by Margaret Kay
“Thank you, Commissioner,” Remi said. After she disconnected the call, it dawned on her that Troy Davis had only called Bird. He hadn’t included her on the call. “That son of a bitch.”
“What?” Annaka asked.
Remi explained her outburst. “Davis only called Bird. That wasn’t a conference call. He didn’t want me asking any questions. He did it on purpose.”
“The rig is being shut down. Your goal was achieved,” Mother said.
“It’s a victory,” Annaka agreed. She picked her phone and coat up and stepped towards the door.
“Where are you going?” Cooper asked.
Mother already rose and grabbed his coat also, planning to follow her out.
“I just realized I still need to call my insurance company. I thought I’d get some fresh air and make the call outside.”
Cooper nodded, and Mother followed her out.
She leaned against the building and hit dial. “My agent is local. It’s nice to get some fresh air.”
“You didn’t get enough fresh air on the boat ride out to the rig?” Mother asked. “I’m still cold from it.”
“Yeah, me too, but I just wanted a few minutes away from all that. I felt like I was suffocating in there.” She nodded back towards the building.
Her agent answered, and she filed the reports. Mother stood and listened. Annaka’s eyes were focused on Mount Redoubt across the bay while she was on the phone. He couldn’t help but be worried about her. She looked exhausted. He knew it had been a very stressful two days for her. He wished he could take her to the motel and make love to her to take her mind off everything. Maybe he could.
He stopped her before she stepped back into the building. “Hey,” he said, embracing her. “What do you say we take off and go to the motel? I’d sure like to spend some time holding you.”
“That sounds nice,” she murmured, relaxing into him.
“What do you need to finish up in there?”
“Nothing. Let’s go.”
Mother pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I’ll just have to check in with Lambchop and Cooper and get a set of the car keys before we go.” Energy surged through him at the thought of spending time with Annaka in bed.
When they separated, Annaka flashed him a flirty, seductive grin. “I got a room at the Lodge yesterday, have the key in my purse.”
Mother returned her smile. He opened the door into the building and held it open while she entered in front of him.
Madison sat at Keeling’s desk with her computer tablet open. “The pictures of the two perps from the Ipsen house came through. Are you ready to take a look, Annaka?”
Annaka’s gaze shifted to Remi, who sat at her desk. “Sure.” A part of her really hoped it was the two men, not just one of them. Another part of her hoped they found at least one of the two men alive so they could answer questions, like why she was kidnapped and who ordered it. Mother walked with her to where Madison sat. Annaka hesitantly looked at the monitor. An email with two JPG icons were on the screen.
“Okay, I’m going to open the first one,” Madison said. She double clicked on the icon and a photo opened.
Annaka stared at the picture. She knew right away it was the man with the glasses, even though he didn’t wear them in this picture. She’d never seen a dead body before, except in a casket at a viewing. This was different. She nodded. “Yes, that’s one of them.”
Madison closed the picture and brought the other one up.
“No, that’s not the other one.” A feeling of relief that she wasn’t expecting swept through her. She felt Danny lean into her back. Her gaze shifted away from the image of the dead man on the monitor to Danny. “Danny, I want to go to the motel now. I’m done here for the day.”
“Sorry,” Cooper said. He stood on the other side of the desk. “The fire marshal will be here in about an hour. He called while you were outside. He’s coming to ask you some questions about your house to finalize his report.”
“Great,” she vocalized. Her eyes went to Danny. She could see he was as disappointed as she was that their departure was delayed. “I’m sorry. I’m just tired,” she said, glancing back at the others. She saw Remi out of the corner of her eye. “You must be beat too. Are you allowed back in your house?”
Remi shrugged. “No, it hasn’t been released by the State Troopers and FBI. Ben took the kids to my mom’s house. The FBI did take him by the house to grab a few things, clothes, toothbrushes. We’ll stay at my mom’s house for a few days, which really sucks.”
“The FBI is still protecting your family, aren’t they?” Annaka asked.
“Yes, my mom just loved that the FBI came with us,” Remi said sarcastically.
“At least your home will be released to you at some point. It’s not gone,” Annaka said.
“I’m sorry. I know that sounded bad. I’m so sorry your house was destroyed,” Remi said.
“It’s okay. There’s no need for you to apologize.”
“I was being insensitive,” Remi said. “Complaining about having to stay with my mom because the police haven’t released my house yet.”
“You may want to leave your kids with your mom when you first get the house back. It will be best for you and your husband to go clean it first and put everything back in order. Your kids don’t need to see bloodstains on the floors and walls,” Madison advised.
“My God, I didn’t even think of that,” Remi said.
Claude Renault, Sonia, and Clint Ames all left shortly thereafter. Clint’s car was still in the parking lot. The FBI that protected his family knew that he was on his way home. Peter would remain until midnight, when Clint would come back on to monitor the equipment, though Clint made it clear to everyone that if the needles on the seismic monitoring equipment so much as fluctuated, he wanted to be called.
Ayla stood and put her coat on. “I’m going to go too.” She went over to Remi first and gave her a hug. “Let me know if I can help you with anything. Your kids could come play at my house if you need them to.”
“Thanks, Ayla. I’ll let you know,” Remi said.
Then Ayla walked over to Annaka. Her hug was comforting. “I’m glad you’re okay. You can stay at my house if you need a place to stay.”
“We’ll protect her at the motel. But that’s nice of you to offer your home to her,” Mother said.
Ayla also gave him a hug. “I’m glad you’re here for her. You’re welcome at our house too,” she added with a smile. Then she pushed through the outer door of the office and disappeared into the darkening afternoon.
“I should go too,” Remi said, standing and donning her coat as well.
“We’ll drive you to your mother’s residence,” Cooper said. He motioned to Wilson, Burke, and Sloan. They left with her.
The fire marshal arrived an hour later. Annaka remembered him. He was also the fire chief, who spoke with her as the fireman put the flames out. “I just want to go over the timeline one more time,” he said.
“I lit the burner on the stove right away when I came in, didn’t even take my coat off. Then I remembered I left my phone in my car and I went back out to get it. That was within five seconds of turning the burner on.”
“And why did you take your purse out with you to get your phone?” Chief Kuenker asked.
“My keys were in my purse and I searched for them as I walked out to the car.”
“Why the hurry?” The Chief asked. “Why not find them in your purse and then go out to the car with only the keys?”
Mother saw doubt play over the fire marshal’s face. He didn’t like where these questions were going.
“I wanted to get a text sent so Danny would see it before he got too busy,” she replied, confused why he asked about it.
“Danny?” The Chief repeated.
“Yes, me,” Mother said. “We had a phone conversation on her way home, and she knew I was about to go to work.” He saw Lambchop’s gaze turn into a calming stare, silently telling him
to take it down a notch. Lambchop knew him well enough to know that he was getting pissed. “Do you suspect arson?”
The Chief got a bit flustered. “I wouldn’t say arson. There were no accelerants used, but the blowout on the gas stove and piping was particularly catastrophic.”
“So, it didn’t look like an accident? Is that what you’re saying?” Danny pressed.
“Gas lines very rarely leak unless they’ve been damaged. The timeframe Ms. Sanchez is describing is,” he began, but Mother interrupted him.
“Dr. Sanchez,” he corrected the fire marshal. His tone was not friendly. “Her name is Dr. Sanchez. She worked her ass off to earn her PHD and graduate at the top of her class, she deserves to be addressed appropriately.”
“I’m sorry, yes, of course. As I was saying, the timetable Dr. Sanchez describes is just off. If it were a gas leak and her house was full of gas, it would have ignited the moment there was a spark or open flame introduced. And that clearly did not happen.”
“Did you find anything to support the gas was tampered with?” Lambchop asked, before Mother could say anything else.
“Well, no. The stove and gas lines leading to it are unrecognizable. The damage, I’m afraid, is too severe to see if tampering occurred,” Chief Kuenker said.
“Did you look for the remnants of a timer or a secondary detonation device?” Sherman asked.
“I’m sorry, a what?” The Chief asked.
“You heard me, an IED. A bomb.”
Chief Kuenker’s eyes made a lap around the room, gazing at each person, even at Peter, who sat stunned. “Um, no, I found no evidence of a bomb.”
The room was quiet for a moment. “Someone was trying to kill me,” Annaka finally said. Her gaze met the fire marshal’s. “You don’t believe it was an accident or a leak. You think I set it somehow. I didn’t and I’ll take a polygraph to prove it.” She shook her head. “I just know someone was trying to kill me.”
Mother wrapped his arms around her and held her from behind. “We’ll get proof and we’ll find out who.”
“I can’t file my report with any other finding than suspicious,” Chief Kuenker said.
Annaka didn’t think she’d ever felt this angry before. He thought she set her own house on fire! She couldn’t believe it. “That’s accurate,” she said with clipped words. “Someone tried to kill me by blowing my house up.”
“Do you have any proof?” The fire marshal asked.
Sherman presented his ATF badge and creds. Madison also flashed her FBI badge in his direction. “We are a multiagency task force here to protect Dr. Sanchez,” Madison said. “We do believe her life is in danger. We are working with the local FBI to protect her as well as Dr. Remington Ipsen and Clint Ames who are also on staff at this research office.”
The fire marshal’s eyes made another lap around the room. “I heard about the crime scene at Dr. Ipsen’s house. Is this related?”
“Yes,” Cooper confirmed. He didn’t elaborate.
“A suspicious filing may delay your insurance company from sending out your check,” the fire marshal said.
This made Annaka even angrier. “Whatever,” she mumbled.
“I’m sorry if I upset you, Dr. Sanchez,” Chief Kuenker said.
“We plan to go out to her place tomorrow when it’s light and take a look for ourselves,” Sherman said.
“I haven’t released the scene yet, but I have no problem with you going over it. Maybe you will find something I missed.” He then left.
“He thinks I blew up my own house,” Annaka said after he closed the door.
Mother tightened his hold around her. “Easy, Annaka. We know that’s not the case. That’s all that matters. We’ll prove it.”
Sierra
The team headed to the motel to check in and get dinner at the diner. Annaka realized she was exhausted during the short drive to get there. And she was also cold. They hadn’t warmed the car up. She remembered that she’d left the scarf Ayla gave her for Christmas in her car. She wanted it.
She rode in the car driven by Lambchop. Sherman sat in the front beside him. They’d given Cooper and Madison their dinner orders who would stop at the diner and get the meals to go before joining the rest of the team at the motel. Annaka just couldn’t wait to get back to go to bed. She wasn’t even sure if she was hungry.
She glanced over at Danny in the darkness beside her. “I need something out of my car.”
“We’ll swing by it,” Lambchop said.
Lambchop parked beside Annaka’s car. She got out, Danny following her. She noticed he kept his hand on his gun while his eyes scanned the area. Finally, his eyes landed on her cracked windshield.
“Damn, you didn’t tell me your car was toast,” Mother said.
“It was drivable.” She shot him a tired smile. “Besides, it doesn’t swim. I don’t care about it.”
“Remind me to never loan you my car,” he said with a laugh.
After retrieving the scarf, she locked the car door and closed it. Not that it mattered. No one would want to steal this POS. Glancing over it, she noted that it had more damage to it than she’d thought. She doubted it was even worth what it would cost to repair it.
“Do you have anything in the room you checked into yesterday that you need to get?”
“No. I just had my backpack and my purse and didn’t take anything out after I found that note from Remi,” Annaka answered.
Mother watched a disturbed expression settle on her face. She began to tremble. He looped an arm around her. “Let’s get back in the car.” He knew that he was freezing, had been since the boat ride. He imagined she was too.
Lambchop knocked at the door to the same suite they’d stayed in before. It was opened by Sloan, who swung the door wide for them to enter. All three men who had escorted Remi to her mother’s house were inside. Their backpacks were lined up against one of the walls in the family room area, Annaka noticed. She wondered if all of them would be staying in this suite tonight and if Danny would be allowed to sleep with her. She wanted to feel him holding her as she drifted off.
“The FBI in Anchorage is questioning if at this point either Remi Ipsen or Clint Ames are still in danger,” Sloan said. “I called Shepherd, will let him deal with them.”
Mother chuckled. “A decision over their paygrades. Was Shepherd going to call Whiting?”
“Yes. The protection will not be lifted. He’ll get back in touch with us,” Sloan reported.
“Who are Shepherd and Whiting?” Annaka whispered to Danny.
“Leonard Whiting is the deputy director of the FBI. He’s our contact.” He saw in her eyes that she still questioned the other name. He gave her the faintest of headshakes, hoping she would understand to not ask further.
She nodded ever so slightly and then let it drop. She pointed to the bedroom she and Danny stayed in when they were here last week. It dawned on her that the condoms they bought were at her house. Unless Danny had one, they had the same problem they had when they were here last. No birth control.
“Will that be our room again? I want to drop my backpack and purse.”
“Yes,” Mother replied. He followed her in and set his backpack beside hers on the bed. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I made the team stop at a drugstore on the way to the airport,” he whispered. “I assumed your house was a total loss, including what I left there.” He beamed a flirty grin at her. “I hope I’m not being presumptuous.”
Her tired smile spread over her face. “Not at all. I was hoping you’d say that.” She reached up on tippy toes and pressed a kiss to his lips. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. She melted into him, wondering how she could have, just a day earlier, considered breaking it off with him.
“I love you, Annaka.”
“I love you too, Danny.” She kissed him again. “So, who is Shepherd?”
“He’s our boss, the head of the agency we work for. Don’t ask too much about him, especially in fron
t of the rest of the team. As I’ve told you, what we do is classified.”
“I’m not even supposed to know his name, am I?”
“Not so much that, just let it go, okay?”
Annaka eyed him with curiosity. “Yes, I can do that.”
“Food’s here,” Cooper announced, as he and Madison set the bags with the nine takeout containers onto the table.
Mother led Annaka from the bedroom.