Say It Again (First Wives, #5)(78)

Nina pushed her chair back and stood while Frank shook his hand.

“If you stay through lunch, just let my secretary know. Feel free to take off early.”

AJ thanked the man and shook his hand. “I appreciate your help.”

“Anything we can do. Like I said, your sister was well loved. I’m very sorry for your loss.” He walked back toward his office.

AJ pulled what he assumed was Amelia’s old desk chair over and sat down.

“We really miss your sister. I look over and can’t believe she’s gone,” Nina said, her eyes drifting to the empty desk.

“She was good people,” Frank offered.

AJ had heard it all before. He cut straight to the chase. “Yeah, but someone wanted her dead and now she is. I’d really like to know if you guys have seen anything she was doing here that was worth dying for.”

Frank actually laughed. “Not even the office birthday donuts.”

Nina shook her head. “Most of our job is looking stuff up and working on reports. Yeah, Amelia had taken on the analyst role and was doing a decent amount of traveling, but that was a given since she spoke three languages.”

“How much traveling?” AJ asked, even though he knew the answer.

“Every three weeks or so. Depended.”

“What about when she was here. After work? Happy hour? Did she have a boyfriend?”

Frank laughed. “Not that I know of.”

Nina and he shared a smile and then looked at AJ.

Nina’s grin slowly faded. “She never talked about anyone.”

“What about close friends? Anyone from the office?”

She shook her head. “Amelia tried hard to be an extrovert, but she spent a lot of time alone.”

Frank leaned back. “I thought maybe there was someone she saw when she was traveling. But after a few shots on Cinco de Mayo she said she’d seen an old friend in Africa and started to remember the things that motivated her as a kid. That’s when she started working out.”

“Taking walks,” Nina corrected.

He shrugged. “She was trying to lose weight.”

AJ ran a hand over his chin. “Did she tell you who this friend was?”

They both shook their heads.

“Was it a man or a woman?”

“I think if it was a man, and there was anything romantic, I would have picked up on that,” Nina said.

“We were always teasing her to go out on dates.”

“Did she?”

“No.” Nina exchanged glances with Frank. “I got the feeling her childhood wasn’t all that great. Like maybe your parents fought or there was something that kept her from wanting that kind of life. When I asked her, she told me that keeping secrets was a Hofmann family trait.”

He thought of his secrets, his mother’s.

“Are you married?” Nina asked. “Have someone significant?”

AJ thought of Sasha but shook his head.

“If you ask yourself why that’s the case for you, you might know why your sister didn’t search out a boyfriend.”

AJ paused. He’d never looked for more than temporary for fear of a woman learning his secrets.

What secrets was Amelia harboring?

He looked up to find both of them staring at him.

AJ shook off his thoughts, changed his expression. “Our parents do sleep in separate rooms.”

Amelia’s coworkers sighed as if that explained everything.





Chapter Twenty-Eight



Sasha scoped out Amelia’s home. There was one floor-to-ceiling span of windows next to a sliding door leading onto a small balcony. The four floors of the complex gave one unit above her and two below. Hard to determine if anyone was in any adjacent units without knocking on doors. With binoculars, she scanned the rooftops of the buildings that could possibly house a shooter. If AJ weren’t holding out for an all clear, Sasha would wait for whoever snuck into the condo before to show up again. There was no doubt in her eyes that they would return.

Time was not a luxury she had. There were secrets in the condo, or at least behind the camera’s need, and someone wanted her to find out what they were.

And if she was wrong, and Pohl’s people had found her . . .

Using one of the toys she’d brought with her, Sasha opened the electronic lock of the security door for the basement and went inside the building. She lit two Fourth of July favorites and rolled them to the corners of the room. The well-lit space funneled her out into a hallway on the first floor. Finding the space empty, she looked at her watch, started a timer, and then reached for the fire alarm.

As soon as the glass broke and the screeching bells shot at her from every direction, Sasha opened the door to the stairwell and started to climb.

Voices and footsteps swirled around as the stairs started to fill with people.

“I saw smoke,” she told complete strangers who hurried past her.

Panic following the unknown gave her all the diversion she needed. Response time midday in DC was around nine minutes for fire to arrive. She’d be out in half that unless she found company.

At Amelia’s door, Sasha stood to the side and slid the key into the lock. People were rushing past, purses and puppies, children and teddy bears in hand.

Sasha shoved open the door, let it slam against the wall, and ducked as she looked inside.