Faith turned, her face drawn, eyes wary. “First, I feel I owe all of you an apology. I’m sure by now Luke has told you about Agent Estes and her total failure to do her job in a professional manner.”
“You aren’t responsible for Janice’s stupidity,” Jacob said. “Neither is Dale. I’ve already talked to him twice.” He looked at the others. “You can’t imagine how much guilt he’s carrying. He feels like Michael’s death is his fault.”
Jacob looked each one of them in the eye before continuing. “Michael’s death, Jared’s death, the shootings, the arson—these things are someone’s fault, but they aren’t Janice’s fault. Or the FBI’s fault. Someone is behind this, and when we find them, then we will know where the blame lies.”
Luke was listening to Jacob, but he was watching Faith. She had her head down, eyes on the floor, and she wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone.
“Could the case have been handled better? Sure. Is it possible we could have solved Thad’s murder by now? Yes. Is it possible doing so would have prevented Michael’s and Jared’s deaths and all that has come after? Maybe. Maybe not. Getting all worked up over it won’t do anybody any good. We have murders to solve. We have an assailant on the loose. We don’t know his motivation, and while we can guess, we can’t know his next target.”
Jacob rubbed his head. “If any of you have an issue with the FBI or with how this case has been handled, you are welcome to bring it to me privately. But we will not hash it out here, and we certainly will not hold Agent Malone responsible for things other people have done. Is that clear?”
All five agents, four Secret Service and one FBI, said, “Yes, sir.”
Then Gil mock whispered, “Hear! Hear!” and a chuckle rippled around the table, and while Faith didn’t join in, she did at least look like she wasn’t carrying the weight of all of their trauma anymore.
Jacob cracked a smile, then nodded at Faith. “Please bring us up to speed.”
Faith told them about her conversation with Sabrina, her suspicions about David Lee, and her concerns about Mi Cha’s father, who still hadn’t been located. As she was wrapping up, the iPad in front of her rang. “Perfect timing.” Faith tapped a button on the screen, and Sabrina Campbell’s face filled it. Faith set her iPad on a small tripod so they could all see Sabrina. While she worked, Luke couldn’t shake the sensation that something was wrong. Sabrina was sitting at a desk and wore a Green Lantern T-shirt. Her glasses were sliding down her nose, and her hair was pulled away from her face in a haphazard fashion. She looked every bit the computer geek she was and pretty much the same way she’d looked the few times Luke had seen her in person, soit took Luke a few seconds to figure out what it was about her that was bothering him.
Sabrina was afraid.
“Faith. Hello. Who else am I speaking with?” Sabrina scanned the room. “Luke. How are you?”
“Fine. You?”
She didn’t answer. Faith picked up the conversation. “Sabrina, I have the assistant resident agent in charge, Jacob Turner, as well as Special Agents Gil Dixon.” Gil waved. “Zane Thacker.” Zane gave her a small salute. “And Tessa Reed.” Tessa smiled.
“Is everyone up to speed? Because we don’t have time for backtracking.”
Faith frowned. “Yes, they’re up to speed. What have you found?”
“I wish I could present this to you in person. I have some slides I can email when we’re finished. I won’t get into the details of how I have this information, but it has all been legally obtained and can be used as evidence, should that be required.”
Jacob seemed to appreciate Sabrina’s thoroughness, but Luke didn’t care anymore. He wanted this person caught, and he had a feeling that whenever they caught up to him, he wouldn’t be interested in coming quietly.
Sabrina had barely paused for breath. “You were right about David Lee. He is most definitely not an accountant, and he’s not American. I don’t have anything conclusive to tell me where he was before July of last year, but I have confirmation that he was in Seoul in July. Then he showed up in the States in August.”
“How did he get into the country?” Gil asked.
“No idea. What I do know is that David Lee was in the South Korean special forces.”
“No offense intended, Dr. Campbell, but how high is your certainty on this?” Jacob asked.
“None taken, but it’s one hundred percent. The tattoo was helpful, and I was able to pull one photo from Mi Cha’s cloud storage. Combined with the information Mrs. Lin gave to Agent Malone, I’m confident this is the same guy.”
“Is he active military?”
“No. And he’s older than we suspected. He’s thirty-nine. I’ve updated the local Raleigh officers with the information that this man is highly dangerous. I know you need him taken alive, but the officers going after him need to know that capturing him could be a deadly proposition.”
Luke couldn’t shake the knowledge that, in this moment, Sabrina wasn’t talking as a professor or a consultant. She was talking as the wife of a sheriff’s investigator. She wouldn’t want anyone risking her husband’s life, and she wasn’t going to let anyone else’s spouse face an unknown threat if she could help it.
“I cannot place David Lee at the initial bombing or at any of the attacks from this week. I’m still waiting on contact from my source in Seoul regarding Mi Cha’s father. But we definitely need to find David Lee.” She took off her glasses. “Are there any questions?”
So many, but none Sabrina could answer. When no one responded in the affirmative, she said, “Then I have nothing further at this time, and I need to get back to work. I’ll be in touch. Please stay safe.”
The video chat ended.
“Is she for real?” Tessa asked. It wasn’t snarky. More admiring.
