“So, do we know what he was into?” Chad asked, tension rolling off him. I thought I knew him. He had my back when we went into danger. How the fuck could I not have known him?
“Basically, it’s a type of diary he seemed to keep.” Luke stopped and stared at Chad for a long moment. “Man, I don’t think it’s good news.”
Chad’s face, set in stone, was indecipherable to the casual observer, but his friends saw the flash of anger in his eyes.
“It seems he entered a dating site and was contacted by some people he kept track of.”
The air in the room chilled to sub-zero. No one spoke. No one moved.
“He entered a dating site while married to Dani?” Chad asked, each word slowly punched out, his heart pounding as his chest hurt. Actually hurt. Jesus, I can never let her know this.
“Here’s what’s crazy,” Luke said. “He entered under a false name. He used his first and middle name only. Adam Jackson. The account has been deleted but I’m working to see if I can get my hands on the substance of his encounters.”
“What site?” Mitch asked.
Luke sucked in a breath before letting it out slowly. “Geeks2gether.”
Once more, the silence in the room was deafening as the Saints looked at each other in surprise.
“Why the hell would he do that?” Blaise asked. “It makes no fuckin’ sense.”
Shaking his head, as it felt ready to explode, Chad replied, “Damnit! Adam was such a jokester. Always trying to be the center of attention.” Rubbing his hand over his face, he said, “How he could have gotten involved in this…” His mind reeled at the implications.
“Dani?” Jack prompted.
“No fuckin’ way. Jesus, I’ve got to keep this from her. They might not have had a marriage of love, but it was built on mutual respect and friendship. She trusted him.” Leaning back heavily in his seat, his heart was heavy as his rage began to build. “Whatever he was doing, he put her at risk and that is fuckin’ unforgivable.”
Luke, catching Jack’s eyes, nodded and proceeded carefully. “The best I can tell from the few pages is that he met a woman online named Sabah Masrah—”
“Fuck!” Mitch cursed. “That a name that’s come across our desk as a local recruiter. Or at least she’s being used that way. Hell, she might not even be a real person or a real woman.”
The expletives resounded around the table as each man felt the punch of Chad’s friend being in contact with a known ISIS recruiter.
Luke responded quickly, “He never mentioned meeting her personally.” He sent Chad a glance but, seeing his friend’s lips pressed tightly in anger, he continued. “Adam noted when he had online chats with her. He doesn’t say what the chats were about…so, uh…maybe they were…uh…just chatting.”
“You think that fuckin’ matters? He was on a dating chat-line while married! While I can’t see Adam looking for a date on a geek site, he was either being recruited or cheating on Dani. Either one sucks.”
“Look, maybe he was getting in over his head and that’s why he kept notes. I mean, he left a trail for Dani to find,” Jude argued.
“Uh…there’s more,” Luke added, his expression a mixture of hard…and despondent.
“Oh, Jesus, I don’t know how much more I can take,” Chad said, putting his elbows on the table and resting his head in his hands. After a moment, he sat up and pierced Luke with a stare. Nodding, he gave his approval to continue.
Luke flashed new information onto the screen on the wall. “A bank account. With only Adam Jackson’s name on it.”
The Saints turned their questioning gazes back to Luke. “He set this up about six weeks before he died. The money’s still there. He opened the account at a different bank than what he and Dani used. She would have no idea it’s there.”
The men visually scanned the cash deposits; a thousand dollars each week. For six weeks. Stopping the week he died.
“What does this mean?” Bart asked, his eyes turned toward Chad.
Chad shook his head, saying nothing…feeling everything.
“Until that piece of evidence,” Jack said, nodding his head toward the wall screen, “I thought Adam got in this as a joke, got caught up in something and it went too far.”
“And now?” Mitch prodded.
“Man, I’m sorry, Chad,” Jack continued, “But if that account means what I’m afraid it does…if he took money from them…he’s guilty.”
Heart pounding, Chad felt his throat closing up. “Why would he keep written notes? Why the fuck would he leave them there for Dani to find?”
“It leads her to the bank account. He has her listed as the beneficiary. Since she never knew about it, then she’d have no reason to go to close it out,” Mitch surmised.
“What about the rest of the notebook?” Jude pressed.
“He’d already told her to go to Chad. Maybe he realized his days were numbered if they found out he wasn’t who he said he was. Maybe the explosion he walked into was aimed at him. Maybe it was called in, on his watch…just for him to respond. And if he thought things might happen, he wanted someone to know.”
Once more, silence reigned in the compound. Luke’s fingers were stilled over his keyboard. Chad’s mind raced, thinking of the man he knew. The man he called a friend. Please, Adam, let us find something that lets us know what you were doing. You couldn’t have been a traitor, so what the fuck were you up to?
Finally looking up at Jack, he asked, “So what now, boss? Where does this leave us?”
“Chad, we understand you weren’t in close contact with Adam at that time, but do you have any idea who he might have talked to? Another ATF agent?”
He thought a moment and said, “Dani mentioned a couple of our former friends he would hang out with, go drinking with. I saw two of them at the funeral.”
“Talk to them,” Jack said. “Find out if they knew anything to give us an idea of what he was doing.”
“Jesus, this is still fucked up!” Marc cursed. “I don’t see what kept him in with this…the money wasn’t that good.”
“Blackmail,” Mitch said, gaining everyone’s attention. “Same as what they use for the recruits who work on their computer programs. If they discovered he was an ATF agent, they could have blackmailed him into giving them information…or turning a blind eye. Otherwise, they could release his name in documents, obliterating his career and security clearance.”
“Right,” Jack said, pulling the meeting back to order. “Marc, you go with Chad. I want two of you on Adam’s friends. Luke, get the names from Adam’s book and send everything to Mitch. We’re not investigating them, just turning them over to the FBI.”
“There appears to be only one other name mentioned. Adam noted having an online chat with someone named Fazan.”
“Fazan?” Mitch asked, his voice strident and eyes wide. “Fuckin’ hell, If this is the same Fazan, he is one of the leaders of the ISIS cells recruiting in Virginia. Luke, get me everything you’ve got. The FBI is putting this on our highest priority.”
Mitch disconnected, leaving the Saints unusually quiet as they processed the latest information. Chad soaked in the appreciated silence, wondering what he was going to tell Dani. Fuck you, Adam. What the hell were you thinking?
Chapter 22
The inside of the bar was just as Chad remembered from his years with the ATF. A regular haunt, he was reminded of nights when Dani would come up from her office and meet he and Adam for beer and wings.
She would arrive, parting the crowd as she moved over to us, never realizing how many men stared at her as she walked straight to our table. Long, auburn hair swinging from her ponytail. Her body, unable to be hidden underneath the basic uniform of black pants and white blouse. Her smile widened as soon as she laid eyes on us.
Lost in memories, Chad startled as Marc nudged his arm, nodding to a man walking toward them. The first friend of Adam’s that they spoke to had no idea what Adam was doing near the end, but Jon Stahl agreed
to meet Chad at the old stomping ground.
Man hugging, Chad greeted Jon and introduced Marc. Jon, a small man with a friendly smile, settled in with the other two, making easy conversation for a few minutes.
“So you want to know about Adam?” Jon finally asked. “Anything in particular?”
“Yeah, we’re interested in anything…uh…different he may have been doing.” Chad knew his request sounded stupid but became instantly alert at Jon’s demeanor.
Hanging his head, his lips in a grimace, Jon bit out, “Fuck, I knew he was being a dumbass. But swear to god, until you called, I didn’t have a clue he’d kept up with anything after the first little bit.”
Chad and Marc shared a confused look, but Marc smoothly said, “Why don’t you just tell us what you do know.”
Taking a deep pull on his beer, Jon set it back on the table a little too hard, jumping at the sound. Sighing, he nodded his acquiescence. “Hell, it happened right here. We’d been at some god-awful, boring training my division was presenting and the ATF bomb squad agents had to come to it. Adam complained the whole time and when we got here and he got some beers in him, he began to laugh about the geeks in my division who’d presented. Gotta say, he was right and it was pretty funny. He wondered how anyone could get laid when they were such geeks and I swear he googled it on his phone.”
“Googled what?” Marc asked, dumbfounded by the turn of the conversation.
“How a geek gets laid,” Jon replied. “Honest to god, he came up with some dating sites for geeks.” Shaking his head again, he said, “He sat right here and created some fake account to one of the sites.” Looking up to Chad, he said, “Never thought he’d follow through with anything.”
“Follow through with what?” Chad asked.
“I didn’t see Adam for a couple of weeks and the next time we met here he told me he’d gotten some hits on the geek dating site. Said he wasn’t going to meet any of them, but he was having a blast pretending to be a real nerd and seeing who he could fool.” Jon looked nervously at them, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “He contacted me a couple of times to ask me technical questions. Since he was pretending to be a tech geek, he needed my help to keep up the ruse.”
“Anything else?” Chad asked.
Confused, Jon said, “No, but I heard through the grapevine in the office that you and Dani have gotten together. I…well, I…uh…figured that was why you were asking.”
“So, other than at the beginning, he didn’t tell you anything else about the dating site?”
“No,” Jon said, shaking his head. “I felt bad for Dani. Even if Adam was being his usual joking self, I still thought it was a dumbass move.”
Leaning back in his seat, Chad nodded. “Yeah, that seems to be what he excelled in—dumbass moves.”
Driving home thirty minutes later, Chad said, “I keep playing this whole fucking thing over in my mind. I’ve got a former ATF buddy being a jokester and, on a whim, got involved in a site that terrorists happen to use to recruit computer loners for their skills.”
Marc clarified, “So, he starts a chat, pretending to be someone he’s not, gets Jon’s help to sound more like a computer nerd, and then what? Gets in over his head? Actually takes money, still thinking it’s a joke? Or maybe, he does something stupid and they threaten blackmail and so he takes their money and he’s hooked?”
“I’ve got no idea, but whatever it was, he must have known it could blow back on Dani. That’s what fuckin’ kills me.”
“His clues?”
“Jesus, what did he think he was? Some super sleuth? Goddamn, he left Dani the key, that stupid note and then the book in the rocking chair. What a fuckin’ moron! That’s like some bad movie script!”
Marc shook his head. “I know, right, man? Playing around with a dating site, just to be a dumbass. Then continuing the charade. Then not knowing how to get out…or not wanting to get out.”
The two friends were quiet for a few minutes as the dark road passed underneath them. “Maybe he really got in over his head,” Chad said. “Maybe, by the time he figured out he was dealing with some shit, he was already found out. Then he had to take their hush money and hope that if something happened, he could let someone know.”
“Have you decided what you’re going to tell Dani?”
“No…I mean, sort of. I have to tell her what’s going on because she already knows a lot. And I need her to be vigilant.”
Pulling into Chad’s driveway, Marc said, “I don’t envy you, man. But for what it’s worth, you’re exactly what she needs. Just hang onto that and ride it out.”
“It’s no sacrifice to be with Dani. I’d do anything for her and the baby. They’ve become my life…a life I’d lay down just to keep them safe.”
Saying goodbye, Chad got out of Marc’s truck and jogged up his front steps. Letting himself in, he set his alarm and was greeted by a sleepy Dani walking down the stairs as he turned around. Her sleep-tousled hair fell around her shoulders. One of his old, faded ATF t-shirts hung to her mid-thighs. She blinked in the light, her green eyes focusing on him.
He watched, his heart pounding, heavy with handing more to her. I should be fuckin’ keeping anything bad from happening to her. Seeing her standing at the bottom of his stairs, in his house, in his t-shirt…he watched as her face lit with her beautiful smile. She stumbled forward, face-planting into his chest, her sleepy arms around his middle. Kissing the top of her head, he breathed her in as he wrapped his arms around her.
“You find out anything?” she mumbled, her words muffled since she did not lift her head from his chest.
“Not much,” he said, giving her a squeeze. “We’ll talk in the morning, okay?”
She lifted her head back and peered into his eyes. Whatever he had learned, it did not set well with him and she could see the emotions behind his gaze. She wanted to know. But she wanted to give him a chance to process…and sleep. “Yeah, sweetie. Let’s go to bed.”
Chad looked down at her, knowing she was curious but giving him the time to work through what needed to be done. Easy…you make things so easy, babe. He smiled in return, moving her toward the stairs. “Yeah, let’s go to bed.”
Sleep did not come readily, but when it did, it came with them wrapped around each other.
*
Dani sat at her desk, knowing she was not very productive. She flipped through emails, deleting the unnecessary ones, answering the easy ones, and holding off on the others that required more thought than she had in her at the moment.
Her mind wandered back to the conversation she had with Chad before they left for work. Hearing that Adam had played around with a dating site as a joke actually did not upset her—or surprise her. Geez, Adam. Looking back, you were always goofing off…well, except with your job—then you were the consummate professional. As her eyes wandered to her stomach, she remembered that when she was pregnant, he was completely into it. Okay, so I guess with impending fatherhood you got serious about something else also.
So it was not what Chad told her about Adam’s stupid fake nerd dating site—it was what she heard about that was happening the two months leading up to his death. Chad had asked her about what she saw in Adam’s behavior, but she told him she did not notice anything unusual.
Now, hours later, she twirled her pen around in her fingers, forcing her mind to go back to the months before Adam died. Maybe he was a little more distracted. Maybe he…no that’s not right! He’d actually become a little more loving…that’s why it hurt so bad when his bimbo showed up at the wake.
“Augghh!” she groaned loudly.
“Are you all right?”
She jumped as she saw Jahfar at the door, staring at her. How long has he been spying on me? Forcing a smile on her face, she replied, “Yes, I’m fine. I was just working on a difficult email.”
He walked in, hesitantly at first, his eyes never leaving hers. “Anything I can assist with?”
“No, thank you,” she replied, m
ore sharply than she intended. “Sorry, I seem to be having a trying day.”
He glanced behind her desk to the pictures sitting on the windowsill. “Your husband was a handsome man. And working with a bomb squad…a very brave man. A man willing to sacrifice. I’m sure your child will be blessed. He was in the D.C. office wasn’t he?”
“I don’t believe I ever mentioned that,” she said, the hair on the back of her neck prickling.
“Oh, I must have heard it from someone else,” he said smoothly.
She cocked her head to the side, not knowing what to say to that. Before she had to come up with a response, Ethan knocked on her door.
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were busy,” he said.
“No, no,” Jahfar interrupted. “I was just leaving.” He walked out with a nod to both of them.
Ethan walked in, sitting in the chair in front of Dani’s desk. “You okay?”
“I swear he gets creepier every day. I don’t know what it is, but he seems to want to talk about my former husband. He’s mentioned him several times.”
At that, Ethan’s attention perked. “What kind of questions?”
Rubbing her head as a headache loomed, she said, “Oh, I don’t know. It’s probably nothing, but I can’t figure out why he’d be so fixated on my deceased husband.”
“Was there anything in particular Adam was working on that would have made anyone curious?”
“Not that I know of. I mean his death was public; I think every paper in the nation carried the story of the brave ATF bomb squad member that triggered an explosion in a house that had held an ISIS bomb-making group.” She leaned back in her seat, resting her head on the padded back. “I don’t know, Ethan. Maybe I just have an active imagination.”
Ethan looked speculative for a moment, then leaned forward in his seat, putting his forearms on her desk. “Look, Dani, stay vigilant when it comes to Jahfar.”
Capturing her attention, she leaned forward as well. “What’s going on?” she asked in a whisper.
Sacrifice Love: Saints Protection & Investigations Page 19
