“Ex-lover, then.”
“No.”
Mark scowled. “Am I going to have to get rough with you again?”
“I think we both know I’m not exactly afraid of you.”
“Spill it, shortcake. Or I make that call to your boss. I can’t imagine that the Federal Bureau looks kindly on this sort of behavior.”
“Dominic Santos-” Nora began.
“Butler,” Mark corrected her. “Don’t forget.”
“Not likely. Dominic is my brother.”
Mark blew out the air in his lungs in a slow woosh. “Why do I feel like I just stepped into the middle of a bad soap opera?”
“Dick Butler was my father. He abandoned my mother and me much in the same way he did Dominic and his mother. My mom remarried and my stepfather adopted me.”
“Why didn’t you just…Oh, I get it. You know about the fake identity. Knowledge of criminal activity.”
Nora nodded tightly. “Exactly. Of course I would never report him, but if my superiors found out I knew about it, I don’t know what would happen. Dominic made me promise never to tell anyone about our relationship. We knew. That’s all that mattered.”
“What did you think you were going to find on the computer?”
“An e-mail that he sent to me the night of Denny’s death. He told me about this software program that Denny had created, what it could do, what it could mean. He thought the government was going to have to get involved and he was right. When I bypassed his security that first day in the office, I transferred the e-mail to a file where it wouldn’t easily be found so I could have a few days to discover what was going on. I knew he hadn’t killed Denny. But he’s been gone too long and I’m afraid he might run permanently. I’ve got to prove his innocence now and find a way to get him to come home.”
“So you were here to put the e-mail back in his box. Then what?”
“I was going to tell your guys to check the computer again. Of course I have the e-mail on my computer back in D.C., but this seemed more expedient.”
“Either way, you’re exposed.”
“Getting fired is a small price to pay for my brother’s life.”
“You two are close, huh?”
“No. Not really. But Dominic saved my life. Not too long ago, I was a rebellious, smart-mouthed teenager with a chip on my shoulder because my real daddy didn’t love me. Also I had a natural propensity for trouble.”
Mark smiled. “Rebellious? Chip? You’re kidding me, shortcake. That doesn’t sound like you at all.”
Nora bumped up against his shoulder good-naturedly, letting him know she didn’t care for his sarcasm. “Let’s just say my personality was a lot more magnified back then. I had a natural gift for computers and ended up tracking down Dominic. I threatened to expose him if he didn’t give me money so I could run away. He gave me a job instead. I was actually Denny’s assistant for a few years. This was long before Steven showed up. Dominic made sure I went to college and then when the FBI wanted to recruit me, we both decided it would best to keep our relationship to ourselves.”
“The FBI would have done a background check.”
“Dick Butler was dead by then. They never looked farther than that. They spoke with Dominic, but as my employer, not my brother.”
“So you knew Denny.”
“Yeah,” she admitted sadly. “He was a sweet guy. Harmless. His head was always in whatever program he was working on. I was convinced he wouldn’t have remembered to eat unless I reminded him. I can’t imagine who would have wanted to kill him.”
“What’s this program?”
Nora opened her mouth to explain, but Mark interrupted her with a raised hand.
“And don’t give me a bunch of computer mumbo jumbo and megawatts and RAM and all that crap. Just the basics.”
“According to Dominic, Denny has a program that can unscramble anyone’s encryption code. Can decrypt any data regardless of what software was used to encrypt it in the first place.”
“I’m with you so far. And this is bad?”
“This is very bad,” Nora answered. “Imagine having the power to unlock any and all secured data being transferred over the Internet. This kind of program, in the wrong hands, would be seriously dangerous.”
“Okay. That makes things simple. Somebody killed Denny to get their hands on the program and whoever that was, he set up Santos to cover his tracks. So who would have known about the program?”
“That is a very good question. Unfortunately, the only person I think who can answer that is…”
“Dominic,” Mark concluded.
“Dominic.”
“Then I guess we better hope he wants to be found.”
“He’ll come back. I know it.”
“You just said you’re afraid he’s gone rabbit for good.”
“I’m panicking, that’s all. He didn’t run because he killed Denny. He ran because he needed time to figure out who did. Once he does, he’ll come back. Until then, all we can do is help him put the pieces together.”
Nora lifted her feet up on the coffee table and settled deeper into the leather couch. In a way it was a relief to finally be able to share her thoughts with someone. And Hernandez wasn’t stupid. In fact, he was probably the best ally Dominic could have, even if he was somewhat unwilling.
“So now that you know he didn’t do it, who do you think did?” Nora asked.
Mark gave her a doubtful look. “I don’t know shit.”
“I told you he sent an e-mail to me that night. It’s going to confirm his alibi.”
“Sweetheart, I already know you tampered with the computer to hide the e-mail. How do I know you didn’t put it out there in the first place? That e-mail proves nothing.”
She huffed in annoyance. “What’s your theory, then? Dominic killed Denny and contacted me, an FBI agent, to come help him cover up his murderous and embezzling tracks by concocting some story about a big bad computer program?”
“You know, when you say it like that, it sounds a little far-fetched.”
“Hernandez,” she snarled.
“Shortcake,” he returned ominously. “Drop it. I’ve still got an ex-con on the run, a bride that’s flown the coop, one standing partner with a devoted but spoiled wife, a sleazy father-in-law and now a half sister who wants to believe her brother is innocent and isn’t afraid to lie and tamper with evidence to make sure that happens.”
Nora’s shoulders slumped. “You know, when you say it like that…”
“Exactly.”
“So what’s next?”
“What’s next is you are going to get your pretty little ass on a plane back to Washington and let me figure this out without your interference, which, by the way, is a criminal act.”
“I’m not leaving,” she said stubbornly.
“Fine. I’ll call your boss and let him know that you like to break laws on your vacation.” Mark stood up from the couch. “What do you think he’ll have to say to that?”
“You wouldn’t.”
He just looked at her over his shoulder.
“You would,” she said glumly. “I don’t care. Go ahead and spill, I’m not leaving until I know who killed Denny and am sure Dominic has been cleared.”
Mark sighed. He’d expected as much, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t follow through with his threat. Not that he liked the idea of being a tattletale. As a cop, it wasn’t in his nature to rat out one of his own. But he liked even less the idea of her doing something to screw up his case once he made it. As much as she tickled his fancy, he really couldn’t let her continue to interfere. On the flipside of that argument, her reasoning had been pretty sound throughout the investigation. She hadn’t been the worst partner he’d ever had.
“Out of curiosity only, who do you think it is? Steven Ford?”
