by Margaret Kay
“I just want to make sure she’s okay. I’ve talked with her inside the game for so long, I consider her a friend. If she’s okay, I have no intentions and I won’t contact her outside of the game.”
“Give me all the information you have on this friend and let me see this game app on your phone,” Garcia said.
Mother didn’t like the way he had said ‘friend’. He was definitely inferring that their relationship was more. He brought the game up and showed him. Garcia’s lips ticked up into an amused smirk at the sight of her screen name and sexy cartoon avatar. “You, my friend, seriously need a real woman in your life.”
Mother flashed him a glare. “I’m quite happy with how things are,” he lied. “This is just a game and some casual conversation.”
Garcia read through the messages. Judging by Mother’s most recent messages, he doubted that he was happy with his life as it was. His confession to his on-line friend about his loneliness struck Garcia as substantial. He also felt bad for reading Mother’s personal messages with this woman. “It shouldn’t be too hard to find her,” he agreed. “Give me about an hour or so to do some digging.”
“Thanks,” Mother said. “I know you're officially on vacation, so I hate to take more time away from Sienna.”
“No worries,” Garcia said, waving a hand dismissively.
Two hours later, Mother’s phone buzzed. Garcia. His eyes shifted to BT. He’d told him about the favor he asked of Garcia. “Looks like he has something.” He hit answer. “Yeah, did you find her?”
“Yes and no,” Garcia replied. “I’m in with Shepherd. I have you on speaker.”
“Hi Shep,” Mother greeted, confused why Garcia would be calling him from Shepherd’s office.
“You’re not in the middle of anything. We’re connecting to your main monitor,” Shepherd said.
Both Mother and BT gazed at the monitor as Mother put his phone on speaker too.
“Meet your on-line friend, Dr. Annaka Skylar Sanchez, Marine Biologist,” Garcia said.
The Alaskan Driver’s License picture of a beautiful Hispanic woman with big dark brown eyes that were surrounded by thick eyelashes, shiny black, shoulder-length hair, who was around his age, mid-thirties, displayed. She wore no makeup, was a natural beauty. Her facial features were perfect, a radiant even complexion over feminine bone structure. Her smile was wide and genuine. Mother found her very attractive.
“She also happens to be a missing person, reported missing by her coworkers this morning. Another of the researchers where she works, the Anchor Point Research Center, south of Anchorage Alaska, a Dr. Patrick Keeling, is missing too. His photo also displayed. Neither have been seen since December twenty-fourth,” Shepherd reported. “There appears to be damage to the door of the facility.”
“What do you mean appears to be damage?” Mother questioned.
“Well, the others that work at that facility reported the door handle has been sticking. Several of them admit to kicking it over the last week to get the door open,” Garcia said.
“I spoke with the State Trooper in charge of the missing person’s case. He’s not convinced the two researchers aren’t just snuggled up together someplace. A few of their coworkers suspect they’ve been having a secret relationship,” Shepherd said.
“No, Annaka isn’t involved in a relationship. We just talked about that Christmas Eve. She would have told me if she was,” Mother argued. “I’m telling you; my gut feeling is that something is wrong. She’s never left our message screen in the middle of a sentence and she’s never gone this many hours without playing our games. All ten of them have been sitting there since twenty-three hundred hours on the twenty-fourth.”
“What do you want to do about this?” Shepherd asked, already knowing what Mother would say.
“I guess I’m going to Alaska instead of home tomorrow. I know she’s in trouble and I have to see what I can do to help find her,” Mother said, no thought required.
“That’s what I anticipated,” Shepherd said. “Brielle’s in the office covering for Angel. I can have her make travel arrangements for your team.”
“My team?” Mother asked.
“I’m going with you,” Sherman’s voice came through Mother’s phone. “Brielle and Bobby can handle the closing without me. I can pre-sign the forms before we head out.”
“I’m in too,” Lambchop’s voice said.
Mother knew they were both in the office but hadn’t known they were in Shepherd’s office. “You’re supposed to fly home to Pittsburg tomorrow,” Mother argued.
“Yeah, I can postpone that a few days,” Lambchop said. “We’re partners, can’t let you go without me.”
“We won’t ask Sloan to delay his leave though, given that he and Kaylee have plans to see both their families. BT, how would you like to get out in the field on a case not related to the Power Grid Protection Project? I thought this could be excellent training for you,” Shepherd said.
BT flashed a grin at Mother. “I’d like that, Shepherd, thanks.”
“You’re going to have to fly commercial,” Shepherd said, “but I’ll have Brielle make the arrangements, car, hotel, everything.”
Echo
The next morning, the four men left for O’Hare International Airport. Brielle had booked them on a zero six hundred flight with a thirty-four-minute layover in Seattle. They would land in Anchorage Alaska at twelve hundred hours local time.
Shepherd had arranged for the necessary clearance for them to board the flight armed, through each of the agencies of the credentials they carried. They’d be going with sidearms only. Lambchop carried NSA credentials, Sherman ATF, Mother ICE, and BT FBI. Mother could only imagine what the TSA personnel screening them in the private side room thought.
Only twenty minutes after entering the private room, all four Shepherd Security Operators were cleared and escorted to the terminal side of the security checkpoint. They sat at a table in the concourse and ate breakfast. They had about a half hour until boarding began.
Mother clicked into his game app again. Still nothing from Annaka. Even though he hoped she was okay, he hoped he was right. If they got to Alaska and found that all was well, he’d feel bad for delaying Lambchop’s trip to Pittsburg and for interfering with Sherman and BT’s leaves. He didn’t think that would be the case though. He was sure Annaka was in trouble. He hoped she was still alive and that he wouldn’t be too late to help her. A sobering thought.
“It’ll be nine hours before we land in Alaska. You need to do something to unwind,” Lambchop said.
Mother placed his phone back into his pocket. “It’s just that if we get there and if she’s turned up and all is okay, I’m going to feel bad for dragging you all up there.”
“You’re not dragging us anywhere,” Sherman said with a grin. “We volunteered.”
“You should be with your pregnant fiancé, moving into your new house,” Mother replied.
“Maybe I don’t want to be. Brielle and Bobby can take care of it. I hate to unpack. This way, Brielle can put everything wherever she wants it.”
“And I’ve never known your gut not to be right,” Lambchop said. “We’re a team and we are here to back you up.”
“Thanks,” Mother said, humbled to be surrounded by such good men. They were his team and he knew he could count on them for anything, including this.
On the flight, each man had tons of documentation to review on Annaka Sanchez and Patrick Keeling as well as on the research they each did. Many federal and civilian oversight organizations watched the operations of the oil companies drilling in the area and in Cook Inlet. In addition to the oil production activity, the USGS, who Keeling worked for, monitored earthquake and volcanic activity. And Annaka studied pollution and the beluga whales that made the inlet their home, some of which did not migrate for the winter.
Mother’s brain hit overload long before they landed in Anchorage. His respect for his game partner grew as he read the dossier on her. She’d
earned her doctorate in marine biology, graduated top of her class from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The many research programs she’d been a part of before accepting the position in Alaska also blew his mind. For her young age of thirty-four, she’d accomplished quite a bit in her field. She was a well-respected authority on beluga whales and had authored many papers on them.
He felt as though he was invading her privacy as he studied the more personal details of her life. Annaka Sanchez was born and raised in a small town in Kansas. She was the only child of a blond-haired, hazel eyed mother and a Mexican father. Her parents divorced when she was eight and he moved to Los Angeles, taking a job with their public works department. He was killed in an automobile accident two years later. Her mother remarried when she was in high school.
Annaka received a partial scholarship to the University of Coral Gables, Florida, where she majored in Marine Biology. She worked several part-time jobs while attending and earning her bachelor’s degree. She remained at the university, earned both her master’s degree and her doctorate while working on grant-funded research projects, and worked as a teaching assistant for several professors.
Mother was impressed and, if he were being completely honest, was enamored with her. With as much as they had text messaged with each other inside the game app over the years, she was not a stranger to him. She was a friend who he couldn’t wait to meet. He only hoped they would find her alive, an end he knew was less likely the longer she was missing.
Brielle had booked them a large SUV rental from the airport lot. It waited for them after they deplaned in Anchorage. They drove the one-hundred-twenty miles on Alaska State Route One, which ran over the Kenai Peninsula. It was a three-hour forty-minute drive. Darkness blanketed the area when they pulled up in front of the Anchor Point Research building. Shepherd had contacted the State Troopers and advised them of the incoming federal agents. The lead investigator assigned to the case waited for them at the research facility.
They pulled themselves from the car. It had been a long travel day. Mother led the way to the door to the facility. The four men examined it from the outside before pulling the door open and entering. It opened with no problems, even though they saw the minor damage to the outside of the handle.
The men presented their badges and introduced themselves to the uniformed investigator, State Trooper David Alfrejd. He shook each of their hands. He was close to the end of his career. His hair was gray, his face leathered and wrinkled. He had forty years of experience in law enforcement in these parts.
“I have to say I was more than a little surprised when I got the call that federal investigators would be onsite. Can I ask why this is a federal case? From what I can tell, neither of the researchers were working on anything national security related.” His eyes were on Lambchop. He’d never met anyone with the National Security Agency.
“Sorry, that’s classified,” Lambchop replied.
There were six others in the room, the other employees Mother rightfully assumed. After introductions, each member of Shepherd Security spoke with one or two of them to collect information. State Trooper Alfrejd stood back and watched, listened.
Lambchop spoke with Dr. Remington Ipsen, Environmental Scientist, born and raised in the area. She was in her mid-thirties, had native Alaskan in her, wore her long black hair in a loose braid. She worked very closely with Annaka. The research assistant that they shared, Peter Flenger, spoke with Lambchop too. Flenger was also from the area. He was a tall, gangly kid with messy, outgrown brown hair in his early twenties.
BT spoke with Glaciologist Dr. Claude Renault and Sonia Petrovy, his research assistant. Renault was a Frenchman, in his late fifties, balding, thin, and serious looking. Sonia was in her early twenties, a student on loan from the University in Anchorage. She was blond, of Russian descent.
Sherman spoke with Dr. Patrick Keeling’s research assistant Clint Ames, who was with the USGS, just as Keeling was. Ames was in his early thirties. He wore his sandy blond hair short. He had his master’s degree in geology and had worked for the USGS for eight years. He was from Idaho originally, but he moved his wife to Homer when taking this job. A picture on his desk caught Sherman’s eye. It was of a baby on Ames’ lap.
“Your baby?” Sherman asked, lifting the picture frame from the desk.
Ames took the picture from his hand and placed it back on his desk. “Yes. Ryan is almost two now.”
“My fiancé is pregnant with our first.” Sherman smiled.
“Get as much sleep now as you can,” Ames said.
Mother sat down with Ayla Jones, the clerical support person for the entire office. Very soon into the interview, Mother got the feeling Ayla was being less than honest and he believed she had withheld information from the investigator. He called her on it.
“I didn’t want to get Annaka or anyone in trouble,” Ayla said with her voice dropped low, “but she didn’t make the notations in the logbooks regarding the equipment monitoring since ten pm on the twenty-fourth. Several of the pieces of equipment require the logs entries be made at regular intervals and then the equipment is reset. I don’t think that happened.”
“So, whatever happened to Annaka happened around that time,” Mother recapped.
“Or that’s when she left.”
“Do you know Annaka to skip out on her shifts that often?” Mother asked, getting annoyed.
“No, never. But what if she didn’t skip out? She and Patrick, Dr. Keeling, are both off for a few days to make up for working over the holiday. What if they just left to get an early start on their weekend and turned their phones off?”
“Again, Ayla, do you know Annaka to turn her phone off and not answer the office on her days off?”
“No, she doesn’t do that either,” she confirmed.
“Ayla, I’m trying to understand why you think that Annaka would do this many things outside of her normal routine. What is it that you know that you’re trying not to say?” Mother demanded.
Ayla looked away nervously. “Look, this is really major. I don’t want Annaka or Patrick to get into any trouble. They could lose their research funding, lose their jobs.” She paused and looked pensive.
“I only want to find Annaka and be sure she’s okay. I’m not going to tell anyone related to her job anything you tell me,” Mother pressed.
“Patrick let something slip about he and Annaka spending time together at Christmas, that’s all. But he made me promise I wouldn’t say anything to anyone about it.”
“When was this?” Mother asked.
“Last Friday. They come to my house for game night, well a lot of the people from the office do. They’re chummy away from work, different from when they’re here. Anyone with eyes can see they have something going on.”
“Did you ever ask Annaka about it?”
“No, I’d never have asked if she was going to be getting away with Patrick.”
“No, did you ever ask her if there was a secret relationship going on?”
“She wouldn’t admit to it. I teased her a few times. You know, we drink pretty heavy while playing games on Friday nights, and it was while I was drunk. Annaka told me several times she was not seeing Patrick. I figured she just didn’t want it getting out.”
“Or, she wasn’t having a relationship with him,” Mother said.
Mother conferred with the others. They hadn’t gotten anything concrete from the employees they spoke with either. Only one other employee thought something more personal existed between the two researchers. Clint Ames. Keeling’s assistant couldn’t offer anything substantial as proof, though.
“Agent Johnson,” Remi said, approaching them. “I just got access to the report fields that Annaka completed on Christmas Eve. I don’t understand though. She made entries in direct contradiction to facts that she and I discussed just the day before regarding pollutant levels in the samples we tested. She ranked them much lower than they were.” She held a printout up to him.
/> Lambchop examine the data on the printout. “Help me understand what I’m looking at.”
“There was a minor oil leak near platform C-Three. In this field, Annaka reports the oil levels in the samples dropping, indicating that the leak has been fixed and that simply is not the case. Our most recent samples indicate the opposite. If anything, the concentrations are increasing.”
“Could this have been an honest mistake on her part?” BT asked.
“No. She’s far too experienced to enter the data wrong,” Remi said.
After gathering as much information as they could from the staff at the Anchor Point Research facility, the Shepherd Security Team walked out with the State Trooper. He gave them a recap of his investigation. There wasn’t much to tell. The two were not answering their phones, both were off, which the team knew. It appeared that neither had worked at the office since Christmas Eve. Nothing appeared to be wrong or missing from their homes. Both were locked up and orderly.
