Deadly Little Secrets Page 0,121
him?”
“Owner of Gold Ark Shipping, Bates is a graduate of…” He read the whole announcement, but she heard more clicking as he turned up more data.
“You realize you met this guy, right?” she asked Gates. “This is Jen’s date, Millionaire Jack. Jack D’Onofrio.”
“He’s got two wives already and he’s dating your friend? What is this guy doing?”
“Being slime,” she said, reminding him of their earlier conversation.
“Yeah, I get that. What I meant was, what the hell is he doing messin’ around with one of the Gandolphos? If they find out he’s screwing around on his wife—” he started.
“Which one?” Ana asked sourly.
“I’m betting the Keriasus family would feel the same way, over in Jersey,” Gates answered. “But I was talking about the Gandolpho family. They are not known for their collective sense of humor on this sort of thing.”
She heard Dav saying, “Carrie, it’s Dav,” as he made his call. His tone of voice was like a billboard saying I WANT CARRIE.
A beep from her computer signaled her search had info.
“Oh, man. It just got even more complicated,” she muttered.
“Dav, Agent,” Damon called from the front. “We’re on the outskirts of town. I need to know where we’re going.”
“Hang on, Damon,” she called, ignoring the urgent e-mails, the pinging searches, and the notice of text and voice mail messages. Lord, could anything else beep? “Cancel, cancel,” she muttered, dialing Pretzky.
“What?” Pretzky answered.
“We’re at White Plains. Where do we meet you?”
“Rodehouse Inn, north and west of town. Get off at Highway One-Twenty north,” she said, taking them up the split toward the University. “It’s the exit three miles beyond the city limits, near the airport. I’ve told the locals to expect you.”
“Got it. Damon, you get that?”
“On our way, Agent,” he called back.
“TJ…” Ana tuned into the conversation on the phone. “Is he OK?”
“I’m sorry, Burton. Michaels is dead. His computers are in tiny pieces. I’ve called in some of our people to sweep the room too, follow up with the New York State Crime Scene people. It’s a mess.”
“No!” Ana shook her head, eyes filling with tears. “God, no.”
When she could see again, the winking notice of e-mail waiting caught her eye.
E-mail. TJ.
A Greek family and an Italian family.
Bates and Burrows. Keriasus wedding.
Santini and Bates. The Gandolpho family.
“Oh. My. God.” She dropped the phone, disconnecting Pretzky, and opened her e-mail. Scrolling down, she found them. Seven e-mails from TJ, seven e-mails she’d ignored.
“Carrie says—” Dav began, but she held up her hand, intent on reading.
She was so focused, so silent, he prodded her again.
“Ana, what is it?” Dav asked, more insistently.
“Oh, my God. It’s all here. All of it. TJ. He spelled it all out…” Her voice broke. She couldn’t go on. TJ had spelled it all out in his e-mails, firing off one after another in hopes they’d get through, get her the data.
“Ana?” Gates called out. “Ana I have something on D’Onofrio, alias Burrows, alias Bates. Property in White Plains at—” He rattled off an address. She saw Dav write it down. “Ana?”
“Hang on, Gates, she’s got something big,” Dav murmured. Turning into his own phone, he spoke. “Thanks, Carrie. Yes. I think it is. I’ll let you know.”
Dav hung up, and shifted over to rest a hand on Ana’s shoulder. “Ana-aki, what is it?”
She turned to look at him, saw her own stricken face reflected in the window beyond him. “It’s TJ. My friend. He’d been sending me these translations, something he was working on. I thought it was just another favor for a friend, you know?” She shook her head, dazed. “Instead, he’s been trying to make sure I didn’t take the fall for Rome.”
“This would be what prompted the Inquiry?” Dav said. “It was Rome?” he urged when she sat silent.
“Yeah,” she said wearily. “I had this data, I checked it, I dug out more. I found the chinks in this group that was planning to bomb the Italian court, the Corte Costituzionale,” she said, remembering the thrill of finding the keys to the conspiracy hidden in the data. “I sent the team out with that data, but it was wrong.”
“Wrong?” Dav questioned. She heard Gates draw in a breath to speak so she hurried on.
“It was wrong. One part of the data had been altered, just one. But that put the team I was working with in jeopardy. TJ was one of the agents who survived, but two others were killed apprehending the bombers.”
“That’s why you were on cold cases, why you were on