Stalked Read Online Free Page B

her feel guilty.
    She straightened. “Sorry, sir.”
    â€œYou should wait for a response before entering a room,” Kate snapped. “What is it?”
    â€œIt’s not important. I’ll talk to you later.”
    She left Kate’s office, heart racing, wondering what had just happened. She’d known Kate for seven years, had lived with her and Dillon for most of that time, and was closer to her than she was to her own two sisters. Kate could be sharp and abrasive, but Lucy had never heard that tone directed at her.
    Lucy needed to talk to Kate, but not while Agent Laughlin was anywhere around. She was too upset to meet her friends for dinner, so made a detour to Supervisory Special Agent Tony Presidio’s office.
    The basement was a fully self-contained two-story bomb shelter designed and built in the Hoover years so the FBI could continue operating in the event of a major national disaster. Though the Behavioral Science Unit and most other divisions had moved to off-site facilities or elsewhere on campus, there were still people, including Tony, who worked in the windowless offices and would until renovations and additions were complete.
    Tony taught criminal psychology and Lucy had liked him from day one. He hadn’t been teaching at Quantico long—Class 12-14 was his third. He’d come from the Hostage Rescue Team and was unusually calm and even tempered. While many of her classmates found Tony intimidating and unapproachable, Lucy had developed a kinship with him over the three weeks she’d been here. Lucy enjoyed listening to his stories and asking questions, and she suspected he appreciated the genuine interest she showed in his experience.
    Lucy was about to knock on Tony’s partly opened door but noticed him hunched over his desk, head in one hand, reading a thick file. He was one of the older agents, in his early fifties and nearing mandatory retirement, but he was physically fit and Lucy ran with him several days a week.
    She turned to leave, not wanting to disturb him with something trivial. In fact, she’d almost forgotten why she’d sought him out in the first place.
    He glanced up as she turned away. “Kincaid?”
    â€œSorry to bother you. I was on my way to the cafeteria—”
    His eyebrows arched up and amusement lit his face. “By way of the basement?”
    â€œIt’s nothing.”
    He waved her in. “I was going to call you anyway. Sit down.”
    â€œWhat about?” She took the chair across from him.
    He closed the file he was reading and put it aside.
    â€œSpecial Agent Madeaux called me. Told me she’d spoken to you about Rosemary Weber’s murder.”
    â€œYes.” All thoughts of Laughlin and Kate vanished. “She’d called me about the book she was writing.”
    â€œSuzanne said you didn’t share anything with the reporter.”
    â€œI told her to leave me out of it. My involvement was never supposed to be public.”
    â€œSuzanne is tracking down how Weber got your name, but the case wasn’t classified. She could have learned of your involvement fairly easily.”
    Lucy bit her lip. She didn’t want anything she did to be in the public eye. She needed her anonymity.
    â€œDo you want to talk about it?”
    â€œAbout what?”
    â€œWhat’s bothering you.”
    â€œI don’t know.” She did, but how did she tell Tony that she was worried her past would haunt her for the rest of her life? She’d believed time would erase her history, but it only made it permanent. “Did you know Weber?”
    He nodded. “She wrote her first book while she was a crime reporter in Newark. It was one of my cases. A screwed-up case from the beginning, a true tragedy. Eleven-year-old girl kidnapped from her bedroom, raped and murdered. The parents lied about nearly everything, until we had enough evidence to catch them in their lies.”
    As he spoke,