Chapter 10 #3
“You do.” He turned back to the screen before she could argue and slid the tea toward her.
“I’ve been running Caldwell’s firm through old contract archives.
Most of the site is public, and their current employees look clean.
I can’t know if someone was removed from the website unless I compare archived versions or scrape old cached pages, which I’m doing now, but that won’t be fast.”
“Could my intruder work for Caldwell?”
“Or Caldwell’s firm could’ve provided the kind of support that gave someone access to old records, old vehicle pools, and old identities.”
She went quiet. “Old vehicle pools.”
Jasper clicked to the plate window. “The sedan’s plate doesn’t match any active federal vehicle. But the format is right. I’m digging through decommissioned asset records.”
“Would those records show who drove the car?”
“Not usually at the individual-driver level, not after decommissioning. Fleet records might show agency assignment, pool location, maintenance history, or disposal chain. If I’m lucky, I can find a vehicle identification number tied to the plate, and then maybe an asset custody trail.”
“Could Vance have driven it?”
The question was so Katherine that he could have kissed her for it. “Maybe,” he said. “It would depend on the date. If the vehicle was active during Vance’s last assignments or retirement transition, it could have been assigned to a pool he used. If it came later, then no.”
Her eyes stayed on the screen. “Vance retired and settled in Blackridge. What if the car was attached to a records transfer or protective detail when his papers were moved here?”
“That’s plausible.”
“Can you search by Vance’s name against federal fleet records?”
“Not directly, but I can search records transfer logs, if they exist, and asset movement records near the dates his papers changed custody. I can also search for any vehicle tied to the same regional office as his last public posting.”
Priss chose that moment to twist out of Katherine’s arms and jump onto the edge of Jasper’s desk. He caught the cat with one hand before she stepped on the keyboard. “No classified typing,” he told her.
Priss stared at him.
Katherine reached for her. “I’m sorry.”
“She’s fine.” He set Priss gently on the floor. “She’s trying to help.”
“She doesn’t know boundaries.”
“She tripped a gunman. She’s earned some latitude.”
That got him a real smile, tired but there, and he held onto it for one second before turning back to the database.
The search window returned another null result, followed by a partial archived asset record that had been misfiled under a transportation disposal code instead of an active fleet code.
Jasper stilled.
Katherine noticed immediately. “What?”
“Maybe nothing.”
“You said that in the tone of someone who found something.”
“I found an archived disposal record for a federal sedan with a partial plate match. Same two letters and a number. It was listed as decommissioned four years ago.”
“CIA?”
He opened the record, and the screen populated slowly, line by line. “Not directly. It belonged to a federal interagency pool attached to secure records transfer and historical review support.”
Katherine moved closer.
Jasper scrolled. “The vehicle was assigned to a regional support pool in Virginia, then transferred twice. The final custodian before decommissioning was tied to a program code.”
“Legacy Shield?” she asked, hope making the words crisp.
He read the next line and felt the cold satisfaction of a locked door opening. “Yeah.”
She drew in a breath and clapped her hands once. “Damn, you’re good.”
He smiled to himself as he kept reading. “The asset manager on the decommissioning file was…Caldwell Strategic Risk.”
Katherine swayed, reaching for the back of his chair for support. Jasper watched he fear and vindication move through her face together. “Matthew Caldwell’s firm.”
“We have our first solid link.”
“Yes,” she whispered softly under her breath. “So my attacker was using a plate tied to a decommissioned federal vehicle that’s connected to a classified review program chaired by Upton and managed through Caldwell’s firm.”
“Looks like it.”
Her gaze remained on the screen. “Which means Vance’s private papers, Caldwell’s false timeline, Upton’s recall order, and the man in the mask are not separate threads.”
“No,” Jasper said. Anger burned again in his gut. So did fear for Katherine. “They’re tied together.”
Katherine’s fingers tightened on the chair. “Is it enough to expose what’s going on or find the masked man?”
“Not yet.”
“But we’re close?”
She was still pale and exhausted, but looked more alive than she had all day, as if the evidence had given her back a piece of herself the intruder had stolen.
“Yeah,” he said. “We’re close.”
The words had barely left his mouth when Garrett appeared in the doorway, phone at his ear and expression grim. “CB just called in from town.”
Jasper turned his chair. “Tell me he found the sedan.”
“He did,” Garrett said. “Abandoned behind an old service garage off Route 12.”
Katherine went still.
Garrett’s gaze moved to her, then back to Jasper. “There’s blood on the driver’s seat, glass in the floorboard, and a black ski mask in the trunk. But no sign of the driver.”