Jackson rubbed at his neck, blew out a shaky breath. “It’s not him. It’s not Bruce.” Jackson worked through the shock of seeing what appeared to be his brother, dead, propped into a sitting position on the floor against the wall of the desk with his throat slashed wide open and a photograph pinned to his chest.
Morgan moved closer to get a better look at the photograph. Kunz, Judy Meyer, and Laura at the festival, standing side by side and smiling. “Look at his hand,” she told Jackson.
Kunz was wearing the commemorative coin ring.
“There’s another photograph, Dr. Cabot,” Gaston said, rejoining them near the body.
Morgan looked back at Gaston. “Where is it?”
He nodded and gripped the double’s shoulder, leaned his body forward. “Nailed between his shoulder blades.”
Squelching a bolt of revulsion, Morgan moved to the side of the body and then closer to the desk for a better view of the picture.
Kunz was standing alone in the exact spot he’d stood with Judy Meyer and Laura in the previous photograph.
“Meyer must have taken this one,” Jackson said from the other side of the body. “Kunz is still smiling.”
More interested in his hand, Morgan glanced at it. The commemorative coin ring was still on his finger.
And next to it, on his pinky, was Laura’s emerald.
Jackson noticed. Outrage radiated from him and flooded her, and Morgan met his gaze.
His voice vibrated with tumultuous emotions—anger, regret, outrage, remorse—that didn’t show on his face. “I need your cell phone, Morgan.”
Raw-nerved, Jackson needed to talk to Bruce. To hear his voice and be reassured to the marrow of his bones that his brother really was alive and well—and safe. Understanding completely, she fished the phone from her purse and passed it to him. “Go through Darcy,” she said softly. “It’ll be quicker.”
He nodded, glanced at Gaston, and then went upstairs and, she assumed, outside.
“Rough business,” Gaston said, his hands in his pockets. “Seeing your brother dead like that.”
Morgan thought he’d heard her earlier, but obviously he hadn’t. “It’s not his brother.”
Gaston frowned and then realized what was going on. “Another body double?”
She didn’t confirm or deny it, but she didn’t have to; he’d worked with the S.A.S.S. on previous missions and had run into this situation before.
“I’m done here,” she said. “I expect you’re having forensics run a thorough check of the premises and surrounding grounds, just in case his cleaners missed anything.”
“Every square inch,” he assured her. “But it’s an exercise in futility. Kunz is into redundancy. If the first one missed, the five who cleaned after the first didn’t.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky on something.” She turned away from the body. There were no marks. He had been caught off guard, taken totally by surprise. “Did Judy Meyer leave with Kunz?”
Gaston nodded. “He hired a couple of locals to help empty the house. They reported that she was on the plane.”
“Maybe she wasn’t as careful,” Morgan said, holding out a little hope for clues to where they’d gone from here.
“He’d cover for her,” Gaston said, resigned to finding nothing at all. “He doesn’t leave his back open to anyone else, not even to the woman sharing his bed.”
She hoped Gaston was wrong about that, but her intuition warned her he was right on target. Kunz was even more anal about covering his tracks than Colonel Gray was about monitoring events at Providence.
Gaston followed her up the stairs. “Are you ready to go back to the airport?”
“As soon as Jackson gets off the phone,” she said, not at all eager to get back on a jet for the next twenty-five-plus hours. She was still vibrating from the last flight. “Unless there’s something else we need to see …”
Gaston denied it. “We’ve videoed Homeland Security and Home Base,” he said. “The rest is just housekeeping.”
“What about interviewing household staff?”
“If there was any, he took them with him. This place is all that’s on the island. Most of the folks around thought it was uninhabited like all the others around it.”
“They had no idea he was here, or how long he’d been coming here?”
“None,” Gaston confirmed. “He and Judy had been spotted island-hopping, but no one knew where they landed except for the one local who delivered some items Judy had bought in Honoria.”
That didn’t fit. “I’m shocked Kunz let him come here and leave alive.”
“Kunz wasn’t here. Just Judy, and she blindfolded the man as soon as the boat departed shore at Honoria, so he couldn’t track their route and come back. But he has a thing about checking his watch, and he knew when they’d left and arrived. He also had a keen sense of the direction he was going.”
“How did he track that?”
“By the angle of the sun on him.” Gaston smiled.
“Simple still works.” Morgan smiled back.
“Works well, too. He was scared to come back here on his own, so he avoided it, and whenever Judy came into his shop, he stayed out of sight. She scared him, and he had the feeling that if she saw him again, she’d kill him.”
“He was probably right about that.”
“I’d bet on it,” Gaston said. “Especially if she was foolish enough to tell Kunz she’d brought the man here.”
“Definitely.” Morgan totally agreed. “But he got you here.”
“Directed us straight to it,” he said. “Not a single false turn.”
“Mmm,” she murmured. “Since there’s nothing else on the island, Kunz is going to play hell trying to sell.”
“He won’t sell it,” Gaston said. “We’ll post some folks here for a while because the honchos will consider it prudent, but I’m telling you, Dr. Cabot, there’s no way in hell Kunz will ever return to this place.”
All this and it’d be empty until it crumbled and the island reclaimed it. Maybe they could make a mental hospital or something out of it. “I wonder where he will be?”
“Don’t we all?” Gaston grunted. “Wherever it is, I’m sure it’ll be far, far away …”
CHAPTER 15
Forty-six hours later, Morgan and Jackson sat at the Providence base hospital, across the conference room table from Jazie and Taylor Lee. Commander Drake occupied her usual place at the helm, and Dr. Joan Foster sat at the foot.
“So, as it turns out,” Sally Drake said, “Laura was Kunz’s target all along and Bruce was incidental to everything that happened, a target of opportunity that presented itself along the way.”
“Yes,” a weary Morgan told the commander. “There’s only one thing that I can’t figure out, and that’s where Bruce went on the side trip he made after leaving Iraq and before showing up at home. Three days are totally unaccounted for.”
“I’ve accounted for Bruce’s whereabouts during that time,” the commander said. “He was on a side trip, as you suspected.”
“Where?” Jackson asked, tense yet again.
“The Pentagon,” Drake said. “He went to meet with General Shaw and Secretary Reynolds.”
Surprise rifled through Jackson, and it was apparent in his voice. “He reported it?”
When Commander Drake nodded, relief washed through Jackson like a flood.
“He recognized Kunz from a photo Laura had emailed to his cell phone. One of her, Judy, and Kunz at the festival.” A tender look settled in Sally Drake’s eyes, proving that she knew what she next said would mean to him. “Knowing he could lose his job, Bruce reported it, Jackson.”
Morgan’s throat thickened; her chest went tight. Bruce had taken responsibility and done the right thing, knowing that he could lose his career as a result. He had tried to protect the U.S. and his wife by reporting it, aware that he’d probably lose his security clearance and that without one he couldn’t serve in his position.
Jacks
on sat stunned, jaw slightly agape. Morgan understood why. A lifelong cycle of protecting Bruce, and Bruce letting him do it, had been broken.
Bruce had stood alone, and he’d protected his brother, keeping him out of harm’s way and off Kunz’s radar, too. It didn’t take an intuitive to know that would mean the world to Jackson, who had known so little nurturing in his life.
“We can’t know the official reason for that side trip, of course,” the commander said, though everyone at the table knew exactly why he had made it. “But his time and actions are accounted for, and the Secretary and General Shaw consider that aspect of the case unremarkable.”
They’d spared Bruce. Secretary Reynolds and General Shaw had pulled him out of the ashes like a phoenix.
Taylor Lee pursed her lips. “So Laura went to this festival to visit her high school friend, Judy Meyer, who happened to turn out to be Kunz’s significant other, and they took this photo that Laura emailed Bruce on her cell phone, likely from the island.”
“According to Bruce via Darcy,” the commander said, “Laura emailed the photo to him from the island on Judy’s cell because her phone had no service in that area.”
Morgan felt a little ripple of pleasure. “So we have Judy’s cell phone, picked up from Bruce’s phone.”
“Don’t get excited,” the commander said. “Judy dumped the phone right after Laura used it.”
“Before Bruce returned from Iraq.” Jazie joined the dialogue. “Bruce recognized Kunz and told Laura who Kunz was—the mastermind of G.R.I.D.—and then he left Iraq and went to the Pentagon to inform the powers that be.”
“Which means Laura already knew the man living with her as Bruce wasn’t Bruce,” Joan piped in. “Otherwise, she wouldn’t have emailed Bruce at all.”
“How did she do that?” Taylor Lee asked. “Email to Bruce gets picked up by the double.”
Commander Drake answered. “Bruce and Laura had unused accounts that they routinely checked but never from home or work or their own computers. Those wouldn’t have registered on Kunz’s henchmen’s radar.”
Jackson stepped in. “So realizing Bruce wasn’t Bruce, Laura e-mailed using that secret account to see what was going on and what she should do. Kunz’s henchmen caught on because they were already monitoring her every move.”
“Yes. Laura knew the man in her home wasn’t Bruce,” the commander confirmed. “She and the real Bruce were trying to figure out what to do to neutralize the body double when the real Bruce received the photo and recognized Kunz.”
“Makes sense,” Morgan agreed. “Neutralize the double without costing Bruce his job—”
“And his ass.” Jackson cut in. “Laura would have been terrified Kunz would kill Bruce. I’m surprised she didn’t kill the double herself and bury the body in her backyard.”
“She actually considered that,” the commander said. “Bruce nixed it, thank God, or they might both be dead.”
“Laura figured Kunz would kill both of them,” Taylor Lee added. “You know the bastard had to try to blackmail her into getting information from Bruce. He was too rich a target to blow off. Even if he was just one of opportunity.”
“No, Taylor Lee. I don’t think so,” Morgan said. “Kunz could get bio information in other ways. What he feared most from Laura was that she would reveal his island hideaway. He put a lot into that place, and my guess is that every time we’ve gotten close, that’s where he’s gone aground until things cooled off. Without a map and a lot of luck, we never would have located him there.” “True,” she conceded.
“So Bruce served a double’s purpose, which was …” Jazie led, looking at Morgan to fill in for her.
Joan did it instead. “To encourage Laura to do whatever Kunz wanted, and to make her keep her mouth shut about his retreat.”
Morgan held up a fingertip. “And to see if Laura would keep her mouth shut about it. That’s why Kunz inserted Bruce’s double with her. To determine whether or not she realized what she knew, and then if she did, what she’d do about it.”
“Only Bruce’s double didn’t pass the wife test,” the commander said. “Laura noted differences in the men, in ways a wife would notice. That’s when she discovered the real Bruce was in Iraq and in Kunz’s crosshairs.”
Jackson stepped in again. “She knew if she went to the authorities, Bruce and his job would be jeopardy. And she didn’t come to me because she didn’t want to pull me into the kill zone.”
He was right about that, though Morgan suspected that had been a point argued between Laura and Bruce. Laura had wanted to tell Jackson, and Bruce hadn’t.
“So Laura did what she did best,” Joan Foster said, realization lighting in her eyes. “She protected Bruce.”
Morgan nodded. “She left the coin in my shoe so I would find it and put it together with the coin she left on her camera so I’d pick up on the importance of the film.”
Jazie let out a near wail. “She didn’t dare risk having the film developed. Kunz would get it, and you wouldn’t have been able to connect the dots. Oh, my God. Laura knew Thomas Kunz was going to kill her.”
“I’m sure she did,” Morgan said, feeling it to the marrow of her bones. “Though I believe she thought Kunz was after Bruce and his classified information. I don’t think she realized that what she knew was even more valuable to Kunz.”
“His location,” Taylor Lee said.
“Right.” Morgan looked at Joan. “You got us thinking in that direction, when you said Kunz never went for a secondary target. He hit his primary target every time.”
“It’s still true,” she said. “I’ve never known him to do anything else.”
“But why did he take her emerald ring?” Jazie said. “Why is he showing it to us even now in the photo he left on the body double’s back?”
Morgan looked at Jackson who nodded, and then told them, “It was a warning to Bruce. Kunz knew from the body double that Laura was behaving strangely and expressing worry, and that cued Kunz that she’d likely discovered the real Bruce was in Iraq and not in her home.”
“Intercepted phone calls, email, any of a thousand ways to pick up information that basic,” the commander said.
“Exactly. So Kunz pressed Bruce, who’d always been protected by someone else, knowing he’d do the same thing again because that’s his normal reaction. People stick to habit and do what comes naturally. Except that Bruce didn’t react normally: he left Iraq.”
Taylor Lee grunted. “Which made it necessary for Kunz to immediately kill Laura to keep her from talking.”
Jackson nodded. “But Kunz knew, even if we didn’t, that Bruce had broken a lifelong habit and gone to the Pentagon and told the honchos the truth. Then he put Laura, thus the double, on notice that he was coming home. Kunz steps in, orders the double to leave the house and lie low until Kunz issues further orders. Bruce returns home, and Kunz’s assassins move in, kill Laura, and frame Bruce for her murder, which negates his credibility in everything he’s said and done and gets them both out of Kunz’s way.”
Sally Drake sat with her head propped on her hand, following the conversation. “Bruce had to be under direct orders from General Shaw and the Secretary of Defense to not say anything to anyone, including Laura. There were forty-six doubles unaccounted for still out there in high-level, sensitive positions, including his own.”
“I agree that they ordered him to keep silent, Commander,” Jackson said. “The assassins expected you to cut Bruce loose when his DNA didn’t match the murderers.
You didn’t, but obviously Kunz didn’t know it. He ordered the double to get the film—he would be taken as Bruce, with every right to enter the property—but the film was gone. So Kunz had the double destroy the photo lab to keep us from getting the photos, and also to frame Bruce for another crime, to wreck his credibility and get him out of Kunz’s way.”
“Then Kunz retrieves the double, brings him to the island and kills him,” Taylor Lee said, “because, well, what good is an exposed
double when his counterpart is going to be sitting in jail for blowing up a government facility?”
“True,” Morgan said. “And this probably would have ended there except Kunz learned the photos were safe, his haven retreat had been exposed, and we were very close to proving Bruce hadn’t killed Laura. So he cut loose the G.R.I.D. assassins on all of us.”
“And we killed two of them,” Jackson said.
“Could have been three,” Taylor Lee told the commander. “And it should have been after what the bastards did to my Saab, but Jackson wouldn’t let me shoot him.” She paused and frowned. “Has that jerk said anything worth hearing, anyway?”
“Payton,” the commander said, “has been extremely cooperative. The problem is that he doesn’t know much. No one under Kunz beyond his operation commander and his second-in-command ever knows anything more than the essentials required to fulfill their specific duties.”
“Well, I hope he’ll at least be in jail a while.” “Twenty-five years,” the commander said. “Maybe longer.”
“I guess that’ll have to do.”
Taylor Lee’s frown proved she didn’t think the sentence was sufficient, but then she was still pissed off about her car. Morgan bit back a smile. “File a claim on the Saab, Taylor Lee. It’s covered.”
“It is?” She looked stunned. “My insurance guy said it wasn’t.”
“It’s covered.” Morgan smiled at her, and the commander nodded to verify it.
Someone tapped at the door.
“Enter,” the commander called out, a smile in her voice.
Bruce walked in.
“Welcome, Captain Stern.” Commander Drake stood up and extended her hand.
Bruce shook it, his gaze on Jackson, who stood and embraced him and clapped his shoulder with such force it would have knocked Morgan off her feet. She watched, her eyes tearing up.
Bruce pulled away from Jackson and looked at the group seated around the table. “I wanted to thank all of you,” Bruce said, his voice catching. “For what you did for Laura and me.”
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