Page 69 of Tate
“Sloan worked for the CIA?”
“With. Like a volunteer helping the greater cause.”
“Like an informant.”
“Like a friend who helped us help the world. He was a lobbyist. And lobbyists are supposed to influence legislation. And sometimes the right legislation needs a nudge now and again.”
“What kind of legislation?”
“Oh, things like votes on some of our government ‘aid’ packages overseas.” She finger quoted the word “aid.”
He went quiet. “Aid, as in arms?”
“Now you’re getting into specifics that could get us in trouble. Let’s just say that he has a lot of connections, a lot of friends, and a lot of information about people that could probably come in very useful to your senator friend.”
“And he’s very good at wheeling and dealing.”
“He’s a lobbyist. Theyinfluence.”
He’d like to influence Sloan right out of Glo’s life, and pronto.
“Your search came back empty,” she said, glancing at her screen. “Want me to search wider parameters?”
“Yeah. Military in general.”
Her stomach growled.
“Apparently, I’m not the only one who hasn’t eaten.”
She nodded to the kitchen. “There’s a Chinese delivery menu in the drawer with the phone.”
He got up and headed over to it. Found the drawer, the menu to Jade Fountain, and grabbed her phone.
She had seventeen unread texts and nine calls. “Why don’t you answer your phone? Or your texts?”
“I will. Later. I would have eventually called you back.”
He frowned. “You have a burner phone, don’t you? Because there is no way you’d leave the country without a phone.”
She leaned her head against the sofa, spreading out her long dark hair. “I’ll take house fried rice and cream cheese wontons.”
He shook his head and ordered.
By the time the delivery arrived, they’d run searches on all branches of the military.
“Sorry, bro. And while you were unwrapping your chopsticks, I ran a general search on all Bryant League activity. There’s nothing even on the radar for months. The last known event was a bombing at a recruitment station in Abilene, Texas, over a year ago.
“Could be the same guys—it’s Texas…”
“Are you sure that Kelsey’s stalker wasn’t the same guy who shot Glo in Montana?”
“No. But Kelsey clearly saw the gauged ears that Knox described in his drawings of the bombing suspects. They’re just not that common.”
“Getting more so, but…okay. I’ll keep looking. But you might want to start considering that the bombing in San Antonio was exactly what the police say—an act of desperation by an angry man.”
“An angry rodeo clown? I don’t think he’s good for it, despite the evidence. I think he was the fall guy.”
She picked up her carton of rice. “Yes, I see the irony. But, even the shooting at the house could have been her stalker. It was dark, and who knows what Kelsey saw.”
