Read The Innocent for Free Online Page B

opened the fridge, and took out a Diet Coke. With his scope he could read the label clearly. She closed the fridge with a swipe of her hip. She filled a glass halfway up with the soda and the other half with rum pulled from a cupboard over the stove.
    She walked down the hall. Before she got to her bedroom she unzipped her jeans, slipped them off, and tossed them into a laundry basket. She set her drink down on the floor while she pulled her top over her head. Her underwear was pink. She was not the thong type; her underwear fully covered her bottom.
    Robie had not seen this. He had turned his surveillance device off when she had started to unzip her pants. The scope cost nearly fifty grand. He was not going to use it for pathetic voyeurism.
    Robie returned to his building and rode the elevator to the top floor.
    An access door that was locked led to the roof. The lock was not a complicated one for him. Robie took a short flight of steps up to the very top of the building. He ventured to the edge and looked out over the city.
    Washington, D.C., looked back at him.
    It was a lovely city at night. The monuments looked particularly magnificent when mood-lighted against the darkness. In Robie’s mind, D.C. was the only city in the United States to truly rival the great cities of Europe when it came to official decoration.
    But it was also a city of secrets.
    Robie and people like him were one of those secrets.
    Robie sat down with his back to the wall of the building and gazed upward.
    A. Lambert had officially become Annie Lambert. Knowing it from the briefing paper wasn’t the same as hearing it in person.
    And he had reported her for nothing more than probably just being friendly.
    Tough day at the office. Just needed a place to chill.
    Robie could relate to that. He had some tough days at the office. He could use a place to chill.
    But that would never happen.
    He showered and changed into fresh clothes. Then he gunned up. It was time to go to work.

CHAPTER

9
    A NOTHER FOSTER HOME she did not want to be in. How many now? Five? Six? Ten? She supposed it didn’t really matter.
    She listened to the screams coming from the downstairs of the duplex she had called home for the last three weeks. The man and woman downstairs yelling at each other were her foster parents. Which was more than a joke, she thought. It was criminal.
They
were criminal. They had a string of foster kids through their home and made them pickpocket people and deal drugs.
    She had refused the pickpocketing and the drug dealing. So tonight would be her last night here. She had already packed her backpack with her few belongings. There were two other foster kids living in the one bedroom with her. They were both younger and she was loath to leave them here.
    She sat them on the bed and said, “I’m going to get you guys help. I’m going to let Social Services know what’s going on here. Okay? They’re going to come and get you out of this place.”
    “Can’t you take us with you, Julie?” asked the girl tearfully.
    “I wish I could, but I can’t. But I’m going to get you out of here, I promise.”
    The boy said, “They won’t believe you.”
    “Yes they will. I’ve got
proof
.”
    She gave them each a hug, opened the window, climbed out, wriggled down the drainpipe to the flat roof of the attached carport, worked her way down a support pole, reached the ground, and ran off into the darkness.
    She had one thought in mind.
    I’m going home.
    Home was a duplex even smaller than the one she had just left. She took the subway, then a bus, and then she walked. Along the way she pulled out an envelope, walked up the steps of a large brick government building, and pushed the envelope through the mail slot in the door. It was addressed to the woman who was handling the foster care placement for her and the two other kids back at the duplex. She was a nice lady, she meant well, but she was completely swamped with children no one seemed to want. In the