Page 26

I got back to the house so late last night that I’ve had very little sleep when my internal alarm jostles me awake. The sound of Bellamy and Eric downstairs getting ready for the day and the smell of cooking pancakes draw me to the kitchen, where I find Bebe happily playing with a doll and tiny play cookware. I kiss her on the top of the head and make a beeline for the coffeemaker.

“I woke up in the middle of the night and went to get a glass of water and noticed you weren’t in your room,” Bellamy says. “Where did you go?”

“Marshall Powell, another of Tracy Ellis’s employees who got the threats, was attacked,” I explain.

“Just attacked?” Eric asks. “He survived?”

“Yes. He’s in the hospital and apparently suffered some pretty extensive injuries, but he is alive. He’s under sedation, so I haven’t been able to talk to him, but I’m really hoping that he’ll be able to talk soon and can give me any information on who did this,” I say. “I’m going to check on him this morning.”

As soon as I’m done with breakfast, I get dressed and head for the hospital. I park at the general entrance and go inside to the information desk. Just as I’m asking about Marshall, the elevator opens, and I see Carla come out. She looks surprised to see me.

“Thank you,” I say to the man behind the desk and go toward her.

“Good morning,” I say. “How did you sleep?”

“I barely did,” she says. “I kept waking up at every little sound. It was terrible. Eventually, I just got up. I was the first person down in the lobby for breakfast. I wanted to get here as soon as I could.”

“How is Marshall doing? Are there any updates?” I ask.

“Things are looking better. The scans look good. The doctors are hoping to be able to bring him out of sedation later today or tomorrow depending on how everything goes, and they’ll see how he reacts,” she tells me.

I smile. “That’s great to hear. I know it seems like a lot considering everything he went through, but it’s really important that I’m able to talk to him as soon as he is possibly capable of it,” I say. “The sooner he gives his statement, the better chance there is that he will remember helpful details.”

“I understand,” she nods. “I just don’t know how much he’s going to be able to remember.”

“We’ll just have to see,” I say.

With Marshall still under sedation, there’s no point in me going upstairs. Instead, I go back out to my car and dial the number Carla gave me for Gloria Pryor.

“Hello?” she answers with the wary tone of someone who doesn’t recognize the number on their phone but isn’t the type to just let it go to voicemail.

“Mrs. Pryor?” I ask.

“This is Gloria Pryor,” she says. “Who is this?”

“My name is Special Agent Emma Griffin,” I say.

“You’re the FBI agent investigating the Tracy Ellis Ministry murders,” she says before I can finish introducing myself.

I cringe at the media-spun description of the murders, but I push ahead.

“Yes,” I say. “I need to speak with you about the investigation. Would you be willing to meet up with me to discuss a few things?”

She agrees and directs me to a coffee shop not too far away. We agree to meet in twenty minutes, and I head directly there. I get iced coffee and choose a table to wait. Sam calls me as I’m sipping the perfectly bitter brew.

“Hey, babe,” I say. “Miss you.”

“I miss you too,” he says. “Where are you?”

“I’m sitting in a coffee shop waiting for a woman I’m interviewing for the case,” I tell him. “There was another attack last night, and I found out that the wife of the man who was attacked reported this woman for a morality breach with the company.”

“You think that she could have had something to do with it?” he asks.

“I think that it’s important to get as many insights as I can. Someone has a reason to kill two people and try to kill two others, and it all seems to be centered on this ministry. But I’m not convinced anymore that there is some activist group targeting the ministry. I think there’s something else going on,” I explain. “There was something strange about how everything happened last night. Another employee was attacked, and then later there was an intruder at his house. But something was off.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Sam says.

His unyielding belief in me makes my chest warm, and I can’t help but smile. He often worries about me when I’m out in the field, especially when I’m away from home for a long time, but he knows how important my career is to me. There was a time when I was considering walking away from the Bureau, retiring and settling into a quiet life. But I couldn’t make myself do it. I was drawn back to the purpose that brought me into it in the first place. Sam understands, but that doesn’t stop his protective nature from wishing I didn’t take on dangerous cases and weren’t as willing to throw myself into them. I’ve learned to appreciate both sides.

“The fact that no one is taking credit for the killings is bothering me,” I say. “There are the messages on the walls, but there’s nothing to link a specific group to any of this. I’ve had several people tell me that the ministry gets threats all the time, but those are just hate mail. No one has ever acted on it. I feel like that piece is missing. It’s like the students on campus told me, it doesn’t make any sense to lurk around in the shadows when you are trying to make a point.”

“So what’s the reason behind the threats?” Sam asks.

“That’s where my brain is now,” I tell him.

I see a woman walk through the door and look around. Thinking it must be Gloria, I wave, and she comes toward me.

“I have to go,” I tell Sam. “I’ll call you later. I love you.”

I hang up and stand to shake Gloria’s hand.

“Mrs. Pryor,” I say.

“You can call me Gloria,” she says, sitting down at the table.

“Do you want to go order something?” I ask.

She shakes her head firmly. “No. What’s this about?”

“I wanted to talk to you about working with Tracy Ellis,” I say.

“I don’t work for her anymore. My husband and I both quit several weeks ago,” she says.

“I know. I’m interested in what led up to that,” I say.

She shifts uncomfortably in her seat. “We decided that the company wasn’t the right fit for us anymore and decided to pursue other opportunities.”

“That’s it?” I ask.

“Yes,” she says. “We both worked for her for a few years, but it ran its course.”

“And how is your relationship with your husband?” I ask.

“My relationship with my husband?” she asks. “It’s great. We’re very happy. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Gloria, I heard that you were reported to Tracy Ellis for talking about filing for divorce,” I say. “Is that true?”

Her face hardens, and spots of color appear on her cheekbones. “Yes.”

“And she required you to participate in marriage counseling and restricted your activities within the company,” I say.

“Yes.” Gloria briefly ducks her head and tents her eyes with one hand. “I can’t believe I’m even having this conversation. It’s ridiculous that anybody is talking about my relationship and what did or didn’t happen between us and the company we used to work for. This doesn’t have anything to do with what’s happening to the ministry now.”

“How did you feel about the disciplinary actions taken against you?” I ask.

“I was embarrassed,” she admits. “Just like I think anyone would be. I was angry that someone would report me for saying something really rash during a rough patch in my marriage. I know the guidelines of the company, but I made a flippant comment, and it turned into a massive ordeal. But at the end of the day, I’m grateful that it happened. It was humiliating, and it ended my career, but it really did turn out for the better.

“My husband and I went to a few sessions of the therapy Tracy set up for us before we decided to quit the company. It was actually our time in that therapy that made us realize that we needed the change and that it was time to start fresh together. After we left, we started going to a different counselor, and it has made all the difference in our marriage and our lives. We genuinely are doing great now. There are still hard days, but we’re willing to work through it.”

“Did you ever get any threatening notes?” I ask.

“No,” she says. “I honestly waited for one to show up. I figured it would.”

“Why is that?” I ask.

“Because it was very known that we were pretty well disgraced within the company, and I thought the threats sounded like someone who would go after that within the ministry,” she says. “But it never happened.”

I sift through my notes and pull out the list that Tracy Ellis gave me.

“Do you know if any of these people also faced any kind of discipline after being reported to Tracy?” I ask.

“Grant Pruden,” she says. “I don’t know what he was reported for, but he was restricted from public events for almost two months. I heard that Mila was also called into Tracy’s office a few times to discuss a personal matter, but I never got any more details about it.”

Grant Pruden is one of the people I called early in the investigation. The call I got back a couple of days later wasn’t very illuminating, but now I have a different perspective. I feel like I’ve found a thread. I just have to pull it.

“Thank you for meeting with me,” I say to Gloria, starting to stand up.

“Can you tell me something?” she asks.

“What?” I ask.

“I heard on the news this morning that Marshall Powell was attacked in his home last night,” she says.

“He was,” I say.

“Since I’m sure you’ve interviewed her, can you tell me if it was Carla Powell who reported me to Tracy?” she asks.

“I can’t comment on details of the investigation,” I say.

This doesn’t really fall under that umbrella, but I don’t feel like it’s my place to disclose the identity of someone who made a report while assuming they would be able to remain anonymous.

She nods, the look on her face saying that even though I didn’t confirm it, she knows that’s the situation.

“That’s interesting,” she says.

“What is?” I ask.

“It’s interesting that Carla would go around making judgments like that against other people with what I’ve heard is going on in her marriage,” she says.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

She shrugs. “It’s all rumors. But I’ve heard there’s a story behind them leaving the company.”