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that led to a patio. The villa looked uncared for; crumbling paint and broken shutters could be seen on every wall. She knew instinctively that the best entrance would be the side; the front was too obvious, the back usually quite protected, but there was often a side entrance that even the sharpest would overlook. She was testing him, mentioning the back. Trying to suss out how sharply tuned he really was.
    He looked back at her then, his focused gaze catching hers. “Right side, yes?” he asked. She couldn’t help but smile as she nodded quickly and they instantly moved together, deftly working in tandem. It was a strange comfort to be in the presence of someone who spoke her language, and it filled a space Gabriella had left behind. There was an untended patch of garden between Birdsong’s estate and the one next door—it was the perfect place to trespass. Working silently, almost as one, they made their way into the overgrowth.
    â€¡â€¡â€¡
    Back at Quantico, all had gathered for the briefing. Jackson and Lisa Bee had set up a small presentation using Lisa Bee’s laptop, and they were joined by Susannah and Chas, who had changed into casual clothes after their second almost-wedding. “This wasn’t quite the honeymoon we planned on,” Susannah said with a wry smile, “but it is the one we keep getting.”
    â€œHonestly, kids, I don’t know that I can take it anymore,” said Susannah’s mother, Janice, also looking frayed. Fritz seemed exhausted and stressed; she had been at the wedding because she was an old friend of Susannah’s mother, and she nodded in agreement, gently resting a hand on Janice’s shoulder. Janice had passed messages for Fritz using the gift store she owned in Alexandria, but that was as deep as she’d gotten involved. Until her husband had turned out to be alive, and a suspect in a deadly manhunt, and then she’d been pulled in deeper.
    â€œWell, it looks like this is the only honeymoon any of us are getting at the moment,” said the Boss as he walked in, his thick hair a bit unruly underneath a classic fedora but the rest of him in very good shape. The Boss’s love of old movies influenced his style, but in truth he was a master chameleon. He was famous among his team for being able to change looks at a moment’s notice. Today he wore a white button-down shirt, dark slacks, and a long black trench coat; the fedora he wore made him look like something out of a film noir. A veritable Robert Mitchum from Out of the Past , perhaps . . . one of his favorites. “I hope you’ve all enjoyed the all too brief respite. Because it’s high time we get back to business.”
    â€¡â€¡â€¡
    The Boss took off his hat and ran a hand through his hair, feeling a new stridency forming in his soul after his talk with Babs. They’d gone painstakingly over every detail of the case, then used the daybed in his office to go over every detail of each other. He stood a bit taller, filled with adrenaline, the pump of his heart a steady thrum in his chest. Looking at Fritz, Janice, and the Bod Squad, he thought about what Babs had said to him earlier. Did he want to find Baba Samka? Fuck yes.

2
    â€œWell, this seems almost too easy,” Tyka murmured.
    â€œYes,” Mahmoud agreed, speaking in a hushed whisper. “And that always makes me wary.”
    They had made their way through the overgrown garden to the back of Birdsong’s estate. Surprisingly there were no cameras, no guards; the house appeared to be empty. They had tried to get in from the side, but there were few windows and none open. So they’d found a balcony with sliding doors at the back of the villa. “It reminds me of a Hitchcock movie back here,” Tyka said with a shiver. “That one about the woman and the scary nanny and the house . . .”
    â€œ Rebecca ,” Mahmoud said. “Love that