Sanctuary Forever WITSEC Town Series Book 5

by Lisa Phillips

  “To the mine.”

  Dan blew out a breath. “This is unbelievable. First he’s a CIA agent, then he’s a rogue and a killer. Now he’s a drug manufacturer, and probably a dealer?”

  “Some guys have all the fun.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Mei swallowed. “My bad. Crime never pays. Just say no to drugs.” She took a breath. “Uh… you wanna take a walk?”

  “Have you been in there? How do we know it’s safe? Gemma fell down it. Maybe it’s blocked off.”

  “Pretty convenient, having an escape tunnel under your house. Come and go anytime you please…”

  “Sure, if there’s an exit other than just ending up inside a mine.” Dan shivered. “I’m not a big fan of underground. Or tight spaces. Or the dark.”

  “How about spiders?” Mei’s voice was grave, but she stepped into the tunnel and started walking. “Those things creep me out. You think it’s just an itch, but then there’s this thing on you. Blech. Cockroaches are only half a step up. Or anything else with legs. And eyes.”

  Dan had no choice but to follow. He wasn’t walking back through that house by himself. Bizarrely, the deputy sheriff made him feel better. Even though she was smaller than him, she did carry a gun. Though he felt like she could easily turn on him, and he’d hit the ground, dead, before he even realized she’d killed him.

  Was that why she was walking him to a mine? Did Mei plan on killing him and dumping his body where no one would ever find him?

  His steps faltered. Of course. “Mom.”

  “Dan?”

  He couldn’t answer. He always figured his father had buried her in the woods somewhere. Had he hauled her through the tunnel and hidden her in some crevice of rock?

  Dan sucked in a breath and locked his knees.

  “It isn’t much farther.”

  Papa. Dan put one boot in front of the other. Again. Again. He couldn’t think. Didn’t want to. Just walk. The tunnel narrowed. He walked with one hand on the ceiling and his head bent.

  Light shone on his face. “Keep going. Don’t stop now.”

  The tunnel opened up. They followed the track as it bent left and then right. It had to be three miles from his house.

  Mei slowed. She turned and lifted the light so he could see her face. “I need to show you something, Dan.”

  “Is it her?”

  “No.”

  His heart sank.

  “But it’s what’s left of her.”

  She held his arm and they walked around a corner. A rumple of fabric. Bones. Lay against one wall. Discarded.

  He couldn’t look at the face, where her eyes should have been.

  Dan looked at the fabric below her neck. The gold chain, and that locket. The one he’d given her for Christmas.

  “Is this your mother’s body?”

  Dan shut his eyes. “It’s her.”

  Chapter 14

  “The secret’s out now, Mom.” Gemma shifted to the edge of her chair. “Whoever has those papers can spread this wide, and everyone will know who Dan’s dad was. Who Hal was. There won’t be any hiding it.”

  “I suppose you think the mayor is behind it.”

  “Why not? He’s a bad guy, and I don’t trust him at all. I think he set me up, brought Terrence into it, and used the opportunity to have my house searched while he occupied me. Every time I turn around, the mayor is in the middle of things.”

  Gemma’s strength was flagging. She pulled up her feet and curled into the chair, unable to lose the memory of when Terrence stood right in front of her from her mind.

  “He just wants someone to take over for him. He’s sick.”

  “If you mean ill, that’s debatable. Sick is probably right,” Gemma said. “I think he killed Antonia, or he ordered it done.”

  Janice rolled her eyes. “You always did have a wild imagination. At least you put it to good use instead of getting up to trouble like I did.”

  “Mom, will you tell me how you came to live in Sanctuary?”

  “You know we don’t talk about that.”

  “Maybe friends don’t, or acquaintances. But I’d like to know your story.” What if this was their one chance to find footing as adults? There had to be something that would bring them together, something with the power to sever this wedge that had always been between them.

  Janice sipped her tea. “My story is Hal’s story. That’s why I never told you.”

  “Because I’d know what the two of you were hiding.”

  Her mom nodded. “Some things are best left alone. Secrets, when they are revealed, don’t always heal. They can wound. Or kill.”

  “You didn’t come here together, did you?”

  Janice shook her head. “We were enrolled in witness protection around the same time, but I spent ten years in Hawaii before I was allowed to come to Sanctuary. I still have no idea what island I was on, I just woke up and I was there. But it was necessary. There had to be distance between Hal and I. No one could know we were together.”

  “You succeeded in that. I never knew.” Gemma didn’t care there was an edge to her voice. Her mom had to know how much it hurt that this had been kept from her for her entire life. Only after he was dead had she found out. “Would you ever have told me?”

  “No. Even though he’s dead, I still never would’ve told you.” Her mom’s eyes flashed with hatred. For Hal? “It’s the agreement I signed with the Marshal’s service.”

  “Tell me what happened, Mom. Please.” Gemma was desperate, but she couldn’t force her mom. She would only shut down the way she had after Hal’s death.

  “I was a reporter. You can find some of my articles online, still.”

  “There’s no Janice Altern online. I’d have found you.”

  “My real name is Bridget Tunston.”

  Gemma felt her eyes widen at the name of a popular feature writer rumored to have disappeared. “But… your face.”

  “It’s why I had to be hidden and all record of me removed from the internet. Every photo ever taken.” Her mom gave her a wry smile. “The Marshal’s service is so thorough, if I didn’t have a mirror, I’d have forgotten what I looked like.”

  This was unbelievable. Her mom was a famous writer?

  “That’s where you get your writing from. I even toyed with the idea of a novel once. But it never worked out.” Janice sipped her tea, set the cup down, and sat back. “I was daring. Wild. I thought I could go anywhere. Do anything. Thought I was untouchable. For years I wandered the world and never settled down. Australia. Indonesia. China. India. Thailand. I saw it all. I was free to go wherever I wanted and write whatever I wanted. Magazines. National Geographic articles.

  “Then war broke out in Vietnam, and so many men were dying. I’d been a child of the world for so long it was strange to feel so American. I cried for them. And then I bought a plane ticket, a boat ride. I made my way there and began to report on the war. I met GI’s and intelligence people. Interviewed locals and drug runners. Everyone on both sides. I didn’t play favorites. I did it all. I said it all.”

  Janice’s gaze drifted away. “Then I stumbled on a story. It would have been huge, and it was the first time in my life I was genuinely scared of a story and what it might mean. What might happen to me if I wrote about it.”

  She paused. “American intelligence in Vietnam was… well, they had barely any idea what they were doing, what they wanted. Or how to go about getting it. Trying to undermine the enemy was a nightmare I wrote about over and over again. It was hard to find a success story or even a human interest piece that showed us in a good light.

  “From what I was hearing and finding, it looked like the CIA was in bed with drug runners. The Vietnamese mafia had something on the CIA, and they were getting weapons in return for whatever it was. I hiked in the dark to a village under the thumb of the Vietnamese mafia to meet a contact of mine. I’d seen CIA officers there before. When I got there this man was—”

  Janice coughed. “I walked
into the middle of a slaughter.” She lifted her sleeve and showed Gemma her shoulder. “One of the bullets caught me. I landed in a pile of blood and bodies he’d left in his wake.”

  “Bill Jones.”

  Janice’s eyes widened.

  “I know he was Dan’s dad.”

  “He killed them all without mercy. I think under orders from the CIA to get rid of everything. That’s the only way it made sense, though they should have been clearer about how. I was just collateral. Afterwards he burned the village, and I just about managed to crawl out before he saw. That’s when Hal found me.”

  Gemma could hardly breathe. Dan’s father had colored her life, just as he had colored Dan’s. Not in the same way, but the impact could not be denied.

  “Hal was with the military police, but he worked alone. He was the one they sent to rein in Bill Jones. He was out of control, the CIA’s puppet who cleaned up their messes and left no one alive to tell the story.”

  “Until you.”

  Janice nodded. “Hal stayed with me for days in this hut. The woman who lived there didn’t speak English, but we knew enough of the language we got by. While I healed, he told me what was going on. That he was trying to get to Bill Jones to stop the man before the CIA could allow him to commit any more atrocities. He wanted me to go on record with what I’d seen and what I knew.

  “Hal kept me from any of his reports. He didn’t want any chance the CIA would find out that I’d witnessed what Bill Jones did. He couldn’t trust anyone within the military, or the intelligence services, to keep the secret. Not if he was going to bring down Bill and the CIA. We travelled to Saigon, and he called a friend of his in the US.”

  “A Marshal.”

  Janice nodded. “I was sent back to the US in the custody of the Marshals so they could keep me safe. But it wasn’t official. It was all off-book, and this was before witness protection even existed, so there was no play book for what we were doing. It’s why I think it went so badly wrong.”

  “What happened?”

  “Hal went after Bill Jones. He found him. The plan was to arrest him, threaten him with charges, and bring down every crooked intelligence agent in the East. But in return for testifying, Bill Jones wanted no prison time.” Janice paused, and Gemma waited while she collected herself. “Bill rolled over on his handlers, but only after the Marshal’s Service agreed to grant him immunity and hide him away for the rest of his life. It was unheard of, but since he came with all the paperwork he’d copied—reams and reams of covert orders, documents, memos, and TOP SECRET files all on microfiche—they had to agree.”

  “But he killed all those people.”

  “And if it had gotten out that American intelligence was actively undermining what our men in uniform, dying for their country, were doing, what do you think that would have done to the war rhetoric? Both sides would have exploded over it. All that death for nothing, they wanted to sweep it under the rug. They were ordered to contain the situation, and Hal was ordered to contain Bill Jones.

  “The CIA officers who ran Saigon base all disappeared. Bodies showed up—military officers, Hal’s commanding officer, another reporter who looked like me. Even the Marshal that Hal had called. All of them, dead. The CIA agents were going to kill everyone who knew what they’d done and then walk away.

  “Hal and Bill were back in the US. Moving around all the time, they never stayed in one city long. But the death threats didn’t stop coming. I was in Hawaii, no communication but the little I heard from my handler who boated in groceries for me. Hal and Bill were nearly killed in a highway collision one night. The Marshals Service decided they needed somewhere completely secure to place Bill Jones.”

  “Prison would have been good.”

  “They decided on Sanctuary. Nothing but grass and trees inside a ring of Idaho mountains. It was a permanent solution to an impossible problem. No one could get in, and Bill couldn’t get out. So a senate committee was formed, and the witness protection program was born out of a need to hide witnesses from the active threat against them. Hal and Bill came in by parachute with a backpack each, and the town of Sanctuary came into effect.”

  “How did he get all those papers in the radio room?”

  Janice’s breath hitched. “I located them and sent them to him, page by page. Hal wasn’t under the same mail strictures as the rest of the town now, and he wanted proof of everything that had happened, so I got it for him. He watched Bill Jones every day of his life. Reported back to the Marshals. Got regular deliveries. Wood to build houses. Furniture and appliances. Seeds. Animals. No one ever found them.

  “Years later the Marshal’s Service had a high profile witness whose face was too recognizable to simply relocate him to another city. They sent him to Sanctuary. We got a sheriff. More people. A doctor. When it was safe, me.”

  “And then me.”

  A smile curved the edge of Janice’s lips. “It had been a long time. Attraction is a powerful thing.”

  Gemma didn’t want to know that about her parents, but she knew what her mom meant. She felt that with Dan, and it was worse now that he’d kissed her.

  “But we kept it a secret. Bill Jones would have used anything against your father. Especially a child.”

  “There’s a whole lot there that I have something to say about, and we’ll get to it, but that’s not what bothers me most.”

  “What is it, Gem?”

  “Sanctuary isn’t a haven at all. It wasn’t supposed to be safe place to hide, it was a prison cell for Bill Jones.”

  “Sometimes they are the same thing.”

  **

  Dan took a step back.

  Mei crouched over the body and pulled out her phone. She keyed the radio. How on earth did that thing even work down here?

  “Sheriff?” Her voice swam around him. “…body. Yes I’m sure, Dan confirmed it… backup. Because…”

  Dan’s back touched the wall, and he slid down, as his thoughts dissipated and air whooshed through his ears. Had she brought him here just to identify his mother’s body? Mei could have shown him a picture. She could have confirmed it was his mother using DNA or something other than him being there.

  His chest rose and fell as he struggled for each breath. Perhaps God had brought him here so that Dan could finally face what he had done. Papa. Did You bring me here? Dan shut his eyes and started to whisper. “Surely the darkness will fall on me. Darkness shall not hide from You. Darkness and light are the same to You.”

  He should just turn himself in now. Tell Mei exactly what happened.

  John would get there just in time to see her slap the handcuffs on him, as she had the last time. This time he would stay in that cell. He’d be sent to prison. A nameless, faceless inmate just like all the others. But it would be justice. He would never be able to return here, never see his home again or his friends. Gemma.

  “Dan?” John’s face came into focus in front of him, crouched, a frown crinkling his eyebrows.

  “Hey.”

  “I’m sorry. Your mom—” John stopped.

  Dan shut his eyes.

  “Let’s get you out of here. You don’t need to stay and see this.” John pulled on his arm. Dan didn’t have much choice but to go with it. He locked his knees to keep from falling. Sweat beaded on his hairline. “You’re in shock.”

  Mei stepped up beside them. “What happened to her, Dan?”

  “You don’t see that bullet hole in her shirt and the stain, Mei? Back off.”

  A low, guttural noise came from his throat. He couldn’t tell them what had happened. They would never let him be pastor if everyone found out what he’d done. Dan dipped his head and planted his hands on his knees. He still couldn’t get air in. “Can’t… breathe…”

  “Dan.” John’s voice sounded pained. “Come with me, okay?” He put his arm around Dan’s shoulder and tried to maneuver him away from the skeleton.

  “What happened to her, Dan?”

  “Mei.” John barked her
name.

  “Did you kill her?”

  Dan’s body jerked. John swung around. “Seriously?”

  “It’s a legitimate question!”

  “He’d have been what, eleven? You think an eleven year-old pulled the trigger and killed his mom?”

  “It’s happened.”

  Dan tried to interject. “Jo—”

  The sheriff ignored him. “Mei, I’m not even kidding right now. You need to back off and let me deal with this. I don’t need you wading in when you know basically nothing about investigating a murder.”

  “Seriously?” Mei set her hands on her hips. “I’ve read every manual you gave me. And I’ve seen every episode of Psych! I know how to solve a murder, thank you very much.”

  “Mei.” He said one word, but neither Dan—nor Mei—missed the fact it meant, Mei I can’t believe you just said that. I don’t even know what to say, so stop talking right now.

  Dan tried again. “John, I—”

  Mei’s phone rang. She lifted one finger to them and said, “Hold that thought.” She turned slightly away and said, “Did you get it?” Pause. “Then why are you calling? Oh. Sure, that’s fine, but I need a rush on that info.” Pause. “Because I’m looking at a skeleton, Remy. That’s why!”

  Dan blinked.

  “I knew it.” John muttered, “I’ve been played.”

  Mei covered the phone with one hand. “Like you didn’t suspect?”

  John said, “That is so not the point right now.”

  Mei went back to her call. “Seriously, Remy, I need that information as soon as possible.” Pause. “What do you mean?” Pause. “Huh. Okay. Well let me know when you get something.”

  Mei stowed the phone. “Apparently neither of your parents existed before they showed up here. We know your dad was, you know, a bad guy and all. Whoever your mom was, she changed her name. It was long enough it predates computer records, and the place where the records were kept was destroyed by a fire in eighty-three. Which means I’m back to nothing.”

  “Nothing but the crazy idea that Dan killed his mother.”