Page 14 of Under Fire

“No. About Detective Connors. I knew I had seen him before somewhere.”

If that thought had come to her yesterday, she hadn’t shared it with him. He would have remembered it if she had. “And where do you remember him from?”

She placed her hands on her hips, smiled, and said, “The FBI Academy.”

Locke stared at her for a moment to make sure he had heard her correctly. “Are you saying Detective Connors is a former FBI agent?”

“No. He never finished the academy. He dropped out after the first month. I understand it was due to some family emergency.”

Locke found that rather interesting. “Do you think he remembered you yesterday?”

“If he did, he didn’t let on. But he obviously researched me at some point after yesterday’s incident with Nick. Today, when he called me Special Agent Calloway, he did it to make sure I knew he remembered me. I recall he asked me out once.”

Locke leaned against the front of his desk. “The two of you went out on a date?”

She waved off his question. “Heaven’s no. Although there’s no policy against trainees in the academy dating, it was a grueling five months, and I didn’t need the risk of distractions of any kind.”

“And of course you were too focused to notice the opposite sex, right?”

She smiled. “Yes.”

He nodded. “Then how did you and your ex-husband end up marrying less than a year after the two of you graduated from the academy?”

***

Hollis’ smile faded, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “It appears that Detective Connors isn’t the only one who researched me last night,” she said, holding his gaze. “Can I assume what you asked is an interview question?”

“If I said no, would you answer it?” he asked.

She dropped her arms to her side. “No, I would not answer it because it wouldn’t be any of your business. However, given what I said about being too focused to notice the opposite sex, I have no problem answering, Locke. I’ve wanted to be an FBI agent for as long as I can remember. Probably after years of watching Twin Peaks with my dad and brother. I had known Ryan Miller was interested in me, but I wasn’t interested in him. Like I stated, there was nothing or no one that would distract me during my time at the academy.”

She paused and then said, “After the academy was another story. He befriended me during a very vulnerable time in my life. Namely, when I had lost Derek. Our first assignment was in the same state, Illinois, though not the same city. I got assigned to Peoria and Ryan to Chicago. I’m not sure how he learned about my brother’s death, but when he did, he called me. He had gotten my contact information from a mutual friend at the academy.”

She paused, remembering. “Ryan was there for me during my most difficult time. I felt alone. My parents had died three years earlier in a car accident, and then I lost Derek less than two years later. When he asked me to marry him, I saw no reason to say no. After marrying, we worked out of the same field office in Chicago, but always under different supervision.”

Hollis paused again. “I thought things were going great. We both looked forward to long careers with the Bureau, but had made a rule to never bring work home with us. Our time together was our time. Then…” she inhaled deeply, “After we had been married almost a couple of years, I began suspecting him of cheating. He was so good at being deceitful that I’m certain if I hadn’t been an FBI agent who was a stickler for detail, I would not have suspected a thing. But I did and called him out on it. At that point, he knew there was no reason to lie, so he admitted it, said he was sorry, promised it wouldn’t happen again, and asked for another chance.”

“Did you give it to him?”

She shook her head. “No. When I was old enough to start dating, Derek would always give me what he called “Big Brother” advice. One was to never give a guy a second chance to prove he doesn’t deserve you, and another was to never trade your peace of mind for somebody’s promises. My trust in Ryan was destroyed with his deception. I knew that the first time he came home late, I would wonder if he was cheating on me again. I honestly didn’t want the stress of going through that.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment, and then said, “Please have a seat, Hollis, and tell me about some of the cases you’ve investigated lately.”

***

Locke knew he should be paying better attention to what Hollis was saying. He was hearing enough to know the majority of the cases she worked were on cheating spouses. Go figure. Instead of listening to how her skills as a former FBI agent helped to wrap up each case in a little amount of time, he thought about the advice her brother had given her. A part of him wished someone had given him advice before he had met Sophie. Namely, never to fall in love with someone connected to a case you’re working on.

Sophie Gardner had been accused of murdering her husband. He had believed she was innocent and had proven she had been framed by the man’s former business partner. And Locke had fallen in love with her while defending her. There was no way he could not. She had been beautiful, smart, and so down to earth. When the trial ended, they began dating. Months later, he discovered that although she might not have been guilty of murder, she was a born manipulator. And too late, he discovered she had begun manipulating him.

Their disagreements always ended with him apologizing. Even those times when he had been right. Then, he began noticing how she was a master at redirecting conversations when it suited her. But what really had been an eye opener was when she came up with the idea that they should move in together. Only to find out that she had already broken the lease on her apartment and sold all of her furniture a month before she had suggested such a thing.

That’s when he realized what she had been doing. Namely. strategically engineering situations to get the outcome she wanted. She had been shocked as hell when he had ended their relationship. At that point, even her tears hadn’t moved his needle of resistance.

That was close to eight years ago, and there were times he wondered how he had fallen in love so easily and been so gullible. Since then, he vowed never to be manipulated by a woman again, and to never become emotionally involved with anyone who was connected to a case in any way, whether clients, opposing counsel, judges, expert witnesses, or his legal staff. He had no problem adding a hired private investigator to the list.

“Anything else you want to know, Locke?”

Was there? He knew there wasn’t. He would either hire her or he would not. From the conversations he’d had with Shogun and Macayle, he knew they thought that he should. She was what his case needed and could help in Karl’s defense. It wasn’t her fault that she would be a distraction. But only if he let her be.