Military K-9 Unit Christmas: Christmas Escape ; Yuletide Target

by Valerie Hansen

  A wave of sorrow hit hard as she thought about her brother’s death in Afghanistan nine months ago. This would be her first Christmas without him.

  “What do you mean, no?” Sean asked, interrupting her maudlin thoughts.

  She frowned, not understanding at first, until she remembered his earlier question. “No, I didn’t trip. I was pushed.”

  “Pushed? On purpose?” The echo of disbelief in his tone grated on her nerves. She was tired of being treated as if she was losing her mind. Ever since she’d been sent back to base three months ago and reported the strange incidents she’d experienced, she’d heard the whispers.

  Cuckoo. Crazy. Delusional.

  And knew that’s exactly what the person watching her intended.

  Not just watching, she mentally corrected herself. Things had escalated beyond discrediting her. Being pushed into the path of an oncoming vehicle was far more serious.

  He or she had escalated from trying to make her look crazy to attempting to kill her.

  “Hey, is she okay?” A guy dressed as she was in a battle dress uniform came running over. She understood he was the driver of the truck. “I swerved to avoid hitting her.”

  A move that had likely saved her life.

  “I’m Staff Sergeant Morris,” Sean said. “I’m a cop, so I’ll need to take your statement.”

  Sean held a rank one level above hers, and she squelched a wave of frustration at her recently denied promotion. She kept her gaze on the truck driver. “Did you see what happened?”

  “It looked like you tripped and fell,” the driver said.

  Jacey swallowed a wave of frustration. “Neither one of you saw anyone behind me? Someone walking away from the corner?”

  The two men exchanged a long glance.

  “I’m sorry, Jacey, but I didn’t notice anyone nearby,” Sean admitted. “I was walking in this direction from the parking lot near the south gate, so I didn’t have a great view. I only saw the truck swerve seconds before you went flying onto the pavement.”

  “When I noticed you at the corner, I was already in the process of moving over out of the way when you stumbled forward,” the driver said, picking up his side of the story. “I yanked the steering wheel to avoid hitting you. Are you sure you’re okay? No broken bones?”

  “I’m fine,” she insisted, although the bumps and bruises were making themselves known. Her entire body would be sore tomorrow.

  “Staff Sergeant, I need to make a delivery to the hospital,” the driver said.

  “As soon as the ambulance arrives, I’ll take your statement for the record,” Sean said. “I’m off duty, but as the first cop on the scene, it’s my job to make sure this gets reported.”

  Jacey noticed Sean wasn’t dressed in his Special Forces uniform. He was a base cop? And hadn’t seen anyone push her into traffic?

  She shivered, a cold wave of despair washing over her. If she couldn’t get an old high school friend to believe someone had lashed out at her on purpose, who would?

  * * *

  Reeling from seeing Jacey again after all these years, not to mention her allegation of being pushed into the truck’s path, Sean did his best to stay focused on the task at hand.

  While the EMTs examined Jacey, he nudged the box-truck driver aside. “Name and rank, please,” he said, pulling out his notebook.

  “Senior Airman Charlie Egan,” the driver replied. “I really did my best to avoid hitting her.”

  “I know,” Sean assured him. “If not for your quick reflexes, this could have ended much worse.”

  “Yeah.” Charlie looked somber. “Do you really think she was pushed?”

  “No reason not to believe her,” Sean said. He fervently wished that he’d seen someone leaving the area where Jacey had been standing, but he hadn’t. His entire being had been zeroed in on Jacey’s body lying in a crumpled heap on the ground. “You didn’t see anyone near her either, correct?”

  “Afraid not.” Charlie rubbed the back of his neck. “Is it okay if I leave now? I don’t want to be late delivering these supplies.”

  “Sure.” Sean tucked his notebook away. “I’ll be in touch if I need anything.”

  “Okay.” Charlie loped down the street toward his vehicle.

  Sean turned his attention to Jacey Burke, annoyed when he noticed she was pushing the EMTs out of the way.

  “I’m fine, see?” She stood and took a few steps. “If I thought I had broken bones, I’d go in for X-rays. But I’m fine.”

  “Ma’am,” one of the EMTs started, but she cut him off.

  “I’ll sign a waiver. That way you can go help someone who needs it.”

  “Jacey, you need to go to the hospital,” Sean said in a stern tone. “I won’t take no for an answer.”

  Her gaze narrowed. “Really? How will you stop me?”

  He glanced at the two EMTs. “Please give us a moment alone.” The two EMTs backed off and Sean made sure to lower his voice so that their conversation couldn’t be overheard. “You said someone pushed you into the truck’s path, correct?”

  Her gaze turned wary. “Yes.”

  “Then I need a hospital report to go along with your allegation so that your injuries are documented.”

  She appeared to consider his point. “Does this mean you believe me?”

  “I have no reason not to,” he said, repeating what he’d told the truck driver.

  “Fine. I’ll go to the ER.”

  “In the ambulance,” he persisted.

  She grimaced but reluctantly nodded. “I guess.”

  “Thanks.” He put a hand on her back, gently urging her toward the EMTs. “Airmen? She’s ready to go.”

  When Sean moved away, she grabbed his arm. “Wait. Aren’t you coming with me?”

  “I’ll meet you there,” he promised. “I’m going to look over the scene here one more time, then head over to get my car so that I can drive you home.”

  The warmth of her hand on his arm was distracting. He thought about the way he’d admired her from afar back in high school, then reminded himself that they were different people now.

  Especially him. Staying away from his abusive stepfather had been his top priority. After his mother’s death from cancer, he’d joined the air force and never looked back.

  Besides, he wasn’t in a good place. Recently, his confidence had taken a hit after the way he’d failed Liz Graber, a woman he’d promised to protect. Her death hung like a dark cloud over him.

  The ambulance slowly drove away, and he forced himself to jump into action. He swept the area for clues, but found nothing. He lived in one of the apartments on base but kept his car in a parking area several miles away. He preferred walking while on base but liked having a vehicle handy for those times he needed to get away. He’d moved his grandmother to a small house not far from Canyon and made weekly trips to see her as his schedule allowed. In fact, he’d just returned from a visit with Gram when he’d come across Jacey’s collision.

  Sean picked up his car and arrived at the base hospital roughly fifteen minutes later. He had to wait another five minutes before they allowed him to see her. Jacey was lying on a gurney, dressed in a hospital gown, her face pale and her dark brown hair falling out of its ponytail. She looked relieved when he stepped into the cubicle.

  “They took X-rays and a CT scan of my head. I’m just waiting for the results.” She lifted her hands, palms upward. “Just a few scrapes and bruises, nothing more serious. You really needed a hospital visit to go along with the police report?”

  “Jacey, if not for the truck driver’s quick thinking, you might not even be alive,” he reminded her. “It’s best to get everything that happened on record so that when we find this guy, we can press the appropriate charges.”

  She looked as if she wanted to say more, but at that moment, a doctor push
ed into the room. “I’m Captain Grant Simons. I reviewed your X-rays and your CT scan—everything looks fine. I suggest you take six hundred milligrams of ibuprofen every six hours for the next two days.”

  “I will.”

  Dr. Simons did a quick physical exam, noting the bruises on her knees and the scrapes on her palms. Sean was glad to see the thick fabric of Jacey’s battle dress uniform helped protect the skin on her knees; it was obvious her hands had taken the brunt of the collision.

  “Am I free to leave now?” Jacey asked.

  “Yes. Don’t forget to return to the ER if your symptoms get worse.”

  Jacey nodded and Sean stepped back out of the cubicle to give her privacy to get dressed.

  He pulled out his phone to call his boss, Master Sergeant Doug Hanover, but before he could scroll to find the number, Jacey emerged from the room.

  “Who are you calling?” she asked sharply.

  He was taken aback by her terse tone and slipped his phone into his pocket. “I was going to call my master sergeant, Doug Hanover, but it can wait.”

  She brushed past him, as if anxious to get out of the hospital. It wasn’t until they were outside and settled in his Honda Civic that she turned to look at him. “I’m sure you’ve heard about me from the other Special Forces cops.”

  “Um, no, not really.” Probably because he’d been preoccupied with how he’d failed Liz Graber. He started the car and waited until she snapped her seat belt into place before backing out of the parking space. “Where do you live? In the base apartment complex on Oakland?”

  “Yes, in the south building.” She gnawed on her lower lip, as if mentally debating how much more she should tell him. “The report you’re going to file tonight isn’t the first one. There are a couple of other reports on file from me.”

  He tightened his grip on the wheel as a flash of frustration toward Jacey surged. “Are you telling me you’ve been shoved into the path of a truck before?”

  “No, that’s a first. The previous reports are nothing this serious. Tonight’s event has escalated to a whole new level.”

  Sean tried to relax his grip. “Okay, so what has transpired before tonight?”

  “Stupid stuff,” she said, waving a dismissive hand. “Like moving my paperwork, hiding my keys, that kind of thing. But I’ve been trying to get the Special Forces cop I’ve been dealing with to take my concerns seriously.” Her lips thinned. “Maybe after tonight, he will.”

  “Who have you been working with?”

  “Senior Airman Bill Ullman.” There was a brief pause, then she said, “I’ll be honest—he never believed me. Thought I was making everything up as a way to get attention.”

  He frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “No, it doesn’t. I even went over his head to his boss, Master Sergeant Hanover, but he brushed me off, too. And you should also know that I’ve heard rumors that people think I’m crazy.”

  “You’re not,” he instinctively protested.

  “Thanks, but you’d be in the minority thinking that.” There was a hint of bitterness in her tone.

  He pulled up in front of the same apartment complex he lived in and put the gearshift into Park. “Why don’t you tell me why someone is trying to hurt you?”

  She shook her head helplessly for a moment, staring out her passenger-side window. Then she sighed and turned to face him. “I guess you’ll find out sooner or later.”

  He nodded, waiting for her to continue.

  “I’ve been back on Canyon Air Force Base since October, but prior to that, Greta and I were deployed in Kabul, Afghanistan. Greta is a bomb-sniffing dog and our job was to find IEDs before they could injure any members of the military. Greta and I worked tirelessly for six months, finding close to fifty buried bombs. I was called in to speak to Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Turks for what I assumed would be a promotion.”

  He inwardly tensed, sensing a promotion was not on the agenda.

  “The time of the meeting was nineteen hundred hours, long after his office staff were gone for the day. The lieutenant colonel attempted to assault me.” Her tone was flat, as if she were reciting from the air force handbook instead of an act of violence. “I managed to get away before he succeeded, and when I heard Greta and I were denied our promotion, I filed charges against him.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that you had to go through that,” Sean said in a low voice. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy, but I’m glad you filed charges. Too many women wouldn’t have had the courage.”

  “Yeah, well I can understand why. Because it became a he-said-she-said scenario. My allegation was deemed not credible.” She used her fingers to put air quotes around the phrase.

  His gut clenched. “Why?”

  “Because the lieutenant colonel was able to eliminate any evidence that he requested the meeting in his office. His story was that I came in uninvited and made a move on him in an effort to secure my promotion.”

  “That’s ridiculous!”

  “I know. But it doesn’t matter. Greta and I were sent back to base as if we’d done something wrong.” She was silent for a long moment before she lifted her gaze to his. “I believe that being pushed into oncoming traffic was a way to silence me, forever.”

  Sean sat back, stunned by her theory. As a cop, he needed to consider all options. It didn’t make much sense that a lieutenant colonel would try to kill a lowly senior airman over an allegation that wasn’t even taken seriously.

  But if this recent attack on Jacey wasn’t connected to Turks, then what was it related to?

  Who hated her enough to kill her?

  TWO

  Jacey hated reliving the moment when Lieutenant Colonel Turks roughly grabbed her and tried to force himself upon her. The stale scent of cigarette smoke was still enough to make her gag. If not for her older brother Jake’s insistence on teaching her self-defense, coupled with her basic training, she may not have gotten away unscathed.

  She swallowed hard, shoving the memory aside. At least Sean believed her, maybe because he’d known her back in high school.

  Ten years that seemed like ten lifetimes ago.

  “Who else knows about your allegations against Turks?”

  “Who doesn’t?” She did her best to hide the bitterness in her tone. “I’m sure the notification went into my file, flagging me as a troublemaker. I could tell because when I first arrived at the training center, Master Sergeant Westley James wasn’t thrilled to be saddled with me. Thankfully, he’s mellowed a bit since then, because I’m getting good results with the K-9s I’m training.”

  “Lieutenant Colonel Turks isn’t on base, too, is he?” Sean asked.

  She shook her head. “No, he’s still in Kabul.” It made her sick to think about how Turks may have already found his next victim.

  Doubtful she was the first or the last. It only took a few bad officers to taint what most considered a noble profession.

  Serving their country.

  “Hard to believe that he could set up an attack on you from Afghanistan.”

  Her hopes of being believed quickly deflated. “I know.” She unlatched her passenger-side door. “Thanks for the ride.”

  “Wait.” Sean snagged her arm, preventing her from leaving. “I’m not saying I don’t believe you, Jacey. I’m only thinking out loud here. Anyone sympathetic to Turks could be involved.”

  “Not just sympathetic to him,” she argued. “It would take more than mere sympathy to attempt to kill me.” And people thought she was nuts?

  Trying to kill her—that was truly insane.

  “You’re right,” he agreed. “I’ll keep that in mind as I continue to investigate.”

  She glanced at him. “As much as I’d like that, you need to know Senior Airman Bill Ullman is the Special Forces cop assigned to my case. Master Sergeant Hanover wouldn’t replac
e him.”

  “So you said. But since I was on the scene tonight, I’ll pressure Hanover to let me take the case over. He’d have no reason not to.”

  She hoped he was right. Bill Ullman had made no secret of the fact that he didn’t like her and didn’t believe her. Then again, neither did Hanover.

  No one did. Except for Sean.

  “Any chance you’d be willing to stay in a motel off base for the night? I’d rather know for sure you’re safe.”

  “I can’t.” It was odd, but despite the fact that she’d narrowly escaped harm from the earlier incident, she’d feel even more vulnerable off base. “I have to work in the morning, and besides, I don’t own a car. Getting back and forth via taxi would be pricey.”

  Sean grimaced, then nodded. “Okay, I get it.” He reached into the glove box and pulled out a small service weapon. “Stay put for a second. I’ll walk you inside.”

  She knew that Sean was just being extra cautious, but it was nice to have him at her side as they approached the apartment building. The scent of his woodsy aftershave made her keenly aware of him.

  Knock it off, she told herself sternly. Getting involved with Sean wasn’t an option. He was putting his career on the line just by associating with her. Expecting anything more than friendship would be ludicrous.

  They took the stairs to the third floor. “Do you live in the complex, too?” she asked.

  “Yeah, but in the north building and on the fourth floor.” Sean held the door at the top of the stairwell open for her. “Which unit is yours?”

  “Three-ten.” Outside her door, she pulled out her keys, but Sean took them from her fingertips.

  “Stand behind me.” He unlocked her door, then pushed it open. He entered the apartment first, weapon ready as he cautiously entered, making sure it was safe. She followed close behind, a little embarrassed at the small, crooked tree sitting on her kitchen table. No real trees were allowed due to the potential fire hazard.

  And since Jake’s passing, she’d found it difficult to get into the Christmas spirit.

  “Thanks for the lift,” she said, as Sean returned to the main living area, tucking his weapon away.