Laura’s heart continued to thud loudly in her ears as she pressed the thumbnail, bringing the whole video up. It played from the start: the phone propped up properly, showing Amy standing at the other side of her bedroom. She was walking back quickly until she reached what she clearly thought was the appropriate distance and struck a pose, her hands on her hips like a little diva. It almost brought Laura to tears, the thought of this little girl being normal and playing happily. All of that would be taken away from her forever if this wasn’t the video she needed.
“Okay,” Amy said on the video, her voice obviously a childish imitation of something she had seen on television or on social media. “Today we’re going to show you how to dance!” She threw her arms up on this word, pronounced in her young tones slightly wrong, probably an attempt at a copy of an accent she had heard. She started to jump around then, performing in her own way. Laura found herself smiling, even though she was so tense and afraid. She couldn’t not. The girl was adorable.
How could anyone hurt someone this innocent?
Then Laura heard something else on the recording: a male voice, bellowing Amy’s name from further away. She didn’t have to guess that it would be the Governor’s voice. She had heard him shouting before, in a vision. There was a bang as the door of the room slammed open, hitting the wall, and the phone toppled over from its hiding place.
Laura knew what was going to happen next. She couldn’t watch. She couldn’t bring herself to do it. She turned and lifted the phone wordlessly, handing it to Director Grenford. Let him have the nightmares. Laura already had enough of her own.
She heard it again, though. They all did. The head of the state police cohort took an involuntary step back, and Laura looked up to see Rondelle’s face drained of color.
“Proof,” Laura said, her throat dry and her eyes aching to release tears. “You wanted it, you got it.”
Director Grenford put the phone down on the side of Rondelle’s desk, his expression grim. He had evidently seen enough, shutting off the audio and the video before it played out. Laura wondered if Amy even realized she’d filmed what had happened. The Governor certainly hadn’t. With the phone falling down from its propped-up position, he probably hadn’t even seen it behind the rabbit.
“Excuse me a moment,” Grenford said, his voice harsh and tight. It left no illusion that his polite words were a request. They were an order, and not one to be ignored.
The atmosphere in the room was tense as he stepped outside, leaving Laura, Rondelle, and the three state police standing around. Rondelle moved to sit behind his desk, taking his chair heavily. Even though he was a fit and healthy man still, he was twenty or perhaps thirty years older than Laura. She wasn’t surprised he needed to sit down.
She sank down into the chair that Amy had once occupied herself, realizing even in the moment that she wasn’t as stable as she had thought.
There was silence in the room, the five people inside it all studiously avoiding looking at one another. The state police shifted restlessly, and Laura couldn’t help but tense up again. If Grenford couldn’t figure this out – if he ended up throwing her to the wolves anyway – she had no doubt they would gleefully march her out of here in handcuffs. Getting one up on the FBI would make them heroes among their colleagues.
Grenford swept back into the room without warning, making them all collectively jump. He was putting a cell phone down from his ear, and he swept an imperious eye towards the state police.
“You’ve been called off,” he said, sharply. “You can expect a call from your superior. Now, get out of my building.”
“But…” the leader began, obviously unsure if he should just trust the word of a rival law enforcement agency. But then a cell phone began to ring in his own pocket, and with a glance at the name flashing up on the screen, he beckoned his backup out of the room with him by a toss of the head. They all walked out past Grenford’s outstretched arm, and he closed the door after them smartly. Laura felt her heart hammering in her chest. Until the relief washed over her, she hadn’t realized how afraid she had been of the idea of being arrested.
It would have affected everything. Her job. Her life. Getting Lacey back. There would have been no hope of getting shared custody if she had been arrested.
“What now?” Laura asked, making to get out of her chair. Was she going to be free to take Amy to the Child and Family Services Agency? Could she get her into the care of someone who was actually going to look after her, a temporary place to stay until all of this was sorted out, somewhere she would be safe?
“You stay put,” Director Grenford said. Despite the fact she had proven her point, he didn’t look particularly pleased with her – or anyone else. “The Governor is on his way. We’re going to hash this out and get it settled. Going after him in public would make too much of a mess. If he comes here under pretense of talking, we can arrest him without alerting the press too early.”
Laura’s heart dropped from her throat into her stomach.
Governor John Fallow was coming – and she was going to be expected just to talk with him? After everything she had seen?
Laura didn’t know if she would be able to hold herself back – or if she was going to get out of this unscathed, once the powerful Governor had his way. It was in the hands of the Director, and from the way he was staring coldly at her, Laura didn’t know if that meant she was safe…
Or if she was still going to be put behind bars and left unable to do anything for Amy.
CHAPTER FIVE
Laura watched as Governor Fallow strode into the room alone, his tall frame encased in a powerful deep blue suit that seemed to defy anyone to question him. His face was marred by a glower, red-hot rage clearly billowing right beneath the surface. As soon as he saw Laura, his eyes narrowed in on her like he wanted to destroy her with just a look.
They had moved into a more comfortable conference room, with a vast, dark table surrounded by chairs. Seated at one side of it already with Division Chief Rondelle, Laura was glad to have an ocean of wood between herself and Fallow. He looked as though he would smash the table in half just to get his hands around her neck.
“No retinue with you today, Governor?” Director Grenford asked, showing him to a chair opposite Laura and Rondelle. Grenford himself finally sat at a position directly between the two parties, halfway around the curve. A neutral position. Laura only hoped that it was just for show.
“There’s no sense in involving others in this,” Fallow grunted, his words hitting the air like slaps. He clearly didn’t want the rumors to spread any further about why his daughter had been taken this time. “It seems like you may be wasting my time as it is. Why are you insisting on this meeting, and not allowing your Agent to be arrested?”
&
nbsp; “We thought we might do you a courtesy, Governor,” Grenford said. His tone was deceptively calm and cool, as though they were discussing no more than the weather. Laura was constantly reminded of the fact that he had risen to the rank as a former Attorney General. He must have been a formidable foe in the courtroom in his time. “You should see the evidence that we have recently collected.”
In the intervening time, the footage had been uploaded to a laptop; it was more secure than playing it on Amy’s phone, given that such a small device could easily be taken or broken. Grenford pressed a button, and the video began playing on a projector screen – thankfully, one that was above Laura’s head. She didn’t want to see, as she hadn’t wanted to the first or the second time.