Big Easy Temptation (The Perfect Gentlemen #3)(44)

So her brain had been damaged because she’d done too much meth. Paranoia was one of the by-products of the drug. “Does she talk much?”

“Oh, Carlyle likes to tell anyone and everyone who will listen about how some Russian guy killed her baby girl and he’s coming for her, too. I don’t suppose you represent the Russian mob? Because that’s who she’s blaming.”

Holland managed a little laugh, but she was already thinking.

As she exited the prison, she was still ruminating on her bizarre conversation with Sue Carlyle and the implications. The woman wasn’t a good witness, and most lawyers would say that anything she’d uttered was unreliable and inadmissible in court. Holland sighed. It was unlikely her boss would reopen the admiral’s case based on the ramblings of an obviously insane woman. So she needed to figure out where that money had come from and why Sue thought the Russian mob was after her.

Had the admiral’s death been the result of a shakedown gone wrong? Had the plan been to blackmail him? Control him by dangling his indiscretions in his face? If so, why would Russians have targeted him, of all people? And how would a Navy man be involved? Sue couldn’t have been talking about the admiral. She’d called him a short shit. Admiral Spencer had been somewhere around six foot two.

None of this made sense. Then again, neither had Sue. Holland frowned. Maybe she was putting too much stock in the woman’s drug-riddled words.

She pulled out her keys but stopped short of her vehicle because someone stood, blocking her car door.

“Hello, Special Agent Kirk.” A nondescript man in a perfectly pressed suit nodded her way.

“Do I know you?”

“Not at all, and my name is irrelevant.”

She tucked her purse—which held her gun—closer. “It’s pretty relevant to me.”

“I merely represent another party. I know you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time and effort trying to find me, but I promise it’s useless. I’m merely here to reason with you. You’re getting involved in something that no longer matters.”

She wasn’t going to pretend to misunderstand. The longer she kept him talking, the more likely the security cameras dotting the parking lot and slowly sweeping every inch would pick up his face so recognition software could identify him. “It matters to the admiral’s family.”

“I’m sure it does, but they need to move on or they’ll face more loss. Greater loss. You don’t want to lose anyone, do you?” As she reached into her purse for her weapon, he shook his head. “Don’t pull that gun on me, Special Agent. I’m just here to talk, but I’m not alone.”

She turned and saw he was right. Two other big guys stood sentry on either side of the parking lot, both with their stares locked on her. They also wore impeccable suit jackets that likely concealed the weapons they were carrying.

She was outgunned. “What do you want?”

“I merely wish to explain to you that if you don’t stop this investigation, someone will get hurt. No one wants that. The admiral got into a bad situation, and while my employers regret the eventual outcome, they would prefer that the past remain there.”

“You work for the Russian mob?”

His expression never changed. He was damn good at his job. “I work for a group of people who had prior dealings with the admiral. This one went wrong.”

“You’re saying the admiral was dirty.”

“The admiral had proclivities he kept hidden. My employer indulged said proclivities from time to time. If you continue down this path, not only will you further harm the Spencer family name, but we might decide to deal with the real problem.”

“The real problem?” She wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to that question.

“You wouldn’t be kicking up this dust if it weren’t for Captain Spencer. He’s the one behind everything. He will be disappointed when embarrassing photographs of his father surface. That would prove detrimental to his career. If you continue to create problems, it may be detrimental to his health.”

Holland tried to hold her fear in. “If you have those photos, why not release them?”

“We never intended to release them, merely keep the images to ensure the admiral couldn’t turn on us. Someone else turned him in. I believe it was his aide. He proved to have a stronger moral code than the admiral would have liked. Do you understand?”

She understood this man was threatening Dax and she didn’t like it. “The Spencers have a right to know who killed the admiral.”

He sighed. “We had no reason to kill him. Why are you looking for zebras when you hear hoofbeats? I thought they taught you Occam’s razor in school.”

“The simplest explanation is almost always correct.” Yes, that was something investigators learned. “But you’re here threatening to kill a Naval officer if I don’t back down. What’s the simplest explanation for that?”

“That my boss doesn’t wish to be exposed for his part in this situation and he’s prepared to do anything he must to stop it. Now, you can choose to go home and tell your boyfriend everything I’ve told you. He’ll be brave. He’ll stand firm and eventually he’ll have some accident that you won’t be able to pin on anyone in my organization. Or you can do the smart thing and tell him you found proof that his father committed suicide. He’ll be depressed, but somehow I think you’ll find a way to bring him out of it.”