Page 68 of Tear Me Apart

“That’s classified, ma’am.”

She flips a page, glances down. “You were attached to the Special Operations Aviation Unit. SOAR. First, you were a part of the Night Stalkers, flying helicopters, then you moved into Alpha Company, 902d MI Battalion, as an intelligence team leader.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You have a wad of medals, including a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, right?”

“Yes, ma’am. A wad.”

“And the prevailing wisdom is someone took offense to your work, killed your wife, stole your baby.”

“That’s right.”

“And you gave it all up to become an English teacher.”

“Again...”

“I don’t buy it.”

“Ma’am?”

Detective Starr shifts in her seat. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would they attack your wife if they wanted to send you a message? Why not kill you? Or is that what happened when you were shot? They were trying, and when they didn’t succeed they came to Nashville, killed your wife and stole your child?”

“I dealt with ruthless people. They don’t always think logically. They’re more theburn down the world, ask questions latertype.”

“It also suggests a terror operative was in Nashville.”

“It does.”

“And that jibes with your experience? It’s likely to be the case? It feels very convoluted to me.”

“Ma’am, what the government chooses to share with local law enforcement is way above my pay grade, then, and now. Likely? I can’t tell you that, but I wouldn’t say it was impossible. Look at 9/11. They were here for months before they attacked, coordinating. For all I know—”

Careful...

He stops. “Sorry. I can’t go there. Everything I did was highly classified, still is. Suffice it to say the scenario is not outside the realm of possibility.”

“Scary,” Starr says. “Still, I don’t get it. Why take the baby? That in itself ruins the terror suspect profile for me.”

“Punishment.” Zack’s voice is strained. “Sheer, unadulterated punishment.”

* * *

They run through it, front and back, a couple of times. Everything that happened, everything he knows. The biggest stumbling block is, of course, Zack was the one to find Vivian. Not only that, he hadn’t seen his wife for several days before she was killed, and she’d managed to deliver their child without him knowing, too.

He can see Starr draw a few conclusions.

He is an unreliable witness.

He is to blame for Vivian’s death.

Simple.

An hour into the conversation, Parks checks his watch and nudges his detective, who smartly closes the files and pulls a DNA swab kit from her purse.

Zack swirls the brush around the inside of his cheek, spits into a cup, and hands them both back. He has nothing to hide.

But he has a strange sense that Parks and Starr do.