Opaque

12 | Suspicions, Crashes, and Beta

"The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does becomes tainted." -Mahatma Gandhi 

                Chapter Twelve

"Hey Angie," Agent Beta called from her desk as I briskly walked towards the exit.

I clenched my fists. I wasn't in the mood to talk to her or anyone for that matter, but because of the rules of etiquette, I turned and reluctantly walked to her.

"What did he say about the run-away security guard," she said, her eyes twinkling.

I sighed.

"He was released. His records are clean."

"I guess we chased the wrong guy then," she said, logging off her computer.

"I don't think so," I said shifting my leg.

"You still have suspicions?"

"His records are too clean," I said.

"As if they have been cleaned," she said, snapping her fingers, completing my thought.

"Basically and another fact that should raise a red flag is the fact that he's twenty three, a college graduate, with a degree in liberal arts. Why would he take a security guard job?"

"Maybe he needs money to support himself until he finds a better job?"

I shook my head and handed her Chad's file.

"That sounds plausible, but look at page four," she flipped the file open, "He has some weird phobia of guns. It all seems fake to me."

"Maybe you're being too paranoid."

"There is no such thing as 'too paranoid' when five hundred lives at stake," I said, discreetly shaking my left leg to get rid of the cramps.

"Look. Agent Hook knows what he is doing, and if he says to forget about it, then maybe we should just move on."

"I know. If it wasn't for the fact that Agent Matthew's daughter's life was on the line, he wouldn't even spare this school a glance. But I still have a bad feeling about this guy. I can feel it in the pit of my stomach."

"Maybe it's indigestion."

I gave her a flat look. This was not a good time for jokes.

"I'm sorry," she laughed, "You really need to smell the roses Angie."

She laughed at her own joke for a few minutes, almost falling off her chair, but she sobered up pretty quickly when I turned around to leave.

"Wait, Angie," I looked at her, "I think that if Agent Hook says it is okay, then we shouldn't worry about him."

"I still think we should keep an eye on him."

"Okay," she sighed, "If it makes you feel better, I'll do some research on him. But for now, I'm starving and I know that you are too," my stomach grumbled on command, "So let's go eat something."

"I'm tired. I just want to go home."

"Awesome," she said, clapping her hands, "so let's make it a sleepover."

She grabbed her handbag from under her desk and stuffed a few files within it.

"I don't know about this," I said, shifting my legs, "My house is a, uh, mess."

"I've already seen your house silly and besides we need to go over the Irwin High case files anyways and discuss the moves we are going to teach the kids."