Page 55 of Tom Clancy Line of Sight

“It’s obvious,” Oblak said in a flat, even voice. “You killed her.”

29

I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dom said into the phone, glancing over at Adara. She was clearly concerned.

“When your office set the appointment to meet with me to discuss her case, you signed her death warrant.”

“That’s a serious accusation. Like you said, maybe we need to come over there and talk about it.”

“I’ll text you the address, Mr. Caruso. Meet me in the morgue. And please, drive carefully. The roads here are quite dangerous.”

—

In their respective lines of work, Dom and Adara, a former combat medic, had seen plenty of corpses in their day, many of them in states of ruin so horrific they wouldn’t dare describe them to their civilian friends.

But Elena Iliescu’s lifeless body on the coroner’s slab was pristine. Her firm, toned body was completely intact. Even herbreasts were full and round, no doubt the result of skillful plastic surgery.

Rather than dead, she appeared to be just sleeping. Dom swore she’d wake up at any minute.

“The coroner will confirm the cause of death this afternoon, but the attending physician assures me it was heart failure, likely brought on by a catastrophic myocardial infarction. Iliescu was dead at the scene.”

“Where was she when she died?”

“We put her in one of our safe houses, under police protection, as per her request.”

“And I take it no one came in or out of the house?”

“Only the clinic nurse who was called in when Iliescu complained of a minor headache.” At Dom’s skeptical look he added, “We checked her out. That nurse has worked at that clinic for eleven years.”

Adara pointed at the corpse. “She’s in better shape than most Olympic athletes. She can’t be more than thirty-five years old.”

“Thirty-two, according to her passport,” Oblak said.

“A heart attack for a woman this age and in this condition is highly unlikely,” Adara said.

“Which is why you suspect foul play,” Dom said.

Oblak shrugged. “It’s quite a coincidence that about the same time your plane landed in Trieste, this woman was being pronounced dead, don’t you think?”

“Which is why you accused us of killing her.”

“Someone killed her and chose this time to do it. The only independent variable in this equation is you. Something about you coming here resulted in this woman’s death.”

“Well, we sure as hell didn’t tell anybody we were coming. That leaves your people.”

Oblak’s jaw clenched. “And you’re accusing me of divulging your arrival and your intention of meeting with this woman?”

“You, or someone in your office.” Dom wondered if the Iron Syndicate might have had sources inside Oblak’s organization.

Maybe the person was Oblak himself.

“Not possible,” the Slovenian said.

“I wouldn’t expect you to say anything else. But if I’m right, then you know you have a problem inside your department and you’re going to have to deal with it.”

Adara felt the heat rising between these two roosters. She decided to intervene before the feathers started to fly.

“Why do you think anyone would want to kill her?” Adara asked.