my chest.
Hadley came from a big family, and while we’d never talked about it, I was pretty sure she wanted to create one herself. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think Hadley wanted kids, and probably a lot of them.
Kids that I didn’t want.
Fuck.
“Good find, Brady,” Carter cut through my anxiety-filled musings.
I blinked to clear my vision and found Carter’s eyes on me. They narrowed but he didn’t call me out on whatever he saw.
“Dylan found it,” I reminded him.
Dylan hadn’t been able to recover the information on Lieutenant Colonel Greg Berkshire’s computer. Whoever had killed him had a deep understanding of computers, which explained why they’d felt confident leaving the machine behind. It was useless. However, when I’d asked Dylan to start digging into the virtual banking system, he’d hit pay dirt and found accounts in Greg’s name, his wife’s name, and one of his son’s names.
Along with finding the bank accounts, Dylan had also found an address tied to an email account we hadn’t known Berkshire had. An email account that Dylan was able to hack, which led to him finding emails between Berkshire and a Dr. Davidson, owner of the company Counterproliferation. CP was a privately-owned, government-funded company that’s mission is preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. Specifically WMDs and chemical weapons in Syria.
Liberty had been captured in Syria. Further, CP had been trying to find the bomb-maker Lore for years with no luck.
The puzzle was fucked-up but the pieces fit.
“Yeah, but none of us thought to dive into virtual banks. I still can’t believe people think it’s smart to put their money in a fake bank somewhere in Hong Kong. Hell, you have to pay like two percent to withdraw money at an ATM.”
“You’re thinking like an old man,” Matt put in. “The people who use virtual banks don’t use cash for purchases. Their money’s direct-deposited into their account and they use the debit card for everything. Hell, even vending machines have card readers now. They don’t care there’s no actual branch to walk into. Smartphone accounts are all the rage and it’s only getting bigger.”
“Dude, you’re loaded,” Luke started. “Would you keep your money in a fake bank?”
“Fuck, no. I like to be able to walk into a bank and count my money. But I have invested in virtual banks looking for startup capital and I’ve made a killing off of them.”
“Now what?” Trey asked. “We have a dead lieutenant colonel with over two-million dollars split up into three accounts when the man makes under nine thousand a month as an O5. Not to mention he’s got a wife and three kids. No way in fuck he just saved that money. You didn’t find an inheritance. Did he win the lotto, win it gambling? Good investments?”
“No, no, no, and no. Dylan searched his family, his wife’s family, tax returns, no windfall.”
“Fuck,” Carter clipped.
I turned to Drake, his face set to granite.
“I know we’re doing our best to keep Liberty as far away from this investigation as possible but we need to know if she’s ever had contact with Dr. Davidson, or if she ever saw Berkshire and Davidson together.”
Wordlessly, Drake stood and went to Hadley’s French doors leading to a postage stamp backyard where the women were visiting while we’d taken over the house.
Moments later, Drake came back with a wary Liberty.
“I know we gotta tread carefully, Liberty. You know I wouldn’t ask if we didn’t have a strong lead. I’m sorry, but I have to ask—how well do you know Berkshire, and do you know a Dr. Davidson?”
Her face turned a new shade of red. I doubted her rosy complexion had to do with the Georgia heat. She also looked pissed.
“As you all are well aware, there’s a formal CID inquiry still ongoing. So let’s just say today’s not the first time that name’s been mentioned. But beyond that, I will not comment on the Army’s efforts.”
Thank Christ, we were finally on the right track.
“Fair enough.”
Liberty blew out a long breath and took her time to collect her thoughts. Something I appreciated about her. She was walking a fine line and I admired how steadfast she was in her quest to stay true to her oath.
“It’s a gut feeling,” she sighed. “You have to understand we all wanted to find Lore, especially me. But Dr. Davidson was rabid to find him when Lore started making chlorine bombs.”
Weaponizing chlorine was not only cheap but easy to deliver. They were