Love Inspired Suspense April 2015 #1

by Terri Reed

  Hearing the devastating news of Rosa’s death and learning Rosa had a son—a child Lana had known nothing about—had frozen another portion of Lana’s heart. A familiar feeling, one she’d been living with since the day she’d heard of her parents’ horrific deaths five years earlier.

  Adam had studied her as if he was trying to put the pieces of a puzzle together and didn’t like the picture emerging.

  She mentally shrugged. Everyone dealt with sorrow differently. Her way was to contain everything inside. Not the healthiest way, but the only way she knew how to cope with the loss and tragedies and traumas that plagued her life.

  “Officer Donovan.” The reedy wariness in her voice echoed inside her head, making her self-conscious of the fact she was in a vulnerable position with no ready means of escape. She smoothed her hands on the blanket as if somehow the motion would smooth her frayed nerves.

  “Miss Gomez, I was glad to hear you’re recovering well.”

  She doubted he’d felt much of anything regarding her health. He wanted information on the arrow. That was the only thing of importance. “I survived.”

  “Yes, you did.” He stepped closer. The light coming through the window reflected in his blue eyes and made them appear almost translucent. “I have some questions regarding the breakin at the museum last night.”

  “I hope I have answers.” Though she couldn’t think of anything she could say that might help him find the man who stole the artifact.

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  “It was late and I was working at my desk when I heard glass breaking. I went to see what was going on. I saw a man dressed all in white taking the Golden Arrow. I tried to stop him.” She fisted her hands at her sides. Frustration and anger and despair ran a race through her, making her head pound. “And lost.”

  Something warm and rough touched the back of her clenched hand. The dog licked her hand again before resting his head on the bed to stare at her, his dark eyes watching her intently. She extended her fingers to rub them against the dog’s snout.

  “Ace. Sit.”

  The dog obediently sat. Her fingers curled.

  “You didn’t see the intruder’s face?”

  She lifted her gaze to meet his. “He wore sunglasses. Not the dark type but the reflective kind that were popular in the 1980s.”

  “Aviators.”

  “That’s it. His face was covered, too, with a ski mask.”

  “Could you tell skin color?”

  “Caucasian, maybe. Definitely not African-American.”

  “Height?”

  She struggled to remember. “It happened so fast. I’m pretty sure he was taller than me.”

  “What did the intruder use to hit you over the head?”

  “The Golden Arrow.” She rubbed her dry lips. “I hope he didn’t ruin it.”

  “Do you have any idea why you were attacked?”

  Huh? “He came to steal the arrow.”

  “But he didn’t.”

  She shot upright. “What?” Pain shot through her temple and exploded inside her skull like a peony shell shot into the sky on the Fourth of July. She flopped back and stared at the officer. “What did you say?”

  “I talked briefly with dispatch. They said as far as the DC police could tell nothing was taken. Only one display case had been damaged.”

  “The intruder smashed the glass covering the Golden Arrow.” Confusion made her head pound. “The arrow was still in the display?”

  “Evidently. But the police won’t know for sure if anything is missing or not until someone from the museum can verify that. Apparently your boss is out of town.”

  She nodded as relief flooded her system. “If the thief didn’t take the arrow then why did he break in?”

  “You said your attacker was dressed in white? Not black.”

  “White. In fact, if he hadn’t been standing beside the display he would have blended in with the white marble walls.” She propped herself up on her elbows. “I need to go over there now.” Make sure for herself that the arrow was safe.

  “The doctor hasn’t released you yet.”

  She bit her lip and lay back. Panic washed through her as her thoughts spun. Had the thief damaged the arrow when he hit her over the head, rendering the artifact worthless? Or at the very least lessening its value? Was that why he left it behind? But even a piece of the arrow would be worth something to someone.

  She pinched the bridge of her nose in distress.

  “Could this have anything to do with your sister’s death?” Adam asked.

  Her breath stalled. Her gaze shot back to his. “I told you before, we weren’t close, so I don’t see how her death and the breakin could be related. She fell off a cliff while out walking in President’s Park at night. Right?” As far as she knew the police had yet to determine whether Rosa’s death was an accident or a robbery gone wrong. The thought of her sister’s broken body sent a shudder rippling over her skin.

  “What happened in California that brought your sister to DC?”

  His refusal to answer her question sent irritation flooding her system while his question pounded at her heart. She shook her head, then stopped as the motion set off another set of fireworks screaming through her brain. She waited a heartbeat for the pain to subside enough for her to talk. “After my parents’ death, she kind of went a little—”

  She sought a polite, kind word. “Nuts. She had expected to take over my parents’ restaurant when they retired—”

  Pain pierced Lana deep in her heart. She missed her parents so much. “But then the fire happened. An accidental grease fire, the arson investigator said. Our parents perished in the blaze and the restaurant was destroyed. My parents had let the restaurant’s insurance lapse—”

  To pay her college tuition. Guilt twisted her insides into a pretzel. “After all the debts were paid from their life insurance there was nothing left. Not even our childhood home. I invited Rosa to come live with my husband and me. She came out to DC, but only stayed a few days. I don’t know where she went after that. We lost touch until she showed up on my doorstep three years ago.”

  Right around the time Lana had filed for divorce and had moved out of the apartment she’d shared with Mark. Lana would never forget the chaos of those days. The pain and humiliation.

  “She stayed with me for a couple weeks, then she found her own place. The day she moved out was the last time I spoke with her.” The hurtful things her sister had said cut so deep and were never far from Lana’s mind. “I didn’t know she was working for Congressman Jeffries until I heard it on the news.”

  She hadn’t known about Juan, either. There was so much about her sister she hadn’t known.

  “What caused the rift between you?”

  She bristled as a tidal wave of guilt swamped her. “That has nothing to do with anything that’s happening now.”

  “Let me be the judge of that. It seems a little too coincidental that your sister meets an untimely death and then a month later there’s a breakin at your place of employment where you’re attacked, struck over the head and left for dead.”

  She shivered as his words sank in. “You believe my sister was murdered, don’t you?”

  He didn’t need to say a word. She could read the confirmation in the way his jaw hardened and his eyebrows twitched.

  Her hand pressed against her heart. “And now you think whoever killed my sister is after me?”

  TWO

  “You’re wrong,” Lana stated firmly. She struggled to sit up in the hospital bed.

  Feeling the need to offer help, Adam adjusted the pillow behind her back. She flinched. A flash of fear lit her dark eyes. Startled by her skittishness, he drew back, his hands up, palms facing out. Ace, however, must have read his intentions of help as acceptance. The dog stretched until his nose could nudge her hand.

  “Heel,” Adam commanded. Ace complied immediately.

  Lana kept her gaze on the dog. “The breakin had nothing to
do with me or my sister. The man wanted the arrow. I wasn’t even supposed to be working last night.”

  Adam wasn’t convinced the two incidents weren’t related. There had to be a connection. One sister murdered and then a random attack on the other? Not likely. “Who did know you’d be at the museum after hours?”

  She shrugged. “I suppose a few of the staff members. We’ve been so busy preparing the museum gala. I’d fallen behind on some of the details. I usually take my work home with me but with the rain and all, I decided to stay.”

  “Then it’s feasible that someone took advantage of your decision to stay after hours and used the excuse of a theft to attack you.”

  A visible tremor worked through her. “None of them would have any reason to hurt me.”

  She may want him to believe her answer but the uncertainty wavering in her voice said otherwise. There had to be a connection they weren’t seeing. He made a mental note to check into the background of all the museum’s employees. “Even if that is true, someone knew you’d be there. One of the staff members could have inadvertently let it slip you were working late.”

  She blew out a breath. “I suppose.”

  “Did you know less than twenty-four hours after your sister’s death Congressman Jeffries’s son was murdered? And the congressman was shot, as well?” Adam watched the woman lying in the bed, searching her face for…he wasn’t sure what. Guilt?

  Dark circles rimmed her worried eyes. Her long dark hair spilled over the white pillowcase, the stark contrast unsettling. The white bandage on her head was a reminder of the assault she’d suffered. The sudden urge to hurt whoever had injured her gripped him by the throat.

  The strong reaction was so uncharacteristic of him that he took a step back as if somehow distancing himself from Lana would temper his response to her situation. Ace rose, sensing his tension.

  She chewed on her bottom lip. “I’d heard that on the news, too. Did you find his killer?”

  Interesting that she’d ask about Jeffries’s killer, but not her sister’s.

  Did she know something? Had she been involved in her sister’s murder? She’d had an alibi for the time of death, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have arranged the whole thing.

  However, he had looked into her finances at the time and there had been no large sums of money leaving her accounts or anything to suggest she’d paid out for a hit on her sister.

  Yet, he couldn’t shake the nagging suspicion there was something going on with her, something she didn’t want him to know.

  “Did you know Michael Jeffries?” Her sister had worked for the congressman’s family for nearly three years. Adam didn’t buy that Lana hadn’t known where her sister worked.

  She moved her head to give a negative shake but then stopped, winced and said, “No.”

  At least she was consistent. “You’ve never met Congressman Jeffries or his son?”

  Anger flashed in her dark eyes. “Not Michael. I met the congressman when I came to the hospital to talk to Miss Danvers about Juan. Until then I’d never spoken to Congressman Jeffries before. I didn’t know Rosa worked for him until after her death. Why won’t you believe me?”

  “I find it hard to imagine two sisters not talking to each for such a long period of time.”

  He couldn’t go more than a day or two without talking to his older brother. Sure, there’d been years growing up where they’d fought like two caged animals.

  But, family was family. Joe and his wife, Ruth, and their two girls lived on the other side of the Potomac. Close enough to visit often.

  Adam enjoyed living near to them and would miss the Sunday night dinners and babysitting the girls so Joe and Ruth could have a date night if—when—his transfer to the Colorado Springs K-9 unit went through as Adam had requested. It would be hard leaving the elite K-9 team. They worked well together and he respected every member of the unit. And leaving Ace behind would tear his heart apart but his parents were getting on in years now and Adam felt the need to return home. To put down roots of his own.

  “It’s not that strange. Families become estranged from one another all the time. Just because we shared the same blood didn’t make us friends.”

  “True enough.” Though, personally, he wouldn’t let anything come between him and his brother. But it wasn’t his place to judge. “Do you know Erin Eagleton?”

  “We’ve spoken on the phone regarding the Eagleton Foundation. They give generous donations to the museum. And we talked about the Golden Arrow. She was as excited by the artifact as I was, but I’ve never met her in person.” Her eyebrows dipped together. “Has she been found? I’d heard she was missing.”

  He shook his head. Erin Eagleton was a senator’s daughter and the girlfriend of the victim. “She disappeared the night Michael was murdered.”

  And a necklace with a starfish charm engraved on the back with the initials EE, along with a child’s blue mitten, had been found at the crime scene. They hadn’t released that tidbit of information yet. Did the presence of the necklace—determined to be Erin Eagleton’s—at Michael’s murder scene make Erin the murderer or another victim? At least they knew the child who’d dropped the mitten—even if they still didn’t know which child—was at a safe house with the rest of the foster kids from the All Our Kids home. None of the children would admit to having been near the congressman’s home—out of fear. But one of them likely had seen who had killed Michael Jeffries and shot his father, Congressman Harland Jeffries. Had Erin Eagleton been a witness? The perpetrator? A victim? Where was she?

  Those questions plagued the Capitol K-9 Unit as they searched for Erin, grasping at any and all clues that might lead them to her and to Michael Jeffries’s murderer.

  “When was the last time you spoke with Erin?” he asked, hoping this woman would have some useable clue to Erin’s whereabouts.

  Lana frowned and appeared to be searching her memory. “Over a month ago.”

  “What did you talk to Erin about?”

  “Art. She and her family are patrons of the arts.” Lana’s voice took on an impatient edge. “The Eagletons have donated large sums of money to the museum. Erin Eagleton was the contact person for the Eagleton Foundation.”

  “Do you always talk to donors?”

  Her chin lifted. “Personal contact is important.”

  “Were you aware that Erin Eagleton was Michael Jeffries’s girlfriend?”

  “I’d heard that.” Puzzlement clouded her eyes. “What does any of this have to do with me? Or the attack at the museum?”

  “Do you know where Erin is now?”

  Lana let out an exasperated sigh. “We weren’t friends, Officer Donovan.” Her hand went to her throat. “You don’t think I had anything to do with her disappearance, do you?”

  Adam didn’t like all the unknown variables. First Rosa Gomez’s suspicious death, then Congressman Jeffries’s son murdered by an unknown assassin and the congressman shot and left for dead. Michael’s girlfriend, Erin Eagleton, now missing. Lana and Rosa were sisters. Lana and Erin knew each other.

  Now Lana had been attacked?

  Another piece in the ever-expanding puzzle? Or coincidence?

  Adam didn’t believe in coincidence. Yes, there were times life seemed random and out of control, but his faith in God gave him perspective. God was in control, but He allowed humans the free will to make choices.

  Choices that affected others, like murder and theft.

  Though Adam couldn’t see the big picture, God could and would reveal what needed to be known when the time was right. Until then Adam would work with the bits and pieces he had that collectively didn’t make sense. Yet.

  Reserving judgment on Lana’s role in this mystery, he said, “You might know something that could help us find her.”

  “I wish I did.” Concern shone in her eyes. Genuine? Or fake? “Erin seems like a nice person, but we only talked art. She’s very knowledgeable.”

  Whether Erin was nice or not re
mained to be seen. If she had murdered her boyfriend and shot his father, then no, Adam wouldn’t categorize Erin as nice. But if she witnessed the murder and had been kidnapped by the unidentified assassin, then Erin could be in grave danger.

  If not dead already.

  He shifted his focus back to Lana. “Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt you?”

  Her lips pursed. “Other than my ex-husband? No.”

  The file Adam had on her said there had been domestic violence issues. He couldn’t abide men who abused women.

  “Could the attacker have been your ex-husband?”

  Her gaze jerked back to him. Her nose wrinkled up as she contemplated his question. “I don’t think so. This man was bulky, like a bodybuilder. Mark isn’t a bodybuilder. He prefers alcohol over exercise.”

  Adam made a mental note to check on Mark’s whereabouts at the time of the breakin.

  The door to the hospital room swung open and the doctor walked in. There was no mistaking the disapproval in the older man’s eyes behind his black-framed glasses. No doubt the good doctor still had his feathers ruffled from earlier when Adam had wanted to question Lana the moment she’d first awakened in the wee hours of the morning.

  The doc had put the kibosh on Adam talking to her, telling Adam in no uncertain terms that his questions would have to wait until they knew Miss Gomez’s head injury hadn’t caused any permanent damage.

  The doctor turned his attention to his patient. “How are you this morning?”

  “I’m feeling better. Not even much of a headache,” Lana replied.

  The smile she gave the doctor was warm, lighting up her whole face, and it belied the wincing Adam had witnessed a moment ago. His gaze narrowed. She apparently was accomplished at putting on a good front.

  “Can I be discharged now?” Lana asked, in a hopeful voice.

  The doctor moved so that he blocked Adam’s view of Lana. “Let me do my examination and then we can decide.” Throwing a glance over his shoulder, the doctor sent Adam a pointed look. “Do you mind?”

  “I’ll be right outside,” Adam said for both the doctor and Lana’s sake. If what Adam suspected was true—that whoever killed Rosa Gomez was now targeting Lana—then he needed to know why. Lana may have useful information, even if she didn’t realize she did.