Say It Again (First Wives, #5)(53)

“Okay, let’s move on.”

Cooper explained the lines drawn from Amelia to the two other deceased women, and the third that was missing. “Roommates at one time or another. Notice zero dots. Jocey and Keri graduated Richter, but they weren’t going to be recruited for the CIA. Olivia, our missing student, however, has a stacked deck.”

“Have we located her?” Reed asked.

“Nope. Just the location in Germany that AJ has reported as furnished but empty of anything personal.”

The door opened and several heads turned to see Claire walk in the house.

“Who are all these other people on the board?” Reed asked.

Cooper glanced at the new addition to the room and continued. “Using this model, we’ve gone through and singled out those students with all the dots and then pulled their roommates during their senior year. If we found the potential recruits working, living with a family and seemingly normal jobs, we’ve indicated it with a bright orange dot. No explained or unexplained demise of anyone.”

“It looks like you have a lot of orange dots.”

Claire stepped forward and shook her head. “That’s because you’re not looking for the right people. Where is Sasha’s picture?”

Cooper pointed to the top corner. Her roommates were all accounted for. No black line indicated any of them had died.

Claire reached up and pulled Sasha’s picture down and pinned it next to Olivia and two other past students who were indicated as missing. “What do these four women have in common?”

“All the dots.”

“No, they’re all beautiful, yet nothing that stands out as so remarkable that they’ll be remembered,” Claire pointed out. “And you’re missing a skill.”

“Which one?” Neil asked.

Claire and Sasha looked at each other, and then Claire said something to Sasha in Russian.

“Right.” Sasha walked to the wall, grabbed a marker, and put a blue dot by her image. “Everyone at Richter was mandated to speak German and English. A third language was required, but you didn’t have to pass with fluency. I speak English, German, Russian, French, Italian, some Spanish, and enough Arabic to get me in trouble.”

The room fell silent.

“And I speak English, German, Russian, some Italian, and Mandarin. I was going to add Arabic next year,” Claire said.

“Holy shit. I need to go back to school,” AJ said under his breath.

Some of the guys laughed.

“We know I was approached for a job, and Pohl had his eye on you,” Sasha pointed out. “Which means we need to add another factor.”

Claire must have been on the same page, because she started nodding. “We’re both orphans. No families to tie us down or keep us from taking a dangerous job. And Pohl was my benefactor. I was given incentives to learn more languages than my roommates. Told that when I graduated, I’d have five thousand euros for every language I spoke fluently.”

“Was there any data in the chip I gave you saying who else was Pohl’s financial responsibility?”

Cooper shook his head. “No. But we do have who has families and who doesn’t. We’ll cross-reference that information and move forward.”

AJ’s head spun.

“What about Claire’s original birth certificate?” Sasha asked.

“We have boots on the ground in New York and should have that by the end of the day,” Neil said.

“Any closer to a real identity on Pohl or who he works for?” AJ asked.

“I’m working on that,” Reed said from the computer screen. “It’s an image search at this point.”

“That’s all for now, then,” Neil reported. “We get back to work and return before the sun sets and see where we’re at. First priority is clearing Claire’s age. I’d rather deal solely with Pohl than our own police force. In the meantime, we need a rotation on the monitors here at the ranch. Fresh eyes on the screens every four hours.”

“You got it, Boss,” Cooper said. “You heard the man, let’s get cracking.”

Claire rubbed her hands together. “How can I help?”

“Oh, it’s okay, kid . . .”

With hands on her hips, Claire asked, “How many languages do you speak?”

Cooper blinked. “One.”

“Are you telling me there isn’t anything in the headmistress’s file that is in a language other than English?”

“Okay, fine.”

Claire did a little victory dance and let Cooper lead her to a computer.



“Did you want to get some fresh air?”

AJ’s question had Sasha turning around in surprise. No. What she really wanted to do was dig into the files and look for links herself.

He leaned in. “That’s my way of asking you to come outside with me so I can have a private word.”

“Lead the way,” she said.

Even during fall, Texas was warm. They walked out of the guesthouse and Sasha diverted him away from the main house. “Trina asked the cook to come back to prepare food for everyone. It’s best she doesn’t see me until we can clear my name.”

They walked toward the stables and stopped at one of the fences that kept the horses penned in to graze. Sasha wasn’t a big fan of country living, but it was hard to look over something as simple as a group of horses munching on grass and not feel her heart rate slow. “What’s on your mind?”