Кей Хупер - Whisper of Evil

"Glad to finally meet you," Bishop said, his voice deep and not quite as cool as those eyes.

Max decided not to question that statement, merely saying, "An interesting unit you've put together, Agent Bishop. Nell told me you're a telepath? A touch telepath, I think she said."

Hard mouth curving slightly, Bishop said, "That's right."

"Which means… what? That you can read someone's mind when you touch them?" He tried not to feel wary over the fact that he had just shaken hands with the man.

Bishop shrugged, still smiling faintly. "About sixty to seventy percent of the time, yeah."

Shelby said, "Who would have thunk it? Psychic FBI agents."

"What will they think of next," Justin murmured.

Max, who was determined not to ask if he fell into the percentage of people Bishop could read, met Nell's steady, amused gaze and wondered suddenly if he was so transparent that a blind man could have read him, never mind a psychic.

Galen spoke up then to say, "Not all of us are psychic, you know."

Bishop looked at him, brows lifting. "Well, technically you are."

"Only by your definition. And you'll never make me believe that you didn't add a footnote to the SCU manual just to make sure I'd have the qualifications for the job."

"There's a manual?" Shelby looked from one to the other with brightly interested eyes.

Max, who was more curious to know just how Galen fit into the SCU, opened his mouth to ask, but then forgot to when he saw Bishop look toward the door suddenly, his face changing rather dramatically.

The agent began smiling — a real smile this time — and those chilly eyes wanned up about forty degrees, transforming him from a cool professional to a man who was very happy and didn't give a damn who knew it. He moved past Max toward the doorway, and Max turned just in time to see the gorgeous, smiling Lauren Champagne come into the room and get lifted off her feet in a welcoming hug.

Somewhat blankly, Justin said, "I take it they know each other."

"You could say that." Nell grinned. "You could also say they're married."

Max stared at her. "You never mentioned Bishop was married."

"No. I didn't, did I?"

Galen chuckled and said, "It's hell when she knows where all your buttons are, isn't it?"

"Quit stirring up trouble," Nell told her partner.

"Who, me?"

"You thrive on it. Look, why don't we all sit down?"

"Is your shoulder bothering you?" Max asked her.

"Buttons, buttons everywhere," Galen murmured.

Nell sent him a threatening look and said to Max, "No, I'm fine. But since we're all trying to finish up reports and statements today, there are probably some things we need to talk about."

"I wouldn't say there were many questions left," Galen said somewhat lazily.

"A few loose ends," Bishop said as he and his wife joined the others at the conference table.

Justin, noting that Lauren Champagne's formerly dark eyes were now an electric blue, said slowly, "Contact lenses."

She smiled at him. "It's amazing how just a couple of simple things can make you look different. Brown contact lenses, a bottle tan, a slightly different accent. I'm Miranda, by the way."

"Why use a false name?" Max wondered.

"It isn't a false name, it just isn't mine." She shrugged. "Sometimes it's quicker and easier to borrow the name and background of a real person — which is why we've built and maintain a list of cops and other useful people around the country who're willing to give up their identities temporarily. The real Lauren Champagne is a cop who wanted to take a few months off from her job in Virginia and drive across the country."

"Every investigation we get involved in is different," Bishop said. "In this case, we had Nell, who had a perfect cover because she had a legitimate reason for coming to Silence. But we needed someone inside the sheriff's department as well, someone who could move among and observe the other cops, check the files and other paperwork, that sort of thing."

"It took time," Miranda continued. "So I came down here first and settled in, a couple of months before we knew Adam Gallagher's estate would be through probate and Nell could be expected to arrive."

"By the time I got here," Nell continued, "Miranda had eliminated most of the cops from suspicion, but there were several we couldn't be sure about. And then there was you, Justin." She smiled faintly. "We were sure Max had brought you in because Ethan was making noises about arresting him for the murders and he knew he needed someone solidly on his side involved in the investigation. But even if we'd been wrong about that, you were eliminated from suspicion because you hadn't been in Silence long enough."

"You knew I could be trusted. Which is why you aimed Shelby at me."

Shelby started laughing.

Nell grinned. "Well, yeah. I knew the answer to why George Caldwell had been killed lay in those birth records, and I couldn't really check into them myself."

"What was in those records?" Shelby demanded. "Nobody ever told me."

"Kyle had done what he called some 'discreet' checking to find out if he could inherit my father's — our father's estate," Nell said. "He wasn't about to go to Wade Keever, given his reputation for indiscretion and the fact that he was the lawyer for the Gallagher family, so Kyle went to another lawyer in Silence, one who wouldn't ask too many questions."

Nell sighed. "That lawyer's golfing partner happened to be George Caldwell, to whom he casually mentioned Kyle's questions. Curious, Caldwell started digging. The irony from our point of view is that there was nothing there to find. Nothing at all in Kyle's birth record that was in the least bit suspicious."

"All those hours reading birth records," Shelby moaned.

"I know. Sorry about that. What actually happened, as far as we can tell, is that when he couldn't find anything in the records, Caldwell just casually asked Kyle if he was related to the Gallaghers. By then, word was spreading — thanks to Wade Keever — that I was coming home. Kyle was afraid Caldwell would ask me the same question, and since he wanted the timing of introducing himself to me as my brother to be his rather than someone else's, he decided to get Caldwell out of the way. Another murder didn't mean anything to him, after all. It was just like swatting a troublesome fly. Putting together the blackmail scheme was just a fun bonus."

"What about the other lawyer?" Justin asked. "Didn't he pose a bigger threat to Kyle?"

"No, because Caldwell never got the chance to tell Kyle what it was that had made him curious. But we were afraid Wade Keever might pose a threat, not because we were sure he knew anything to threaten the killer, but because we were certain if he did know anything he certainly wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut about it." Nell frowned suddenly and looked at Miranda. "I guess we can let him come home now."

"I've already called the safe house and ordered his release." Miranda chuckled. "He'd stopped threatening a lawsuit and was playing poker with the agent watching him. So now he really does have some information worth sharing."

"You mean you kidnapped Wade Keever?" Shelby exclaimed, grinning.

"Not at all," Miranda said. "I just suggested he might want to relocate until we identified the killer."

"Suggested at gunpoint," Bishop murmured. "At night, underneath a streetlight."

"Like you wouldn't have done the same thing."

Bishop started to deny it, then paused, considered, and suddenly smiled. "You're right. I would have."

"Not finished yet?" Nell asked, coming into the small office where Max was typing his statement.

"Almost. I think Ethan gave me that list of questions just to keep me here all day."

"Now, would he do that?" Nell asked, perching on a corner of the desk Max was using.