Page 10 of Covert Mission
Enough. He wouldn’t allow his partner to badger Teagan. Yeah, Noah wanted anyone else to be guilty of murder other than Seth. While he appreciated the sentiment, he wouldn’t let Noah shift the blame to Seth’s girlfriend. And, yeah, he was keeping her. He just had to tell Teagan without setting off her run-for-cover instinct. The woman of his dreams was as skittish as a new colt even though she was as tough as nails. A hot combination. “Knock it off, partner,” Seth snapped. “She answered your question. No need to be insulting.”
“How do you know she’s not responsible for what happened to you and Pico? If she really is part of a black ops team, she’d have the skill to incapacitate and kill.”
Seriously? “For one thing, Teagan isn’t tall enough to whack me on the head where my stitches are located. Second, she has no motive. Third, check the traffic cams in the area. You’ll see the time she arrived at the running trail. She would have arrived at least 30 minutes after I did. Teagan didn’t do this.”
“All right with you if I do my job anyway?” Noah asked, his hand clenching around his pen.
“Knock yourself out. Just be prepared to apologize to the lady when we have the real perp in custody.” Noah would beg Teagan for forgiveness. Seth would see to it.
“I should go,” Teagan murmured. “I don’t want to cause trouble between you and your partner, Seth.”
He continued to hold her hand. “Stay. Please.”
Noah frowned. “Clock’s ticking, partner. I need as much information as possible.”
His partner didn’t have to say anything more. The first 48 hours of a murder investigation were critical. After that, the odds of catching the person responsible dropped dramatically. “Ask your questions, then, but lay off the insults you’re hurling in Teagan’s direction.”
“Fine. Whatever. Start at the beginning, Seth. Why were you at Crockett Park’s running trail at four in the morning when I know you didn’t get home until two o’clock?”
“Pico called and said he had information for me. He refused to meet at our usual rendezvous spots.”
“Why?”
“He was afraid someone would see us.”
“Did he say what kind of information he had when he called?”
Seth shook his head and grimaced. Man, that headache was getting worse. The last thing he wanted was for Teagan to witness him puking his guts out. Way to make a great impression on a lady he wanted to keep in his life. “He said the information was important and wouldn’t wait. He also said if the wrong people knew he talked, he was dead.”
“What time did he call?”
“Fifteen minutes before four.” He recounted his trip to the running trail at the park and his brief conversation with Pico.
Noah scowled. “How did Pico hear information about The Brotherhood?”
“Right place, wrong time. He didn’t know what the guys were referring to, only that the men acted as though it was a big score of weapons but not a sale.”
“You’re talking about the militia group, right?” Teagan asked.
“Yeah. You’ve heard of them?”
She shrugged. “We’re in security, foreign and domestic. Our tech geeks are the best at what they do.”
“Why would Fortress be interested in homegrown terrorists?” Noah asked.
“Some of our missions are inside US borders. We have all types of intel at our disposal.”
Seth listened to what she said and didn’t say. “You do work for the US government?”
“Sometimes.”
“Foreign governments?”
She hesitated. “Depends on the government and the request.”
Noah tapped his notepad with the pen in his hand. “Can we get back on track here?”
“Right. Pico also claimed one of the three men he overheard talking was a cop, and before you ask, no, I don’t know what variety of cop. After Pico dumped that bit of information on me, he ran off, saying he was too afraid to be out there any longer. My plan was to go sit in my truck and wait for Teagan so we could run together.”