Cold Shadow (Cold Country #2)(90)

"The wife?" Agent growled. "Tell me about the wife."

"I married her when I was nineteen. I was deployed for nearly two years. I came home to find her in bed with someone else. She apparently had a reputation that I didn't know about. I was a kid. I thought I'd done the right thing and married the first woman I had sex with. I was stupid. My dad helped me have the marriage annulled. We didn't part on the best of terms. I haven't seen her since the day the annulment was final."

"You are absolutely sure you didn't know she was here?" He shuffled papers and notes looking for something. "By other reports, she's been here for nearly a year and yet you claim you've hadn't seen her. Not even once in all this time."

"Look, even if I might have seen her in town, at the post office or in a diner or something, I wouldn't have recognized her. She doesn't look a thing like she did back then. She isn't a natural blonde and she doesn't have blue eyes. She didn't wear a lot of makeup. And honestly, she hasn't aged well. I was a kid. She was a few years older than me. I remember the woman in the first picture you have. Not this person I shot."

"And you did shoot her?" Agent Asshole asked again.

"Yes, twice. I have said so, over and over. I shot the woman. Drew shot the man. Quinn didn't shoot anyone. He shot the glass out of the door. You have both guns. I discharged my weapon seven times last night. I shot her because she would not put the rifle down. I shot her after she shot Agent Drew Walker. I shot her because she was trying to kill Quinn to punish me." 

"Did she murder these men to punish you? What did you do to this woman to make her want to punish you?"

"I don't know why she butchered those men. Ask her new husband. As to the last, I guess she came to the same conclusion you did: That she missed out on her chance at a fortune when she settled for the paltry amount my father paid her to get her to agree to the annulment. She found out my family is rich and wanted revenge. I don't know. You'll have to ask her!" Nathan yelled at the man seated across from him. "

"If only she didn't have a bullet in her heart!" Morgan yelled back at him, his face a mottled shade of purple.

"That's enough. He needs medical attention," Marcus said, bringing the interview to an end. "He's not going anywhere, Agent Morgan. And he's cooperating with this investigation. Any further questions can wait until later … following proper procedure."

Agent Asshole wasn't done. He pushed a black and white autopsy photo toward Nathan. "I never found photographic evidence of your wounds from December, 2008. Don't make me get a court order. I need to know what symbols were carved into your flesh."

Nathan fought for control. He'd been detained against his will, his rights denied, and now his privacy was being threatened. "The word faggot was carved across one shoulder and queer across the other. There were no symbols. Whatever those are," he tapped the autopsy photo nearest him, "they have nothing to do with me. The rest were just random slices. Nothing so dramatic as half pentagrams and … " He stopped and picked up the photo he was poking. Something had caught his attention. "Do you have a magnifying glass?"

Agent Asshole shuffled papers and pulled out a glass he'd been using earlier. Nathan took it and held it over the wounds in the cadaver. "Half … that's a half anchor. That's not a pentagram, that's a half globe. An eagle's claw. Navy insignia. Half insignia. Just pieces of insignia. The anchor, globe, and eagle are Marines. Most of this is Navy. Was Edward Chisholm ever in the Navy? I met Tori in a Navy bar, she practically lived in one. She chased sailors and Marines. She could have taken her fetish to the extreme."

Morgan flipped through Chisholm's file. "Dishonorable discharge. About a year ago. He married Victoria Hughes right after. Guess she had bad luck in the marriage department."

"She has to be at least ten years older than him. Hell, she was older than me but told me she was eighteen. Back then she looked so much younger."

"Drugs and bitterness can do that to a person," Morgan said, closing the file. He stretched his arms over his head, looking wiped out. "Okay, that's a start. Get that arm looked at. We'll pick up here in a few hours. Dismissed, Captain."

Nathan didn't ask why the man had suddenly changed his tone. He stood up slowly, feeling every inch of his body bitch about the abuse. Marcus rose with him. Nathan was going to need a ride to the ER. His truck was still missing. He had no idea where Quinn's car was. Or Quinn, for that matter.

"Oh, and Captain," the agent called out. Nathan waited for one more question. "Good job out there, Nathan."