Say It Again (First Wives)

by Catherine Bybee

  He walked through the office, past divided workstations and employees of all ages and nationalities. No one paid attention to him, which was the point in wearing a suit. If he’d walked in wearing jeans and a T-shirt, chances were people would notice.

  Amelia’s boss met AJ at the door. He lifted a hand. “Mr. Spedick, thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”

  “Absolutely. Come on in, Mr. Hofmann. I was expecting someone from the family to come by eventually.” Spedick was in his early sixties, a slight peppering of gray in his dusty blond hair. His suit was unremarkable, his smile genuine. “We are all feeling the loss of your sister. I can’t tell you how sorry we are.” He took a seat behind his desk and encouraged AJ to sit.

  “The funeral was a blur, but I do remember a large presence of her coworkers.”

  “Amelia was one of our more motivated younger employees. She had no problem influencing people. I don’t think I knew one person who didn’t say kind things about her.”

  AJ lifted both hands in the air. “Which is one of the reasons I’m here. If my sister was so well loved, why did someone murder her?”

  “I’m sure the police can answer that better than we can.”

  “Except they aren’t.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Spedick leaned forward on his desk.

  “Nothing . . . I’m grasping at air. I need to exhaust everything I can find out on my own in order to move on, Mr. Spedick. So I’m here to see if maybe someone here says something that gives me a clue.”

  “If she was my sister . . . I would do the same thing.”

  “Then I can count on your help.”

  “Of course,” he said, sitting back.

  “I’m not entirely sure what Amelia did for your office, Mr. Spedick, or if anything was sensitive in nature.”

  “Amelia wasn’t cleared for anything classified. If she had been, we would have started our own investigation.”

  “Is it possible that she came across something she wasn’t supposed to see?”

  “The local police asked the same thing at the time of her death. The answer is simple. There isn’t anything to see. Our IT guys did a search of her computer, more to find out where she was on her research for our current work in South Africa than anything else. If they found anything, it would have been flagged. I can assure you nothing was there that shouldn’t have been.”

  AJ considered telling the man that his sister had some serious hacking skills but thought better of revealing that.

  “My sister didn’t seem to have many friends outside work. It might help us find some closure if I could talk to some of them. Maybe she had a boyfriend or something that we didn’t know anything about.” AJ was stalling. He needed at least a half an hour in the building before Sasha finished at the condo and met him outside.

  “She worked with Nina and Frank.” He looked at his watch. “If we go now, we might catch them before they leave for lunch.”

  AJ followed Spedick down the hall and stopped at a grouping of desks. One had been stripped of any character, left only with a monitor and keyboard.

  Spedick introduced AJ to the duo. “Please answer anything you can. I already told Mr. Hofmann we have no secrets in this department.”

  Nina pushed her chair back and stood while Frank shook his hand.

  “If you stay through lunch, just let my secretary know. Feel free to take off early.”

  AJ thanked the man and shook his hand. “I appreciate your help.”

  “Anything we can do. Like I said, your sister was well loved. I’m very sorry for your loss.” He walked back toward his office.

  AJ pulled what he assumed was Amelia’s old desk chair over and sat down.

  “We really miss your sister. I look over and can’t believe she’s gone,” Nina said, her eyes drifting to the empty desk.

  “She was good people,” Frank offered.

  AJ had heard it all before. He cut straight to the chase. “Yeah, but someone wanted her dead and now she is. I’d really like to know if you guys have seen anything she was doing here that was worth dying for.”

  Frank actually laughed. “Not even the office birthday donuts.”

  Nina shook her head. “Most of our job is looking stuff up and working on reports. Yeah, Amelia had taken on the analyst role and was doing a decent amount of traveling, but that was a given since she spoke three languages.”

  “How much traveling?” AJ asked, even though he knew the answer.

  “Every three weeks or so. Depended.”

  “What about when she was here. After work? Happy hour? Did she have a boyfriend?”

  Frank laughed. “Not that I know of.”

  Nina and he shared a smile and then looked at AJ.

  Nina’s grin slowly faded. “She never talked about anyone.”

  “What about close friends? Anyone from the office?”

  She shook her head. “Amelia tried hard to be an extrovert, but she spent a lot of time alone.”

  Frank leaned back. “I thought maybe there was someone she saw when she was traveling. But after a few shots on Cinco de Mayo she said she’d seen an old friend in Africa and started to remember the things that motivated her as a kid. That’s when she started working out.”

  “Taking walks,” Nina corrected.

  He shrugged. “She was trying to lose weight.”

  AJ ran a hand over his chin. “Did she tell you who this friend was?”

  They both shook their heads.

  “Was it a man or a woman?”

  “I think if it was a man, and there was anything romantic, I would have picked up on that,” Nina said.

  “We were always teasing her to go out on dates.”

  “Did she?”

  “No.” Nina exchanged glances with Frank. “I got the feeling her childhood wasn’t all that great. Like maybe your parents fought or there was something that kept her from wanting that kind of life. When I asked her, she told me that keeping secrets was a Hofmann family trait.”

  He thought of his secrets, his mother’s.

  “Are you married?” Nina asked. “Have someone significant?”

  AJ thought of Sasha but shook his head.

  “If you ask yourself why that’s the case for you, you might know why your sister didn’t search out a boyfriend.”

  AJ paused. He’d never looked for more than temporary for fear of a woman learning his secrets.

  What secrets was Amelia harboring?

  He looked up to find both of them staring at him.

  AJ shook off his thoughts, changed his expression. “Our parents do sleep in separate rooms.”

  Amelia’s coworkers sighed as if that explained everything.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Sasha scoped out Amelia’s home. There was one floor-to-ceiling span of windows next to a sliding door leading onto a small balcony. The four floors of the complex gave one unit above her and two below. Hard to determine if anyone was in any adjacent units without knocking on doors. With binoculars, she scanned the rooftops of the buildings that could possibly house a shooter. If AJ weren’t holding out for an all clear, Sasha would wait for whoever snuck into the condo before to show up again. There was no doubt in her eyes that they would return.

  Time was not a luxury she had. There were secrets in the condo, or at least behind the camera’s need, and someone wanted her to find out what they were.

  And if she was wrong, and Pohl’s people had found her . . .

  Using one of the toys she’d brought with her, Sasha opened the electronic lock of the security door for the basement and went inside the building. She lit two Fourth of July favorites and rolled them to the corners of the room. The well-lit space funneled her out into a hallway on the first floor. Finding the space empty, she looked at her watch, started a timer, and then reached for the fire alarm.

  As soon as the glass broke and the screeching bells shot at her from every direction, Sasha opened the door to the stairwell and started to climb.
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  Voices and footsteps swirled around as the stairs started to fill with people.

  “I saw smoke,” she told complete strangers who hurried past her.

  Panic following the unknown gave her all the diversion she needed. Response time midday in DC was around nine minutes for fire to arrive. She’d be out in half that unless she found company.

  At Amelia’s door, Sasha stood to the side and slid the key into the lock. People were rushing past, purses and puppies, children and teddy bears in hand.

  Sasha shoved open the door, let it slam against the wall, and ducked as she looked inside.

  Nothing.

  Before entering the room, she detonated another smoke bomb remotely; this one would crawl up the side of Amelia’s building and cloak the windows to the outside.

  Once she saw smoke, she moved into the condo, closed the door, and did a quick sweep.

  Empty.

  Avoiding the windows, she pushed the couch over to where the camera was hidden in the ceiling and exposed it. “I know you’re watching,” she said to whoever was on the other side. “I know who you work for.”

  “I doubt that,” the voice came from the door.

  She jumped from the couch, rolled onto the floor on her shoulder. When she came up on the balls of her feet, she caught a woman’s leg as it flew at her face.

  Sasha pivoted, avoided the blow, and moved in.

  The woman was blonde, hair in a ponytail much like Sasha’s. They both shopped at the same leotard boutique.

  And she was fast.

  Heart beating and feet moving, Sasha blocked as many punches as she sent.

  “Who the hell are you?” Sasha said first in English, then in Russian.

  The woman’s eyes were green, or maybe they were contacts.

  A foot to her chest and Sasha hit the wall behind her.

  “The question is . . . ,” the woman said as she managed another punch, splitting Sasha’s lip before she recovered and slammed her attacker against the counter.

  Sasha rolled away.

  “Who do you work for?” Green Eyes moved in again, anger written all over her face.

  “No one,” Sasha managed.

  The woman came at her again. “I don’t believe you.”

  Sasha braced herself for the attack. “Fine,” she said. “I could use the exercise.”

  Adrenaline pumped and fists flew.

  Green Eyes got ahold of her arm and was met with an elbow upside her chin. She doubled back and linked an arm around Sasha’s neck.

  “I expected more from you, Budanov,” the woman sparred.

  Sasha caught the woman’s instep, got the leverage she needed, and tossed her onto her back down on the floor. Foot to the woman’s windpipe, Sasha paused. “How do you know me?”

  Green Eyes stopped moving, opened her palms to her sides as if in surrender. “We had the same calculus class.”

  Sasha removed her foot and stared down, chest heaving. “You’re Olivia.”

  Olivia used the distraction, caught Sasha’s legs with her own, and they were both on the ground.

  Glass shattered and above their heads, three rapid bullets ripped past them and burrowed into the sofa.

  They both froze and rolled out of sight of the window.

  “Start talking, Budanov.”

  Sasha pointed toward the balcony. “They with you?”

  “I work alone.”

  “You work for Pohl,” Sasha yelled above the shots that kept coming.

  “Didn’t like the benefit package,” Olivia said, moving farther away from the window.

  Sirens outside caught both their attention.

  “Those bullets meant for you or me?” Sasha asked.

  “Either guess works.”

  She wasn’t sure if the shooter was changing positions or the authorities showing up moved them along. Didn’t matter, it was time to move. “I’ll kick your ass later, right now we need to move.”

  Green Eyes narrowed. “How do I know if I can trust you?”

  “Go with your gut.” And Sasha was out the door.

  Behind her, Olivia followed.

  She saw her car and started running toward it.

  Olivia tackled her from behind right as the car shot into the air ten feet with a deafening explosion.

  People came out of every door and every car.

  Ears ringing, Olivia grabbed her hand, helped her to her feet, and directed them to a waiting motorcycle.

  Now Sasha needed to trust.

  She jumped on the back and Olivia kicked the bike to a start.

  They raced away from the chaos and through the busy streets of DC.

  Once they were certain no one followed, Olivia took the speed down a notch and found an empty alley. Sasha jumped off the bike and started firing questions.

  “Who was shooting at us?”

  Olivia wiped the blood from a cut on her face with the back of her hand. “Pohl’s man? Whoever took out Amelia? Your guess is as good as mine.”

  “You worked with Pohl.”

  “Past tense. Didn’t like the benefit package.”

  “Yeah, yeah, you said that. How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

  Olivia glared. “Trust your gut,” she said slowly and deliberately.

  “You knew about the camera.”

  Olivia pointed at her. “And it didn’t take long to flush you out.”

  “Didn’t take long for the happy shooter to flush both of us out.”

  Sasha ran a hand down her ponytail. “We gotta get out of DC.” She looked at her watch. AJ.

  She pulled her phone out of her back pocket, winced at the cracked screen, and dialed.

  “Took you long enough.”

  “Meet me in the parking garage in ten minutes.”

  “You okay?”

  “And do that thing you do so well. Have the car running.”

  “That’s risky in a government building.”

  Yeah, she knew that. They’d deal with the consequences of grand theft another time. “How good are you at outrunning bullets on foot?”

  Olivia turned over the motorcycle.

  Sasha jumped on the back.

  “Ten minutes.”

  AJ hung up the phone and exited the main lobby of the building where he’d been hanging out in full view of security and the street. He walked up to the guard and smiled. “I’m sorry, but do you validate parking?”

  The guy nodded. “You have your ticket?”

  AJ patted his pockets, went through the motion of opening his wallet. “I must have dropped it.”

  The guard held up a hand, pulled a ticket from under the desk. “I got ya covered. Next time just bring it by when you check in.”

  AJ took the validation and walked through a back, unsecured hall and found the stairway leading to the underground garage. Employees were moving in and out, either leaving for a late lunch or returning from an early one.

  AJ used the distraction of his cell phone and opened a text screen. He hesitated by a pillar and watched as cars entered the garage.

  He followed one down another level and walked past it when a man parked. AJ put the phone to his ear. “Have to work late,” he said to no one while the guy got out of his car, a sack of food in his hand.

  He knelt down and untied his shoes, pulling the laces out. After the owner of the car turned the corner and he heard the sound of the door opening and closing, AJ moved in.

  Within ten seconds he was in the car, thirty seconds later the engine was running.

  He heard Sasha before he saw her.

  She wasn’t alone.

  Sasha slid into the front seat, the other one jumped in the back.

  “Don’t ask, just drive.”

  The routine AJ understood. The blonde in the back ducked behind the seat, Sasha had already untied her hair, which was covering her face. AJ found a forgotten paper bag behind the seat the second he got in the car and now held it over his face as he pressed the validation ticket into the slot an
d exited the garage.

  Once on the road, Sasha looked around the car. “You couldn’t have found something with a little more speed?”

  He looked over at her. “What happened to your face?”

  The blonde in the back seat snorted. That’s when AJ looked through the rearview mirror and saw bruises forming on the extra person in the car.

  AJ took it slow through the streets of DC. The last thing he needed was to get pulled over in a stolen car.

  Sasha kept looking around the outside of the car. “Pick it up, AJ, we need distance.”

  AJ took the corner fast enough to press her against the door, put the car in overdrive, and hit the freeway. Both hands on the wheel, he asked questions.

  “Who is she?”

  Sasha turned in her seat. “Olivia.”

  AJ did a double look in the mirror.

  “You broke into my flat in Berlin,” she told him.

  “The missing roommate,” AJ concluded.

  She looked out the back window. “The only living roommate.”

  “Which made you a suspect,” Sasha said.

  “Why would I kill a PTA president and an insecure accountant from Wales?”

  AJ turned in his seat. “You’re leaving out one victim.”

  “Watch the road, Hofmann.”

  He turned back to swerve and avoid hitting a car on his left.

  “I didn’t take out any of them. Especially not Amelia.” She leaned back in the seat.

  Sasha reached over, placed a hand on AJ’s leg. Support and understanding swam in her eyes.

  “You worked for Pohl?”

  “Not something I’m proud of. I didn’t know what the hell I got myself into until I was in too deep to dig myself out. I thought I was the one going in and taking out the Osamas of the world.”

  “I can’t imagine Pohl letting you leave.”

  “He isn’t, is he? I’m sure he’s behind all this. The first time I saw you in Amelia’s condo, I thought you were working with him. The Sasha Budanov. You were slated for his kind of shit if there ever was one.”

  Sasha stared at her.

  AJ watched from the corner of his eye.