“Well, that’s interesting,” Melinda replied. “You think she’s telling the truth?”
“Why would she lie?” Before Melinda could answer, he continued, “I realize that she wouldn’t want to implicate her dad, whether or not he was involved, but she still thinks this is just about defective armor. I almost blew it just now when I was talking to her about what I found on her security logs, though.”
Thank goodness he’d caught himself before he’d started talking about trying to track down anomalies throughout the years. She’d definitely caught on that he was holding something back, but he was pretty sure she didn’t know what.
It was a rookie mistake. Although he was a rookie at undercover work, he definitely wasn’t when it came to “need to know.” Most of his missions with the rangers had been highly classified. He’d had no problem keeping everything about them secret. But something about Leila made him speak without thinking.
“She probably wouldn’t lie,” Melinda agreed, bringing him back on track. “But maybe her father figured he didn’t need to get into a fight with her over it if the rest of the company would do it for him. Push back on dropping the gun sales, that is. Or maybe he’d already planned to move over to making money illegally off of the armor and didn’t need the gun sales.”
“Really? I know we’re talking about dealing with criminals, but in some ways selling guns illegally seems safer. At least that way, he wasn’t risking a major incident with the military and a large-scale investigation. Not to mention the bad publicity.”
“Well, we also don’t know how many people are involved,” Melinda said. “Maybe he planned to keep making guns and just hide it from Leila. Or they had enough excess that he figured he could just sell those for a while.”
“Leila said the excess was mostly destroyed.”
“Maybe that’s just what her dad told her and she believed him. For all we know, he just moved the excess and continued to sell it.”
Davis stared at the entrance to Petrov Armor. It was a huge facility, representing almost three decades of work, most of it with Neal Petrov at the helm. The FBI hadn’t requested Neal’s personal finances, but Davis was willing to bet he’d made millions legally. In Davis’s cases, he’d seen plenty of greed that didn’t make any sense to him, people who had more money than they should ever need who still wanted more. He’d come across plenty of people who framed spouses, children or friends for their crimes.
Even though Kane had described Neal Petrov as heartless, Leila spoke of him with such love. Could she just not see his faults because she adored him? Was he that good a liar? Or was the truth something more complex?
“What are you thinking, Davis?” Melinda asked, making him realize how long he’d gone silent.
He was thinking that he felt guilty for not telling Leila that he suspected her dad had been involved in killing the soldiers. That he felt worse for not telling her that her dad might have been murdered over it.
Instead of admitting to Melinda how complicated his feelings were becoming when it came to the woman he was supposed to be using to get information on the case, he sighed. “I’m wondering if her dad saw how much Leila wanted to stop selling guns and focus on the armor. I’m wondering if he supported her because he loved her.”
“You think he loved her enough to sacrifice a more than ten-year-long criminal business that was probably netting him millions on top of his legal income? It doesn’t seem likely, but no matter how much you break down people’s motivations and the things that form them, they surprise me all the time. Love is a pretty powerful motive.”
“What if he wanted to quit the illegal business altogether for her?” The idea gained traction in Davis’s mind. If anyone was worth giving up millions of dollars and changing your way of life for, wouldn’t it be someone like Leila Petrov? A strong, determined leader who refused to suspect anyone she trusted of wrongdoing? Who had a goofy side she tried to hide so people wouldn’t stop taking her seriously? He’d laughed more than once at her silly jokes, had caught her humming popular tunes while working, and seen her bopping along to music as soon as she got into her car to head home at the end of the day.
Yet she was serious when it came to her responsibility to the company and her employees. She held strong morals about investigating the business she ran—risking her own livelihood—to do what was right.
“So, he supported her in shutting down the gun side of the business,” Melinda said. “Maybe that was his attempt at taking the company legal again. Maybe he wasn’t setting her up to take a fall if things went south. Maybe he was trying to get rid of that threat for her.”
“Then what happened with this armor?” Davis asked. “Could it have really been an accident?”
“I doubt it.” Melinda echoed his thoughts. “What if it was Neal’s partner, trying to undermine the armor side of the business? Bring the guns back?”
“It’s possible,” Davis said. “But that’s quite a risk, purposely drawing all that attention to Petrov Armor.”
“Or maybe Neal Petrov saw a new opportunity to make money off the books by using cheap armor material, and he couldn’t help himself. Ten years is a long time to be involved with criminals and then just quit. It’s not always just about money,” Melinda reminded him. “It’s also a thrill for some people.”
That felt right to Davis. It even opened up a new motivation for Neal’s death. “What if his partner was unhappy with the change?” Davis suggested. “Theresa—or whoever he was working with—thought he’d come around and start selling guns again. When he switched to armor, maybe she had a problem with it.”
“That could be,” Melinda agreed. “Selling guns to criminals
