Before He Preys (A Mackenzie White Mystery—Book 9)

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

Work was not helping the monotony of what Mackenzie was coming to think of as The Routine—capital T and capital R. In the nearly two months that had passed since the events in Nebraska, Mackenzie’s case load had consisted of surveilling a group of men that were suspected of s*x trafficking—spending her days sitting in a car or in abandoned buildings, listening to crude conversations that all turned out to be about nothing. She’d also worked alongside Yardley and Harrison on a case involving a suspected terrorist cell in Iowa—which had also turned out to be nothing.

The day following their tense conversation about happiness, Mackenzie found herself at her desk, researching one of the men she had been surveilling for s*x trafficking. He was not part of a s*x trafficking ring, but he was almost certainly involved in some sort of deranged prostitution set-up. It was hard to believe that she was qualified to carry a weapon, to hunt down murderers and save lives. She was starting to feel like a plastic employee, someone who served no real function.

Frustrated, she got up for a cup of coffee. She had never been one to wish anything bad upon anyone, but she was wondering if things in the country were really so good that her services might not be needed somewhere.

As she made her way to the small lobby-like area where the coffee machines were housed, she spotted Ellington putting the top on his own cup. He saw her coming and waited for her, though she could tell by his posture that he was in a hurry.

“I hope your day has been more exciting than mine,” Mackenzie said.

“Maybe,” he said. “Ask me again in half an hour. McGrath just called me up to his office.”

“For what?” Mackenzie asked.

“No idea. He didn’t call you, too?”

“No,” she said, wondering what might be going on. While there had been no direct conversation about it with McGrath ever since the Nebraska case, she had just assumed that she and Ellington would remain partners. She wondered if maybe the department was finally deciding to separate them based on their romantic relationship. If so, she understood the decision but would not necessarily like it.

“I’m getting tired of riding my desk,” she said as she poured her coffee. “Do me a favor and see if you can get me on whatever he sticks you on, too.”

“Gladly,” he said. “I’ll keep you posted.”

She walked back to her office, wondering if this small break in normalcy might be the one thing she had been waiting for—the crack that would start to chip away at the foundation of routine she’d been feeling. It wasn’t often that McGrath summoned just one of them to his office—not recently, anyway. It made her wonder if she was perhaps under some kind of review that she didn’t know about. Was McGrath digging harder into the last case in Nebraska to make sure she had done everything by the book? If that was the case then she might be in some hot water because she had most definitely not done everything by the book.

Sadly, wondering what the meeting between Ellington and McGrath was about was the most interesting thing that had happened in the last week or so. It was what occupied her mind as she sat back down in front of her computer, once again feeling like nothing more than another cog in the wheel.

***

She heard footsteps fifteen minutes later. This was nothing new; she worked with her office door open and saw people walking back and forth up and down the hallway all day. But this was different. This sounded like several pairs of footsteps all walking in unison. There was also a sense of quiet—a hushed tension like the atmosphere just before a violent summer thunderstorm.

Curious, Mackenzie looked up from her laptop. As the footsteps got louder, she saw Ellington. He quickly glanced through the doorway, his face tight with an emotion she couldn’t quite place. He was carrying a box in his hands while two security guards followed closely behind him.

What the hell?

Mackenzie jumped up from her desk and ran into the hall. Just as she was coming around the corner, Ellington and the two guards were getting on the elevator. The doors slid closed and once again, Mackenzie just barely caught sight of that tense expression on his face.

He’s been fired, she thought. The idea was absolutely ridiculous as far as she was concerned, but that’s what it seemed like.

She ran to the stairwell, pushing the door open quickly and heading down. She took the steps two at a time, hoping to make it out before Ellington and the guards did. She rushed down the three flights of stairs, coming out along the side of the building directly next to the parking garage.

She came out of the door at the same time Ellington and the guards exited the building. Mackenzie rushed across the lawn to cut them off. The guards looked on edge when they saw her coming, one of them stopping for a moment and facing her as if she might actually be a threat.

“What is it?” she asked over the guard, looking at Ellington.

He shook his head. “Not right now,” he said. “Just…let it go for now.”

“What’s going on?” she asked. “The guards…the box…have you been fired? What the hell happened?”

He shook his head again. There was nothing mean or dismissive about it. She figured it was the best he could do in the situation. Maybe something had occurred that he couldn’t talk about. And Ellington, loyal to a fault, would not speak if he had been asked to stay quiet.

She hated to do it, but she didn’t press him any farther. If she wanted direct answers, there was only one place to get them. With that in mind, she ran back into the building. This time she took the elevator, taking it back to the third floor and wasting no time marching down the hall toward McGrath’s office.

She didn’t bother checking in with his secretary as she headed for his door. She heard the woman call her name, trying to stop her, but Mackenzie went in. She did not knock, just walked right into the office.

McGrath was at his desk, clearly not at all surprised that she was there. He turned toward her and the calmness on his face infuriated her.

“Just remain calm, Agent White,” he said.

“What happened?” she asked. “Why did I just see Ellington escorted from the building with a box of his personal belongings?”

“Because he’s been released from duty.”

The simplicity of the statement did not make it any easier to hear. Part of her was still wondering if there had been some huge mistake. Or if this was all some huge elaborate joke.

“For what?”

She then saw something she had never seen before: McGrath looking away, clearly uncomfortable. “It’s a private matter,” he said. “I understand the relationship between the two of you, but this is information I can legally not divulge due to the nature of the situation.”

In all of her time working under McGrath, she had never heard so much legalistic bullshit come out of his mouth at one time. She managed to quash her anger. After all, this was not about her. There was apparently something going on with Ellington that she knew nothing about.

“Is everything okay?” she asked. “Can you tell me that much?”

“That’s not for me to answer, I’m afraid,” McGrath said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m actually pretty busy.”

Mackenzie gave a little nod and backed out of the office, closing the door behind her. The secretary behind her own desk gave her a nasty look that Mackenzie ignored completely. She walked back to her office and checked her mail to reconfirm that the remainder of her day was a slow void of nothing.

She then hurried out of the building, doing her best not to look like something was troubling her. The last thing she needed was for half of the building to be aware that Ellington was gone and that she was rushing out behind him. She’d finally managed to overcome the prying eyes and almost legendary rumors of her past within the workplace and she’d be damned if she’d create another reason for the cycle to start all over.

***

She felt confident that Ellington had simply gone back to their apartment. When she’d first met him, he’d been the kind of man who would maybe go directly to a bar in an attempt to drown his sorrows. But he had changed in the last year or so—just as she had. She supposed they owed that to each other. It was a thought she kept in mind as she opened the door to her apartment (their apartment, she reminded herself), hoping to find him inside.

Sure enough, she found him in the small second bedroom they used as an office. He was unpacking the things he’d had in his box, tossing them haphazardly onto the desk they shared. He looked up when he saw her but then quickly looked away.

“Sorry,” he said with his head turned. “You’re not exactly catching me on my best day.”

She approached him but resisted placing a hand on his shoulder or an arm around his back. She had never seen him so out of sorts. It alarmed her a bit but, more than anything, made her want to see what she could do to help.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it?” he asked. “I’ve been suspended indefinitely.”

“What the hell for?” She again thought of McGrath and how uncomfortable he had looked when she had posed this same question to him.

He finally turned to her again and when he did, she could see embarrassment on his face. When he answered her, his voice was trembling.

“s****l harassment.”

For a moment, the words didn’t make much sense. She waited for him to smile at her and tell her that he was just kidding, but that never happened. Instead, his eyes locked on hers, waiting for her reaction.

“What?” she asked. “When was this?”

“About three years ago,” he said. “But the woman just came forward with the allegations three days ago.”

“And is the allegation a valid one?” she asked.

He nodded, taking a seat at the desk. “Mackenzie, I’m sorry. I was a different guy back then, you know?”

She was angry for a moment, but she wasn’t sure at who: Ellington or the woman. “What sort of harassment?” she asked.

“I was training this younger agent three years ago,” he said. “She was doing really well so one night, a few agents took her out to celebrate. We all had a few drinks and she and I were the last ones left. At the time, the thought of hitting on her had never crossed my mind. But I went to the restroom and when I came out, she was right there waiting for me. She kissed me and it got heated. She pulled away—maybe realizing it was a mistake. And then I tried to go back in. I’d like to think that had I not been drinking, her pulling away would have been the end of it. But I didn’t stop. I tried to kiss her again and didn’t realize she wasn’t returning it until she pushed me away. She pushed me off of her and just stared me down. I told her I was sorry—and I meant it—but she just stormed out. And that was it. A sad little encounter between bathrooms. No one forced themselves on anyone else and there was no groping or other misconduct. The next day when I got to work, she had asked to be transferred to another agent. Within two months, she was gone, transferred to Seattle, I think.”

“And why is she bringing this up now?” Mackenzie asked.

“Because it’s the popular thing to do these days,” Ellington snapped. He then shook his head and sighed. “Sorry. That was a shitty thing to say.”

“Yes, it was. Are you telling me the whole story? Is that all that happened?”

“That’s it,” he said. “I swear it.”

“You were married, right? When it happened?”

He nodded. “It’s not one of my prouder moments.”

Mackenzie thought of the first time she’d spent any significant time with Ellington. It had been during the Scarecrow Killer case in Nebraska. She had basically thrown herself at him while she had been in the midst of her own personal dramas. She could tell that he had been interested but in the end, he had declined her advances.

She wondered how heavily the encounter with this woman had been weighing on his mind during that night when she’d offered herself to him.

“How long is the suspension?” she asked.

He shrugged. “It depends. If she decides not to make too big of a stink about it, it could be as little as a month. But if it goes big, it could be much longer. In the end, it could lead to a total termination.”

Mackenzie turned away this time. She couldn’t help but feel a little selfish. Sure, she was upset that a man she cared very deeply about was going through something like this, but at the root of it all, she was more concerned with losing her partner. She hated that her priorities were so skewed, but that’s the way she felt in that moment. That and an intense jealousy that she loathed. She was not the jealous type…so why was she so jealous of the woman who had reported the so-called harassment? She’d never thought of Ellington’s wife with any hints of jealousy, so why this woman?

Because she’s causing everything to change, she thought. That boring little routine I was falling into and growing comfortable with is starting to crumble.

“What are you thinking?” Ellington asked.

Mackenzie shook her head and looked at her watch. It was only one in the afternoon. Pretty soon, her absence would be noticed at work.

“I’m thinking I need to get back to work,” she said. And with that, she turned away from him again and walked out of the room.

“Mackenzie,” Ellington called out. “Hold on.”

“It’s okay,” she called out to him. “I’ll see you in a little bit.”

She left without a goodbye, a kiss, or a hug. Because even though she had said it, things were not okay.

If things were okay, she wouldn’t be fighting back tears that seemed to have come out of nowhere. If things were okay, she wouldn’t still be trying to push away an anger that kept trying to claw its way up, telling her that she was a fool to think that life would be okay now, that she was finally due a normal life where the haunts of her past didn’t influence everything.

By the time she reached her car, she had managed to bring the tears to a stop. Her cell phone rang, Ellington’s name popping up. She ignored it, started the car, and headed back to work.