A Neighbor's Lie Read online

  Danielle ended the call, leaving Chloe to look around the central area of her apartment. It was hard to see the totality of the place because of all of her clutter but she already felt that the place was home.

  Nothing like an awkward conversation with Danielle to make a place feel like home, she thought idly.

  Slowly, stretching her back, Chloe got out of the recliner and went to the box closest to her. She started to unpack it, getting a sense of what her life would be like if she didn’t figure out how to reconcile relationships. Whether it was with her sister, her father, or her ex-fiancé, she didn’t have the best track record of keeping people close.

  At the thought of her ex-fiancé, she came across several framed pictures sitting at the bottom of the first box. There were three pictures in all, photos of her and Steven; two were from their earlier days, when dating had been the only thing on their radar. But the third was a picture of them after he had proposed…after she had said yes and nearly started crying.

  She gathered the pictures up out of the box and placed them on the kitchen counter. She rummaged around and found her trashcan sitting on the other side of the room, next to her mattress. She took the pictures to it and dropped them into the trashcan. The sound of the glass breaking in the frames was a little too delightful.

  Easy enough, she thought. Can’t wait to move on from that debacle. Now, why can’t you move on from this nonsense with your father just as easily?

  She had no answer for that. And the thing that scared her was that she felt the answer might be hiding in a conversation with him.

  With that thought, the apartment seemed emptier than before and Chloe felt very much alone. The mere thought of it made her go to the refrigerator and start on the six-pack she’d purchased earlier in the day. She opened the bottle, a little alarmed at just how good that first swallow was.

  She did her best to occupy herself that afternoon and well into the night, not by unpacking but by slowly going through the boxes one by one and trying to decide if she needed each and every item. The trophy she’d won for the debate team in high school went the way of the trashcan. The Fiona Apple CD she had been listening to when she lost her virginity as a sophomore in high school, she kept.

  Any pictures of her father went into the trash. It hurt to do it at first but by the time she was on the fourth bottle of beer, it was easier.

  She made it through two boxes…and would have probably gone through at least one more if she had not gone to the fridge only to find that she had somehow gone through the entire six-pack. She looked at the clock on the stove and let out a little gasp at what she saw.

  It was 12:45 at night. So much for getting a good night’s sleep before my first day, she thought.

  But what was even more alarming was the fact that she was more upset about the empty six-pack than having a potentially groggy morning on her first day with the bureau. She fell into bed after brushing her teeth, the room spinning a bit, as she realized that what she had really been trying to do that night was make herself not give a care about trying to erase memories of her father.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Chloe hadn’t been sure what to expect when she stepped into the FBI headquarters the next morning. But what she absolutely had not been expecting was to be met by an older agent in the lobby. She saw him as he spotted her and wasn’t quite sure what to do when she noticed that he was walking directly toward her. For a moment, she thought it was Agent Greene, the man who had served as her instructor and partner on her sort-of case that had led to uncovering the truth about her father.

  But when she got a better look at his face, she saw that this agent was another man entirely. He looked hardened and made of stone, his mouth drawn in a tight line across his jaw.

  “Chloe Fine?” the agent asked.

  “Yes?”

  “Director Johnson would like to speak with you before orientation.”

  This both excited her and scared her. Director Johnson had made exceptions for her when she had been partnered with Greene. Was he perhaps having second thoughts? Had her actions in that last case perhaps gotten him into some hot water? Had she come this far only to have her dreams crushed on the first day?

  “What for?” Chloe asked.

  The agent shrugged, as if he really didn’t care. “This way, please,” he said.

  He led her to the elevators and for a moment, Chloe felt as if she had stepped back in time. She could see herself stepping into these same elevators a little over two months ago with this exact same knot of worry in her stomach, knowing that she was going to meet with Director Johnson. And just like last time, that knot of worry began to grow tendrils into the rest of her body as the elevator started sliding upward.

  The stone-faced agent led her off of the elevator when it came to a stop on the second floor. They passed several offices and rooms before the agent came to a stop outside of Johnson’s wing. The secretary at her desk gave her a polite little nod and said, “You can go on in. He’s waiting for you.”

  The stone-faced agent gave her a similar nod—only not nearly as polite—and gestured toward the office door. It was clear that he was not going in.

  Doing her best to stay calm and reserved, Chloe walked to Director Johnson’s door. What am I so afraid of? she wondered. The last time I was called to his office, I was granted responsibilities and duties most new agents in my shoes don’t get. This was true, but it did nothing to settle her nerves.

  Director Johnson was sitting at his desk, intently reading something on his laptop when she entered. When he looked up, all of his attention was on her; he even closed the lid on the laptop.

  “Agent Fine,” he said. “Thanks for coming. This will only take a second. I don’t want you to miss any of the orientation—which, I’ll go ahead and let you know—is fairly quick and painless.”

  Hearing Agent Fine was still something of a head trip for her, but she tried not to let it show. She sat down in the chair in front of his desk and smiled as evenly as she could. “No problem,” she said. “Am I…well, is something wrong?”

  “No, no, nothing like that,” he said. “I wanted to present you with an option concerning your duties. I understand that you’re heading into a career with the Evidence Response Team. Is that something you’ve always had your eye on?”

  “Yes sir. I have a pretty strong eye for detail.”

  “Yes, that’s what I hear. Agent Greene spoke very highly of you. And despite a few hiccups in the events from two months ago, I have to admit—I was very impressed as well. You carry yourself with a confidence and unwavering certainty that is rare in newer agents. And it’s because of that and the feedback I got from Agent Greene and a few of your instructors from the academy that I want to ask you to reconsider your department of interest.”

  “Is there a particular department you had in mind?” Chloe asked.

  “Are you familiar with the ViCAP program?”

  “The Violent Criminal Apprehension Program? Yes, I know a bit about it.”

  “The title is fairly self-explanatory, but I think it also lends itself to your knack for evidence. Plus, if I’m being quite frank, the Evidence Response Team has a quite large group of first-year agents this time around. Rather than you getting lost in the crowd there, I think you might fit well within ViCAP. Is that something that might interest you?”

  “If I’m being honest, I don’t know. I’d never really thought about it.”

  Johnson nodded but Chloe was pretty sure his mind had already been made up. “If you’re up for it, I’d like for you to just give it a try. If you find after a few days that it’s not a good fit, I will personally see to it that you are seamlessly placed back into your current slot with Evidence Response.”

  She honestly wasn’t sure what to say or what to do. What she did know, though, was that it made her feel rather accomplished and proud to feel that her director felt so strongly about placing her in a department solely based on her skills and positive feedback from her
peers.

  “Yes, I can work with that,” she finally answered.

  “Fantastic. There’s already a case I want to place you on. You’d start on it tomorrow morning. Maryland State PD has been running it, but as of this morning, placed a call for assistance. I’ll be placing you alongside another agent that finds herself without a partner. The one she had been assigned folded under the pressure and called to resign yesterday.”

  “Can I ask why?”

  “With the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, some of the crimes tend to be a little gruesome. It happens to some new recruits…they make it through training, seeing the sample cases and even the real-life scenarios. But in the end, realizing they’ll be living in it…it’s too much for some.”

  Chloe said nothing. She tried to fathom having to make such a decision and it was beyond her. She’d been wanting a job like this for as long as she could remember—for as long as she knew the difference between right and wrong.

  “Will I need any additional training?”

  “I’d recommend more firearms training,” Johnson said. “I’ll make sure that’s all set up for you. Your previous scores from Evidence Response enrollment in terms of firearms look quite good, but you may want a few extra skills in that area once you really get into the thick of ViCAP—should you decide to stay on.”

  “I understand.”

  “Well, unless you have any questions, I guess you can go ahead and get started with orientation downstairs. You’ve still got three minutes before it starts.”

  “No more questions at the moment. And thanks for the opportunity. And the trust.”

  “Of course. I’ll handle all of the paperwork and someone will call you about your assignment by the end of the day. And Agent Fine… I have a good feeling about this. I think you’ll be a remarkable asset to ViCAP.”

  It was then, as she stood up to leave his office, that she realized that she had never been very good at accepting compliments. Perhaps it was because she had never received very many of them throughout her younger years. Now she simply smiled awkwardly and made her exit. The knot of nervousness that had been in the pit of her stomach was gone now, replaced by a flying sensation that made it feel as if her feet weren’t even touching the ground as she made her way to the elevators.

  ***

  Orientation was about what she had expected. It consisted of a list of dos and don’ts that came from a collection of seasoned agents. There were examples of cases gone wrong, of cases so bad that past agents had quit over them or even committed suicide. The instructors told miserable tales of murdered children and serial rapists who had not, to this very day, been apprehended.

  As these stories were passed along, Chloe could hear little murmurs of uneasy conversation in the crowd. Two seats to her left, she heard a woman whispering to the man beside her.

  “Apparently, my partner heard these stories before us. Maybe that’s why he bailed.” She said it in a bitchy way, a mean-girl sort of way that instantly annoyed Chloe.

  With my luck, that’s the partner-without-a-partner Johnson wants me paired up with, Chloe thought.

  The session eventually ended for lunch. When it did, the instructors on stage broke the crowd up into the specific departments. When Chloe heard Evidence Response Team called, she felt a small pang of sorrow. She watched as about twenty recruits walked down to the stage and collected on the right side. Knowing that she was supposed to be among their numbers less than three hours ago made her feel a little isolated, especially when she saw that some of the agents seemed to have already formed friendships.

  When the agents in the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program were called, she got up and headed for the floor. The crowd she walked with was smaller than the Evidence Response Team. Including herself, she counted only nine. And one of them was indeed the woman who had made the comment about her partner quitting.

  She was so focused on this woman that she didn’t notice the man stepping up beside her as they made their way to the floor.

  “I don’t know about you,” he said, “but I feel like I need to be hiding my face. Being part of a program with the word violent in it…makes me think people are judging me.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever thought of it that way,” Chloe said.

  “Well, do you have a tendency towards violence?”

  He asked it with a smirk and it was that smirk that somehow helped her to realize that the man was extremely good-looking. Of course, the comment about a tendency toward violence skewed it a bit.

  “Not that I know of,” she answered awkwardly as they reached the floor where their group was gathered.

  “Okay,” the instructor, an older gentleman dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, said. “Lunch first, then we’ll meet up in Conference Room Three to go over some details and run through a Q and A. Before all of that, though…” He paused here and looked at a sheet of paper, scrolling through it using his finger. “Is there a Chloe Fine here?”

  “That’s me,” Chloe said, nearly breaking into a sweat from having been singled out in this group of people she did not know.

  “I need to speak with you for a moment, please.”

  Chloe walked toward the instructor and saw that the gentleman was also beckoning another agent forward.

  “Agent Fine, I see here that you are a new addition to ViCAP, directly from the recommendation of Director Johnson.”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Good to have you. Now, I’d like to you meet your partner, Agent Nikki Rhodes.”

  He motioned to the other agent that he had beckoned toward him. Sure enough, it was the bitchy woman from earlier. Nikki Rhodes smiled at Chloe in a way that made it clear that she knew she was beautiful. And even Chloe had to admit it. Tall, perfectly tanned skin, sparkling blue eyes, sickeningly straight blonde hair.

  “Nice to meet you,” Rhodes said.

  “Likewise,” Chloe said.

  “Now, you two go enjoy lunch,” the instructor said. “From what I understand, you’ll be working a case early tomorrow. You were both at the top of your class, so I expect to hear some very big things about the two of you.”

  Rhodes gave her a smile and Chloe could feel the fakeness of it. She hated to automatically assume someone was not a genuine or authentic person, but her gut had always been spot on with things like this. The instructor had turned to join the rest of the group, leaving the two women alone. Noticing that the eyes of a superior were no longer on them, Rhodes turned and walked away without saying anything at all.

  Chloe kept back from the rest of the group for a moment, trying to get her head straight. She’d woken up this morning excited to start her career as a member of the Evidence Response Team. Everything for the foreseeable future had essentially been planned out. And now here she was, placed into a department she was not very familiar with, assigned to a partner with a stick up her ass.

  “She doesn’t exactly seem like a people person, does she?” someone said from behind her.

  She turned and saw the man who had walked with her down to the floor—the handsome one who had asked if she had any violent tendencies.

  “No, she doesn’t.”

  “Imagine having most of your courses with her at the academy,” he said. “It was miserable. Speaking of which…I don’t remember you being in any of my courses or modules.”

  “Yeah…I’m sort of new. I was placed in this department this morning.”

  A look of mild shock came over his face. “Oh, okay. Well, welcome to ViCAP. I’m Kyle Moulton and if your new partner doesn’t want to have lunch with you, I’d like to take her place.”

  “Help yourself,” Chloe said, finally falling in behind with the rest of the group. “It’s fitting of my day to say the least.”

  “How so?”

  “Because nothing else has really gone as planned, either.”

  Moulton only nodded as they left the auditorium. Even though Moulton was a stranger (albeit a handsome one), it was nice to
have him by her side as they walked to the catered lunch waiting for them elsewhere in the building. She was afraid that if she had to step into this uncertain future completely alone, it might make her rethink everything.

  “Plans are overrated anyway,” Moulton said.

  “Not to me. Plans mean structure. Plans mean predictability.”

  “I don’t think predictability was in the job description for our positions,” Moulton joked.

  Chloe smiled and nodded but had never quite looked at it that way. Quite frankly, it frightened her a bit. Which made no sense, really. Her life had never been anything more than an unpredictable pile of utter crap, so why would her career be any different?

  Luckily, she had learned to roll with the punches. And if snotty bitches like Nikki Rhodes happened to obscure her path along the way, then Rhodes could either adapt or get the hell out of her way.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The following morning, Chloe got a rude awakening to how the remainder of her career would be structured. Her phone rang at 5:45, the call coming from one of the assistant directors who worked under Director Johnson. She had barely managed to croak out a raspy “Hello?” before the man on the other end started to speak.

  “This is Assistant Director Garcia. Is this Agent Chloe Fine?”

  “It is.” She sat up in bed, her heart hammering as a surge of adrenaline flooded through her, kicking out the remnants of sleep.

  “You’re to meet Agent Rhodes in Bethesda at seven a.m. You’ll be working together on what we believe is a pretty open and closed case of gang violence, likely from MS-13. Any questions should come directly to me, at this number. Agent Rhodes will be given the exact same information. Following this call, the address will be texted to your phone. Do you have any questions, Agent Fine?”

  Chloe was sure she had some questions, but they were hiding in the wake of her first actual assignment.

  “No, sir.”