Page 56 of Shadowed Agenda
“Someone’satthedoor,”Pavlo told Regan as he slipped out of bed. He glanced at the clock on the nightstand. It was five-thirty in the morning. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. He pulled on his pants and grabbed his Glock. He motioned for her to stay put.
The knock on the door was louder. Someone was impatient.
Pavlo looked through the door’s peephole. It was Finlay. What was she doing up? They’d agreed to have breakfast in Regan’s suite at seven and work out the remaining details of their plan. They also wanted to listen in on Wyndham’s meeting with his lawyers.
Wyndham had set the meeting for seven in his Manhattan office. With the bug Javier had planted, it had been easy to find out what his plans were.
“Who is it?”
Pavlo should have known Regan wouldn’t stay put.
“Finlay,” he said, removing the portable locks. He opened the door.
Finlay marched past him and strode into the living area. She looked at the two of them. “Good. You both have a solid alibi.”
“It’s five-thirty in the morning,” Regan said.
“Why would we need an alibi?” Pavlo asked.
“I’m always up at five so I can watch the news on various stations,” Finlay said as she picked up the TV remote and then perched on the couch’s arm. “You need an alibi because of this.”
She switched on the TV. The same sentence scrolled repeatedly along the bottom of the screen.Multimillionaire Nicholas Wyndham found dead in his Manhattan penthouse early this morning.
“Dead?” Regan flopped onto the couch beside Finlay, as white as the fluffy hotel bathrobe she’d hastily put on. “Why would someone kill Nicholas?”
Finlay went from channel to channel. Every news station was covering his murder.
According to the news reports, Nicholas’ body was found by his assistant at three this morning. She claims an emergency in their London office needed to be dealt with immediately.
He’d been shot. The police were speculating he had just come home and had surprised an intruder. The home’s security system hadn’t been armed. There was more speculation among news anchors around the home security system, and theories ranged from plausible to ridiculous.
Shadow Defense had installed state-of-the-art security in Wyndham’s penthouse. He’d insisted on only the best. Pavlo had designed parts of the system. They would have known if someone had broken into his place. Wyndham had to have let the person in.
“The police aren’t giving out the time of death,” Finlay said, turning down the volume so they could talk. “I spoke to a friend with the NYPD. It was one clean shot to the head. Nicholas had been dead an hour at most before his assistant arrived.”
“Do they have any theories?” Pavlo asked.
“Seriously?” Finlay looked at him and lifted both eyebrows. “One clean shot to the head.”
“How much do they know about Wyndham’s business associates?”
“Let’s just say that I don’t like one-sided conversations,” Finlay grinned, and Pavlo laughed. He was glad she’d approached them at the restaurant. Regan had a good friend in the woman, and Shadow Defense had a new contact. “My friend is going to contact the FBI. I also suggested he find an unrelated reason to call Javier.”
“If you’re referring to the backers for Nicholas’ first business, he always met with the same two men. Every month, same day and time,” Regan said and shivered. “Nicholas made it clear he didn’t want me around when he met with them. It was a scheduled monthly meeting, so it made it easy for me to be out of the penthouse. I joined a book club and went out for a late supper with some of the women. The men creeped me out. I couldn’t imagine why Nicholas would do business with them.”
Whatever Regan knew or overheard between Wyndham and his business partners still scared her. Now that her ex-husband was dead, Pavlo would have assumed she’d have immediately shared it. He was tempted to push her for the information but knew it was pointless. It wouldn’t matter what he did unless she wanted him to know. Her secret would remain buried.
“His murder doesn’t make sense. Why kill him now?” Finlay asked and turned off the TV. “Whatever is going down is planned for tomorrow.”
“What if they didn’t?” Pavlo said, thinking out loud. “It won’t be long before a reporter discovers Regan was married to Wyndham. Murdering him before Friday would give his grieving ex-wife an excuse to cancel the book signing. It’s not something the Senator’s supporters would do.”
“We’re no further ahead,” Finlay groaned and stood up. She put the TV remote on the coffee table. The TV played softly in the background. She sat on the chair facing the two of them. “Either the murder is a coincidence, or the Senator’s supporters needed him out of the way. We still don’t know if Wyndham played a role in what’s planned for Friday.”
“We should find out shortly,” Regan said, sighing. “The Senator’s followers will find another way to threaten me. Whoever is behind all of this will think like Pavlo. They’ll be worried I’ll use it as an excuse.”
Pavlo scrubbed his face. Regan was right, but she didn’t realize how dangerous the situation had become. If Wyndham was involved and had jeopardized what they had planned for Friday, they could assume he’d shared it with Regan. It would be easier to kill her than risk revealing what she knew.
Pavlo could hear the distant ring of his cell phone where he’d left it on the night table.