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Darkshade had killed the president, gunned down half a dozen secret service agents, and blown up an entire coffee shop to take out one person. There was no doubt in Will’s mind that he would do whatever was necessary to save himself if backed into a corner.
And they were supposed to capture him. The intelligence this man could offer the United States was unparalleled, since he was rumored to have worked for a dozen major governments and nearly every terrorist organization on the map.
Kuznetsov had no loyalty to anyone but himself. He was meticulous and ruthless.
And Will had to take him off the board before anyone else got hurt.
About an hour before they needed to leave, he caught Hannah in the living room.
“Hey, do you have a second?”
Her eyes traced up and down his body, and Will felt himself grow warm. The button-down and slacks he wore fit him well. Miranda paid attention to all the details.
“Sure, what’s up?”
“I spent some time last night trying to read your notes on the chemical spill, but I’d like for you to walk through them for me. I think this might be the key to who hired Kuznetsov in the first place.
Hannah’s mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Yeah. We think they used the meeting as a lure for President Walters. The Secret Service insists that the stop was unscheduled, but the recordings show that someone insisted the president come to that meeting at that location and give Yuri the opportunity he needed to take her out.”
“Oh my,” she breathed.
“So? Can you tell me the whole story? Why were you there?”
Hannah nodded. “Of course. Let me start at the beginning. I was contacted by a woman, Gina Parkison, about a month ago. It was two weeks after the hurricane. Even though their house hadn’t sustained any damage, they were noticing some strange things. First, they were sick. Then, their skin was reacting to the water. She reached out to anyone she could, but no one was listening. On the neighborhood Facebook group, everyone was having the same issues. They just keep being stonewalled.”
She shook her head, obviously upset by what was happening.
“She finally thought it would go somewhere when the chemical company agreed to have testing done, but the results showednothing of concern.” She said the words with obvious bitterness.
“And that was obviously a lie,” he filled in.
She nodded. “Definitely. They can’t use the water in their house at all. She went all the way to the EPA.”
“Persistent,” he commented.
Hannah was getting animated now. “Of course, she was! This is her family and her home and no one was doing anything. After we’d been in touch, she heard back from the EPA, and they agreed that everything was normal.”
He scoffed.
“I know! So, I followed the CEO of the chemical company.”
“You followed him?” Will tried not to let his dismay show. What was she thinking? He’d seen enough last night in her notes to know that the CEO of Marshand was Damien Strickland. Will felt safe in saying that he was not a good guy. He’d have to double check with Joey, because she kept a burn book on pretty much every megarich corporate stooge in the country, including the one she’d recently apparently fallen head over heels for.
Hannah nodded and grinned, far too pleased with her investigative efforts. “I actually ended up as his temp secretary for a day. Which is how I knew about the meeting at Sunset Terrace that day.”
Will shook his head. “Do I even want to know how you ended up as his temp?”
She gave an innocent smile. “It was pure luck. Or maybe God. Because I just showed up at the office and asked for him and they just assumed I’d been sent over by the temp agency.”
Will put a hand to his forehead. “So you just waltzed right in?”
“Basically. It wasn’t my fault they escorted me to his office and gave me access to his entire calendar.”
“What else did you learn while you were there?”
“Engineers at the chemical site reported significant leaks after the hurricane. Repairs were made, but no clean-up efforts were underway. Basically, the guy knows exactly what is wrong with Gina’s water, but he’s too greedy to take care of it. And the EPA is in his pocket.”
