Page 13 of Nothing Hiding

They needed every lead now. But he had to be patient and allow this traumatized man some time to comfort his wife.

Through the window, he watched as a gardener on a ride on lawnmower crossed back and forth on the hillside beyond. Closer to home, a security guard patrolled the lawn, looking carefully around him. Security had obviously been ramped up, and Wyatt was sure it wasn't only in the ambassadorial residence. Any crime like this, he knew from experience, would increase the alert level, and every single embassy would be raising their protection levels. This crime was causing waves already, and they were firmly in the spotlight to solve it.

His thoughts veered to Juliette and Sierra.

Wyatt felt grateful to be working with such a strong team. Sierra was young and tough-minded and as smart as a whip. Juliette's investigative skills were top notch, and more than that, she had a knack with people that seemed intuitive. He admired it immensely and had picked up a lot from watching her.

He guessed that growing up in a diplomatic household was a good place to learn those skills. But he knew, from what Juliette had said, that her father had been murdered. She was looking into it, trying to discover why, and Wyatt's personal feeling was that she was opening a can of worms.

Not that he was going to speak against her, he respected her too much. But from his experience, he didn't think the answers she would find would help her.

He turned again, watching the lawnmower on the hill, hearing its faraway buzzing sound, almost inaudible through the thick, double-glazed window.

Then there was Juliette's romantic life, and Wyatt had been rooting for her with that. He'd been intrigued and rather amused when she and the French policeman that had helped them with their first case had ended up dating. What a turnaround that had been that she’d gotten romantically involved with Lucien.

Sparks had flown between all of them initially. It had been hate at first sight, but that had clearly changed, and he'd seen how happy she was.

Now, Lucien had moved to Marseilles, and he could tell what a blow that was for Juliette. He felt angry on her behalf. Life could throw some unfair curveballs, for sure. He'd warned her that the long-distance thing might not work, not in those circumstances. He knew she'd been angry about the warning and was determined to prove him wrong, but Wyatt had wanted to encourage her not to get too set on pursuing a path that couldn't possibly work long term. He was a logical man, and he could see that this was unworkable.

A voice sounded in the distance. Was that the ambassador? Wyatt stopped pacing, turning to the door, listening.

He heard footsteps on the stairs. The ambassador was coming back.

A moment later, McKay strode back into the living room.

Wyatt saw the stress etched on his face. He felt sympathetic toward him, the more so because this controlling father must be wondering if his own behavior contributed to the situation. Which it might well have done.

"Right, the questions?" Slumping into a chair, McKay rubbed a hand over his forehead, as if to ease a pounding headache. Wyatt quickly sat down next to him, getting ready to note down every idea.

"Mr. McKay," Wyatt said, getting straight to the point. "We need to know if there's anyone who might have a grudge against you or your family. Anyone who might have done this as payback for something that they perceived to be unfair or wrong? Any conflicts you've had with anyone, personally or in the course of work?"

Wyatt remembered how adamant the ambassador had been that his enemies had done this. But now, he was wondering if that had been a knee-jerk, emotional reaction to the situation. Now, McKay seemed to be rethinking his outspoken stance.

"Look, I don't want to accuse anyone without any evidence," he said, his face grim. "There are a few people who could have had a strong grudge. But, if you approach them, please do so tactfully. They are problem people, for sure, but I work in an environment where I can’t start a war with a different embassy team. I don't want to worsen any problems. My role as ambassador is to try to handle problems."

"Understood," Wyatt said. "We'll keep that in mind when questioning them, depending on the circumstances."

"There was a diplomatic function a while ago," McKay explained. "A fight broke out there, and things got very out of hand. Two of the junior diplomats from other countries were very drunk and ended up threatening me when I tried to calm things down, warning me to stay out of it, and that I’d better not interfere with them, or they’d hurt me in turn. I didn’t care. I waded in regardless and had to physically hold one of the guys back, I mean, it escalated that far. I called security, and they broke up the fight, but I took it further. I reported the men to their bosses the next day, and I’m sure there were harsh consequences because I didn’t soft soap the incident. I wasn’t going to allow that kind of behavior to go unpunished.” He nodded firmly.

“And how long ago was this?”

“Maybe three, four weeks ago."

"Who were the diplomats?" Wyatt asked.

"One was Don Kostaki, who works at the Greek embassy in the communications department," McKay said. "And the other was from the UK embassy, a local diplomat called Michael Boardman."

Wyatt jotted down the names, knowing it would be important to look into the incident further, to see what the repercussions had been, and whether those men might have been angry enough to decide on payback.

"Right." Wyatt knew both those would be important to take further. "Any other conflicts or arguments? Even if they’re minor?"

"The other confrontation I had recently was with one of our aides. He unfortunately had a personality clash with me. He ended up resigning but told me that he felt it was constructive dismissal. That I was too controlling."

"Really?" Wyatt asked, making sure to get enough of a note of surprise into the word, since he wanted to encourage McKay to keep on sharing.

"Yes," McKay said, his voice low. "I tried to reason with him, but he wouldn't listen. He was convinced that I was being unfair to him. I didn't want to let him go, but he was determined to resign. I didn't want to make things worse, so I said, fine, go."

"What was his name?" Wyatt asked, looking up from his notes.

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