Page 106 of Fatal Intent
“You know how many coincidences we have in this business.”
Grant quoted one of Echo unit’s favorite sayings. “Between slim and none, and slim is out of town.”
“Give us five minutes, and we’ll finish the lists.” Seth glanced around the suite’s living room. “Wrap it up. Five minutes.”
“Copy that.”
Rayne moved a straight-backed chair from the small table and set it beside Grant’s recliner. “Will you tell me what you discovered, or do I have to wait?”
“I want to double-check a couple of things before I’ll be ready to talk about what I found.”
“Will you at least tell me if the information you ran across is connected to our list or one of the other lists?”
“Ours.”
Minutes later, he sat back, staring at the screen. This was not good. He had to be wrong. No, he wanted to be wrong. Perhaps one of his teammates had stumbled across a red flag like he had.
“We’re ready, Grant.” Seth joined his wife on the couch. “What did you find?”
“I’d like to hear what everyone else discovered first. Any objections?”
Echo’s leader glanced at Elias. “You first. What did you and Iona discover?”
“Three of our men made it home alive but died in suspicious circumstances. The fourth is still alive.”
“Yeah, but for how long?” Andre muttered. “From where I’m sitting, those aren’t good odds.”
“Chase Freeman knows something is up because he’s been off the grid for the past month,” Iona said. “We couldn’t find any trace of him. He hasn’t used credit or debit cards. No signs of him on social media.”
“That’s not unusual,” Seth said. “None of us has a social media presence. The people we went up against on missions have long memories. Advertising where we’re located makes tracking us down and exacting revenge too easy.”
“Understandable. However, before last month, Freeman used his cards for everything. He never used cash.”
“Something else interesting,” Elias said. “A month ago, Freeman’s wife and children abruptly moved to live with her parents.”
Wait a minute. Grant frowned. “That makes little sense. Chase and Kristi have been madly in love for more than a decade. You’re telling us they’re divorced?”
“There’s no record of a divorce or a legal separation.”
Silence filled the room.
“Chase sent his family away to protect them,” Rayne said. “But why would he send them to Kristi’s parents? Anyone who knows Chase would know to look for them there.”
“Kristi’s parents are ultra-wealthy.” Seth’s eyes narrowed. “Brandon Corelli owns several tech companies, and all of their shares are hotly traded on the market. With that kind of wealth comes the need for extreme security measures. If Chase wasworried about his family’s safety and felt the best way to protect them was to separate himself from them, he’d send his family to the Corelli estate.”
“That coincides with what Seth and I found,” Teagan said. “Ellis Lindsey, Gino Savage, and Barry Fritz are all alive as far as we can tell, but they’ve dropped off the grid as well. Looks like they’re living a cash-and-carry lifestyle like their buddy Freeman is.”
Seth pointed at Andre. “You and Riley are next. Report.”
“All of our Special Forces soldiers went down during Red Dawn,” Andre replied.
“We found nothing suspicious about their deaths,” Riley said. “Just a result of poor information.”
Seth nodded and turned to Grant. “Your turn. Share with the class.”
What if he was wrong? He’d be smearing a good man’s name for nothing. “Three of our four soldiers made it home alive and died under suspicious circumstances in the past four weeks. The only one still alive is Rex Lawson. Beau Reed, Isaac Hill, and Hal Vance died during Red Dawn.”
“So what caught your attention?” Elias asked.
