“I understand why you like this place so much,” he said. He set the bag from the gas station on the kitchen table.
“I love it. Not just because it’s a comfortable home, but because of the memories I have here. Good memories.” She ran a hand across the countertop. “Needs dusting.” She wiped her palm on her jeans and frowned.
Ian eyed her. “What is it?”
“Just wondering if anyone will put two and two together and come looking for us here.”
“Who would put it together?”
She gave a low laugh. “My team at Operation Refuge, for one. The FBI, the counterterrorism unit that’s probably investigating, SLED.” She shrugged. “You name it.”
“Is the place in your name?”
“No. My aunt’s.” She tilted her head. “And it’s in her maiden name, so maybe we’ll be all right for at least a night here.” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Or a few hours anyway. Night has come and is almost gone.”
He dropped into a chair at the table.
“I have a question,” Jackie said as she poured the coffee and set a mug in front of him.
“Just one?”
She grimaced and slid into a chair. “Touché. How about one for now?”
“Sure.”
She took a sip of her coffee, then studied him for a moment. “Why do you have a very highly trained service dog?”
He blinked. “That wasn’t the question I thought you were going to ask.” He glanced toward the door, then back at her. “He was Gina’s.”
“Oh.” Enough said. His sister Gina had stepped on an IED while serving in Afghanistan and had lost most of her left leg and part of her right. She’d been in a wheelchair for the last three years of her life and had died a little over six months ago of kidney failure. Jackie had seen the announcement in the paper.
“I wanted to come to her funeral.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I was working an assignment and couldn’t get away at the last minute. I would have if I could have.”
“I understand.”
“So you took in Gus.”
“Yeah. He and I have always gotten along.” He sipped his coffee and cleared his throat. “He listens well and doesn’t tell anyone my secrets.”
“You have secrets?”
“Don’t we all?” he murmured.
She met his gaze and for a brief moment was transported back into the past, to those lazy summer days when she and Ian were the best of friends, escaping the stress of their troubled home lives. Spending time with him and his cousin Holly. She blinked. “Yes, I suppose we do. What are yours?”
He gave her a slow smile. “Maybe I’ll tell you one day.”
“So if you’re not going to share your deepest secrets, tell me what all this is about,” Jackie said. “Who wants to kill you and why do they feel it’s necessary to accuse me of being an accessory?”
Ian took another sip of his coffee and grimaced. “It started with an email meant for another person.” He rubbed his chin. “I think.”
“You think?”
He ran his hands through his short-cropped reddish-blond hair and took a deep breath. Jackie nursed her coffee while she kept one eye on him and one on the parking area. She wanted to hear his story, but she didn’t need any surprises.
“As you know from my Facebook page, I’m in research and development. I’m also a professor at the University of South Carolina Upstate. To put it simply, I spend my days playing with germs and other yucky stuff.”
“Right.”
“There are two Ians with Wainwright Research and Development. Ian Peterson, who’s the grandson of the founder of the company, and me. I was in the lab the day before yesterday and got an email. It was password protected.” He flushed but continued. “I closed it out without reading it, then opened it back up. I was tired, I’d been up all night working on what I thought was a breakthrough on a vaccine for malaria.”
“Malaria?”
“It’s a huge third-world problem. A vaccine would do wonders.”
“I thought there was already a vaccine.”
“No, there’s medication you can take that may or may not help if you go into a high-risk country, but there’s no vaccine. But that’s beside the point. As I was saying, I was exhausted. I needed a break. So,” he gave a self-deprecating shrug, “I hacked into the email and read it.”
“What did it say?”
He dug into his pocket and handed her a sheet of paper.
She read:
NYonSTBY.
d,s;;[pcfr;obrtrf.
H4W9
aasjl;;
/fg’g[.jl]]u
Cnt:T8R sas1sjg2hjha3
She looked up. “It’s gobbledy gook. Or code. You know what it means?”
“No idea. I think the first line may mean ‘New York on standby,’ but the rest of it I don’t have a clue.”
“New York.” She shook her head. “And you’ve been accused of conspiring with enemies of the United States.”
He rubbed his chin. “I think I’m still just a person of interest. But they’re leaning that way. They’ve all but said I’m a bioterrorist. It’s just a matter of time before it’s an all-out accusation, and if they catch me, they arrest me.” He shook his head. “I can’t figure it out. I’ve wracked my brain trying to decide if I stumbled across something in the lab, saw someone do something and didn’t realize it. Trust me, the loop is endless. The only thing that I can come up with that makes any sense is the hacked email.”
She nodded. “As soon as you entered the password, it would have notified the sender if he put a read receipt on it.”
“I’m sure he did. And when he saw the name, he would have realized his mistake. Unfortunately, he decided it was worth killing me over.”
“Who knows you saw this email?”
“A co-worker. Daniel Armstrong. He came in while I was reading it. I told him what happened and read it to him. He just shrugged and said it was weird, then asked if I was ready to get back to work. I almost closed the screen without another thought, then paused and hit Print.” He gave her a sheepish smile. “You know how I am about riddles and puzzles.”
She did know. He couldn’t resist them. “And then what?”
“I left late afternoon because I had to pick up my dry-cleaning.” He looked around the room. “But they must have been watching because someone tried to kill me in the parking lot by running me over. I managed to get out of the way, though. When they came back for a second try, I ran. I guess they’re not happy they failed.”
“You think?” She couldn’t help the sarcasm.
He stared at the email. “I need to figure out what this means. This is the ticket. There’s something that I saw in this that has people scared to death.”
Jackie grabbed the remote from the mantel and clicked the power button for the large screen television mounted on the wall above the fireplace. She turned it to Fox News. “We’re still the top story,” she muttered. She turned the volume down low and joined Ian at the table.
Jackie felt a sudden wave of exhaustion sweep over her. Her adrenaline had been pumping for so long, now that she was still and feeling relatively safe for the moment, she was ready to crash. But she needed some answers before that could happen. The clock pushed close to five in the morning. Jackie stood and went back to the coffeepot. While she poured another cup, she thought out loud. “That email. It didn’t have a header or a footer. No names.”
“No. The printer had been acting up. The service guy was supposed to come Friday afternoon and fix it. Anyway, when I printed the email, it printed on two pages. The first page had the email’s information. The second page had the body. I threw the first page in the trash and just kept what I thought was a puzzle to be solved in my spare time.” He pursed his lips in disgust.
“Do you remember who the email came from? Were there any other names on there?”
He nodded. “It came from my boss. Any other names were blind
copied.”
“So we know he’s involved in whatever is going on. What’s his name?”
“Cedric Wainwright, CEO of Wainwright Labs.”
“How well do you know him?”
“Obviously not as well as I thought I did.” He shrugged. “I never had much contact with him except when he gave a company speech or made the rounds at Christmastime. His main office is in New York, but around the holidays, he visits each branch to meet with employees on an individual basis. I thought he was a pretty decent guy.”
“Until now.”
“Until now.”
The television caught her eye. She stood and walked closer to it. “Look.” She picked up the remote and upped the volume.
A dark-headed female reporter spoke solemnly into the microphone. “Here in Atlanta, state police and the FBI are working together to figure out who would have cause to kill this family. Anwar and Meredith Goff were found murdered this morning. Executed with a single shot to the back of the head. Their two children, ages sixteen and nineteen, were also killed in the same manner. It’s suspected that they were killed sometime either late Friday night or early Saturday morning. Anwar worked for the CDC here in Atlanta. Stay tuned for more information as we follow this developing story.”
Ian swallowed. “That’s awful. Who are they?”
“No idea. You’re right it’s awful, but that’s not what caught my interest. Look at the scrolling tape. It’s getting ready to come back around, but you know your co-worker? Daniel Armstrong?”
“Yes,” he said, his eyes wary like he didn’t want to hear why she was asking him about his friend.
“He’s dead.”
7
Ian gaped. “What?”
“He was found in his home earlier tonight.” She glanced at the clock. “I mean yesterday evening. He was murdered and they just announced that you’re a person of interest in that too.”
Ian sank onto the love seat. The lack of color in his face worried her. “It’s definitely the email then,” he said.
“Looks like it.”
“But how did they know he saw it?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he asked someone about it. Or someone overheard you talking about it.”
“So first they try to kill me. When they fail, they set me up as a terrorist, and now I’m going to be the fall guy for Daniel’s murder too.” She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but he paled even more. “Holly,” he whispered.
“Holly?”
“Holly, my cousin. She used to visit during the holidays and summers, remember?”
“Of course I remember. She was one of my best friends. Still is. What about her?” Tension corded the muscles along the base of her neck.
“You asked me who else knew about the email. She does. I faxed her a copy.” He swallowed. “She’s as crazy as I am about puzzles.”
Jackie bit her lip. Holly. Ian’s sweet cousin who’d been like a sister to Jackie before she’d moved away. “Do they know you sent it to her?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I have no idea what they know, but I faxed it from my office, so if they check the phone lines …”
“They won’t know what you faxed, but they’ll see her number on there and probably check it out.”
“Yeah.” He stood and paced to the French doors that led to the deck. “It could take them a little while, but still … We’re always faxing stuff, but if they’re determined—and it looks like they are—they’ll find her eventually. I need to call her.” She handed him the phone and he dialed the number. After a few moments, he looked up. “Voice mail.” Jackie heard the beep. “Holly, call me when you get this,” Ian said. “It’s important. And use this number, not my cell. If you’ve been watching the news, I’m sure you know why at this point.” He hung up and tried again. Punched in another number and tried again. He gave a low growl. “She’s not answering.” He paced from one end of the room to the other, then stopped. “I have one more possibility.” He dialed the number and still no answer.
Jackie was just as worried as he was. She tried to think about anyone she knew who he could call. A friend of Holly’s, someone. She came up blank. “Is there another number you could try?”
“I called her home number, her cell number, and her work number.” He shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Okay, it’s a little after five in the morning. Maybe she just has her phone on silent.” Please let it be that.
“Maybe,” he said, but the frustration on his face said that he doubted it.
“Lucy. What about Lucy?”
He shot her a funny look and Jackie lifted a brow. “Like I said, she was one of my best friends. We still keep in touch. Occasionally. She told me she’d adopted a little girl.”
Ian nodded. “Lucy’s great.”
“Do you see her often?”
“I try to. We talk on the phone a lot. She has my number on speed dial and I’m the one person she knows she can call without asking permission.” His frown deepened. “But I’m worried that Holly didn’t pick up. She usually answers when I call no matter what she’s doing, even sleeping. And if she thought I was in trouble, she’d be waiting for me to call.” A muscle in his jaw jumped and she was afraid if she touched him, he’d come apart.
“I remember the puzzle competitions you guys used to have.” She smiled at the memory and ignored all the emotions sweeping through her. The past held so much. A Pandora’s box of memories. She sighed. “The truth is, I haven’t spoken to Holly in probably two years.” Her fault, not Holly’s. “Is she still working as a cryptologist?”
He looked at her. “Yes. In New York. She’s with an encryption company there. She’s one of the best.” She could hear the pride in his voice. “She does a lot of training and teaching too.”
“So she has to travel?”
“Sometimes.”
“Maybe that’s why she’s not answering.”
He rubbed his eyes. “Maybe. It’s never stopped her before, though.”
“So she works with an encryption company?”
He nodded. “She’s the one who creates the algorithms that are used to disguise the information we enter into search engines on the internet. You know, like online banking websites or other payment sites like PayPal.” He sighed and dropped his head. “After I deleted the email, I decided to go back and forward it to her. But when I went to retrieve it from my trash folder, it was gone, I couldn’t find it.” He shrugged. “I didn’t think much about it, stuff like that happens occasionally. So I faxed it to her. I thought she’d find it intriguing. Just like I did.”
“They must have removed it from the server,” she murmured. Jackie rubbed her face and slapped her cheeks. She needed sleep. How long had she been awake anyway? “This is serious stuff, Ian. We’re going to need help. Holly and Lucy might be in serious danger.” The thought terrified her.
Ian swallowed hard and turned to stare at the television. Finally, he looked at her. “Not the cops, not yet. I may not have a choice soon, but I want to find out who’s setting me up like this and get as much evidence as I can before I have to turn myself in—or get caught. But you’re right. I need to know that Holly and Lucy are okay.”
“Then let me call my friends,” she pleaded.
He sighed and palmed his eyes before his shoulders drooped and he gave a hesitant nod. “Is there one person you trust above all else? Someone who would keep his mouth shut while helping?”
She thought for a moment, then gave a small nod. “Ron.”
“Why him?”
“Because he has a passion for helping the underdog and he’s not afraid to do whatever it takes to do so.” She shook her head. “And I’d say you’re—we’re—definitely the underdogs here.”
Ian drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes. Was he praying?
“Ian, think about Holly, think about if these people know who and where she is. There’s no telling what they’ll do.” She tried to keep the rising panic at bay. Un
suspecting Holly. Whose sunny disposition and trusting attitude meant anyone would be able to take advantage of her. Trick her. Deceive her. Kill her. And her daughter. “Ian?”
A full sixty seconds later, he looked at her and nodded. “Okay. Call him.”
A sound at the door made them both jump. Jackie reached for her weapon, but Ian waved her down. “It’s probably just Gus.”
She didn’t let herself relax until she peered out the window to see the dog sitting at the door, waiting. She opened the door and he walked inside like he owned the place. He went straight to the kitchen and sat in front of the sink.
“He’s thirsty,” Ian said and went to rummage for a bowl.
“Probably hungry too. Check the deep freeze and see if there’s some deer meat. My uncle is a hunter and keeps the place stocked, so I’m sure there’s something.”
While Ian readied the food for the dog, she took the phone they’d purchased at the gas station and dialed Ron’s number. He answered on the second ring. “Hello?”
“It’s Jackie.”
“Jackie,” Ron’s deep voice rumbled in her ear. She caught the relief in the sigh that filtered through the line. “Thank goodness. Are you okay?”
“For now.”
“Where are you?”
“At a little place in the mountains.” She didn’t want to be too specific in case someone was listening in. But Ron would know where she meant.
“The mountains, huh? Glad you made it there. Everyone’s worried about you. Care to explain why your face is on the news and why people are saying you’re associating with a terrorist? The media’s camped out at the office and the feds are questioning David and Summer and everyone else they can get their hands on.”
She winced. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t plan on that happening.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t plan on any of this happening.”
He had that right. “I don’t have time to go into the whole story right now, but we need your help.”
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