Free The Kill Order by Robin Burcell Page A

evasive maneuvers. Maybe she was, maybe she wasn’t being followed, but she wouldn’t put it past Pearson to assign a couple of agents to keep track of her whereabouts. What’d he think she was going to do? Materialize some nonexistent copies of this list and post them on the Internet?
    She should have listened to her mother and become a kindergarten teacher. Right now, the thought of facing a room full of five-year-olds, their eyes filled with admiration while she taught them their ABCs, was eminently appealing. And by the time she pulled in her driveway, she’d almost convinced herself it was time to give up this job, go back to school, and get that teaching credential.
    But then her phone rang. Griffin. Again.
    After a deep, calming breath, she realized she was not ready to discuss this with him. She shut the thing off, tossed it into the center console, and stared out the window, feeling the weight of the world crushing down on her.
    How had she been so blind? How could she not have known that he’d been involved that whole time?
    A knock at her window startled her, and she looked over, saw her neighbor, Tina, with her black Labrador, Storm. The dog jumped up on the car door, whining, as though sensing the struggle she was going through at that moment.
    “You okay?” Tina asked.
    Sydney nodded, but didn’t move.
    Neither did Tina, apparently not convinced. And when Storm pawed at the window, Sydney smiled, opened the door, and patted her lap. “Good boy.”
    He pushed his nose into her, and she scratched him behind his ears.
    Tina stood there, bundled against the cold, watching. They’d undoubtedly just come back from their evening outing at the dog park.
    “How was the walk today, Storm?” Sydney asked, hoping Tina wouldn’t feel it necessary to delve into her personal life.
    Like any true dog owner, Tina was happy to discuss her pet’s activities. “For him? He can chase a tennis ball for ever. For me? Nothing like spending an hour in near-freezing temperature to get that blood pumping. I can’t wait to get into a hot shower.”
    Sydney attempted a smile. “Same here.” She got out, locked the car, and the two of them walked to the elevator together.
    For a moment she was almost able to pretend that nothing was wrong. That feeling lasted until they reached their floor and Tina said, “Those guys from your work? They sure were around a long time. They even came back a couple hours ago.”
    Sydney gave a sigh. “Glad they’re gone. I’m looking forward to a little downtime.”
    Downtime was not what was waiting for her when she walked into her door and discovered the mess the agents had made during their search.
    She stood there a moment, at first disbelieving what she saw, then, as it sank in, felt the blood rushing to her head in anger.
    “Goddamned sons of . . .”
    Cereal had been dumped into the sink. Every cupboard was open, every drawer. In her bedroom, her dresser had been completely emptied, the drawers out, turned upside-down. The closet was ravaged, the shelves emptied. Same in the spare bedroom, where the boxes she’d carefully dug through to find her computer were dumped on the floor.
    Even the bathroom had been searched in similar fashion.
    The entire place looked like narcotics officers had gone through it looking for drugs and evidence of dealing.
    They’d treated her like a common criminal.
    She grabbed her phone and called Scotty. “You goddamned bastards! How could you do this?”
    “Syd. We discussed this. I thought—”
    “No. What we discussed was that the list was in my office drawer. Not this. This is way over the top. You can tell Pearson that he can kiss my—”
    “Syd! What the hell is wrong with you?”
    “Wrong? Either Pearson sent a couple overzealous agents, or they were looking for evidence that doesn’t exist. What part of ‘it’s in my desk drawer’ did they not believe?”
    He didn’t answer.
    She looked around, walking from room to room, feeling