Mountain Secrets

by Elizabeth Goddard

  They finished their meal and got into the car Michael had loaned him. The sun was low on the horizon as they drove through Silver Strike, which featured lots of boutique-type shops. Isabel gave Jason directions that led them to the Sun and Ski headquarters, a Victorian house that had been converted to offices. The sign said that a real-estate company also had an office in the building.

  As they pulled into the lot, she turned to face him. “I live upstairs. Mary, my boss, was nice enough to rent the one bedroom to me at a low rate.” Despite her blond hair being a little disheveled, Isabel still had the demeanor of someone who had come from money. He wondered what her story was. Why she was so hard to get a clear read on.

  “You like your job and your boss.” Sun and Ski was under suspicion. That meant this Mary person wasn’t off the hook yet.

  “Yes.” Her smile lit up her whole face.

  “That’s the first time I’ve seen you smile.”

  “It’s the first time I’ve had a reason to smile since you met me.” She let out a laugh that reminded him of songbirds.

  “Indeed.” For having known each other for such a short time, they’d been through a lot. The moment of connection between them seemed to make the car warmer and brighter. Guilt washed through him. He wished he could come clean with her. “Let’s go inside.”

  She pushed open the door, taking in an intense breath. “I’ve got a lot of explaining to do to Mary for the condition of the house. The Wilsons will be there soon.”

  He followed her into an office that had three desks. A fortyish woman with coppery hair stood by one of the workstations, her purse slung over her shoulder.

  “Isabel, I’m about to run out to a house but I’m glad I caught up with you.” Her gaze rested on Jason.

  Isabel glanced at Jason. “This is my friend. He gave me a ride.”

  Mary furrowed her eyebrows. “Yes, I was just on the phone to the Wilsons. They got into town earlier than expected. I guess they told you they wouldn’t be here until the afternoon.”

  “But they are safe?” said Isabel.

  “Safe?” Mary looked perplexed. “Why wouldn’t they be? They said the house was in order. Only they wondered why your car was parked down the road and how the vase got broken. They found the shards in the garbage.”

  “The house was in order?” The Wilsons must not have seen the studio’s broken window or found her clothes in Victoria’s closet.

  “You are a great employee and I am sure there is an explanation for all this. I’d love to hear it when I have more time.” Mary tilted her head. “The problem I’m having, Isabel, is that they texted your personal phone to say they were coming early. All client calls need to go through Sun and Ski, regardless of what your relationship is with them. I need to know if one of our clients has had a change of plans.”

  “I understand. I’m sorry.” Isabel hung her head. “I guess I was too focused on trying to keep the clients happy.”

  Someone must have picked the thieves up. Maybe they’d taken the time to remove all traces that they’d been in the house to protect the smuggling operation.

  “I need to run. I’ll catch up with you in a bit.” Mary winked at Isabel and patted her shoulder. “I do appreciate your going up there on your day off.” Mary hurried out the door. Her anger over Isabel not keeping her in the loop about the Wilsons’ early arrival set off alarm bells for Jason.

  Isabel shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going on here. Why the place was cleaned up. Mary didn’t say anything about your van being there.”

  He suspected the Bureau had already been up there to have it towed. “It’s just good that everything worked out.”

  “No, it’s weird that everything worked out.” She studied him for a long moment, as if expecting him to explain further. The phone rang. She picked up. “Sun and Ski Property Management. This is Isabel speaking. How may I help you?”

  Isabel listened for a moment. Her face drained of color and she slammed the phone down.

  He took a step toward her. “What is it?”

  Fear permeated each word she uttered. “That was...a man. He said I have something he wants. And that I better give it back or pay with my life.”

  EIGHT

  Jason had a hard time focusing on the road as they drove across town to the police station. Any hope he had about Isabel being safe had been removed. Maybe now she wouldn’t be upset if he chose to keep close to her until he could get her some protection.

  Had it been the thieves who phoned or someone higher up in the smuggling ring?

  He glanced over at Isabel. She offered him a nervous smile and then stared out the window. The problem was someone in the ring had contacted Isabel first. Either because they hadn’t figured out who he was or because she was the more vulnerable one. How was he going to get her out of this mess and make sure she wouldn’t be harmed? Maybe the threat would be enough for Michael to be motivated to spring for some protection.

  “How do you suppose they figured out who I was?”

  “Is there anything in your car that would have helped them trace you back to Sun and Ski?”

  “There’s a logo on the back window. And my picture and name is on our website.” Her voice filled with fear.

  He hadn’t noticed the logo.

  He braked at a stoplight and studied her for a moment. Her fingers were laced together in her lap so tight that her knuckles had turned white.

  “I’m sorry that you got dragged into all this.”

  “I can’t live my life looking over my shoulder. A lot of the properties we manage are out in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Look, I don’t have a lot going on. I’ll stay with you through your workday if you don’t mind my tagging along.” He kind of liked the idea of being with her.

  The light turned green. He rolled through the street checking his rearview mirror. A dark car that had been behind them before followed them as he clicked his blinker and turned up a side street. He didn’t want to alarm Isabel. She was already scared enough.

  She unlaced her fingers and rested her hands palm down in her lap. “You would do that for me?”

  “Sure.”

  “Guess I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I thought what I was doing was giving a hundred and ten percent to my job. That totally backfired.”

  This was his chance to do a little probing. “Yes, your boss seemed more than a little miffed you didn’t keep her in the loop.”

  “She’s not usually like that. She’s been very good to me.”

  “I just wonder why she was so upset, then.”

  She stared at him long enough to make him nervous. “I was in the wrong. I went against our standard practice. She’s a good person.”

  Jason checked the rearview mirror. The car was still behind them.

  “I see him too,” Isabel said, her voice barely above a whisper.

  He turned on the street that led to the police station. The car veered onto a side street. Once it was clear, Jason pulled into the police-station parking lot. No one was going to bother them when they were surrounded by a half dozen armed officers...he hoped, anyway.

  * * *

  Isabel appreciated the supportive hand Jason placed on her back as they entered the police station. She felt like she’d been trembling from terror ever since the phone call at Sun and Ski. Having him close at least helped her take a deep breath.

  “Hey, Jason.” One of the police officers waved at them as they entered the station. He stepped toward them. “What brings you here?”

  “This is Isabel...?” He turned toward her raising an eyebrow.

  “Connor. My last name is Connor.”

  “She needs to do an ID for me. You got your file of petty criminals loaded up?”

  “Sure. Come this way.” The officer held out a hand to her. “I’m Officer Nelson. Jas
on and I went to high school together about fifty miles down the road in a little town no one has heard of.”

  Isabel shook Officer Nelson’s hand.

  “Come right this way.” Officer Nelson gestured.

  She glanced over at Jason. “You’re not coming with me?”

  “I’ve got a call to make.” He didn’t quite make eye contact. “You’ll be fine.”

  Officer Nelson led her to a desk where he opened up a laptop computer. “So you were a witness to a crime and Jason is helping you?” He clicked several keys until a police photo of a man came up on the screen.

  “Something like that.”

  He bent to reach the keyboard. “Just click here to see the next photo.” Officer Nelson squeezed her shoulder. “Holler if you have any trouble.”

  She filed through half a dozen photographs, studying each one. A picture of her old boyfriend Nick Solomon flashed on the screen. Her cheeks flushed as shame rose to the surface. She glanced around the police station, feeling as if everyone else would know she had once been connected with this petty thief.

  Even in the police photo, Nick offered the camera his crooked smile and big brown eyes. She’d been so naive back then.

  Her eyes came to rest on Jason, who was talking on an office phone. When he saw her staring, he turned away. The old quiver of suspicion and distrust returned. She wanted to believe he was a good guy. Everything he’d done and said so far backed that up. His kindness in offering to stay with her warmed her heart. But the look he gave her seemed filled with suspicion.

  She stared at the photo of Nick again. What she didn’t trust was her own judgment of character with men. She had such a lousy track record.

  Officer Nelson walked by her, holding a stack of file folders. “Is everything going okay?”

  “So far I haven’t seen either of the men.” She was still on edge from the phone call. Seeing Nick in all his criminal glory hadn’t helped. “Actually, I need a minute to freshen up and clear my head. Where’s your bathroom?”

  “You’ll have to use the one downstairs at the end of the hall. The one on this floor is part of a construction zone.”

  Isabel pushed her chair back. She stared through the window at Jason, who was still on the phone. He looked at her. Something in his expression had changed. He looked...pensive?

  She hurried down the hallway past scaffolding, toolboxes and cans of paint. But no workers. They must be on a break. The downstairs was quiet. The signs on the doors indicated the rooms were used mostly for storage of records and evidence.

  She slipped into the bathroom and splashed water on her face, then stared at herself in the mirror. She looked frazzled, had dark circles under her eyes.

  Come on, Izzy. Pull it together.

  She bent her head and squeezed her eyes shut. “If God is for me, who can be against me?”

  The door to the bathroom swung open. Before she had time to see who it was, a hand grabbed her hair and a knife was at her throat.

  “You have something I want.”

  She shook her head, then tried to turn toward the mirror to see the man who held her captive. He pressed the knife deeper into her skin.

  “Don’t lie to me. You have twenty-four hours. We’ll give you a drop-off point.” He shoved her toward the wall and she fell. By the time she righted herself, she was alone in the bathroom.

  She stood frozen and listening. Was the man with the knife waiting just outside the door? Her heart pounded wildly in her chest. She could manage only shallow breaths.

  Isabel stepped toward the door and pushed it open. She peered up and down the empty hallway before stepping out.

  Pounding footsteps made her turn to retreat back into the bathroom until she saw Jason at the bottom of the stairs.

  She ran toward him. His expression registered that he saw how scared she was. He held out his arms to her.

  “Hey, what happened?”

  “They found me.” Her voice was hoarse. Her words came out in broken fragments.

  She rested against the soft flannel of Jason’s shirt. His arms surrounded her, and she was able to take in a deep breath.

  After a long moment of silence, he said. “I had a feeling when you didn’t come right back. I hate that this is happening to you.”

  She pulled back and gazed into his blue eyes. “They want the bookmark. I have twenty-four hours. They are supposed to contact me with a location.” Her chest felt like it was in a corset being pulled tighter and tighter.

  “Could you tell if it was one of the men from the house?”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t see him. I don’t have a good memory for voices and he didn’t say much.”

  He took her hand and led her to a bench in the hallway. She sat down beside him. It still felt like someone was rattling her spine.

  “I wish that they had gotten in touch with me. But it’s you they want to deal with.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I was on the phone to Michael.” He studied her for a moment. His mouth twitched. There was something he was keeping from her.

  “Who is he, anyway—your boss?”

  “He’s an FBI agent. Since you got the threat on the phone, he gave me permission to share with you what is going on. I’m helping the FBI investigate a smuggling ring that often uses empty homes as a drop-off point. We’re building profiles of all the people involved to try to get to whoever is behind it all.”

  She rose to her feet. “I don’t want to be involved with any of this. I just want to go back to my job, back to my life.”

  He stood up and grabbed her hands. “I understand.” He squeezed her fingers. “But I need to hang with you until they contact you...for your safety.”

  She knew he was right about that. She couldn’t just go about her day as if nothing had happened. She needed his protection. “I don’t like associating with criminals in any way, shape or form. Michael has the bookmark. The two of you can work this out.”

  “I will do everything I can to keep you out of harm’s way and try to work it so they will deal with me.”

  His expression looked so sincere. “What are you going to do? Follow me around like a puppy?”

  “Actually, I prefer the term guard dog.” The corners of his mouth turned up.

  His joke made her smile. “I guess this is the way it has to be. I need to head home to take a shower and get some sleep and then I have to go to work.”

  “I’ll go with you to the houses when you set them up. You don’t have a car anyway.”

  She pressed her hands against her mouth and stared at the ceiling. “I don’t like any of this. I don’t like being around...criminals.”

  “I think I understand.” He locked eyes with her. “I know about your record. Even though it was sealed, the FBI has ways of finding these things out.”

  So that was why he’d looked at her that way. Her cheeks grew warm. “That was a long time ago. I was seventeen.” She turned away from him as a sense of deep shame rose to the surface. “I’m not one of them anymore. And I don’t want anything to do with thieves.”

  He touched the back of her arm. “I know you’re not. I can see that you’ve made changes. Only someone who’s turned her life over to God would have been praying while being chased. Michael had concerns, but I vouched for you.”

  She turned to face him, feeling tears rise up in the corners of her eyes. “You vouched for me?” Warmth pooled around her heart. Sometimes she felt like having been a juvenile delinquent in a small community where everybody knew your history flashed like a neon sign around her. So few people believed in her aside from Mary, her pastor, a few friends and now Jason. “Thank you.”

  He nodded. “Now let’s drive you back to your place so you can get some sleep.”

  Snow twirled out of the sky as they drove back to Sun and Ski. The plow
s had worked through the morning creating walls of snow on either side of the city streets. They stopped at a store so she and Jason could buy new phones.

  Jason parked the car outside the Sun and Ski office.

  “You can come in and get some rest on the couch. You’re probably tired too.” The truth was she felt better knowing that he was close.

  Isabel led him up the stairs to her place. She put her key in the lock and pushed open the door. The house was old and not well insulated. The top floor could get chilly but she’d done her best to make it cozy with lace curtains as well as a quilt thrown over the worn red velvet couch.

  “Nice, very homey,” said Jason turning a half circle.

  It made her feel good that he liked her little apartment. His opinion was starting to matter to her.

  “Make yourself at home. There’s sandwich stuff and tea and coffee. I feel like I could sleep for a hundred years.”

  She took a quick shower and crawled in under her comforter. Heavy curtains blocked out the light. She closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to come. Her body was beyond tired, but restless, fearful thoughts made it hard for her to shut down her brain.

  She’d worked so hard to cut ties with her past. Though Jason believed in her, any thought of associating with criminals brought up all the pain from her teenage years. She drew her comforter up to her neck. These men could be violent. Would they leave her alone once she delivered the bookmark or would she always be looking over her shoulder?

  The only thing that eased her troubled mind was knowing that Jason was in the next room. She was safe...for now.

  NINE

  Jason collapsed on Isabel’s couch. He pulled out his phone and dialed Michael’s number to tell him about Isabel being attacked at the police station. The thieves were probably going after Isabel because she was the easier target...more vulnerable. That infuriated him.

  He summarized for Michael what had happened and then said, “If there is any way we can get her clear of all this, we need to do it. She didn’t sign up for this. I did.”