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“We’ll get you a list,” Levi said. “Thank you.” He asked around the table for more questions and, hearing none, stood, Marsh and the others following suit. “If you think of anything else,” Levi said, handing Luis his card, “that’s my number. And Agent Kim is based here in Los Angeles.”
Matt handed Luis his card too. “We will follow up with you.”
Luis thanked them, then slipped into the kitchen, seeking comfort in the familiar, while the host reappeared and led their group back out the way they’d entered. Once outside, Matt let his neutral face fall, the agent looking like he needed some comfort too.
“Sorry we couldn’t be of more help on your case,” Levi said.
“I’m about to call it cold at this point.” Matt said with a shrug. “But I’m glad the visit was useful for yours.”
“That’s another person who doesn’t think it was suicide,” Jamie said.
“I tend to believe him,” Levi said.
“Well, I can tell you what wasn’t cold,” Marsh said, cutting a mischievous smirk at Matt. “Those bedroom eyes you and the rock star were giving each other.”
“We were not.”
Jamie snickered. “You totally were.”
Matt looked pleadingly at Levi, who was no help either. “The blush on your cheeks also says you were.”
“Something you want to tell us, Matty K?” Jamie needled.
Before he could answer, Marsh’s phone rang, the ringtone familiar to three out of the four of them. He drew it out and answered on speaker. “Eagle, what’ve you got?”
“Local caught wind,” she answered, sounding at her annoyed worst. “They’re sending over Detective Hines. Get your asses back here, now.”
Nine
“Why are you dredging up a cold case?”
Levi was barely off the elevator when the unfamiliar raised voice from the conference room across the bullpen reached his ears.
“And why are there civilians involved?”
Beside him, Marsh cringed. “Guessin’ we didn’t make it back before Hines made it here.”
But someone else had. “Consultants,” she corrected, and make no mistake, it was a correction, no matter how sweet and southern Charlotte Henby’s voice sounded. “Both of whom had impeccable law enforcement records before moving into the private sector.”
“Agent Henby isn’t wrong,” Kwan added. “Not to mention Lieutenant Colonel Kane’s stellar military record.”
“Which, from my time working a case here last summer,” Charlie said, “I gather is fairly common in San Diego.” She smiled as Marsh, Levi, and Jamie entered the room. “Agent Marshall here was career military too. Served with Kane and Kwan, isn’t that right?”
“Camp Casey,” Marsh said with a shit-eating grin. He tossed his hat on the table, gave Charlie’s upturned cheek a kiss, then sank into the chair beside Brax. “Then I worked at the Hague with Agent Henby’s husband, who’s officiating my wedding this weekend.”
“I’m the groom,” Levi said as he hugged Charlie on the way to his seat beside Kwan. “And I’m the Assistant Special Agent in Charge here.”
The detective’s blue eyes bounced around the room, looking for a new target, and landing on Jamie. “You must be the other civilian, then.”
“Jameson ‘Whiskey’ Walker. You may have seen me on television or on the basketball court, as a player or coach.” He wasn’t one to throw around his fame often, but the way he flashed his cred and camera-ready smile almost made Levi laugh out loud. Jamie slid into the chair beside Aidan and turned the screws some more. “I’m also a former cyber agent, frequent consultant, and SAC Talley’s husband.”
Detective Hines was the physical definition of squirm. Outnumbered, he couldn’t figure out which way to go, which way to fire. Levi jumped on the uncertainty. “We have some questions for you, Detective Hines.”
Marsh leaned forward, picking up the thread. “Like why you didn’t more thoroughly investigate the break-in at Presley Jackson’s house this past weekend?”
On the defensive, Hines remained standing, his height above them an illusion of power his white knuckles on the chair back gave away. “No reason to think it was anything more.”
“Why did you think it was anything less?” Levi countered. “The current owner is a professional basketball player. A prior owner of the same house was murdered.”
