Chapter 13

Don felt like his heart had stopped beating…. "Dead? Are you sure?

"I'm pretty sure, but as I said I only recognize about 7 of the names."

"Wait a minute, wouldn't someone have notices fifteen agents being killed?"

That's the other strange thing. A couple of these guys have been dead for two or three years, William Wickman and Lauren Clide were killed in that money laundering shoot out three years ago. But then Graham Wiate, he died three months ago in a drug sting."

"Charlie couldn't have been involved in any of that then."

"Not really no, so what is he doing with this list?"

"I'm on my way. See if you can find out anything about the other names on that list."

Don put his phone back on his belt and looked across the table at the female agent. He tried to think of a way of not bringing for along. The last thing he wanted was Charlie being held on suspicion of murder on top of everything else, but he had already realized it was useless trying to keep secrets from her. "Let's go."

"Where, may I ask, are we going?"

"To find some answers."

"Four CIA, four FBI, four secret service and three unknowns, all dead just as I thought." Terry looked up from her paper at Simmons who was still sizing up Agent Terry Lake. Her file has also been searched because of her connections to Don. Simmons didn't find anything, but she was certainly close enough to both brothers that if she wanted to deceive them it would be easy.

David picked up where Terry had left off. "They weren't killed at the same time or even in the same way. All the information we can get on the agents shows them dying in the line of duty. There is no connection between these agents that we can find."

"Except that they are all dead. So what does it mean?" Simmons asked turning toward Don. "Why did your brother have a list of dead agents?"

Don sighed. "One question just leads to more questions. Who are the three unknowns? Are they agents? There deaths didn't look suspicious to anyone but were they really murdered?"

"Was I involved in their deaths?" Charlie asked from the doorway.

Don's head snapped up at the sound of his brother's voice. He immediately crossed the room to be near Charlie. Terry glanced over at Simmons, the older agent still held her unreadable mask in place but she was obviously not surprised to see him.

The man following Charlie into the room glanced at Simmons to see if he should stop Don from getting too close, she shook her head slightly and Don grabbed Charlie's shoulders to assure himself Charlie was really there.

"What are you doing here?"

"I didn't kill anyone" Charlie said more to Simmons than to Charlie

Don turned to Simmons.

She stood from her chair, "Then who did Charlie?"