She offered him a light shake of the head that said It’s okay, but he still felt like a jerk.
“The report claims two agents were face-to-face with your parents when they resisted arrest. The agent who arrived first to the scene was, in fact, also the agent who fired the fatal shots. We’ll call him Agent One until we have his real name.” Harper’s brow scrunched. “Well, wait, did Porter give you a name?” Harper positioned her eyes on Ana but continued before Ana could respond. “Surely the man who took the shots wouldn’t escape his memory. Did he memorize all the agents on scene that night?”
“Unfortunately, Porter said the man who killed my parents died of a heart attack not too long after my parents died,” Ana responded.
“How convenient,” A.J. said with more than a touch of sarcasm.
After Ana provided the name of the shooter, along with a list of every agent’s name Porter had given her, A.J. asked, “Is it possible the shooter was a Russian spy for the SVR, and he was never really nearby doing surveillance? Maybe he was even the tipster.”
“And while the Feds were at the theater, the Russians tossed my house in search of the key and ledger,” Ana finished A.J.’s line of thinking since they’d had a similar discussion by the pond last night, but with the new details about the case, it was looking to be more fact than theory.
“If we assume the ledger and key are real, and the Russians did get their hands on at least one of them, which then led to the end of the Volkovs . . . then yeah, I think it’d make the most sense that the FBI shooter was also a spy for the Russians,” Roman answered. “You and Porter find anything out on the other agents who’d been on scene that night?”
“Aside from a few using their badge to get out of some local parking tickets, they came up clean from what we could tell. No patterns in their cases or arrests that would suggest they were or still are Russian spies.” Ana sat back and gripped the arms of her chair.
“We’ll take another look at the names you gave us, but I still want the original report to ensure we aren’t missing a crucial piece of information,” Harper said. “And once Jessica gets that footage pieced together, I think we’ll know more.”
“But?” Ana had quickly read Harper.
“Since Porter was one of the agents who’d been working the Volkov case prior to the shooting, and he was there that night—plus, he took an interest in helping you . . . we have to look into him, too. And I know that makes you uncomfortable, which is why we’ll be the ones handling it.” Harper’s tone was apologetic. “Porter was aware of your plan to place Katya into WITSEC, and at this point, we don’t know who else knew.”
“I’m pretty sure Porter was being chased by The Huntsman on Monday,” Ana quickly countered while standing, pushing the chair back, ready to defend her boss.
“Or he lied about his car going off the road when he called to tell you to enact the backup plan and run, knowing the truth would come out about your past, and you’d look guilty. Then he had someone remove files from his house before you got there to keep the truth about your assignment from being revealed, and you’d be none the wiser.” Roman’s dark words and ominous tone had Ana turning from the screen.
Damn Roman and his way of cutting straight to the facts without sugarcoating them.
And wait, what files?
“How’d you know about the files?” Ana asked, purposefully avoiding eye contact with A.J.
“I didn’t, but you just confirmed there were indeed files.” Roman leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “There had to be a damn good reason you went into your boss’s house that night, and getting your Volkov case files, the evidence to prove your innocence, sounded like a good one to me.”
Ana finally faced A.J. and mouthed, “I’m sorry,” but all he could focus on was the fact someone out there knew the truth about her undercover work and what that meant for her safety.
How could he have been so stupid? She’d avoided talking about why she’d been in Porter’s house, and now it made perfect sense why she was keeping the truth from him.
He’d freak the fuck out that she was in far more danger than he