In the evening, Natasha met Stark in one of Nick's secret safehouses. After examining Stark from head to toe, she said, "I really didn't expect you to escape prison unscathed without your mecha."
"What did you expect me to do? Put on the Iron Armor and fight them with fists? This is a legal bail." Stark said, adjusting the position of his microscope, "If I don't want to go to jail, no one can get me in there. Pepper has already prepared a team of lawyers. You're right; only if I'm alive can the real killer of Rhodes be found."
"It would have been better if you thought this way earlier." Natasha crossed her arms, her usual leisurely leaning against the wall was interrupted by the current predicament, inducing some pressure on her. She said, "What are you planning next? Do you have an investigative approach? Do you need me to do anything?"
"Rhodes' family does not want to see me, and I am too ashamed to face them. Now, I choose to use legal means to struggle till the end, which will indeed disappoint them, but the clues they provide are essential."
Stark paused, looked seriously at Natasha, and said, "If you want to help, return to your old line of work. Find a way to inquire from Rhodes' wife and son. Did they see anything suspicious that night?"
Natasha frowned and said, "You should know if there were other suspects, Pepper wouldn't have agreed to let the police take you away from Stark Building. Your lawyer team would've given them a hard time."
"Are you doubting me?"
"If I were doubting you, I wouldn't have come here to see you. I'm in as much danger as you are." Natasha moved closer to Stark, her hands leaning on the experiment table. She said, "Think about how Rhodes was killed. If you had been killed in the café that day, I'd also have been framed into prison. The killer obviously wanted to kill two birds with one stone, but we've avoided giving him the opportunity."
"Anyway, go and do what you need to." Stark turned around and said gravely, "Use the skills you used to extract information from me and figure out what happened that night."
Natasha took a deep breath, stepped back, and said, "If you need anything, call Coulson. He will provide you with the convenience. So will Nick. And, preserve your own life. See you tomorrow."
Seeing Natasha's decisive back, Stark hesitated, then pursed his lips saying, "Listen, this is cooperation. Show me sincerity. Get the evidence seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's forensics department. I need them."
Natasha turned back and said, "That was personally handed over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by Rhodes' family. They trust them."
"That's only because they have no one else to trust, but they trusted the wrong people. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has always been useless." Stark finally walked to the front of the experiment table, looked at Natasha, and said, "This is my only request. If you want the case to progress, you better hurry."
"Every request from you sounds like a threat, Tony. If you could learn to talk nicely, we would've made progress by now."
After saying this, Natasha walked towards the door. Before leaving, she said, "I'll ask Coulson to coordinate as much as possible. But don't expect me to sneak it out. That represents the hope of Rhodes' family. Losing the evidence will drive them mad."
After leaving the room, Natasha walked to her car while talking on the phone. She drove back to S.H.I.E.L.D. and told Coulson about Stark's request.
Naturally, Coulson appeared troubled. Not a single agent in the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. was willing to deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Even though their responsibilities were above the Federal Bureau of Investigation's, dealing with the leaders of each department wasn't easy. To take something from their hands would require strong mental fortitude.
Nonetheless, Natasha decided to help Stark anyway. If anyone could use technical means to find leads of the killer, it had to be Iron Man. So, she planned to drive to Rhodes's family and see if visiting them could reveal any additional valuable information.
While she was once again getting into her car outside the S.H.I.E.L.D. building, Coulson hurriedly followed her and said, "The director plans to deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation personally. So, I'll go with you."
Natasha didn't say anything, got into the driver's seat, and they both drove to Rhodes' family. Along the way, Natasha was silently calculating the time in her mind.
According to Jane Foster, Thor started to display abnormal behaviors around four in the afternoon but had improved by around half-past five. Stark also claimed to have reconnected with Rhodes in the evening, around five. The forensic determination of Rhodes' time of death was approximately three in the morning. His son's testimony indicated that Rhodes had started exhibiting unusual symptoms around eleven-thirty at night.
To fly from New York to New Mexico in the quickest possible time would be approximately two-and-a-half hours. If there's only one murderer, he must have attacked Thor before Rhodes, with a gap of about seven hours.
Excluding preparation time, the time spent on the journey would be less than five hours, suggesting that the offender could only travel by airplane, not by road.
However, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s inquiries into flights between New Jersey and New Mexico during this period did not uncover any suspicious individuals. The offender either had their own flying devices or had a special way to pass airport security checks undetected.
Natasha momentarily couldn't decide which possibility was more likely and shared her analysis with Coulson. After a brief pause, Coulson said, "If it's the former, it could be the actions of the military or law enforcement agencies. If someone wants to deceive us, we can't track official aircraft."
"If it's the latter, perhaps an inveistigation could be carried out on airline security staff to see if anyone has been bought. But I don't think there's much hope."
"Nick has noticed that someone doesn't want him to form The Avengers, right?"
"Yes. And he highly suspects the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That's why he deals with the chief of the forensics department personally. They've been at odds more than once or twice."
Natasha sighed with her hand on the steering wheel then turned to Coulson and asked, "Did you bring identification?"
Coulson reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a stack of ID cards. While flipping through them, he said, "Which do you need? CIA? Federal Bureau of Investigation? New York Police Department?"
"Is anyone here from the Air Force?"
Coulson rummaged around and finally said, "All I have is a pilot's license, but not for military use."
Natasha took it and looked at it, saying, "That'll do. Listen, I'm Colonel Delrina, retired from the United States Air Force. You're my husband, Zahak from the Logistic Support Department. We both have worked with Rhodes at different times."
"As for the details, I've heard quite a few anecdotes from Tony about his relationship with Rhodes, which should be enough."
What Natasha didn't say was that she had known Rhodes in another universe and knew quite a bit about his daily habits, enough to convincingly play the part of a colleague.
Soon they arrived at Colonel Rhodes's home. Natasha pressed the doorbell while Coulson looked worried. He thought the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the military certainly had someone keeping an eye on the place, and with Natasha's high-profile, he feared someone might come out to obstruct them halfway.
Natasha however, was confident about her investigation. She knew that even if the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the military knew she was coming, they would definitely let her in. They were well aware of the Black Widow's capabilities and wanted to reap the benefits.
As expected, Colonel Rhodes's house was likely filled with surveillance equipment. But what could be worse was that the killer might have set another trap here.
Natasha turned her head slightly and whispered to Coulson, "Remember the rules of an agent, don't touch anything once we're inside and follow my lead."
The doorbell rang a few times. Rhodes' wife—looking weary—peeked through the door crack. Seeing a couple at the door, she seemed relieved and opened the door slowly.
Being cautious, she didn't open the door completely and asked, "Who are you? What do you want with me?"
"We used to be comrades with Colonel Rhodes. I'm a retired pilot and now a civil aviation captain for American Airlines. We met during our newbie period. My husband is still in service and he once worked with Colonel Rhodes for a while when he was in the Air Force Material Command."
"Oh, my God, please come in." Mrs. Rhodes hurriedly opened the door and said apologetically, "There've been too many police officers and journalists coming recently. They all want to dig up insider information from me, so I have to be cautious."
"You can relax; we are definitely not journalists." Natasha sighed and said, "I won't hide it from you, our old boss, General Burke who has now retired to Hawaii, wants to know what's going on."
At the mention of a familiar name, Mrs. Rhodes' expression relaxed somewhat. As they walked inside, she said, "How is General Burke doing? Rhodes always talked about him. He's the one who promoted Rhodes."
What Mrs. Rhodes didn't say was that she knew that Rhodes belonged to General Burke's faction in the military. The death of someone in their own faction would inevitably lead to an inquiry. Thinking of this, Mrs. Rhodes believed a little more in the reason for Natasha's visit.
"Don't worry, ma'am, all of us are deeply concerned about you, and the military will definitely get to the bottom of this. We will, too."
As Natasha and Coulson entered, Mrs. Rhodes closed the door and invited them to sit on the sofa.
After the usual pleasantries, Natasha got to the point, considering she had revealed herself as an investigator for the military, asking for details wasn't abrupt.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Rhodes' replies were no different from the media reports. She just mentioned that Rhodes' death was very strange and that she had never heard or seen any signs of him having heart problems.
Surprisingly, Mrs. Rhodes didn't believe it was Stark's doing either.
The poor lady said with tears in her eyes, "I knew him, I knew James. He wasn't befriending Tony Stark for money; they were genuine friends."
"Tony has visited our home several times, and he wasn't rude as the media reports. He even helped Hancock with his homework. There's no reason he would kill his friend. Someone is definitely trying to drive a wedge between them."
Natasha was a bit shocked at Mrs. Rhodes' words, but she took the opportunity to ask, "So, do you suspect anyone?"
Everyone behind the surveillance equipment listened attentively to Mrs. Rhodes' response.
Mrs. Rhodes was silent for a while but finally said, "Two days before James passed away, I heard him mention that General Ross was organizing a capture operation against the Hulk. Ross knew someone was trying to recruit the Hulk, but the Hulk is his."
"My husband had been unhappy with this for a long time. He felt the military shouldn't make more trouble for this big guy. If someone was willing to recruit and pacify the Hulk, they were essentially cleaning up the mess for them. Ross shouldn't be causing unnecessary complications."
"He mentioned this to Tony over drinks. He hoped that Tony could alert the Hulk beforehand to hide."
Natasha picked up the thread, "And if Tony Stark was arrested because of Rhodes's death, then he would definitely not have a chance to alert the Hulk."
"Thank you, Mrs. Rhodes, this is an important clue. We'll leave now."