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But Tai’s dark eyes glinted with fiery purpose.
Paige set aside her laptop and blew out a breath. “Okay, I’ve got some updates on our guy.”
Tenaya’s pulse quickened. Finally, a break in this nightmare.
“First, I finished analyzing the voicemail recording.” Paige’s mouth flattened into a grim line. “It’s definitely Zhezhnov’s voice.”
“That’s great!” Tai interjected.
“Yes and no,” Paige said. “Here’s the thing—it was him…but it wasn’t. The words were synthesized from other recordings.”
Tenaya sagged back against the fridge, the wind knocked out of her. More smoke and mirrors. Would this horrific funhouse of threats and deception ever end?
Tai’s hand on her shoulder steadied her. “What else do you have?”
Paige tapped a few keys, expression intent. “The security footage from the hotel garage last night isn’t definitive. It shows a male figure bending down by the vehicle, but the only good footage is from the back. The guy matches Zhezhnov’s physical description, but that’s not super helpful. Zhezhnov’s an average sized man.”
Paige pushed her laptop around for the others to see the grainy black and white image. “The angle’s tricky. All I can say for certain is it’s a person approximately Zhezhnov’s height and build.”
Tenaya thought through the logic. “So we can’t be certain it was him, but we can’t rule it out, either?”
Paige nodded approvingly. “Bingo.” She tapped the playback button to show the shadowy figure bending by the front tire of the soon-to-be charred luxury vehicle.
Tai’s hand on Tenaya’s shoulder tightened reflexively. They all recognized the significance. Whoever this person was, he’d clearly planted the car bomb.
Jaw tight, Tai ground out, “Can you get any shots of his face? Even a partial profile would help.”
Paige shook her head regretfully. “Yeah. No. I’ll check the security feeds from surrounding buildings when I have a sec, but?—”
A rapid series of dings from her laptop interrupted her. Paige glanced at the screen. Her jaw dropped. “Whoa. This just got even more interesting.”
The team crowded closer as she angled the computer to give them all a view. “Remember I submitted the perp’s fingerprints from the Maserati? My NSA contact just came through with a hit.”
Tenaya held her breath, pulse hammering against her ribs. Finally, answers.
Paige turned the laptop to face them, expression grim. “The prints belong to Zhezhnov.”
Tai clapped his hands together. “That’s great.”
Paige shook her head, lips puckered as if she’d just bitten into a lemon. “No, it’s not. The only reason Zhezhnov’s prints popped up on the NSA’s super-secret database is that the guy is dead. Has been for at least six months, according to the ME’s initial report. What was left of the body was found six weeks ago washed up in a cave on the far side of Santa Cruz Island.”
Tenaya set down her mug, hands shaking. Fenn dropped his pastry. Across the kitchen island, the others wore equally stunned expressions.
Zhezhnov’s dead?
Tenaya would have expected the news to bring a sense of relief, but nothing about this felt right. If Zhezhnov was dead, who had been terrorizing her all this time?
“That’s close to a hundred miles off the coast of LA.” She figured the distance automatically while the rest of her brain tried to process the bombshell Paige just dropped.
Paige nodded. “My contacts figure he was dumped at sea. Body was in the water too long to determine a cause of death, but come on, no way it was an accident. So my guess is, whoever toasted the car planted Zhezhnov’s prints on it.”
Tai grasped her icy fingers, steadying her. “Talk us through this, Paige. How solid is this intel?”
Paige blew out a breath, scanning her laptop screen. “The NSA doesn’t make mistakes. The prints are absolutely Zhezhnov’s.” She squinted at the lengthy report. “The ID on the body looks equally solid. They’ve got partials on several elaborate tattoos and scars. Looks like a complete match.”
“No. No. No.” Tenaya shook her head vehemently. “I heard his voice just last night.”
But Paige’s grave expression didn’t waver. “My sources have never steered me wrong before.”
