Chapter 31
P hilly rinsed his hair one more time. God, he hated ATV-ing. Especially in the desert or desert-like landscapes. He had dust in places there should never be dust.
As the hot water slid over his body, coloring it a subtle red by the time it fell to the white tiles of the shower, he wondered how Callie’s horseback ride had gone.
They’d split up that afternoon, but tomorrow morning, she’d be hiking again with Joe while he went on a trail run.
And in the afternoon, all three of them were signed up for rock climbing.
Despite the real reason for being there, it wasn’t a bad way to spend a week.
Switching the water off, he grabbed a towel and started drying his body.
They’d talked to Leo after lunch, and he was looking into the Canadian deal Joe mentioned, as well as Aiden’s trips to Brazil.
Maybe Liza’s iPad had made it to them, too.
When Callie returned from her ride, they’d touch base with the HICC crew again before heading to dinner.
Wrapping the towel around his waist, he bundled up his dirty clothes and stepped out of the bathroom. To find Callie lying on the bed, reading her phone. Her eyes shot up, then drifted down his bare chest before jerking up again. Then sliding down again.
He grinned but knew better than to say anything. “How’d the riding go?” he asked, halting midway between the bathroom and walk-in closet.
“Um, fine,” she said, dragging her gaze to meet his. “Pretty countryside. Horses were well behaved.”
“Who all went with you?”
Her eyes dipped, then she cleared her throat. “Cassie and Marge, the couple from Massachusetts, and Jerry and Karla, the couple from Texas. You?”
As much as he liked having her eyes on him, his towel was a flimsy thing that certain parts of his body could take down with one wrong twitch. And it was riling up for a good solid twitch.
“Me and Joe in one and Mark and Aimee, the brother and sister from Washington, in another. And the guides, of course,” he answered, walking into the closet.
It had a small washer/dryer in the corner, and he stuffed his clothes inside, then started the cycle.
He hadn’t gotten sweaty, not as he had on the morning hike, but he’d worn enough dust and sand while in the military that he wasn’t about to do it again.
He didn’t think she could see into the closet from her side of the bed, so he hung the towel on a hook and started digging through his bag for a pair of boxers. “You want to shower first or call Leo? We have an hour or so before dinner opens.”
“I’ll, uh, shower first. I love riding, but we had a couple of good runs, so I’m sweaty, dusty, and have helmet hair.”
He’d pulled on his boxers and a T-shirt, and he peeked into the room. Her eyes dropped far south of his chest this time. “Your hair still looks good to me,” he said, turning back around before she got more than an eyeful. “I didn’t know you rode horses.”
The bed creaked as she rose. He had one leg in his jeans when she walked in.
“Liza taught me. I went home with her a few times while in the academy, and she has a friend with a ranch. I didn’t learn anything fancy, but I can stay on.
” She paused, her hand on a clean shirt hanging on the rod.
“And I like horses. I like that something so huge can be so gentle, and it amazes me how good they are at picking up emotions. Much better than most people.”
“I rode a few while in the army, but not by choice. I’m of the firm camp that, given a choice, a horse will eat me.”
She chuckled. “You know they’re herbivores, right?”
“That’s what the sneaky bastards will have you believe,” he replied, grabbing a pair of socks and heading to the bed.
She laughed again, her voice carrying softly from the closet. “Oh, Sabina texted, and Liza’s iPad arrived. They planned to look at it this afternoon. She didn’t think they’d have an update by the time we talk tonight, not if Liza had any sort of security installed, but they are working on it.”
“Good news,” he replied, stretching out on the bed. Rolling over, he did a quick scan of the books on the lower shelf of his bedside table, then grabbed an Agatha Christie.
Callie paused on her way to the shower, eyed him, then continued.
“I do read,” he called out as the door shut.
She cracked the door open and stuck her head out. “Of course you do. Your choice surprised me is all. It’s one of my favorites.” Then she closed the door again.
He glanced at the cover of Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? He’d read it before and it was one of his favorites, too. Before his mind started giving that coincidence any meaning, he turned to the first page and started.
He was on the fourth chapter when the bathroom door opened, and a fully dressed Callie stepped out. It was probably better that she hadn’t come strutting out in a towel as he had. Although, he wouldn’t have minded.
“Let me drop these in the hamper, and then we can call Sabina and Leo,” she said, holding up her bundle of clothes.
“Mine should be done washing and drying by the time we get back tonight if you want to do a load,” he replied.
She stepped back into the room with a wave of her hand. “No need. The sound would annoy me while we try to sleep. I’ll throw them in in the morning so they can cycle through while we’re away. Ready?” she asked, grabbing her phone and stretching out beside him.
“Ready,” he replied, setting his book down on the bedside table.
She dialed a number, then hit Speaker and set her device between them. Two rings in, Leo answered.
“Hang on,” he said. “Let me grab Sabina.” Rustling and a few muffled voices filtered through, then the sound of a door closing and he was back.
“Hey, sorry about that, I was in the kitchen,” Leo said.
“Hey, guys,” Sabina said.
They both greeted the pair, then Sabina picked things up.
“Before I go into what we’ve found, did you learn anything new this afternoon, Philly?”
“No, not really. I get the sense Joe is the, I wouldn’t say black sheep of the family, because he does his part for the family business and is close to Rian, if not his father. But he’s different.”
“A gray sheep?” Sabina suggested.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Callie smile. He turned and looked. She shrugged. “Yeah, a gray sheep,” he agreed. “He looks at life differently than either Rian or Aiden. Rian seems to get him, appreciate him, but not so much Aiden.”
He paused, replaying the conversations he and Joe had had while ATV-ing.
They’d spent most of the four hours enjoying and commenting on the views, with conversations about other places they’d traveled spattered in.
Then an offhand comment Joe made came back to him and he frowned.
“He did mention that a couple of years ago, his dad was thinking about expanding into non-textile home goods. In the end, they decided not to, but the potential partner he mentioned sounded familiar to me. I can’t place it, though.
I meant to look the woman up but forgot when I got back to the room.
A shower took precedence over everything else. ”
Leo chuckled. “I hate ATV-ing, too. What’s the name? We can look into it.”
“Andrea Giodani.”
Sabina chuckled. “Yeah, it would sound familiar.”
“You know her?” he asked.
“We do,” Sabina answered.
“So do I,” Callie added. He swiveled his head and looked at her. “She’s set herself up as the black sheep of her Mafia family, the Barbieris. She changed her name to her mother’s maiden name to distance herself when she went clean. Supposedly.”
“Ah,” he said. “That’s why the name sounds familiar. We didn’t get a lot of intel on US citizens when I was in the army, but wasn’t her brother, Lorenzo Barbieri, involved in that attempted assassination of the US ambassador?”
“Those were the rumors. Likely true, but never proved,” Sabina said.
“You said she supposedly went clean. You don’t think she did?” he asked Callie.
“The Bureau has never proved anything, but no, I don’t think she did.”
“We don’t think so, either,” Leo said. “She’s never been the subject of any of our investigations, but she’s cropped up in a few.”
“The fact that Aiden and Andrea were thinking about doing business together is something to look into then,” he said.
“Definitely,” Leo agreed as Sabina murmured her assent.
“Anything else?” Sabina asked.
“No, not unless you want to hear his opinions about whether Banff or Zermatt is better for skiing.”
“Thanks, but no,” Sabina said. “We’ll stick to the resort here in town, thanks.” She took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said on the exhale. “Let’s start with the Canada deal. They are in negotiations, as Joe said, and the contract is a big one. A couple hundred million US dollars over five years.”
Philly let out a low whistle. “I didn’t think Nolan Enterprises played in that big a league.”
“They don’t, not usually,” Leo replied.
“That’s why this deal is so important,” Callie said.
“Exactly,” Sabina agreed.
“So important that Aiden would go to the lengths he went to in France?” Philly asked.
“We’re not sure. Not yet,” Leo answered.
“I hear a but,” Callie said.
“But there’s chatter,” Sabina answered. “And not the good kind.”
“What kind?” Philly asked.
“The kind that has Quebecois separatists bombing the Alexandra Bridge,” Leo said.
Philly frowned. Beside him, Callie crossed her arms. “There hasn’t been separatist violence in Canada in what, forty years?” he asked.
“More than that,” Leo said. “The last major attack was in the late 1960s.”
“I’m sure HICC has its own contacts, but there’s an agent I worked with on a case a few years ago. She’s very good and could run with the information,” Callie said.
“Is she white-collar, like you were?” Sabina asked.
“She is.”
“Let’s loop her in. We alerted a team we’ve worked with about the potential attack, and they’re investigating the chatter. But if we could get someone onto the finances, that would be good, too,” Sabina said.
“And it would allow us to keep our focus on the bombing that killed Liza and that terrorist cell,” Leo added.
“I’ll give her a call when we hang up and have her call you,” Callie replied.
“What else?” Philly asked. “Any update on the iPad?”
Leo chuckled. “For being in law enforcement, Liza didn’t do a great job of protecting her device. Her password was her mother’s birthday.”
Callie sat up. “Was it paired to her phone? Have you found anything? Anything about her informant?”
“It was paired to her phone,” Leo confirmed. “But we’re still going through the texts and calls. There were forty-four people she texted with during the six months prior to her death. We’ve identified nine of those as FBI colleagues and ten as other law enforcement. We’re working on the rest.”
“And the calls?” Callie demanded.
“Regular calls to you and the other colleagues, but there are eighteen numbers we’re tracking down.
So far, we’ve ID’d seven: three are restaurants with extensive take-out menus, and four are to burner phones.
And before you ask, no, we can’t track them, but we can triangulate where the calls were made from, which we’re working on. ”
Callie considered this, then nodded and relaxed back against her pillows. “I had some amazing colleagues at the agency, but they were nowhere near as fast as you all. I’m going to like being at HICC.”
His heart did a little skip at those unexpected words—not that she felt them, but that she’d said them.
Sure, her stint in the Mystery Lake location was supposed to be temporary, and she was supposed to go back to DC when the office renovations finished.
But a little voice inside his head wondered if she’d ever want to stay.
She’d be a team of one if she did. As far as he knew, the crew based in Mystery Lake consisted of operators and cyber experts, whereas DC probably had a team of investigators like her.
He didn’t ask himself if he’d want her to stay. That question was far too big to contemplate on an empty stomach.
“We like having you,” Sabina said. “What’s next on your agenda? Paragliding? Skydiving?”
“Trail run for me in the morning while Callie and Joe head out on another hike. We’re all rock climbing tomorrow afternoon,” he answered.
“If it comes up, can you ask Joe a question for me?” Leo asked.
Callie’s gaze flickered to him in question. He shrugged. “Of course.”
“Can you see if he knows anything about Thailand?” Leo asked.
“In general, or something specific?” Philly clarified.
“Six years ago, Aiden made four trips there, and we’ve traced some of the funds from Nolan Enterprises to that country. There was chatter about a potential attack, but nothing materialized.”
Philly frowned. “Unfortunately, Thailand has had its fair share of terrorist activity. What are you thinking?”
“They’re thinking there might have been something in the works that either Aiden or his Thai counterpart pulled back from,” Callie said.
He glanced over at her. She’d changed into a pair of fitted jeans and a ribbed turtleneck sweater.
She’d left her hair down, and the black locks contrasted with the off-white of the sweater.
And she smelled damn nice. Some product she must have brought, because it wasn’t the soap he’d used in the shower.
“If the negotiations weren’t going well, though, isn’t Aiden’s MO to make something happen that encourages the negotiations to move forward?” he asked, looking away from the temptation of Callie.
“We do think that’s his MO,” Sabina said. “But there’s something about those trips and that chatter that caught our attention. It’s off in a way I can’t explain. Not yet.”
“Sure, we’ll see if we can fit it into the conversation tomorrow,” Callie said. “Anything else?”
“Not on our end. We’ll keep you two posted,” Leo said.
“And stay safe!” Sabina demanded before ending the call.
They sat in silence, then Philly rolled his head and looked at Callie. “You up for another prickly pear margarita? I have a feeling we’ll see Joe there.”