Page 23 of Storm and Tempest

“If he was alive, he’d have come home already.” She set the box by her feet and brushed hair back from her face. “But he hasn’t, so he’s got to be dead. He would never stop calling me or let me wonder if he was all right. Never.”

“I’m sorry.” Jax knew exactly how that felt. “My wife is missing. She’s the one Elliot was trying to find, so he could follow up on the transfer. What’s your name?”

“Sandra.” She shook her head. “Is that normal? I mean sending one agent to find another, when she was being transported by officials with the Bureau.”

“There’s nothing normal about what is going on,” Jax replied. Then he needed to ask, “How did you know that’s what Elliot was working on?”

“He told me everything.” Sandra shrugged. “He called me the day he went missing, told me what he was working on. Said he might be late for dinner.”

And he’d never shown up.

Jax’s chest ached. “If you can help us figure out what happened to him, we may be able to find him and my wife. I’m going to keep hoping they’re both alive until I know otherwise.”

She didn’t seem convinced. “How am I supposed to help you?”

Ramon hung back, leaning against the railing and keeping an eye on their surroundings. Watching for more gunmen? They’d both shaken off the adrenaline of being shot at quickly. There were many ways they were similar, and Jax could see why Kenna liked the guy. Not just because he hung back and let Jax be the one to take the lead questioning Sandra Adams.

Jax waited a beat. “Did Elliot seem different, like he was worried about anything?”

“He was confused.” She glanced aside, thinking. “Didn’t know why he’d been ordered to follow up on a custody transfer. Considering the men who took her worked for an Assistant Director in Charge.”

The ADIC on scene after the silo operation had been one of the men from the retirement home pretending to be a bureau employee. Fake name, excellent cover story. Impeccable credentials.

Which made Jax wonder if his real ADIC, Hadley, had something to do with it. Not many people could fake that. Enough people kept up on who the FBI had as current ADIC’s that someone should’ve called them on it. But in the heat of the moment, who would question a superior?

Special Agent Herron hadn’t, which meant she had to be on the list of people who could be theDominatusmole, assumingthere was one. Even if he didn’t think she was dirty, it was something he’d need to consider.

“What about the agent who assigned him the task?” Jax asked. “Did Elliot say who it was that told him to follow up on the transfer?”

She shook her head. “He seemed shaken, and he told me a little of what you all found in that silo. The research that crazy doctor had been doing. That he had people in there who were captives. Even children. He said the private investigator shouldn’t have been arrested. But he did his job. He wanted to be part of the Bureau forever, not just for a few years. He believed in it.”

Ramon glanced at Jax, the implication clear.

Elliot had believed in the FBI, and it probably got him killed.

Sandra sniffed. “I called and called, but no one at the office ever called me back. No one would tell me what happened to Elliot, and after a few weeks, they told me to stop calling. That they didn’t know who Elliot Adams even was—and they didn’t think he’d ever worked there.”

Jax nodded. “Do you have the information for anyone he worked with directly, like a partner?”

The man couldn’t have interacted with no one. Agents often teamed up to work on cases, and Elliot had been at the silo. It was impossible to completely erase someone in this day and age.

She shook her head. “He didn’t mention anyone, and he only hung out with me. He had a few friends from college he kept up with on socials but hadn’t found friends locally. We both moved here when he was assigned to the Phoenix office. He rented this place, and my apartment is a couple of miles away.” She sniffed. “Now the owner wants to sell the condo, and I have to clear his stuff out.”

“I’m going to find out what happened.” Jax couldn’t promise that he would find Elliot, but a man’s professional life had beenerased because of a case Kenna and all of them had taken. “I promise I won’t quit until I get to the bottom of this.”

Sandra nodded, biting her lip. “Thank you.”

Ramon pushed off the railing. “Does Elliot have a personal computer, or a personal phone that was left behind?”

“He has a laptop.” She thumbed over her shoulder. “I don’t know his password.”

“Could we have it?” Jax asked.

“It’s of no use to me.” Sandra wandered into the condo.

Jax spoke in a low voice. “I don’t get how a man is erased from FBI records.”

Ramon’s expression darkened. “They don’t get to just delete a person’s life.” He might’ve been talking about Kenna as much as about Elliot, but the sentiment was the same either way.