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Missy went back to her car and let Cobble know the details of what had happened and to assure him she was okay. Billboard called Baskins, and Wiley alerted the local police.

The Director instructed BB in no uncertain terms that other than traffic control, the PD was not to touch the crime scene. The locals were to be informed that the Feds had jurisdiction over this case, and that any grandstanding or interference on their part would be a regretful choice.

The police arrived first—because of course they would, due to proximity—and Missy handled things diplomatically. She let them know that this accident was the culmination of a long-running investigation, and not only were the FBI on the way, but a cadre from the DOJ would be arriving on their heels.

That was enough to have the officers taking a step back; hence no threats of bodily harm had been necessary. The officers were polite and professional, and after an initial look at the crime scene, they went about setting up road blocks and taking care of the sparse traffic that made its way down the road, as well as waving the fire trucks in when they arrived.

Within the hour, Director Baskins himself rolled up with Agent Fleischerman riding shotgun.

The final car to arrive held two Special Agents from the DOJ whom Missy knew in passing, but the pair had only been added to the ranks about five years ago. So even if they hadn’t been thoroughly vetted before being hired—which of course they had been—their short-term at the Department cleared them of all suspicion.

Missy assumed they were now on this case because Oliphant was dead, and Beranger was in flight somewhere over the Atlantic.

Fucking Beranger.

From what Oliphant had said before he croaked, her nemesis was innocent.

Andy found herself disappointed. That guy? A grade A prick.

Now, the best she could hope for was that he’d catch a nice, foodborne pathogen while on layover in South Sudan, and have the shits for the twenty-hour-plus trip home.

Still, she would love to see his face as she revealed Oliphant’s last disparaging comments about him. She assumed, however, that he’d be briefed on the man’s parting words by Cavateral the minute he was back in the office.

“Oliphant, huh?” one of the new DOJ agents tutted as he stood back watching the firefighters do their thing. “My mind is blown. The guy was pretty old school and a loner, but I never had him pegged as a traitor.”

They watched as the car was delicately unwrapped from around the body by the local fire department, using the jaws of life.

Once Oliphant’s remains were free of the wreck, the DOJ agents would claim him. Baskins had arranged for a federal-hearse transport which should be arriving shortly, to take the body straight back to their Boston offices for an autopsy.

Huh. Would a slow growing brain tumor account for why the man had turned-coat fourteen years earlier?

Nope.

It had been greed, pure and simple.

Fleischerman, and the two special agents from the DOJ were currently going through the trunk of Oliphant’s car, with Billboard and Wiley examining the entire scene, seeing what they could find.

It looked like—other than some regulation firearms and ammo—nothing unusual or suspect was being uncovered.

Missy turned to Baskins who was standing, hands in pockets, silently taking it all in. “Does this mean we should start digging into Oliphant’s personal correspondence to see if we might be able to uncover who he’s been working with?”

“I’m one step ahead of you,” Baskins declared. “The minute you called me, I started the ball rolling. I talked to Vessers down in the dungeon. She’d let me know that she’s bored, as is Agent Tertia, so I’ve given them both computers and authorization codes to see what they can find.”

“That won’t make any spies suspicious; that you’ve got our prime suspect rooting around in the system?”

Baskins lips twitched upward. “Nope. If anybody asks or appears to get too curious, they’re playing Art of murder: FBI Confidential .”

Missy blinked.

“You’re a video game nerd?”

Who knew ?

She thought about it for a minute, then laughed out loud, letting off some much-needed steam before getting down to business again.

“Don’t judge,” Baskins grumped amicably.

Missy changed the subject. “I take it you’ve talked directly to Deputy Cavateral since this happened. How’s he taking it?” She waved a hand at the limp body now being carefully extracted from the wreckage. Missy knew that Cavateral had worked with Oliphant for years.

“He’s being pragmatic. He’d already steeled himself that our man was either going to be Oliphant or Beranger, so he wasn’t exactly blindsided.”

Missy grumbled. “Yeah. You know I wish it had been Beranger, right?”

Baskins chuckled. “Oh, really? I had no idea,” he returned with deep sarcasm before regarding her seriously. “But…how do you know he’s not involved?”

Right. She’d been holding on to some intel so she could fill him in, in person, and now was the perfect time, with Fleischerman busy.

Missy quickly gave Baskins the rundown of the brief conversation she’d held with Oliphant before he’d succumbed, and after the smallest bit of back and forth, the Director concurred with Missy. The dying man hadn’t just been pulling Missy’s chain when he’d cleared Beranger. Which meant the last-man-standing at the DOJ was clean.

“Well, at least we’ve narrowed the field,” Baskins replied once they’d come to their conclusions. “One is dead, and one is off the list.” He canted his head toward the car where his agent was still walking around. “That leaves Fleischerman, as well as Englewood and Georgio from our office still in our crosshairs. Which sucks. I was hoping Oliphant would confirm that it was all DOJ before he bit the dust.”

Missy snickered, knowing he was simply spouting. They’d already ascertained that someone in the Bureau’s ranks was dirty. “There’s the old boss I love,” she attempted to comfort him. “You know I eat it up when you go all snarky and shit.”

Baskins quirked a brow, then making sure nobody was within earshot, he added, “Aaand…speaking of love, am I to understand there’s been something-something going on between you and our prize witness for the last five years ?”

Missy stuck out her tongue and huffed.

“Who snitched? Mistah Songen or Agent Smalley?” She rolled her eyes. Gossip would soon become rampant at the FBI offices. Not that she was there very much to take any shit.

Yeah . She wasn’t upset, just curious. She’d known her and Cobble’s relationship would come to light, eventually.

“Uh, uh. I never disclose my sources,” Baskins teased.

Missy shrugged. “I’ll find out,” she boasted, giving him a saucy look.

In truth, it wasn’t very important. She probably wouldn’t pursue it, but it was fun to tweak her old boss a little.

“I’m actually very happy for you,” Baskins continued, ignoring her taunt. “I bet you can’t wait to start a real life with Mr. Blue, uh, Cobble, once this is over.”

“That’s an understatement,” Missy agreed. But since Baskins had brought it up…

Her old boss was a smart man, and a straight-shooter. If she posed a question that may or may not have been lurking in the back of her head—bugging her at odd times—she knew he wouldn’t prevaricate in his answer.

Missy dragged in a deep breath. “I’m actually a little worried that once we’re out in the open, doing real life things and interacting with friends and colleagues, we’ll find out our attraction to each other was primarily due to the danger Cobble was in.” She tapped her lip. “It might be over before it even begins.”

Baskins snorted. “I don’t for a minute buy into that. If I understand things correctly, you two have not only been at it for the prolonged amount of time I mentioned, but you initiated things while he was living with your family. Correct?”

“Uh, yeah. For about the last six months he was there,” she acceded.

“And did any of your folks know that you and he were…seeing each other?” he continued diplomatically.

“My mother, for sure,” Missy revealed. The rest of her family had determined over the course of time that something was going on. All had cheered the relationship.

“Then you’ve already had a taste of normalcy,” Baskins stated. “You’ve rubbed elbows with him—so to speak—while in the bosom of your loved ones’ home, and neither of you had any problems or regrets at that point, am I right?”

“That’s three questions in a row where you’ve been spot on,” Missy chuckled in agreement. “I guess you’ve shown me.”

She was glad she’d asked. Because of Baskins signature gravitas, it felt like his words lifted a huge weight off her shoulders.

There was no reason she and Cobble couldn’t lead a real life together in the outside world.

“If you want,” Baskins continued with an amused grunt, “I’ll tell you how certain I am that you’ll stay together. I hereby volunteer to be the maid of honor at your wedding.”

Wiley and Billboard chose that moment to join them, and both of them heard Baskins’ declaration.

Billboard sidled up next to Missy and gave a nudge to her ribcage with his elbow. “Hey. What am I? Chopped liver?” he asked. “Maybe I want to be the bestie who walks you down the aisle.”

“Back off, Billboard. I thought it would be me.” Wiley affected a pout toward Missy. “I think we should draw straws to see who stands up with you.”

Missy knew that all of them were kidding, but…

What would they do if she took them up on their offer? Some razzing was needed here to see how they’d react.

“Hmm. Tell me. Do you guys prefer teal or fuchsia?” she questioned, semi-teasingly while tipping her head to one side.

“Neither,” Baskins wisecracked back, clearly not seeing that she might be serious. “My wife says I’m more of…an autumn.”

Wiley and Billboard cracked up, but then looked closer when Missy didn’t so much as grin.

Knowing her well, they became wide-eyed, swallowed hard and suddenly looked terrified.

As well they should.

Never dare an Andriopolos.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she told Baskins with a straight face, while sending a look to her SOS guys with a mock-glare that clearly stated, FAFO.

The fun was soon dampened, however, as Oliphant’s body was finally laid out on the ground a few feet away from where they stood. The two special agents along with Fleischerman, Wiley, and Billboard, knelt down, all business, and began assessing his person; donning gloves and checking his pockets for anything that might be helpful.

As far as Missy was concerned, dead was dead, and Oliphant, having been smart and careful for the duration of the case up until he crashed into a tree, wouldn’t have anything incriminating on him.

Fleischerman was clearly coming up empty, and glancing toward her after a few minutes of searching, he rose to his feet and approached. “Was he alive when you got to him?” the agent questioned. “Did he say anything?”

Huh. Was that part of his investigation? Mere curiosity? Or something more?

His eyes may have narrowed a smidge too much for Missy’s liking when he’d posed the question, so she wasn’t going to answer.

She wasn’t ceding a thing. “I’ve already been debriefed by the Director,” she told Fleischerman, nodding at Baskins. “Which means my lips are sealed. Any and all information will now run through him, in the proper channels, until further notice.”

Fleischerman blinked. “Boss?”

“Circumstances being what they are, I’m scheduling a rendezvous at Oliphant’s home first thing tomorrow morning, 7 AM,” he prevaricated. He hadn’t answered Fleischerman’s question, and he wasn’t apologizing. “That’s all I’ll say on the matter until we find out if the DOJ’s man was hiding anything significant.”

Huh. News to Missy. Something was up with Baskins edict, she was certain.

Fleischerman’s face remained almost comically neutral before he nodded and walked away.

Right.

No reaction from him was a little…suspect. Missy would be keeping a specific eye on Fleischerman when it came time for him to become part of Cobble’s security team.

Baskins leaned over and spoke softly in her ear once they were alone again.

“You need to take off immediately,” he informed her. “You’ll be meeting Agent Smalley at this address.” He tucked a note into her hand, surreptitiously.

She glanced at the paper. “You’re having me and Smalley do a recon of Oliphant’s house before anyone else can get there?” She gave a minute chin lift in Fleischerman’s direction.

“Exactly.”

Missy knew Englewood was currently in the air, but still, that left… “What about Agent Georgio? If he’s our traitor, won’t he be on his way there to scrub Oliphant’s home?”

Baskins grinned slyly. “It’s really a shame. We had notification of an evidence pick-up in Maine for another case, and Georgio was the only agent available to travel. I sent him off the minute I hung up from Billboard, which was well before I told anyone about Oliphant’s accident. He was probably half-way across New Hampshire by the time I filled Fleischerman in, and I stuck to Fleischerman until we got here. If he and Georgio are in cahoots, Fleischerman hasn’t had the privacy to notify him. I’ve been watching. He hasn’t used his phone to call or text anyone since I told him the news.”

“And that is why you are the big man on campus,” Missy laughed.

She gave him a sassy salute, and headed for her car.

Smalley would be waiting.