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Jackson extended his hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You as well,” she said, shaking his hand. He was a handsome man, probably in his mid to late thirties. He had dark hair, a full beard, and a mustache. His eyes were hazel green. His body appeared fit beneath his clothing. Except for the facial hair, and the fact that Sebastian had baby blue eyes, he and Sebastian resembled each other. They could have been brothers.
“We’re checked in. Let’s go to our room,” Jackson said.
Roth heard Briana’s stomach growl. “Have either of you eaten lunch yet?” Roth asked. “I’m starving. Didn’t get anything on the plane or after.”
“I should have gotten something after I got here, but I didn’t.”
“I could eat,” Jackson agreed. “We’ll hit the sandwich shop over there and bring it to our room.”
Briana quickly identified the pecking order of their partnership. Jackson was older, had been doing this job longer than Sebastian. He was clearly the senior member of the team. He’s who she’d have to convince. It was always nice to know where you stood with someone in a given situation.
In the suite, which had a living room and kitchenette area and a separate bedroom with a door, they ate their sandwiches seated on the couch while they talked and planned. First, Jackson had her retell her story. All of it, including being contracted by her client and what investigation she did prior to accepting a case.
Roth was proud of Briana that she handled Jackson’s interrogation well, not that he had to push that hard. She was quite open and honest. He was also impressed by the detail of her narrative and the deep investigation she conducted before accepting a case. He could tell Jackson was impressed as well.
“So, that begs the question as to why the sheriff and your client passed themselves off as brother and sister,” Roth said when she’d concluded.
“My guess is it was to explain why she stayed to herself for the most part. It was clearly another form of abuse by her husband. Keeping her isolated from others not only kept her under his thumb, but it prevented her from forming too many close friendships with people that would either recognize his abuse or friends that she could confide in and ask for help from.”
“It also enabled him to be with other women without making himself look bad,” Jackson added.
“And it made him look good to others. He took care of his poor sister. What a great guy he is,” Roth said.
“Yeah, well, he sure had the owner of that B and B convinced he was a great guy,” Briana said with much sarcasm. “And now that she’s gone, it’s a simple explanation that his sister recovered and moved on. A lot easier to explain than his wife leaving him.”
“Were you able to get into any of the records at the Boston P.D. regarding him?” Jackson asked.
“No, not easily hacked into,” she admitted.
“We’ll have more luck. I’ll add that to the list of items we’re turning over to our Digital Team,” Roth said.
“We’re going to want you to work with our digital team,” Jackson said. “We’re going to put you in touch with our team member, BT, back at our headquarters. He’ll be your contact.”
Briana had so many questions. Where was their headquarters? And just how big of an operation did they have if they had an entire Digital Team? “Okay,” she agreed. “What exactly will I be doing?”
“You’ll be working with them from here as they go through our official channels to verify all the information you found and get access to what you couldn’t, like the Boston P.D. files. My bet is that Elsworth got into some trouble that made him resign and move to Maine,” Jackson said.
“Why does that matter?” Briana asked.
“We need to know everything about him to know how to back him into a corner,” Roth explained. “Ideally, we get him to confess to his wife’s murder.”
“That would be the icing on the cake. At the very least we get enough proof that combined with your eye witness testimony we turn this over to the FBI,” Jackson said. “The scope of our approved mission is limited. And Briana, we need to address the fact that you have continued to engage in this border-line illegal activity. If I’m not mistaken, when you and your brother were released from our team’s custody two months ago in Iowa, you assured them you would not continue.”
There it was. What she’d been waiting for. Her gaze darted to Sebastian. He didn’t look surprised by his partner’s statement. He did look apologetic, though. “I didn’t access the CIA database to pull an identity for her or anyone else after that day I promised I wouldn’t go in through the backdoor program.” She was being honest. She’d pulled all the identities that afternoon after the near arrest in Iowa.
“You were promising more than that,” Jackson said.
“How is helping a woman leave her abusive husband a crime? Amanda Elsworth was an adult who had every right to leave her husband and flee the state if she so chose. I was merely helping to facilitate that move. Nothing illegal.”
Roth respected how she came back forcefully defending herself. She was right. She had done nothing illegal, unless she was going to provide Amanda Elsworth with a fake identity, which he highly suspected she was. “Nothing illegal if no fake identity was involved, but certainly risky. Look, Briana, we’re not your enemies. We’re on your side in this. There’s a need for what you are doing, it’s just that it is risky for you and for the women you’re helping.”
“Most of these guys are dangerous and they aren’t going to take your interference or their wife’s disappearance lying down,” Jackson added. “And in the cases where there are children involved, you are helping to facilitate custodial interference if a judge ruled the father should have visitation or joint custody.”
“I’m not even going to argue with that because it is totally fucked up that judges give abusive husbands visitation to kids who can’t protect themselves. It doesn’t matter that he nearly killed his wife or was emotionally abusive. As long as there is no evidence that he did it to his kid too, he’s given visitation,” she replied.
“That sounds like an argument,” Jackson said. “You don’t get to be the judge and jury.”
