Page 51 of Thorn

“One would assume.” Lynx nodded. “Another weird one, I got David DuBois’s health insurance information. Juliette is assigned to his policy. There’s never been a claim declared for Juliette. And nothing in the credit cards going back to their arrival in the United States paying for Juliette’s medical needs.”

“What does that mean?”

“One would assume that for some reason she’s paying cash out of pocket for some strange reason, or that she’s not seen a doctor in the time she’s lived here.”

“With her level of disability?” Thorn asked. “That’s curious.”

“My thoughts exactly. Why hasn’t she even gone for a flu shot?”

Suddenly, the monitor shifted to a split screen of Lynx’s face and Nutsbe’s torso.

“Good morning, lads,” Nutsbe called as he set his cup of coffee in front of him and maneuvered himself into his chair. “I hope you all went straight to bed and had a good night’s rest.”

“Yes, Mom,” they said.

“Good. I have a feeling you’re going to need it. Was Lynx telling you about Roxanne?”

“Affirmative,” Thorn said, and while Lynx had provided them with important information, he wished they could just cut to the chase. Where was Juliette and was she okay? “Did you find Juliette? Were you able to get CCTV of the airport from French Intelligence?”

“No, not from the DGSE, but I know a guy. What I had available wasn’t helpful. There’s something on the lens of the camera by the taxi queue. Bird crap, I’m guessing.” He squinted at his monitor and tapped at the key board. After a moment, Nutsbe focused back on the field operatives. “Let me back up. I just want to hammer this piece home. It strikes me how odd and out of character it would be for Juliette to travel to Toulouse on her own, and be able to − with her level of disability − scape the two Russian guys and get secretively to Paris.”

Honey pushed his plate away and scooted closer to the table. “Did Roxanne say anything about what Juliette did in her life prior to the accident?”

“Yes,” Lynx answered. “She was a veterinarian’s assistant.”

Honey, Gage, and Thorn chuckled.

“No, she wasn’t,” Gage scoffed.

Lynx shrugged. “I’d have to agree, but that’s the story Roxanne was told. Juliette had brain surgery and most everything prior to the surgery is gone from her memory bank. So Roxanne got that information−”

“From DuBois,” Thorn cut in.

Lynx nodded. “Exactly.”

“Apparently, our rabbit doesn’t like to make too much contact with those around her either. When Lynx and Roxanne were chatting, Roxanne described how narrow Juliette’s life is in Northern Virginia. She’s home with Roxanne. She often goes out with Toby for walks − that’s her dog”

“Roger,” Thorn replied.

“She just goes up to a nearby park,” Lynx said. “She goes with her father to his work with him about once a week. Roxanne said it was just a way for her dad to get her out of the house. Juliette’s being new here in America, she hasn’t made any friends. She was very isolated by her disability.”

Thorn leaned in. “Something changed to bring her to France.”

“Agreed.” Lynx paused. “Yeah, what that something is, I have no clue. Roxanne said it came out of the blue. Apparently, Roxanne was out doing the grocery shopping for the week when she got a text. Of course, Roxanne immediately called her employer, Dr. DuBois. I followed that time line. The text came in, the call went out, DuBois was on the next flight to Toulouse.”

“Getting there the morning after Juliette did and missing her by minutes. Good thing or bad thing?” Honey asked.

Gage turned to him. “Do you think her being kidnapped might have been a good thing?”

“Yeah, I think Honey’s right to ask that question,” Thorn said. “Look what happened. DuBois didn’t go in and talk to his mother. He didn’t wait to talk to the police. He jumped in his cab and took off for the airport. Strange set of actions for a loving father.”

“Beyond that,” Honey said, “he fought us in the airport. He had the phone number for the Omega crew and called them for an extraction. He fought us out to the car and fuckin’ bit Gage trying to get away.”

“Now, see?” Nutsbe chuckled. “I thought the poor man was just hungry because you guys forgot to feed him.”

Gage pursed his lips as he shook his head. “He was still fighting when we handed him over to Strike Force.”

Lynx nodded. “Yeah I can see the confusion. Not knowing what’s going on in DuBois’s mind means we don’t know if he knew who had taken Juliette and how to get her back. He might have had a connection to Omega, and they were there to assist him in getting to his daughter. He could have been fighting you in an attempt to get back with the team he thought would be of the most use in the situation.”

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