Chapter 5

Red had become used to her storming through his door and on orders from him, Dembe knew better than to intervene and stop her.

'what the hell is this?'

'hello Lizzie how was the soup?'

'hot, now what is this where did you get this information?'

She threw the folder on the table to emphasise her distaste.

'this is your salvation Lizzie much as you don't like my help when you don't ask for it'

'I don't know who your informant is but they are wrong ,this makes for a good story but all agents are vetted by the department and this includes all associations they have'

'I know…you are living proof of how those associations are rarely spared the demands of the job'

Red hit a nerve going by the reaction of Lizzie to the statement. She allowed her hair to fall over her face as she bowed her head.

He moved towards her when he saw her begin to shake.

'Lizzie' with thumb and forefinger he gently tipped her head up only to see the glistening tears stream down her face.

'I want you to be happy in at least one aspect of your life, I know this doesn't fill the hole that has been left or the cold side of the bed at night but I want to help you with this'

At the mention of her bed Lizzie blushed with innocence.

When he felt the prickle of heat by her cheeks he added

'for once your cheeks are warm with welcome emotions instead of painful ones'

Without intending to or thinking it through Liz placed her hand over his and gripped it slightly.

He smiled for the first time in a long time his genuinely large smile.

Automatically this calmed her tears

'thank you for this but they have lost faith in me now and doing this to a long serving agent will do me no favours'

'you have questions Lizzie at least let me explain what the file holds and then you can make up your mind, dinner you must be hungry?'

He linked her arm as they walked from the gloomy warehouse.

Aram sat at his desk for what felt like days but in reality was a few hours poring over tapes and lists his desk was beginning to disappear slowly but surely.

'sir I have the tapes but in all the chaos its hard to pinpoint anyone, the faces I could register were fed into the database'

He brought up the database on the computer

'aside from a few missed parking tickets none of them are coming up big time criminal'

'that's not what I want to hear Aram'

He uploaded the video and the list of names on the screen.

'these are the names of employees that work at the hotel there records show no past activity'

'what about the conference the organisers the company involved? I want those names'

Aram felt a hand at his shoulder.

'Aram, since I have everyone out there following leads on this I need you to follow up on this, to question these people talk to as many as you can'

With the prospect of leaving his desk and doing some field work Aram smiled all the way out of the building.