Chapter 36
Sue's head was starting to hurt from concentrating so hard on what was being said. Even though she couldn't understand him, she still watched Montega as he talked hoping that she'd start to pick up on his accent. However, she really wished Montega would slow down. In normal situations, she would have spoken up, but touching her swollen cheek, she was afraid to say anything.
"What do you know about the owner of the house? Why were you there?" the short man asked bring her attention back to him. Sue had seen Jack and Bobby use this tactic before when they already knew the answer. She felt it best to play along but try not to give up too much information.
"Um, all I was told was the owner was a woman who died several months ago. We'd just started looking around when I had an accident," she stated, pointing out the bruise on her arm. Watching their expressions carefully, she thought to add, "I was hired by the F.B.I. to do fingerprint analysis; I'm not an agent." At least that part is true, Sue thought thankfully. It was hard coming up with a cover story on her own, but she felt she was doing pretty well since one of the others normally did this.
"What about the daughter?" she was asked abruptly.
"I'm sorry, I don't know anything about a daughter," Sue said quickly hoping they didn't know about Tina. Was Jordan trying to protect Tina from this man? Was that why she was downstairs in that condition? Sue wondered. "I didn't even know what we were looking for." Only Jordan knew what was going on, she thought to herself, we were hoping to find something that would clue us in when we got there.
Sue didn't know whether they believed her or not. The frowns on their faces did little to show their pleasure at what she said. The short man turned away from her so while she could still see his face she couldn't read his lips.
It was a horrible isolated feeling watching them talk, knowing it was about her and not being able to hear what was said. The longer they talked, the more she felt like the little girl back in school that got picked on by the others. Social gatherings with a lot of people bothered her like this, so many people talking at one time, but this was much more intense. Her life depended on this.
A sudden sparkle of light caught her eye taking her attention away from the conversation. What she saw made her want to jump out of her chair and run. Trying to remain calm, Sue shifted her eyes back to the two men, her heart pounding.