Puppeteer

by Schultz, Tamsen

  “How would that benefit him?”

  Dani shook her head again. “I wish I knew, but I don't. I'd guess it has something to do with power and money and manipulation, but beyond that, I just don't know.”

  “I wondered if you all might get around to sharing information with me.” He tempered his mild rebuke with a gentle kiss on her head. “But why all the secrecy?”

  “Even though Smythe, as a foreign diplomat, is firmly within CIA jurisdiction,” she clarified, “we still had to lobby for it. We wanted jurisdiction, we wanted to lead the investigation because of Sonny's dad. We felt we owed it to him. Drew threw some fancy, if stretched, logic into his request that included Sonny's international travel experience, his multiple passports. Between those facts, the potential involvement of a foreign citizen, and arms trading, Drew was able to convince the powers that be to give us the lead.”

  “He wanted the case because you asked him to get it.” Ty laughed when Dani gave him a chagrinned looked.

  “Yeah, he did. We'd tracked the weapons and were about to hand the case over to the feds, but when Sonny Carlyle's involvement cropped up, I asked him to do this for me.”

  “But what started as a favor, may be what breaks the investigation.” Ty offered. “Now we know the man who killed your parents is involved, and considering he might be the man manipulating everything from behind the scenes, I'd say that's a pretty good catch. A man like that, with those kinds of connections, needs to be stopped.”

  Dani sighed. “I haven't been thinking about much of anything since I saw him in that picture. But it's a thought. Drew is probably thinking along the same lines we are. My guess is we'll have all sorts of new information when we get back to the house.”

  Ty wrapped both arms around her and pulled her onto his lap. “Drew's a good egg, isn't he?”

  Dani tightened her arms around Ty's waist, tucked her head against his neck, and nodded. “Although I'm sure he won't be happy with the delay I caused today,” she added.

  “Drew is more concerned about you than this case, but to put your mind at ease, there wasn't any delay. He sent Jay and one of the women who works for Cotter to drop Roddy and Fawkes.”

  “We're collecting a rather ragtag team,” she commented on the number of people now participating in the investigation that weren't employed by the CIA. “How'd it go?' she asked.

  “They're all contractors. It's all legal,” Ty responded to her first comment. “As to the rest—good. Fawkes and Roddy made it up to the boathouse and back with no problems. They thought it was great fun so they made a second run this afternoon, only they went in from up the coast. One of Jay's places has a boathouse so they dropped there, swam down the coast, checked out the security again, scoped some areas, and then made it back.”

  Dani shivered in Ty's embrace, no doubt remembering the chill of the water. “Of all jobs, I'm glad I don't have that one.”

  “Me, too. I'd hate to hear what Fawkes would have to say after seeing you in a wetsuit,” he mock shivered himself, making Dani laugh.

  “He's harmless,” she teased.

  “I know, but it still bugs me,” Ty said with affection.

  “So, are we all set for the water approach?”

  Ty nodded. “Fawkes scoped the shoreline and he and Roddy are drawing up a plan tonight to detail who will go where and when once they get the monitoring equipment good and fouled up.”

  “Any new information on the time frame?”

  Ty shook his head. “Not since the last time I talked to Drew, which was a couple of hours ago.”

  Dani sighed. “I guess we have to get back,” she said without much enthusiasm.

  Ty could understand, he sympathized. He would be happy to sit there holding Dani long into the dark, quiet night. He didn't plan on letting her go, but he knew they'd have to change venue—they still had a job to do.

  “Yeah,” he agreed, resting his cheek against her hair. “Drew will want to see with his own eyes that you're okay.”

  “I don't want to leave you, Ty.”

  Dani's matter of fact statement had the same effect as a swift kick to the stomach. If he had any doubt before, he knew, in that moment, that he was in love with Dani Williamson and would do anything to protect her, to keep her safe, and to keep loving her.

  He cleared his throat and swallowed. “Good, I'm glad, because I'm not going anywhere.”

  Chapter 18

  DREW GLANCED UP FROM THE DESK when Dani and Ty entered the room. There was a heightened focus emanating from them which Drew found interesting. They were two of the most focused people he knew. How they could increase that intensity was beyond him. Only it wasn't—not when he saw Dani glance at the folder with the picture of the man he now knew had killed her parents and then watched Ty unapologetically wrap an arm around her waist and direct her to a seat. Drew knew Dani had told Ty what, until that day, had only been known by him.

  And he knew she wasn't going to lose it, she wasn't going to get sick like before. Now, with help from Ty, she was going to stay strong and centered on her goal. And now that her goal had an identity—and a name, thanks to some of their friends back in headquarters—she, and Drew, had at least a shadow's chance of finding the answers they'd sought for so long.

  “His name is Nicholas Frey,” Drew started, as soon as everyone was seated. “He's also known as Frankie in reference to Frank Sinatra and the similarity of their blue eyes,” he added with a look at Dani, whose eyes followed his every movement.

  “We don't have much on him after about 1976. But, prior to that, here are his specs,” he said, passing around sheets of paper to everyone in the room, which included his core team of Spanky, Cotter, and Marmie, along with Jay, Fawkes, and Roddy.

  “Born and raised in Podunk, Indiana. Small, rural farming town. Not much to offer in it. Good people, low crime, but poor, and there were few opportunities to get out. Nicholas enlisted in the army in ‘68 and was shipped to Vietnam. In the couple of tours he did, he never distinguished himself, but there were never any problems either. He did his job, was reliable and, by all reports, a team player. He was one of the few survivors of a small but efficient ambush by the Vietcong that wiped out most of his unit. After that, he was discharged and not a whole lot has been found on him since,” Drew concluded.

  “And why is he important to us?” Cotter asked. Drew looked to Dani who gave him a small smile, as if to reassure him she was okay, and then she spoke.

  “Because he killed my parents,” she said. Drew heard Marmie suck in a quick breath. All eyes swiveled to Dani, demanding an explanation but respectful enough to give her the space to decide when she would explain. Dani looked over her shoulder at Ty, who rubbed an encouraging hand down her back. She looked back at the group and told them everything.

  When Dani finished, the men in the room all let out a string of swear words at various volumes and Marmie pursed her lips and shook her head. Not for the first time did Drew concede that Ty had been right to suggest bringing in Fawkes and Roddy. Drew was a pretty efficient fighter, but based on the way the two men looked right now, he wouldn't want to meet them in a dark alley. And Jay. Jay was a kind of scary-looking dude to begin with. Now, Drew wouldn't have been at all surprised if he let out a war cry and went on his own hunting expedition. Despite all the caged anger, Drew had to smile. Dani had a good team of people at her back. Not only would they watch out for her as a colleague, they would go to bat for her as their friend. Each and every member of the team was now personally invested in finding Nicholas Frey and, given what else he'd learned that day, finding Frey meant getting Getz and the Eagle's Wing.

  “Drew?” Ty prompted when silence fell again. “What else did you find?”

  “Like I said, not much. But enough to know that Dani's instincts were right on when she suspected he had something to do with Sonny's father's death and, based on what Adam is seeing down in Miami, he's probably involved with Sonny as well.” Drew took a deep breath and launched into the addit
ional information he'd learned in the last few hours. Information that more than suggested Nicholas Frey was their puppeteer.

  “Our intelligence tells us Nicholas Frey was seen with Sonny's father twice before he was killed. The first time was when Sonny senior was visiting the site of the rumored oil reserves. Photos taken that day show the two men talking. We're locating the agent who was present to learn more about the actual interaction, but we do have confirmation the two men met. The second sighting was in London a couple of weeks later, which was also a few days before Sonny's father was found dead in his Virginia home. Again, we don't know much about the exchange, we didn't have anyone in the area but we did catch Nicholas on the CCTV entering and leaving Sonny senior's hotel room. A few minutes later, Sonny senior made a call to his contact in the agency requesting a meeting. He didn't say why and he never made it. He was killed two days later.”

  “And Sonny himself?” Dani asked.

  “I'll get there,” Drew turned to look at her. He knew what he was about to say wasn't going to come as a shock but he also knew what it was going to do to her. He paused before going on. As if sensing what was to come, Ty reached forward and took her hand. With a glance at him, Drew continued.

  “I also had them dig back as far as they could on the work your father was doing.”

  Dani frowned at this bit of information but waited for him to continue.

  “His notebooks and files were all examined right after the murder but there wasn't anything in them at the time that raised any red flags. When my parents took the time to go through much of the stuff in your old house, just before it was sold, they asked me what they should do with those files. We had our deal,” he said looking at Dani, who gave him a small nod. “And so I told them to box them up and send them to me. I put them in storage and hoped someday they might come in handy.”

  “I didn't know. I thought all the files were returned to the firm he worked for,” Dani commented. Drew could tell from her careful tone that she wasn't sure what to think or feel about the fact that he'd had possession of her father's effects all these years and hadn't told her.

  “Most were, but his personal files stayed in his office. Once we had an ID on Frey, I sent someone over to the storage locker to go through the boxes and see if anything synced up.”

  “And?” Dani prompted.

  “There are several journal entries where your father mentions Frey.”

  “Did he say anything about Frey, about what he was doing in the area or what he wanted? Was there anything that would tell us anything about him?”

  Drew took another deep breath before continuing. “Your dad seemed to like Frey. He didn't say a lot about him, but mentioned meeting him a couple of times on the site and then they met for dinner a few nights as well. He thought Frey was smart and they seemed to agree on the potential political issues their presence in the country raised. They talked a great deal about what effect it would have on the region if they projected high yields of the metal and what effect it would have if they didn't. Both seemed to agree that if the metal wasn't found the country would get by. It would continue to grow, just at a slower rate. They differed on what they thought would happen if metal was found. You're father wasn't so sure it would be the manna Frey seemed to think it would be.”

  Everyone in the room was silent when Drew finished. While it was more likely Dani's father was taken in by Frey, played by him, and killed by him for not going along with whatever game Frey was up to, Drew and, judging by the look on her face, Dani were unsettled by the fact that he'd known Frey well enough to share dinner with him. Drew wanted to believe that the man who was like a second father to him, the man who'd spun tales of exotic travel and political intrigue, tales that played a huge part in his own decision to join the CIA, wouldn't have become involved with a man like Frey in any way. A man who could kill and not think twice about it. But believing it wouldn't make it true. And so, for now, he had to at least explore the possibility that Dani's father might have intentionally walked into something that eventually resulted in his own death, as well as the murder of his wife.

  Drew was glad when it was Marmie who broke the awkward silence. “Drew, even if Dani's dad was mixed up with whatever Frey was doing—which I don't think he was, especially considering what we know about Sonny,” she added with blunt and honest look at Dani. “What does that have to do with Getz and Sonny senior and Sonny?”

  “Maybe nothing,” Drew admitted.

  “But you don't think so,” Ty interjected. Drew could take issue with his tone, but decided not to, knowing Ty was acting wary and defensive on Dani's behalf.

  “I do think they're related, now,” he added with a nod toward Dani, indicating her part in convincing him. “I think it's too much of a coincidence that we have two men, one a petroleum geologist and one a metallurgist, who both knew the same man, were involved in surveys with huge political fallout, and were both killed in the same way. Now, whether your father and Sonny senior were involved too, or knew what was going on, I don't know. But,” he raised his voice to override the protest he knew was about to fall from Dani's mouth, “I have to consider the possibility, or I wouldn't be doing my job. None of us would,” he finished, with a pointed look at everyone in the room.

  Drew watched as Dani turned her back on him and looked to Ty for moral support. Drew saw no expression on the man's face but Dani was satisfied, or assuaged, by whatever silent communication passed between the two because, when she turned back, he no longer saw the look of denial in her eyes.

  “And Getz?” she asked instead.

  “And the drugs?” Ty added.

  “We know Getz has the arsenal of weapons. We also know Frey has visited several of the countries where those weapons, and others, could have originated from or been transported through,” he added.

  “And the good news?” Fawkes joked.

  Drew grimaced. “Believe it or not, it gets better,” he shot back. “We don't know everything Getz has in his arsenal. But, if we take a look at the countries where Frey has been and work on the assumption that he is manipulating this whole thing, it's pretty fucking scary. As in, think about the top ten worst countries to work in, and we all know what those places are, and use that as your basis for guessing what kind of weapons Getz might have. If Frey is involved, and I think we're all thinking he is, we might have just stepped into a major clusterfuck.”

  The room filled with curses and utterances of disgust. Drew was silent, having already absorbed the fact that it was possible Getz, via Frey, had some of the ugliest, dirtiest, nastiest weapons—weapons most of the rest of the civilized world couldn't even imagine—sitting in his house in Portland, Maine. Sitting in his house, waiting to be handed over to an anti-US militia.

  “And I'd bet it's the same for the drugs,” Ty interjected.

  “The man is ugly and knows ugly people,” Drew responded with a nod. The group processed the information in silence. It was a shift in the investigation and everyone knew it. They were no longer just looking at Smythe or Getz or Eagle's Wing. Now they were looking for a murderer and arms dealer—a man with enough power and influence to make justabout anything happen. A man who now had a name and a face.

  “And Sonny?” Dani asked. “How would he be involved?”

  “You said it earlier,” Ty looked at Dani, though he spoke to the group. “If Frey is capable of dealing arms, making deals with drug cartels, and somehow dabbles in international politics, my guess is you're not far off on what he's done to Sonny. Now why he would manipulate Sonny, I don't know, but my guess is, he is,” and looking for confirmation, he turned back to Drew.

  “He is involved with Sonny and we're on the same page here. We don't know how, or why, but Adam just sent a few photos of the two of them together.”

  “You seem to know an awful lot about a guy you said you didn't know that much about,” Cotter noted.

  Drew looked at the older man—a man who had probably seen more ugly things than most of the
people in the room put together. He sighed, Christ the world can be a bad place, he thought. “We know where he traveled and are tracking down where he stayed during his travels—and he does travel a lot. But beyond that, we don't know much. We don't know where he lives when he's here in the US. He's got a bank account but it's not that big. We don't know what he does or who he sees when he travels. In other words, we have the skeleton of him but no meat. He's never been on a watch list, never raised any red flags. He was just a guy who traveled for business. But now we're digging and we're digging deep and fast,” he added.

  “Great,” Fawkes drawled. “We've got ourselves a grade-A mother-fucking psychopath arming a group intent on making an explosive statement somehow, somewhere, and that's all we know about him?”

  “That about sums up the situation,” Drew conceded with an annoyed shrug. He wasn't annoyed with Fawkes, but with the situation. It irritated him to no end that Frey had been operating for decades without so much as a by-your-leave from the CIA. It made his skin crawl thinking about all the things this guy might have done, might have been involved with. Things they might have been able to put a stop to had they put two and two together earlier. And while he hedged his bets with the team, there was no doubt in Drew's mind that Frey was pulling the strings and everyone, including Dani's parents, were nothing but puppets to him.

  “And the plan?” Marmie asked.

  “Now that we've got an ID on Frey, we've got someone on him,” he began to answer.

  “Are we confident he won't tag the guy?” Spanky asked.

  “It's Kapitany,” was all Drew needed to say to his team. They all nodded in approval. Ty, Jay, and the others looked to him for explanation.

  “Ethan Kapitany?” Jay asked. When Drew nodded, Jay nodded back in recognition.

  “Jay?” Ty said. Ty didn't say anything else, but he looked to his friend for assurance on Kapitany.

  In response, Jay gave Ty a sharp nod. Drew saw Ty's shoulders relax and then send Roddy and Fawkes a single look. At this, they relaxed as well. Though Kaps was a company man through and through, it didn't surprise Drew that Jay knew of him. He was a legend among those who had ever touched his world—which, apparently included Jay.