CHAPTER THREE
1464 Words
CHAPTER THREE
For a long moment, Stella stared at Carrie, seeing her appalled thoughts reflected in the other woman’s green eyes.
With a toss of her brunette head and a sneering gaze down her narrow, perfectly shaped nose, Carrie was the first to recover.
“What a surprise to find you here, Stella Fall. My team mentioned to me just now that there was a junior role they had gotten filled.”
Her tone was insulting, but Stella could see the insecurity lurking in her eyes.
“How nice to see you,” Stella replied evenly. “It sure is a coincidence that we’ll both be working here.”
Inwardly, she couldn’t believe her bad luck. She tried to console herself by remembering that New Haven was a huge office. It was so big that there were satellite offices in the wider Connecticut area. With such a massive operation, hopefully they wouldn’t bump into each other too often. Or preferably at all.
Carrie stared at her with a weird, knowing expression.
“Did you ask to be posted here?”
“No, I was offered the job,” Stella said shortly.
“That’s another coincidence, then. Because a friend of mine was telling me that you’re familiar with the area. Is that right?”
She placed a lean finger on her chin as she mulled over her statement.
“Yes, you know I am,” Stella retorted impatiently. “I was called here to help with a case in our last week of training. That’s how I got to meet Agent Roth.”
She stared stonily at Carrie. Carrie hadn’t been pleased when she heard Stella had been co-opted onto a case before her training was even done. Had Carrie conveniently forgotten this, or was she just ignoring it?
“Yes, yes, I knew about that. This was something else.”
Stella felt a pang of worry. Of course there would be something else. Carrie wasn’t baiting the trap for no reason. Unfortunately, her rival was both sharp and perceptive.
“This was something that a friend told me. I have a lot of friends in this area, you know. I’m from Bridgeport originally, which was why I requested a posting to this field office.”
“Oh, really?” Stella asked. Now she felt even more concerned.
“That’s right. Anyway, a while ago, when I mentioned your name, they said there had been a big scandal earlier this year involving you. My friend’s uncle, Gordon Marshall, told her that he couldn’t believe the trouble you had caused or how you’d tried to destroy his family. After they suffered a terrible loss, I believe.”
Stella’s heart stopped.
Carrie had found out about the incident in her recent past that she most wanted to forget. The murder of her fiancé, Vaughn Marshall, had landed her in a world of trouble, and caused her to be the prime suspect for this cold-blooded and violent crime.
This murder was the reason she’d never wanted to return to the state of Connecticut, where the ultra-wealthy and corrupt Marshall family lived. It had been the only factor that had made her hesitate before accepting Roth’s job offer.
Now Carrie knew, and this couldn’t be more damaging information.
“I believe Gordon has promised that he will get retribution for the pain and suffering you caused, and the way that you tried to smear their good name. Being an ex-senator, he’s very influential, as you obviously know,” Carrie continued, and Stella felt even more on edge.
Of course revenge would be high on Gordon Marshall’s list after she’d exposed the family’s misdoings. But she’d never thought that she would be so conveniently situated as a target. She assumed she would vanish from their lives forever and that they would forget about her. Now she was back, and the local network was already buzzing with the news. When Gordon found out where she was working, he would renew his efforts to destroy her.
She was a threat and a danger to him and his corrupt family, and worse still, she was the one who had uncovered their secrets.
Stella was following the news. Their legal team was putting up a fight to try and clear the family’s name. With the best lawyers in the state at the Marshalls’ disposal, that might well happen.
“You’re looking anxious,” Carrie said, sounding satisfied.
Stella knew she wasn’t. She seldom showed her emotions and had shut down the minute she realized where Carrie’s conversation was headed.
“I’m sorry.” She gave Carrie a bright smile. “I was focused on the checklist in this folder, and ended up tuning you out. That was rude of me. I do apologize.”
Carrie glowered, and Stella felt pleased she had correctly determined that being ignored would trigger her.
“Were you talking about the Marshalls?” Stella then asked innocently. “I guess if I’d really smeared their name, they would have opened a defamation case. Since they haven’t done that, perhaps you didn’t get all the facts. In any case, it’s in the past. I’m not one to hold grudges,” she said meaningfully.
She could almost hear Carrie’s teeth gritting.
“I don’t trust your version, Stella Fall,” she spat. “Not after having spent four months at Quantico listening to you twist the truth and manipulate people!”
Stella shrugged. “It’s a shame you feel this way,” she said neutrally.
Choosing a different angle of attack, Carrie stared at the piles of folders.
“I’ll leave you to your paperwork,” she said. “I’m sitting with my team this morning and going through some case histories that will be relevant when I start going out into the field. Which, since I was the first new agent to be hired in New Haven this year, will happen soon,” she said triumphantly. “They intend to fast-track my career to a fully-fledged field agent as soon as possible. But I’m the first to agree that filing clerks also have value, and I’m very grateful you’re here to help our branch with the basic work.”
She gave a faux-sweet smile and then turned and stalked out.
Stella let out a long, shaky breath. This couldn’t have turned out any worse.
The ultra-competitive and capable Carrie probably would go out in the field before Stella, and she’d clearly been selected for the first available vacancy. Stella had been hired by Roth, but she was a last-minute addition to the team.
All of that meant little compared to the more serious issue that Carrie had friends who were connected to the Marshalls.
This gave her far more leverage to do damage. As soon as she realized how powerful Gordon Marshall was, and how far he would go to try and destroy Stella, she had no doubt that Carrie would use that information to her advantage.
With a sigh, Stella turned back to her filing.
“Oh, Agent Roth!” she heard Carrie exclaim from just outside the lobby. “I wanted to say good morning to you and introduce myself. I’m the new agent, Carrie Potts, who will be working under Special Agent Billings.”
In contrast to the poison that had dripped from her tone when addressing Stella, Carrie’s voice was now as sweet as sugar, while resounding with all the professional qualities that Stella would have wanted to hear if she’d been a harassed boss.
Clearly, Roth was won over.
“It’s great to meet you,” he said, and Stella noticed his voice was far warmer than when he’d addressed her earlier. “I look forward to working with you, too. We had excellent feedback on you from Quantico.”
“I am so pleased to hear that. And I’ll try hard to live up to it. I want you to be proud of me, Agent Roth, and I’m going to do my best for my team.”
Humph, Stella thought. She’d never guessed that the haughty Carrie could ever show humility, but it was exactly what she was hearing now.
If only Carrie didn’t have a grudge against her, she thought despairingly. Seeing a glimpse of the nicer side that Carrie could clearly show at will, made her feel even worse. Why couldn’t she put this enmity aside?
Things had been bad enough between them at Quantico. But in this pressurized work environment, and with Carrie’s new-found knowledge about her past, she feared the rivalry might have career-damaging consequences.
Somehow, she would have to manage this potential disaster, as well as deal with all the other complexities of her new job.
She hadn’t thought her first day here would be anything like this.
- Writer
