The Lost Key (A Brit in the FBI 2)

Narrowed eyes replaced the smile. “Yes. What are you implying?”

“I’m saying a civilian having access to these plans violates hundreds of laws. And the friend you speak of, the one who e-mailed these plans? He masked the e-mail address, bouncing it through about forty servers all over the world, so it’s virtually untraceable.”

He stopped, reached down and clicked the mouse, closing the image on the screen. That was enough for now—the satellite image didn’t even scratch the surface of what Nicholas had seen, but she didn’t need to know that.

“My father would never do anything to hurt this country.”

Mike paused in the doorway, listening. She saw Nicholas was towering over Sophie, but Sophie hadn’t moved. She looked mad, ready to square off with him. Mike had the distinct impression Sophie Pearce was more than the sum of her parts. Like the Fox, she thought, who’d very nearly brought them down, Sophie had that same feel to her—softness covering steel. She knew more than she was saying, a lot more. How to make her level with them?

Mike stepped into the office. “Excuse me. Nicholas, can I speak with you a moment?”

He shot her a look, nodded. Mike said to Sophie, “Do you have other family here in town? Someone who can come be with you?”

Sophie shook her head. “It’s only us.” Her voice cracked, and they knew the fact of her father’s death was sinking in now.

“Who is ‘us’?” Nicholas asked.

“My . . . my brother.”

“What is his name?”

“Adam.” Her voice shook. “Please, where is my dad? I mean, where is his—body?”

Mike said, “At the morgue. There will be an autopsy. We need to be one hundred percent sure about how he died.”

Sophie swallowed hard. “Someone shoving a knife in his back isn’t clear enough?”

Mike touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I truly am. Are you sure there’s no one we can call for you? Your brother, Adam?”

Sophie said, “No, Adam’s not here. I forgot—I have a meeting this afternoon and I need to call and cancel. Tell them what’s happened.”

Mike said, “All right. Go ahead, we’ll be out in a moment,” and watched Sophie pull her cell from her pocket as she stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind her.

“You think it’s safe to leave her alone?”

Mike said, “Worry not, crime scene’s here. They’ll watch her, see if she does anything hinky. We’re in here, so she can’t hop on this computer and delete anything.”

“Wouldn’t matter,” Nicholas said. “I’ve already copied his hard drive and downloaded the files from the SD card.” He held up a small thumb drive. “I also encrypted the drive with my own program so no one can tamper with the files now.”

Mike grinned at him. “I knew I asked to partner with you for a reason. I listened to some of your conversation with Sophie. Do you think she’s clean in all this?”

“Mike, she works for the UN. She’s a translator.”

She nodded. “Yes, and that means international connections. We’ll keep a close watch on her.”

“She also knows who EP is. I don’t think she knows what her father meant when he said ‘The key is in the lock.’ What else does she know that she’s not telling us? The big question is why isn’t she telling us everything she can think of? Her father was murdered. I can’t tell you if Pearce was up to no good, but what I saw on the SD card—I think this is big, Mike, we’re talking government secrets, big-money secrets. We need to pull apart Pearce’s financials, and Sophie’s, too.”

“And we need to protect her and her brother, Adam, given what Mr. Olympic threatened. Zachery called to report someone’s been hanging around Ariston’s this morning, as if he’s waiting for the store to open. We need to get up there and check it out.”

“I bet Pearce has another computer at the store. I’d like a chance to see what’s on it. We should take Sophie with us, if nothing else, to keep her safe. Maybe, too, she’ll break down and tell us what else she knows about all this.”

15

Ariston’s Antiquities and Rare Books

Second Avenue and East 57th Street

Noon