Peter grinned. “That was a good day. The day after Independence Day, right?”
Jack entered 070508. The document opened, decrypting before his eyes. A handful of official-looking documents. Pentagon-letterhead notepaper. Partially redacted.
Peter whistled as he read the documents. “Okay . . . What the fuck?”
Jack began to read. Slowly he began to understand. A combination of classified Pentagon intelligence documents and classified diplomatic cables. The latter had been sent to the State Department but leaked by a whistleblower to WikiLeaks. The documents showed conversations about why Sophie Meyer was a liability. A national security advisor had done an assessment showing Meyer as a serious and credible risk to the United States. But what the documents also contained were clandestine options to deal with her. “These are Department of Defense and State Department documents.”
Peter sat quietly, reading another document. “I don’t like this.”
“How did Caroline get her hands on this?”
Peter got up, beer bottle in hand, and began to pace the room. “This is fucked up. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.”
Jack took about an hour to read the half-dozen special access Pentagon memos relating to Sophie Meyer. Redacted names discussing options on the table to neutralize the threat. The wording was ominous. The documents were dated three months before Meyer died. He scanned the rest until he came to the final two documents. They were autopsies carried out by two separate medical examiners. An official version showing Meyer died by a drug overdose. A simple suicide. And a second version which showed suspicious needle marks on the neck. There was no mention of the needle marks in the first autopsy report.
He showed his brother the autopsy reports. “Read that,” he said. “What do you make of that?”
Peter leaned over his brother’s shoulder and scanned. “Motherfucker.”
“This is something that Caroline either unearthed or a source in the Department of Defense passed to her.”
“What do you think, Jack?”
Jack’s mind raced. He wanted to watch the video of his wife again. And again. He wanted to listen to her talk. He wanted to not only hear her voice but also listen closely to what she was saying.
“So, what should we do?”
“We need to do the right thing. We need to take what we have to the FBI.”
Peter stared at him. “Do you trust them?”
“I don’t know.”
“This seems to indicate that someone, maybe someone close to Sophie Meyer’s family, ordered a private autopsy. Maybe they didn’t believe the official version.”
Jack nodded.
“It points to foul play. A cover-up. Call it whatever you want. The needle marks.”
“I don’t think this is the full story. Not by a long shot. I say we take what we have to the Feds, eventually. But let’s wait and see if we find out anything else.”
Peter nodded. “Probably our best bet under the circumstances. Do you think these documents got Caroline killed?”
Jack stared at the two autopsies on the screen. “I wish to God I knew.”
Sixteen
The following day, after a long drive south from Westport, McNeal sat in the lobby of the Willard hotel in Washington, DC, nursing a soda, anxiously waiting to meet up with Anna Seligman. His cell phone rang.
“Jack, it’s Anna.” Her voice sounded strained.
“Hey, everything okay?”
“I’m so sorry. I had to leave the conference early.”
“So, you’re not at the hotel? Nothing serious, I hope.”
“Listen, I won’t be able to make it. I’ve got a major problem.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Unfortunately not. I’ve had a break-in at my office. Files are missing. It’s very serious.”
“It’s not a problem for me to head on over and continue our conversation there.”
“That won’t be possible right now.”
“Just give me a few minutes of your time. I drove a long way today just to speak to you.”
“I’m sorry for wasting your time. The place is crazy.”
“What happened?”
“I came back to my office about an hour ago. My talk finished early, and I wanted to pick up Caroline’s files and a few other things. When I got here, I realized that a batch of maybe forty files had been stolen, along with a laptop and an iPad. It must’ve happened when I was giving the lecture.”
“And the police are there?”