Killer Assignment

by Black, Maggie K.

  So why wasn’t he moving? Thunder rumbled in the distance. The smell of impending rain lingered in the air. Katie’s face filled his mind. He remembered the courage and strength that had flashed in her dark brown eyes. The aching beauty of her smile, as she’d battled the tremble of fear in her lower lip. Not that she’d probably like him thinking about her as either beautiful or vulnerable. She’d practically shaken off the attack like she was even more afraid of showing weakness.

  Now she was on the other side of a closed door, and it was taking all his self-control not to just walk back into the station and see if there was something he could do. He sent some hurried prayers for patience up toward the heavens. But the answer seemed in no hurry to arrive.

  “Sometimes, all God calls you to do, is wait....” The voice of his buddy Zack flickered in the back of his mind. Part of an elite peacekeeping squadron, Zack often said the greatest strength came from self-control. It was still two days before they were supposed to meet up at the campsite, but he dialed his number anyway and left a quick message, asking him to pray for Katie. There, now he wasn’t praying alone.

  He looked back up at the sky, and a thought simmered in the back of his mind. Should he have asked Zack to pray for him, too? After all, tomorrow he was walking into a meeting with the one man he’d sworn he’d never speak to again—his father. No, the less said about that the better. Some battles were just easier faced alone.

  He checked his watch. While he was at it, he might as well put a call in to Nick, his second in command at TRUST. Although, hopefully Nick had left work by now. It was hardly a secret Nick’s fiancée, Jenny, was getting tired of finding him hunched beside Mark at the workbench long into the night.

  Nick answered on the first ring. “Good to see you’re still alive.”

  “Sorry. I decided to stop by the lake to run a quick broadcast test with the radio unit prototype—” and to ask God to give him the strength he’d need to face his dad tomorrow “—and I interrupted a crime in process.”

  Nick sucked in a breath. “Everyone okay?”

  “Yeah. A couple of guys tried to abduct a woman as she got off the train. She’s all right now. Just a bit shaken up.”

  “Thank God. When I see Jenny, we’ll be sure to send up a prayer.”

  Guess that answered the question of whether he was still working. “You about ready to pack up for the night?”

  “Pretty much. Jenny’s on her way over. We’re meeting with our pastor tonight to talk about something wedding related. I don’t know what. But Jenny sounded pretty serious.”

  Mark ran his hand over the back of his neck. “Everything okay there?”

  “I hope so.” Nick chuckled nervously. “The bigger problem is we got a call from the Chipe Orphanage in Zimbabwe today. Their electricity is on the fritz due to flooding, and they were hoping TRUST could help improve the weather resistance of their infant incubators.”

  Mark groaned. If the electricity was already cutting out in October, there was no way the orphanage would survive when the real rainy season hit. Plus, knowing the African nation’s crumbling infrastructure, chances were they wouldn’t even get their lights on for weeks without outside help.

  He was already booked to fly to Lebanon at the end of the month, and Nick was scheduled to be in Romania in December. Donations weren’t as strong as they used to be, and the cost of airfare had skyrocketed.

  “Shall I tell them we’re grounded?” Nick offered.

  “No.” Since founding the charity three years ago, he had yet to turn down a single plea for help. He was not about to start today. “I’ve got two boxes of vinyl records back at the apartment. Rob from church has been eyeing them for months. Tell him we need the money for a trip. He’ll make a generous offer.”

  “Will do.” Relief flooded Nick’s voice. “You know, I’m still not clear on who you’re meeting tomorrow or what you’re hoping to sell him.”

  Because you don’t need to worry about it. “Just the deed to a small, useless piece of land.”

  “Huh. How are you feeling about it?”

  So anxious he was almost sick to his stomach with stress. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.” At least that’s what he was going to keep telling himself. Too many lives were counting on him for it to be any other way.

  TWO

  “Believe me, Officer,” Ethan’s voice crackled through the speakerphone. “I have absolutely no idea why one of my reporters would be in Cobalt.”

  The gray-haired officer sitting across from Katie raised his eyebrows. His shock mirrored hers.

  No, I’m not crazy, she wanted to say. My boss is just kind of incompetent. He’s probably been drinking, and now he’s forgotten. I even called him from the train. She pressed her lips together. It had taken the police almost a half hour to get in touch with him as it was.

  “You sent me up north to cover Jonah Shields’s weekend gala,” she said. “He’s a real-estate developer. Remember?”

  “In Kapuskasing,” Ethan snapped. “Not Cobalt. Come on, Katie. You should have checked in there hours ago instead of running around rural Ontario getting yourself into trouble.”

  She pressed her fingernails into the palms of her hands, not knowing whether to scream or laugh. The town of Kapuskasing was another five hours north. Even if her train hadn’t been cut short she still wouldn’t have made it there yet. Besides, what was he implying? That the terrifying ordeal she’d just gone through was somehow her fault?

  She took in a long, deep breath and let it out slowly. Focus, Katie. Just a few more weeks and you’ll have the chance to prove why you should be editor. Impact News was one of the smallest of the over three dozen publications put out by Comet Media. Ethan’s aunt had a position on the board, which was how he’d gotten the job of editor four years ago. Not to mention how he’d managed to stay there despite the fact he spent far more of his time partying in the seedier nightclubs of downtown Toronto than he ever did actually doing his job. But last January, the board had seemingly gotten tired of watching as Impact News’s sales swirl down the drain from Ethan’s reckless mismanagement, so they had given him until the end of the calendar year to pull his act together or find himself a new job. His day of reckoning was now less than three months away. When it arrived, Katie was going to be ready to go before the board with a proposal of her own.

  “—I expect you to rectify this situation immediately,” Ethan said. “Either you find a way to get to where you’re supposed to be and cover this story as you’ve been assigned or you can consider yourself fired.”

  Of course, her carefully crafted plan relied on not getting fired between now and then. Which meant keeping Ethan happy, whether she liked it or not.

  The older of the two officers—Sakes—was looking down at his notepad impassively. But the younger female officer—Parks—rolled her eyes up to the ceiling.

  “Mr. Randall—” Officer Sakes cut him off “—the fact remains that someone attempted to kidnap Ms. Todd, and I can assure you that is something we are taking quite seriously—”

  “And I’m telling you that my publication has nothing to do with it.”

  “No one is saying—”

  “Random crimes happen all the time in small towns, I’m sure. Especially ones where the police presence is lacking.”

  Officer Sakes let out a long breath. Katie was used to Ethan’s shouting. It was just a given that no matter what went wrong, his usual plan of attack was to defend himself loudly while others sorted it out. But here, in the safety of a police station, she was beginning to realize how irrational and out of control he must sound.

  “Ethan.” Her tone was gentle but firm. “It wasn’t random. They knew my name.”

  There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Then he swore. “Well, you’re the journalist. I’m sure you can figure out a doz
en ways some random thug could’ve seen your bank card or driver’s license.”

  “Mr. Randall,” Officer Sakes said, “is there anything else you can tell me about this assignment? Anything else that might be—” he grimaced “—helpful?”

  Another pause.

  “Impact News launched a new website not that long ago,” Ethan said finally. “I believe our intern Chad posted something about Katie heading up to cover the Shields party...”

  Of course. She should have thought of this before. Jonah Shields had made a lot of enemies. The real-estate developer had been a vulture when it came to preying on people who’d fallen on hard times. Just before Ethan had taken over as editor, she’d covered a failed attempt by the Langtry Glen Residents Association to stop Shields Corp from leveling an entire city block. The inner-city community had consisted of six low-income apartment buildings, a handful of family-run businesses and a drug rehabilitation drop-in program. Shields Corp had demolished it all to build luxury condos.

  There was no end to the list of people who hated the Shields family. This weekend offered an unprecedented look inside their inner sanctum. What if someone had been after her press credentials to sneak into the event undetected and take their fight to Shields’s home turf? The media was sure to have reported that the train wasn’t running past Cobalt. What if it was just a crime of opportunity? They’d been looking for a reporter, and she happened to be alone?

  “Thank you for your time, Mr. Randall,” Officer Sakes said. “Someone will be in touch if we need anything else from you. Have a good night.”

  “Oh, no problem.” Ethan seemed pleasant now. “And Katie, I’d like to see a story in by first thing tomorrow morning about how it felt to have your life threatened by evil scumbags. Never hurts to maximize every chance we get to drum up a few more readers—”

  Officer Sakes didn’t even bother trying to hide the look of disgust on his face. “Goodbye, Mr. Randall.” Then he hung up the call.

  Parks sighed loudly. She stood and gestured for Katie to join her in the hallway. “I’m going to go check in with the officers doing a sweep of Cobalt station to see if they’ve recovered your belongings. Shall I see about arranging overnight accommodations?”

  Katie hadn’t even thought that far yet. But of course she’d need a place to stay, and then tomorrow she’d somehow need to find a way to get to Kapuskasing. The damage on the tracks had been so extensive that trains weren’t expected to start running again until Monday. This whole situation was out of control, not to mention grossly unfair. A hot flush of sudden tears rushed to her eyes. She blinked hard, forcing them to wait. “Thank you. Actually, just a phone book would be great. I’m sure I’ll be able to find something.”

  “There’s a courtesy phone in the waiting area. Feel free to take your time if there’s anyone you want to call.”

  Right. “Is there somewhere I can freshen up?”

  Parks nodded. “There’s a ladies’ room down the end of the hall.”

  It was all Katie could do to keep from bolting. But instead, she walked calmly, shoved through the door and then stood at the counter, gripping it hard with both hands. She forced deep breaths into her lungs. She was not going to let herself fall apart.

  The water from the faucet was blissfully cold. She splashed it over her face. Then she ran wet hands through her hair and tied it back into a knot at the nape of her neck. She couldn’t call her mother or her sister. They lived on the other side of the country. Besides, her stepfather and brother-in-law were the kind of harsh, controlling men she’d never consider being in debt to, even if they did feel inclined to let their browbeaten wives help her. Yes, she had a few friends at work but no one she’d ask to drive through the night to pick her up. As for church...

  She swallowed hard. When she’d first moved to the city for work six years ago, she’d started attending a wonderful, welcoming church on the Danforth. Tucked away in a cozy neighborhood, it was full of young professionals and new families. She’d even started attending a Bible study.

  But when Ethan had taken over as boss at Impact News, four years ago, everything had changed. Long hours and stressful assignments had left her so tired it was tempting to just let herself sleep in on Sundays. When she first admitted to her church friends that—in exchange for a few more hours of unpaid overtime a week—she’d devised a plan to land herself the editorship, she’d been met with blank stares and the suggestion she rely instead on God to lead her into a new job.

  Well, she’d tried that. For the entire first year she’d worked under Ethan, she’d prayed hard, sent out résumés and waited for God to show her a way out. But as the months dragged on without so much as an interview in sight, it became clear that simply waiting for rescue wasn’t going to cut it.

  The job market for journalists was shrinking, and too many papers were closing. She loved what she did too much to just give in and go back to waiting tables, like she’d done to pay her way through school. The only way to get ahead was to fight for her career. Fight for herself. Maybe God was still answering other people’s prayers, but when it came to her own future, it sure felt like she was on her own.

  “Ms. Todd?” Officer Sakes knocked on the door. “There’s someone here to see you.”

  She pushed the door open, an unexpected warmth spreading out from her chest and down through her limbs as she saw Mark’s tall, reassuring form. She’d never expected him to actually stay.

  “How are you doing?” he asked. For a moment, the concern in his eyes almost made her want to cry again.

  But when she spoke, her voice sounded stronger than she’d expected. “I’m okay. A little shaken up, obviously. But good.”

  He nodded like he understood more than she was actually saying. “I hope you don’t mind, but there’s someone here I’d like you to meet.”

  He stepped back. It was only then she saw the elderly black woman standing behind him. Long white braids cascaded down her generous frame. Laugh lines ringed her eyes.

  “Katie, meet Celia. She runs a really wonderful and private guesthouse here in town. I’ve already taken the liberty of telling her about your situation, and she has a spare room tonight if you need a place to stay.”

  Conflicting feelings washed over Katie simultaneously, and all she could do was pinch her lips together and nod. Yes, she was grateful that Mark had gone to the trouble of finding her a place to stay. More grateful than she had words to say. But she was also unexpectedly resentful. She didn’t need this strange man jumping to her rescue and offering to make arrangements on her behalf.

  If watching her mother scrape and serve her self-centered father for years—only to welcome an even worse stepfather into their lives after his death—had taught her anything, it was that being dependent on the wrong man was far worse than going it alone. When Katie was sixteen, her older sister had given up a promising art career to marry a man just like them. That had been the final straw. That would not be her. She moved out two years later. Paid her own way through school. Bought her first car. Leased her first apartment. Worked hard to earn every byline in her portfolio. She’d made it this far on her own. So who was Mark to come along now and treat her like a lost little lamb?

  “Ms. Todd?” Officer Parks walked down the hallway toward them. “I’m afraid I have some bad news. It looks like whoever tried to kidnap you took all your belongings with them. Is there anything in your bag that would lead them to the location that you’re heading to next? The last thing we’d want is for them to get there first and lie in wait for you.”

  THREE

  The words hit her like a blow to the chest. In that terrifying moment when Al had thrown open the back of his van and she’d seen the roll of duct tape lying on the floor, her only impulse had been to escape. But now, thanks to hurling her suitcase at Billy, she’d lost everything—including her laptop and camera. Not to menti
on the keys to her apartment. All she had left were her wallet, the clothes on her back and a cell phone that still couldn’t get a signal.

  Now she had potential stalkers to worry about?

  “There was a printout of my hotel reservation in my bag,” Katie said. “I guess I’m going to have to change where I’m staying now.”

  “That would be wise,” Officer Parks said. “Was your home address on anything?”

  She nodded. “I grabbed my mail on my way out, including some bills. But why would that matter? Is there any reason to think they’d come after me again?”

  Parks pressed her lips together. “It is likely the men behind it have moved on to find another target. But still, we like to advise people to be cautious. We’ll warn Toronto police to keep an eye on your apartment in case anyone shows up there and tries to get in with your keys. You’ll want to change your locks. Of course, your suitcase may still turn up. We do still have people searching the area.”

  “I’d like to go back there and take a look myself, actually,” Katie said. “There may be something I’ll remember that could be helpful.” She noticed Mark looked away as she said it. Did he not approve? Not that it mattered. She was hugely grateful he’d been there when she’d needed help. But now she was going to be just fine on her own.

  “Was there a return train ticket in your bag?” the officer asked.

  Katie nodded. “For Sunday.”

  “We suggest you change your travel plans. If someone is still after you, it’s best to be as unpredictable as possible and break from any usual or expected patterns.”

  Be unpredictable? For a second, Katie was almost tempted to laugh. Everything that had happened since she’d stepped off the train had felt so far out of her control that she was lucky she hadn’t collapsed on the floor in a puddle of tears. She blinked hard.

  No, she was not going to cry. She could manage this. She was going to manage this.

  Celia stepped forward and pulled Katie into a warm, protective hug. For a moment, Katie was so surprised by the gesture that she just stood there, letting the older woman’s long braids fall around her shoulders like a cape. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had hugged her like that—generously, spontaneously, asking nothing in return. Celia stepped back. “Don’t you worry. The good Lord must’ve known you were coming to my house tonight, because I just collected a round of things for the clothing bank this afternoon. I’m sure there’ll be plenty there that fits you.”