Soundbyte (-byte series Book 5)

by Cat Connor

  Sam was able to get a lot of information from Maria during his interview with her. It was unfortunate for Director Doyle that his sister overheard a phone conversation. Maria heard Brown/Maguire’s side of the conversation and recognized the jeweler’s name. She thought someone was planning a jewel heist but had no idea Maguire was on the phone to her beloved older brother or that the jeweler and his family would be killed. She called anonymously. If police had received the tip off, we’d never have become involved, and the rest of it would’ve melted away.

  Twofold.

  So, Doyle asking O’Hare to help was to throw us off. She must’ve started to figure it out, that’s why he kept her out of the way. And Noel? Doyle’s his director. What the fuck?

  Kurt was on the phone when I pulled myself out of my head.

  I could only hope it was to mobilize the troops and not the men in white coats.

  Chance stood next to me. I could feel the heat from his body yet I knew he wasn’t there. He slung his left arm across my shoulders and whispered in my ear, “You got it. I can go now.”

  A hint of mint hung in the cool night air. I watched it twist with the faintest waft of cologne in the pool of light.

  It occurred to me as Chance walked away that I might miss him.

  I wanted to call out, to stop him, but thought better of it. The MRI was guaranteed at this point but the men in white coats were still rooted in the realm of fantasy, I’d like to keep them that way. He stepped back into the comic book. The page turned and he was gone.

  “Come on,” I said to Kurt. “Let’s get Lee to trace the connections and get us hard evidence.”

  “Police are converging on the Basilica now. We’ll know in the next ten minutes if you were right. Sean is with them.”

  “I am right,” I replied. “Have a little faith, Doc.”

  Thirty

  Hand of Fate

  “Conway!” Andrews hollered from his truck.

  “Coming,” I yelled back, running toward him.

  “How we doing on the airplane situation?”

  “We’re a go, there is a Learjet standing by, fully crewed at Manassas Regional Airport.”

  “She wanted international travel,” he replied.

  “And she’ll get it. Tell her we can’t take off from Dulles on a commercial airline, that’s not feasible. She has a private plane and can go wherever she wants.”

  “I hope she goes for it.”

  “Oh, she will, she wants out. The other way is a body bag.”

  “You’re very sure,” he replied.

  “Have a little faith, Andrews.”

  Moments later, he came back to the door. “She agreed.”

  “Of course.”

  The opportunity to get away with millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds? Of course she agreed.

  “Get the cars ready, escort her to the airport.”

  “What makes her think we won’t double cross her now?” he said as he radioed for his teams to ready two cars for the trip.

  “She thinks she got away with it. She’s got four enormous diamonds with her and she doesn’t care about anything else now.”

  “You’re shitting me …”

  “Nope. She believes someone is holding our director hostage and that we’ll do whatever she wants to get O’Hare back unharmed.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “The code, the person she spoke with had been in touch with the other party involved. The person who is holding O’Hare, until everyone escapes American soil.”

  Doyle, you son of a bitch. I wouldn’t mind if there was an accidental discharge of Sean’s weapon when he and the NCIS team find you.

  A flash of panic crossed Andrews face. “Where is O’Hare?”

  “Safe,” said a relieved voice from behind me. Andrews looked over my shoulder. I knew it was Kurt.

  “Get her and her husband out of the house,” I said. “She won’t kill him until she gets on the plane. Just in case one of your boys gets trigger happy.”

  I took a deep breath and let the last crazy few hours wash over me.

  “We’ll tag along,” Kurt said.

  Lee thundered up behind us. “Chicky, you won’t believe who planted the IED in our bullpen …”

  Bet I would. Bet it was Doyle himself. No one would suspect a director.

  “Doyle.” I laughed.

  “What’s so funny? The Director of NCIS tried to take out our Director, and you think that’s funny?”

  “No, it’s just something that someone said to me. This whole case could’ve been a season of Dallas.” I preferred Days of Our Lives.

  That shut them up. There are some lessons to be learned here. Valuable lessons. Wish I could think what those lessons were.

  “I have a feeling that it’s going to be days before I get the paperwork finished for this mess,” I said with a smile.

  Kurt grinned. “And I have a feeling that half the paperwork is going to disappear.”

  “Who’s bringing out the delightful Sutherland woman?” Lee said.

  “SWAT,” I replied, giving Andrews a nudge. “I never got to fire my rifle. I feel kinda cheated.”

  “I doubt this will be the last time you call us out, so there’s always next time.”

  “We’ll follow you,” I said. Kurt, Lee, and I walked back to where our cars were.

  Lee paused by the driver’s door of my car, turned to Kurt and said, “You drive, I’ll take your car.”

  I held up the keys and jangled them. “You will need these then.”

  Kurt gave Lee his keys and then took mine.

  “Any reason why you opted for Kurt’s car?” I said before Lee left.

  The smile plastered across his face gave much away. He wanted to talk to Tara.

  “I need to call someone.”

  “Uh huh, tell her I said hi.”

  We sat there for five minutes, waiting for SWAT to bring out Fiona and her husband. I watched in silence as they bundled them both into a black Explorer and pulled out. One car in front, one behind, and then our car bringing up the rear.

  Lights but no sirens. It was after midnight before we reached the airport. Security was briefed. Our convoy drove straight onto the tarmac and up to a waiting Learjet.

  I stepped out the car and saw a familiar person standing at the top of the airplane’s steps. Tim. He didn’t acknowledge me.

  Andrews took the Sutherlands from the car. They were taken on board. Two minutes after boarding, Andrews returned to his car. Tim ran down the steps carrying a package.

  “Nice to see you, Conway,” he said placing the package in my hands. “Did you want Quinn Sutherland back?”

  “If you don’t mind, I think he’d like to remain on American soil.”

  “I’ll have him brought out.”

  “Be safe up there,” I said pointing to the star-filled sky.

  “Always.”

  With that, he was gone. Quinn Sutherland walked down the steps unaided. He crossed the tarmac to our car.

  “Thank you, Agent Conway.”

  Not necessary, I was prepared to shoot him if the need arose.

  “You’re welcome. Lee will take you back to our office in DC, and debrief you. Then you’re free to go.”

  “Can I ask?”

  “Ask what?”

  “What’s in the package?”

  “Four fifths of the Heathcote Diamonds.” Really, really big diamonds. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend. “Worth a rather large fortune and they were intended to fund terrorist operations.”

  “I had no idea.”

  “I know.” He was a genuine decent guy. I felt a compulsion to offer him some life advice. “If someone offers you a lifetime supply of candy, and it’s only one piece. Don’t take it, it’s probably poison.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “If you ever need that advice, you’ll know what it means.”

  Damn, I was cryptic and mysterious. The cloak and dagger shit was rubbing off on me
. Or I’d lost my mind.

  Thirty-One

  The More Things Change

  We met Sean and Cait O’Hare in a safe house outside Washington, after taking Quinn Sutherland into our office for a debrief.

  He knew nothing. Poor bastard. He thought he’d married a woman who devoted her life to charity work and was doing good deeds all over the Eastern Sea Board. The harsh reality was that she was ripping off orphans and the sick with no regard for anyone but those involved in causing terror.

  Cait greeted me with a smile.

  “I knew I could count on you,” she said, shaking my hand. I didn’t want to refute her statement by telling her it wasn’t me who figured it out. I had a feeling if I mentioned Chance again I’d be wearing a jacket with long sleeves and hugging myself.

  “What happened?” I said.

  “Doyle thought he could use us to do his dirty work for him. By dropping Iain Campbell on our radar and twisting some facts, he thought we’d go after him, guns blazing. It didn’t bother him that his sister might end up in the firing line,” she said.

  “Charming.” Not.

  “Yeah, that’s always been his problem. A silver tongue. He could get anyone to do anything for him by being charming. This time he screwed up.”

  “Where’s Noel?”

  Cait sat down, and suggested I do the same.

  A sinking feeling hit me. “Noel?” I said again.

  “He’s fine. In light of the situation, he has resigned from NCIS,” Cait replied.

  No more Noel Gerrard. That was a shock.

  “Why would he resign?” I’m sure I sounded confused. Noel was NCIS. Noel resigning didn’t make sense.

  “He arrested his director. That’s not an easy thing to do,” she said.

  “That’s b-s and you know it.”

  “That’s the reason he gave,” Cait said.

  Things I knew flopped about inside my head and I kept them there. It was what happened in West Virginia. It was Nicky escaping from the cuffs and taking that cop’s gun. It was his comment about getting too old for this shit. Maybe he was right.

  “What was Doyle’s involvement with Fiona Sutherland?”

  “You’ll love it, they were lovers,” Cait said with a smile.

  And the Days of Our Lives aspect continued. I’d grown to expect nothing less from this case.

  How many men was the woman sleeping with?

  “Lovers? I thought she was banging Bleich for old time’s sake.”

  “Yeah, she was. Because Doyle told her to,” she said.

  “He told her to?”

  “He’s the biggest player in this game. Campbell was so close to tipping it all upside down and exposing the truth because of Sutherland and her inability to let go of the past. She wanted revenge and screwed up their plans,” Cait explained. “Doyle has all the contacts. He can even access weaponry. Christ, he spoke to the SECNAV on a weekly basis.”

  Secretary of the Navy. No, that wasn’t an actual secretarial position. He was the head of the Department of the Navy.

  “SECNAV’s clean?” I said.

  Don’t let this go any higher than Doyle.

  “Yes. There is no doubt.”

  “Why did Doyle do it?” I said.

  “Misguided loyalty, a belief that what he was doing was for the greater good.”

  “And how did this become our problem, Cait?”

  “It became an FBI problem the minute he asked us to help find Maria. Police should have handled it. She was abducted.”

  “I’m not following …” My brain was tired and complaining.

  “He wanted her and Campbell dead.”

  “How did you know?”

  “I wasn’t sure, just a feeling, but I did some snooping after the IED. He was in the bullpen that morning and when I asked why he’d been in the Delta bullpen, he said he got lost trying to find me,” Cait said.

  “That was a mistake, they got the timing wrong. He was a day early with the IED. He wanted to hit you with that.”

  Cait’s eyes widened. “Doesn’t surprise me as much as it should after being forced to spend time with him.”

  I thought about Doyle getting “lost.” “Visitors are supposed to be escorted,” I said.

  “Yes, but when Owen signed him in she was called away.”

  “Owen, signed him in. That’s priceless.”

  “Thought it would amuse you.”

  “And you arranged to meet him even though you suspected the IED was his doing?” I said.

  “Yes. I wanted to know for sure. I wanted to hear it from him,” she replied.

  “You should’ve told Sean, or me, or hell, any of the other agents working for you.” That’s right. I’m dressing down the director. “You didn’t even have your driver with you and you took your own car.” All our cars carried GPS units, meaning we could track them in an emergency. Private cars did not. “Putting yourself in danger like that is unacceptable.”

  “Have a little faith, Conway,” she replied, smiling. “I did. In you.”

  Misguided faith. It almost went to hell in a hand basket.

  Sean knocked on the doorframe.

  “Come in,” I said. “Everything all right?”

  He nodded. “We are clear. Doyle is being held by the Department of Justice until his arraignment in the morning.” He sat on the sofa. “How goes it in here?”

  “Agent Conway was expressing her opinion on the current events,” Cait replied.

  “Bet she used nicer words than I did.”

  Cait smiled at her brother. “Bet I find a GPS tracking device attached to my car tomorrow morning.”

  “It’s already there, and it better stay there,” Sean warned. “I can still kick your ass.”

  Guess it didn’t matter how old brothers and sisters were, they were still siblings.

  I liked the O’Hares. A lot.

  “I’m outta here, unless you still need me?” I stood up.

  “Go home, say hello to Carla.”

  I looked at my watch. It was morning. Going on for eight o’clock.

  “I think I’ll head into the office and get some of this documentation for this case out of the way. Then I’m going to take a few days and hang out with Carla.”

  “You do that.”

  I left the room. A yawn crept up on me. I couldn’t remember when I’d last slept. Kurt was talking to a police officer while he waited for me.

  “I’m driving,” he said taking the keys out of my hand. “Home?”

  “No, if I get the paper work out of the way first then I’ll take a few days off.”

  “Office it is then.” He shepherded me to the car. As usual, Kurt’s chivalry knew no bounds, he opened the passenger door for me. He paused until I was comfortable and pressed the door shut.

  My eyes wanted to close. Daylight was bright and hurt. Part of me was afraid of what I’d see if I closed my eyes. It was all so much worse when sleep came. Dreaming was dangerous.

  “You are okay, right?” Kurt said, pulling out of the driveway and onto the quiet street.

  “I am okay,” I replied. They were the words he wanted to hear. They were the words I said. Were they truthful? Maybe.

  “So what’s eating you?”

  Oh, such big choices. It was hard to know where to start. Not by telling him that he was. Bad move.

  “Nothing.”

  He indicated and turned onto Lee Highway. We found the traffic.

  “Conway … I know you. It’s never nothing.”

  “I know you too,” I replied and before I could silence them, the words came out. “That’s part of the problem.”

  “Knowing me, or me knowing you?”

  Abba. My worst nightmare. I was hearing Abba. “You suck!”

  “What?”

  “I can hear Abba in my head and it’s all your fault.” I leaned forward and flicked on the radio, trying my best to kill the unwelcome earworm. ‘Knowing me, knowing you’ was killing me.

  No matter what song
blared from the radio I was stuck with Abba in my head.

  Abba. Dear God, why do you hate me?

  “Okay, that’s it!” Kurt said. He took the next left and found a quiet place to park. “Talk to me.”

  “Why? So you can implant another Abba song in my head?”

  He grinned. It confused me.

  “Conway. Ellie. Chicky.” I could hear amusement in his tone. “You’re breaking up with me?”

  “I’m what?”

  “That song … it’s about a break-up.” He laughed. “They know each other so well that they know it’s over.”

  “Then why is it in my head?”

  “You tell me and we’ll both know.”

  And I did know. It made sense when he explained the song. “I can’t …” I swallowed hard. Tiredness mixed with a peculiar sensation of loss swamped me. “I can’t.”

  Two men.

  One me.

  I blocked out Misha and Noel. They didn’t count. Misha was a hopeless flirt. My father trained Noel – as far as I was concerned that took him out of the running. Plus, Noel was gone to parts unknown.

  Kurt unclipped his seat belt and swiveled to face me, his left arm dangling over the steering wheel. His smile drove daggers into my chest.

  “You think I don’t know?”

  “No, I always knew you knew.” Stupid song was back.

  “You want me to make this easier for you?”

  I shook my head. “No, I do not. What I want … is to know is that I’m right.”

  “No guarantees.”

  “I don’t think I can do this.”

  “Life is too short not to follow your heart,” he countered.

  He never faltered. Not once. Kurt was always so sure. It was unfair of me to turn this around and put it on him but I did.

  “Could we even work as a couple?”

  His damn smile was rock solid. “Yes.”

  “That’s it, no hesitation?”

  “None.”

  “What makes you so sure?”