“A friend of the family is in the hospital. I’m going to swing by and see how he’s doing, then grab lunch. I should be back around two or so, but I can stay later this afternoon to make up the time.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. I just hope your friend is okay.”

“Thank you, Mr. Stokoe. So do I.”

++++

Timothy Sabian’s father—the avid killer, the man who was watching him—shook his head in disbelief.

Throughout the morning, he’d been monitoring the video feed from his son’s house, and there’d been an awful lot of activity there. First Blake Neeson, then the men who’d removed Julianne’s body, and at last, two FBI agents: Agent Hawkins and Agent Bowers.

Yes, he knew them both.

And here they were, working so diligently to see justice done.

Too diligently, perhaps.

He’d been wondering how to wrap things up with Timothy in a satisfactory and climactic manner. Making the ending a little more personal for one of those two agents might just do the trick.

But it might also draw undue attention to himself and to the pastime he’d had for the last twenty years.

Originally, he’d planned on setting his son up for everything. Now, he decided that he should be prepared to disappear in case that fell through. He began making the arrangements, and then thought again of the end of the story.

Hawkins was from out of town, so if it was going to be a member of his family, that would be more difficult to pull off.

But Bowers was not. A little checking confirmed that he had a wife and stepdaughter here in the city.

Yes. Either of those two would work.

He put a call through to have Christie Ellis’s phone traced.

67

In the wake of Sasha’s death last night, a solemn heaviness weighed on everyone at the Field Office.

We gathered in DeYoung’s conference room.

Word was, Senator Murray was on his way over but was running a little late and might not arrive until closer to eleven thirty.

“Let’s see what we can cover before he gets here,” DeYoung said.

In addition to the assistant director and me, Thurman was there, as were three other agents who were working behind the scenes on the case. Apparently, with Greer on mandatory administrative leave, Thurman was being asked to play a bigger role in the investigation.

We took our seats.

“Alright.” DeYoung’s voice was heavy. “Before we get started, I want to offer a moment of silence for Agent MacIntyre. She didn’t deserve this. It’s up to us to finish what she started and bring Blake in.”

++++

“Tessa, are you still with us?”

Tessa blinked and shifted her gaze to the front of the classroom. “What?”