Elizabeth could see in Quinn’s eyes that he meant what he said. Maybe it was best if he knew. Then maybe he’d understand. “I dated Jason for less than a month. We had sex once. I knew then that it wouldn’t work out.”
Quinn arched an auburn brow. “That bad?”
She nodded. “We weren’t really a couple, but I ended it. Jason got angry and threatened to destroy my reputation. He started spreading rumors that I was trying to sleep my way to the top. Men I didn’t know started hitting on me in the elevator and outside the bathrooms. One touched my butt. Another grabbed my crotch. I got encrypted emails with dick pics, photoshopped images of me having sex with terrorists and politicians, and vulgar messages. ‘Lizzy ain’t a lezzy. She loves to suck dick.’ I was afraid to walk to my car alone at night.”
“Fuckin’ bawbags, the lot of them. Did you report them?”
“Of course! I saved the emails and the photos and all the computer data and gave my supervisor his name and the names of the men who’d assaulted me. I was assured that the Agency takes sexual harassment seriously, but nothing was done. I felt betrayed.”
“Youwerebetrayed.”
“When the Agency refused to act, I went on the offensive. I stood up in a meeting where the rat bastard was present, showed the photos, read some of the emails—and almost got fired. They accused me of breaking rules against fraternizing and behaving unprofessionally.”
“You? He was the bastard they needed to terminate. Is he still there?”
“Oh, yes.” Elizabeth told Quinn how she’d refused to leave and had focused instead on becoming impervious to the insults. “I put all of my energy into being the best analyst I could be and supporting the other women, especially the younger ones. They watched out for me, and I watched out for them.”
“I’m sorry, Lilibet. That wisnae right or just.”
“Thanks.” She couldn’t help but smile at the sympathy in Quinn’s eyes. He might be hell with a rifle in his hands, but he was such a softie when it came to women. “In the end, I was promoted, and he was transferred to another division. When I resigned to work for Cobra, the same people who’d refused to help me asked me to stay. That’s some sort of justice, I suppose.”
“No’ the kind I’d like to give him.”
“Your kind of justice might land you in prison. But now you know why I will never date a coworker again.”
A look of hurt came over his face. “You think I’d treat you like that?”
“God, no, not at all!” She hadn’t meant to suggest that. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Quinn. It’s the contract we both signed, the rules we both agreed to follow. There aren’t a lot of organizations in the world where you and I can do the kind of work we do. Anyway, that’s the past, and you and I need to focus on the present.”
Quinn didn’t look pleased with this. “Aye, all right.”
Then she remembered. “Oh, yes! We should check with Ava about the toxicology tests. There was a report about a girl whose body was pulled from a ditch a couple of days ago. Police already have her toxicology results. It made me wonder why Ava hasn’t gotten Jack’s. Maybe they’re using a different lab or perhaps the teen’s tests had priority because she was a minor. Or maybe they’ve gotten the report and just haven’t told us.”
“Why would they do that?”
She said it as gently as she could. “Maybe they found something and don’t want it to be public for fear of compromising their investigation.”
“That cannae be it.” He took out his phone. “I’ll text Ava and see if she’s heard.”
The answer came almost immediately.
Quinn glared at his phone. “She still disnae have the results.”
Elizabeth wasn’t surprised.
She got to her feet, went to stand before the whiteboard, studied the bullet points. “What we need are actionable leads, and all we’ve got are the two men Ava mentioned.”
“That bastard who threatened to kill Jack and that MSP—he sounds like he was off his heid.”
“Ava didn’t know his name, but surely the papers covered the incident.” Elizabeth settled on the sofa and picked up her laptop. “He shouldn’t be too hard to find.”
Quinn moved to sit beside her, heat seeming to radiate off his body.
Focus, Shields.
It took Elizabeth less than a minute.
“Clive James MacDonald of Thurston Tower, Muirhouse, Edinburgh.” She wrote down the address, handed it to Quinn. “How do you feel about having a friendly chat with Mr. MacDonald?”