The Kill Order Read Online Free PDF Page B

their being auctioned off at the surplus warehouse. Apparently, this was an oversight, as the tech folks are aware of the hard drives, and they’re supposed to remove them before the machines leave the premises.”
    “How do you know all this?”
    “It’s in the policy and procedures manual.”
    “Not about the copy machine hard drive. About the murder being related?”
    “Because the South San Francisco PD has spent the last several hours collecting evidence on a murder victim’s place of business, and they apparently found a number of machines to which they ran the serial numbers, which led to our office. They also found most of the hard drives to the machines still intact.”
    Sydney leaned back in her chair, not sure where Carillo was heading with this. “What do you mean most of the hard drives?”
    “Because the one that’s missing? It was from the machine in this office. This floor. The one you and I made a certain copy on. And in case you’re forgetting exactly what that copy is of, maybe a certain trip you took to Mexico to investigate your father’s murder might help to refresh your memory.”
    A sick feeling started in the pit of her stomach. “Someone was killed?”
    “Yeah. Shot in the head. Point-blank.”
    “Oh my God . . .”
    She closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. Shot . . .
    Because of her.
    She’d been the one to track down Robert Orozco, all because she’d wanted answers about who had killed her father. She’d used every FBI resource at her disposal to find Orozco, who’d apparently spent the last two decades in hiding for some crime that he and her father had committed. Orozco had been certain that once he turned over the list of numbers to her, he and his family would be safe . . .
    It simply never occurred to her that someone completely uninvolved with the case could be targeted.
    “How do you think they found him?”
    “The copy machine guy? You know how Doc warned us not to run the numbers on the computer?” he said, referring to his current partner, and the only other person who was aware of how she’d acquired that list of numbers. “He thinks the kid did just that. Ran them on his computer.”
    She thought about that trip to Mexico. Someone had tried to kill her, and she’d had no doubt it was a government agent. She’d barely escaped . . . “You think the government did this, too? Murdered this kid because he found the numbers?”
    “Can’t say. But if there were any doubts that someone’s watching our every electronic move, this should erase them.”
    “What about Orozco? Someone needs to warn him.”
    “Not to worry. I’ll call Agent Venegas as soon as I get off the phone with you. I just figured you should know.”
    “Thanks.”
    “I’ll get back to you once I find out more. I’m on my way to South San Francisco now.”
    She hung up, stared at her phone while the news sank in. And then she unlocked her desk drawer, saw the envelope with her name on the front. Carillo had figured her office in Quantico was probably the most secure location for what it contained, Orozco’s list of numbers, and she picked it up, weighed it in her hands. Hard to believe something so seemingly insignificant—just a page filled with indecipherable numbers—could be the means to such a deadly end. Then again, maybe not. Hard to overlook that she’d almost been killed retrieving the envelope from Orozco in Mexico.
    Had someone murdered this kid for the same reason, because they thought he had the numbers? She’d turned over the original list to the U.S. government. And until now, this copy she held was, she thought, unknown by all except her and Carillo.
    Footsteps echoed down the corridor toward her office, and she shoved the envelope in the drawer, closed and locked it. This was not the place to be waving around something that she was not supposed to have in her possession. Her boss, Terrance Harcourt, stopped in her doorway, carrying a manila folder. The