by Robin Mahle
“You and I need to hoof it and get to the house. If they know about it, it would’ve been ransacked already.”
“What can we do?” Lacy asked.
“Wait in Caison’s car for now. I’ll contact you when I know it’s safe for you to join us.”
“And if it’s not? If you end up in the same situation as Agent Colburn?’
“We don’t know what’s happened to him yet, Lacy,” Will said.
“If…” Axell raised his hands to preempt the growing tensions. “If we don’t make contact inside of thirty minutes, I want you two to see SSA Kelly.” He turned to Will. “You said he had Mobley’s assurances?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Because right now, I have no idea who the hell we can trust.”
♦ ♦ ♦
They made it into the front of the row house and walked up the steps. Both had guns brandished, ready to fend off anyone who might be lying in wait. Making it this far had been the easy part. It seemed if someone was after them, they’d opted to keep themselves concealed for the time being. Still, there was no sign of Agent Colburn and both grew despondent at the most likely outcome.
Axell raised his index finger to his lips as he reached for the handle. It was unlocked and they were under no illusions that this was a good sign. With a measured hand, he pushed it open.
Will stood shoulder to shoulder with him, aiming his weapon through the opening of the door. Both stepped over the threshold and grasped the devastating scene.
“Oh God.” Axell lowered his weapon and rushed to his friend’s side.
Agent Keith Colburn was bound to a chair, his head hung low, beaten and bloodied. Axell placed his fingers on Colburn’s neck. A moment later, he turned to Will. “He’s gone.”
“Son of a bitch. Whoever did this has to be the same person, or was with the same people as the man at Turner’s last night. It had to be someone in Jian’s ranks, but how the fuck did they find us?” He pushed his fingers through his hair and turned away.
“There’s no way it was Jian’s people, or Sajwani, or anyone like that. No way he could’ve known about this place. We’re the only ones who knew, except for Kelly. He set this place up for us.”
“And Colburn’s guy. Agent Hicks. Do you know him? He knew we were coming here, didn’t he? Colburn trusted him.”
Axell ignored the questions being hurled at him because he knew it was Caison’s anger overriding any cohesive thoughts. Instead, he began to search the ransacked home. What little furniture they had had been overturned. The monitors lying on the ground, smashed. “I don’t know if it was Hicks or not. But if it was him and he’s not dead already, he’s about to be.”
14
Colburn’s body had been placed on the floor and covered in a sheet. Lacy sat next to him, legs crossed and staring in disbelief that he was gone. And only hours after he’d helped her flee those responsible for killing him. He’d saved her life as he had done only months ago, but this time, it cost him his.
“I can’t stay here anymore. I can’t look at him.” Lacy wiped away her tears and finally stood up. Her legs filled with pins and needles, but she paid no attention to the discomfort. “Do we still have nothing from facial recognition on the images of the man from last night? I mean, come on. He has to have been one of the men who came after us today. Why don’t we know who he is yet? Why the hell are we sitting here and still know nothing?”
“While I was at Kendrick’s home, Agent Fraser told me the shell casing they found was a from .40 caliber bullet. It’s the same as the casing I took from the shooting at the restaurant. We may not know who this is, but it’s looking like we could be dealing with the same assailant. But right now, it’s starting to feel like the Wild goddam West. Like there’s a bounty on all our heads.”
Axell continued to pace the small living room, glancing through the window as the sun was beginning to set. “I have to take care of Colburn. I have to get him out of here.”
“You think you can find out the type of bullet used to…” Will couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Yes. It’ll take some time, a day, at least.” Axell regarded his friend. “Damnit. I’ll have to get word to his family—and to his boss.”
“Look, there might be a way to find out who went after these two and who took Colburn from us.” Will peered at the body, still stunned. “Agent Fraser, I think we can use him.”
Axell cast a wary eye at him. “How?”
“He made some comments regarding rumors and such about Kendrick, and I think he might have been fishing for information. Maybe he’s grown suspicious of Turner himself.”
Lacy had almost forgotten about the keylogger and the photos. “Wait.” She pulled the device from her pocket. “What about this? This is what Keith handed to me before I took off without him. Maybe we should see if this letter is on here or if anything else turns up that will give us some idea of who did this to him. Whatever is on that letter seems awfully damn important.”
“Right. Shit.” Aaron took it from her and looked around. “The laptops are destroyed. Unless anyone’s got another computer handy, this won’t do us any good right now.”
“Give me some time. Let me take care of my friend. I’ll get more equipment. Caison, you said you thought Fraser could be of use. What do you want to do?”
“Well, there will be a report of a break-in at Turner’s home once his family returns and realizes the alarm is off and the door unlocked. I don’t know what they did inside, if they took anything or what; regardless, a report will go out. And because Turner is who he is, FBI will be called. Meaning I could reach out to Fraser and tell him I heard about the break-in and ask him if there’s a chance someone could be after Turner too. That’ll whet his appetite given what I think I know about him already. Then, if we can find this letter and figure out if it’s important—which at this point, we have to assume it is—I’ll show him.”
“No way. You don’t know him, Will. You don’t know what he might do,” Lacy said.
“I understand what you’re saying. But you said yourself we need to get Turner to work with us. Now’s our chance.”
“You wanted me to send him a message,” Aaron began. “Well, depending on what we find, I’ll send him a message that someone’s after him too. A text from an unknown number. There are a lot of ways I can get to him, or at least get it to Fraser.”
Axell looked to Lacy. “I think this is our answer. We need someone on the inside. Someone who can help Turner navigate through this mess while passing along information to us that we can use to identify Colburn’s killers and, hopefully, the one who came after you two. Could be one and the same. But before you reach out to Fraser, Caison, let me run background. Make sure he’s one of the good guys. Then we can discuss how much to divulge and get him to make nice with Turner.”
Aaron held the device between his thumb and index finger. “Then I’d better figure what we have on this keylogger as quickly as possible. We’ll need it to sway this Agent Fraser.”
“My friend is dead. They’re after us and, right now, this is the only shot we have at getting to the bottom of Turner’s involvement.”
“Okay. I can see when I’m outnumbered. Then we’d better get to it.” She looked again at Colburn and her eyes reddened. “The longer we sit here, the more likely they’ll come back for the rest of us.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Yet another in a string of temporary surroundings, this time they landed exactly where they should’ve been days ago, but Lacy insisted on staying at her home. While the vacant house across from Turner’s home was burned, the only place left was to go to Will’s new apartment. And as the evening wore on, they waited for Axell’s return. He did what he needed to do to take care of Keith Colburn and now they were at a standstill until he returned with an air-gapped computer. All the information they needed could be on that keylogger.
“He’s here.” Will jumped from his couch. “He just texted me.”
“Thank God.�
�� Lacy stood up and turned toward the door. “I was afraid something…never mind. He’s here now.”
“Yes. He is.” Will opened the door. “Good to see you, man. Everything go okay?”
“I made his station chief aware of what happened, indirectly. She and I go way back and she said she would take care of things. I left it at that.” Axell raised the box in his hands. “Also, I stole this from inventory at our office. No one will ever know it’s gone.” His congenial smile soon faded.
“Did you find Hicks?” Lacy asked.
“No. I asked Ward about him. She’s the station chief. She says he’s loyal and if she thinks so, then I do too. Colburn had no reason to doubt him either. So he’s not our leak.”
“Okay. Aaron, you want to get that set up and we can see what’s on the logger?”
“On it.”
Within minutes, Aaron had the laptop running. “I’ve got it set up to re-route us all over creation if we need to access the internet. But for the purposes of accessing the keylogger, we shouldn’t need to, assuming there’s also a screenshot program on here, which I’m sure there is. Lacy, can I have the dongle?”
“Here.”
Aaron loaded the device and pulled up whatever Turner had keyed when it was plugged into his server. “Looks like he didn’t do much in the hours this was on his system, but this does contain a screenshot program, so let me see what I can find in there.” He continued to type while the others hovered over his shoulder. “I really don’t like it when you guys watch over me like this. I feel like I’m at Langley.”
Almost in unison, the three pulled back and replied, “Sorry.”
“Well, I think I found it.” Aaron pushed away from the laptop. “This is a letter from Drew Kendrick addressed to the secretary of state. It’s dated two weeks prior to his murder.”
Lacy and the others pushed in to read it, but she was the first to speak. “This was why he was killed.”
“I’d have to agree with you.” Axell continued to read it. “He admits he knew about the attack and looked the other way.”
“This throws Turner under the bus too.” Will stepped back. “Says he knew about it.”
“I’d say that would be enough to get you killed in this town.” Axell looked at Will. “This is what you need to show Fraser. Get him on board. We need him now. He’s clean as far as I can tell.”
“Wait, shouldn’t we take this to Mobley? How much more evidence do we need?”
“Lacy, we always knew Turner wanted to keep this quiet. That’s why he forced Mobley to let Kendrick go and did whatever deal he could with the Chinese and the president and whoever else. The problem for us is knowing if it stops with Turner.”
“Will’s right,” Aaron began. “Maybe Turner ordered Kendrick’s murder. We still don’t know, although this letter is compelling evidence. But that doesn’t explain why someone broke into his house to get this. It means someone else knows about it too. It just feels like we’ve got more than one enemy here. Turner, Lei Jian, and who else?”
“Okay. Let’s just tackle one problem at a time. I’ll set up a meeting with Fraser. He gets Turner to talk and we might actually get somewhere.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Will sipped on the coffee while he waited for Fraser to respond to the proposal.
“I don’t know what to say, frankly. This all seems very conspiratorial if you ask me. And I’m not one to put much stock in those theories.”
“I understand where you’re coming from, Adam, believe me. If I hadn’t been through what I’ve been through since the mall attack, I’d be saying the exact same thing.” Will leaned over the table. “Look, you and I both know that there was a lot of shady dealings where Kendrick was concerned and I’m sure you’ve already seen some of that in your investigation.”
“To be honest, most of the things I’ve come across have been redacted. And that alone gives me pause.”
“Exactly. Now I don’t know how Turner fits into this, except it seems clear he knew, or that’s what Kendrick wanted us to believe. But someone broke into his house, looking for a letter.” Will pushed a mini SD card toward him. “We got that letter and I think you need to see it and decide for yourself. Go ahead; check it out.”
Fraser eyed him before picking up the card and inserting into his cell phone. After a few moments, he opened the file and began to read the letter.
Will watched as the color drained from Fraser’s face. He knew then that he had him.
“Are you shitting me with this?” Fraser asked.
Will shook his head.
“Holy shit.” He rubbed his forehead. “And no one knows you have this?”
Will shook his head again. “No one. Turner thinks he’s the only one who’s seen it and whoever visited him the night before last. At least, as far as I know.”
Fraser was quiet again, staring at his phone. “Okay. What do you need me to do?”
“Whoever broke into his house is after me and my friends. We lost someone yesterday as a result. That’s why I need your help. Turner’s in this and I just need your help to get him to talk to us.”
Fraser nodded. “Okay. I can get a meeting with him. He knows I’m running the show on Kendrick. I’ll figure out a way to get him to open up. Maybe feed him some line about finding something in Kendrick’s home. I don’t know. Is there anything else I should know before I get myself wrapped up in this?”
“Just get Turner to talk, for now. There’s more to this than I can get into here.”
“But if I do this, you need to let me in on that.”
“You might not want in. Trust me on that, brother.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Wendell Turner crisscrossed his office at the State Department, hands clasped behind his back and eyes down at the floor. “I sent my family away. People are going to ask questions as to why I slept in my office last night. If word gets out about the break-in, they’ll launch an investigation. No one can know about this.”
“I understand where you’re coming from, Mr. Turner, and that’s why I’m here. As I said before, I can help you get through this. What I found at Kendrick’s home is troubling, but I know people who can help. No one wants you to take the fall for whatever it was Drew Kendrick was involved in.”
“How do I know I can trust them? You think I don’t already know who you’re talking to? I know all about Agent Caison and his people. There isn’t a chance in hell they’ll help me. They blame me for protecting the president after Kendrick was taken into custody. How do I know they weren’t the ones who broke in?”
“I think you know that’s not the case, Mr. Turner. And I won’t lie: Caison doesn’t trust you. But this is your chance to clear the air. Someone came to your house looking for something. And I’ll bet there’s a high probability that you’ll be dead, just like Kendrick, if we don’t get help.”
Turner sat down in his chair and rested his head in his hands. “I should’ve ended this when I had the chance.”
“You chose to protect the president. No one will fault you for that.”
Turner huffed. “You sure about that? I put politics over the safety of this country, over the truth. Could you forgive that?”
“It doesn’t matter what I could forgive. Kendrick is dead. Your house was ransacked. They’ll find you and they’ll kill you too. No one knew where Kendrick was either, and yet he was found.”
“A few people knew.”
Fraser leaned over Turner’s desk. “Let me reach out to my friends. Let me get the help we need to put an end to this once and for all. Who else do you have to turn to?”
♦ ♦ ♦
The meeting was due to take place at a secure safe house Fraser had arranged about an hour south of Will’s apartment in downtown D.C. where they’d waited almost twenty-four hours since he set up the deal.
“We need to go now. They’ll be there soon.”
“Another safe house?” Aaron asked
“You have a better idea?” Will asked. “T
he place near Turner’s home is compromised and we can’t stay here in my apartment forever. How long do you think it’ll take to find us? We have to know who came after us or we’re not safe. And you still have no idea where Sajwani is. Maybe do your job so we stand a fighting chance and don’t have to cut and run at every turn.”
“Hey, I got eyes on me all day, every day. You won’t be the one going to prison for doing the shit you’re asking me to do. I will.”
“Do we really need this right now?” Lacy began. “Aaron, I know you’re doing your best. We all are. And with Colburn gone, we’re all on edge. Will and I were targeted at that restaurant and we’ve got people coming at us from every angle. Turning against one another won’t solve our problem. Let’s just go to the safe house. I agree that we can’t stay here. Unfortunately, we have to stay on the move and, as much as I thought we could avoid that, I was wrong.”
“I’ll call Axell and have him meet us here and then we’ll leave.” Will brushed past Aaron as they eyed one another.
Tensions were high and Lacy could feel the team beginning to crack under the pressure. The death of their friend was bringing back the reality of the dangers they still faced.
♦ ♦ ♦
In the darkening skies, Will spotted the meeting place. “This is it. Up ahead.”
A cottage-style home, demure and rather nondescript, was set far back from the road. The brick-paved driveway was blocked by a low entry gate secured by a simple padlock.
Aaron pulled himself forward from the rear seat. “Doesn’t exactly look like Fort Knox. Do you need to call and tell him we’re here?”
In that moment, Agent Fraser appeared and opened the gates. He waved them inside and again secured the lock.
Axell stopped behind another vehicle parked in front of the single-car garage. A row of trees lined the property where it faced the street in the sparse community. Lights were on in the home’s two front windows and as he pulled out his keys, Fraser returned to the porch. He began to step out. “Caison, you and I need to go first.” He looked into the rear seat. “You two stay here until we give the ‘all clear.’”
