Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
“From the beginning,” Finn said softly. “Please.” He sat down next to Julia on the bed, hoping to provide some support while she shared her story.
Harper was back in the suite, but she hadn’t mentioned how her conversation with Michael had gone, though Finn had some guesses.
Most importantly, Julia had calmed down a bit from the shocking news she’d learned from her brother, and now Finn hoped she would be able to shed some light on what the hell was going on.
“And for now, let’s act as though Tariq’s not involved. I want to hear what you knew before tonight,” Harper added.
Finn reached for Julia’s hand and laced their fingers together. Probably not what he should have done since he needed to change course away from any kind of intimacy with her and remain professional, but she was hurting, and he hated seeing that. Anything he could do to help her, he would.
“When Oliver got out of the military last year, he was adrift.” Julia had to be drawing parallels to Tucker, too. It couldn’t be easy for her to share this. “He wasn’t sure what to do. How to handle civilian life.”
Finn couldn’t relate since he wasn’t technically a civilian, but some of the guys he’d stayed in contact with from his old platoon, before Echo, were out now, and they struggled.
“I was worried he’d, um . . .”
End up like Tucker? He squeezed her hand gently to remind her he was there.
She looked up at him and lightly nodded.
“I heard about an international security firm that hired veterans for different gigs, but mostly to be bodyguards. A chance to travel and experience the world and not from behind a scope this time. I knew one of the owners of the firm, and I connected them.” She paused.
“There was an opening in Dubai, and I encouraged Oliver to take the job last year.”
And there was the guilt. The blame.
Unwarranted, but would he feel the same way if it’d been him in her shoes? Probably.
“His first client was Ario Zare. The whole thing is just strange because Oliver said he liked him and his wife,” she explained.
“Did anything change before he was arrested?” Harper asked. “Did he say Ario had changed, I mean?”
“No, not at all. So, when my brother called me after he’d learned through his government contacts that Oliver was in jail for murdering his boss, I thought it was a cruel joke.”
“What proof is there?” Harper continued the questioning, and Finn was relieved she was able to do the back-and-forth with Julia. He wasn’t sure if he could handle it.
“Security footage from the office building across the street showed Oliver arriving at the construction site and entering the building at eight in the morning. He usually accompanied Ario to work, but for some reason, Ario went without him that day.”
“I can’t imagine Ario was the only one there when Oliver arrived,” Finn spoke up.
“No, Ario and Oliver weren’t alone. And the only reason the U.S.
was granted access to anything related to the case is that Oliver’s an American.
And even that took time. Michael was finally able to look at the footage and read the statement, but they won’t let anyone talk to Oliver. It’s killing me.”
Yeah, Finn would lose his damn mind if a friend was locked up and he couldn’t even hear his side of the story.
“So, um, ten minutes after Oliver was inside,” Julia continued, “Ario was supposedly pushed, and Oliver exited the building shortly after. The cameras across the street caught the fall. No cams inside yet since the skyscraper was under construction, but there were five crewmen on the tenth floor that day. Two said they were physically near Ario when Oliver showed up and . . .”
“So, they have witnesses to verify Oliver pushed him?” Harper probed when Julia let her words hang, words she clearly didn’t want to say.
Julia nodded. “They said Oliver started yelling at Ario in English, backed him to the ledge while yelling, and then just pushed.”
“What were they arguing about?” Finn asked.
“The workers don’t know English. They weren’t sure what was said.” Julia frowned. “But Ario’s wife, Kaira, said she knew why they were fighting.”
Another pause. Another moment of silence that had Finn worried Julia was afraid to share something.
“What is it?” Harper asked in a near-whisper.
Julia’s blue eyes vanished behind her lids.
“Kaira said Oliver showed up to pick Ario up for work, discovered he’d already left, and found her badly beaten that morning.
He became enraged and went to find Ario to confront him.
In her statement, she also said she believed Oliver had fallen in love with her,” Julia answered in a somber tone as if her words might serve as the final nail in Oliver’s coffin.
Coffin? No. Damn it. Memories of pills in the sarcophaguses haunted him yet again.
“The United Arab Emirates recently overhauled its Islamic personal laws in 2020 if I’m not mistaken,” Harper said. “It’s an effort to draw tourists and businesses. So-called ‘honor crimes’ and ‘honor killings’ are now punishable just like any other kind of assault.”
“I’m still guessing a man like Oliver wouldn’t let wife abuse fly, especially if he considered Ario part American,” Finn remarked. “Not that some Americans don’t beat their wives even though it’s illegal there, too.”
“Regardless,” Julia said while opening her eyes, “Oliver wouldn’t commit murder because of it.” She stood, and Finn released her hand. “I-I don’t think he would. But Michael believes it’s possible.”
“Well, the incriminating factor is that Oliver fled the scene of the crime instead of offering himself as a witness,” Harper said.
Why run if he was innocent?
“Maybe he knew he was being set up?” Julia’s proposal sounded weak, but he wanted to believe her faith in her friend was well-founded.
“If Ario’s really alive, he would need a fall guy, right?
And surely Ario has enough money to buy off someone at the police station to ensure they identified him as the victim.
His body and face were badly damaged from the fall. ”
“Possible, and given who Kaira’s family is, there’s most likely a lot more to this story than the police report let on.
” Harper’s comment seemed to relax Julia a bit.
“Especially when you throw into the mix the plastic surgeon showing up in Egypt and then murdered shortly after being seen with Tariq.”
“Tariq wouldn’t need Ario’s money for anything, right?” Finn asked. “Not if he’s wealthy enough to throw money at terrorist groups over the years as a hobby.”
“True. But Ario had billions. Tariq’s only thirty-three, still living with his parents, and his money comes from them. Same as his twin and his other unmarried brothers,” Harper answered.
“Maybe they cut Tariq off because he’s too Western for their style, similar to Kaira.” God, this was some next-level silver-spoon-rich-boy issue if that were the case.
“I don’t know. We’ll find out.” Harper pinned Julia with a curious look. “How did you find out about Giorgio and the possibility Ario faked his death?”
Julia pivoted to the side to put eyes on Harper. “My friend is a freelance journalist and basically a crime solver these days, and I asked her to dive deep into the Zare family. Anything irregular that stood out within the timeframe nearing Ario’s death.”
And you took self-defense lessons from me in case you . . . He couldn’t finish that thought. The idea she’d anticipated putting herself in danger made him sick.
“By dumb luck, Mya happened to recognize Giorgio Ferrari in some surveillance footage she’d had a friend pull from Ario’s main office building. She knew him from a previous case she’d worked where a criminal faked his death and used Giorgio to do it.”
“So, you thought maybe Ario faked his death, and if he was really alive, then there was no question Oliver was innocent, and that’s how you’d save him.” A good lead. A shaky one, but it was better than nothing, and he was rather impressed Julia and her reporter friend had gotten so far.
“It took a lot of time to track down Giorgio, and I had to bait his assistant into wanting to date me. I cloned Lorenzo’s phone and sent the intel to my friend, and that’s when she found out where Giorgio would be next.”
“Damn.” A quick, impressed smile ghosted Harper’s lips. “Sorry, didn’t expect to hear you talking about mirroring phones. Your operative skills are top-notch for a businesswoman.”
And had Julia always wanted to be a businesswoman? Or a photographer? Had she set her dreams aside when she lost Tucker? Was that when she put down the camera?
“I also recently found out my friend was the one sending death threats to my office because I refused to take her advice and hire protection. She was worried I would get hurt the deeper I looked into this, especially when she discovered Kaira was related to the Saudi royals. I didn’t know Tariq’s name because Kaira has seven brothers from what I remembered from Mya’s research.
I didn’t consider that Ario’s death might be connected to her family somehow, and I assume Mya’s investigative skills wouldn’t have turned up the whole financing-terrorism thing by Tariq, either. ”
“No, she wouldn’t have found that out.” Not unless Mya’s secretly CIA.
“My brother promised to handle things by going through the proper legal channels, and I promised him I would stay out of it. But despite how compelling the evidence is against Oliver, I know in my heart Oliver is being set up.”
“What’d Oliver say happened?” Finn asked. “I assume Michael read that in the report even though no one can talk to him.”
“Oliver said he went there to confront Ario about the abuse, which matches Kaira’s statement, and by the time he’d made it to the tenth floor—there were no working elevators yet—Ario had already fallen.”
Finn drew a hand over his face, wishing he still had his thick beard, as he processed the news.
“Did you look into Oliver’s background? Did they check for anything suspicious at his home? Or—”
“Yeah, the report said they found, um.” Her blue eyes were hidden, this time by her palm.
“What?” Finn tensed, but why did he already know what she was going to say?
“Alcohol all over his condo. Empty bottles.”
Shit, that couldn’t be easy for her to learn. Did she think she missed the signs again?
“And there was more,” Julia whispered as she lowered her hand. “They found pills.”
“Pills?” He stepped back but hit the bed and wound up sitting when he lost his balance.
“The toxicology screen said he had fenethylline or something like that in his system. I don’t believe Oliver would take drugs, though.”
Finn’s head was spinning now.
“You’re sure that’s what it said?” Harper asked in a low voice, and it took Finn a moment to put two and two together.
“What is it?” Julia looked down at Finn.
“Fenethylline is a codrug of amphetamine and theophylline.” Harper’s shoulders sank at the unexpected news.
“And it’s also known as the brand name Captagon,” he hissed.