Page 202 of Whisper
“Yes.” Dan blew out, slowly. “So… That washim? Last night? Who—”
Who had shut the door in Dan’s face when Dan had come to see how he was doing. Kris nodded. “I didn’t know he was here. He broke in.” Kris shrugged. He should have questioned that more.How? Why? When?
But faced with his dead husband, he hadn’t thought about national security, or any darker possibilities of why Dawood was back in his life seemingly out of thin air.
“All your access has been revoked. Anyone logs into the network with your card, or tries to access the internet from your laptop, we’ll be alerted. Your laptop has been flagged, and if he tries anything, its ID will pop up at CIA headquarters. We’ll send out a response team. We’ll bring him in.”
“He’s former CIA, Dan. He knows all this. It took, what, thirty minutes to notify tech? He got everything he wanted off the laptop in under twenty.” Kris sank against the counter, laying his head on his folded arms.
Hadn’t he failed in all the ways a person could fail? Hadn’t he fallen as far as a man could fall? Wasn’t he already the scum of the CIA? Out of all the ways he’d failed, he’d never let classified material into enemy hands. Was that what he’d done now? Was Dawood one of them, still? Or one ofthem?
Dan inched forward, leaning his hips against the counter a few feet down from Kris. He folded his arms, pursed his lips. He still wouldn’t look at Kris.
The lead FBI agent, a woman wearing a blue suit and sporting a brisk blonde bob, marched to Kris. Set her notebook on the counter, a perfect right angle to the edge. “Sir, I’m Agent Spalding. I have a few questions for you, as part of the investigation.”
“The CIA will handle the investigation. We just need the FBI to process the evidence.” Dan jumped in before Kris could speak.
Agent Spalding cast Dan a cold glare. “We will be conducting a thorough investigation without CIA interference. National security information may have been compromised. This is no time for a turf war.”
Dan snorted. “Your boss will be calling you soon. Just a heads-up. Thisisstaying within the CIA. Just process the evidence, Agent Spalding. The CIA will take Mr. Caldera’s statement back at Langley.”
She blinked once at Dan. Turned back to Kris. “You engaged in sexual intercourse with the suspect, correct?”
Dan flinched and turned away. Kris saw his hands grip the counter’s edge, his knuckles go white. “I did.”
“We haven’t recovered any used condoms in the trash. Were they flushed, or did you not use any?”
“We didn’t use any.”
Dan exhaled, slowly. Kris felt his exhale like a sword slicing up his spine. He’d never let Dan touch him without wearing a condom. He’d never let anyone else, ever, touch him without a condom. Dawood had been the first, the only, in his entire life.
“We’re going to need to take you to Fairfax, to the medical center—”
“Why?” Dan was suddenly there, suddenly right at Kris’s side. “Why do you need to do that? Is he hurt?” He turned to Kris, finally looked at him. “Did he hurt you?” Dan looked like he wanted to puke, then wanted to rip Kris’s kitchen apart with his bare hands.
“Mr. Caldera needs a sexual assault forensic exam. We can collect the evidence at Fairfax medical or at Quantico, the choice is yours. But we need to do this.”
“I’m going to be sick.” Kris pushed Dan away and ran to his sink, emptying his stomach of bile and shame. What had he eaten last? Lemon chicken, with Dan. And Dawood’s—
Closing his eyes, he rubbed the back of his hand over his lips. Spit dribbled from his mouth.
Dan’s hand tentatively rested on his back. A gentle, barely there spread of his fingers. As if Dan didn’t want to touch him.
“Why is this required?” Dan’s voice could cut diamonds.
“We need to definitively identify the assailant—”
“It wasn’t an assault.” Kris rinsed his mouth, spat tap water into the sink. “And I know who he was.”
“I was under the impression that there was some confusion about who this man was. The CIA asked the FBI to provide a definitive ID. We need DNA to do that. The fingerprints we’re pulling are mostly partials. If a definitive identity is what the CIA is after, this is how it’s done.” Agent Spalding’s gaze bounced from Kris to Dan and back. “But now you say you know who he is? If that’s the case, then what are we doing here? Wasting time?”
Dan squeezed Kris’s shoulder, hard enough to tell Kris to keep his mouth shut. “We do need a definitive ID, yes.”
Agent Spalding’s eyebrows arched high. She waited.
Dan didn’t give her anything more. “This is a national security matter. We won’t be sharing anything further. All evidence recovered needs to be rush processed and forwarded immediately to Deputy Director George Haugen.”
Agent Spalding snapped her notebook closed. “Then the only thing left is the forensic exam. Fairfax or Quantico, Mr. Caldera. The choice is yours.”
