by Mary Alford
“What I don’t understand is how did he accomplish the hit?” Aaron asked because he couldn’t make it make sense in his head. As his second-in-command, Liz had a way of cutting through the clutter.
She turned in her seat. “I beg your pardon?” She’d clearly been lost in her own thoughts.
Aaron noticed the exhaustion around her eyes. The way she cradled her fractured wrist close to her body. Even though it had been two weeks since the crash, he could tell it still hurt like crazy. He had no doubt her bruised ribs were giving her grief as well, yet Liz wasn’t one to complain. She’d soldier through the pain, do what needed to be done to solve her partner’s murder.
He smiled gently and asked, “How are you holding up?” He nodded toward her wrist and watched as she swallowed visibly and then quickly dismissed the severity of her injuries.
“I’m fine, Aaron. Don’t worry about me. I want to help.”
He knew her dedication all too well, but that didn’t keep him from worrying about her. She was more than a colleague—she was his friend.
Liz was the kindest and most generous person he knew. It never ceased to amaze him that she hadn’t let her personal tragedy turn her bitter. She’d been devastated when her husband, and fellow CIA agent, had died while on mission five years ago, yet she’d kept going. Fighting the same causes Eric had battled.
“What were you saying earlier?” she prompted in an unsteady voice when he continued to watch her carefully, getting lost in her expressive eyes.
Aaron cleared his throat and focused ahead. “I was just wondering, if Sam did order the hit on Michael, how he made it happen. He’s been guarded since his capture. There have been no visitors.”
She considered it. “But if not Sam then who?” She shook her head. “This has to have something to do with the missing weapons.”
In his mind, there was little doubt. The team may have captured the Fox, but the guns he’d smuggled into the US from Afghanistan were still MIA.
“Maybe Sam’s organization is bigger than we thought. We have no idea how many people work for him.” They’d only just begun to dig into Sam’s background and so far, it was like peeling away the layers of an onion. There were more lies than truths.
Aaron pulled up to the security gate outside the compound and waved his passkey in front of it. Once they’d cleared the gate, he drove the short distance to the prison.
The moment they entered the section where Sam was held, Aaron knew something was dreadfully wrong. Sam’s cell door stood slightly ajar.
He drew his weapon and motioned to the open door. Liz saw and quickly followed his lead.
Aaron pointed to his right and she quietly began searching that section while he did the same.
On this end of the prison, there were only five cells in addition to Sam’s. Aaron eased to the open cell. Sam lay slumped on his cot staring sightless at the ceiling. One arm hanging at an odd angle. There was little doubt, he was dead.
Aaron stared at the lifeless body, trying to grasp the reality of what had happened. He couldn’t believe it. There was no indication that Sam had taken his own life. No real sign of a struggle and yet someone had murdered him. Aaron’s thoughts flew in a dozen different directions. With Sam gone, what did that mean for locating the missing weapons and bringing Michael’s killer to justice? Would they ever know the truth behind any of it?
While he tried to process the scene, Aaron couldn’t understand how someone had gotten into such a secure location in the first place. He recalled the implication from Sam’s second-in-command about someone from the Scorpion team being dirty. Had one of their own team members taken Sam’s life? Impossible. Aaron searched the rest of the empty cells, then stopped next to the ones holding members of Sam’s team who had been captured.
“What happened here tonight?” he demanded of the first prisoner, knowing full well none of the men captured would cooperate. They hadn’t said so much as a handful of words since being taken prisoner.
With nothing but glaring silence coming from the men, frustrated, Aaron went back to Sam’s cell. They needed to find out what happened here quickly because there was no way the two murders weren’t connected.
He looked up expectantly when Liz returned.
She shook her head, confirming what he knew in his heart. “Whoever did this is gone. Just like at Michael’s place. Did Sam’s men give you anything?”
“They’re not talking.” Aaron felt for a pulse, not expecting one. “I’d say he’s been dead several hours. Rigor has just begun to set in.”
There were no signs of an injury. Aaron rolled Sam’s sleeve up. “There’s a needle mark on his arm. He was obviously injected with something deadly,” he confirmed while still reeling from the impossible.
“Both Sam and Michael had to be killed within hours of each other,” Liz pointed out.
Aaron’s gaze locked with hers. “That’s right. There are video cameras in each of the cells. Whoever killed Sam has to be on the tape,” he told her.
They hurried to the command center and Aaron brought up the video for Sam’s cell. The timestamp appeared to be a few hours earlier. The person who entered the prison was heavily disguised. Dressed entirely in black and wearing a heavy jacket and gloves, their face was almost completely covered with a ski mask with the exception of their eyes. He zoomed in closer, but the feed became grainy.
Aaron pulled up the entry log on the computer. It showed every single entry into the compound as well as which secure passkey was used. What he saw there was most alarming.
The passkey used to enter both the compound and the prison before Sam’s death was Liz’s. He stared at her in disbelief, unable to digest what was in plain sight.
Each key had a sensor device in it so that when used, that particular Scorpion member was identified as the user. It couldn’t be faked. There was no mistaking it was Liz’s key. The only question: How?
Her clear emerald-green eyes filled with worry as she shook her head. “No, that’s not possible.” He’d never seen her look so frightened before. He resisted the urge to take her in his arms and reassure her everything was going to be okay. Since his former girlfriend Beth’s betrayal, he hadn’t been able to let himself get too close to another woman. He’d loved Beth so much and yet she’d used him, and in the process she’d destroyed his ability to trust his heart to another. Instead, he kept himself buried in work.
Liz tossed her raven braid off her shoulder. She appeared so vulnerable right now, and yet her fragile beauty was deceiving. As a highly decorated agent, he couldn’t think of anyone else he’d want to have his back.
“It wasn’t me, Aaron,” she said in a shaky voice. “I promise I didn’t do this.”
But if not her, then who? Someone had used her passkey to enter the prison and kill Sam. As much as he wanted to believe her, there was no denying the evidence certainly made her look guilty.
* * *
“I don’t think you killed Sam,” he reassured her because he knew Liz. They’d become close while working together and he’d witnessed time and again that her faith in God was as unshakable as her valor. She didn’t kill Sam or Michael, but clearly someone was trying to make them believe she had.
“When was the last time you used your passkey?” he asked, hoping there was some innocent explanation. Maybe she’d lost it. Had it stolen?
She didn’t hesitate. “This morning when I left the compound with Michael.”
“Where is it now?” he prompted.
“In my purse. Aaron?”
“Go get it,” he interrupted and watched as she flinched at the hard edge in his tone.
She stared at him for a second then hurried away and he regretted the way his words had sounded.
When she came back with her purse, he saw the truth on her face even before she said the words.
“It’s not there,” she said and shook her head. “I have no idea where it is.”
Aaron tried to squash the dread growing inside of him. “I need you to account for your time today, Liz,” he told her and hated that the request sounded like an interrogation.
She never broke eye contact. “After we left here, I took Michael home and made lunch. I hung out with him for a while and then I left him to rest.”
“What time was that? Where did you go afterward?” he asked because they needed to create a timeline before he could her to rule her out as a suspect.
“I left around two. Then I ran some errands and went for a long walk.”
All things that couldn’t be accounted for unless she’d purchased something along the way.
“What type of errands?” he pushed and couldn’t keep the urgency from his tone.
“Aaron, you’re scaring me,” she breathed the words out.
His heart went out to her but he needed answers now. “I know and I’m sorry.” He shook his head. “Answer the question, Liz.”
She struggled to bring her thoughts together. “As I said, I left Michael’s house around two because he insisted. I didn’t want to leave him, but he told me he was tired and wanted to rest. He promised me he’d be okay. He told me he’d call me when he woke up.”
“What did you do first after you left Michael?” he prompted and he watched as she swallowed visibly.
“I went for a drive to clear my head then I stopped by the library in town. After that, I got coffee. Hung out a while, and then drove to the trailhead at the base of Painted Rock Mountain. The view there is beautiful and I go there to think. I was there until late. Then...” She hesitated long enough to capture his full attention. “Then when I didn’t hear from Michael, I went to his house. And you know the rest.”
None of her earlier moves could be documented fully, which meant she could have had time to murder Sam and then Michael. It didn’t look good and he needed to conduct the investigation by the book. He’d have the library and the coffee shop checked. Maybe someone would remember her being there.
“Liz, I need you to go home. Now. You know you can’t be part of this.”
There was no mistaking the hurt written on her face. “Aaron...”
“Like it or not, you’re a suspect because of the passkey and you were the last person to see Michael alive,” he said gently. “Take my SUV. Go home and don’t talk to anyone until you hear from me.” He dug in his pocket and handed her the keys and then walked outside with her.
It was hard to associate the lost expression on her face with the competent agent he knew Liz to be.
“Aaron, you believe me, don’t you?” she asked with a hint of desperation in her tone.
He stopped next to the SUV, squeezed her shoulder and tried his best to assure her. “Of course I do. We’ll get to the bottom of this. There has to be another explanation we’re missing. I’m calling the team in and I’ll have Reyna get here as soon as she’s finished at Michael’s. In the meantime, go home. I’ll call you the minute I know anything.”
Aaron waited as she reluctantly left the prison. Then he went back inside and called Alex Booth.
“Reyna just left. We’re wrapping up here. I called in the local police department as you asked. They’re canvassing the area now,” Alex said, assuming the reason for Aaron’s call.
“Let Gavin finish there. We have a much bigger problem,” Aaron said, his tone brittle. He stared down at the lifeless body of the man who had caused so much pain. “Sam’s dead.” He briefly explained the crime scene.
Stunned, Alex audibly sucked in a breath. “I’m on my way.”
“Good. I’ll see you soon.” Aaron disconnected the call. He knew how bad this looked for Liz, but what he couldn’t understand was why she of all people was being targeted.
Agent Alex Booth arrived within minutes of the call. “Reyna’s right behind me.”
Reyna Bradford was the wife of the base commander, Jase Bradford. As a doctor, Reyna had willingly agreed to head up the medical team for the Scorpions. Reyna was highly skilled and had proven to be a huge asset.
“How did someone get into this secured prison in the first place?” Alex asked in disbelief. When Aaron didn’t answer right away, he prompted, “There’s more.”
“Yes,” Aaron said. “It appears someone used Liz’s passkey. I’ve been unable to determine their identity, as the person was covered from head to toe. Whoever did this had a working knowledge of our security system. They must have hacked their way into it.”
“Unbelievable. Where is Liz?” Alex asked without thinking.
“I sent her home. She can’t be part of the investigation.”
Alex shook his head. “I can’t see Liz mixed up in this.”
Aaron certainly didn’t either. “No, but we can’t afford to dismiss the evidence in front of us. We need to do this by the book, Alex. Call in the crime scene unit. We need something else to go on other than Liz’s passkey. Without Sam’s help, we may never know where the missing weapons disappeared to or what the plan was for them. An attack could be imminent.”
When Reyna arrived she went straight in to examine the body. It didn’t take her long to come to the same conclusion as Aaron. “I have to agree with you, this was obviously something fast acting. The murderer would want to ensure Sam was dead before he left and he couldn’t stick around long. I’ll know more once I have the body at the lab, but I’m guessing he was killed before Michael.”
The killer had somehow gotten Liz’s passkey, then come here to murder Sam. From the video surveillance tape, it appeared Sam had been sleeping when the person entered his cell. When the needle was injected into his arm, he’d woken up, attempted to get up, but was too disoriented. It didn’t take long for the poison to do its job. Sam never had a chance.
There was no evidence that anyone had been there with the killer. It was obvious they’d wanted the team to witness the murder. But for what end? Aaron had studied the footage carefully hoping for clarity. The killer was tall and slim built. It certainly could be a woman. He leaned in closer—even though the tape was grainy, he was just able to make out the color of the perpetrator’s eyes. They appeared green...like Liz’s. He quickly shoved that thought aside.
“Thanks, Reyna,” Aaron said with appreciation. Reyna had been an amazing contribution to the team and she and her husband, Jase Bradford, were good friends to Aaron.
Once the crime scene unit arrived, Aaron knew what he had to do even though he dreaded it. Still, it would be best if it came from him. After the director found out about Sam’s murder it wouldn’t be long before he pulled the case from the team entirely. Aaron couldn’t let that happen. They needed answers and they needed them now.
He took Alex aside. “Let me know the minute you have anything. I need to go speak with Liz.” Just saying the words made him feel as if he’d betrayed her.
Alex patted his shoulder. “I know this is hard, but we’ll find out what’s really going on. It’s only a matter of time.”
Aaron forced a smile. He sure hoped Alex was right. They needed something, anything that would help clear Liz’s name, because he wasn’t about to let someone he cared about get framed for a crime she didn’t commit.
TWO
The moment she opened the door, Liz knew someone had been in her cabin.
Liz reached for her weapon and eased inside. At first glance, nothing appeared out of place. The quiet of the cabin settled around her. A quick search yielded nothing to back up the feeling.
She glanced down at the envelope in her hand.
For Your Eyes Only!
The sense of someone watching her permeated every molecule of her body. Was she simply being paranoid?
Liz blew out a shaky breath, killed the lights and parted t
he living room curtains. Nothing moved in the early morning world outside.
You’re being set up... The message from the unknown number had troubled her, though at the time, she hadn’t understood its meaning. And in the chaos that had ensued after discovering Michael was dead, Liz had forgotten to mention the text to Aaron.
She grabbed her burner phone again and typed a message to the mystery person.
Who are you? How did you know Michael was dead?
As she stared at the phone, willing an answer to come through, the blank screen in front of her seemed to confirm her suspicions. There was no way the texter could know about her partner’s death if he wasn’t somehow involved.
Liz struggled to make sense of what had happened in less than twenty-four hours. There had to be something more in the works here than what the team had originally believed. This went much deeper than Sam and his deadly schemes.
Through all the unanswered questions, one thing crystallized. She had now become the number one suspect in Michael’s murder. If she let herself be taken into custody, she had a feeling she wouldn’t walk out of the prison alive.
Yet if she stayed, with all the evidence mounting against her, Aaron wouldn’t have a choice but to bring her in. She couldn’t bear the thought of him thinking she was guilty. His friendship had come to mean so much to her.
Either way, time was running out on her freedom and possibly her life, so Liz hurried to her bedroom and stuffed as many things as she could into a backpack, then she went to her closet. The box that held her spare weapon was on the top shelf. Liz felt around until she’d found it. Right away she knew something was wrong. The box’s lid was open. Her Glock was gone.
She was almost positive Michael had been killed with the same caliber gun.
It was as if someone was carefully orchestrating her downfall.