An Aria for Nick (Christian Romantic Suspense) (Song of Suspense)

by Bridgeman, Hallee

  She had interviewed witnesses including a maid who had seen them and spoken with them twice. She had even verified that Nighthawk had used the phone in the lobby of the hotel down the block. And that is the fact that she kept circling back to over and over again. What had Nighthawk been doing here? He wasn't trying to dump the principal. By all accounts they were pretending to be a couple. He wasn't getting a night's worth of sleep then moving on like a man on the run should. For that matter, Ricardo could have flown them just about anywhere from Vancouver to Bogota. Why Panama City, Florida during Spring Break?

  Why stay here for so long and risk getting caught? Why this room? Why use the phone in the other hotel?

  Standing on the balcony of Nick's former hotel room, Kate had a sniper perfect view of the room across the street. Following a hunch, she counted floors and counted windows then she spun on her heel and left.

  Kate walked into the lobby of the Sandpiper for the second time that day and the hotel clerk suddenly stood up rigid and tall. "You again?"

  Kate ignored it and demanded, "Tell me who was in room 420 two days ago. Pull up the reservation. I want to know the name, when they checked in, when they checked out, what they ordered from room service. Understand?"

  ¯¯¯¯

  BEFORE Aria opened her eyes, she knew Nick was gone. She hadn't yet woken up with him next to her, but it wasn't the lack of his body on the couch that told her he wasn't there, it was the lack of his presence around her.

  It was bright daylight outside, and as she rolled off the couch and stumbled upstairs to the bathroom, she realized that she must have slept for at least fifteen hours. She was sore and her head was full of cotton, but she had caught up on some much-needed sleep. After her shower, she threw on a pair of shorts and a shirt and went downstairs. She made her way to the kitchen hoping to catch up on some much needed food.

  The house was quiet, but she found the kitchen and as she pushed open the door, the wonderful aroma of coffee filled the air. Taped to the coffee maker was a note in Carol's handwriting.

  Aria - gone to church - didn't want to wake you - coffee was made at nine, so if it's too old, everything is in the cupboard above your head - see you around twelve - C.

  Aria looked at the clock on the coffee maker, and seeing that it was already twelve, almost dropped the coffee cup she had grabbed off the counter. She'd slept eighteen hours. No wonder she was so sore.

  She grabbed an apple out of the big bowl on the table and nursed her cup of coffee, slowly eating the apple to the core. As soon as the food hit her stomach, she realized that she was famished, and dug through the refrigerator until she found sandwich makings.

  She was putting the top piece of bread onto the stack of meat and cheese when a little girl who could have passed for Carol's twin came flying into the room. She was dressed in a yellow dress with matching ribbons in her hair, and she had a bright pink cast on one arm. When she saw Aria, she stopped short and stood there, gauging her.

  "You're Aria," she finally announced, then headed for the refrigerator, where she pulled out a juice box.

  "And you're Lisa," Aria returned with a smile.

  "Mommy said you two are friends like me and Amy Bradford and that you're visiting for a while with us," she said, expertly popping the straw into the hole on the top of the box.

  "Is Amy Bradford your very best friend?" Aria asked, sitting at the table with her sandwich.

  "Yep. Where do you live?"

  "Oregon."

  Lisa's brow wrinkled in concentration, then she said, "That's the state that's below Washington and above California." She took a long drink of her juice. "On the left side."

  Aria was duly impressed. Apparently, Lisa got more than her looks from her mother. "You're right. Where's your mom?"

  "Right here," Carol said, coming through the kitchen door. She carried a sack of groceries that she set on the table next to Aria's elbow.

  "Need any help?" Aria asked around a mouthful of sandwich.

  "No, that's it." She took her purse off her shoulder and set it next to the groceries, then sat down in her chair with a sigh. "Lisa, go change out of your good clothes, then come back down here and I'll fix you some lunch," she said.

  Lisa set her drink box on the table, then left the kitchen in the same manner as she had arrived, at a dead run. Aria smiled after her fleeing back, then looked back at Carol, who was taking off her shoes. "She looks just like you, Carol."

  Carol smiled and put her chin in her hands. "She has her father's eyes. Bright blue."

  Aria waited for her to say more, but she remained silent. "Is the father subject off limits?"

  Carol shrugged. "There isn't a whole lot to the story. Girl meets boy, girl falls in love and loses her virginity one reckless night, girl finds out she's pregnant two weeks after boy goes off to realize his dreams, leaving girl behind to struggle through law school with a baby."

  Aria felt a twinge of sympathy for Carol. "Does he know about her?"

  She shrugged. "I couldn't find him, but I was able to get a hold of his parents. They said they told him, but I've not heard from him at all. He sends me money through them, which is why I can raise Lisa in this neighborhood on an assistant DA's salary. It's starting to get rough, though, because she's starting to ask questions."

  "Where is he?"

  Carol stood and went to the refrigerator. "I don't want to give you too many details about him, because you'd probably know who he is. Honestly, I can't figure out why the whole town can look at her and not see him." She pulled out what she needed to make sandwiches, and started putting together a lunch for Lisa. "He really threw me for a loop. I'd never have thought that he'd be like this, and I'm usually not wrong about that type of thing. Before him, I always considered myself a pretty good judge of character … in men anyway."

  "When do you take her back to Henry?" Aria asked.

  Carol shrugged. "I'm not supposed to see Henry. I'm supposed to take her to her own pediatrician to get the cast removed next week. But I can come up with some excuse to go by the hospital, give Henry a message for you."

  "I'm not sure you should do that. Nick said they're probably going to be watching my family, and I know Henry would come running over here as soon as he knew." She finished her sandwich, and took another apple out of the bowl.

  "Maybe I can tell him I heard from you, and that you asked me to give him a message. That would at least alleviate his mind."

  "I'll think about it. I may just wait to see if Nick is able to take care of things on his end." Carol stared at Aria for a long time. Finally, Aria held her hand up.

  "I know, Carol. I'm not stupid. He's probably not coming back to get me. But he'll get a message to me somehow, however things work out. Until then, I'll probably just hide here and wait. If you give Henry a message, he'll call my folks, and I've learned this week that no conversation is necessarily sacred. I don't want to put you or Lisa in jeopardy."

  "What makes you think he won't be back?" Carol asked. She cut the sandwich she'd made in two, added a few potato chips to the plate, then started slicing an apple.

  "His line of work doesn't exactly call for a wife and kids, and he won't want to make me one of the women at a port, waiting for her sailor to come passing through. I could tell last night that he was telling me good bye."

  "I'm really sorry, Aria," Carol said, reaching out to grip Aria's hand.

  "So am I. But right now, I have to think about working on finding out who was in on this with Peter. This isn't the time to fall into a heartsick depression. I'd prefer to do that when this is all over and done with." She squeezed Carol's hand and pushed her chair back from the table, carrying her plate to the sink.

  Lisa came running back into the room and sat in her chair, where her mother set her lunch in front of her. "My birthday is next week and my grandma Kent is having a big gigantic party for me at her farm. Are you going to be here so that you can come to my party?" she asked Aria in between mouthfuls of food.

/>   "I should hope so," Aria said. "How old will you be?"

  "Six. Grandpa Mabry said that six is the magic age, where little girls can make their dreams come true." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I don't believe him, of course, but mama says that he's taken to flights of fancy." She waved an apple slice in the air. "That means he has a huge imagination."

  Aria sat back at the table. "He told me the same thing when I turned sixteen."

  Lisa's eyes widened. "You know my grandpa Mabry? Did you know he was a drill something in the army?"

  "Yep. That's when I knew him. I saw him in his uniform and everything."

  Carol laughed at Lisa's awed expression and started to unpack the groceries. "You just struck pay dirt, Aria." She kissed Lisa on the top of the head. "Grandpa Mabry walks on water around here."

  "I remember that he walked on water at your house, too," Aria teased.

  "Not any more than your father did," Carol teased right back.

  They started talking about their high school days. They riddled Lisa with stories for hours, and as the sun set and the night grew, Carol and Aria found what they had lost so many years before. When Aria lay in bed that night, half of her heart rejoiced in the rekindled friendship, and the other half of her heart wept for the lost love.

  ¯¯¯¯

  Chapter 28

  THE drive took Nick twelve hours, but it would help cover the tracks to Aria all the more, so it was of small consequence. If he flew out of Jacksonville, they'd think she was somewhere in Florida or Georgia.

  The airport was busy and crowded with people coming and going on this Sunday morning, but he wove his way through the throng without a problem. When Nick was undisguised and in this kind of mood, people tended to subconsciously clear a path for him, which suited him just fine right now.

  Nick found a locker and put one of his bags inside, transferring what he needed to the other bag. Carrying just one bag, he found a newsstand that offered overnight mail service. He purchased two overnight express envelopes and a notepad then went to a bank of pay phones where he called information to get the addresses he needed.

  He addressed two envelopes, wrote quick notes, stuffed them and sealed them. Then he handed the envelopes back to the clerk at the newsstand. One envelope contained the location of Raymond's car so that he could find it. The other contained the key to the locker containing all of the evidence clearing Aria that he had gathered to date. He addressed it to Henry Suarez's medical practice along with a brief letter of explanation.

  He was curious as to whether his company card still worked, and was almost surprised when authorization to purchase a first class ticket came through. Apparently, he still had a job. By now, NISA had been made aware that he was in the airport, they knew his flight, seat reservation, in-flight meal, and they knew what time he would arrive. If things went in the normal pattern, there would be at least two agents waiting for him at the airport in D. C. to escort him to Charlie, which was all the better to Nick. It saved him the hassle of paying cab fare.

  He boarded late, not wanting to sit idle while other passengers came on after him, and once he was seated, he declined a beverage. The flight attendant in charge of the first class passengers seemed to sense that Nick wanted to be left alone, and didn't approach him after that.

  Nick knew that he would have escorts once he arrived. Other than that, he didn't know what was waiting for him at the other end. Once the aircraft cleared the airport below he used the phone in the back of the seat in front of him and a credit card he had secured under Harvey Castle's name to dial a number that had been given to him just two weeks earlier.

  The person on the other end picked up the call on the first ring and Nick fought the doubt about her integrity. "It's Nick," he said.

  There was a long pause, and he worried she would hang up on him before he was given the chance to explain anything. "I'm listening," she finally answered.

  "I need to know if you believe in me," he said. He wasn't being fair, and he knew it. It would take a blind man not to see what Jennifer Thorne's feelings were for him. Perhaps if Sergeant Major Suarez had been stationed somewhere other than Fort Benning, Georgia, fifteen years ago, Nick might have found a spot in his heart that reciprocated her feelings.

  He never had.

  Though Nick wished for years that there was some way it could work out between them, he always reached the same inevitable conclusion. There wasn't room in his heart for anyone other than Aria. That didn't change the fact that he liked and trusted Jennifer Thorne and deeply respected her. It also didn't change the fact that he really needed a friend on the inside right now.

  "You know I do, Nick. You're in a lot of trouble right now." Her voice held none of its usual warmth, and hinted a bit at caution.

  "I'm on my way in. If something happens, I need you to do a couple of things for me," he said, then began to lay out a shortened version of the story, and what he needed done.

  "I'll take care of it," she said when he had finished. She asked no questions and he felt a little touched by her trust.

  "It's a big risk I'm asking you to take," he said.

  "You've taken a few risks for me in the past," she returned. "Watch your back, Nick."

  He hung up and leaned back in the seat, closing his eyes. He needed to prepare himself for the upcoming ordeal.

  ¯¯¯¯

  KATE stood next to the Mercedes in the Atlanta airport. She dialed the number, entered the long digits at the prompt, and waited.

  Less than twenty seconds later, the hold music abruptly stopped. "This is Krait," Charlie Zimmerman answered.

  "This is Hecate. I'm checking in to let you know that I've hit a cold trail. I need to go back to Columbus and question the dad."

  "No need. Nighthawk's boarded a flight to D. C. from Jacksonville. No word on the girl. Get up here, but try to get the manifest of his flight as well."

  Kate squinted up at the hot Georgia sun. She tried to pretend that she didn't feel like she'd just lost a week of her life and her partner for no reason. "Yes, sir."

  ¯¯¯¯

  NICK showed no outward reaction when he saw just who waited there to escort him to headquarters. He refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing anything other than mild boredom. He wanted to scream and punch and ask if Charlie had sent them on purpose. Instead he raised an eyebrow at Jerry Simmons' pleased expression and Nancy Warren's curled lip as he stepped away from the gate.

  "Well, well," Nancy said, "if it isn't Charlie's little golden boy."

  "Hello, Nancy. Strip in any clubs lately?" He had told Aria the truth. He'd never slept with Nancy Warren, and she'd never forgiven him for it. They'd been undercover in Bangkok together, looking for a Senator's teenage daughter who had been abducted. They'd been there together for five straight weeks, and Nancy had tried everything she could to get Nick to lose his religion, as she called it, even going so far as to tell him how much she liked stripping when he was there watching. That resulted in having the opposite of the intended effect and Nick had never been able to look at her since without feeling his skin crawl. She had reminded him too much of some of the women in his father's family.

  "A bit tardy, Nick?" Simmons quipped.

  Nick shrugged and his eyes narrowed. "I don't feel tardy."

  "You need to surrender your weapon to us, Williams," Simmons said with a smile. "We're supposed to place you under arrest."

  "You're welcome to try," Nick said quietly.

  "Come on, Williams. Don't make this any harder than it has to be," Simmons said.

  "I'll ride with you as my little baby-sitters, but I won't surrender to you and I certainly won't surrender my weapon to either one of you. I will surrender only to Zimmerman. Just to be clear, I don't think I'll let either of you arrest me today. Charlie can arrest me if he still wants to after he hears me out."

  Simmons and Nancy stared at Nick for several seconds, then Simmons finally consented. "Come with us peacefully. We're parked in the front."r />
  ¯¯¯¯

  THEY were silent during the drive to the Treasury Building. Nick sat perfectly still in the back-seat during the drive, hoping that Jen came through. He felt an impending sense of doom, and fought every instinct in his body to get out of the car and meet with Charlie on neutral ground.

  They pulled into the parking garage and Nick walked between them to the elevator. Still no one spoke during the brief ride down, and Nick stepped out of the elevator in front of them. He nodded to the guards in the mantrap. Their faces remained impassive and they insisted that he place his hand on the security plate.

  After he received clearance, he stepped through the threshold into the outer office. He didn't recognize the agent at the desk, but he handed Nick an orange badge without asking for his name or ID. Simmons and Nancy were given their ID badges and keys, and Nancy led the way through the door, followed by Nick, then Simmons.

  The door led to another small foyer with an elevator, and the three stepped in. The offices of NISA were actually one more floor down, and when the elevator doors opened to a hallway that had several offices off of it, Nancy stepped out first. Nick followed her and they moved down the corridor toward Charlie's office. As she put her hand on Charlie's door handle, Nick felt a movement behind him, but didn't turn around in time as a searing pain swept through his head and he lost consciousness.

  ¯¯¯¯

  NICK didn't know how long he'd been in there, but he recognized the room. He'd used it himself the few times in the past when he'd had to bring someone in for interrogation, which NISA euphemistically referred to as vigorous interviewing. It was a plain room, with a table and two chairs, and only one door leading out. There wasn't a two-way mirror to give the obvious clue that someone was watching an interview, but Nick knew that there were several fiber-optic cameras and microphones scattered around the room, hidden in the walls, ceiling, and light fixtures.