CHAPTER TWO #2
Selena closed the file again.
“I just got back into rhythm here.”
Meg’s face softened by a fraction. “You did, and you will again.”
“I have active reports.”
“They’ll survive reassignment.”
“I’m not sure I want to go back there every time Harlan County stumbles over a body.”
“This isn’t every time. He’s asked for you, Selena.”
Selena looked past Meg toward the rest of the floor. Agents moved between desks. A man laughed near the elevators. Someone pinned a document to a board inside a conference room.
This was the life she had spent years building. Order. Pressure. The kind of cases people in the Bureau remembered. Harlan County had always been the place behind her.
“You could visit your family again while you’re there,” Meg added.
Then her father’s face rose in her mind.
Robert Raven on the porch, thinner than he should be, smiling at her as if forgiveness had cost him nothing. His voice calling her Lena. The promise she had made to visit more, to call, to stop treating family as something that could wait until work was finished.
Diane’s face came after it.
Her sister. Less forgiving. More guarded. Arms folded. Eyes full of old hurt she had every right to keep.
And Connor.
Selena kept her grip on the file steady.
Connor Chase had looked at her differently when she left last time.
Not healed. Not free of what had happened between them, the wreckage of their divorce still lingering.
But no longer standing completely on the far side of the life she had abandoned.
That was dangerous in ways she had not found language for yet.
Part of her wanted to see him.
The admission stayed inside her, unwelcome and plain.
Another part wanted distance, anything that would keep old feelings from becoming decisions before she understood them.
Tanya broke the silence. “You should go.”
Selena glanced at her. “Thank you for the official Bureau guidance.”
“I’m serious.” Tanya hugged the envelopes against her chest. “A strapping sheriff asks for help, you go. That’s basic public service.”
Meg looked at Selena. “She makes a strong procedural argument.”
“She makes a romantic one.”
Tanya lifted one finger. “Also, if you don’t want him, can I have him? I’ve seen a picture in his file when you were looking over it. He’s dreamy.”
"No," Selena said.
Tanya’s eyebrows rose. “Me thinks the lady doth protest too much.”
Selena sighed. “That wasn’t what I meant.”
“Sounded clear to me,” Tanya said.
“Don’t you have mail to deliver?”
“I’ve lost interest in the mail.”
“Explains why no one gets theirs at the office,” Selena joked.
Meg took the file back just long enough to open it to the summary page.
“Warren Holt was found this morning at a disused hunting lodge. Gunshot wound to the head. Sheriff Chase and the crime scene technician flagged inconsistencies. A blank piece of paper in front of the victim. An envelope with his name on it. Weapon not positioned convincingly for self-infliction. Local medical examiner hasn’t completed his assessment yet. ”
Selena’s professional focus tightened despite herself. “Who found him?”
“A local man, Tom Reeder. Sheriff’s office secured the scene. Call came to me shortly after.”
“Connor called you directly?”
“Yes.”
“But not me.”
Meg held her gaze. “He called through official channels.”
A reluctant breath left Selena, almost a laugh, but not quite. “Do we have victimology?”
“Thin so far. Local businessman, according to the first note. Some personal complications, but nothing formal yet. Connor said they’ll send more once the initial scene package is organized.”
"Businessman, where?"
“Local real estate, some side ventures. You can read it on the plane.”
“Who said I’m flying?”
Meg closed the file. “You can turn this down, Selena. I won’t force you.”
That surprised her more than the assignment.
Selena looked up. “You won’t?”
Meg stepped closer, lowering her voice. "You are the best fit for it.
The county knows you. The Sheriff trusts your work.
You understand rural dynamics, local pride, old resentments, the kind of motive that sits around for years before someone acts on it.
Go and do what you do best. Represent the Bureau well. "
Suspicion was beginning to build inside Selena. “I’m starting to think you want rid of me.”
Meg shook her head. “Hell no. You’re the best we’ve got.”
But she now felt pushed in a direction in which she was uncertain.
She had caused a national scene for the FBI when she disproved the conclusion of an in-depth multiple homicide investigation.
One that seemed politically motivated. The FBI had been so confident of it, they even held press conferences.
But Selena had presented clear evidence and analysis that contradicted the official stance.
This had caused embarrassment for the Bureau.
And those above Selena had long memories.
It had facilitated the need for her to go to Harlan County while the dust settled last time.
Now, Selena worried just how much pressure was still being exerted on Meg as some sort of revenge. Selena looked again at the file.
Old Ridge Hunting Lodge.
A place like that would hold more than blood. Men told secrets in hunting lodges. They drank too much, lied too easily, remembered grudges as if tending fires.
The case had already begun to pull at her.
That was always the problem.
Murder did not care about convenience. A dead man at a table, a blank page, a sheriff careful enough to call through official channels instead of using her number. Each detail tugged until refusal felt too much like cowardice.
Selena handed the file back to Meg, then immediately regretted the gesture.
Meg waited. “Selena…”
For the first time, she could see it in Meg’s eyes.
This was an opportunity for Meg to send her away again, and it had fallen into the FBI’s lap.
Meg was clearly taking it as a way to protect her again from the insidious politics of D.C.
That didn’t make it hurt any less, but it did make Selena weary of pushing back. There was no way out of this.
“All right,” Selena said. “When do I leave?”
Meg smiled.
“I put a seat on hold for you, just in case.”
Selena stared at her. She wondered if her career was beginning to slip away to the back roads of the country. Was that where she was destined to be mothballed?
Tanya gave a soft gasp of delight. “You knew Selena would say yes?”
Meg tucked the file under her arm again. “I hoped.”
Selena looked toward the windows, where the city waited beyond the glass, bright and distant and suddenly temporary.
Harlan County was waiting for her again.