Reasonable Doubt (31 page)

“Agreed.” She looked back at the window. Aadila had opened a file folder and was thumbing through the contents, an act likely designed to give the impression she had hard evidence of the things they were about to discuss.

“What can you tell me about Akbar’s father’s charity, the Global Enterprise Alliance?”

Naveed looked confused, apparently surprised by the direction of the questioning. “I don’t know much about it other than they do good work or at least that’s what I’ve been told.”

“Like your father’s charity?”

“I think they might be more modern than my father. He embraces the past.”

“And you are more modern?”

“I suppose you could say that.”

“What can you tell me about your father’s attorney, Ellery Durant?”

Sarah sucked in a breath at the mention of Ellery’s name. “What the hell is she doing?” She felt a hand on her arm and looked over to see Trip standing beside her. He jerked his head toward the far corner of the room and she remembered they weren’t alone although Agent Shirani still looked bored out of his mind. She nodded at Trip to signal she had her temper under control and resumed watching the interrogation.

“She was a good attorney,” Naveed said. “She quit though, so she must not be too good at what she does. My father has a new attorney now.”

Sarah almost laughed at the quick summation of Ellery’s net worth. This kid didn’t deserve someone like her on his side. He obviously didn’t appreciate her or the lengths she was willing to go to protect him. Jackass.

“Why are you asking about Ms. Durant?” Naveed asked. “Did she do something wrong?”

Aadila didn’t miss a beat. “I’m not sure. When we talked to her, she said she didn’t, but I thought you might know differently.”

He shrugged again, but Sarah noticed a hard glint in his eyes that belied the apathetic gesture. Before she could process what she was seeing, she heard Trip grunt. “What’s with all the shrugging? Don’t they teach kids to answer questions nowadays?”

Sarah laughed. “Shut up, you sound like an old man.”

“I will be an old man before this interrogation is over.”

She punched him in the shoulder and pointed at the glass where Naveed had started to talk again.

“I need to use the bathroom,” he said.

Aadila hesitated for just a moment before she said okay. Sarah watched as she explained an agent would go with him, but only because of protocol. When Naveed left the room, she joined them in the observation room.

“Time to step it up,” Trip said. “When he comes back, start hitting harder. He won’t be expecting it since you’ve been so easy on him. It’s got him off guard. He’s smart enough to know he wasn’t dragged down here just to help us out, but his ego wants to believe you’re not smart enough to get to the truth. Start surprising him with some facts about the break-in.”

Aadila started to answer, but the wall phone next to where Shirani was standing rang. He answered it and listened for a moment, and then covered the mouthpiece. “The kid wants to make a phone call. We took his cell when he came in. Told him they weren’t allowed in the building.”

Sarah looked at Trip and could tell he was thinking the same thing. “Let him,” she said. “But get the number, dial it for him, and record the call. Maybe we’ll get something decent out of it.”

While Shirani gave the instructions to the agent with Naveed, Sarah excused herself to the restroom. What she really needed was a few minutes of quiet, away from anything to do with this case. She’d been fine until Aadila brought up Ellery’s name. She understood why Aadila would want to touch on every point of reference in her conversation with Naveed, but the reminder that Ellery was wrapped up in the case was a distraction. Of course everything about Ellery was a distraction and it was taking every bit of self-control she possessed to keep the memory of coming in her arms from obliterating her focus. She stood in front of the mirror and stared at her reflection, at her furrowed brow, at the big black circles under her eyes. She looked unhappy, haunted even, and she knew it was the job. The job loaded with violence and evil. The job she’d moved across the country to escape. The job that for years had robbed her of a personal life and was robbing her still.

Because you let it.

As much as she tried to ignore it, Sarah knew her internal voice was spot on. On some level, she’d probably always known the truth, but she’d ignored the implications because if she admitted it wasn’t the job that kept her from getting what she wanted, she would have to face the fact she was responsible for her loneliness.
Maybe I’ve always been afraid I wouldn’t find the same charge from a relationship as I get from chasing bad guys.
With the revelation came the realization she’d been wrong. The question now was what was she going to do about it.

The restroom door opened and Aadila walked in. “We’re about to start up again.”

Sarah forced her focus back to the case. “You get anything from the phone call?”

“He called his girlfriend, the one who had the plans on her computer, but the conversation was short. He asked her to let his teacher know he wasn’t going to be in school today. That’s about it.”

“Do you have someone watching her in case she gets wind of what’s really going on and takes off?”

“Yes, but she’s on campus. They’ll pick her up again this afternoon after school.”

“Okay. I’ll be there in just a minute.”

Sarah waited until Aadila left, and then turned on the water and splashed her face. As she patted away the water with a paper towel, she stared at her reflection again. The circles were still there, but her brow was less furrowed and the haunted look was fading. She would get through this day, but when it was done she was going to make some real changes. She was going to start by asking Ellery’s forgiveness for her abrupt departure last night. In person. With kissing. A lot of kissing.

*

Ellery flipped the switch on the saw, raised her safety visor, and listened to the sound of her doorbell. She had it wired so it would ring in her studio in case she was working, but no one else knew that and she considered ignoring the intrusion. She wasn’t in the mood for visitors and she was already deep into this project.

The ringing started up again and she glanced at the clock. It was just after noon and she realized the persistent caller might be Meg. She set her visor on her workbench and made her way to the house where she found Meg standing on the front porch looking perturbed. She swung open the door and Meg walked in bursting with conversation.

“Damn, what a day. First Naveed no-shows and then I sat in court up in Collin County for an hour before the prosecutor finally showed up. Bitch scheduled two hearings at the same exact time. I love how they don’t give a shit about our time, like I’ve got nothing else to do but sit around and wait until she’s ready. Then she had the nerve to ask me if I could reschedule for next week. Well, I told her—”

“I get the point.” Ellery had spent years listening to Meg’s constant bitching about the adversarial nature of the business, and she’d written it off to a by-product of the job, but she no longer had to suffer through her rants. “I’m about to fix a sandwich. You want something?”

“I’m good. I’ve got a late lunch scheduled with Lena Hamilton. Need to do some damage control after last week. What did you need? Have you heard from Naveed?”

Of course Meg would want to get ahead of the bad publicity generated after the raid at her law firm. Ellery remembered her father urging her to use Lena’s skilled PR services, but she didn’t have the stomach to do the on camera interviews Lena would urge her to do in order to preserve her reputation. Meg would thrive on the attention. Not for the first time, she reflected on how much like her father Meg had turned out to be, which brought her back to the reason she’d asked Meg to stop by in the first place. “Let’s make this quick. No, I haven’t heard from Naveed, but I asked you to come by because I need to know why you didn’t mention that you represent Sadeem Jafari.”

Meg’s eyes darted around the room while Ellery waited for her to settle on an explanation. “Take your time and make it good,” she said.

“Maybe we should sit down,” Meg said.

Ellery didn’t budge. “Maybe you should just tell me the truth. Right now.”

“Ellery, it’s not that simple.”

She offered one of her best imploring looks, but Ellery had given in to her too many times in the past to fall for her woe-is-me act now. “Meg, tell me the truth, or I’ll go to the feds right now and tell them I think you’re complicit in whatever Jafari is up to.”

Meg’s expression quickly morphed into defiance. “Fine, but there just isn’t much to tell. I wanted to keep Amir’s business. He came to me with his cousin. Jafari said he wanted to open a foundation to help his Muslim brothers and I figured asking a bunch of questions was not the way to keep on Amir’s good side. I didn’t do anything affirmatively wrong. I just filed the paperwork. If Jafari lied, it’s on him.”

“You can’t really believe it’s that simple.”

“I’m not you. I don’t spend all my time trying to parse all sides of an issue. A client hires me, I’m his advocate. End of story.”

Ellery shook her head. Meg had always done well by her clients when it came to an all out battle because she would fight to the end. Her problem was she loved the fight so much she forgot to warn them away from danger in the first place. Here she’d committed a cardinal sin, letting a business decision override an ethical one, one that could cost her her license and maybe even her freedom if the feds thought she’d acted intentionally. “They’re going to find the documents on your computer. How were you going to get around that?”

Meg’s face turned red and she looked away. “I don’t know. I guess I thought they might think your father drafted them since he prepared Amir’s paperwork.”

Anger welled up inside Ellery as she realized the truth. “Is it simply easier for you to lie than admit what you did? You know the documents weren’t created until after my father left the firm. You figured the feds would assume I drafted them since they’d thought I helped Amir, isn’t that right?”

“How do you know when they were created?” The minute the question fell from Meg’s lips, her eyes went wide. “Wait a minute. You broke in to the firm, didn’t you? Saturday. Kyle was certain someone had been there.”

“Maybe you’re not the only one who will go to extreme measures to help a client. And take it from me, when it’s your own freedom on the line, nothing is sacred.”

Meg’s response was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. Ellery glanced over at the door as she tried to decide if she was relieved at the interruption or reluctant to prolong her exchange with Meg. She pulled open the door and looked outside. A young blonde stepped in front of the entryway. She was dressed in what looked like a school uniform complete with a khaki skirt and a bulky blue blazer.

“Hello, Ms. Durant?”

The girl looked familiar, but Ellery couldn’t quite place her. “I’m Ellery Durant.”

She started to ask what she could do for her, but Meg appeared at her side and said, “Kayla, what are you doing here?”

Kayla.
Ellery’s memory flooded back. Akbar Jafari’s girlfriend. She’d shown up at the courthouse with Amir and Naveed the morning she’d covered for Meg. She too wanted to know what Kayla was doing here, but before she could ask, Kayla waved to another young blonde standing off to the side and they both stepped into the foyer. Ellery registered both girls were wearing the same uniform, and she recognized the second girl as the one she’d seen at Naveed’s house the day before. Jasmine. They were probably looking for Naveed, but she had no idea why they’d shown up here. She stood back and let Meg do the talking.

“Have you seen Naveed?” she asked. “He didn’t show up for court this morning.”

“No, we haven’t seen him.” Kayla turned abruptly to Jasmine. “There was only supposed to be one. Call and find out what to do.”

Jasmine pulled out a cell phone and dialed while Ellery looked between them, attempting to decipher what in the hell was happening. As Jasmine whispered into the phone, she mentally calculated the facts. Two young, pretty girls stood in her entryway, presumably looking for one of their boyfriends. All outward signs seemed innocuous, but a chill ran up her spine and a sense of danger thickened the air. She wanted these girls out of her house now. “Kayla, maybe you should go to Naveed’s house and wait there, and Meg and I will make some phone calls to see if we can find him.”

Kayla didn’t respond, instead she said to Jasmine. “Well?”

“He said to take them both.”

Kayla smiled a hard, humorless smile. “Ladies, I need you to come with us.”

Ellery shot a look at Meg who merely looked confused, so she spoke for both of them. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”

“Oh, it’s definitely time to leave, but you’re leaving with us.” Kayla unbuttoned her blazer and pulled it open.

Ellery heard Meg gasp, but she quelled her own stirring fear out of a deep-seated instinct of survival. Under her blazer, Kayla wore a black vest covered with straps holding what looked like black sticks of dynamite. Ellery had only seen something similar in the movies and on cable news, but she knew without a doubt she was looking at a suicide vest.

Was it real? Where was the detonator? She should care about the answers to those questions, but her mind was consumed with a single thought. In a moment she would walk out of her house with two terrorists and never see Sarah Flores again.

For the third time in the last fifteen minutes, Sarah looked at her watch and bemoaned the slow pace of the interrogation on the other side of the wall. After a couple of hours with Naveed and nothing to show for it, Aadila had started talking to Akbar Jafari. Akbar lacked Naveed’s calm demeanor, but his willingness to admit an alliance with extremist views didn’t extend to any sort of confession about the bombing. When it came to questions about the break-in at his old employer’s building, he clammed up, no doubt well coached by the attorney his father had hired to represent him on that case. She looked across the room. Trip was reading the paper and Shirani, the HSI agent, had stepped out to take a call.