Special Ops Affair (14 page)

“You have your facts wrong. It was
your father
who betrayed the mission to Dharr. You of all people should know that.”

“I don’t know anything of the sort.”

“You’re the one who buried key evidence. That email and the photo? This would have been over a long time ago if you hadn’t done that. Kate would still be alive, and so would Frasier.”

Kate must have told him about the email and photo.

“Kate believed in my father’s innocence as much as I did,” Odie said.

“Yes, and that’s what we fought about the night she was killed.”

“You mean the night you went
driving
?” Odie taunted.

“She refused to believe me and she defended you for hiding clues to the truth.” Calan turned to Jag. “Edward Ferguson was dealing arms with Dharr, and Sage must have uncovered it. That’s why Edward told Dharr, so Dharr would be waiting to ambush the team.”

Calan believed Odie’s father was guilty because of the email and photo, yet Frasier’s letter suggested something entirely different. Which was true?

“How do you know about the mission?” Jag asked.

“I was there. I was after Dharr. By the time I finally caught up to him, he and his men were attacking the team. But he didn’t know I was there. Nobody did. Except for Sage. He’d already been hit so I dragged him away from the attack. Before he died, he said Dharr knew they’d be there and that it was Hersch who betrayed them. Hersch and someone else. He said there had to be someone else.”

“That’s a lie!” He’d spoken with Sage? He was there when he died? It was too much.

“Your father didn’t know I was there, either. I kept it that way so that I could do my own investigation.”

Odie scoffed. “You were working with Dharr. It wasn’t my father, it was
you
. You’re the one who killed Sage!”

“I didn’t kill anyone. Who told you that?”

She didn’t answer. It was her customary response. Never reveal a source. But in this case, it needed to be revealed.

“It was Senator Raybourne,” Jag said, earning a glare from Odie.

But he got what he was after. Calan’s reaction said it all. Few things shook Jag, but this stopped him short.

Calan breathed an incredulous exhale and leaned back against the booth seat, shaking his head. Jag waited for him to explain the revelations going through his head.

At last Calan looked at Jag. “Did he have proof?”

“Yes. A letter from Frasier Darby,” Odie said smugly.

The letter was pretty damning, but Jag had a feeling Calan would dispel most of his doubt by the end of this meeting.

“Who sent him the letter?”

Odie hesitated.

“Someone gave it to Darby’s wife to give to Raybourne,” Jag said for her. Luis hadn't known Frasier had gone to Roth, and Roth had told him and Odie the truth.

Calan grunted derisively. “He could have paid someone to deliver a forgery to her.”

“It wasn’t a forgery,” Odie said.

“It had to be since I’m not doing business with Dharr and I had nothing to do with the ambush.”

Jag understood her loyalty to an old family friend, but it was clouding her judgment. The same had happened when she’d destroyed evidence. Planted or not.

“You murdered Frasier,” Odie said. “We saw you there.”

“No, Raybourne was behind that job. I got there right after it happened, just like you.”

Jag nodded. “Nice work on the brakes, by the way.”

Calan turned to him while Odie continued to radiate animosity. “I didn’t want you to follow me. I knew what you’d think, that I killed Frasier and Kate, but I didn’t. Raybourne did. I didn’t know it then, but I do now. It had to be him.”

Odie stood from the booth. “Luis wouldn’t have done anything like that! You’re just trying to shift blame.”

The couple seated at the booth behind Calan turned to see what was going on.

“No, he didn’t do it himself, he hired someone to do it for him.” Calan kept his voice low. “Someone professional.”

“This is ridiculous. Jag.” She looked pointedly at him. “Let’s go.”

“Calm down, Odie.”

“Calm down? Listen to what he’s saying. You met Luis. Do you think he’s capable of anything so vile? His own stepdaughter, for God’s sake!”

He’d only met the senator a few times. He didn’t know him. But people backed into a corner sometimes turned to drastic measures. “You’re being irrational, and it’s not like you.” In fact, he doubted anyone had ever seen her like this. So shaken. He felt for her but this was too important to back down now.

“Raybourne tried to make Edward take the fall,” Calan said, “but you destroyed the evidence he planted. The case went cold, lucky for him, until someone got suspicious. So he’s doing it again, only this time it’s me he’d like to fall.”

“You don’t know that,” Odie said.

“I do now. I thought your father was the one who ambushed that mission, but all this time it was the senator. No wonder it’s taken this long to figure out.”

“No,” she shot back. “Why would he do that? What reason would he have? He’s a good person with high moral standing.”

“And maybe he’s also a good actor.”

Odie all but steamed anger. “Luis wouldn’t have murdered his own daughter. And my father…it’s…unthinkable!”

Again, the table next to them fell silent.

“Kate was his stepdaughter,” Calan countered. “Not his biological daughter.”

“That doesn’t matter. He raised her. They were close.”

“Then whatever he’s in on, it must be huge. He’s finished if it gets out.”

“He’s on the U.S. Senate Arm Committee,” Jag pointed out.

Now Odie looked injured when she turned her eyes to him.

“Convenient,” Calan said.

“Especially for Hersch.”

“Jag.” Odie sounded hurt.

It was unpleasant for him to force her to face this, but it all made perfect sense. He ignored her. “How did you meet Kate?”

“At a barbecue,” Calan answered. “Colonel Roth invited me. Kate was there with Raybourne and his wife.”

Jag heard Odie’s sharp inhale. “You’re lying.”

“I used to report to Roth,” Calan continued without acknowledging Odie. “I quit after my wife was murdered and that mission fell apart. Something like that has a way of souring a man’s loyalty to our country’s defense organizations.”

Because he thought Edward had arranged to have those men slaughtered. Odie’s husband. Jag looked up at her where she still stood by the table, staring at him. He could tell she was fighting tears. It had to be difficult to absorb. Sage. Her father. Kate. All of them killed because of the senator, a close family friend.

“Raybourne didn’t know I knew Sage,” Calan went on. “If he had, I doubt he’d have allowed me to be with Kate. She was always helping Odie. It didn’t come up until she told me about that photo and the email. That’s when we started disagreeing. I thought Edward was behind it all and she was on Odie’s side. And then Odie destroyed the evidence.”

It explained why he hadn’t trusted Odie when they’d met.

“I told her about Dharr,” Calan said.

“Is that when she sent Odie the file?”

“She never discussed her dealings with Odie in detail, especially after we started disagreeing, but yes, I’m sure she included everything about Dharr. She may have even included her speculation that if it wasn’t Odie’s father behind the betrayal, who could it be?”

Someone in a powerful position. Someone who’d be able to grease the way for an arms dealer like Hersch.

“How do you know Dharr?” Odie asked, uncharacteristically shaken. “Why are you after him?”

When he looked at her, his eyes changed to reveal grief. “I married a woman who was with him when I met her. After he found out we were together, he killed her.”

That made Odie stiffen. Calan’s wife had her throat slit. Just like Kate.

“So you’ve been after him ever since.”

Calan’s certain nod said he wasn’t stopping until Dharr was dead. “But he’s good at staying hidden.”

“They usually are.” Terrorists were like rats that way.

“I don’t believe this.”

Jag looked up at her the same time Calan did. He was beginning to worry he’d been wrong about her. What would she do to protect Luis? She hadn’t believed her father guilty and look what she’d done. Would this time be any different?

“Sit down, Odie,” he told her.

“No. We’re finished here. Don’t you see what he’s doing?”

Jag just stared at her. Was she really turning a blind eye?

“We need to talk about how we’re going to proceed,” he said.

“You and I can do that.” She sent Calan an abhorrent look.

“He can help us.”

“No, he can’t. Jag. Come with me to the room right now.”

“No.”

“Then I’ll do this myself.”

“Do what? Hide evidence? Warn Luis?”

She sucked in another sharp breath. “You think I’d do that?”

“You’ve done it before and you’re acting weird right now. You know what Calan is saying is true. You just aren’t accepting it.”

“More like you don’t want to trust me,” she retorted. “You think I’m going to go do something illegal.”

“Actions speak louder than words.”

“What?”

“Sit down.”

“Go to hell.” With that she turned and marched out of the restaurant.

Jag sighed. He was going to have to track her down again.

“Let me guess. You slept with her.”

Chapter 10

“W
ait for me.” Odie trembled as she climbed out of the cab. The evening air was warm and a little humid and the sky was clear.

All the way here she’d been drowning in thoughts. Horrible thoughts. Coming at her from every direction.

That last day with Sage. Sending him off to a mission that was doomed from the start, if she believed what Calan said. And her father hadn’t known. That should come as a relief. He hadn’t sent Sage to his death. But the senator had. And when her father discovered it, Luis had him killed.

But how had her father learned what the senator was doing? Sage? Maybe Sage hadn’t known enough but was getting too close, and it had taken her father a year to connect the dots and add a few of his own.

Oh, God. Her heart felt crushed in her chest. Sage must have known enough to threaten the senator the morning he’d left for his mission. Only Sage hadn’t realized it. Had her father talked to the senator about it? Maybe gone to him for help, knowing Dharr was buying arms? Maybe her father had grown suspicious of Luis who led him to Yemen and then arranged for Dharr to send the email and kill him.

She wiped a tear that had fallen from her eye. She hadn’t even been aware that she was crying. She was in such a daze.

She rang the bell of Senator Raybourne’s home, a huge modern sprawl in an upscale neighborhood of Alexandria. Nothing a man of his position couldn’t afford, and nothing that suggested he made lots of money helping to channel arms to terrorists.

She caught her breath with the thought, it stabbed her so deep.

His wife opened the door. “Odelia?”

“Hello, Alice. Is Luis home?”

“He ran out for a dinner with some colleagues but he should be back within the hour. What’s wrong? You look like you’ve been crying.”

Odie wiped her face again. “Sorry. I…” She looked at the woman, whose worry was conveyed in her eyes. “Can I talk to you about something?”

“Of course.” She opened the door wider and Odie stepped inside. Alice led her to a tastefully blended cream-and-earth-toned sitting area that opened off the entry. High ceilings made the brick gas fireplace tower over the room.

Odie sat on the cream-colored leather sofa and Alice sat in the chair adjacent to her. A ticking grandfather clock was the only sound, that and the soft hum of a refrigerator.

“Luis told me that Sage’s mission was set up to be a trap,” Odie began, waiting for Alice’s reaction.

The woman sat straighter and stared with wider eyes at Odie.

“Didn’t he tell you?”

“N-no. Oh, Odelia. That’s awful! When did you find out?”

“Just yesterday.” She explained about Dharr and Calan and finally her father, all the while watching Alice.

“Did Luis tell you any of this?” Odie asked.

“I was with him when Kate came to talk to him about the man named Hersch. She said she was looking into something for you. We were both so worried about her.” She shuddered. “It sounded so dangerous.”

Did Alice believe the senator? Odie wondered if she should tell her about her meeting with Calan and Jag. Then she realized how much her emotions had compromised her. Coming here may have been the stupidest thing she’d ever done. What would the senator have done if she had confronted him? He’d already killed Sage, his stepdaughter, Odie’s father and Frasier. What would stop him from killing her?

Her heart wrenched with grief and she had to lower her head. Did she really believe Luis was capable of that? It didn’t seem possible. Not real.

“Are you all right?”

Odie looked up at Alice. “I don’t think it was Calan who leaked information about Sage’s mission.”

The abruptness of her declaration caused something to cross Alice’s eyes. She looked scared for a split second. And her long hesitation made Odie wonder if there was something she wasn’t saying.

“Why do you think that?” she asked.

Odie grew acutely alert. “There are some things I can’t tell you.” Like about Roth. “But Luis showed me a letter that a man named Frasier Darby wrote.” It was a shot in the dark.

The scared look intensified. Odie stopped breathing for a second. Alice recognized Frasier’s name. Could it be…? Was Alice Frasier’s mysterious lover?

“Do you know him?” Odie asked.

“What are you going to do, Odelia?” Her voice trembled.

She must know him. “What do you mean, ‘what am I going to do’? I’m going to find whoever killed Sage and my father and Kate and make them pay.” Or kill them. For the first time since her husband died, she wanted to have her hands around the handle of a really big gun.

But would she be able to kill Luis? A man she’d known almost her entire life? A close friend to her father? Someone she’d trusted without reservation.

“Odelia, you should just let this go,” Alice said imploringly. “Let the police handle Calan.”

“Let it go?” That wasn’t part of her fiber. And hadn’t she just said she didn’t think it was Calan who was responsible for all this?

“Too many people are dead. Stop now before it gets you, too.”

“Do you know Frasier Darby?” Odie pressed.

Alice only stared at her, a struggle in her eyes. And then she relented. “He was someone I met at a veterans memorial fundraiser.”

“Did you have an affair with him?”

Her hesitation gave her away.

“Does Luis know?”

Tears bloomed in her eyes and she crumbled. “Yes. He followed me one day, when I met Frasier at a coffee shop. He confronted me that evening and I told him everything. He wasn’t happy. I broke his heart.” She paused as emotion choked her up a little. “He was very upset.”

Odie was sure Luis had been upset about more than her affair. “When did he find out about the two of you?”

“Almost two weeks ago.”

After Roth had contacted Cullen, but before Kate had been killed. “And what happened?”

“I agreed to stop seeing him.”

“Did you?”

“After Kate was murdered, he came to see me a couple of times.” She looked down, a woman in love without her lover. “But I haven’t seen him since.”

She must not know he was dead. “Did you tell him about what Kate was looking into?”

She nodded.

“He asked a lot of questions. He wanted to know why Kate would go to someone like Luis for advice. He didn’t like Luis.” Alice turned a bashful look toward Odie. “Understandably so.”

Odie was sure there was more going on here. Had Kate’s revelation about Hersch alerted Frasier to something? It must have, or else why would he go to Roth?

“Did Frasier know that Luis and Colonel Roth were friends?” Luis and Alice had gone to a barbeque at the colonel’s house, one Calan had attended with Kate.

“Yes. Frasier knew Colonel Roth. He couldn’t let go of his brother’s death and Roth was close to your father. He talked to him about his brother. Frasier was afraid something had gone wrong on the mission and if anyone could help him, he believed Roth could.”

No wonder why she’d looked so alarmed when Odie told her Sage’s mission had been sabotaged. Odie’s mind spun. Frasier must have been suspicious of Luis before Kate had revealed what she knew about Hersch. But he hadn’t told anyone. Had he lined up with Alice deliberately? Is that why he’d kept his suspicions a secret?

“Why didn’t you say anything?” If Alice knew Sage’s team had been betrayed…

“I thought Frasier was only having trouble dealing with his grief. He had no real proof that anything went wrong.”

That she knew of. Alice hadn’t wanted to believe anything had gone wrong. She had her affair to hide. “Did Frasier ever talk to Kate?”

“No, I don’t think so. But when I mentioned that Calan was her boyfriend, he said he’d heard the name before.”

Frasier’s brother was on Sage’s team. They both reported to her father. And her father knew Roth. It made sense.

Frasier must have gone to Calan, but not before he’d told Roth about Hersch. Otherwise Roth would have known about Dharr. And if Calan had warned Frasier about Odie’s father, he may have lost trust in Roth, who was close to Luis. He must have felt he had no one to turn to, no one to trust. Going up against a colonel and a senator all on his own, an ordinary engineer, he had good reason to be cautious. He probably hadn’t trusted Calan, either, who to him must have seemed like an ex-Delta soldier gone rogue.

“Alice, how much do you know about what Luis is doing aside from his role on the arms committee?”

“What do you mean? He isn’t doing anything on the side.”

“You haven’t noticed anything strange about him? Places he goes and the times he goes to them? Any international trips? Any phone calls? Or meetings?”

“Please, Odelia, you have to stop what you’re doing. This is too far over your head. Your father was a special ops commander. If he couldn’t escape it, neither will you or anyone else.”

Her shaky voice and building tears nearly undid Odie. Losing a child had to be one of the worst tragedies to overcome. The pain was too much for Alice, that much was obvious. She was having difficulty losing her daughter, and couldn’t bear to face her own husband being the killer. And whether he had hired someone to do his dirty work or not, he was still the killer.

No matter how hard it was for Alice, Odie had to make her understand. “Alice, Frasier was murdered a few days ago.”

Alice inhaled a shocked breath and stared at Odie. “What?”

“I think he knew Luis was behind his brother’s death.”

“But…but…he never told me.”

“He didn’t have a chance.”

More tears pooled and spilled over onto her cheeks. “I didn’t know what else to do. Luis discovered us and…and…Frasier wanted me to move in with him. He said he’d divorce his wife if I divorced Luis. But I was afraid.” Her gaze traveled around the richly appointed room. “I was afraid.”

Engineers made good money but she was well-off with Luis.

She sobbed for a minute and then sniffled and looked up at Odie. “I loved him. I did. H-he gave me things that Luis never could. Affection, I mean. But I love Luis in a different way.”

Sometimes people confused love with money. Money gave women security. If a man was providing it, then he might be the love of her life. Odie preferred to make her own way. Her money was hers right along with her successes. She didn’t want to live through her man’s successes. She defined herself; a man did not define her, and never would.

Odie stood and went to get a tissue from the end table. She returned with a few and handed them to Alice. “I’m so sorry, Alice.”

Alice took the tissues and dabbed her eyes, quietly crying now.

“I should have gone with him,” Alice said through her crying.

“You did what you had to do. None of this is your fault. Remember that.”

That seemed to calm her tears. She looked up at her. “What will you do now?”

“I don’t know,” she lied.

Alice blew her nose.

“Will you be all right?” Odie didn’t want to leave her but she didn’t have much time.

After her blank gaze passed around the room, she looked up at Odie. “Y-yes…of course.”

“Call me if you need anything. In the meantime, maybe you should find a place to stay for a while.”

Alice nodded unsteadily. Odie reluctantly walked toward the door.

“Odelia.”

With her hand on the front door handle, Odie turned her head to look back.

“I’m afraid.”

Now that Odie could no longer deny the truth, she could see how weak Alice was. Women like her allowed men to rule them. Own them. Rob them of their independence. And men like Luis needed women like that. So they could get away with horrible things and still keep a wife. Luis was a man who wore two faces. One, the loving husband and long-time family friend, the other a self-gratifying devil.

“I’m not,” Odie replied, and left.

Sitting in the backseat of the cab, she told the cab driver to take her back to the hotel. After that, he’d take her to Hersch’s office, where she’d retrieve whatever data her key logger had busily gathered. Then she would take Luis down. She didn’t care what it took.

Jag checked his watch. About a half hour had passed since Odie had left.

“We should go,” he said to Calan.

They were still at the restaurant, and had just finished discussing the situation and going over viable action plans—the biggest one centered around Odie. Damn her. He had to agree with Calan that she was unpredictable right now. Odie emotional was new territory for anyone who knew her. That made her dangerous. It also made her a danger to herself. If she went to Raybourne by herself, what would he do?

He thought about calling Cullen but decided not to. Not yet. If she went off the deep end in a really bad way, then he would. He wouldn’t put it past her to find a gun now. And he’d probably need backup.

“Where to?”

“Find Odie.” Jag stood from the booth and started toward the exit.

Calan was a half step behind him. “You know where she went?”

“I have an idea.”

“Getting to know her pretty well, huh?”

“I just know how she operates.”

“Independently?”

Jag smiled but it was with much chagrin. “Very.”

Calan chuckled. “You’re a lucky man.”

Lucky? “I don’t think that’s the word I’d use.” Cursed, maybe, to be the man to fall in love with Odelia Frank.

“There aren’t many women who match men in our line of work, but she seems to. Her background certainly suggests it.”

Match him…

And what were those thoughts about love? He pushed them aside when he realized what Calan had said.

The man had lost two women the same way. Both murdered—probably by the same man. Jag couldn’t imagine the anguish.

“I’m sorry about Kate,” Jag said.

“She was an amazing woman. A lot like Odie in many ways. Not as brash, though.”

Brash. Now there was a word to describe her. Jag chuckled. “And you think I’m lucky.”

Calan didn’t return the humor. “Better you than me. I’m done with women for a while. It just hasn’t worked out for me.”

Better off a loner. So many guys in this job leaned toward that, some not by choice.

“The right one will come along.”

“I’ve already had two. What do I have to do? Have nine lives?” He shook his head. “No thanks. I’m on sabbatical. Maybe a permanent one.”