BATON ROUGE by Carla Cassidy - Scene of the Crime 09 - BATON ROUGE Page B

their feet and all of them raised their hands over their heads. “Wha...what’s going on?” one of them asked. Frank and Matt also had their guns drawn and the four were now circled by the agents.
    “Very carefully, very easy, all of you get your cell phones out and set them on the bench,” Alex instructed.
    “This is about a cell phone?” A tall, dark-haired young man asked. “I’ve got it. It was sitting on the bench when we came out of the gym. I was going to turn it in to lost and found.”
    He reached into his shirt pocket and plucked out a cell phone and set it on the bench, then quickly raised his hand once again.
    “How do we know that isn’t your cell phone?” Georgina asked.
    The young man gazed at the phone with scorn. “Look at it. It’s a cheap piece of crap. It doesn’t even have internet capabilities. I’ve got my own phone right here.” He reached into the pocket of a duffel bag next to him and pulled out an expensive phone with all the bells and whistles.
    He was here and now he was gone. The sick roll of Georgina’s stomach intensified. As Alex questioned the young men, Matt pulled on latex gloves and put the phone in a plastic evidence bag he pulled from his pocket.
    They would find nothing on the phone, she thought. Bob was far too smart to leave a phone for them to find unless he knew they’d glean nothing from it. It was a cheap throwaway and she knew he’d left it behind just to taunt them.
    Before the men even finished speaking to the students, she turned and headed back to the car, her legs unsteady and a bitter taste in the back of her throat.
    She got into the car, and a few minutes later Alex joined her. “Are you okay?” he asked.
    “No. I think I need you to take me home. I’m requesting the rest of the day off.” Her voice sounded tinny and as if it came from someplace far away.
    Alex asked no questions. He started the car and headed in the direction of her house. He apparently sensed that she was in a place where she didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to listen, for he didn’t speak until he pulled up into her driveway. He obviously knew that she’d be no good to anyone for the rest of the day.
    “Are you sure you’re going to be all right?”
    She unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door. “I’ll be fine by tomorrow morning. I just need some time alone right now.” She got out of the car and shut the door, grateful that she could enter a code that would open the garage door and grant her entry into the house since she’d left her purse in the war room.
    She didn’t look back. As the garage door rose, she ducked under it and hurried to the door that would take her into her kitchen. She punched the button to close the garage door and then headed for the bathroom where she fell to the floor in front of the toilet and threw up.
    She felt as if she was purging all the rage and grief that had been buried inside her for so long. Tears blurred her vision as she continued to be sick.
    She hated Bob, not just for the crimes he’d committed but for what he’d done to her. He’d forced her back into a darkness she’d thought she’d escaped long ago. More than anything, she hated him for making her appear weak in front of her team.
    When she was finally finished being sick, she pulled herself to her feet, brushed her teeth and then went back into the living room and curled up on the sofa with the television on.
    Tomorrow she’d be strong. Tomorrow she would be the kind of agent she needed to be, but right now she needed to deal with the fact that despite Alex’s warnings to her, Bob had gotten into her head and brought up memories she needed to banish from her mind forever.
    * * *
    T HE AFTERNOON CREPT BY slowly with Alexander’s thoughts split between the case and the broken woman he’d dropped off earlier. He’d never seen Georgina so shattered and he worried that the conversation with their perp had pushed her over an edge he hadn’t realized existed