Chapter 4
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E lizabeth woke early the next morning and hurried downstairs, hoping to be awake before her houseguest, but, of course, he was sitting in the kitchen on his phone. She looked over at him.
He smiled. “Good morning.”
“At least we made it through the night,” she noted, half joking.
“We did, indeed,” he stated, with a smile. “How are you feeling?”
“I got some sleep, so I’m doing fine and feeling foolish.”
He shook his head and added, “Hey, staying alive is never being foolish.”
“Being paranoid is another story,” she quipped.
He smiled at her. “So far I haven’t seen anything bordering on paranoia, so I wouldn’t worry about that.”
“ Yet , you mean.”
He chuckled. “You can add yet if you want and if it makes you feel better, but honestly you’re handling a lot of very difficult information pretty well.”
She smiled at him. “I think you’re one of those nice men who always tries to make life easier for people.”
He laughed at that. “I know a lot of people who would argue with you on that point. Remember how I’m one of the military investigators? I have to be a hard-ass at times, and that is rarely appreciated.”
“No, it wouldn’t be appreciated,” she agreed, “but that doesn’t mean that what you do is wrong. I know Nicholas always told me how his job alienated people in a way, and that wasn’t fair to him either.”
“No, it certainly wasn’t, and it isn’t, but it is the job,” Masters stated firmly. “That’s just part of it.”
“Right. So…” She looked around and realized that a pot of coffee was dripping.
He apologized. “Sorry, I didn’t know whether you would be upset that I took the liberty of making coffee or appreciate the fact that it’s done and ready.”
She laughed. “Because I’m desperately in need of coffee, I’ll go with the latter.”
“Good, I was hoping you would.”
She poured two cups and brought them over, as he put down his phone. “Were you working?”
“Of course. I’ve contacted my boss as well.”
She nodded. “Was he upset that you spent the night?”
“Why would he be upset?” he asked her in astonishment.
She flushed. “It just seems weird.”
“It’s not weird,” he declared. “Stop thinking that you’re being paranoid about this. This investigation is too important. Jasper was quite surprised at the documents you found too, and I have emailed copies of the file from the USB to him as well.”
Elizabeth frowned, as she thought about the repercussions. “What if Nicholas wasn’t even supposed to have those files?”
“Maybe he wasn’t. It won’t be common knowledge.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that we will keep his USB files confidential at the moment, until we clear everybody in his department first. We must ensure that this isn’t involved in the sniper case we’re already dealing with.”
She shook her head. “As much as I want all this solved, it never occurred to me that it would be this difficult.”
“No, nobody ever thinks it’ll be hard.”
“Surely somebody knows who shot Mason, and so that’s got be easy, right?”
Masters shrugged. “On TV they solve it within a half-hour show,” he noted. “Real life isn’t like that. You see those cold cases where they go twenty, thirty years, and then sometimes technology has improved enough that they can do something with the evidence. You just have to be grateful for the foresight of the people who collected all the evidence at the beginning and kept it, hoping that sometime down the road there would be technology that would help.”
“That is one of the most fascinating aspects to me,” she murmured. “That somebody thought far enough ahead to collect everything and then hoped technology would catch up someday.”
“And now that is catching up,” he pointed out. “We have more and more cold cases being solved, and sadly not always in time for the family of the victims to find closure. However, in many cases, it is in time for the culprits themselves to be captured.”
“Can you imagine the criminal who, for that many years, thought they were free and clear, until suddenly one day they get caught? I’m sure it must be like a bolt out of the blue for them,” she noted, shaking her head.
“I would imagine so. In many cases they’re arrogant enough to think that they didn’t leave anything behind and that they’re perfectly safe. They may spend that first year or two worrying about it, but then, to them, it’s just a done deal.”
She nodded. “I can’t think of anything more satisfying than working on cold cases like that.”
*
He smiled. “That’s a big part of it, but so is working on current cases.” In fact, Masters loved his job. “My job is very fulfilling, yet frustrating, all at the same time,” he shared, with a smile.
“And yet do you have a job?” she asked in a half-joking manner.
“I do. It’s just that our investigative team works on different levels within the military, and not everybody knows all the details about what everybody else does,” he murmured.
Maybe she didn’t even know what he was doing. “So, now what?”
“Why don’t we both run to your bank and put Nicholas’s physical documents in your safe deposit box there? Have you got digital copies on your computer and in the cloud as well?” When she nodded, he added, “After that I’ll drop you off and head back to my office and sort through the information on the USB drive. What about you and your work? Where should I drop you?” he asked curiously.
“I mostly work from home,” she replied, looking around, frowning. “I only go in when I have a specific need to be there in person.”
Thankfully the trip to the bank and back went without a hitch, although Elizabeth remained nervous, looking around at her surroundings, even when inside the bank.
“No one’s following us,” he shared, which seemed to calm her down on the way back to her house. He walked her to her door and went inside with her. After he checked out her house and all the windows and doors, he rejoined her in the kitchen. “I know it probably sounds autocratic, and I certainly don’t mean it to because it’s more about your safety, but could you check in with me, each time you come and go throughout the day?”
Her eyebrows slowly rose as she contemplated that. Then she studied his face and nodded. “Considering you stayed here overnight for me, that’s the least I can do.”
“At some point,” he reminded her, “talk to your neighbor.”
She hesitated and then sighed. “I probably should. If nothing else it’ll encourage her to continue keeping an eye on Nicholas’s property.”
“That’s not a bad thing right now,” he pointed out.
She winced. “I don’t want to think that I’m in any danger.”
“I don’t want to think that either,” he murmured, “so let’s not even go there.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice,” she muttered, with half a laugh. “I guess it’s all about sorting through what’s going on and then coming to some understanding.”
“It’s a lot of things,” he noted, “and we’re missing a ton of information, but the bottom line is, we need to find out what happened to your brother, and we still need to sort out what is happening with Mason.”
“Nicholas is my brother, so it’s hard to even think that Mason’s investigation is taking precedence over the disappearance of Nicholas,” she admitted, “but I guess it’s not so much that as the new versus old information involved.”
“That’s a good way to look at it,” he pointed out. “Cold cases stay cold until something triggers a new lead. In this situation, Mason’s case could be good for finding out more about your brother.”
“In that case, I should reach out to the navy again.”
“Or don’t,” he said, with a wry look. “Let’s not have anybody think you guys are connected to the sniper shooting of Mason.”
Astonished, she stared at him. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously,” he stated, “because we don’t know what’s going on here, not with Mason and not with Nicholas. Thus, we don’t want anybody to start making assumptions. As investigators, we are looking for patterns, for connections, for who might have told something to whom, and you could end up on the chopping block next,” he reminded her. “And that is something we don’t want.… This may sound very James Bond- like, but I suggest we have a code word from you, where if anything were to happen and you needed to alert me, and only me, you could casually use that word. That way I would know you’re in trouble. So then I would drop everything and ride to the rescue.”
She snorted. “I’ve never had a code word. Although… my brother and I did something like that when we were kids, but it was more about having fun.”
Masters nodded. “I’m not talking about fun right now. I’m talking about safety.”
Her laughter died when she realized he was serious. She slowly nodded and added, “I’ll use the same one we used back then— ice cream .” When he laughed, she shrugged. “Whenever one of us was struggling with life, we used to ask about ice cream, so it became a code word of sorts. When times were tough, it meant I needed help. And often,” she shared, with a smile. “Even as adults one of us would come over with ice cream.”
“Good enough. So, if I happen to find Nicholas somewhere and told your brother that his sister has ice cream, would he recognize the reference?”
“Oh, absolutely,” she declared, eyeing him. “It’s funny how nobody else even thought to ask me something like that.”
“No, of course not,” Masters replied, his lips twitching, “because nobody was thinking along these lines. Since I’m expanding all aspects of the investigation, I want to find out what happened to him. If he’s alive, let’s get him back home, or, if he needs help, let’s get him someplace where he can get it.” After they shared a quick breakfast of toast and eggs, Masters departed. With a promise to check in, he left in his car and headed toward the office. As he walked in, Jasper was there, waiting for him. Masters motioned to Jasper’s office. “Let’s go in here and talk. You got coffee?”
“I’ve got coffee,” he murmured, leading them both to the back office that Jasper still used. He closed the door and pointed to his own coffee machine. “Is it so bad that you need coffee?”
“It’s not that it’s so bad that I need coffee, just that I could use some more,” Masters clarified, with a smile, already pouring a cup. “I did have two cups already though.”
“Which is more than I expected you to get.”
“Right? Anyway she’s doing better this morning, not quite so worried, so I was glad to see that.” He sighed, as he sat down. Taking a quick sip of coffee, he set his cup on Jasper’s desk.
“Do you think there’s any connection here?” Jasper asked.
At that, Masters frowned, checking that the door was shut and that they had some privacy. “Any chance you’ve got any cockroaches around here?”
At that, Jasper’s gaze narrowed, as he understood the reference. He walked over to the nearby closet, pulled out a small black box, and quickly did a sweep of the room. When no signal came that the room was bugged, he turned back to Masters. “Happy?”
“I’m happy that we checked,” he replied. “And I’m happy that nothing is here right now. However, that is something you’ll want to do on a regular basis.”
Jasper grimaced. “I still haven’t cleared everybody who works in this department.” With that check done, and the black box returned to the closet, he sat down again and asked, “Did you have any particular reason for wanting that done?”
“No specific reason except that whatever was done with the initial investigation into Nicholas disappearing, nothing’s been followed up on, at least not to the extent that it should have been,” he stated in a low voice.
Even though they didn’t find any bug, he wasn’t at all assured that this room was not still compromised in another way. He just didn’t have any way to check it out right now.
Jasper nodded. “I was wondering about that too. I looked at Nicholas’s case file, and, while an investigation was done, it doesn’t seem to have been done as thoroughly as you or I would have liked.”
“Exactly, and we have somebody concerned that her brother’s case was fobbed off for another reason.”
“What reason would that be?” he asked curiously.
“That’s what we don’t know. Now, if you’re about to ask if I’m being influenced by feelings for her, the answer is no.”
“I wouldn’t say any such thing,” Jasper noted in a mild tone, yet with a hint of a smile, “but now that you brought it up…”
“I spent the night, yes, and I slept on the couch. There is concerning information on this USB key.”
“It’s more than worrying.” Jasper looked grim.
“You’ll need to get the rest of this team checked out pretty damn fast,” Masters muttered.
“I know it,” Jasper replied, “and I would normally ask Tesla to look into something like this on a private level. However,… with everything going on—”
“I think you should still ask her,” Masters stated.
“I didn’t want to put too much on her,” Jasper explained, frowning at him. “She’s still staying at the hospital.”
“Yeah, but this could be instrumental in finding out what happened to Mason.”
Jasper rubbed his forehead as he thought about it. “Look. I’ll talk to her again. She was doing a little bit of work, but she was getting so tired that I didn’t want to add more.”
“At least ask her,” Masters suggested. “She won’t appreciate being kept out of it, and she is somebody who wants to be involved. I get that we need to keep her safe, keep her and the baby healthy,” he noted, “but mentally she would benefit from keeping busy and being included.”
Jasper’s lips twitched. “Maybe. I’m not so sure you’re right though. The late term of her pregnancy has her drained, not to mention the worry about Mason.”
“Maybe not,” Masters conceded, “and I’ve been wrong before, but I also know what it’s like to be kept out of the loop when it’s important, when something you could do might make it go faster or even smoother—or whatever adjectives we want to use,” he said, with a wave of his hand. “The wording doesn’t matter. Just give her the option and see what she says.”
“Will do,” Jasper agreed. “Now, this file on Nicholas. For the moment, we don’t know that any of this is related to Mason’s case.”
“But you’re considering that it could be, right?” Masters asked.
“Honestly, I don’t see how it can’t be.”
“Yeah, I get that there are likely to be multiple cases that Nicholas was involved in that could very well have impacted his disappearance,” Masters shared. “However, for something happening to Mason so soon after a navy investigator goes missing, I think we must consider the potential for a connection. Am I saying it is connected? No. Am I saying it needs to be investigated? Hell, yes. So is anything coming together on Mason’s shooting?”
Jasper winced. “Not in any positive or tangible way, no,” he admitted. “We’ve tracked down all the city cameras following all the vehicles leaving the base airport at the relevant time. We’ve tracked down the one vehicle we have determined to be the getaway vehicle. It was stolen. We found no DNA in or on that vehicle, though forensics is still going over it all. So far, nobody is plying me with anything positive in that direction,” he stated. “We both know how hard this investigation will be, since it appears to be a professional hit.”
“A professional hit on a base full of professionals,” Masters pointed out, “so definitely not an easy round of things to lock down.”
“But not impossible because, in order for it to happen here, somebody here had to be involved to some degree.”
“I agree with that,” Masters stated, “which is also why I’m clearing everybody here, from snipers to supply clerks. And, of course, we can’t let our personal feelings influence anything.”
“You mean, Sam . No, we can’t,” Jasper agreed, with a directed look at the room outside of his office. Jasper went on. “Just because Sam doesn’t appear to be a team player and is more than chafed that I appear to have some influence that he doesn’t know anything about, all that doesn’t make him a shitty person or guilty.”
“No, it doesn’t make him a shitty person, and neither does his sobriety struggle, but it does make him somebody that we can’t necessarily put our trust in at the moment,” Masters declared. “And we need all hands on deck for Mason’s investigation.”
“Exactly. I am heading off to look at ballistics today,” Jasper shared. “I have a few questions for our ballistics team.”
“About what?”
He gave him a look. “Apparently some anomalies were found in the bullet that they pulled out of Mason.”
“Anomalies?” he questioned.
“Yes. And I’m not saying that these were custom-made, but I’m thinking more along the lines that they were homemade.”
“Ballistics should have been able to tell you that already.”
“Yes, they should have, and, in a way, I’m getting what feels like a coded message that it’s quite possible. Still, I want to know why it’s not a clear-cut deal. Thus I have a meeting scheduled with them,” he explained, as he checked his watch, “in about an hour.”
“Did they set it up?”
He nodded.
“So, they found something then,” Masters stated, excitement in his tone.
“And yet they’re calling me,” Jasper pointed out.
“Right. Shit. So, we’re back to the potential for trouble here in the department again.”
“We’re certainly back to something. I just don’t know what. It’s hard to figure out what’s going on here, when you and I are so new here as it is,” Jasper noted. “And there’s obviously a lot of underplay happening.”
“Yeah, plus we have a missing investigator, whom nobody appears to give a crap about finding, which is a huge red flag for us, and obviously for his family as well.”
“I will keep you in the loop on this ballistics deal. Why don’t you take the Nicholas angle and run with it and see if you can find anything? In the meantime, if I need you to do something with Mason’s case, I’ll tag you.”
“Done.” Masters stood and walked to the door of Jasper’s office, then turned to look back at his boss. “We’re both playing in the dark here, and you know how dangerous that is,” he muttered, “so watch your back.” And, with that, he turned and walked out.