Page 51 of Betrayed

“GIVE IT TO ME QUICKLY,” Arturo demanded as he stalked into the temporary headquarters set up downtown. “I had to leave Mari in a very tenuous situation.”

“About the case?” Jonas asked, concerned.

“No, in a confrontation with her judgmental adult children, I’m afraid.”

He frowned, tilting his head in question.

“They walked in when we were...involved.” Jonas’ wide-eyed grin stopped him from going further. “It wasn’t nearly as bad as you’re thinking, still it was awkward for her. But never mind that. Bring me up to date so I can get back to her.”

“There was action at Mari’s house last night. Someone with a key searched it and found her safe. When she tried to open it—”

“She?” Arturo interrupted.

“Yes. It was Adriana, Mari’s shop manager.”

“And you’re just calling me now?”

“She found nothing, and we’ve already started surveilling her, so there was no need to drag you in here in the middle of the night.”

Jonas brought up a video on screen of a woman combing through the house. She started in the office downstairs, searching Mari’s desk, even running her hands inside the drawers. At one point, she dropped to her knees and looked at the underside. Not finding what she wanted, she cursed and moved onto the bookshelves, looking between the books and fanning the pages, before searching behind pictures on the walls.

“She’s looking for a key,” Arturo stated aloud. “Or a combination to the safe.”

“That’s what we figured,” Jonas concurred.

From the office, she moved from room to room eventually going upstairs to Mari’s bedroom. There she rifled through her dresser, looked under the bed, and searched the big walk-in closet. As time passed and Adriana didn’t find what she was seeking, she became visibly irritated and careless. At one point, she stopped and walked to a family portrait on the wall. As if she knew it was there all along, she pulled it down and exposed a safe. Her fingers punched a code into the keypad. When she failed, she cursed volubly and tried again, and again.

“She knew about the safe but doesn’t have the combination,” Arturo surmised.

“Agreed. She’s at this for a while, trying every combination that Hoffman might have used.” Jonas stopped the video. “That’s all that’s worth watching. She searched in vain and then, an hour later, was careful to cover her tracks and put everything back in its place before she stormed out.”

Arturo’s heart ached for Mari, wondering how she’d handle another betrayal? First, her husband then, her manager, who she thought was her friend, and her current lover, who would have to break the news of it all to her, eventually.

“What’s her motive?” he asked. “Revenge?Is she trying to get back at the corporation after being let go? Or is it less personal? Or simply greed?”

“Or all of the above, maybe,” Jonas suggested. “Something is happening with her recently. She’s feeling the heat from somewhere or someone and seems desperate. I pulled her cell phone records, and she’s made several calls back east. I couldn’t track the number registered by anyone. It’s likely a burner, but it was issued in New York. I checked and can’t see any connection in her present or past with anyone on the East Coast.”

“She’s shrewd and conniving, but I don’t think she’s smart enough to pull this off by herself.” His eyes narrowed on the frozen screen and Adriana’s face.

“Maybe that’s why she needed her scientist buddies at BSE.”

“No, she was clearly calling the shots there. I mean, she had to have someone in the know internationally to get these kinds of connections and to get a prototype weapon into the hands of a foreign extremist group. Where does a secretary get those kinds of contacts?”

“Someone else at BSE is involved.”

“Perhaps,” he murmured, still gazing intently at her face. Beneath her anger, he read fear. There were circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. “She’s scared shitless and is going to screw up.”

“I think she already has,” Jonas offered. “And the noose is getting tighter.”

“We need to get into that safe.”

“Agreed,” Jonas said with a nod. “Do you have that skill set, or do you need one of our men?”

Arturo arched an offended brow his way. “I am quite capable on my own.”

Jonas inclined his head, conceding the point.

“Tonight, after we’re settled at the beach, I’ll come back.”

---