“You do realize that one of the senators in that room that night was probably Senator Bruce, don’t you, McKenna?” Mo said quietly from behind his desk.
She nodded and was about to reply when the door was opened for Agent Parker.
“Mr. Rahman, I don't appreciate being treated like one of your personal security guards. I'm a member of the FBI. It’s best you remember that before your man here interrupts me again while I'm doing my job of helping the Secret Service protect the dignitaries at your party.” Agent Parker stopped in front of the desk and placed his hands on his hips. “I understand your concern over your friend, but no one is after her. I told you that the investigation led us to rule her out as the target.”
Mo didn’t bother to get up. Instead his eyes narrowed, and it seemed to Kenna that the room temperature had fallen twenty degrees. She needed to learn how to do that.
“First of all, you are a mister. I am royalty and you shall address me as such. Second, there is more going on than you know, Agent Parker. If you don’t want a career-making case handed to you, then get out and I'll find someone else to bring down a couple of senators, sitting judges, and senior partners of the largest law firm in New York.”
“Okay, you have my attention now.” Parker took out his notepad and looked at Mo. A silent showdown occurred between the two, and it seemed they came to some understanding since Mo continued.
“Put that away. Nothing gets written down because I am going to tell you a fairytale first to see what kind of ending it needs.” Mo didn’t offer Parker a seat and Agent Parker didn’t seem to mind. He stood still, with his hands behind his back, and listened as Mo told her story.
“That’s an interesting story you have there. I assume one of the two princesses is Kenna. Who is the other one and where is she?”
“Sorry, Agent, it doesn’t work like that. If you were writing this story, what kind of ending would it have? What would the knight do to help the princesses?”
“I don’t know. The problem is I can’t get rid of a warrant issued by the New York City Police Department. Technically, if I know of the location of a person with a warrant on her, I should notify NYPD. But if the storyline is true, it would be dangerous to send the princess back to New York. So I would advise the princess to not reveal herself to the knight yet. You get my meaning?” Agent Parker looked directly at her.
“Yes. So, the moral of the story is the knight doesn’t rescue the princesses and is pretty worthless,” Kenna shot back to him.
“No, the moral of the story isn’t clear yet. There are some steps the knight must take to avoid mandatory reporting back to the king. Kenna, if you could describe the maiden, what would she look like?”
“Why?”
Dropping the pretense of the fairytale, Agent Parker answered, “I want to run a missing persons report to see if anyone fits her description. I'll also run a Jane Doe search on bodies that were found since you left. I must admit, I'm having a hard time believing any of this. But, if it is true, then that means the truck that tried to run you over may have actually been meant for you.”
“There's something else, agent,” Ahmed said. “The night Kenna was in the hospital, did you send a team of men to do a walk-by and make sure she was all right?”
Agent Parker’s brows came together, and he narrowed his eyes as if sensing something important. “No, why?”
“Because around one in the morning, two men approached the nurse’s station and flashed a badge. They asked after Kenna and then walked toward her room. When they saw me, they walked right on by. At the time, I thought you had sent them to make sure I was still there. But now that I know everything, I think they belonged to Senator Bruce.”
“Senator Bruce? How did you come to that conclusion?”
“Without naming names, my friend stayed in New York and was being followed. She was able to turn the table on the men, the same two men that match Ahmed’s description. She followed them and heard them talking about their boss, the senator,” Kenna told him. “Then tonight, when Whitney was rubbing in the fact she had brought Chad here, she mentioned that she had told him about me while on the Hill. She was having lunch with her dad and her dad brought Chad with him.”
Agent Parker closed his eyes, and she watched his lips move as he was working his way through things. “Okay, I see where you figured one of the senators was Bruce. I also agree with you that the men trying to find your friend, and who stopped by the hospital, are probably the private security employed by Bruce. Ahmed, would you recognize them if you saw them again?”