by Dee Davis
“Well, it’s not his call.”
“True,” Owen said, “but he can make a lot of noise when he puts his mind to it.”
“That’s the God’s honest truth,” Avery sighed. “And at least in this case, I can’t say that I blame him. If I were in his position, I’d probably want us out, too. Maybe he’s right. Maybe it’s time to turn this over to someone else.”
“No,” Tyler said, pushing to her feet. “I won’t step back. This all started on my watch. And these people killed my father. I’m not going let the NSA waltz in here and take over. We’re getting close to a breakthrough, I can feel it.”
“While I admire your passion, Tyler,” Avery said. “I don’t know that we’re going to have a choice. Once word about Jason’s murder spreads, it may be a fait acompli.”
“Well, it hasn’t happened yet. So we’ve still got time,” she insisted. “And Owen said he had something on Lara.”
“It’s not anything that would hold up in court. Just something Logan dug up. As you know, he’s been investigating everyone on the A-Tac team. And according to him, Lara’s made two trips to the USSR in the last six months.”
“That’s not all that surprising,” Avery said, shaking his head. “Lara’s been working closely with the Russians. They’re in the process of building a new state-of-the-art storage and disposal facility for both chemical and nuclear weapons. As part of the nuclear proliferation agreement, the United States has been providing funds and technical advice for the project. Lara’s been part of the American team advising them on the chemical weapons component.”
“Yes, but the new facility is located in eastern Russia. And on both of these trips, she started there, but ended up in the west. The first one was in May and she went to Golovchino.”
“The facility where the plutonium went missing?” Annie asked, her eyes widening at the implication.
“Exactly.” Owen’s expression was grim. “And there are no chemical weapons stored at Golovchino. So why would Lara be there?”
“Did you know she was taking side trips?” Tyler asked, turning to Avery.
“No. But then I had no reason to question her itinerary. Arrangements were made by the State Department, since this is a joint effort crossing agency lines. But she wasn’t alone. At least on one of the trips, I know that Emmett went with her. He speaks fluent Russian and was going to help her with some translations. Is there any record of his being at Golovchino?”
“No.” Owen shook his head. “According to the intel Logan’s got she was traveling on her own. He made no mention of Emmett at all.”
“What about the second trip?” Tyler asked.
“There’s a record of her visiting the Golovchino facility again in June, and from there crossing the border into the Ukraine. NSA claims she was going there to meet with a prominent member of the Ukrainian mob. An arms dealer by the name of Yuri Strevski.”
“And how the hell would Logan have access to information like that?” Avery asked, his expression thunderous.
“I told you, it’s all circumstantial,” Owen said, holding up a hand in defense. “They’ve got a tape of Yuri talking to an unidentified woman about delivery of a package. Very cloak and dagger. Nothing to prove definitively that it was Lara in the meeting or that the package was the plutonium.”
“So why do they think it was her?”
“Because immigration records show that she was in the country at the time the conversation was recorded. And to make matters worse, she was registered at the same hotel where the alleged meeting took place.”
“So just to be clear on what you’re saying,” Avery said, “the NSA believes that Lara used the cover of her work with the Russians to make two unauthorized visits to a nuclear weapons depot from which a large amount of plutonium was believed to have been stolen. And that after the second visit, she went to the Ukraine, where she allegedly met with a known arms dealer and discussed delivery of a package that may or may not have been the missing plutonium.”
“That’s pretty much the sum of it.” Owen nodded. “As I said, they were investigating all of you. It was only when we uncovered the information about the missing plutonium that Lara’s file was red-flagged.”
“Well, as much as I hate to say it, it seems pretty damning,” Annie said.
“And it does kind of give credence to the idea that Lara might have been working with Jason,” Tyler frowned. “I remember her arguing in a meeting about wanting Jason to go with her to Russia. I just assumed it was because they wanted to be together. But maybe it was something more.”
“Was it one of the two trips we’ve been talking about?” Owen asked.
“No.” She shook her head. “This would have been earlier. When we were planning the mission into Colombia. But it was the same task force. So if they really were involved in stealing the plutonium, they could already have been making plans.”
“I don’t think Jason was in on it,” Harrison said, coming down the guesthouse steps, the screen door slamming behind him. “But he may have been on to it. I did some more digging in his computer files and I’ve come up with a couple of things.” He settled into a lawn chair across from the picnic table. “First off, I’m fairly certain that the image of Jason walking into your house was digitally added to the footage.”
“Someone just wanted us to believe he’d been in there?”
“Yes. I had no reason to doubt the footage when I found it. But I ran some tests on it once we started having concerns, and there are differences in the quality of the background image and Jason’s figure. The image of Jason isn’t consistent with the kind of film used in your surveillance cameras. It’s higher quality. More like the kind you’d find in a digital camera. And if you magnify the image, you can actually see that he’s not lined up properly with the shot. Bottom line, the footage was created and planted to sucker us into believing Jason was guilty.”
“What about the video feed to my bedroom?” Tyler asked. “Did you find something there?”
“Nothing to find.” Harrison shook his head. “We know the feed existed. We’ve got the camera. But it would have been simple for someone to plant the feed on the computer, especially in light of the fact that someone went to all the effort to make it look as if Jason had doctored the surveillance video.”
“What about the key loggers?”
“They could have been a plant as well,” Harrison said. “I mentioned that they were deeply buried in both Hannah’s system and Jason’s. Obviously, since someone was trying to hide them from Hannah, that makes sense. But not as much for Jason’s. But if someone was trying to hide them from Jason, then it fits. Of course that’s just speculation on my part.”
“Any evidence that might link Lara to the key loggers or the altered surveillance?”
“No. I can’t find evidence to link it to anyone. I’m just fairly certain Jason didn’t put it there.”
“Do you have something besides the altered surveillance footage?”
“Not from the computer. But I did call a friend of mine at Quantico. She’s an expert in handwriting. So I faxed a copy of the suicide note along with a second sample of Jason’s handwriting Avery provided. To the naked eye the handwriting appears to be a match, but when she subjected it to more in-depth analysis it became clear that it was a forgery. And if Jason didn’t write the note, I’m guessing he wasn’t thinking about suicide.”
“You said something about Jason being on to it,” Tyler prompted. “I assume you mean he had information about the real culprit?”
“It looks like he at least had an inkling. I found a file hidden deep in the root structure of his computer. Just basic text. But he had all kinds of security protecting it. Fortunately, I can usually find a way to end-run that sort of thing, and so I managed to access the files.”
“So what was in it?” Owen asked.
“Nothing that really made a lot of sense. Primarily the document contained intel about some group called the Consortium. Ever heard of it
?”
“Not with a capital ‘C,’ no.” Avery shook his head. “Did Jason identify them beyond the name?”
“No,” Harrison said, “only that it was a multinational group with a high degree of infiltration into various government entities. No information on who they might be or what their overriding goals are. But there’s enough here to make me think that he’d linked them to our situation.”
“How so?”
“Well, according to his notes, he’d been checking intel reports regularly, earmarking chatter that he thought might be attributed to the Consortium—including the threat to New York City, the one Hannah mentioned. He implies that the threat may have originally come from the group. And there’s also a notation about Golovchino. He implies that this Consortium may have been responsible for taking the missing plutonium. And there’s a list of dates.” He held out a sheet of paper.
Avery took the sheet and scanned the contents. “I don’t recognize all of them, but Lara’s trips are noted here. And I’m thinking some of the others also coincide with other trips she made to Russia.”
“So what are we saying?” Annie asked. “That Jason knew Lara was the mole? And that she killed him to keep him from exposing her actions?”
“It’s frightening, but it seems plausible,” Tyler admitted, hating the thought. “Maybe we should talk to Emmett. See what he remembers about the trips. You said he was there for at least one of them, right?” She looked to Avery for confirmation.
“Yeah, definitely. And maybe both. I’ve got records somewhere.”
“That’s okay,” she said, “he can tell me.”
“What about Lara?” Owen asked Avery. “Are we going to confront her with any of this?”
“Normally, I’d want to verify Logan’s information,” Avery said, “but under the circumstances, I think we need to move as quickly as possible. So I’ll talk to her. Why don’t you come with me, Owen. Independent verification and all that.”
“I’m glad you didn’t ask me to go,” Annie said, shaking her head. “I know what it feels like to be ambushed with something like this.”
“I don’t see that we have a choice.” Avery pushed away from the table, his eyes full of resignation. “We need to know the truth. If we’re wrong, it’s still better that we asked. And if we’re right, then we’ve got to force her to tell us everything she knows about this Consortium and the possibility that they’re planning to detonate a nuclear bomb somewhere in Manhattan.”
CHAPTER 24
Thanks for agreeing to see us,” Avery said, as Lara ushered them into the living room. “I know things have been tough.”
“I’m not sure that that’s the word,” Lara said, perching on the edge of a wing chair, “but I appreciate the sentiment. The doctor wanted me to take more sedatives. But I refused. Jason wouldn’t want me wallowing in my pain.”
“Sometimes you have to wallow a little bit just to survive,” Owen said, thinking back on the first few days after Angela and Jacob died. Before the anger had come. He’d wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and die.
“You sound like you know.” She frowned, tilting her head to study him.
“I do. I lost my wife and child. A car bomb.”
“Oh, God, that must have been awful.”
“It was,” he agreed, his brain clamping down on the memories trying to surface. “It is. I don’t think it ever really goes away. But it gets better.”
“I’m not sure that I believe you, but it’s nice to know that maybe there’s hope.” She gave him a tiny smile and then turned her attention back to Avery. “So what was it you wanted to see me about?”
Avery looked nervous and out of place for the first time since Owen had met him, fidgeting on the sofa like a schoolboy called into the headmaster’s office.
“I’m not going to break, Avery,” Lara said, obviously having the same thoughts as Owen. “You know me. So whatever it is, just spit it out.”
“Look, Lara, this isn’t going to be easy,” he began. “We’ve reason to believe that Jason didn’t kill himself.”
“What are you saying?” Her eyes widened, her fingers twisting together.
“I’m saying there’s no way he committed suicide.”
She froze for a moment, letting the words sink in. And then she smiled—a real smile—leaving Owen feeling as if the sun had just emerged from behind a bank of clouds. “I never really believed it. Jason would never leave me like that. Never. But, if he didn’t kill himself… then… then…” Her smiled faded as the truth hit home. “Oh, my God—are you saying he was murdered?”
“Yes.” Avery nodded, his face tight with emotion as he repeated everything they’d learned, from Tyler’s initial realization to the discoveries Harrison had made. When he finished, Lara sat for a moment absorbing it all, and then with a little frown, she sat back, her gaze encompassing them both.
“You think I did it, don’t you? That’s why you’ve come. And why you’re so nervous.” She nodded at Avery, who was still fidgeting. “You think I killed Jason.”
“There are facts that seem to point that way. Yes,” Avery said. “But understand, we’re not here to accuse you, Lara. Just to try to understand what it all means. We want to hear your side of things.”
“Well, first off, I didn’t kill Jason. Period. He was my life. And if my brain wasn’t still numbed by grief and pharmacology I’d probably be screaming mad. As it is I’m just dumbfounded. What in heaven’s name could have made you think that I’d kill Jason?”
Avery sighed, his dark gaze holding Lara’s. “Evidence from Logan Palmer.”
“Logan Palmer is a self-absorbed son of a bitch,” she said, shooting a glance in Owen’s direction. “What could he possibly have on me?”
Tyler hurried down the lighted pathway, pulling her jacket closer. The wind had turned cold, and the leaves scurried across the ground, swirling in coppery eddies as she passed. The social sciences building was on the far side of the campus, and even though it wasn’t really late, the area was deserted, students heading to the cafeteria for dinner or to the library to study, both buildings on the other side of the campus nearer the dorms.
She passed the administration building, the ivy-covered walls a deep russet now, the color blending in with the bricks. Sunderland had been around a long time, and this quadrangle was the oldest part of campus, the pathways made of cobblestones, the iron lampposts reminiscent of their gaslit predecessors.
Usually she loved the quaint feel and the dim lighting, but tonight all she could think about was Jason dangling from the ceiling beam. Killing Jason had made a mockery of everything A-Tac stood for. They were supposed to be the good guys. And yet one of them, maybe Lara, had taken Jason’s life.
She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. Her brother had called earlier to check on progress and to let her know that he’d scheduled services for his mother and their father. Della would be laid to rest in a family plot, her father in Arlington Cemetery. It seemed sort of symbolic, the separation of the two. As if their lives had never fully been intertwined.
Tyler wondered if it would be that way for her. If she could really truly commit to someone. Someone like Owen. For the first time in her life, she knew she wanted to try. But in the wake of everything that had happened, she couldn’t help but wonder if that kind of happiness was an impossible dream.
The social sciences building loomed out of the shadows and trees, its grand steps curving upward to the long portico that fronted the building. Emmett had a late class, which meant that he’d be coming to his office afterward. She’d called and left a message that she’d be waiting for him there.
With any luck at all, he’d be able to shed some light on the accusations Logan Palmer had made. Something that would clear Lara. Although, if Avery and Owen were successful, they’d be able to clear things up on their own.
Of course, the alternative was that Lara had actually been involved with the Consortium. That she’d helped them acquire the fi
ssionable material they needed to make their bomb. But Tyler wasn’t going to believe it until they were certain it was true. Either from Lara’s own mouth, or because of something Emmett might know.
She walked up the stairs, her mind running over the day’s revelations again. It had been a whirlwind, that’s for certain. And yet there was still so much they didn’t know. She rounded the corner and walked to the end of the hallway. Emmett’s office was at the very end, right next to the back stairs. It was actually more straightforward to come up that way, but Tyler liked using the old grand staircase.
She stopped in front of Emmett’s door, reaching up over the transom for the key. Then she opened the door, slid the key back into place, and flipped on the lights. Emmett was a neat freak, everything in its place. But the office still had a homey feel. The desk was an antique, a partner’s desk with sturdy Duncan Phyfe legs and the rich honeyed glow of old wood. The rolling chair behind it was covered in green leather, and it always reminded Tyler of a banker’s chair.
Which suited Emmett somehow, considering he spent his academic life talking about interest rates, inflation, multipliers, and other fiduciary topics. She’d never trade literature for economics, but she’d enjoyed the classes she’d taken long ago, which at least gave her a healthy respect for Emmett’s passion.
Of course their real point of common interest was poetry. Emmett’s collection, some of which adorned the shelves behind his desk, was absolutely fabulous. She’d been known from time to time to borrow books for her classes and even on occasion had picked his brain for ideas on how to best present some new verse she’d uncovered.
It had been the latter that had cemented their friendship and might possibly have led to something more. But she’d been right to end things. At the time she’d done it to preserve their friendship, but now, considering her feelings for Owen, she realized she hadn’t felt anything remotely similar with Emmett. At least they’d had the wisdom to realize it and not let things progress too far.