Shadow of Suspicion

by Christy Barritt

  “Can you tell us about any landmarks?” Mark asked.

  “Who...who are you?”

  “He’s a detective, Sarah,” Laney said. “You can trust him.”

  “I...I don’t know. There’s an old barn out back. I’m in a house. I think it’s three stories. It also has a basement. It’s surrounded by nothing but woods.”

  Laney glanced at Mark. It wasn’t a lot to go on.

  “You’re doing great. Is there anything else you can remember?” Laney asked.

  “Oh—there’s a river behind the house. A small one. A stream more like it.”

  At least it was something.

  “Did you get away?” Laney asked.

  “No, but the guys forgot to lock my door. I found my purse in the closet while I was looking for keys. I grabbed my phone and slid the battery back in so I could call.”

  “Is there anyone there with you?” Mark asked.

  “Yes, there are a few guys here still. I heard them coming, so I went back to my room and closed the door. I figured if I had my phone, I had enough. I knew I could call you.”

  “We’re going to find you, Sarah,” Laney whispered.

  “I hear someone coming. I’ve got to go, Laney. Please, come get me. Please! You’re the only one who can help.”

  With those words, the line went dead.

  Laney turned to Mark. “What do you think?”

  “That’s why she said your name when she called her dad right after she was abducted,” Mark muttered. “We thought it was because the kidnapper looked like you—and she did. But I’d guess Sarah said your name because she was asking for you.”

  “What can we do?”

  “I can call my contacts with the FBI.”

  Laney nodded. “While you do that, I’ll see what I can figure out.”

  “What do you mean?” A knot formed between his eyebrows.

  She opened the laptop, her mind racing. “I can pull up mapping programs that will show aerial views of the area. Maybe we can come up with a good guess, at least.”

  “It’s worth a shot.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m good at my job, Mark. I promise.”

  “I have no doubt. The breadth of what you’re able to do just continues to amaze me.”

  Without wasting any more time, Laney accessed a satellite feed and narrowed the results around the small town of Crozet. The program she was using allowed her to apply a filter. She typed in stream and woods.

  The results were still too numerous. She had no choice but to look at the town area by area until she found a place that fit the description Sarah had given them.

  Failing wasn’t an option right now.

  Beside her, Mark talked on the phone to someone with the FBI. He started back down the road toward Staunton. They didn’t have any time to waste.

  Mark hung up. “Any luck?”

  She shook her head, still staring at the screen. “Not yet. You?”

  “The FBI is sending a team out this way. They also have a team at the office working on it. They’re trying to trace the call, but it was so brief that it will be difficult. It looks like the phone was turned off after she called because the GPS on it isn’t working. Between everything, I pray we can find her.”

  “Me too.” She stared harder at the map. She’d managed to find houses on small rivers with no barns, houses with barns but no river, and a house with a barn on a river but no woods.

  Thankfully the area wasn’t too large. Still, this would be tedious.

  “We’re about ten minutes away,” Mark said. “Any idea of which direction I should head when we get there?”

  “Not yet. But give me those ten minutes and I’ll tell you.” Urgency pressed on her even harder. What was she missing? The answers were there. She just had to look more carefully.

  She paused at one area of the map and blinked.

  Was that two houses beside each other? Or was one of the buildings a barn?

  She zoomed in as close as she could, but the image was pixelated. She zoomed out again. The property had woods and a stream. There were two buildings, one was possibly a barn.

  She hadn’t found anything else and this seemed to be their best plan of action.

  Then she remembered the tracker she’d placed on the server. In all the excitement, she’d forgotten about it.

  She quickly logged on and checked the location tracker.

  Bingo!

  It had worked.

  “I know where we need to go,” she muttered. “I know where Sarah is.”

  * * *

  Mark’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel as they got closer and closer to the location where Sarah was being held. His mind turned over various scenarios, and none of them turned out well. Not with him going in on his own. He knew the FBI were still twenty minutes out, at least.

  “You can’t help me any more than you already have, Laney,” Mark muttered, anticipating that she would want to assist him, but knowing that was a bad, bad idea.

  He braced himself for her reaction. His muscles felt stiff and his mind couldn’t slow down. The stakes here couldn’t be higher—for Mark, for Laney, or for the country.

  “I have to go.” She crossed her arms and raised her chin in that stubborn manner Mark had seen many times. “I care about Sarah too, Mark. I want to help.”

  “It’s dangerous for you to be there. If those men get their hands on you...”

  “You’ll be with me.”

  He shook his head, knowing this was no time to have a hero complex. “I’m not a superhero, Laney. I can do my best to keep those men away, but I don’t know what we’re up against.”

  “I do.”

  He froze. “What do you mean?”

  Laney proceeded to give him a rundown on the Old Guard. He’d heard of the organization before, but he never dreamt they could be involved now. Yet, at the same time, everything made sense. The accents. The motivation. The computer scheme.

  Anxiety mounted between his shoulders. This could be even worse than he’d imagined. The terrorist organization had been known for random bombings. Apparently, they’d moved on to cyber terrorism, though.

  He knew one thing: the members of the Old Guard would do anything to get what they wanted. Including murder.

  “I need to keep you safe,” he said.

  “I’ll never be safe, Mark. Not while they’re out there. And I may be the only one who can stop them. I know how they think. I know how their computer systems work.”

  “What exactly do you think they’re planning?”

  “Best I can tell? They’re going to hack into the US Treasury. They take our money. Watch our economy nose-dive. This country would never be the same.”

  “You think that’s possible?”

  “I know it’s possible. Once the terrorists wreak havoc there, it will be the taxpayers who have to cover the damage. Records would be destroyed, accounts frozen, funds drained.”

  “You can stop them?”

  “I already blocked their server. But if I can get into their computer, I can ensure they haven’t taken any part of my work to use for their evil. That’s what I fear they’re preparing to do—to use my work to destroy good things.”

  The tension in his shoulders pulled tighter, stronger. “You’re our most valuable asset right now. That’s why you need to remain hidden.”

  She shifted in her seat to face him better. “Please. I want to go with you. I’ll be smart. I promise.”

  “I have reservations about this. A lot.” He had a feeling she wouldn’t take no for an answer. And, once they got there, Laney was their best chance at accessing any computer information that might allow them to get past security systems and the like.

  “I can do thi
s,” Laney pleaded.

  He finally nodded. “Okay. You can help—but you have to let me call the shots. Agreed?”

  “Agreed.” She pointed toward a road in the distance. “Turn here. We’re almost there.”

  Ten minutes later, they pulled off on a dirt road and concealed Mark’s vehicle in the woods. They were going to have to go the rest of the way on foot in order to not announce their arrival.

  Mark only prayed everything worked out.

  * * *

  Laney braced herself for whatever they might find. She knew this was risky. Really risky.

  But it was worth the danger if it meant saving Sarah. Those men could do whatever they wanted to Laney—she wouldn’t give them any of the information they were seeking. She’d give up her life if she had to.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Mark asked as they tromped through the woods.

  Laney nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be fine. One way or another.”

  He reached over and squeezed her hand, not letting go this time. “Losing you isn’t an option, you know.”

  She craned her neck toward him. “It’s not, is it?”

  “I’ve lost too many people I care about, Laney.”

  Heat rushed to her cheeks. She cared about this man. She really did. Against all odds. Maybe even against common sense.

  She touched his cheek, tracing his beard with her fingers. “I don’t know how this will play out, Mark. But if anything goes wrong, it’s because I insisted on being here. Always remember that.”

  Emotion flickered in his gaze. “Part of me wants to turn around right now and forget about all of this.”

  “We both know you can’t do that. There’s more on the line here than me and you and even Sarah.”

  He pressed his lips together, his expression looked grim.

  Seeing him like that squeezed at Laney’s heart.

  But this wasn’t the time to think about romance. There were other more important matters at hand.

  He traveled through the forest until they reached the edge of the property. The sun was sinking low as they darted toward the side of the building.

  Laney crouched down into the underbrush, careful to remain out of sight.

  “Mark, someone is coming,” she whispered.

  They waited as a man and a woman came out of the back door and walked toward the woods. Smoke expelled from the woman’s lips. They’d come outside for a cigarette.

  “We’re packing up and leaving tonight. It’s just a matter of time before they find us,” the man said.

  Sol. Was that Sol? She cut a glance at Mark, and she sensed he was thinking the same thing.

  “What will the police think when you disappear?” the woman with him asked. It was the brunette. The one whose hair was cut like Laney’s. The one they’d seen at the park. She spoke with an accent, similar to the one she’d heard on the men in her hotel room.

  Laney only hoped they didn’t travel any farther than the property line. If they did, she and Mark would certainly be discovered. The good news was that backup was on its way. But would they arrive in time?

  “After the questioning I got today?” Sol took another long draw of his cigarette. “The police suspect I’m involved in this. At least that one detective does. He seems like the determined type.”

  “How did they discover you? We covered all of our tracks.”

  “We messed up that day at the park. From a distance, I wanted the police to think that it was Laney coming to pick up the money. But Laney was with the police. It was a close call.”

  “Smart thinking putting in the envelope the fake passport and license that I would need in order to escape the country,” the brunette said. “At least I got that, in case we had to abort our mission prematurely.”

  Sol jammed his cigarette onto the railing surrounding the heating unit before dropping the butt on the ground and scowling. “Laney Ryan has nearly ruined our entire plan. We knew she was smart. She put things together much more quickly than I thought she would. That’s why we should have killed her when we had the chance.”

  “She made the perfect scapegoat,” the woman said. “She should be in jail right now, taking the fall for Sarah’s disappearance. All the pieces were in place.”

  “But, it’s like I just said, she was too smart. She figured things out and fought harder than I gave her credit for. Now she put up a firewall, which has messed up our entire plan.” Sol grumbled something beneath his breath.

  “We need her to unlock it.” The smell of smoke became stronger and Laney tensed.

  Mark would be able to take down the two of them. But how many others were waiting at their beck and call? How would they get Sarah without the men hurting her?

  “It’s too late for all of that. We just need to get out of here before our entire plan is uncovered. Staying here puts everything on the line and we can’t risk that.”

  “So we’ll go back to Romania?” the woman asked, sounding sincerely surprised. “I was thinking an island in the north pacific maybe.”

  “We go back to our home country. With Sarah. We’ll start a new life. We’ll work from there. That’s the nice part about the internet. We can do whatever we want wherever we want. We’ll find another Laney who will help us.”

  “How will we do that?”

  “We just have to do our research and know what the currency of our next victim is first,” Sol said. “Laney’s was easy—she wanted the luxury of being able to stay within the safety of her home. She wanted to pick up where her husband left off and protect the country.”

  Anger surged through her. They’d planned out everything. Everything. They’d researched her past. Probably looked into her bank records. They knew what made her tick. How she operated. What was important to her.

  And she’d been stupid enough to fall for it. She would never put herself in that position again.

  “Of course, it helped that she no longer had a husband. The poor man died in the home invasion.” Sol chuckled.

  “A home invasion, huh?”

  “That’s what the police called it,” Sol said.

  Laney’s entire body went tense. What were they saying? That... She couldn’t make herself go there. She couldn’t let herself believe it.

  “What do you call it?” the woman asked.

  “Collateral damage. Sometimes, to get the currency we need, we have to take matters into our own hands.”

  She let out a small gasp as a physical ache formed in her chest.

  They’d killed Nate, she realized. Sol and his men had killed her husband and covered it up, making it look like a home invasion.

  Tears pressed at her eyes. How could someone be so heartless? She’d always wondered if there was more to the murder than the police had been able to determine. But never had she imagined this...

  Why hadn’t she seen this earlier?

  Her anger surged into rage. As she started to rise, Mark’s hand came down on her shoulder.

  “I’m sorry, Laney,” he whispered.

  Sol deserved to pay for what he’d done. The best way he could do that was at the hands of the justice system. It’s what Nate would have told her. It was what Mark silently reminded her of now. She had to keep her cool here.

  “All right,” Sol said. “We pack up and need to be out of here in thirty. When daylight hits, I want this place to be clear. Then we put part two of our plan into action.”

  Laney wasn’t going to let that happen...even if she died trying.

  NINETEEN

  As soon as Sol and his friend went back inside, Mark let out a sigh of relief. That had been close. Too close.

  He and Laney stood, and he turned to face her. He could see the tears in her eyes and, without another thought, he pulled her into his arms.

&n
bsp; “I’m so sorry.” He said again as he rubbed her back, wishing he could take away her pain.

  “They killed Nate,” she said, her voice tinged with shock. Her body was stiff and each motion seemed stoic. “How could they be so cruel?”

  “These men are willing to go to any lengths necessary to get what they want. I’m only sorry you’ve been one of their targets.” They’d destroyed her life. He was determined not to let them destroy her.

  Suddenly, she straightened and wiped her tears way. “We don’t have time to wait for backup, Mark, or dwell on this. They’re going to leave. We’ve got to move.”

  “We have no other choice. We can’t take on everyone, Laney. They’ll kill us.”

  “We’ve got to get Sarah before they take off with her. You heard Sol—thirty minutes.”

  “How do you propose we save her?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. But there’s got to be a way.” She glanced over at the house. “I think I know. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?”

  “What is it?”

  “Sarah called me. What if she still has her phone and it’s turned on now?”

  “It’s too risky to call her.”

  “No, but I can text her.”

  “What if the phone makes a noise to let her know?”

  Laney shook her head. “It won’t. She always has it on silent. Noises drive her dad crazy.”

  “We can try it. I just hope this doesn’t backfire.”

  So did Laney. Her hands trembled as she typed, Where are you in the house?

  She held her breath as she waited for a response. Finally, she saw that Sarah was typing something back!

  Second-story bedroom facing the front yard. Are you here?

  Laney typed back.

  Yes, but we’re waiting for backup. Do you know how many men are inside?

  A moment later, Sarah typed: Six.

  Laney leaned back, deep in thought.

  “We know where she is, and we know how many men there are,” Mark said. “There’s still not a clear-cut way to get inside to rescue her without getting ourselves killed first.”