“See anything in the photos?” Tucker asked. “I looked through them, but I was mainly looking for places, more than people. I know you think Charter’s not involved, Dahlia, but I did find this.” He passed a pen deliberately to Max to give her.
Max sucked in his breath, reading the advertisement for Lombard Inc. Without a word, he handed it to Dahlia.
She took it reluctantly, turning it in circles. “Anyone could have given this to her. They’re everywhere. It’s a big company.”
“It’s a tie to her,” Nicolas said. “And to Martin.”
“What other information do you have on him?” Max asked.
“Lily’s thorough. We have everything from his grades to his classified missions, but what interests me the most is his relationship with his family. He’s an extremely loyal man. Not only to his siblings, but also to Louise Charter. I think it’s genuine. I think he’d exhibit the same loyalty to his country and to the NCIS and his friends,” Nicolas mused aloud.
Kaden nodded. “I see where you’re going with this.”
“I don’t,” Dahlia said. “Are you eliminating our only suspects?”
“Who else has access to the Charter home, Dahlia?” Nicolas asked. “Who else would come and go?”
Her fingers curled around the photos. “But how would they get classified information? Louise knows me, knows my clearance, and the only thing she really told me in the entire conversation was Jesse’s condition and that’s because no directive came down saying it was to be treated as classified. She’d never sit down to dinner, even with someone she considered a son, and reveal government secrets.” Dahlia shook her head. “I don’t know Martin Howard, but if he’s as solid as you all say, I can’t imagine he would be that chatty either.”
“Trust me, he would never say a word, accidentally or not,” Max affirmed.
“No, but his brothers would have access to both the Charter home and her office. She would allow them to come see her at work, even meet her to have lunch, that kind of thing. The same with Martin. Why would they ever suspect a family member of planting bugs? Techs go over the computers, but considering there’s so much security in the rest of the buildings, how often do you think the offices are swept? Even if a bug was found on the secretary’s phone or her computer was attacked, would anyone suspect a member of her family?” Kaden explained it carefully. “I think it would work over time, drop in, have lunch, pass the time, no one would give him a thought. He could collect a lot of information.”
“Which brother?” Max asked.
“My bet is on the troublemaker, Roman. He tried to follow in his big brother’s footsteps but wasn’t successful. He tried for the Green Beret and wasn’t accepted. He tried for the psychic experiment program and his troublemaking record blew it for him. Without Martin’s interference, he very well might have gotten a dishonorable discharge. He’s out of the service now and claims to be a student, and self-employed, but Lily’s investigator couldn’t figure out what he does.”
“A student where?” Dahlia asked.
“Rutgers,” Nicolas said in his quiet voice.
Dahlia spun around and stared at Nicolas. “It has to be him. How could it be such a coincidence?”
“What does Rutgers have to do with it?” Max asked. “I know that Jesse was poking around there.”
“Rutgers lost a few professors with grants to develop a new weapon for the defense department,” Dahlia explained.
“So there’s definitely a tie-in between Jesse’s investigation and where Roman Howard goes to college,” Kaden said.
Dahlia began to rotate the spheres again as the energy in the room began to build. The men were working at keeping their reactions very low-key, but they were human. “If it’s Roman, and he doesn’t work for the NCIS, how would he have been able to go out with the NCIS team to the safe house to take a potshot at me?”
“More likely, he followed them and waited on top of a building for them to point the way. Once he knew where you were, he took his shot and got the hell out of there,” Kaden said. “That’s what I would have done.”