Chapter 16 #2
After hanging up, he parked and entered the church. It was empty on a Saturday afternoon, with one older woman on her knees in the first pew. He went up the stairs and into the choir loft, where he found his old friend. He sat on the pew next to him. "Getting more creative," he said.
Reza smiled. "Confession starts in twenty minutes. Figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone."
"You're going to confession?" he asked with surprise. "Since when are you Catholic?"
"Since last year, when I met someone at a mass."
"Someone, as in a woman?"
"A beautiful woman," Reza said. "I'm who she needs me to be."
"Is this business or personal?"
"A little of both."
"What do you have for me?" he asked, more interested in Reza's information than anything else.
Reza took his phone out of his pocket, opened his camera, and showed him a photo of a man at a train station. "Malik Azrani was in Berlin yesterday."
"And he was in Tajikistan last weekend," he muttered. "He's on the move."
"I checked the train schedule. Looks like he was headed to Munich."
He studied the image. He hadn't looked at a picture of Malik in over a year, but it definitely appeared to be him.
He wasn't as tall as Caleb, and his hair was much lighter, but he had the same long and lanky limbs.
"He's not avoiding the cameras. He wants to be seen," he murmured.
"Maybe to get us away from Tajikistan. Or to make us think he's going somewhere in Europe, somewhere that isn't the US. "
"That was my thought," Reza said. "But none of my sources seem to think he's headed to the US or that he's involved with Caleb.
The brothers were estranged a long time ago.
Caleb is eight years younger than Malik.
When their parents divorced, Caleb went to the US; Malik stayed in Istanbul with his father.
Caleb hasn't been on anyone's radar until now.
I don't know if he's working with his brother or making his own name. "
He nodded. "I'm going to find out." He got up. "Thanks. And good luck with that confession. I hope the priest doesn't have a heart attack."
Reza smiled. "I'll go easy on him."
He smiled back and headed down the stairs.
He'd wanted information, and he'd gotten it, but he wasn't sure what to do with it.
When the café bomb had gone off, he'd never imagined it could be tied to anyone connected to Qadir, but maybe this wasn't about the Meridien Tower at all. Maybe it was about Dominic.
Maybe it was about him…
It was a little past noon when Max showed up with deli sandwiches, chips, side salads, and a couple of cookies. Kara was almost as happy to see the food as she was to see him. Oh, who was she kidding? He won hands down.
She smiled to herself as she unpacked the food. And smiled even more when Max came over and stole a kiss.
"What was that for?" she asked.
"I was hungry."
"Well, you did bring food," she said with a laugh.
"I wasn't only hungry for food."
Her stomach fluttered at the sexy banter, reminding her how long it had been since she'd shared this happy feeling of attraction and intimacy.
"Well, I think food is the only option right now," she said, giving him a stern look.
"Work, remember? Did you get information from your contacts? Did you speak to Dominic?"
"Dominic is attending an overnight executive retreat at a very private, very exclusive lodge in the Hudson Valley."
"Who's at the retreat?" she asked with interest.
"I believe Caroline Rowe and Sebastian Hanover were going to be there with some unnamed individuals, who I suspect are in town for the conference on Tuesday."
She frowned at that thought. "That could be dangerous. How secure is this location?"
"It's very secure, and Dominic has his own security with him as well."
"That's good. As long as you can trust the security. Didn't you say there was a breach on Dominic's last international trip?"
A cloud crossed his expression. "I did, but that area of the world is much harder to protect."
"Did you learn anything else?"
"Not related to your case. I did find out that Malik Azrani, Caleb's brother, and someone who has been high up in Qadir's network was in Tajikistan last weekend and spotted at a train station in Germany yesterday."
"That doesn't sound good for Dominic's project.
But I'm not too unhappy that Caleb's brother is in Germany and not in New York.
" She took their food from the counter to the table and pushed her laptop to the side so they could eat.
"You don't think Caleb is working with his brother or Qadir, do you? "
"There's no evidence of that," he said as he unwrapped a sandwich. "Oh, one other thing. Elias Costa was killed in a solo car crash in southern Maine last night."
"What?" she asked in surprise. "Seriously?"
"That's what I was told. I'm sure your office can get the details."
"Damn. I wasn't expecting that."
"There's no way it was just an accident. What have you been working on?"
It took her a minute to move her mind away from Elias Costa. She needed to have Wes find out more about Costa's death. Realizing Max was still waiting for an answer, she said, "The Meridien Tower case."
"How's that going?"
Before she replied, she took a bite of her turkey sandwich. "This is good," she said happily. "I was just thinking I was hungry when you showed up with a banquet of food. You must have read my mind from afar."
He gave her a lazy smile. "My mind-reading skills are not that good. I was hungry, too. So, have you learned anything new?"
She popped the cap on a bottle of flavored sparkling water, took a sip, then said.
"Yes. I've been reading up about Redstone Technologies, the company that made the faulty smart building system that trapped the residents in the tower during the fire.
" She picked up the notebook next to her computer, where she'd been jotting down notes.
"Ashford Capital invested two million in Redstone's Series A funding round.
That's a division of Ashford Industries. "
"I'm aware," he said, his gaze narrowing.
"Dominic was one of the first investors, but he didn't invest in any of the other rounds," she added. "Which might raise the question: Did he know there was something wrong with the technology?"
"It's more likely he invested as a favor to Mason Redstone to get him started."
She tipped her head in acknowledgment. "They seem to move in the same circles. I saw several photographs of them as well as David Hartford and Harry Faulkner."
"Which means Hartford and Faulkner probably know about that investment. If they think he profited from their families' deaths, and one or both of them are behind this terror track..."
"Then Dominic could be a target," she finished. "I know he's at a retreat, but I think you need to talk to him, Max."
He pulled out his phone. "I'll send him another text, telling him it's urgent we speak today."
"I'm a little surprised he left the city with Samantha coming off the ventilator today."
"Not today. Now they're talking Monday. I did get that much information from him when we texted earlier."
She ate the second half of her sandwich as he was sending the text, glancing at her own phone as she did so.
She had no new texts, but she'd been in touch with her team earlier in the day, going over what she'd learned about a link between the tower fire seven years ago and what had happened the past week.
She didn't want to leave them out of the loop, but she didn't go into too much detail.
When she'd asked Jason if he had any more information on the safe house leak, he'd said no, and she could feel his frustration as deeply as her own.
She was sure he didn't want to believe anyone on his team would have done such a thing, but Damon probably felt the same way about the agents working under him.
She hoped that the location had been leaked by someone in the building and not someone working for the bureau, because she didn't want to believe that anyone was compromised. But until she knew for sure, she needed to keep her guard up.
"Dominic said he can squeeze in a quick meeting at three o'clock, ten minutes tops," Max said. "But I'll have to meet him at a park nearby. Apparently, no one can be on the property but secured and vetted guests."
"That sounds very secretive. I wonder who is with him."
"Could be anyone. He knows all the powerful people."
"And he is powerful himself. I want to go with you, Max."
She'd thought he'd immediately say no, but after a brief hesitation, he nodded. "Okay."
"Really? I thought it was going to take more effort to get a yes."
"I thought I'd save my energy," he said, a knowing gleam in his eyes. "And I've kind of gotten used to having you around, which is strange, because I am very used to working on my own. But there is one condition. I'm driving."
She smiled. "No problem." She grabbed the bag of cookies. "I'll bring these for the ride. Did I mention I love chocolate chip cookies? Or was this a lucky guess?"
He grinned. "Actually, your mother mentioned it to me at the bar last night."
"No way. When did she do that?"
"When you went to get me cake after telling me you didn't want any. She said that you never ate cake, that every birthday she had to make you a giant chocolate chip cookie to share with your friends."
She shook her head in embarrassed amazement. "I can't believe she told you that. Did she also show you my naked baby picture she finds so amusing?"
"No, but I'd like to see that," he said with a laugh.
"Never."
"Never is a long time. And your mom likes me. I bet she'd send it if I asked."
"You're not going to ask, and you don't have her phone number."
"You don't think a super spy like me could get her number?" he teased.
"Well, you're not going to do that. And I was lying before. There aren't any naked pictures, but I'm sure my mom has other embarrassing things to share. So, you two don't need to talk again."
"I think you're lying now, and your mom and I will talk again. I am your fake boyfriend after all."
"Who will disappear like all the others," she said, getting to her feet. "And you don't do long-term relationships, remember?"
"I remember," he said, an odd expression coming to his eyes. "But that could change."
His words made her a little nervous, taking the moment to a more serious level, and she wasn't ready for that. "We should go. We don't want to miss Dominic's ten-minute break."