The Riddle (A James Acton Thriller, Book #11) (8 page)

“None of
us had much of an opportunity to see anything,” said Laura. “We were too busy
ducking.”

“Yet
your husband said this man, who we
know
is the shooter, wasn’t the
shooter.” Yin’s eyes narrowed as he looked up at Acton, the man a full head
shorter. “I wonder why that is? You sound so certain that the man we are
positive is the shooter, isn’t the shooter. Since we know this man is American,
and
you
are American, perhaps you were involved?”

The officer
dispatched earlier to verify their identities returned, handing the passports
back to their interrogator as he delivered a verbal report. Yin nodded. “It
appears you are indeed guests of this hotel and your visas check out. You may
enter, but go straight to your room for your own protection.”

Acton
held his hand out for his passport but Yin shook his head, waving them at him.
“I’ll hang on to these. You’ll get them back once this investigation has been
completed.”

Acton
bit his tongue. “Can we at least get a receipt or something?”

Yin’s
eyes narrowed inquisitively. “Receipt?”

“Something
that shows you have them.”

“Ahh, I
understand. No.” He turned on his heel and walked away, suddenly stopping and
turning back toward them. “And do
not
leave the hotel. You
will
be
questioned further.”

Acton
felt Laura’s hand squeeze his, cutting off any verbal retort. He merely nodded.
Laura grabbed Mai’s hand and practically pulled her after them into the hotel.
Acton led them directly to the elevators, immediately boarding a newly arriving
car.

He
nearly bumped into Spock, one of the Delta Force Bravo Team members he had come
to know over the years.

No looks
were exchanged as the Delta operator disembarked.

“Honey,
we’ll need to call Mr. White as soon as possible with our room number.”

“You
mean he doesn’t know we’re in room eighteen-oh-two?”

“I think
I forgot to tell him,” replied Acton as the doors closed. Mai looked at Acton
with a puzzled expression but said nothing as they rode up to the penthouse
level in silence. The doors opened and they found the hallway deserted.

Laura
swiped the keycard and they were finally inside the privacy of their own room
leaving them all to breathe a sigh of relief as the door clicked closed behind
them. Acton quickly looked in the bathroom and separate bedroom, confirming
they were alone.

“What
are we going to do?” asked Laura. “We can’t leave the country without our
passports.”

Acton
sat down in one of the chairs, catching an ice cold water bottle tossed by
Laura who was bent over at the fridge. He pushed aside a curtain to look out
across the city. “We’ll need to get new ones.”

“How?
We’re not allowed to leave the hotel.”

Acton
made a face, letting go of the curtain as he cracked open the lid. “We need to
get the British Embassy to issue a new passport for you, and the American for
me. I wonder if we can do this by phone.”

Laura
nodded. “Possible. But even so they’ll have our names at the airport and stop
us from leaving.”

Acton
bit his lip as he crossed his legs. “Maybe we’re looking at this in the wrong
way.”

“How
so?”

“We’re
assuming we have to flee the country. We’ve done nothing wrong. Perhaps we
should just let justice take its course and eventually we’ll be allowed to go.”

“Ha!”

All eyes
turned to Mai. “Sorry, I apologize for my outburst, but Professors, this is
Vietnam. Every crime
will
be solved and
a
perpetrator
will
be brought to justice. Never does that guarantee the
right
person is
brought to justice. Do not put blind faith in the police. If they think you’re
involved, you could find yourselves very quickly in prison, and me along with
you.”

“So what
would you suggest?” asked Laura, motioning for her to sit down on the couch,
the poor woman flitting about, a bundle of nerves.

Mai
perched on the edge of the floral patterned couch, Laura sitting in another of
the chairs. “I think you need to use whatever means you have at your disposal
to get out of the country. For whatever reason the police are either convinced
this American committed the assassination, or they are intentionally trying to
frame him for the murder. Either way they are dead set on convicting an
American.”

“I
wonder how they got his photo,” said Acton. “It looked like a photocopy of an
ID.”

“All
ID’s were being copied today because of the diplomatic visits,” said Mai. “Just
as yours were.”

Laura
instinctively reached for where her passport would be. “It said Bureau of
Diplomatic Security. Who are they?”

“They
provide security for embassy staff and government officials while traveling in
foreign countries,” explained Acton. “He’s obviously part of Secretary
Atwater’s security detail.”

“But I
didn’t see him in her group.”

“Neither
did I.”

Mai
leapt to her feet, pacing nervously. “I understand you are rich, Professor
Palmer.”

“Well,
I…”

Laura’s brother
had sold his hi-tech company before the bubble burst netting him hundreds of
millions, the exact amount Acton wasn’t even sure about. Laura had given him
full access to everything when they married, but he didn’t care enough to
actually look. All he knew was that she had inherited it all when her brother
had been killed, and from all appearances most of it still remained, if not
more, the interest on that kind of money obscene.

“If you
have money, then I suggest you use it to get out.”

“How?”
asked Laura. “We still need passports to get on an airplane.”

“I might
be able to get you fake passports.”

“How?”

Mai
flushed slightly. “My brother isn’t exactly an honest man.”

“We
can’t choose our family,” said Acton. “But if we were caught with fake
passports we would be going to prison for a very long time.”

Someone
knocked on the door gently.

It still
startled them all, Mai jumping to her feet and running around the couch twice,
trying to find a place to hide if Acton weren’t mistaken. He rose and walked
quietly to the door, looking through the peephole. “It’s okay,” he said,
opening the door.

Burt
Dawson stepped inside and quickly closed the door behind me. “I’ve only got a
minute. I understand you wanted to speak to me?”

Acton
smiled. “Glad you got our message. Are you aware that they’re claiming Niner
was the shooter today?”

Dawson
nodded, his lips a thin line. “Yes.”

“I told
them he didn’t do it, but they don’t care. They’ve got a photocopy of his ID.
Apparently it was used to enter the museum.”

Dawson
stepped deeper into the room, his eyes coming to rest on Mai. “And you are?”

Laura
answered. “Mai Lien Trinh, a grad student from to the National Museum of
History.”

“She’s
our guide,” added Acton. “I trust her.”

“With
your life?”

Acton
wasn’t sure what to say without embarrassing everyone, since he had to admit he
couldn’t answer truthfully. Right now he trusted very few people within a few
thousand miles.

Dawson
was one of them.

As was
Niner.

“We have
no choice,” he said instead. “Where’s Niner?”

“On the
Secretary’s floor for now. They’ve demanded we hand him over but we’ve instead
agreed to an interrogation supervised by us on our turf.”

“What do
you plan to do?” asked Laura, now standing beside the two men.

Dawson
lowered his voice, glancing at Mai. “I’ve been ordered to do whatever it takes
to prove his innocence.” He lowered it even further. “There’s fear that war
could break out if we can’t prove an American didn’t do this.”

Air
burst from Acton’s lips. “How can we prove it wasn’t him?”

“You saw
the shooter?”

Acton
nodded. “Clearly. And it wasn’t Niner, of course.”

“I had
little doubt,” said Dawson with a wry smile. “Could you describe him?”

Acton
shrugged. “Honestly I doubt it. I don’t even know if I’d recognize him if I saw
him again. He was about five-four, hundred-twenty pounds maybe? Vietnamese in
appearance. He had hair.” Acton shrugged again. “I really don’t think I can be
of much help.”

Mai
stepped forward. “There are cameras in the museum.”

“Can you
get the footage?” asked Laura, turning toward her.

“Possibly.
But they would already have seized it I would think.” She paused. “Wouldn’t
they?”

“Most
likely,” agreed Dawson. “Are they digital or tape?”

“Digital.”
Mai’s mouth opened a little wider. “Ahh, yes, maybe they just copied them!”

“Let’s
hope,” said Dawson. “I’ll call in some favors to see if we can get our hands on
that footage.” He paused for a moment as he saw the evidence of Mai’s
interrogation. “Did they do that?”

She
nodded.

“What
about you two? Did they hurt you?”

Laura
shook her head. “No, but they tried to intimidate us into agreeing Niner was
the shooter.”

“Who is
this Niner?” asked Mai. “You know the shooter?”

Acton
looked at Dawson who nodded slightly. “No, we don’t know the shooter, but we do
know who they
think
is the shooter. He’s a friend of ours and definitely
not involved.” Acton’s eyes narrowed. “You
did
see the shooter, didn’t
you?”

She
nodded.

“And you
agree it wasn’t our friend?”

She
nodded again. “Yes, sorry, I’m just upset.” Her eyebrows popped. “
I
could describe him! Maybe someone could draw him.” She smiled slightly at
Acton. “After all, all Vietnamese don’t look alike to me.”

Acton
felt his cheeks burn red. “I—” He stopped himself, not sure what to say, Laura
delighting in his discomfort.

“I think
that’s a great idea, Mai.” Laura frowned. “But where are we going to find a
sketch artist?”

Dawson
shook his head. “No need. We’ve got software. I’ll have a tablet brought down
to you. In the meantime I’ll try to get a hold of the footage. This is going to
turn into a he said-she said incident and we need to get it before they erase
it.”

“I don’t
think your people will be able to access the tapes,” said Mai. “I remember
somebody saying that the security computers weren’t networked.”

Acton
cursed. “We need that footage if we’re going to prove Niner’s innocent.”

“I can
get it.”

All eyes
turned to Mai.

“How?”
asked Laura.

“I work
there. I could go back and get it. The office computers are networked, but only
a few isolated computers are connected to the Internet for research purposes.”
She dropped her head shyly, looking up as if ashamed of her country. “They
don’t want us communicating with the outside world too much.”

Acton
shook his head. “Ridiculous. You’re educators. How are you expected to do your
job?”

Mai
shook her head quickly, as if wanting to defend her native land. “No no, don’t
misunderstand me. Things are getting much better. Just slowly.” She sighed. “I
went to Australia once and couldn’t believe how they lived. Such…” Her voice
drifted off as she was lost in a memory.

Dawson
brought them back to business. “We’ll need to get you out of the hotel.”

“How?”
asked Acton.

“We’ve
got a secure egress route manned with our personnel through the basement and
into the parking garage. We can get her into a diplomatic vehicle and off the
premises then into the American Embassy. From there she can just leave as one
of the visitors.”

Laura
shook her head. “No, they took her ID as well.”

“I need
to get to my brother. He can get me ID.”

“Fake
ID. If you’re caught…” Laura was clearly not happy with the idea.

“Out of
the question,” said Acton. “We can’t have you risking your life for something
you have nothing to do with.”

Mai
shook her head. “I’m involved. I was there. If we don’t get proof that your
friend is innocent then they will eliminate anyone who might deny the official
story. You two are probably safe because you’re foreigners. Me? I and my family
will be thrown in prison or worse.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “If I don’t
help you, I’m dead,” she whispered, her voice cracking.

Laura
took the diminutive woman in her arms, comforting her as a few sobs escaped.
Acton looked at Dawson whose face was grim. Dawson motioned toward the door
with his head and they both moved away from the two women.

“She’s
right,” Dawson said quietly. “Right now they seem hell bent on pinning this on
Niner. Unless we get irrefutable proof that he’s innocent, they’ll eliminate
anyone who doesn’t support the party line. And we are talking the
Party
line. This is a communist country and we’re being accused of assassinating the
Russian Prime Minister. Ten years ago that wouldn’t have worried me too much,
but now that they’re essentially the second-coming of the Soviet Union, it
does
worry me. They’ll use this as an excuse to get away with an awful lot.”

“Such
as?”

Dawson
shrugged. “Who knows? He could take the Ukraine within a few weeks with
relative ease and NATO will do nothing about it because they’re not a member.
They could become even more uncooperative at the UN using their Security
Council veto to block efforts to fight Ebola, ISIS, Assad, Iran’s nuclear
program, Chinese belligerence in the South China Sea. Hell, they might even try
to sink a few of our ships then quickly call a truce after they’ve done some
damage. Remember, these people aren’t Western European in their thinking no matter
how much they like to think they are. Their thinking is much different. I fully
expect retaliation at any time unless we can get ahead of this. And video
footage showing someone other than Niner entering the museum would be gold.”