A Time & Place for Every Laird by Angeline Fortin (ebook reader TXT) 📕

They didn’t smile, gossip, or socialize. No onebrought a cake in for their birthdays. How had they found her soquickly? Had someone seen them after all?

“Yes, ma’am. And this is Special Agent PhilJameson with the NSA.”

Claire was immediately able to assimilateand translate that particular acronym. “The National SecurityAgency?” she asked with wide eyes. The owlish expression was noact. She was truly surprised to have a federal agent standing ather door.

“Yes, ma’am,” Muldoon answered. “AgentJameson is the NSA liaison to INSCOM.”

Agent Jameson added, “We’ve been called inregarding the security breach at the lab today.”

Fear snaked a path all the way down to hertoes, and Claire was hard pressed to control the shudder thatfollowed it. They’d called the Feds in? Already? “Wow,” shebreathed. “That was fast.”

Bryce Muldoon apparently agreed with her. “Itold Dr. Holmes that we could handle this internally,” he said,referring to the director of the entire lab, “but it seems thatthere was some disagreement on that.”

“It really must have been a big deal then.What happened? I heard the alarms and just figured it was a drillor something.” Claire shouldered the doorjamb as casually as shecould, then straightened again. “How rude of me. Did you guys wantto come in? Can I get you something? Coffee, maybe?”

“No, no,” Muldoon began, but Jameson boldlystepped inside and she studied him as he passed. Beyond thestereotypical dark suit, the agent was tall and lean. He was aboutforty with a receding hairline and deep furrows in his cheeks andbrow that told her he didn’t find much humor in life.

He probably wouldn’t find any in thiseither.

“We’d like to ask you some questions, Mrs.Manning.”

Claire felt as if she were going to be illbut plowed on. “Sure, come on in! But what can I do?”

“You were present today when the alarm wassounded?”

“Yes. Well, not in the offices. I was in theparking lot.”

“Why did you leave the office early today?”Jameson asked.

“I wasn’t feeling well,” Claire answeredhonestly. “I cleared it with my supervisor before I left. You canask Dr. Crandel if you like.”

The agent sniffed in such a way that Clairehad to assume they already had.

“Did you see anything unusual as youleft?”

“No. I heard the alarm but, like I said, Ithought it was just a fire drill or something.”

Muldoon shrugged at the intelligence agentin what was clearly an “I told you so” gesture. Unfortunately theagent was not half so trusting in nature. Jameson drifted about theroom, touching and lifting her things as he went. Though Hugh haddone the same, the agent’s intrusion delivered a sense of personalviolation Claire had never experienced. He wandered toward thestairs and Claire held her breath, but it was quickly evident thatthe agent was more idly observing her townhouse than executing athorough search. Still, he lifted the Army sweatshirt Claire hadbrought down for Hugh off the end of the staircase bannister andheld it out by the shoulders curiously, making Claire’s breathcatch. He carried the sweatshirt to the mantle and tapped on one ofthe framed photos. “Mrs. Manning, your personnel file says thatyour husband was in the Army, killed by an IED in Afghanistan.”

Claire’s lips tightened at the mention ofher husband’s death. “Yes, he was.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Three years ago,” she said tightly.

“Yet you still have his clothes out.”

“You don’t know women very well, do you?”she asked, countering his question with one of her own as shesnatched the sweatshirt away from him.

“Do you wear them?”

Claire bristled at the question even as shehugged the shirt against her. “Is everyone being asked rudequestions this afternoon or am I just the lucky one?”

“Sorry, Mrs. Manning,” Muldoon cut inapologetically. “All the employees are being questioned. It’s notjust you.”

“Well, we’ll have to compare notes tomorrowthen, won’t we?” she bit out.

“The lab is closing down until this issue isresolved,” Muldoon told her. “You should be getting a call from Dr.Crandel this evening.”

“An unexpected vacation. How wonderful,”Claire said without enthusiasm. “Though it won’t do much for thecompany’s bottom line. Is that it, then?”

“No,” Agent Jameson said, cutting off whatmight have been Muldoon’s more affirmative answer. “I find itcurious—given the way your husband died—that an up and comingengineer like yourself would choose to leave a promising career inmaterials engineering—saving the world, so to speak—to work inweapons development. Mark-Davis is the veritable antithesis ofEnviroCom.”

“You think I have a grudge againstMark-Davis and planted a bomb or something this afternoon to shutthem down?” she snapped, resenting the agent’s prodding into herlife more and more with each passing moment.

“Did you?”

“Not that it’s any of your business,” Clairereplied, her voice trembling now not in fear but in sick rage, “butI came to Mark-Davis because I thought that perhaps it might be abit cleaner for widows in the future to have their husbands comeback to them in one bag rather than in pieces. Now are we donehere?”

The agent’s eyes narrowed as he studied her,his expression carefully blank. “We are … for now. But Mrs.Manning, be warned. We will be watching you.”

“As we will all the staff,” Muldoon putin.

“For what? You still haven’t even said whathappened.”

“Some property of the lab was … stolen,”Jameson said, watching her carefully. “Given the instability andpotential danger of the item, our national security is at stake andthe safety of the general public is at risk. We could offerprotection and immunity to anyone who was coerced or forced intoassisting in the robbery.”

Claire stared at him stonily.

“However,” he went on, “anyone who had ahand in the theft or aided and abetted anyone who did would be inviolation of numerous federal laws and would be subject to theharshest punishment our government has to offer to those whothreaten our country.”

There had been enough news coverage over theyears for Claire to know what he was saying. He was speaking ofterrorists and federal indictments. Indecision lapped at the edgesof her resolve but in the end she was too angry with Jameson tooffer anything more than a shrug. “Well, I didn’t take anything, soI have nothing to worry over, do I?”

“We’ll be back if we haveany more questions for you.” Agent Jameson took a step toward thedoor before he turned back. “I would wager