Chapter 1153: Another SEAL Team Member (Patreon)

Jack noticed that the girl's palms and knees were stained with dried blood.
Even after all the cases he had worked on, it was still hard to imagine the horror of a ten-year-old girl coming home happy, only to find her mother lying in a pool of blood. It was an experience of unimaginable tragedy.

"Is this your fortress, soldier? You built this yourself?" Jack crouched down in front of the girl, doing his best to appear like a warm and friendly big brother.

The wary look on the girl's face finally softened a bit, and she responded, "My dad helped me build it. Have you found him yet?"

Jack pretended to glance at his watch. In truth, they had arrived in a rush, and the NCIS team was still busy combing through a half-collapsed building to search for survivors and recover data servers.

In other words, they weren’t going to be much help for now.

Under normal circumstances, the Fugitive Task Force would work directly with state police or the local PD, which would have actually made things simpler.

At least they wouldn’t have landed in Richmond completely in the dark, flying in from New York with only an address for the crime scene and no useful intel whatsoever.

Fortunately, only a little time was wasted. By the time they deplaned, Elise had already gone directly to the local town police department.

In fact, not just the FBI—earlier, even the local state troopers and town cops had been confused. They’d been told that because the case involved a Navy servicemember and their family, the NCIS would take over. But instead, a bunch of FBI agents had shown up.

After a round of jurisdiction clarification, it wasn’t until Jack and Jubal finished interviewing the neighbor that Elise finally managed to get a conference room set up at the station.

"Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you see him soon." In truth, Jack still wasn’t sure exactly which department or unit this Lieutenant Commander Barnes belonged to.

But he didn’t want to lie to a ten-year-old girl, so he chose a gentler phrasing.

This girl, named Rachel, turned out to be much smarter and more mature than Jack had expected. Upon hearing his words, the light that had just brightened her eyes dimmed again.

"Please don’t make me leave here." The girl whispered pleadingly. "I’ll be safe hiding here. Even if they come back, they won’t be able to hurt me."

"Who’s ‘they,’ Rachel?" Jubal’s face darkened as he quickly asked.

"The bad guys who want to kill my daddy." The little girl’s wide, innocent eyes were filled with fear.

——

Inside the town police station’s conference room, Clay and Hannah arrived a bit late.

"The victim, Valerie Barnes, was a clinical psychologist at a mental health center in Richmond. So she’s kind of a colleague of yours and Jack’s."

Hannah took the bottled water JJ handed her. Without even saying thank you, she downed it almost in one go.

"After interviewing the neighbors, Clay and I went to her workplace and spoke to her coworkers.

According to them, Valerie was a good person. Recently, no one had any disputes with her—not even her patients."

"I’ll contact a judge. We’ll need access to all her case files." Jubal took on the task immediately.

"What about her husband, Lieutenant Commander Barnes? Did the Navy release his file?" Jack turned toward Elise, who was busy at her computer.

They had waited until Child Services came to take Rachel into custody before leaving. Elise still wasn’t having much luck—there had been no update from the Navy yet.

Without looking up, Elise replied, "Just got it. Ryan Barnes is a commander in the SEALs. More detailed files will take time to sync.

But he’s currently in a survival training exercise with a counterterrorism unit. I’ve already notified him—he should arrive tonight."

She used the term “SEAL,” indicating that Lieutenant Commander Barnes was part of the regular SEAL teams within Naval Special Warfare Command, not the SEAL Team Six unit that Clay had once served in.

Clay’s expression didn’t change. The fact that so much red tape had to be cleared to access his file made sense—only special operations personnel required that many layers of clearance.

The printer whirred as it spat out several sheets of A4 paper. Aubrey picked them up and skimmed through them quickly, his expression turning odd. "Another highly decorated commander. Nearly 20 successful missions during his time with the SEALs."

"Put those offensive thoughts away." Clay shot him a dangerous look. "Not every SEAL is a killer. Our weapons are always aimed only at the enemy."

"That’s not what I meant. I respect every soldier who serves the country." What really intimidated Aubrey wasn’t Clay’s glare—it was his thick, veined, muscular arm.

Out of the seven-person team, three were women, and Jubal, as the leader, was also older. So in training sessions, only Jack and Aubrey could really spar with Clay.

In this regard, Aubrey was on equal footing with Jack—both of them could lose to anyone.

Naturally, that made Aubrey the one who got punched by Clay the most—though always with protective gear.

Just recently, in the first case they worked for NCIS, the killer had been a retired SEAL. So Aubrey’s odd reaction wasn’t entirely unwarranted.

Jubal, however, had a different idea. "Is it possible that the real target was Lieutenant Commander Barnes? And the killer murdered his wife out of spite?"

Everyone immediately thought of what the little girl had said earlier. Jack had followed up in more detail afterward, but it was hard to expect a ten-year-old to know much.

Rachel had told the FBI that from her parents’ conversations, she had gathered that her father had recently received some sort of threat related to "work," and her mother had been deeply worried about it.

Jack looked at Clay, who frowned in silence, also unsure. "Based on the murder method, it doesn’t seem likely. But we can’t rule it out entirely."

"I’ll go arrange a safe house." Clay understood the implication.

"I think your theory makes a lot of sense," Elise said suddenly.

"While waiting for the NCIS file to sync, I did a quick online search for the name Ryan Barnes, and easily found his SEAL identity."

"That’s impossible! Whether it’s SEAL Team Six or the regular SEALs, every team member’s identity is classified." Clay quickly stepped behind Elise to look at her screen.