Grant liked Dan Marshall, he really did. But he didn’t like him well enough to not sacrifice him in order to achieve his goal. There was no one in the world he liked that much.
Marshall passed another hand over his face, as though he were trying to rub a layer of skin off. “Well, Alan, I’d say this sucker is big enough to catch a lot of folks.”
Grant withdrew his hand. “I’m sorry, Dan.” And in a way he was sorry. But that was all. He had put his father-in-law in this situation. He knew it would come to this. He hoped for his wife’s sake that her father would be mostly spared.
But my father and mother hadn’t been spared. They were ruined, crushed, and then they killed themselves. The only casualties. The only ones when there should have been far more.
He said, “What about this reservist, Sam Wingo? What’s his story?”
“Who knows? The son of a bitch hasn’t been seen since he drove off with Uncle Sam’s money.”
“I saw on the web that some of the money was going to Muslim insurgents. But it didn’t say which country.”
Marshall looked at him miserably. “I saw that too.”
“That will not sit well with some over there.”
“From the little I’ve been told, the diplomatic channels are being used so much they’re molten hot. I still have no idea how the media caught on to it. It was highly, highly classified.”
“It’s a mystery to me too,” lied Grant. “But I’m sure if you catch Wingo you’ll be able to put all this to rest quickly. Any leads there?”
“There might be, actually. I’ve been kept in the loop on this for a number of reasons, mostly because my ass is tied up in the outcome. Wingo has a son, Tyler. His mom died but Wingo remarried.” He lowered his voice. “Now, the marriage was not a real one.”
“The hell you say,” exclaimed Grant, who knew this perfectly well.
“No, it was just a sham. Part of the mission Wingo was going on. Convoluted but he also just couldn’t leave his kid on his own. Now the wife has disappeared. No one knows where she is.”
In a proper grave in the middle of nowhere with her throat slit because she disobeyed and then tried to kill me, Grant said to himself while he kept looking straight at Marshall with polite interest on his face.
Marshall continued, “And there are two investigators that somehow got involved. A Sean King and Michelle Maxwell. Former Secret Service who’ve been poking around even though they’ve been warned off.”
“But no news on Sam Wingo’s whereabouts?”
“It’s believed that he made it back to the States, probably on private wings or maybe a cargo plane. He might have had fake IDs no one knew about. From all the reports I’ve read on him the guy is good, real good. That’s why he was picked for this mission.”
“He could have stolen the money,” Grant pointed out.
“Yes he could. And if he did he might have come back to get his son and then disappear. And actually that’s what he might have done.” His voice sank to a whisper. “I just got an email that said Tyler Wingo had disappeared from FBI custody.”
This statement did startle Grant. “What?”
“Yeah, I know. They had taken him and King and Maxwell into custody or protection or some such because a motel they were at blew up. I don’t know all the details but you probably saw that on the news. Over in south Alexandria?”
“Right, I did see something about that. I thought it was a gas leak.”
“Don’t think so.”
“And where are King and Maxwell?”
“If I had to guess they’re trying to find Tyler. They’re probably thinking if they find Tyler, they’ll find the dad.”
And that’s exactly what I think too, thought Grant. Which is why I’m having them followed right now.
CHAPTER
48
MICHELLE NEVER WOULD HAVE PLANNED an operation this way. It was way too fast and loose, little prep and no real evaluation of the pros and cons. And no true Plan B when something unexpected happened. Her cover spot had several weak spots, any one of which a guy like Sam Wingo would be able to exploit in his sleep.