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She clicked on her iPad and the five people’s pics came up. “All of them worked in some capacity at the Mall. Grissom here,” she said highlighting an older looking white man, “was the security guard. We had video of someone shooting him, then the feeds went dead, so we assumed that was planned. The others seemed to make no sense, unless it was just wrong place wrong time kind of thing.”
She brought up the other people again. “Fiona Marshall worked in the operations office for the Mall. Sort of a secretarial kind of job. Cassie Bigelow, Sam Johnson, and Dylan Busch worked at various stores, but they were all on their breaks at the time, from what we could tell. There was a little area for Mall employees to go eat. The smaller store employees tended to go there, as the big department stores had their own break rooms.”
“They weren’t all found in the same area though,” Charity said.
“Exactly. My thoughts were that their passes were used to help the bombers get into areas that are off-limits to regular people. Virginia Star was a different kind of mall in that respect. They had a lot of underground areas, which required an employee pass.”
“Why didn’t they just steal one? Wouldn’t that have been easier?” Cat asked.
Tamilya shrugged. “I do know the mall was extremely particular about those passes. They had a monthly check to make sure people had theirs. All shops had to maintain a list and, if not, each missing badge incurred a five hundred dollar fine.”
Del whistled. “Damn, that’s expensive.”
She nodded. “So, it made sense that they watched schedules and then singled out four people they could easily grab. Fiona, we think just walked in on the situation and they shot her. She was found right outside of the break room. Each of the others were found in a location where the bombs were detonated.”
“Why did the FBI hide this?” Charity said crossing her arms beneath her chest, glaring at TJ.
“Hey, I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“And, as Elle pointed out, it was hidden from the public as well. Which I thought was stupid. I didn’t realize it though until months later.”
After she had left the FBI, Marcus thought. She was never going to let it go and now it exploded in her face. Granted, she looked composed and fine with the situation, but he knew Tamilya well, and she wasnotcomposed. She was a bundle of nerves.
“Did you ever call Addie on it?” he asked.
She nodded. “Addie was my old supervisor. She said that by the time they were able to find the last of the bodies, they realized the mistake. On top of that, she used some lame excuse that they were trying to spare the families any more grief.”
“More like they were trying to cover up that they didn’t have all the answers,” Marcus said.
She nodded. “As I said earlier, I always had problems with events as they were reported. I knew at first they were holding information back, as we do with any active investigation.”
“But something changed?” Charity asked.
Marcus watched TJ and Tamilya share a look. They had both been in the FBI at the time, and TJ had a mentor kind of relationship with her. Still, he couldn’t fight the jealousy snaking through his system. He balled his fist against his thigh beneath the table so no one could see. It made no sense that he was feeling this way. TJ was seriously happy in his marriage to Charity, and there had never been any evidence that TJ and Tamilya were even interested in each other. Still, he wanted to punch TJ in the face—at least twice.
“Yeah. The blame game started very early on. I’ll never know who started the rumors, the ones that said our team—especially me—was sabotaging the investigation. That we—again, me in particular—were trying to make a name for ourselves.”
“That makes no bloody sense,” Graeme said, piping up for the first time. “You would never do something like that.”
There were a few more grunts around the table that he knew were agreeing with Graeme’s comments.
Tamilya’s features softened and Marcus realized she had worried about the team. And why wouldn’t she? She had been stabbed in the back by those closest to her at the FBI.
“Thank you for that. Their reasoning was that we invented a wider conspiracy to cover for the fact that we missed the signs.”
“But you were the one who found them,” TJ said frowning. “I understand some FBI bullshit, but that part of the Virginia Star bombing never made sense. You found the first signs that Northern Virginia was the focus of a hit.”
“Exactly, but you know what the management of the FBI is like. They are all political, and they have no problem throwing anyone—including a loved one—under the bus.”
“And then there was Addie,” Marcus said, trying his best not to spit out her name.
Tamilya shook her head. “She had nothing to do with it and more to lose than having her protégé go under like I did. Granted, she didn’t protect me, so I don’t completely trust her.”
“You think she had something to do with the bombing?” Del asked.
“God, no. Just that she’s a creature who puts herself first, and everything she sees is viewed through that very self-serving lens. Even with her leaving the bureau, she will want to make sure this makes her look good.”
Marcus had to agree.
