Agent Diaz stared at me for several seconds before he replied. “Ms. Hughes—”

“Grace,” I said. “You can call me Grace.”

“Call me Robert. And let me say how very sorry I am for your loss. What happened to your family was a tragedy.”

I swallowed hard and pushed aside all thoughts of Jonah and Amelia. Now was not the time. “Thank you.”

He looked down before he answered, as if weighing his words. “There are a lot of factors that go into investigative decisions. We have limited resources.”

I stayed silent and stared at him—a trick I’d learned from Dr. Rubenstein.

“We don’t want to expend our limited resources on low level players,” he continued. “The goal is to take down the entire organization. We want to decapitate it, not just nip at its tail.”

“I know. Jake told me.”

“Then he must’ve also told you we couldn’t move forward without a source on the inside.”

“I understand that, but why not send in a new agent? The Russians still needed someone to launder their money.”

“It’s not that simple.”

I stayed silent again, waiting for him to fill the void, but this time he didn’t. I decided to try a different tactic. “You said on the phone you were reopening the investigation.”

“Yes. Although that is somewhat dependent on what we find on that flash drive,” he said, nodding to my still clenched fist.

And there it was—the hedge. I was right to be suspicious.

“You already know what’s on it. I told Jake everything.” Not of my own free will, but I doubted Jake had told his boss how he’d gotten the information out of me.

“We still need to have our digital forensics team examine it,” Agent Diaz said.

He held his palm out to me, but I ignored it. “Assuming the information on the flash drive is helpful, what does a new investigation look like? Do you place another undercover agent in their organization?”

“I understand your interest, Grace, but I’m afraid I can’t share that information with you. It’s confidential. I’m sorry.”

“You shared confidential information with Jonah. Or Jake did.”

Agent Diaz shifted in his seat. “What Jake did was…a bit unorthodox.”

“You mean he broke the rules?”

“He didn’t follow standard procedure. But once your husband became involved, he agreed to be a confidential informant.”

“Okay then make me a confidential informant.”

Agent Diaz folded his arms across his chest and stared at me. “Other than what’s on that flash drive,” he said, nodding again to my still clenched fist, “do you have any information about this organization? Anything your husband might have told you or that you discovered after his death?”

Of course, I didn’t. Until recently, I didn’t even know this organization existed. So I was as surprised as Agent Diaz by the words that next flew out of my mouth. The idea had just popped into my head. Afterwards I wondered if maybe Jonah’s spirit had been with me in that conference room and whispered the words into my ear. When I mentioned that theory to my aunt later that evening her response was, “No, Grace, you’ve just lost your mind.”

She wasn’t the only one who came to that conclusion.

Chapter 48

“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Jake’s voice bellowed out at me from my car’s tinny speakers. I was sitting in traffic on the 405 freeway barely a mile north of the Federal Building where the FBI’s LA field office was located. Obviously, Agent Diaz hadn’t wasted any time filling in Jake on our meeting.

“It’s the only way,” I said.

“No, Grace, it’s not the only way. The FBI has undercover agents who are trained to do this kind of work. Yours truly, for example.”

“I won’t be working as an agent. I’ll be a confidential informant, just like Jonah.”

“Yeah, and we both know how well that turned out. Are you trying to be next? Is that what this is? Another suicide attempt? Because there are easier ways to kill yourself if that’s your goal.”

I sucked in my breath. That was a low blow, even for Jake. “I’m not suicidal anymore, but thanks for your concern.”

“Then what is this, Grace? Revenge?”

“Justice. Without it the whole system falls apart. There needs to be accountability. Actions have to have consequences.”

“There have been consequences. I made sure of it. The nephew’s dead. What more consequences do you want?”

“The same consequences you want. The same consequences the FBI wants. I want to take down their whole damn organization.”

Jake let out a harsh laugh. “How? By getting yourself killed?”

“No, by representing them. As their attorney I’ll have access to all sorts of information.”

That was what I’d proposed to Agent Diaz. I’d work for the Russians as their attorney while simultaneously being a confidential informant for the FBI. Agent Diaz had laughed at me too. But he was willing to hear me out to get the flash drive. He still hadn’t agreed. Not yet. But he was considering it.

When I arrived at my aunt’s house three hours later, her reaction was the same as Jake’s, but with less cursing. Aunt Maddy knew me better than Jake though. She knew once I’d made my mind up about something, it was pointless to try and stop me.

She sighed. “It’s the tater tots sit-in all over again.”

I smiled at her across the kitchen table. It was just the two of us. MJ and Sofia, who’d moved back into my aunt’s house earlier in the day, were both upstairs. Sofia was asleep, and MJ who was supposed to be finishing his homework, was probably playing an online game with his friends. Aunt Maddy had fed the kids dinner earlier and heated up the leftover roasted chicken for me when I’d arrived.

I set down my fork and knife and picked up my wineglass. “I guess my personality was formed at ten years old and I’m never going to change.”

“What are you going to tell your mother?” Aunt Maddy said. “She’s not going to be happy about this.”

“Nothing,” I replied. “It’s called confidential informant for a reason. The only person I’m telling is you.”

“You’re going to have to tell her something. You know she’ll ask.”

I’d already thought about this on the long drive home. “If this happens, and it’s still an if”—Agent Diaz was clear on that point; he hadn’t agreed to anything yet— “I’m going to tell her I’ve decided to continue with my law practice on my own. She’s not going to ask me who my clients are or what kind of legal work I do for them. All she cares about is if I’m dating again.”

Aunt Maddy chuckled. “That much is true. When will you know?”

“I’m not sure. Agent Diaz said before he’d even consider this, he needed to talk to another one of his confidential informants. He said in order for this plan to work, we would need that person’s help.”