Page 2 of Shattered Truth (Off The Grid: FBI #15)

FBI Special Agent Matt Lawson's phone buzzed as he pulled into the parking garage of his apartment building in Santa Monica Thursday evening.

He was surprised to see Flynn MacKenzie's name on the screen.

He was scheduled to start work for Flynn's elite FBI unit on Monday, and he hadn't expected to hear from anyone before then.

In fact, he'd turned off his phone for the last three days, taking a break from life, because he'd been exhausted after working a futile case for the LA field office's white-collar crime division that had yielded nothing close to the results he'd wanted, and had been preemptively shut down by the new director.

That frustration was the reason he'd joined Flynn's team.

He'd heard from Jason Colter, one of his former coworkers, that the unit was fast, agile, and worked without layers of bureaucracy.

"Flynn?" he asked.

"Sorry to cut into your time off, Matt, but something has come up. Are you in town?" Flynn's voice carried a familiar edge of controlled urgency that meant his quiet Thursday evening was about to become a long night.

"Just pulled into my parking garage. Why?"

"We've got a body in Griffith Park, and this one's got your name on it. Literally."

He tensed. "What do you mean— literally ?"

"Victim had your name and number written on a piece of paper in her pocket. Her name is Sabrina Lin, attorney at Adler and Briggs. You know her?"

Matt's mind raced through recent contacts, cases, and interviews. "No. I've never heard of her."

"We need to figure out why she had your contact information and why she's dead. How long until you can get to the scene?"

Matt checked his GPS. "Twenty-five minutes."

"Make it twenty."

As the call ended, he reversed out of his parking space and exited the garage, his mind turning to the deceased woman who'd had his contact information—Sabrina Lin.

He couldn't place the name. Nor could he remember having any dealings with her law firm.

It was possible she was tied to one of his cases and he just didn't remember her, but he was still rolling her name around in his head when he arrived at the park.

The crime scene was in a remote area, poorly lit, and swarming with police. Matt badged his way past the perimeter tape and found Flynn standing on a wooden bridge next to a body bag.

Flynn MacKenzie looked like he should be teaching surf lessons in Malibu instead of running one of the FBI's most elite units. He wore jeans and a brown jacket, his blond hair on the longer side, his skin tan, his laid-back stance deceptively casual.

Flynn gave him a nod, then unzipped the bag, revealing the face of Sabrina Lin. She was young, probably early thirties, attractive, wearing business attire, with no visible sign of an injury.

"What do we know?" he asked as Flynn zipped up the bag.

"She's a thirty-year-old attorney with Adler and Briggs.

Time of death appears to be around seven.

A 911 call came in at 7:15. Police found her at 7:26.

" Flynn paused, then handed him an evidence bag containing what looked like a small dart or needle, no bigger than a toothpick.

"This was embedded in her neck, barely visible.

My guess is that she was injected with a lethal dose of something. "

Matt studied the dart through the clear plastic. "Someone wanted this to look natural—heart attack, stroke, maybe an overdose, if it left a trace of drugs in her system. Clean, quiet, and designed to avoid the attention we're giving it now."

"Exactly. We'll have to wait for the autopsy and tox screen to get the full results, but this was definitely a homicide."

"Any witnesses? You said there was a 911 call."

Flynn's expression tightened. "That's where it gets interesting. Park security cameras caught a woman running into the parking lot around the estimated time of death. Dark hair, medium build, driving a silver Honda Civic. We've got a partial on the license plate, but she was moving fast."

"Was she fleeing the scene or running for help?"

"Who knows? But she could be our 911 caller. That woman hung up before dispatch could get any information."

Matt nodded, his mind already working through the possibilities. "She could be a witness or the killer. But if she was the killer, why call 911? She could have left Sabrina in the woods. It might have been hours before anyone found her."

"She could have just stumbled across the body, panicked, and ran. Didn't want to get involved," Flynn suggested. "But there's still the question of why Sabrina Lin had your name and phone number on this piece of paper." He held up another plastic bag with his contact information visible.

"That's my office number," he murmured, reading the digits. "Not my cell phone. I've been out of the office the last three days. If she called recently, she wouldn't have reached me."

"Maybe she spoke to someone else."

"I'll find out."

Matt pulled out his phone and dialed his former partner, Agent Shari Drummond. She answered on the second ring.

"Matt? Is something wrong? I thought you were taking a vacation before you started your next assignment."

"I was, but I have a quick question. Do you know if anyone named Sabrina Lin called our office, trying to reach me?"

There was a pause. "Actually, yes. She called this morning. I told her you weren't working in our office anymore and asked if I could help. She said she would only talk to you, that she didn't trust anyone else. What's going on?"

"She was found dead in Griffith Park an hour ago. My name was on a note in her pocket."

Shari blew out a breath. "That's terrible. Who is she?"

"I don't know. Did she say anything else?"

"No, she didn't. Sorry."

"Thanks. I'll talk to you later."

"Good luck."

He turned to Flynn as he slipped his phone into his pocket. "Ms. Lin called my office this morning and was told I no longer worked in that unit. She refused to talk to anyone but me. I need to know what happened to her. Are we taking this case? Or will it go to the LA field office?"

"We'll take it. With your name on the victim, and Ms. Lin's refusal to talk to anyone in your old office, it's better if we handle the investigation. I'll let Director Markham know. LAPD will notify Sabrina's family and her employer. We'll go from there."

"First thing we need to do is locate our possible witness."

"Derek is already in the office, running plate combinations. He's one of our best techs."

"Great. I know I'm not officially on the payroll…"

"Just moved your hire date to today," Flynn said with a smile. "Welcome aboard, Matt. You've got your first case."

"Do you want me to work with anyone else? Do I have a partner?"

"As Jason may have told you, we don't have official partners.

Whoever is free teams up. We do every job, big or small.

That's how we move fast. We don't worry about hierarchy or credit or who's doing what.

Whoever lands a case is the lead, and everyone else is backup.

Sometimes you're in charge, sometimes you're watching security cameras. You good with that?"

"Absolutely."

"That said, Jason and Agent Andi Hart just wrapped up a case, so they should have some time to help you, depending on where this investigation goes. They'll be in tomorrow morning."

He nodded. "I'll go to the office now and talk to Derek. Hopefully, we can track down our mysterious witness by then."

"We don't hope, we do," Flynn said with a smile. "See you tomorrow, Matt. Oh, and don't bother to wear a suit. We prefer to operate less obtrusively. We find the suit sometimes puts an unneeded barrier between ourselves and a potential witness."

He was fine with changing things up. What he had been doing had not gotten him the results he wanted.

As he made his way back to his car, his mind raced with questions centering on two women: the one who'd run away, and the one who'd died after trying to reach him.

That personal connection made the case more important to him.

He'd worked homicides before, but this woman had wanted to talk to him, and he needed to know why.