Special Ops Affair Read Online Free PDF Page A

talked about her work.”
    “Who found her?”
    “Her boyfriend. He was living with her, but he wasn’t home when it happened. The police have already questioned him. They haven’t named him as a suspect, but he’s still under investigation.”
    Finally. A lead. “What’s his name?”
    “Calan Friese.” She spelled the name for her. “He’s ex-Delta. Just your kind of guy.” She smiled a little but the sorrow never left her eyes.
    “How did they meet?”
    “A mutual friend had a barbecue.”
    “Who was the mutual friend?”
    “Kate didn’t say. All she said was that they both knew a colonel who had a barbecue.”
    Odie nodded. That might be worth looking into.
    “Dad’s taking it pretty hard,” Mo said.
    Odie could only imagine. Luis Raybourne was Kate’s stepfather and the only father she’d ever known. Mo was his flesh-and-blood daughter, but she’d never had a taste for politics so their relationship was different than the one he had with Kate. He loved both his girls, but Mo was a wife and mother and Kate was an outspoken political dynamo. Luis had a seat on the Senate Arms Services Committee. He and Kate had never run out of things to talk about. Her death had to be devastating for him.
    “He’ll be glad to see you,” Mo added. “I’ll let you know when the funeral is.”
    “I wish it was under different circumstances.” Luis and Odie’s father had met in the army when she and Kate were just kids, but after Sage and her father died, she’d lost touch with him.
    As for Calan Friese, she’d learn his background before she went to see him. She always liked to know the person she wanted to question, or have one of TES’s operatives question for her. It sometimes gave her leverage. She could use any vulnerabilities she found in her background investigations to her advantage. Friese would be at the funeral, too. She’d get a good look at him to start with. Get to know his body language. See if he was anxious.
    “How did you find out?” Mo asked.
    Odie hesitated, not sure how much she should say. She didn’t want to give Mo false hope, not before she had something solid to go on, and she didn’t want to put her life in danger by telling her things she didn’t need to know.
    “She wasn’t answering her phone,” Odie answered. “I got worried.” She hoped Mo wouldn’t question her further.
    “When did you last talk to her?”
    Not since she’d sent that first package of information about defense initiatives, but if she told Mo that, it might provoke her curiosity. “I don’t know. A few days ago,” she lied.
    “And she seemed normal?”
    “Yes.” Keep it short, she told herself. Mo wasn’t in the same league as she and Kate were. She could be misled, and for her sake, Odie would do just that.
    She saw how Mo contemplated the way she’d answered. “You flew all the way here just because she wasn’t answering her phone?”
    Crap.
    “It isn’t like her not to answer her phone. Besides, I had other business here. I just bumped up my schedule.” It wasn’t a total lie….
    The curiosity smoothed from Mo’s expression and now she just looked sad. Time to say goodbye before she started questioning her again.
    “Try and get some sleep,” she said. “I’ll see you at the funeral.”
    “Thanks for coming.”
    Odie left, already planning on how she’d go about getting information on Calan Friese. And how to face Jag. He was bound to be in D.C. by now.

    Odie entered the hotel, which opened to a wide expanse of trees and plants beneath a towering atrium flanked by several floors of balconies. On the far side she could barely see the checkout counter. She moved her gaze back to a sofa surrounded by chairs and tables and lots of vegetation and spotted him.
    Jag unfolded his big frame from the chair where he’d sat waiting for her. She stopped walking as he approached. His legs were long in dark blue jeans and the black boots made him look tough. So did the black T-shirt.