“Depends upon what he was selling,” responded Adam. “Most weapons the United States allows to be sold are highly restricted. Our government doesn’t like encouraging rebels or supplying guerilla armies.”

Miranda shrugged. “Cal claimed if he didn’t broker the deals, someone else would. He told me the trouble began when he discovered that a shipment of armaments he’d sold to a group in the Sudan ended up in the Middle East.”

“He should have seen it coming,” Adam commented. “Bin Laden was in East Africa before relocating to Afghanistan.”

“Maybe Cal did realize what was happening,” Miranda said in a tone bordering on wistful. “Maybe he didn’t want to tarnish the image I had of him. Anyway, I agreed to go with him.”

“You accepted this without asking more?” Whitney couldn’t help being astonished. A second later it occurred to her that she had often taken Ryan’s word for things-without checking or asking questions. The revelation that Ryan had a severe gambling problem should have been something she’d sensed, but she hadn’t. She’d been blissfully clueless.

“I wasn’t sure I wanted to know more. Cal was leaving the business. We were going to be starting over.” She hesitated for a beat. “He explained that the men he’d been dealing with would never allow him to just quit.”

“Without giving them his contacts and access to his routing,” Adam said.

The tension building inside Whitney kicked up another notch. She could tell none of this surprised Adam. He’d known all along, but never gave Whitney a hint. Why not? Miranda was her cousin. Didn’t Whitney have a right to know?

“Exactly,” Miranda said. “Cal didn’t want Americans hurt with weapons he’d arranged to be sold. Adam, when you were almost killed, Cal felt responsible. Alarming amounts of weapons were surfacing in terrorists’ hands.

“Not only did he want out, Cal wanted to shut down the pipeline. He told me it would be just a matter of time before the terrorists made a dirty bomb or even a nuclear weapon. He didn’t want anything to do with it.”

It sounded very self-serving to Whitney, but she didn’t voice her opinion. She knew only too well how women in love overlooked serious flaws in their men.

“Cal went about shifting his funds around so no one could find them, and he created new identities for both of us. I didn’t actually take it seriously.” She threw up her hands. “I mean, I did and I didn’t. I believed everything Cal had told me, but I didn’t realize how serious the threat was until one night about a week before Cal died.”

Miranda stopped speaking, jumped up and rushed toward the kitchen. She returned a few seconds later with a tissue in her hand. She plopped down in her chair again, saying, “I’d bought this sinfully sexy red nightie. I put it on and hid in his office closet. I wanted him to be working hard-he always blacked out everything around him when he was on the computer-then I planned to jump out and we would have sex right there on his desk.”

If the situation hadn’t been so serious, Whitney would have giggled. She recalled the number of times she’d tried to entice Ryan with sexy lingerie. It had worked-temporarily-or so she’d thought.

“Cal came into the office with two men. I was stunned. He was supposed to be alone. They were talking business. I tried to be quiet, but I was hunched over, squeezed under a hanging shelf. A charley horse hit my calf. When I bent my leg a little to relieve the cramp, my foot hit something that made a scraping sound. Next thing I knew, this strange man threw open the door.”

Whitney tried to imagine this but couldn’t.

“I’ve never seen anyone look so positively evil. I thought they might shoot me on the spot. But Cal put his arm around me and explained we were about to be married-which was true. We were going to be married once we moved here. Cal told them I helped him with every deal. He insisted I had always been his silent partner.”

Adam asked, “They bought it?”

“Yes. It took some convincing, but they finally accepted it. I was at his side when he arranged to give them what he called the support information.”

“The routes he used. The ways he arranged for weapons to be shipped from the manufacturer to points overseas. People who helped,” Adam said without hesitation. “Armaments must be carefully concealed, and you need a variety of routes. Too big a shipment is a risk because it attracts attention. If it’s lost or confiscated, alternate routes become vital or the deal falls through.”

“I guess.” Miranda suddenly sounded tired and desperately unhappy. “It took some talking but Cal persuaded them to return in a month. He said ‘we’ would gather all the information and put it on a computer disc.”

“That appealed to them because they could share it online with others in their group.” Adam sounded so certain that Whitney became even angrier.

“That’s right. They went for it because Cal demanded a million dollars for the disc.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

“A MILLION DOLLARS,” Whitney blurted out. “Didn’t they think that was outrageous?”

“No. Uncle Calvin was selling them connections and shipping routes that it would take years to build.”

“That’s right,” agreed Miranda. “Later Cal told me the money angle saved us. These men think Americans do everything for money.”

“Did my uncle make the disc?”

“Yes. I saw him working on it. He had info hidden in different places. He assembled it-”

“Why,” Whitney asked, “if he wasn’t going to give it to them?”

“He planned to take the disc to a friend he knew from his days in naval intelligence. Cal didn’t trust many people but he trusted this man, who was now working at the Pentagon. He was going to take him the disc then disappear forever.”

“Who was his contact?” asked Adam.

“I don’t remember. Cal only mentioned his name once. It was an unusual name.”

“Could it have been Quinten Foley?”

“Yes. That’s it!”

Whitney was surprised Adam knew the man, but then Adam knew much more than he’d chosen to disclose to her. Like a corrosive acid, anger was eating away at her. Why hadn’t he given her some indication about the extent of this situation?

Adam quietly asked, “Did he give you the disc?”

“No.” Miranda shook her head. “When Cal died, I knew I had to carry out his last wishes. He wanted you to have his property. It was mortgaged because Cal said he needed to create confusion with his accounts. He moved funds all around so no one would think he had any money left. That way they wouldn’t come looking for him.”

“His money is nearby,” Adam said, “in the Caymans. You withdrew twenty-five thousand dollars a few days ago.”

Miranda’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Yes, I did.”

“You also deposited money, or was that some kind of a wire-transfer payoff for one of Uncle Calvin’s deals that he completed shortly before he died?”

“I closed out a smaller account and consolidated,” she replied, her words measured. “I paid off the loans on the properties you owned jointly with Cal.”

“Where is the disc?” asked Adam.

“Cal told me he hid it for safekeeping. I didn’t even think about it until after he died.”

“It must have been stolen on the day of the funeral,” Adam said. “What I can’t understand is why they would want to kill you with a pipe bomb if they had the disc?”

“Because I can identify them. They contacted Cal several months ago and threatened him. This time their leader came to ‘persuade’ him. That’s why Cal wanted to make certain we were long gone when they returned to pick up the disc. He told me they would kill us both-even if he handed over the disc.”

“My uncle warned me in Siros that someone would try to kill him. That must have been right after they contacted him the first time.”

“What doesn’t make sense is them wanting me dead before the pick-up date next week. You see, they can’t possibly have the disc.”