Free Final Vector by Allan Leverone Page B

it's no big deal, just a little quick research before visiting, Mr. Jensen. We like to be prepared."
    "Oh yeah, of course. And it's Nick."
    "Nick, then."
    "Anyway," he said, taking a deep breath, "I found this material very well hidden in a closet after Lisa's death. I'm assuming it is something she was working on before she died, but I can't make heads or tails out of any of it."
    "Okay," Agent Cunningham answered. "But why call the police?"
    "You have to understand something about my wife. She was one of the most straightforward people you could ever hope to meet. Deception wasn't her thing. If she was stashing this stuff here, I can only assume she was afraid someone in Washington would find it. And if she was being that careful, then that tells me she felt she had stumbled onto something very big, something potentially dangerous, and she was trying to decide what to do with the information. While she made up her mind, she wanted to safeguard the material the only way she could, by hiding it here, hundreds of miles from the Pentagon."
    The two agents shared an uneasy glance, which was not lost on Nick. Again Agent Cunningham spoke. "Some of this is conjecture, Mr. Jensen--"
    "Nick."
    "Sorry, Nick. As I said, some of this is conjecture, but there has been the growing suspicion in Washington that someone inside the Pentagon has been selling classified information regarding United States weaponry to terrorist organizations, both inside and outside this country.
    "The word Stingers mentioned inside this binder refers to a type of weaponry belonging to the U.S. military. It appears your wife had uncovered evidence implicating one or more persons inside the Pentagon in the sale of classified information regarding Stinger shoulder-fired missiles, and the FBI--not to mention the Department of Homeland Security and all law enforcement agencies--takes this very seriously."
    "What happens now?" Nick asked.
    "We have to seize this binder as well as all the other material you collected. We'll share it with Homeland in an attempt to determine whether your wife may have discovered the identity of the person or persons leaking information from inside the Pentagon.
    Based on what I see here, it would appear as though she had."
    Nick's blood ran cold. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to his next question but couldn't stop himself from asking.
    "Earlier this evening I was informed by a homicide detective from the Merrimack Police Department that my wife wasn't killed in a car accident as had been previously assumed. He told me they believe she survived the crash, but someone murdered her as she lay helpless in her car. Did she die because of the material contained in this binder?"
    Agent Cunningham hesitated. She shook her head. "Not necessarily. To my knowledge, the police have not developed any theories yet regarding your wife's murder. It may well have been unrelated to this information. That assessment could change, pending results of the ongoing investigation. But what doesn't change is the fact that she was working on something potentially critical to national security.
    "I have to ask if you would permit us to take your wife's laptop back to the office for forensic analysis as well. It's entirely possible, even likely, that there is more information on her computer that could help us discover the identity of the Pentagon leak. We can't force you to release the computer to us, but it could be critical to our investigation that we examine it. We will provide you with a receipt for everything we take and will return it to you as soon as we possibly can after it has been wiped clean."
    "Of course you can take it," Nick said, getting up to retrieve the computer. He wasn't buying the bullshit story that Lisa's death had been unrelated to her work at the Pentagon. It would be a coincidence of monumental proportions if that were the case, and Nick wasn't a big believer in coincidences. Ultimately, though, it didn't really matter to