She put her fingertips to her temples and massaged them. “I don’t think it was Panella, but I suppose it’s possible.”

“If you loathe him, why would you heed his summons?”

“I didn’t. I…I…”

“My client is declining to answer,” Adrian said.

Hickam persisted. “If it wasn’t Panella, it was your brother.”

“I don’t believe it was Josh, but I can’t be certain.”

“You went there to aid and abet one of them, Ms. Bennett.”

Adrian Dover said, “Do not respond.”

“Who did you expect to be there waiting for you?” Hickam asked. “Panella?”

“No.”

“Then your brother.”

“No.” She shook her head in confusion. “Possibly. I don’t know.”

Adrian was pressing her arm, demanding that she say nothing more.

Hickam leaned across the table again and thumped it with his fist. “Not Panella. Not Josh. Then who? Tell us. Who called you?”

“I did.”

At the sound of the new voice in the room, four pairs of eyes swung toward the door. There stood Shaw Kinnard.

Chapter 26

Jordie and Joe Wiley lurched out of their chairs. Jordie’s tipped over backward.

But Wiley’s partner moved faster than anyone. In under a second his pistol was drawn and aimed at the bridge of Shaw’s nose, his finger on the trigger.

Behind Shaw, Xavier Dupaw shouted, “Don’t shoot! He’s one of you. FBI. Special Agent Shaw Kinnard.”

Shaw’s focus remained on Jordie’s wide, incredulous gaze, but in his peripheral vision he saw that the woman sitting in the chair next to her was blinking rapidly. Joe Wiley mouthed several profanities and looked like he wanted to drive his fist through a wall.

The guy with the nine-millimeter acted like he hadn’t heard the disclaimer. He still had a bead on Shaw’s forehead.

Shaw didn’t move except to cut his eyes over to him. “Want to lower that?”

“Not really.”

The prosecutor edged around Shaw and entered the room, chortling, “You should see your faces. I guess we pulled it off.”

Shaw watched Jordie’s lips part in disbelief. Or disillusionment, maybe. In a barely audible voice, she said, “You’re an FBI agent?”

“Guilty.”

With obvious reluctance the black agent lowered his pistol. “You son of a bitch. I almost shot you.”

Shaw turned his head and sized him up. “I don’t like you all that much, either.”

“Gentlemen, no need for hostility,” Dupaw said. He turned to Shaw and added under his breath, “I told you that I should come in first to neutralize the situation, but did you listen?”

Joe Wiley stepped around the table. Shaw could practically see smoke coming from his ears, and, frankly, he didn’t blame him. “If you’re FBI, I’m a Chinaman.”

“I caught ’em on a slow day.” If Shaw had felt better, he might have grinned. But he couldn’t muster the energy.

The woman beside Jordie had righted her chair and took her elbow in an attempt to guide her back into it. Jordie shook her off and remained standing. Shaw had only ever seen her in the jeans and top she’d worn into the bar. Today she was dressed for business in a navy pants suit with a pink scooped-neck top underneath the jacket.

But he was less interested in her wardrobe than in her facial expressions, which had evolved from dismay upon seeing him, to absolute fury upon learning how he had misled her, big-time.

He didn’t blame her, either.

Wiley propped his hands on his hips. “Badge?”

“Can’t carry one. But if you want to call Atlanta and check me out, I can give you a password.”

“Do that.”

Shaw gave him his code, the number to call, and the individual to ask for. The super-stud agent pecked the phone number into his cell and stepped out of the room to make the call.

Joe Wiley still regarded Shaw with blatant mistrust. “You work out of the Atlanta office?”

“When I work out of an office at all.”

“I can vouch for him,” Xavier Dupaw said with overblown self-importance. “I was about to indict him for that double murder. NOPD, you and Agent Hickam, everybody in Orleans Parish was pressuring me to do so.”

“I was wasting time in jail,” Shaw said to Wiley. “I had to tell him.” He nodded toward the prosecutor.

Dupaw said, “Mr. Kinnard revealed himself to be a covert operative.” The last two words were spoken in a stage whisper.

Wiley, frowning, grumbled, “We were sure you’d killed those two guys.”

“I did,” Shaw said. “They got wise to a DEA officer who was working the same case. To protect him…” He raised a shoulder.

Dupaw placed his right hand over his heart and said to Wiley, “I would have liked to share all this with you, but only I and the DA were entrusted with the classified information.”

Wiley gave a snort of distaste over the prosecutor’s condescension.

The other agent reentered the room. “He checks out.” He looked none too happy about it.

Shaw turned to Xavier Dupaw. “You can go now.”

The prosecutor blustered. “This is the thanks I get for coming to your rescue? If it weren’t for me, you would still be chained to your hospital bed.”

“Thanks. But you’ve served your purpose.”

“This case is far from over.”

“But it’s not your show. It’s federal. Crimes against the state were committed in another parish and outside your jurisdiction.” Shaw motioned him toward the door.

Dupaw sputtered, but eventually shot his cuffs and stalked out, peevishly banging the door shut behind himself.

Shaw looked at Wiley. “Mind if I sit?”

He was woozy and didn’t want to ruin his dramatic entrance by falling flat on his face in a dead faint. Wiley pointed him into a chair across the table from Jordie. Live coals didn’t smolder as hot as she was. Her rigid posture, the stern set of her lips, her glare, all attested to her barely controlled wrath as she sat down.

Shaw expelled a long breath. “Look. Jordie. I know I put you through a meat grinder. But I was—”

“‘Son of a bitch’ doesn’t come close to characterizing you.” She practically spat the words at him, then turned her head aside as if the very sight of him sickened her.

The fraught silence that followed was broken by the woman beside her, who quietly introduced herself as Jordie’s lawyer. Shaw acknowledged the introduction, but they didn’t shake hands. He had much more to say to Jordie, but there was business to attend to, she wasn’t in the mood to listen, and the real spoiler was that they were on opposing sides of a criminal investigation.

Wiley said, “Was Morrow in on this charade?”

Shaw nodded. “Couldn’t have done it without him. He’s a good man. Once Dupaw and I brought him into the loop, he facilitated everything. Ordered an ambulance, recruited a couple of guys from his department who he could trust to drive it. Got his dispatch operator to call the hospital administrator in Houma to inform him of the near-fatal shooting.”