Redemption Lost

by Cindy M. Hogan

  Christy slid over and put her arms around Marybeth before the first tear fell. Christy pulled back and wiped tears from Marybeth’s eyes, which made Marybeth cry even more.

  “Don’t worry, Marybeth. We’ve got this.” Christy’s eyes glistened in the light. “We’ll find him. And if someone is after Alvarez, we won’t let anything happen to him. We’re going to find him. I promise.”

  Chapter 3

  CHRISTY

  The next day, Jeremy declared they’d be going back to work at the Senate building. The boys were still working on their various trails of investigation, and in the meantime, Jeremy still deemed it worthwhile to keep tabs on Senator Alvarez’s enemies. It was better than sitting at home, twiddling her thumbs, so Christy suited up and went to stand guard for Miller.

  Late in the morning, Senator Miller asked if Christy could stay on that evening as his security detail at a rally in West Virginia for his new health care initiative. They would fly out at lunch and get back late that night.

  “Of course,” she said. “I’d be happy to go wherever you might need me.”

  “Excellent. I’ll have my secretary get you the specs of the Charleston Civic Center so you can plan accordingly. They’re providing some security, of course, but I like to have my own men,” he cleared his throat and smiled, “er, women on the ground with me wherever I go.”

  She grinned. It was good to know that he didn’t care that she was a woman, he was simply accustomed to having male security.

  They flew on a chartered plane and arrived at the center an hour after take-off. She had looked over the plans and schematics Miller’s secretary brought over to her during her first break and perused them in her mind until they arrived.

  Lines of people waiting to get in the building snaked out from every entrance. The center was to be filled to capacity with over fourteen thousand people in attendance. Christy wished she could have brought Marybeth along. She would have loved it.

  As planned, Miller’s entourage was taken to a separate parking area under the center for the VIPs, then rushed up to a room at the top of the building that overlooked the swollen river that rounded one side of it. It was quite the spectacle. Christy watched as the lines grew and picketers arrived with their signs against the proposed bill.

  She stuck with the senator every moment and was only a few feet from him at the greatest distance when he spoke to the crowd. She scanned the attendees and the area the whole time, looking for anything suspicious. The crowds roared for the senator and his bill. Only moments after he spoke, they were rushed out, back up to the room from earlier. After a quick security sweep, she stood aside to let Miller enter. They had an hour before they had to be back down on the floor to schmooze with the most important financial donors.

  After the staff left, Miller had Christy escort him to a back room in the convention center, on the main floor near the offices, away from the rest of the people, but not far enough away that the pounding music didn’t muffle all sounds outside a one-foot radius. He stood outside the door and indicated he intended for Christy to open the door for him.

  She opened the door, ready to perform her security sweep, but stopped in her tracks at the sight of Senator Alvarez standing under a window, his hands clasped in front of him.

  “I’ll take it from here, Hamilton,” Miller said, brushing past her into the room.

  A flutter whispered through her gut and she hesitated, not pulling the door shut immediately as she glanced about the room. The two of them were alone together? What? But they were supposed to be enemies. Alvarez wasn’t on the list of attendees for the rally—what was he doing here?

  Senator Alvarez’s eyes landed on her, and she quickly pulled the door shut, her heart pounding and the hair standing up on the back of her neck. She took her place guarding the left side of the door, Alvarez’s strong-arm on the right.

  That was a strange turn of events. What could they possibly be talking about? She strained to hear anything that was being said, but their words were drowned out by the beat of the music and the thrum of voices just down the hall. Were they talking about the welfare reform or something totally different? She needed to understand more about the relationship between those two. Arch enemies did not meet in secret. She turned to the other guard. “I’ve got to run to the bathroom. Can you cover for me?”

  “Of course.” He grinned. The camaraderie between all the guards was a nice thing. She hurried down the hall and around the corner and went out the front door of the establishment. She slinked around the back side and located the window of the room Miller and Alvarez were in. The blinds were closed, but she was 99% sure she’d gotten the right window.

  Looking around for anything useful, she was relieved to spot a pile of crates near a back door that must have led to the kitchen. Quietly, she pulled a few of the crates under the window and climbed up, her senses on high alert.

  The window was so high, right under the eaves. She couldn’t look in, so she raised her arms and jumped, latching onto the window sill. She pulled herself up and moved one hand to a metal lip at the top of the window. It pinched at her fingers. With some effort, she was able to swing her other hand up and onto the edge of the roof. She swung her legs up and climbed onto the roof. From there, she leaned over the edge of the roof to look through the window.

  It was shut tight, and the overhang was too large to allow her to get her ear close enough to hear anything besides mumbled voices. She racked her brain for a solution. She could, of course, hang from the roof, but she wasn’t sure that would really help. She lay back and could barely hear the murmur of voices. She looked to her side to see a black pipe sticking up out of the roof. A tiny ventilation shaft. A thin waft of cigarette smoke floated out of it.

  She placed her ear over the pipe, holding her breath to avoid the foul stench of the cigarettes. Miller wasn’t a smoker. It must be Alvarez.

  She focused on the muffled sounds of their voices, concentrating until the garbled noises became words.

  “…part of this whether you like it or not.” It wasn’t Senator Miller speaking, so it must have been Alvarez.

  “No. I’m not a part of what is going on now. You have perverted the beautiful system, and I’m not willing to be a part of it anymore.”

  “There are two little things in your possession that say differently.” She could hear the taunt in Alvarez’s voice.

  The scrape of chairs being pushed back on the tile floor raced up through the vent. Then a loud slap, like someone hit their hands on a table. “How dare you!”

  “Like I said. You’re in.” Christy thought she heard the sound of feet walking across the hard floor, but she couldn’t be sure. “You block this bill or get in our way, and you’re going to be caught up in a mess.”

  The unmistakable sound of a door slamming shut hit her ears, and an exasperated yell warbled through the pipe. Meeting over. She scrambled off the roof. She was supposed to be guarding the door, and if Senator Alvarez just left, his guard would have gone with him. She had left her post unattended. She whipped around the corner and into the building.

  She pulled herself together as Senator Alvarez and his guard walked, or more accurately, stormed past. The guard looked at her with wide eyes and grimaced. She rushed past, hoping she wasn’t about to lose her job—and her cover. To her surprise, Senator Miller still hadn’t exited the room. He didn’t exit for good little while, so she had plenty of time to catch her breath and compose herself.

  The words of the senators’ confrontation rattled around in her brain, especially the part about Miller having two things that incriminated him.

  She hoped it would be simple enough to find out what those two things were that made him culpable in whatever devious acts the two senators were a part. It made her sad to think he wasn’t as good a guy as she’d hoped. She guessed no politician could make it to the big time without succumbing to some type of corruption, intended or not. But what did it have to do with Bradley’s disappearance? Anyt
hing? Probably not, because Alvarez had said two things, but that wasn’t exactly conclusive. In any case, something shady was definitely going on.

  A good five minutes passed before the senator came out and needed her to escort him to his car. He was no longer his jolly self. His face was pinched and his body stiff.

  She walked him to his car and stood watching as he drove away. As soon as he was out of sight, she whipped out her phone and dialed Ace’s number.

  “Yes, oh demanding one?”

  She rolled her eyes. “We need to start looking deeper into Miller.

  The next day, as she stood guard, Christy listened intently for anything that would give Senator Miller away. She heard nothing that was the least bit suspicious, but she could tell he was on edge. His normally calm voice barked orders more than once. Right before lunch, he came up to her. “I won’t be coming into the office for the rest of the week. Family vacation.”

  “Yes, sir.” That meeting with Alvarez had definitely set him off. She had to find out what those two things were that Alvarez was holding over his head.

  “I have my own private detail that comes with me.” He was brushing her off. She couldn’t help but feel she was losing something if he left without her. “If you need me, sir, I’m more than happy to oblige.”

  Sweat dripped down the side of his face and every pore in his body seemed to exude a fight or flight attitude. She wondered which he was going to employ. She couldn’t allow Senator Miller to get out of her sight. Not after what she’d heard last night.

  “I appreciate your dedication. I’ll report that to your superiors, but I’m covered for the rest of the week. Enjoy your first few days off.” He left the room, handing her the key that would lock it.

  She texted Jeremy. Change of plans. Got to follow the big guy. I’ll let you know where I land.

  * * *

  MARYBETH

  Marybeth’s phone vibrated. She stopped packing the Alvarez boys’ luggage and pulled the phone out of her pocket to see Christy’s name flashing on the screen. She quickly walked over to the door to shut it, but first looked down the hall to see the boys in their playroom, still sitting on the floor, looking intently up at their mom, who was reading them a book. She shut the door and answered the phone. “Christy?” she whispered, sitting down on the neatly made bed. “Have you found him?”

  After a slight pause, Christy said, “Not yet. But things with Miller are picking up a bit. Alvarez and Miller secretly met last night at Miller’s rally in West Virginia. Has that ever happened before?”

  “Are you serious? No—the two can hardly stand to be in the same room with each other. Are you sure?”

  “Positive. It was not pretty. Alvarez threatened to expose two things about Miller that would get him in trouble.”

  Marybeth’s brow furrowed. “That doesn’t sound like Senator Alvarez. Are you sure you heard it right?”

  “I didn’t get to hear the whole conversation, so we may be missing something crucial. But it definitely seemed like there is a history between these two that could play a role in what happened to Bradley. In any case, I’ll follow up on it. We’ll see what this all means. I just wanted to let you know I’m headed out. Miller is suddenly taking a vacation. I think it’s wise to stick with him at this point. He didn’t ask me to go with him, so I’m following him.”

  “No surprise there,” Marybeth said. “Happens all the time with the people in Washington. It’s like they can’t take it anymore all of a sudden, and they get out of town. Senator Alvarez is more prepared and planned to do that, though. The vacation we’re headed on tomorrow has been on the books for three weeks now.”

  “Alvarez is going somewhere and you’re going with?” Christy asked.

  “Yeah. We’re going to the River Resort off the Chesapeake Bay. It’s somewhere a lot of congressmen go. Exclusive. Fancy, but relaxing.” Marybeth was looking forward to getting out of town. She figured Alvarez would be safer outside the city, too.

  There was a pause on the other end of the line. “Christy?”

  “Did you say the River Resort? That’s where Miller is headed.”

  “No! What if Miller’s going because he found out Alvarez was going there and is planning on doing something to him while there?”

  “Hold on,” Christy interrupted.

  “No, seriously,” Marybeth said, not letting Christy finish. “Think about it, Miller wasn’t planning on going anywhere, but then he fights with Alvarez and suddenly Miller is changing his plans? Going to the same resort?” Marybeth stood up, fear and anger racing through her.

  “It is a little suspicious, but let’s not leap to conclusions yet. You said yourself that lots of Congressmen go there and it was normal for many congressmen to go last minute. Don’t read too much into this. And try not to worry too much—I’ll be there, making sure nothing happens.”

  Marybeth took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves. “You said Alvarez said he had something on Miller.” She started pacing the room. “That makes me see his actions in a very different light.”

  “It was Alvarez threatening Miller. Not the other way around.”

  “But it was Miller who had something to hide. Alvarez probably wasn’t threatening him; he was warning him.” Marybeth felt hot, her nerves shot.

  Christy sighed. “I didn’t hear the whole conversation, but it sounded like Alvarez had the upper hand. Besides, Miller’s going with his whole family. I doubt very much that he intends to do anything against Alvarez. He probably doesn’t even know Alvarez is going to be there.”

  “I bet he does. Senator Miller is no pushover. He’s cunning and crafty. Alvarez on the other hand…I can see him getting pushed around. He’s too nice. I tell him that all the time.”

  “Take comfort in what I said and know I’ll be there watching. When are you headed down?”

  “Mr. Alvarez is heading over there now. It’s easier for him to go straight from work. We’re not going over until tomorrow morning.” She sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, Christy, if anything happens to him…”

  “I’ll make sure nothing does.”

  “I can’t help but be afraid for him.” She couldn’t shake that scared, awful feeling inside that something might happen to Senator Alvarez. The fact that they still didn’t know what had happened to Bradley just made her even more uneasy.

  “I get it. Just remember that it would definitely be awkward to kill somebody when you’re on a family vacation.”

  While Marybeth felt much more calm knowing Christy and her team were on the job, she was still a little worried. She didn’t trust Miller. She would die if anything happened to those sweet children down the hall, their mother or father. She couldn’t let anything happen to them.

  “Relax,” Christy said. “We’ve got this covered.”

  “Okay. I’m doing my best.”

  “Gotta go.”

  “Bye.” It would be silly not to believe and trust in Christy and her team. She shook off her worry and got back to the work of packing the kids’ luggage and backpacks. Then she’d start on her own.

  Chapter 4

  CHRISTY

  Christy hung up with Marybeth just as Senator Miller left the building. She followed him discreetly out into the parking garage and watched as he got in a black Mercedes. She ran down a level in the over-crowded underground parking garage and jumped into her car. As soon as he passed her car, she pulled out to follow him, keeping a safe distance and allowing room for three cars to pull out in front of her. The first was a screen but the next two were his tails—his guards and his personal guard. They had gotten a glimpse of her black Toyota Camry, but it was a common enough car that they wouldn’t pay it much attention.

  She didn’t necessarily need to follow him to his house, she knew where it was, but she couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t make any stops along the way. If he stopped anywhere along the way, she needed to know—especially if he picked up anything or talked to anyone that might harm Alvarez. If so, she’
d have to get Halluis to come join her and get Ace to tighten his surveillance.

  Even though it was only early afternoon, the streets of D.C. were packed, and they moved along at a snail’s pace. The Capitol rose up to the south as Christy drove west along Constitution Ave. to 3rd Street. She lost Miller once as she gawked in her mirror at the towering memorials on the National Mall and the gardens where trees were beginning to turn the bright colors of fall. Miller and his tails entered the freeway tunnel that ran under that very same National Mall. Christy’s awe turned to stress at that moment. With bumper to bumper traffic, she had to be on constant alert, straining to keep track of the three cars.

  Almost immediately, she lost sight of the senator’s car and one of his tails. She craned her neck and shifted in her seat, hoping to catch a glimpse of them before they left the tunnel. The car in front of hers stopped suddenly and she slammed on the brakes, eyes shifting to the rearview mirror to see if she was about to be hit from behind. The tires squealed, and her heart raced as the SUV behind her loomed closer, but there was no contact.

  Still no eyes on those two cars. Christy clenched her teeth to keep from saying something she might regret later. As she exited the tunnel, she rubbed her stiff neck, the worst of the traffic behind her. She switched from a southerly direction on the one freeway to a westerly one on another. She took several deep breaths and worked on ridding her body of the stress of the last half hour, glad that it was still light outside. She sped up and searched for the three cars. It only took a few minutes to find the trailing car and from there, it was easy to find the other two. The senator was a good fifteen cars ahead. Christy let herself relax and fell back a little further, turning on some easy music to accelerate winding down.