Chapter 17 #2
“Gabe also mentioned that you’re the woman with her finger on the pulse of all information coming in and out of the FBI. Which begs the question, why are you here?”
The woman, Lily Kim, stirred her floral smelling tea. “Why else? I’m here to warn you.”
The hand on my leg was clearly a signal for me to remain silent and let Kitt take the lead. That was fine with me. Miss Kim’s title might have just been that of a secretary, but I could tell she wasn’t someone to mess with and was way above my pay grade to deal with.
Kitt, on the other hand, didn’t even flinch.
“Warn us about what? And why are you here instead of telling Gabe or the others?”
Tapping the teaspoon against the side of her drink, she waited for the last drop of liquid to fall away.
“You aren’t my first choice. I tried contacting Gabe first, and the other investigators as well. While I’m sure they’re still alive, they’re in hiding. I can’t contact them. You’re the only ones I could find, and I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say.”
She set the teaspoon down on the table with a click.
“Your quarry is about to escape from you. It may not seem like it, but the bell ringers are getting desperate. The evidence is piling up. If you manage to make your case in court, you have a good chance of winning your trial and they know it.”
Really?
We were winning?
She may have been confident about that, but it certainly didn’t feel like we were winning from my perspective.
I could still remember the sound of bullets rushing precariously close to my head, and I had a hard time believing her, but I also didn’t know much about law or trials.
There must be nuances that I was missing, because Kitt wasn’t surprised by Miss Lily’s statement.
Instead, he seemed much more interested in the first part of her claim.
“The bell ringers are escaping?”
Taking a sip of her tea, Miss Lily shook her head and added a bit of sugar.
“Not yet, but they will. Their leaders are still prepared to stay and fight, but the underlings are scared. Especially certain people who are, shall we say...” She paused to look Kitt directly in the eye.
“More directly involved with handling their product and have more to lose. I’ve caught wind that one notable member of their group is making plans to flee the country.
Based on the inventory she’s trying to take with her, I think she’s going to try setting up shop in another country where American law will have a harder time catching up to her. ”
I really hated these kinds of half conversations, where people spoke vaguely on purpose, and half of the necessary information was only implied.
It might be fine for someone in the know, but trying to follow what Miss Lily meant left my head spinning.
I was about to demand that she give us a direct explanation and say plainly what she meant, when a squeeze on my leg kept me silent.
Kitt gave me a look out of the side of his eye. It was a strange expression to decipher, both sharp and soft at the same time. In the end, I could only interpret it as a demand to stay silent while also promising to explain later.
I complied, and didn’t say a word, but I made my displeasure known by slurping my drink and crunching on the half-melted ice as loudly as possible.
The two of them exchanged more of this half-information, bouncing back and forth sentences that contained no actual names or proper nouns as if they were playing tennis without a ball.
Just going through the motions without making any progress.
At least, that’s what it looked like from an outside perspective.
After a few minutes, the conversation came to an abrupt end when Miss Lily scoffed and shoved her teacup away.
“Ugh, that barista needs to be fired. I swear. How do you mess up a simple cup of tea? This is nothing but hot leaf juice.”
I snorted, laughing into my drink, nearly dropping it in the process. “Good one. Ha ha. ‘Cause that’s all tea is, right?”
Kitt and Miss Lily both looked at me, perplexed.
I shrank in my seat. “You know, from Avatar. You were quoting that, right?”
No, apparently not. Based on the serious expressions pointed my way, she had not been joking at all.
Worried that I’d offended her, I mumbled an apology as I nervously chewed my straw.
She scoffed again. “Whatever. Believe me or don’t. It’s up to you now.”
Then, just as abruptly as she’d appeared, she left.
In the wake of her departure, the noises of the café swarmed back around us.
I knew that they had always been there. The coffee shop was just as busy now as it had been a few minutes ago.
Yet, from the moment Miss Lily appeared it had been as if nothing else existed beyond our table, and now that she was gone the weight of the rest of the world had returned.
Kitt’s hand left my leg to instead latch a little too tight around my upper arm.
“What did I say?” he snapped.
“What?” I tugged at my arm, but his grip was too strong to break away.
“I told you to stay quiet and let me handle things.”
He had said nothing of the sort, unless you counted the silent stares that he’d given me. I was about to remind him of that fact, but before I could even open my mouth, he was already pulling me out of my seat and toward the door.
“Kitt, wait. I’m sorry,” I mumbled as I tripped after him, yet he never even looked back at me.
Had I really messed up that bad?
It had been one harmless joke. Surely one joke couldn’t ruin everything so quickly. Kitt had never minded any of my social blunders before. He’d even comforted me through my panic attack. Compared to that, a mistimed joke didn’t seem nearly as bad.
Perhaps this was what people meant when they talked about the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. He’d been so patient with me up until now, but everyone’s patience had a limit. It seemed I might have accidentally stumbled into Kitt’s limit, and now I was paying the price.
I was already preparing my apologies when my back hit the passenger seat of our car. The words were perched on my lips, ready to take flight like restless birds, but then as Kitt slid into the driver’s seat, he cut me off.
“I’m sorry.”
My mouth hung open as I did my best impression of a drowning fish.
“Uh... what?”
“I’m sorry for snapping at you like that,” Kitt hurried to say as he turned on the car and shifted it into drive. “I’m not angry. I promise. We just needed to get out of there.”
The tires didn’t squeal as we pulled out of the parking lot. In fact, we barely went faster than the speed limit, yet there was an intensity to the way that Kitt gripped the wheel that said he was forcing himself to stay calm and not floor the pedal as hard as he could.
“So... you’re not actually mad?” I asked as I struggled to wrap my head around the situation.
Kitt’s eyes remained focused on the road, but one of his hands left the wheel to wrap around mine instead. “No, I’m not. We just needed to get out of there quickly and your interruption was the best excuse.”
I glanced back through the rear window at the coffee shop that was nearly out of sight far down the street. “So, you think it was a set up?”
Kitt shook his head, but his brow remained furrowed.
“Lily Kim is the FBI director’s secretary.
Gabe told me about her, and claims to trust her, so I don’t think she would set us up.
Although I don’t know her personally and I’m not going to trust her too much.
No, the real problem is that if she can find us, that means others can as well.
We needed to get out of there and find somewhere safe while we decide what to do next. ”
The car took a turn, and the coffee shop disappeared from view.
I settled down and secured my seat belt as I prepared myself for another long drive.
“What to do next? Do we even have any kind of plan? The others still haven’t contacted us, and Miss Kim didn’t tell us anything specific.
I’m glad she warned us that we were in danger of being found and that the bell ringers are making more moves, but that’s not useful to us right now. ”
“Oh, she gave us plenty of useful information.”
Kitt picked up the empty teacup sitting in the cup holder between us.
I hadn’t even noticed him snag it on the way out when he dragged me from the coffee shop.
Before I could ask why he’d bothered to bring along Miss Lily’s leftover garbage, he turned over the cup to reveal a memory card taped to the bottom.