Page 4 of Justified Lies

El had reached the ground floor, and his eyes narrowed as he looked at Kap. He ignored Graeme. Great. El, the twin she’d talked about constantly. He was never a romantic rival, but Kap remembered being insanely irritated with their connection. It made sense since they were twins, but also the only children in the family.

“Did you just threaten to shoot your brother?” Graeme asked. Meanwhile, El was still staring at Kap, as if he were thinking about feeding him to sharks.

“Only fair. I have had no coffee, and I’m tired. Come on in the kitchen.”

They followed her into the kitchen. She started an electric kettle, then grabbed a French press.

“What do you need?”

You.

Dammit. No. That was wrong.

He cleared his throat, which caused both Eden and Graeme to look at him.

“Your name is connected to our current case,” he said.

She glanced at him, then at Graeme. “I got that already.”

“What Kap is trying to say is that we were called to a murder scene of someone you know.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Please. I’m tired. I landed at about three this morning from Japan. Just spit it out.”

There was tension in her voice that had him on edge. Did she know what happened? Did she have anything to do with it?

“Andrew Green was found murdered,” Graeme said.

Most people wouldn’t notice the way her eyes flared and the little bit of color that leeched from her face. But he did. They may have been involved for only a month all those years ago, but he knew her better than any woman he had been involved with. That was why he was there. Graeme probably didn’t even notice it.

“You worked with him,” he said.

She shook her head. “Not directly. We knew each other because we were stationed in the same region. We had the same mentor.”

“And that would be?” Graeme asked.

She stared at him as the kettle went off. After a few seconds, she finally grabbed the kettle and poured water into the French press.

“Ms. Carlyle, we need to know who that is.”

She sighed, then looked at Kap. “You know I can’t say.”

That meant the mentor was still active.

“He was found here in Hawai’i?”

They both nodded.

“I didn’t know he was here.” She lifted her hands to rub her temple. “He didn’t contact me.”

“He had your cell phone number.”

Her hands dropped, and she looked at them. “A lot of people have my number.”

“This is your unlisted number with Dillon. I guess a lot of people don’t have that one,” Kap said.

He knew from what her partner had told them one time that all agents on assignments get a phone that is unlisted and almost impossible to trace and track.

She swallowed, another sign of her stress. “Do you know when Green came here?”