Page 57 of Chasing the Past

He scanned her face. “You’re Sashi. You didn’t die in the explosion. It was all a lie.”

She still held his hand. “Yes, but we found each other again. Thanks to God.” She believed that with all her heart.

“Glad you’re back with us,” Will told him. “Do you have any idea where Luke might be? We need to find him. Finding out what’s in the works is critical.”

Eli closed his eyes. “I have an idea where to look for him. Luke’s parents have a summer home here on the island.”

“You think he’s here?” Sashi said in amazement and Eli looked her way.

“It’s worth a try. I’ll have my people meet me over there. I’ll let you know what I find.” Will grabbed his phone.

“We’ll go with you. Get some rest, Eli.” JT patted his shoulder before he and the rest of the team said goodbye.

Once it was just the two of them, Sashi returned to her seat.

“You’ve remembered your past.” Eli correctly guessed.

“Yes, or at least most of it.” She told him why she’d returned to her apartment. “I had to get the watch and the family pictures. Before I left the apartment, Carter showed up at the door. He said you’d been hurt and needed me.” Sashi had protected the watch since she’d found it hidden in Kahli’s nightstand. When she’d spotted the man following her, she’d hidden the watch behind a loose brick in the wall.

“When I opened the door and got a good look at Carter’s face, I knew something was off.”

Eli squeezed her hand.

“Anyway, Carter insisted there wasn’t time to go back and get anything. He grabbed my arm and forced me from the building where Omar—Rafiq waited. They forced me inside a vehicle at gunpoint and demanded to know where the watch was. Apparently, they’d searched my apartment and hadn’t found where I hid it.” She told him what Tahir had said about the watch.

“That explains why I found it under a pile of rubble where your living room once was. I gathered it and some of your photos—your hairbrush. It still had strands of your hair in it.” His eyes widened. “I gave the brush and your—or what I believed was Asal’s DNA to Gavin to test.”

“And he had the thumb drive with what Tahir had gathered. We have to find it, Eli.” Her husband had died for that information. She owed it to Tahir and all the lives that had been lost because of treachery.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Ineed my phone.” Eli had no idea where it might have ended up.

“I have it.” Sashi handed him the phone that was covered in what he believed was his blood.

“I’m calling Will to search Gavin’s possessions and the car that Carter drove to the island.”

“You’re not supposed to be working,” Will said as soon as he answered.

“I know, but this couldn’t wait.” He told his friend about the missing thumb drive. “Gavin wouldn’t have turned it over to the CIA. Either he destroyed it or it’s somewhere among his or Carter’s things.”

“The car and the rest of their things are at the house. I’ll have JT and Declan go there and search. We’re almost to Luke’s parents’ home. We’ve got this. You just take care of yourself.”

“I will.” Eli ended the call and remembered the journal that Fatima found. He asked Sashi about it.

“It wasn’t mine. It belonged to Tahir. And there were mostly numbers in the journal. I thought maybe it was something for a project he was working on.”

Eli recalled how Gavin had said the team at the CIA couldn’t crack the code on the thumb drive. “Gavin said the thumb drive contained a series of numbers. What if the journal was Tahir transcribing the thumb drive to have an actual physical copy of it?”

She held his gaze. “It’s possible. Tahir was meticulous.”

Eli remembered. “He was one of the best assets I’ve worked with. Tahir was determined to bring down the Panther. I’m sorry I got him killed.”

“No, he wanted to help you bring the Panther down, Eli. Tahir knew the risks, but he was willing to take them because he knew this was important. Especially after what the Panther did to his father and mother.”

Eli recalled Tahir telling the story of how the village where his parents lived in Northern Afghanistan was all but leveled—every person in the village murdered—by the Panther after he discovered some were aiding US Soldiers.

“There’s been so much death and destruction associated with the Panther and now it seems that our people were involved.” Eli couldn’t imagine it.

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