about a few things.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t be bothering your sister anymore.”

“You’ll bother her until she dies, I suspect, but I wanted to give you a little more information about the case.”

“And you couldn’t call me?”

“CIA, or was at one time. Don’t trust phones, but according to my sister and another friend, I can trust you, so I will.”

Knowing he looked like an idiot holding his gun on El, he holstered it, then crossed his arms. Holding his gun on a former CIA agent was probably stupid. “Go ahead.”

“How far have you gotten into your investigation?”

Kap rolled his eyes. “You know I can’t tell you anything. It’s an open investigation.”

“Does the name Edwin O’Malley mean anything to you?”

“Is that who you suspect?”

“No. At least not anymore. Look him up.”