Page 21 of Trust No One

No one asked questions about Simon’s assignment or Mel and Dev’s business. They all knew better.

The waitress brought his coffee, and they waited until she was out of earshot before anyone spoke again.

“So who are you looking at in the Company?” he asked.

Mel and Dev glanced at each other, and they both nodded. They knew they’d have to tell Simon who they were interested in if they wanted any help from him. Mel leaned forward. “Cliff Kingsley,” she said, her voice so low it was almost a whisper.

Simon’s eyes widened. “Wow. He’s been in the Company for a long time.” He began to say more, but clamped his mouth shut. “If he’s turned, it’s a disaster for the agency.”

“Oh, he’s turned,” Mel said. She glanced at Dev, and he gave her a tiny nod. “Back when we were all in Afghanistan, Kingsley and a captain in the Marines had a scam going. They gave a Russian guy info on our troop movements, and the Russian gave the captain a wad of cash. Someone we know witnessed it, multiple times. The captain didn’t know it, but our friend understood some Russian, and she figured out what they were doing.

“She tried to report it to the CIA agent in charge of Kabul, but he was out of town when she went to talk to him. She ended up with Kingsley. He told her to forget what she'd seen, or she'd be fragged.

“He also told her he’d find out if she talked to anyone else, which to our friend, implied other people knew what was going on.”

“What was the captain’s name?” Simon asked.

“Larrimore,” Dev said. “A colonel now. Ever hear of him?”

“Nope.” Simon shook his head. “Never have.”

“Our friend ran into Kingsley and Larrimore at an event recently. They warned her again to keep her mouth shut. It was definitely a threat.”

“So you’re going to take them down?”

“Gonna try,” Dev said.

Simon took a sip of coffee and leaned back. “Since you showed me your hand, I’ll show you mine. I’ve had Kingsley on my radar for a while.”

“How come?” Mel asked quietly.

He glanced around the restaurant, and apparently satisfied that no one was interested, leaned toward them and continued. “He has zero integrity. Sleazy is a good word for him. Kingsley’s the kind of guy who’d do anything to advance his career and himself. Made me wonder what he’d done that no one knew about. I even went so far as to dig into him at one point. I was careful, used a firewall, a fake name, but he figured out someone was looking. Shut me out. Didn’t get enough to conclusively prove he was selling us out, and haven’t been able to get back in. I want to help now, though. I want to take Kingsley down. And that other guy, Larrimore, as well.”

Mel leaned toward him. “We’d love to have your help, Simon, and we appreciate that you’re willing to do it, but you’ve got a pregnant wife. That puts you in the ‘too vulnerable’ category.”

“My wife works for the Company, too,” he said quietly. “She knows the risks, but she agreed we should do this. She’s smart as hell and as cautious as I am. We’ve been careful. All our property, including our house, is in a trust with lots of layers. We assume we’re being followed everywhere. Use evasive tactics, even if it’s on the way to our house. Only talk about sensitive stuff when we’re walking outside.

“Someone determined enough could find us, but it would take a while. And Kingsley has no reason to suspect me. I’ve never had any dealings with him.”

“Then why did you suspect something was going on with him?” Mel asked.

Simon took a deep breath. Blew it out. Glanced around the pub and leaned closer. “A colleague of mine caught something off in his financials. He came to me with it, I looked it over and agreed there was a problem. I told him to keep it under his hat. Keep investigating, but don’t broadcast what he was doing.

“But he must have made a mistake. He went to a bar one night. Told me the next day that he had too much to drink and didn’t remember what happened until he woke up in a dive motel. He was afraid someone had targeted him because they knew he was with the Agency. That they got secrets from him.”

Simon shook his head. “I suspect he was roofied because he didn’t remember how he got to the motel where he woke up or who he was with.

“But by the time he told me, it was too late to test for Rohypnol. A month later, he was killed in a car accident. Ran off the road into the river. There was damage to the driver’s side of the car, like he’d been bumped and forced off the road. Happened on a small bridge with low barriers. I haven’t touched Kingsley since then. I want to meet my son.”

He set his hand on the table, and when he pulled it away, left a flash drive behind. “I wasn’t sure who you were looking at. But since I had all this information on Kingsley, I brought it with me. It’s yours now.” He smiled. “If it was someone else, Kingsley would’ve been a bonus, and I would have gotten information on whoever you were chasing. Dropped it at your hotel.”

“Thanks, Simon,” Dev said. “We really appreciate this, especially because of the risk you’re taking.”

Mel leaned closer to Simon. “I won’t put either you or your pregnant wife in Kingsley’s sights. Get a burner phone and text me the number.” She opened her own burner and showed him the number.

He stared at it for a long moment, then nodded. “Got it.”

“Do you want to meet again in a week?” Simon said.

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