Waiting

Riley stammered, “I—I’m sorry, sir.”

“You damn well should be,” Crivaro said. “I’m getting you out of here before you screw anything else up.”

He got up from the floor and brushed off his hands.

He said, “McCune, keep the search team working. When you finish the rooms on this floor, keep searching up in the attic. I don’t guess we’re likely to find much of anything else, but we’ve got to be thorough.”

“I’ll do that, sir,” McCune said.

Crivaro led Riley back downstairs and out to his car.

As they drove away, Riley asked, “Are we going back to headquarters?”

“Not today,” Crivaro said. “Maybe not ever. Where do you live? I’m taking you home.”

Her voice choked with emotion, Riley told him her address.

As they drove on in silence, Riley found herself remembering how impressed by her Crivaro had been back in Lanton, and how he’d told her …

“The FBI needs young people like you—especially women. You’d make a very fine BAU agent.”

How things had changed!

And she knew it wasn’t just because of the mistake she’d made. Crivaro had been cold to her from the start today.

Right now, Riley just wished he’d say something—anything.

She shyly asked, “Did you find anything in that other room across the hall? I mean, where the dumbwaiter used to be?”

“Not a thing,” Crivaro said.

Another silence fell. Riley was starting to feel confused now.

She knew she’d made a terrible mistake, but …

What was I supposed to do?

She’d had a gut feeling back in that room that there was something under the floor.

Was she just supposed to have ignored that feeling?

She summoned up her courage and said …

“Sir, I know I screwed up, but didn’t I find something important back there? Four agents searched that room and missed that space. You were looking for the cash, and I found it. Would anybody else have found it if I didn’t?”

“That’s not the point,” Crivaro said.

Riley fought down the urge to ask …

Then what is the point?

Crivaro drove on in sullen silence for several minutes. Then he said in a quiet, bitter voice, “I pulled a lot of strings to get you into this program.”

Another silence fell. But Riley detected a world of meaning in those words. She began to realize that Crivaro had really gone out on a limb on her behalf, not only to get her into the program but also to serve as her mentor. And he’d probably made some of his colleagues angry, perhaps by excluding intern candidates they might have deemed to be more promising than Riley.

Now that she thought of things that way, Crivaro’s cold behavior started to make sense. He hadn’t wanted to show even the slightest bit of preferential treatment toward her. In fact, he’d gone to the opposite extreme. He’d been counting on her to prove herself worthy without any encouragement from himself, and despite his colleagues’ doubts and resentments.

And judging from the looks and whispers she’d noticed among other interns during the day, Crivaro’s colleagues weren’t the only people who harbored those resentments. She’d faced an uphill climb just to achieve even modest success.

And she’d blown it all in a single afternoon, with one stupid mistake. Crivaro had good reason to be disappointed and angry.

She took a long, slow breath and said …

“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Crivaro didn’t reply for a few moments.

Finally he said, “I guess you want a second chance. Well, let me tell you, the FBI isn’t big on second chances. My last partner got fired for making the same kind of mistake—and he definitely deserved it. A mistake like that has consequences. Sometimes it just means spoiling a case so that a bad guy gets off free. Sometimes it costs someone their life. It can cost your own life.”

Crivaro glanced over at her with a scowl.

“So what do you think I should do?” he said.

“I don’t know,” Riley said.

Crivaro shook his head. “I sure don’t know either. I guess maybe both of us should sleep on it. I’ve got to decide whether I misjudged your abilities. You’ve got to decide whether you’ve really got what it takes to stay in this program.”

Riley felt a lump in her throat, and her eyes stung and she blinked hard.

Don’t cry, she told herself.

Crying was the only thing she could think of that would make things worse than they were already.

CHAPTER FIVE

Still stinging from Crivaro’s rebuke, Riley arrived at home a full two hours before Ryan did. When Ryan got there, he seemed surprised to see that she’d gotten back so early, but he was too excited about his own day to notice how upset she was.

Ryan sat down at the kitchen table with a beer while Riley heated up macaroni and cheese TV dinners. She could tell that he was really buzzed about everything he was doing at the law firm and eager to tell her all about it. She tried to pay close attention.

He’d been given more duties than he’d expected—a lot of complex research and analysis, writing briefs, preparing for litigation, and other tasks that Riley barely understood. He was even going to appear in a courtroom tomorrow for the very first time. He was only going to be assisting the lead attorneys, of course, but it was a real milestone for him.

Ryan appeared nervous, daunted, maybe a little scared, but above all else exhilarated.

Riley tried to keep smiling as they sat down and ate dinner. She wanted to be happy for him.

Finally Ryan asked …

“Wow, listen to me talk. What about you? How was your day?”