Page 5

CHAPTER 5

A S THEY WALKED BACK TO the hotel, Devine said, “Don’t look now but two guys are following us. I spotted them outside the burger place, watching.”

“Meatball’s boys?” she said casually, without looking behind her.

“They actually look homeless.”

“Are you afraid of them?”

“Should I be?”

“You don’t know them, or why they’re following us. So, yeah, you should be.”

Back at the hotel she went immediately to her room and closed the door.

Saxby pounced. “What happened? What did you learn?”

“Well, she told me she wants to be adopted by her uncle because he’s rich.”

Saxby surprisingly said, “Well, why not go for the brass ring?”

“Even if the brass ring is a criminal kingpin?”

“She’s a kid, what does she know?”

“More than you probably think,” replied Devine.

He eyed the wrapper where the sub had been. Saxby had evidently had her dinner, too.

“So if Odom is valuable to the feds, why only one agent assigned to protect her?”

“We don’t know if she is valuable. Yet. ”

“How’s the RICO case going?”

“It was going great until three of DOJ’s witnesses were murdered.”

Devine gaped. “You think Glass is behind it?”

“Probably, but we have no proof.”

“Speaking of proof, contrary to what you told me, Betsy said that her parents were not drug addicts and she didn’t try to revive them with Narcan. She didn’t even know what it was.”

“Well, here’s a four-one-one, that little bitch is deceitful. And the local police report was quite clear.”

“Deceitful little bitch? Losing your objectivity, Agent Saxby?”

“You try spending days on end with her. She’s a piece of work.”

“She’s a kid who saw her parents die right in front of her,” barked a visibly angered Devine.

She said contritely, “I know. Look, can you hang around here for a bit? I need a smoke.”

“Sure. I think you need to clear your head, if not your lungs.”

She scowled at him, grabbed her purse, and left.

Devine sat on the couch. A few moments later the bedroom door opened and Odom stood there in gray sweats and bare feet.

“I thought you wanted to get your beauty sleep?”

“I won’t be beautiful when I wake up, no matter how long I sleep.”

“So, when exactly did the FBI knock on your door?”

Odom sat down on the other end of the couch and rubbed at her toes. “Some cops took me to the police station. No one would tell me anything. Then people in suits came and took me away. I ended up here with the Meatball.”

“That must have been really scary, Betsy. It would have been frightening for anyone.”

She shrugged. “It’s not like I could do anything. Adults just tell you what to do. Or they think they can,” she added a little bitterly.

“So, if it wasn’t drugs, I wonder what could have happened to your parents.” Devine couldn’t give the girl the third degree, but he had to try to get some information from her.

“I don’t want to talk about it, okay? What the hell does it matter now?”

“But it’s puzzling to me why the FBI is involved.”

She shot him a look. “Aren’t you one of them?”

“No, different agency. I’m Homeland Security.”

“They just said I had to come with them.”

“You nervous about meeting your uncle for the first time?” Devine asked.

“Should I be?” she countered, gazing fixedly at him.

“I don’t know, Betsy, I really don’t.”

“You don’t know much,” she shot back.

You hit that nail right on the head.

Saxby came back in smelling of tobacco smoke. “I thought you were in bed, Betsy?”

Without a word Odom scooted into her room and hastily shut the bedroom door.

“So anything else you can tell me that might be helpful?”

“Need to know, Devine.”

“Always hated that phrase.”

“I don’t make the rules,” she said.

He left the woman there as Saxby gazed dejectedly down at her couch bed.