by Toby Neal
“There were a lot of trees in the area where I was hiking during my last case,” Sophie said. She thought of the dense jungle where Akane Chang had taken her. Her skin crawled at the memory of the man’s touch, and she let go of Alika’s hand to rub her arms briskly. Whatever they needed to do to keep that man incarcerated had to be done. That reminded her of the upcoming meeting with Matsue. She took out her phone. “I must hurry. My next appointment is coming up.”
They broke into a jog.
Back at the Jeep near the restaurant, Alika lifted Sophie’s hand to kiss her knuckles. The warm, sensual touch moved through her like lightning. “I’ll text you this evening. Maybe we can get dinner.”
“I’ll cook for you in my tree house,” Sophie said impulsively.
“Tree house?” His brows arched. “This I gotta see.”
“Yes, and I would like to show it to you. My abode is most unusual. Small, but has everything Ginger and I need. I will let you know when we can meet. I will lead you there; the location is obscure.” Their hands were still linked, and this time she kissed Alika’s knuckles, and held his gaze as she did so. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”
Chapter Eight
Sophie slid into the booth across from Hazel Matsue. “How is our witness?”
“Good. Safe. And that’s the important thing.” Matsue’s asymmetrical bob swung forward, sleek and tidy, as she perused the restaurant’s menu. Matsue’s innate stylishness made the white tee with jeans, and a red cotton vest that concealed her weapon and badge, look like a fashion statement. “Ms. Rayme is rather vocal when she’s uncomfortable. And she is uncomfortable at the moment.”
“How? In what way?” Sophie accepted a slightly greasy laminated menu from an approaching waitress. This restaurant was across town from where she’d breakfasted with Alika. Her belly was still full, though, from that heavy meal. She ordered an iced tea.
“Rayme is through the worst of the withdrawals, but still craving. She misses that dead dysfunctional boyfriend of hers. And she is isolated from other human contact, and without a phone.”
“I have experienced some of what you are describing on my last case. I was in Kalalau, on a solo hike, and had a taste of everything but the withdrawals. It was indeed uncomfortable.”
“Well.” Matsue took out a manila file and a ballpoint pen and slid the items across to Sophie. “Let’s stay focused on the purpose for this meeting. I ran your background by my supervisor, and we’re a go for you to help provide support on security with this case. Here is an interagency agreement for working with you and Security Solutions. We can’t share the witness’s location, but we can collaborate on keeping her safe and managing her until the trial, and even beyond if you like.”
“The relatives of victims who joined together to pay for my services through Security Solutions were only concerned with seeing this case through to trial. Do we have a court date yet?” Sophie flipped open the file and scanned the contract.
“Freitan and Wong, as well as WITSEC, have been pushing for an expedited court date. But the Chang attorney is pushing back just as hard. He has filed for a change of venue out of this state. That would push things back considerably.”
“Then I hope that doesn’t go through. Although there could be advantages to taking Rayme off the island.” Sophie signed the document in her rounded, back-slanting hand.
“Moving Rayme has merit, but we are always looking at the bottom line. For now, this is as good as it gets. Now, what can you do to help shore up her security?” Hazel Matsue took the contract file back, and eyed Sophie.
“I have access to some cutting-edge tech we can use to keep working the case and looking for more info on the threat to Rayme.” Sophie bit her tongue on mentioning anything about the WITSEC leak. She could hardly disclose that massive problem at their first meeting. Matsue might even be the dirty agent. “I’m the one who put together the pattern of missing persons connected to Akane Chang. And I’m actually one of the only other eyewitnesses besides Rayme who can testify against Chang.”
“What about the young woman you and your partner were looking for? Julie something?”
“Julie Weathersby. Security Solutions spoke to her parents about obtaining WITSEC protection, but they decided they didn’t want to risk letting her out of their sight. Against our advice, they decided to hide her somewhere on the mainland until the trial, and they hired a firm that specializes in bodyguard work to protect her. They’re convinced that they can keep her safe until they bring her back to testify. I just hope they’re right.”
“In that case, I suppose we have no choice but to proceed as if you and Holly Rayme are, at least as far as we’re concerned, the only two witnesses. Has it occurred to you that you should take some security precautions as well?” Matsue’s elegant brows rose in concerned arcs over her intelligent dark eyes.
“I am fine.” The last thing Sophie wanted was more scrutiny, of any kind. “I have been living under security protocols for years now.”
Matsue tipped her head. Her expression reminded Sophie of an inquisitive bird. “I read your file, but perhaps you want to fill me in on a few more details.”
“That could take a while.” The waitress arrived to take their order. Sophie asked for a small salad and strip steak for protein, still full from earlier. When the waitress left, Sophie contemplated the marshal.
Building trust with Matsue might begin through self-disclosure. “I don’t know how thorough the background was that you checked, but I recently escaped death at the hands of my abusive ex-husband by killing him.”
Matsue’s mouth opened in surprise. “All I had was your work record and a background check.”
“There has been a lot more than that going on this year.” Sophie sipped the iced tea the waitress had dropped off and filled Matsue in on recent events. “I doubt I’ll be on the Changs’ radar as a target.”
“I hope you are right.”
The women’s food arrived. Sophie watched the marshal from under her lashes as Matsue ate her meal of grilled fish and vegetables with precise, tidy movements. The woman radiated a calm confidence that Sophie found reassuring and attractive.
“Tell me how you became a marshal,” Sophie asked. “Why that branch of law enforcement?”
Matsue smiled. “I could ask you the same, and I will someday. But for today, I’ll just tell you that I’m from a family of brothers. Four of them. I am the second to the youngest. Throughout my childhood, my brothers were in sports and martial arts, and though our parents wanted me to behave more like a traditional Japanese girl of good family, I refused. I copied everything my brothers did; I fought with, competed with, and played with them. My parents finally gave in and allowed me to have all the same lessons and activities. I majored in Criminal Justice in college, and have always wanted a career busting bad guys. I liked the autonomy, travel, and diverse kinds of assignments the Marshals Service offered over other agencies.”
“I understand. Your range of duties does seem interesting. I am surprised that in my experiences, I haven’t worked more closely with the Marshals Service. But then, my five years in the FBI were spent mostly in the computer lab, and I’ve only been a private operative for a short time.” Sophie gave a thumbnail sketch of her unusual career. “It’s still evolving, day by day.”
“Certainly never gets dull, does it? Except that I have to get back to babysitting detail with Rayme. Let me get this.” Matsue picked up the check. “Let’s communicate daily.”
“Sounds good. And maybe when you get to know me better you’ll trust me to help you with Rayme at her secret location. I know you can’t leave her alone for long. It must be tiresome.”
“You have no idea.” Matsue rolled her eyes. “But it’s protocol. Sorry. We’ll talk tomorrow.” Matsue picked up the file, paid the check, and the women said goodbye.
Out on the sidewalk, Sophie checked her phone—it was only two p.m. She had time to go to the South Hilo PD station and do some work wi
th DAVID before she went to the store to pick up something to cook for dinner for Alika at the tree house.
Chapter Nine
Sophie greeted the watch officer at South Hilo station, a small storefront opening in a run-down area of Hilo. “How are you today, Officer Tito?”
The mountainous officer was hunched over his Sudoku pad. “Not too bad, Hacker Babe.” His grin showed a gold tooth.
Sophie laughed. She wasn’t offended, but she also didn’t want that nickname to catch on. “You can just refer to me as Ms. Ang, please.” She signed the visitor log and surrendered her weapon. “I’ll be in the computer lab if Detective Freitan or Wong want to check in about something.”
“Got it, Ms. Ang.” He bounced his brows.
Sophie wended her way through the crowded cubicles of the bullpen work area. An agreement Security Solutions had worked out with the Hilo PD on her last case allowed her to use the computer lab’s secure internet access to do police-related investigation work online.
The dim, cool back room with its U-shaped table of outdated computers was empty, as usual. Sophie unwound a coil of blue internet cable and plugged in her laptop. She logged into the Data Assessment Victim Information Database program that she’d developed while in the FBI. DAVID worked by data-mining online cases and other information, sifting through available information looking for keywords, then using an algorithm to test hypotheses and assign confidence ratios.
Sophie opened DAVID and checked the data collection caches she had set up monitoring the correlation between missing people and suspicious deaths. Many of these cases had been circumstantially connected to possible murders committed by Akane Chang, enforcer for the Chang family, and, it turned out, recreational serial killer. She dragged and dropped various elements into a cohesive format and saved the data to share with Matsue.
Her new burner phone rang, buzzing in her pocket. Sophie checked the caller ID and smiled as she answered. “Hello, Jake.”
“Hey, Soph. What’s cookin’, good lookin’?”
Sophie smiled, a glow warming her at the sound of her partner and sometime lover’s upbeat, energetic tone. Jake Dunn could fill a room with his presence even through her phone.
But she could not answer that what she was cooking was dinner for Alika without causing a negative reaction. “I have been approved to work with the U.S. Marshals on Holly Rayme’s security,” she told Jake instead.
“That’s excellent. I guess. Except it means you’re there longer.” Jake sighed dramatically. “I thought I would check in about how things are going, and let you know I miss you. I’m pining. Terribly. Tank is, too.” They’d rescued Holly Rayme’s big-hearted pit bull on their case together, and Jake had adopted the dog and taken him back to Oahu.
“Ginger and I miss you both, as well.” It was perfectly true. She still tossed and turned at night, missing his big body with its furnace-like warmth. She probably should never have been with him, but she couldn’t regret it. “Things seem to be settling. Except for the prison riot.”
“What?” Jake shouted. “The what?”
Sophie filled him in on the attack that had occurred at the jail. “It certainly confirmed that Rayme needed to be taken into protective custody. Marshal Matsue took her out of there quickly after that.”
“I’ll bet.” Concern vibrated in his tone. “And how are you doing, through all that?”
“I can hear you thinking, Jake. I was never in any real danger. Matsue and Freitan took quick and deadly action to protect Rayme. As a civilian in the jail, I was unarmed, but Rayme and I were perfectly safe hiding behind her hospital bed.”
“Perfectly safe. During a prison riot. Hiding behind a hospital bed.” He snorted. “I’ll have to take your word for it. How is the tree house?”
“I know you thought a tree house was a crazy choice, but I still love it two weeks in. Ginger is less excited about her daily lift up and down in the dumbwaiter, but she is getting used to it.”
“Glad to hear that part, at least. I did call for an additional purpose. There’s someone bugging the agency to have you call her. Won’t leave a name, but it’s an international number. Bix told me to contact you and pass it on.”
That had to be Pim Wat.
Sophie had received a strange proposal from her estranged mother a few weeks before. Her phone had been destroyed in the attack by Chang and she had been able to retrieve some of her contacts, but Pim Wat’s number had not been among them.
Procrastination would have to come to an end. She was going to need to deal with this, but she wanted more pieces in place first. She needed to contact her father and his Secret Service Agent, Ellie Smith. Once she had a plan with them, she would get in touch with Pim Wat.
“Give me the number. And if this person calls back, tell her I will be in touch when I’m ready.”
Jake rattled off the digits. “Mind telling me what this is about?”
“Family business. Private.”
“Oh. Must be your mom, then. That’s what I thought when I first got the number.” Hurt that she wouldn’t talk more about the subject deepened his voice.
“Yes. My wonderful mother.” Sophie forced a laugh that stuck in her throat. Pim Wat’s first contact with Sophie in nine years had come during her recent case with Jake. He had been present to see how devastated Sophie had been by her mother’s callous treatment. “I’m sorry you had to deal with me while I was…upset.”
“I’m not a bit sorry, Sophie. I’ll be there for you anytime you need me. Any way you need me.” Jake’s voice was rough.
Sophie cleared her throat, remembering Jake’s unique and effective way of getting her out of that depressive state. “I’ll be in touch soon.” She ended the call.
She had tried to be as upfront with Jake as she’d been with Alika. That didn’t mean that either of them appreciated or liked the boundaries she was setting.
Sophie went to the computer lab door and locked it. She wanted absolute privacy for the next call she needed to make.
Chapter Ten
Sophie had last spoken to Secret Service agent Ellie Smith a year or so previously about a security breach to Sophie’s ambassador father that Sophie had been involved in. Ellie had a crisp, no-nonsense tone. “What can I help you with, Sophie?”
“I have something very important to speak with you and Dad about.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“I want to tell you two together because it’s both personal and professional. Very serious, and the situation involves national security.” Sophie shut her eyes and covered them with a hand, hunching over the phone, hoping no one would pound on the locked door of the Hilo PD computer lab. “Even with all my law enforcement contacts, calling you is the best way to deal with this that I could imagine.”
She could almost hear the frown in Smith’s voice. “That does sound serious. How do you want to proceed? Can you come to Oahu and meet with us? Your father is on island at the moment.”
“If it’s at all possible, I need you both to come to the Big Island. Keep a low profile. I think I’m being watched.”
“And that isn’t dramatic at all.” Ellie sounded skeptical.
“I am not exaggerating. Please take this seriously. You can reach me at this number.” Sophie rattled off the number for her latest burner phone.
Her phone call to her father went smoothly, but only because he didn’t pick up. “I hope you will find time to come over to meet with me, Dad. I already called Agent Smith. I can’t say more until I’m with you and Ellie in person. This matter is time sensitive so please…come soon.”
She was too agitated after that to settle to do any more work. A glance at her phone showed four p.m. She could take Ginger for a run, pick up some food, and be ready to meet Alika near his hotel to guide him to the tree house. She knew better than to try to tell him how to get to the compound’s obscure jungle location.
“This. I love this.” Alika’s grin showed perfect white teeth as he spread his arms to en
compass the huge spread of the banyan tree’s limbs and the view of tropical forest and mountain to be had from the tree house’s tiny deck. He turned to her, arms still open. “You knew I would love this.”
“I felt confident that, as a builder, you would appreciate both the aesthetic and functional aspects of my new abode.” Sophie finished cranking Ginger up from the ground and the Lab jumped out of the dumbwaiter onto the swaying deck.
“You talk like a professor when you’re nervous, Sophie,” Alika teased. “But you’re right. I appreciate.”
“You think I’m nervous?” Sophie unlocked the tree house’s door, gesturing for him to follow her. “It’s just the first time I have cooked for a man in my own home.”
“Really?” She heard pleasure in Alika’s voice as they each carried in a shopping bag.
“Really.” Sophie unloaded the shopping bag she’d brought up, laying the ingredients for a vegetable and beef stir-fry on the counter.
“What about that guy you dated on Oahu? Todd Remarkian?”
Sophie filled the tiny rice cooker and plugged it in. “Todd never came over to my own apartment in Honolulu. When I was injured, he stayed with me at my father’s. Sometimes I stayed at his place, or we went out. In general, I do not cook.” Sophie rinsed the herbs and vegetables and began chopping them. “Would you like a beer? I brought some Kirin to go with the meal.”
“Sure.”
She popped the tops on two of the bottled beverages and handed one of them to Alika.
“To new experiences with old friends.” Alika clinked his bottle to hers.
Friends. It wasn’t the first time he’d defined their relationship that way. Did he want more, after her declaration earlier in the day? Did she? She sipped her beer. Friends was good enough for now.