Page 94 of No More Lies

Rough patch? It was a little more than that. “Did she tell you why?”

“She said it was because of work. We asked her to share, to talk to us, but she kept saying she was fine, and that things would be better once this case was over.”

Shit. Diane really had been blocking everyone out and trying to deal with everything alone. He hung his head, trying to get his emotions under control

“The girls knew something was up as she’s ducked coming out with us, the barbecues, and even her texts have been short and vague. It’s why I badgered her to join us that night. We were worried. But she insisted it was just work. I’m guessing its more than that, and now I feel terrible for not seeing it, and for not pushing her to tell us what was wrong. I’m sorry.”

Steve looked up and shook his head sadly. “Don’t be. I believed her, too. There is more. She opened up to me, finally, last night. I’m not going to share what she said. That’s her decision if she wants to tell you, but the one thing I can’t get past is that she said she felt alone. And now she’s with that bastard alone. I’ve let her down.”

Surprising him, Kelly leaned over to give him a hug and he returned it. She whispered in his ear, “Time to stop this pity party and find your wife.”

He pulled back, expecting to see Kelly smiling, but she wasn’t. Her face was deadly serious. “We don’t have any time to waste, so grab a laptop.”

He nodded. “Yes, ma'am. Tell me what you want me to do.”

Half an hour had passed, with no additional information on the location of the sarin, the target, or Diane, when Raven entered the already crowded room. They were followed by Sam. Steve looked at Dex expectantly.

“The place was empty,” Dex said. “Cleaned out. We did find a few papers that I think might connect to what we found at the Aziz hotel. Someone got sloppy and left them in the trash.”

Sam’s whistle interrupted them, and they all turned as Dale appeared on the video wall.

“Dale. Go ahead,” Sam said.

“I sent agents to have a friendly chat with two of the judges that are also members of the Havana Club. The third is in Europe. Has been for six weeks and is not due back for another two. Both judges were cooperative, and the general consensus is that Volkov was respectful, generous, helpful, and loves his daughter very much. However, when they asked whether either judge knew about a custody battle, Judge Langdon said no and seemed genuinely surprised. Judge Dolan also said no but became nervous and agitated. Shortly after, he made an excuse about needing to get to court and asked the agents to leave.”

“So what now?” Steve asked impatiently. If the man knew where to find Volkov, he needed to be questioned.

“As you can imagine, we need to tread carefully here,” Dale answered. “He’s a judge. We’re digging into his life. See if we can get enough to get him in for formal questioning.”

Steve pushed back on his chair and stood up. “That’s going to take hours or days. Time, we don't have!”

“I’m well aware of that. But him being nervous is not enough to bring him in. You know that as well as I do. However I have someone keeping an eye on him, to see if he leads us anywhere in the meantime. Nervous people tend to make mistakes. Maybe we—”

Dale stopped mid-sentence and Steve watched as he appeared to speak to someone off camera. When he turned back to them, his face was tense.

“We’ve received a video.”

Steve’s stomach dropped. Videos were never good. Too often they showed innocent people being murdered at the hands of terrorists.

“It came with instructions to show it to Steve Williams and his SEAL team. No one has watched it yet. Standby and I’ll bring it up.” Dale’s picture disappeared.

Then Diane appeared.

The first thing Steve noticed was the bruise on her cheek and the cut above her eye. He clenched his fists. The bastard had laid his hands on his wife. But she was alive. He vaguely sensed Donnie moving to stand next to him. He focused on Diane. Her eyes kept darting from the camera, obviously terrified. And alone.

Everyone in the war room was fixated on the screen.

The camera turned, Volkov filled the screen.

“Mr. Williams. Your wife is quite lovely. I have enjoyed our time working together, but sadly it has come to an end. Everybody has a price, and your family is yours. I know she shared information about me with you, and for that she will pay. Not even you or your team can help her now.”

The camera turned back to Diane and Steve’s heart seized at the fear on her face and the tears in her eyes.

“Say goodbye to your wife. Although I have a feeling you might get to see her again, but I can’t guarantee what state she will be in.”

The video ended and Dale came back on screen.

“I’m sending over the video file now. I have people analyzing it as we speak. There seemed to be a fireplace in the background. If there’s anything we can go on, I’ll let you know.” Dale said from the screen. “I’m assuming nothing further on the sarin or a target?”