CHAPTER SIX
The unfamiliar car sat in the morning gray, alone in the parking lot outside the Harlan County field office.
Selena slowed as she turned in, studying the dark blue sedan beneath the maple near the entrance. Kentucky plates. No government markings. The windshield was clean except for a visitor permit resting on the dashboard, though she could not read the writing from her car.
Meg’s message returned to her.
NEW AGENT ARRIVING TOMORROW. BE NICE.
Selena parked two spaces away and shut off the engine. The sedan remained empty. Whoever owned it might already be inside, but the front doors appeared closed, and Selena had not issued anyone else a key.
Perhaps the agent had gone to find breakfast. Perhaps the car belonged to a contractor who had finally come to repair the heating system. That possibility seemed less likely. Contractors announced themselves with vans, ladders, and reasons the work would cost more than the estimate.
Morning mist clung to the upper branches beyond the school. The early sun had begun thinning it, revealing strips of orange and red among the trees. Eagleton’s main road carried light traffic, mostly pickups heading toward work and parents dropping children at the newer school across town.
Selena collected her bag and climbed the front steps.
The lock resisted before turning. Inside, the old lobby held the night’s chill. She switched on the lights and listened to the fixtures hum awake one by one. No voices reached her from the corridors. No footsteps. Nothing suggested another agent had entered without permission.
After checking the visitor log to see if the new agent had let themselves inside, Selena continued to the former teachers’ lounge.
The office was as she had left it. Three empty desks. Four metal filing cabinets. The dented student lamp beside her laptop. Karen Sloane’s file rested in the center of the blotter, with Hannah Montgomery’s notes clipped to the front.
Selena set down her bag and removed her jacket.
The new agent had not contacted her directly. Meg had not supplied a name, which was unusual enough to feel deliberate. Whoever was coming had either been selected in a hurry or chosen for reasons Meg preferred to explain after the fact.
Selena opened Karen’s file and read the summary from the previous day. Her attention paused on the storage-unit burglary. Connor was arranging access through Loyall police. If the stolen property included Karen’s writing, the break-in might carry more weight than Gerry Tomes understood.
A knock echoed from the front of the building.
Selena raised her head.
Another knock followed, louder this time.
She left the office and started along the corridor. The sound carried through the school, flattening against classroom doors and returning from the stairwell. Through the glass entrance, a woman waited on the top step with one hand resting on the handle of a rolling case.
Recognition came before Selena reached the lobby.
Kelly Voss.
For a moment, Selena stopped walking.
Kelly wore a gray suit with a knee-length skirt and low black heels.
A laptop bag hung from one shoulder. Her black hair had been pulled into a neat knot, the color too dark and uniform to be natural.
Makeup softened the lines around her mouth but did little to obscure the features Selena remembered.
Sixteen-year-old Kelly appeared beneath the adult version without effort.
A locker room after gym class. Damp tile beneath Selena’s sneakers.
Locker doors slamming while the other girls hurried away.
Kelly catching a fistful of Selena’s hair and pulling her backward because Selena had laughed at something on the other side of the room.
The pain along her scalp. The sharp corner of a bench striking her hip.
Kelly asking whether anything seemed funny now.
Selena crossed the remaining distance and unlocked the door.
Kelly gave a cautious smile.
“Hello, Selena.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m glad you’re happy to see me.”
Selena pushed one door open but remained in the entrance. “I take it you’re the help Meg sent.”
“Yes, I am.”
Neither moved.
Kelly adjusted the laptop bag on her shoulder. “Are you going to let me come inside so I can get set up?”
Selena stepped aside. “Sure.”
Kelly pulled her case over the threshold. The wheels caught on the metal strip, and she lifted it clear before the door closed behind them.
A federal identification wallet appeared in her hand.
“For the record,” Kelly said, “Special Agent Kelly Voss, Seattle field office. Temporary assignment to Eagleton effective today.”
Selena examined the credentials even though the name and photograph were clear from several feet away.
“You could’ve called.”
“I thought Meg had told you I was coming.”
“She told me someone was coming.”
Kelly slipped the wallet into her bag. “Maybe she thought surprising you would make things easier.”
“It didn’t.”
They started toward the rear wing.
Kelly took in the trophy case, the peeling classroom numbers, and the old hooks along the walls. “It’s funny, us working from an old school as a field office.”
Selena kept walking.
The locker-room memory had loosened others. Kelly blocking the end of a corridor. Kelly emptying Selena’s schoolbag onto a wet floor. Kelly and two friends following her home, close enough that Selena heard them discussing what they might do if she turned around.
“Funny how?” Selena asked.
“Well, considering we went to school together.”
They reached the teachers’ lounge. Selena placed her key in the lock, turned it, then faced Kelly.
“We weren’t classmates. You were two years ahead of me.”
Kelly’s mouth tightened. “Right.”
Selena opened the door and entered.
Morning light came through the bent blinds in narrow strips. The three unused desks occupied the far side of the room, each with a chair and an empty drawer unit beneath it.
“Take your pick,” Selena said.
Kelly selected the desk nearest the door. She placed the laptop bag on the chair, stood her rolling case beside it, and removed her jacket.
Selena returned to her own desk but did not sit immediately.
Kelly glanced around the room. “Meg said the office was still being established.”
“That was the polite description.”
“I’ve worked in worse.”
“Were they abandoned schools?”
“No.”
“Then give it time.”
Kelly rested both palms on the back of the chair. “You don’t seem very happy about this.”
Selena sat and pulled Karen’s file closer. “I wasn’t expecting you, Kelly.”
“Well, I’m sure we’ll get along.”
“You made my life hell.”
The words settled between the empty desks.
Kelly lowered herself into the chair but did not open her bag. “I knew this might be difficult.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“You still came.”
“I requested a transfer months ago. This assignment became available, and I thought I could be useful because I used to live here.”
Selena studied her. The years had altered Kelly’s manner more than her features. The teenager had filled every space as if other people existed only to move aside. The woman seated across from Selena held her shoulders carefully, measuring each response before giving it.
Care could be remorse. It could also be strategy.
“Did you speak with Meg Calloway, directly?” Selena asked.
“Yes. On the phone. I’d put in a request to transfer somewhere outside the Seattle office. She said there was an opportunity to return to my home county.”
“I assume the rationale was that you know the ground here and can get acclimated quickly.”
“That was part of it.”
“What was the rest?”
Kelly’s gaze moved toward the county map pinned above the filing cabinets. “My case experience. Violent crime, missing persons, and multi-agency investigations.”
“Did you happen to mention that we knew each other when we were younger?”
“I did say that.”
“What exactly did you tell her?”
“That we knew each other in passing.”
Selena stared at her.
“In passing?”
Kelly let out a slow breath. “I didn’t think going through every detail with your supervisor would help either of us.”
“You kicked the shit out of me more than once because I looked the wrong way.”
A faint flush spread along Kelly’s neck.
“Selena, I’m sorry for what happened. I was a kid, and things got out of hand.”
“Out of hand?”
“I’m not trying to excuse it.”
“That sounds a lot like an excuse.”
Kelly pushed the chair back and stood. “What do you want me to say?”
“The truth would be a start.”
“The truth is I treated you badly.”
“You bullied me.”
“Yes.”
“You pulled my hair, hit me, followed me home, damaged my things, and made sure other girls knew what would happen if they spent time with me.”
Kelly pressed her lips together before answering.
“Yes.”
Selena’s pulse had quickened. The office seemed smaller, the empty desks closing the distance between them.
“Do you remember the locker room?” she asked.
Kelly’s attention dropped.
“I remember.”
“You caught me from behind.”
“I know.”
“I was fourteen,” Selena said. “You were two years older. It was cheap.”
“I know how old you were.”
Selena stood. “Then don’t tell me it got out of hand as if you tripped and fell into it. You chose it. Again and again.”
Kelly took the words without moving.
After several seconds, she said, “You’re right.”
The agreement did not bring the satisfaction Selena expected.
“Why, though?” Selena asked, hating that she could not let it go. “Why did you make my life hell back then?”
Kelly continued, “I chose it. I wanted people to be scared of me, and you were someone I could hurt without thinking there’d be much of a consequence.
There isn’t a better version of it. I could tell you everything I was going through as a kid back then.
All the baggage I carried and took out on innocent girls like you.
But would that make it better? I don't think so.
All I can say is I am genuinely sorry. I'm not that kid anymore.
And looking at you, Selena, neither are you. "
Selena folded her arms. “My father spoke to yours. Big help that was. It just got worse.”
Kelly's restraint cracked. "Your dad went to mine, and my father grounded me for months. He took my car keys, pulled me out of cheerleading, and made sure I went straight home after school. I was furious with you for that."
“Of course you were.”
“I’m telling you what happened, not asking for sympathy.”
“It sounded close.”
Kelly stepped away from the desk, creating more room between them. “I was angry because someone finally stopped me. I spent years acting as if your father had ruined my life. Later, I understood it was me not facing up to the horrible things I’d done. Home life wasn’t easy. But that was no excuse.”
The anger Selena had carried into the conversation remained, though it no longer found the same target. Kelly was not denying what happened. She was not laughing. That did not erase the tiled locker room or the fear that had shaped Selena’s routes through school.
Some grudges survived because letting go felt too much like agreeing that the damage had been minor.
“Why come here?” Selena asked.
“I told you. I wanted a transfer.”
“You had the whole country.”
“I didn’t get the whole country. I got an offer for Harlan County.”
“You could’ve refused.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Kelly met her directly. “Because I thought it might be a chance to put this behind us.”
Selena gave a short, disbelieving laugh. “You thought showing up unannounced at my office would fix it?”
“No. I thought working with you and doing the job properly might prove I’m not sixteen anymore.”
“That helps you. I’m not sure what it does for me.”
“It gives you another agent on a murder investigation. Isn’t that all that matters?”
The answer irritated Selena because it was practical.
Kelly rested one hand on the desk. “I do feel bad about what I did. I have for years. I should’ve found a way to apologize before now, and I didn’t. That’s on me. But I’m here to solve Karen Sloane’s murder and help you do it.”
Selena turned toward the window.
Outside, the parking lot had brightened. Kelly’s sedan sat beneath the maple; its dark paint scattered with fallen leaves. Beyond it, Eagleton continued through an ordinary morning, unaware that an old conflict had entered the federal office before nine.
Meg had known.
The message made more sense now.
BE NICE.
Selena wondered whether Meg had expected resistance or merely hoped to delay it until Kelly unpacked.
“Fine,” Selena said.
Kelly waited.
“This is a temporary assignment. You report through me while you’re here. Case decisions come through this office, and anything involving the sheriff’s department is coordinated with Connor Chase.”
“Understood.”
“We document everything. No informal evidence transfers, no private arrangements with local agencies, and no assumptions that knowing the county means you can bypass procedure.”
“Understood.”
Selena returned to her chair and opened the Karen Sloane file.
Kelly remained standing for another moment. “I just want to help you, Selena.”
“Then help with the case.”
A small nod followed.
Selena drew in a measured breath and allowed the silence to settle. Anger had sharpened every detail in the room, from the lamp’s metal shade to the weak buzz of the ceiling fixture. Karen’s file gave her somewhere useful to direct that energy.
“Have you reviewed the initial report I sent to Washington and to the sheriff here?”
“Yes. Calloway sent me the preliminary packet last night. I read it on the flight and again this morning.”
“What do you know?”
“Karen Sloane, forty-one, recently divorced from Gerry Tomes. She rented Hannah Montgomery’s cabin for three months after moving from Loyall.
A mail carrier found the front door open yesterday morning.
Karen had multiple stab wounds and defensive injuries.
Her tongue had been removed and left beside a word processor the killer deliberately smashed. ”
Selena said nothing.
Kelly continued, “Gerry claims he was home drinking with his roommate, Mel Hinkel. Karen accused Gerry of breaking into her storage unit several days before the murder. Hannah Montgomery says Karen wanted somewhere quiet to write.”
“You did read it.”
“I said I did.”
Selena ignored the defensive edge.
“The local team is verifying Gerry’s alibi and processing the storage-unit report. We’re going to the sheriff’s department now. You’ll meet Connor, Deputy Arnold Shaw, and Cheryl at the front desk. Matt Price handles scene processing with Dr. Alistair Blethan supporting the medical work.”
Kelly reached for her jacket. “All right.”
“Blethan will test you.”
“I’ve worked with difficult medical examiners.”
“He’ll still test you.”
Kelly pulled the jacket on and lifted her laptop bag. “It’ll be funny seeing Connor. I guess it’s like a big reunion.”
Selena closed Karen’s file, stood, and walked out of the office without answering.