Critical Doubt

by Barbara Freethy

  "You're just going to have to say it."

  She drew in a deep breath, turned on her phone, and then punched in Abby's number.

  "Hello?" Abby said, a moment later.

  "Hi, it's me."

  "You don’t sound good, Savannah. Where are you? Has something else happened?"

  "Yes."

  "Please, please don't tell me you or Ryker have been hurt," Abby implored.

  "It's not me, or Ryker." She gripped the phone more tightly. "I don't know how to tell you this, Abby. But Paul—Paul is alive."

  "What? What did you say?"

  "He's not dead, Abby. I just saw him."

  "You're crazy, Savannah. Why are you saying this?"

  "Because it's true. Did you see his body, Abby? After he fell off the roof? Did you see him at the morgue?"

  There was a silence at the other end of the phone and then Abby said, "Chief Tanner told me I shouldn't see Paul, that his face was messed up, and it would haunt me for the rest of my life."

  "So, Chief Tanner saw him?"

  "And Todd. He agreed that I shouldn't see him."

  That meant both Chief Tanner and Todd had helped fake Paul's death. Why?

  "There must be a mistake," Abby continued. "You just saw someone who looked like him."

  "Abby, I know you don't want to believe this, but it was Paul. I talked to him. He told me to tell you he was sorry, that he did it for you and Tyler."

  "Sorry?" Abby echoed. "For what? For pretending he was dead? For leaving me and Tyler to grieve him? Is that what you're trying to get me to believe? He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't hurt us like that. How could that be better for us?"

  She could hear the bewilderment and pain in Abby's voice, and it broke her heart. "I don't know why he would do what he did. I think he's in a lot of trouble."

  "Why didn't you ask him why he did it? Where is he now? I need to see him. I need to talk to him."

  Abby's question brought her immediately back to the present. "He was shot, Abby. Ryker and I are at the hospital with him now. Paul is in surgery."

  "No. No. That can't be. Now you're telling me he's hurt?"

  "Yes, and maybe I should have waited to tell you, Abby, because it's serious. He's in critical condition. I don't honestly know if he's going to make it."

  "Oh, God."

  "I'm sorry, Abby. I thought you should know."

  "What hospital?"

  "St. Anne, near Chesapeake Beach."

  "That's near where Ryker lives. What are you doing there?"

  "It's a long story. I'll text you the address. You can come now, or I can call you when we know more."

  "No. I'm coming now. I can't wait, but it's going to take me a few hours. I'll have to get a flight."

  "Do you want me to help you figure that out?"

  "I'll get my mom to make arrangements. Who shot him, Savannah? Who shot Paul?"

  "I don't know, but I think Paul knew him. He tried to save Ryker and me, Abby."

  "Save you?" Abby echoed. "I don't understand. I'm so confused."

  "You're not alone. We can talk when you get here. Can someone come with you? I don't want you to be alone."

  "I can ask my mother. Tyler can stay with my dad. Should I tell Tyler his father is alive?"

  "No," she said quickly. "Don't tell him anything."

  "You really don't think he's going to make it, do you?"

  "I don't know. But I'll be here until you get here. Text me when you figure out your plans."

  "He has to live, Savannah. I can't say good-bye to him again. I can't mourn him again, not without knowing what happened, why he did this."

  "One step at a time. That's all you can do."

  "I'm so scared, Savannah. I thought I was getting a handle on him being gone. Now…"

  "I know. I'm sorry."

  "Okay, I have to go. I have to figure things out."

  "I'll see you soon."

  When she ended the call, she let out a breath of frustration and anger and sadness. It wasn't fair for Abby to have to go through this again.

  Ryker gave her an empathetic look. "That sounded rough."

  "Beyond horrible. Abby is on her way. She didn't believe me at first. Actually, I'm not sure she believes me now."

  "That's understandable."

  "She never saw Paul's body, but Chief Tanner did, and so did Todd."

  "Then they were both in on it."

  "Or Tanner was in on it. Then Todd found out, and that's why he was killed."

  "Or Todd isn't dead, either," Ryker suggested.

  "What about Hank?"

  "I don't know. Is he really dead?"

  She frowned. "We have to figure out what is going on. We're clearly still missing a crucial piece of information."

  "I think we're missing a lot of pieces."

  "Remember when Jackie read that text about Hank telling Todd it was time to be a ghost. What if it wasn't about ghosting her but about faking his death?"

  "I forgot about that comment."

  She thought for another moment, still trying to put the picture together in her head. "If Todd and Paul aren't dead, maybe Hank isn't either. We know you're in the dark. What about Mason? Is he in on this with them? Or is he on the outside, like you?"

  "Difficult to say, but since he hasn't been answering my texts tonight, I'm leaning toward him being involved as well. If he was innocent, why wouldn't he react to being told Hank is dead? Even if he's working, he'd have to check his phone sometime."

  "So, we have a team of ghosts. Why do they need to be dead?"

  He gazed back at her. "They're going to do something that they can't be held accountable for, because technically they're all deceased."

  "But what is that something?"

  "I wish I knew. I used to be their leader," he said tightly. "Now one or more of them is trying to kill me."

  "You don't know that the shooter was one of your teammates. Or that one of them set the explosive."

  "But Paul was in on it. He knew enough to come to Chesapeake Beach, and he said he thought they were just going to scare me. Maybe he didn't come to kill me, but he knows who did. He's involved with that person in some way, and the other guys are, too. That makes them just as guilty." His eyes filled with anger. "If we'd gotten in that car, Savannah…"

  She didn't need him to finish that statement. "Your instincts saved us once again."

  "I don't know how many more times we can get lucky."

  "It wasn't luck. It was you. I knew I could count on you, Ryker. I told you that when it counted, you'd be there, and you were."

  "You took a big risk. I don't even know what made me look under the car."

  "You didn't hear anything?"

  "No. Nothing. The bells were quiet. But I just felt like something was off."

  "Your gut was right."

  "It was too close. You could be dead right now."

  "So could you. But we're not. That's what we need to hold on to."

  Their gazes met and held. She had so many other things she wanted to say to him. And she thought he had things he wanted to say to her, but where did they even start?

  "I'm glad we had this afternoon," he said.

  "Me, too. I wish we'd never left that cove. It was so pretty there, so peaceful."

  "Peace rarely lasts long. That's why you have to enjoy it when you have it."

  "I did enjoy it."

  "I could tell."

  His words eased some of the tension between them. "Well, I could tell, too."

  "I wasn't trying to hide my pleasure," he said with a smile.

  "Neither was I." She paused as a nurse walked into the room, but the woman made her way to an elderly man in the corner. "I thought she was coming to tell us something."

  "I think it will be a long time, Savannah. Do you want some coffee? I saw a machine down the hall."

  "That would probably be a good idea. I need to call Flynn. I took charge of the case without asking anyone if I could do that. But I wanted to avoid h
aving to go down to the station and listen to a lot of questions we couldn't answer."

  "I thought it was a good move. Whatever we're dealing with is big."

  "Too big for just us. Now that we suspect that the guys are alive, that there's a plan to do something, we need to get help."

  "While you make your call, I'll get us some coffee. Cream or sugar?"

  "Just black." As he left, she picked up her phone and called Flynn. It was only four on the West Coast, so hopefully he was still in the office. She felt an enormous relief when he answered. She gave him a quick but thorough update on recent events, and finished by saying, "I don't want to put you or our task force in a difficult position, but I need us to handle this case. We have to move fast, and I don't have time to cut through layers of red tape."

  "Based on what you've told me, I would agree. We have a group of former Army Rangers, who have faked their deaths in order to do something. It has to be big. They wouldn't go to this much trouble for something small."

  "No, they wouldn't. Ryker said that Todd Davis ranted about how the army owed them, how the country owed them. They deserved more than they got. A lot of them were released because of their injuries in an ambush that also seems to have taken place under suspicious circumstances."

  "I'm going to bring Beck in on this. He's former military. He might have some insights. And I'll talk to the local police," he added. "I'll confirm that we're handling the case and set up security for the man in surgery. I'll also call Jax. He's in DC, getting an expensive thank-you dinner from Senator Wickham. He can get to you in an hour."

  "I don't need him to break away from that." Jax had saved Senator Wickham's college-age daughter from a trafficking operation that had been targeting young women at his daughter's private school.

  "He won't care, and I'll get Parisa involved as well. In fact, we might want to pull in Jared."

  "I had the same thought. If he can pull any information from the CIA files on Ryker's last mission, we might find a clue. That's where everything started." She paused. "I really appreciate this, Flynn."

  "We're a team. When someone has a need, we all step up; you know that. I just wish you'd gotten us involved sooner."

  "Everything has been happening very quickly."

  "Stay safe until I can get you backup."

  "Believe me, I'm not going anywhere."

  She set down the phone as Ryker returned to the waiting room and handed her a coffee.

  "Machine was broken, so I went to the cafeteria," he said.

  "I'm sure this will be better than anything out of a machine."

  "Did you reach your boss?" he asked, as he sat back down.

  "Yes. The cavalry is on the way. We should have some help within the hour."

  "Good."

  "My boss will also set up security for Paul here at the hospital and for Abby when she arrives."

  "He sounds like a man who gets things done."

  "He is definitely that." She paused, realizing that she'd been so personally caught up in what had been going on that she hadn't done what she needed to do. "Paul's personal effects," she said, getting to her feet. "He probably had a phone on him, maybe some other clue. I should have taken his phone at the scene. I need to get whatever he had on him. I'm going to check with the nurse."

  After showing her badge to the nurse, she was given a large plastic bag containing Paul's belongings. She took it back into the waiting room. Sitting down next to Ryker, she removed Paul's wallet and handed it to him. Then she pulled out Paul's phone. It appeared to be a cheap burner phone, probably bought with cash somewhere, but hopefully they could still trace where it had been.

  "Look at this," Ryker said, handing her a driver's license.

  The photo wasn't exactly Paul, but close. The name on the ID was Walter Rogers. The address was Atlanta. "This looks like Paul but with altered features. The nose is thicker, the brows darker, the hair almost black and the glasses distort his eyes."

  "He clearly wanted to disappear and become someone else. There are no credit cards, but there is a receipt for a dozen bagels and three coffees from Bagel Mania in DC."

  "That's great," she said with excitement. "The order is clearly for more than one person. Maybe we can pull security footage from the bagel shop. This could be huge."

  "What about this? There appears to be about two-thousand dollars in cash." He pulled out a thick stack of hundreds. "I thought Paul allegedly died in debt."

  "He did say his death was supposed to be better for Abby. Maybe he died so Abby would get the insurance money."

  "Then how did he get this cash? There's another plan in play besides insurance, although that could be a factor. Every time someone died, their heirs would get a payoff. That could be the reason for becoming ghosts."

  "It's actually very clever. Who would come up with that?"

  He thought for a moment. "Out of the four of them, I'd say Mason or Hank. I don't think Paul or Todd were the ringleaders. Paul obviously didn't want to take me out. And Todd was always the most nervous, the biggest worrier. This doesn't feel like him."

  "Plus, we know Todd was being persuaded to become a ghost. And someone told him the timeline had been moved up. Maybe he had to fake his death earlier than he had thought. Perhaps that's why his house was set on fire. He didn't have time to remove some piece of evidence. I know it's all speculation, but we have to start somewhere."

  "Well, Hank works at a gym, doesn't have a lot of money, but he does have a lot of confidence in his abilities. I can see him being the new ringleader. He was always after my job. But Mason is smarter."

  "Mason works for a weapons manufacturer, a job my father and Colonel Vance helped him get. Is that a clue?"

  "It might be."

  "Well, while we ponder that, I'm going to text my team with Paul's number and the information about the bagel shop," she said.

  Ryker took out his phone. "I'm going to text Mason again, too."

  "Maybe you should be careful what you say. You don't know which side he's on."

  "If he is involved, by now he's heard about Paul's injuries and my escape. I'm going to tell him I know what's going on, that Paul told me everything. I'll say I want in. That I've been hurt just as badly as everyone else. I want a payday, too."

  Her gut tightened at his words. "He won't believe you. There's a reason they didn't ask you in already. They know who you are. They know you won't do what they're doing."

  "Maybe that's not the reason. Maybe it was just that I wasn't responding to their texts."

  "I don't think so, Ryker. You wouldn't have joined them in doing something illegal or even in faking the deaths. That's not the kind of man you are. And they know that."

  "They knew who I was. I can convince them I've changed."

  "It's a bold move," she said, seeing the determination in his eyes.

  "I don't know how to move any other way."

  His cocky words reminded her of the Ryker from five years ago, and while she appreciated his return, she also worried that this Ryker might be a little too reckless. But she couldn't blame him. Finding out that Paul was alive, that he'd faked his own death, had rattled her, too.

  "Done," he said, sending his text. "We'll see if Mason takes the bait."

  "Or if he comes back asking you what you're talking about."

  "Either way, we'll find out something."

  Chapter Twenty

  An hour later, Ryker was beginning to think his bold move was a big bust. There had been no answer from Mason. Either he hadn't gotten the text, wasn't interested in the offer, wasn't in on the plan, or someone had killed him. The latter idea painted a more sobering picture.

  Despite the fact that Paul was miraculously alive, the attacks on himself and Savannah had been very, very real. There had been nothing fake about the explosions or the bullets that had come their way. There was a chance that Paul had escaped whatever danger had been tracking them and had faked his death to stay safe.

  "We might be wrong," he
said aloud.

  Savannah, who had been pacing around the waiting room for the last ten minutes, came back to the couch. "About which part?"

  "A team of ghosts. We've been starting to think that everyone is alive, that they all faked their deaths, but the danger to us has been real, right?"

  "That's true. If you and I had died last night, there wouldn't have been anything fake about it."

  "What if Paul realized he was in danger, and he set up his death so that he could stay safe and protect his family?"

  "Interesting point. And if Paul convinced Todd that he was also at risk, that could have started the bigger plan in motion. But if they were faking their deaths, why wouldn't Todd have just done it at the same time as Paul? Why wait and go through the funeral—somehow get his car into the river? It's more complicated."

  "Unless two accidental deaths at the same time was too much," he said. "I keep going back to how nervous Todd was at the service. I attributed his agitation and anger to Paul's passing, but it could have been that he knew Paul wasn't dead and seeing the hell his wife and kid were going through was too much. Then Todd decided to disappear himself. Or he really was forced off the road by whoever had been after Paul, and his death was real. Did you follow any of my twisted logic?"

  "I followed it all. Unfortunately, until we actually see a dead body, I'm not sure we're going to have an answer."

  "We might be able to get at least one answer from Chief Tanner. He responded to Paul's fall. He told Abby not to see her husband. He allegedly got Paul's body through the medical examiner and the mortuary. Did he do all that alone without Todd's help? It seems doubtful. Then he's the one who discovers Todd's body, and I'm betting no one else has seen it but him."

  "Tanner does run that town. I think anything is possible." She paused. "I'm so angry with Paul. If he wasn't close to death, I'd want to kill him myself," she said darkly.

  He understood exactly where she was coming from, especially because she was so close to Abby. She was feeling her best friend's pain with every breath she took. "He did hurt his wife and child. No doubt about that."

  "The trauma that they might have to live through again if he dies could break Abby. And how is Tyler ever going to understand any of this? He's a little boy. His father chose to leave him by faking his death. Now he might die again…this is horrible. Abby is just the sweetest, kindest person on this earth, and I can't stand that she has to deal with this."