A Covert Affair (Deadly Ops #5)(43)
“Burkhart didn’t say.” Cade’s expression was grim.
Not that Nathan blamed him. All he knew was that a body had been found, a local detective called, and then they’d been called in by Burkhart. And there was no way they’d have gotten a call unless this was related to their case. Especially since Burkhart had told them to bring their dive gear. Like many police departments that had divers trained for search-and-recovery diving or rescue ops, the NSA also had trained divers who carried out the same duties. Both Cade and he were trained because of Burkhart programs. Wasn’t a stretch to figure out what Burkhart wanted them to do here.
As the road curved to the left, flashing blue lights came into view. Three black-and-whites with the lights on and five unmarked SUVs were parked near a row of oak trees. Oh yeah, Burkhart had brought in a full team for this. A spread of land was cleared, as if someone had planned to build a home, but the only man-made structure was a wooden dock on a decent-sized lake. There wasn’t much of a beach, just a strip of sand, but from what he could see it looked mostly like overgrown weeds and grass dominating the exterior of the lake.
Nathan already had his door open by the time Cade pulled to a stop next to the line of SUVs. He did a quick scan of everyone. Three uniformed officers, Captain Nieto, Detective Sinclair, a couple of plainclothes men, Burkhart, and ten NSA agents, all of whom he recognized on sight. Field-trained, no analysts in the bunch. He also spotted two young boys wearing swim trunks and long-sleeved rash guards. They were barely teenagers. A soccer-mom type of woman probably in her forties stood behind them, her arms crossed over her chest. Her expression was a mix of fear and irritation.
After he rounded the SUV he fell in step with Cade and headed straight for Dax and the rest of their group. “What’s up?” he asked quietly as they reached Dax.
“Local kids like to fish here sometimes. They’re not supposed to because it’s a privately owned lake, but they’re freaking kids. Guess they saw some guy dump something they thought looked like a body. When their mom heard them talking, she called the cops. Sinclair”—Dax nodded in the man’s direction, and Nathan recognized him from the file they had on the guy—“was the detective who got the case. We got lucky that he was the one called or we might not have heard about it. One of his guys found a body. Twenty-something female. Thanks to those kids they had a pretty good location of where she’d been dumped.”
“Is it one of the missing women?” Because why the hell would they have been called in otherwise?
“Yeah. That’s what I meant by lucky. He recognized her face—which thankfully isn’t badly decomposed yet—and called his boss. Nieto called Burkhart immediately.”
“They scan her fingerprints yet?” Nathan asked.
Dax nodded. “Yep. She’s from our list. Taken about eleven months ago, and from what the local ME says, she died recently.”
So she was kept alive for eleven months. He wanted to know the cause of death. “Who’s taking the body?”
“That’s what we’re waiting on. Burkhart wants it and Captain Nieto isn’t happy.”
“We’ve got better resources.” That being an understatement. They had a private lab without the type of backlog the Miami PD would no doubt have. They could learn more about the body in less time compared to the locals. A win-win for everyone. They were in a time crunch here, but Nathan knew bullshit agency politics could hamper any investigation. He just hoped that didn’t happen now. There were too many women missing, too many innocent lives at stake. Amelia was in the age range of the women who’d been taken. Something that was hard to forget.
“No shit,” Cade muttered next to him.
Burkhart glanced over at them, nodded once. Nathan wasn’t sure who he was motioning to but broke away along with Cade and Dax, crossing the twenty yards to where the local cops, Burkhart, and the kids were. As they neared, one of the uniformed officers ushered the two boys and woman away toward a minivan.
“Dax give you the rundown?” Burkhart asked. Instead of a suit he wore cargo pants and a dark green Polo shirt today. His weapon was strapped to his hip and visible. He looked like an operator.
“Most of it,” Dax answered before Nathan could. “Didn’t get to the part about doing the grid search.”
Oh hell. That meant they’d be searching the lake for bodies. These women deserved closure, but searching and recovering the dead was one of the shittiest parts of his job.
“You three have the most experience with search and recovery and the best training,” Burkhart said to them. He glanced over as Nieto approached. The man was about the same age as Burkhart and in good shape. Burkhart nodded once at the police captain. “Captain Nieto has three men trained for diving. Combined with our ten—thirteen including you three—we’ve got a solid group. You guys will each head a four-man team. Nathan, you’ll have five. We’re going to work this lake in a grid.” He nodded once more at Nieto, who picked up where Burkhart left off.
“We’ve got a nineteen-foot patrol boat on the way, should be here in the next few minutes. Small vessel, good for this kind of operation.”
“And we’ve got three more Zodiacs on the way,” Burkhart interjected. “Nineteen-foot as well.”
Nathan simply nodded. Those were the perfect-sized vessels for evidence-recovery missions in a location like this. They were easily transported and could be deployed almost anywhere.