Page 124 of Nobody's Hero
‘MissWexmore. She didn’t run a bordello.’
‘As you wish,’ he said. ‘He was just another sad billionaire. Used to getting his own way. Didn’t like the word “no”. Miss Wexmore convinced him she could fix some mining permits for him. He’ll be convicted of something unrelated.’
‘Koenig won’t like it.’
Smerconish shrugged. Unconcerned. ‘You’re his handler. Handle him.’
‘And Bess Carlyle? Will she have to disappear again?’
‘That’s the thing with Pandora’s box,’ Smerconish said. ‘You can only open it once. Lieutenant Commander Carlyle has been welcomed back to the fold. The protocol is out in the open. There is no reason for her to hide any more.’
Draper lifted her hand from the file. Smerconish made no move to take it.
‘Did you hear about Admiral Du Pont’s son?’ he said.
Draper picked up the menu. Studied it. Said nothing.
‘He was murdered last night,’ Smerconish continued. ‘Someone shot him five times in the head.’
‘What a shame.’
‘Not really. The evidence found on his phone suggested he was a serial sex offender.’
Draper kept studying the menu.
‘Yes, it looks like he filmed some of his rapes, including of Miss Wexmore’s daughter, Lieutenant Emily Braddock.’
‘Seems careless of him to leave evidence like that behind.’
‘Doesn’t it? Although to be fair, he’d kept everything in a highly encrypted app. But whoever killed him knew how to break into it anyway. Almost like they’d had special training in that kind of thing. Access to proprietary software.’
Draper looked up. ‘Any suspects?’
‘No DNA, no fingerprints. One witness might have seen a blonde woman getting into Du Pont’s car, but that’s the only lead NCIS have.’
‘I guess Admiral Du Pont won’t need to cover up any more rapes then,’ Draper said carefully.
‘Never a truer word said,’ Smerconish said. ‘Because Admiral Du Pont was also murdered last night. Someone disabled the marine guard outside his quarters, broke into his home, and stuck a knife in his heart. Thin blade. Like the kind the commandos used on D-Day.’
‘Lots of those about,’ Draper said. ‘Do base security have anything?’
‘A blurry shot of a guy with a limp.’
Draper paused before saying, ‘They have nothing then.’
Smerconish paused before saying, ‘Admiral Du Pont was a good officer, Miss Draper.’
Draper put down her mug. Wiped up some spilled coffee. ‘No, sir,’ she said. ‘He really wasn’t.’
Smerconish smiled. ‘No, I don’t suppose he was.’ He picked up the file and said, ‘Why did this take so long?’
‘You wanted it done on the Q.T. That takes time. And anyway, her story wasn’t straightforward. It took a while to trace the mother.’
‘And?’
‘Died giving birth.’
‘The rest of her story checks out?’