Expectation (Ghost Targets, #2) by Aaron Pogue

flashing. "That little police chief of yours made herself perfectly clear."
    "So you understand you're making yourself a suspect?"
    "Yes. In my husband's coma . How is that even a crime?"
    "The circumstances of his condition are suspicious," Katie said, knowing it wasn't an answer at all. "He had no medical history, nothing in his extensive  lab work indicating a risk of such an attack, and for it to have disabled him so completely—"
    "While still leaving me financially secure," the other woman interjected, her voice dripping with venom.
    Katie paused, then leaned forward earnestly. "You can't ask the police to overlook that, Mrs. Barnes. Especially when you could clear all of this up by granting limited medical access just to us. Consider it from their point of view. The police wouldn't be doing their job—"
    "Well they can do their job without my assistance," Theresa huffed. "And don't talk about 'limited medical access' to me! I've spent the last eighteen years married to a man who works behind the curtain. I know about access rights. You guys don't have the infrastructure to handle a medical data transfer, and there's no way you're a doctor—or this Agent Reed—so you're going to hand it back to your analysts in Washington via Hathor. And as soon as you do that, it's on the auction block."
    "We can control that," Katie said, and Theresa answered with such a scathing look that a blush rose in Katie's cheeks. "Still...isn't it worth the risk to learn the truth?"
    Theresa pulled away, crossing her arms in a loose hug, and her gaze drifted out the window to the mountains in the distance. "The truth has nothing to offer me, Agent Pratt." She met Katie's eyes, and the anger was gone. She just looked tired. "What I want is my husband back, and if I can't have that, I'll have to settle for my memories of him." She pushed back her chair and rose with an air of finality. "And I won't let those memories be shattered in twenty-four-hour news coverage. I'm sorry, but my decision hasn't changed."

6. Liaison
    Katie rose as well, but before she could say goodbye, Reed spoke in her ear. "Katie, I've got news. Don't leave the Barneses' place."
    Katie waited for more, but Reed was gone. She cleared her throat to cover her sudden hesitation, then she stepped forward, close to the other woman. "Umm...Mrs. Barnes, I understand your position. When I first arrived, though, you made another offer. If that still stands, I would like to take you up on it. There may be something we can do without medical access, and the more I know about your husband, the better job I can do." Theresa hesitated, and Katie shrugged. "So much of his life has been lost behind that curtain."
    "It's true," Mrs. Barnes said with a sad sigh. She gave another moment's hesitation, and then a fragile smile. "Sure," she said. "You've already got my whole morning booked. I'll share my memories with you."
    Katie smiled, then put on an embarrassed expression. "If I could just visit your restroom first?"
    "Of course. It's just through there." She pointed the way, down a short hall that led to an old garage. "On the right."
    Katie slipped in and shut the door behind her, then whispered, "Okay, Reed. Go ahead. What have you got?"
    It was a moment before he answered, then he said, "Yeah, sorry, you there Katie?"
    "Here, sir."
    "Good. Listen, I'm still waiting to meet with the lieutenant here, but his assistant has been talking some gossip with me, and apparently Barnes was involved in a liaison with his liaison."
    Katie's jaw dropped. An image of the doctor flashed in her mind, and she could certainly understand the attraction, even without his prestige. She sought in her memory for the army liaison's name. "Cohn?"
    "That's her," Reed said. "It all would have happened at the clinic, so it was completely off the record, but apparently she wasn't too careful about whom she bragged to."
    "That sounds like a short path to reassignment, if not an outright court martial," Katie