by Lynn Ames
Peter nodded. “I found a piece of one of the tie rods while I was searching the crash site. The FBI confirmed that the rod had been doctored; they’re reopening the case as a murder investigation.”
“Dear God in Heaven. Poor Jay.” The president looked up at Peter.
“Poor Kate. How’d she take the news?”
“Hard, sir, about how you’d expect. But as I said, she’s tough. She’ll make it through.”
It was the president’s turn to nod. “Any idea who might have done such a thing?”
Peter smiled ironically. “Since you asked, sir…the only place where Jay mentioned that she would be going to Arizona was at the Inaugural Ball where you offered her a job.” Peter could see that the president was trying to remember.
“I seem to recall joking around with Jay about coming to work for me. I told her she’d love the terrible hours, low pay, and demanding boss.
She said she’d rather stay where she was. Then I think she said she was going off on assignment the next day—to Arizona.”
The Value of Valor
“That’s what Kate said also. Sir, I don’t suppose you can remember who might have been within earshot when you were having that conversation, can you?”
President Hyland appeared to think hard for several moments before shaking his head. “I wish I could, Peter. There were so many people there, and the music was so loud. Honestly, the whole night’s a blur.”
“That’s okay, sir. But if there’s any way I could get access to a list of guests for that particular ball, that would go a long way toward helping me find whoever did this to Jay.”
“Of course, give me a second.” The president picked up the phone, punched in several numbers, and spoke quietly into the receiver. When he hung up seconds later, he said to Peter, “You’ll have your list by the time you leave here.” He paused. “Those ball invitations are given out as a thank you to some of our biggest contributors. I’d hate like hell to think one of them had something to do with Jay’s death.”
“I won’t know until I’ve checked them all out, but I’ll be sure to keep you informed.”
“Yes, please do.” The president shuffled some papers on his desk.
“Now for the reason I asked you here.”
Peter waited, watching a series of emotions pass across the president’s face.
“I got a disturbing phone call last night from an old friend. He’s the Agency’s second in command on the ground in Asia.” The president fidgeted with a paperweight before continuing. “Seems somebody with some clout in this administration gave the go-ahead to stage an internal rebellion in China.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Only trouble is, I didn’t know anything about it before my buddy filled me in.”
“You want to know who gave the order, why, and who else knows.”
“Something like that. And I can’t do it from within because I don’t know how deep this runs. Since the order was given directly to the station chief, it seems like there could be Agency involvement. If so, I didn’t want to tip them off that I was on to the plan.”
“Makes sense. I take it that’s why I’m here.”
“Afraid so, Peter. I know I can trust your discretion, and I further know that you’ll find the rat for me. I have an idea who it might be, but I don’t want to let my personal feelings get in the way.”
“I’m listening.”
“I had a ‘discussion’ yesterday with our illustrious vice president.”
The president tried, without success, to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
Peter raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
Lynn Ames
“I wasn’t all that diplomatic with the idiot.” The president looked at Peter and smiled. “See, I do trust your discretion.”
“Understood. I appreciate that, sir.”
“I pretty much told him that if he wanted to shine his shoes, he’d have to run it by me first.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking I might have bruised his ego a bit. So maybe he thought he’d show me that he’s not to be trifled with. What do you think?”
Peter shrugged noncommittally. “It’s possible. If you want, I’ll begin with the vice president and work my way down the list.”
“Good enough. What do you need from me?”
“A copy of the vice president’s schedule for last week and this week would be helpful, for starters. And your permission to use whatever means I deem necessary to get answers.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I may have to bug his office, look at his phone records for the past month. Things like that.”
“Done. Anything else you need?”
“That’s all I can think of for now. If I come up with anything else, how would you like me to contact you?”
“Tell Kate you need to see me. That way, there won’t be any record of our meeting after today. Or you can use my private line if you think it’s safe.” He handed Peter the number.
“Very well, sir. I’ll be in touch as soon as I have anything.”
“Good luck, Peter. Obviously, time is of the essence here.”
“I know, sir. I’m on it.” On his way out the door, Vicky Winston handed him an envelope. When Peter glanced at the label, it said, “Ball
#8 guests.” Peter smiled at the executive assistant and thanked her for her efficiency before heading directly to his rented condominium. He had work to do.
Alexa stepped out onto Terri’s small porch and took a deep breath of the chilled morning air. The healer had helped her dress before walking over to the clinic to tend to several patients. It felt good to be on her own for a few minutes. Terri and Trystan had been wonderfully solicitous, but Alexa craved some time by herself. She sat down on the front step and turned her face to the sun, soaking up its healing rays.
A shadow momentarily blocked the brightness, and she opened her eyes, blinking when she saw a young man standing over her. He looked nervous; he was shifting from foot to foot, clasping and unclasping his hands.
The Value of Valor
Alexa smiled at him. “Can I help you?” She estimated him to be a little younger than Trystan, long and lean.
“I-I wanted to say I’m glad you’re all right.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that. What’s your name?”
“I’m Tommy. I’m one of the guys who pulled you out of the wreck.”
Alexa stood and put a hand on his arm, a look of gratitude in her eyes.
“Then I certainly owe you more than just a thank you. From what I hear, you saved my life.”
Tommy smiled at her for a second, then his face grew serious.
“Whoever those men were, I’m glad they didn’t succeed.”
“Men? Succeed at what, Tommy?”
“At killing you, of course.” Tommy seemed to be perplexed by her questions.
Alexa’s face went pale. “K-killing me? What men?”
Tommy looked exceedingly uncomfortable. “They didn’t tell you?”
“Start from the beginning, please.”
His eyes looked around wildly. “I probably shouldn’t be talking to you.”
“Of course you should. Now tell me about these men and the accident.”
Tommy explained everything that had happened, with the exception of the fact that there had been a second woman in the car. Since shortly after the accident, he hadn’t been able to talk about seeing that poor woman impaled.
Alexa reached up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You’re my hero, you know that?”
The boy blushed scarlet, completely smitten. “I’ve got to go now, ma’am. I’m late for work.”
“I’m sorry to have kept you, but thank you for telling me, Tommy. I owe you my life.”
When he was gone, Alexa reached out to the railing for support; her head was spinning. People had tried to kill her. Terri and Trystan knew about it and had kept it from her. Her presence might be putting the enti
re reservation at risk, according to Tommy’s recap of the elders’ council meeting. Alexa did the only thing she could think of: she ran.
Her head, arm, and chest ached as she stumbled off the street and down toward the stream where Trystan had taken her previously. She was off balance as a result of her head injury, and having her arm restrained by a sling didn’t help. Each breath she took resulted in a renewed wave of pain and nausea, but Alexa ignored all that. Mostly, she felt numb and confused.
Eventually, she was forced to stop, her injuries getting the better of her. She looked around for the first time and discovered that she was lost; Lynn Ames
she’d never been this far from the clinic or Terri’s house before, and she hadn’t been paying attention to her route. She sat down heavily on a nearby rock. What did it matter? The tribe was better off without her continued presence. If she wasn’t on the reservation, the danger would be gone for them.
Tears leaked from her eyes, and she let them come. For weeks, she had wondered in a vacuum about who and what she was. Perhaps she’d been better off not knowing. She hung her head, totally dejected. Of all the scenarios she had envisioned, being someone whom others wanted to kill wasn’t on the list.
Questions hummed in Alexa’s head like a swarm of angry bees. Who was she? Was she a good person or bad? What had she done in her life to warrant assassins coming after her? No answers would come. Tired, physically hurting, and emotionally drained, Alexa lay down on the rock and closed her eyes, willing the whole nightmare to be over.
Trystan knocked on the clinic door at 4:00 p.m. “Where’s Alexa?
You hiding her in here?”
Terri swept stray strands of hair from her face. “I assumed she was with you. You two have been spending a lot of time together lately.”
“I haven’t seen her all day.”
“Did you check the house?”
“Yes, and down by the creek, too.” Trystan’s voice reflected her growing concern.
Terri set aside the bandages she was arranging on a surgical tray and devoted her full attention to Trystan. “Did you check the bedroom? Are you sure she wasn’t taking a nap?”
“Positive.”
“Let’s go look together.” Terri led the way out of the clinic and across the street. On the way, she bumped into Jason and Kenny, two of the young men who had rescued Alexa from the car.
“Hi, boys.”
“Hi,” both men said at once.
Kenny, who knew Terri better than Jason, offered, “We were glad to hear that woman is feeling better.”
“Yes, thanks to you boys, I think she’ll be just fine.”
Jason added, “She called Tommy a hero and kissed him on the cheek.”
Trystan tried to clamp down on a sudden surge of jealousy at the thought of Alexa kissing anyone else, even platonically. “When did she do that, Jason?”
“This morning. He ran into her sitting on your mother’s porch,”
Kenny offered.
The Value of Valor
“What exactly did Tommy tell her?”
Both men shrugged. “Don’t know, ma’am,” Jason said, “but Tommy seemed to think she walked on water after that.”
Trystan jumped in, “Where is Tommy now?”
“Over at his place helping his father, I think.”
“Thanks,” Trystan called over her shoulder, as she and her mother took off at a jog in the direction of Tommy’s house.
When they arrived, Tommy was underneath a pickup truck changing the oil.
“Tommy?”
“Yeah?”
“We’d like to talk to you.”
The boy wheeled himself out from under the chassis. “What can I do for you?”
“Jason and Kenny say you saw Alexa this morning,” Terri began, as calmly as she could.
“Who?”
“The woman from the crash,” Trystan threw in impatiently.
“Oh, yeah.” The young man grinned goofily. “She’s very nice. Called me her hero.”
“Why would she say that? Did you have a conversation?” Terri interjected before her daughter could speak.
Tommy appeared suddenly uneasy, as if he was wondering if he was in trouble. “Um, yes, we did. She asked about the accident.”
“What did you tell her?” Trystan ground out between clenched teeth.
Tommy, who seemed a little frightened by Trystan’s fierce eyes, addressed Terri instead. “I told her what happened when we found her and about the meeting of the council.”
As Trystan coiled like a snake ready to strike, Terri reached out and put a restraining hand on her arm. “So you told her people tried to kill her?”
Tommy looked at his shoes and whispered, “Yes, ma’am. But only because she asked.”
“Did you tell her about the dead woman?”
“N-no. I-I couldn’t…”
“That’s okay, Tommy.” Terri’s tone was soothing. “What did you tell her about the council meeting?”
“I told her the elders ruled that she should be welcomed here and allowed to heal under our protection.”
Trystan growled low in her throat, and Terri squeezed the arm she was still holding.
“What was her reaction, Tommy?” Terri asked kindly.
Lynn Ames
He shrugged. “She seemed kind of surprised but okay. She thanked me for telling her.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know. I went on my way. I don’t know what she did.”
“Thank you. Good luck with the car.”
“Oh, this old beauty? She’ll run forever.” He seemed to brighten as the subject changed, perhaps thinking he wasn’t in too much trouble after all.
As Terri hurried away with Trystan on her heels, the healer said,
“Alexa wasn’t mentally or emotionally ready to digest that information. I knew that, it’s why I hadn’t told her and insisted you not tell her, either. I didn’t foresee someone outside of us taking the decision out of our hands. This is not good.”
“No kidding. Amá, what do you think she’d do, knowing what she does at this point?”
Terri spared her daughter a glance. They were both breathing hard as they ran. “It’s difficult to say with any certainty. I’m sure it was quite a shock to her. Remember that she knew nothing of herself before today.
This is a difficult first piece of information to swallow. I may not know who or what Alexa was before, but I can see and feel the goodness in her soul. That’s something held so deep within the spirit that not even amnesia can wipe it out. I find it hard to see her as the target of murderers. I’m guessing she’s having the same trouble and is struggling with the information.”
“Amá, that woman is as good and pure as it gets. It radiates off her in waves.”
“I know, Acheehen. That’s why I’m so worried about what this morning’s news might lead her to do.”
“We’ve got to find her.”
“Yes. The sooner the better.”
The Value of Valor
CHAPTER SIX
e’re not getting anywhere this way.” Trystan blew out a
“W frustrated breath. “We’ve been looking for hours.”
Darkness was almost upon them; both Trystan and Terri were frantic and frazzled.
“If you have a suggestion, I’m willing to listen.” Terri was worried about the forecast and the fact that Alexa would freeze if she were out overnight. The temperature was predicted to dip down into the low twenties.
Grasping at straws, Trystan offered, “We could get others involved, put together teams, and comb the canyon floor.”
Terri shook her head. “I’ve been trying so hard to limit Alexa’s exposure to others. The fewer people who know of her, the less likely that someone could mention her presence to the wrong people.”
“Amá,” Trystan’s tone was incredulous. “It’s not like our community is so big. Do you honestly believe there’s anyone on this part of the reservation who doesn’t know about
her?”
“I don’t know. I’ve just tried so hard to protect her. I haven’t even let folks see what she looks like.” And now she’s out here somewhere in danger of freezing to death.
“I know you have,” Trystan soothed. “Let’s look a while longer. If we haven’t found her in an hour, I’ll grab one of the four-wheel drive vehicles and search with headlights.”
Twenty minutes later, they reached a fork in the trail. “You go left, and I’ll go right. We’ll meet back here in thirty minutes, regardless of what we’ve found, okay?”
“I don’t want to lose you, too, Acheehen.”
Trystan laughed easily. “You couldn’t get rid of me if you wanted to.
Half an hour. Look at your watch,” she called as she started off down the right fork.
It was about twelve minutes later when Trystan noticed a slightly different pattern to the leaves on the ground. Carefully, she examined the area, trying to make sense of it. She stepped off the path, following a hunch. There, just off to the side shivering from the cold and curled up in Lynn Ames
the fetal position on a large, flat rock was Alexa. Trystan wasn’t sure whether she wanted to hug her or strangle her.
“Hi,” Alexa offered meekly.
Definitely hug her. Trystan hesitated only for a fraction of a second before enveloping Alexa in a heartfelt embrace. With her mouth against Alexa’s ear, she whispered fiercely, “God, I’ve been so worried about you.”
“I’m okay,” Alexa offered bravely.
“You’re so cold.” Alexa’s skin felt like ice. “Here, put this on.”
Hurriedly, Trystan removed a flannel shirt she’d thrown on over her long-sleeved T-shirt and helped Alexa slip into it. “What are you doing out here? No,” Trystan held up her hands before the other woman could answer. “Let’s get you out of here, then we can talk about the rest.”
Alexa stiffened. “I don’t want to go with you.”
“What?” Trystan tried hard to read Alexa’s eyes in the near darkness.
“My presence is putting you and your mother in danger. I can’t do that anymore.”
Trystan felt as though a fist had closed around her heart. “Alexa, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Trystan tried to help her down from her perch, but Alexa wouldn’t budge.
“I’m serious, Trystan. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to either of you, or anyone else for that matter, because of me.
