Shane stared in disbelief at his cell phone. The magic words. The good news. And the bad news. But mostly the good news because there had been times over the past month that he’d worried he was on the beach for good. Not that this wasn’t a nice beach to land on, and not that he didn’t have faith in the system or trust in due process—how ironic would it be if a special agent for the FBI didn’t believe that justice would prevail? But the circumstances of the Fallon case were complicated. Or at least had appeared complicated to his superiors at the Bureau once the Fallon family had launched their lawsuit. Yeah, he had been worried. In fact, the longer this administrative leave had stretched, the more he had feared he—or at least his career—would end up as collateral damage following an out-of-court settlement. Not a damn thing he could do about it either. He had gone on the record, told the truth, given a full and complete accounting of the facts…and been sickeningly aware with each passing day that none of that might make a difference.
