“About five months ago. He said his name was Ahmed. Nothing more. Ahmed said it was time for me to pay the debt I owed. He said it was all arranged. I was to move to Colorado Springs, into an apartment rented in my name. It would only be for a few months, he said. While I was there I would meet a man, a colonel in the army named James Kegan. Ahmed told me to get his personal information. I understood what that meant.”
Jessie’s fury mounted. She ground down on her temper, determined to stay in control. “So you seduced him. You slept with him to win his trust and get him to help steal the weapons.”
The woman cringed. “James didn’t help them! Your father would never have betrayed his country. That was never part of the plan.”
Relief spiraled through her. She felt Brandon’s hand on her shoulder, steady and comforting. He understood the importance of those words.
“So what was the plan, Mara?” Bran asked. “You said you didn’t know the men were going to kill him.”
“No. Ahmed said all I had to do was get close to him, get his personal information. He never said what they planned to do with it, but he made it clear they would kill me if I refused. I owed them everything—my education, my life here, the friends I had made. Everything. James was nothing to me then. It didn’t seem like a high price to pay.”
“Where did you meet my father?” Jessie asked.
“There was a party for one of James’s friends. Someone set it up so I would be invited. I don’t know who, but I was welcomed. I was a schoolteacher. There were single men at the party, military men from the base. As the evening progressed, I sought out your father and pretended to be interested in him. He was a very attractive man, and I found him to be likable and smart so it wasn’t difficult. He asked if he could see me again and I said yes. We started dating. That was part of the plan.”
“Where was this party?”
“Around the pool at the Marriott Hotel.”
“Whose party was it?”
“I don’t remember. It was a big party, lots of people invited. A twenty-five-year anniversary celebration. I don’t remember the couple’s name. Perhaps someone suggested the colonel and I would suit. Which we did.”
“So you slept with him,” Jessie said. “And while he was in your apartment, you stole his personal information.”
She nodded. “A little at a time, yes. But even after I had done what they asked, James and I continued to see each other. I knew I should go back to San Diego before things got any more complicated, but by then I was falling in love with him. After he was arrested and charged with those terrible crimes, I understood what I had done.”
“And a few days later he was killed,” Bran finished.
Fresh tears collected in Mara’s obsidian eyes. Her voice cracked. “If I had known, I would never have done it.”
Jessie felt a fresh surge of anger. Was the woman acting? Or could the emotion possibly be real?
“But you did do it,” Bran pressed. “The colonel is dead because of you.” He leaned over her, braced his hands on the arms of her chair, caging her in. “Now it’s time for you to undo some of what you’ve done. We need to know the names of the people involved.”
Mara shook her head. “I don’t know. I only saw Ahmed once. After that, he called me on a disposable phone whenever he wanted to give me instructions.”
“Do you still have the phone?” Bran asked.
“No. He told me to throw it away.”
“So you have no proof that anything you’ve just told us is true,” Jessie said.
Tears rolled down Mara’s cheeks. “No.”
Bran glanced over at Hunter Brady. “You get all that?”
Hunt turned off the recorder on his cell phone. “I got it.”
Bran turned back to Mara. “You understand where this is going, right? You’ll be arrested. There’s nothing I can do about that. You’re involved in what appears to be a terrorist plot. Someone you worked with is now in possession of enough chemical weapons to kill or injure thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people.”
A sound of distress slipped from her throat.
“If you know something—anything that could help stop a possible attack—now is the time to tell us.”
She shook her head. “I wish I did. I’m so very sorry.”