by Cindi Myers
Laura took the distraught young woman’s arm and led her away. Jace followed, shielding them from the curious stares of those around them. “When was the last time you saw Parker?” Laura asked.
Merry sniffed. “He spent the night at my place,” she said. “But he left really early this morning. His mom called about some problem with Parker’s dad. He had to leave to deal with that.”
“What was the problem?” Jace asked.
“I don’t know. He just said he had to go deal with his dad.”
“What time was this?” Laura asked.
“Early. About five o’clock.” She yawned. “I went back to bed. That was the last I heard until my friend Margo called me about seven.” Her face crumpled again. “She said Parker was hurt in the explosion, but no one at the hospital will tell me anything.”
“Merry, pull yourself together. Parker is going to be all right.” Donna Stroud moved in and put her arm around the weeping woman. “He had surgery to remove some shrapnel from his legs, but he’s going to be okay.”
“What happened?” Laura asked. “Merry said Parker left early this morning to help his dad?”
The lines around Donna’s eyes deepened. “I woke up early this morning and Steve wasn’t in bed. I realized what had woken me was the garage door opening and closing. He does that sometimes, gets restless and goes for a drive. No matter how well I think I hide the car keys, he always seems to find them.”
“Where does he go?” Jace asked.
Guilt pinched her features. “Often, he comes here, to his office. That’s why I called Parker. He’s better at reasoning with his dad, persuading him to return home. But apparently when they got here...” She covered her mouth with one hand, choking back a sob.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Laura asked. Something in her voice made Jace think she wasn’t asking merely as a way of finding out more information, but out of genuine concern for Mrs. Stroud.
“I may need you to retrieve some reports and things from Parker’s office later,” Donna said. “Though I know that isn’t really your job.”
“For now, it is my job,” Laura said, with a warning glance at Merry.
Merry seemed not to have even heard. She clutched Donna’s arm. “Mrs. Stroud, was there a note?” she asked.
“I don’t think now is the time to talk about that,” Donna said.
Merry frowned at Jace and Laura. “Don’t tell me you haven’t heard about the notes from the bomber. I thought everyone knew about them by now.”
“We have heard some rumors,” Laura said.
Donna sighed, then reached into her pocket and took out a crumpled envelope. “This was on my desk when I got in this morning.”
Jace took the envelope, handling it carefully. It was different from the others in that this one had no stamp or postmark. “What does the note inside say?” Jace asked.
“It says ‘three down, three more soon.’” Donna took the note from him and returned it to her pocket. “I’ll give this to Agent Ramirez or Agent Rogers when I see them,” she said. “But for now, I need to focus on handling the plant closure and taking care of my family. And I need to deal with these reporters.” She turned away, head up, shoulders back, a woman prepared to do battle.
“How long is the plant going to be closed?” Merry asked.
Jace had almost forgotten Merry. Now she inserted herself between him and Laura, tears and hair both drying in the early morning heat. The crowd around them had thinned somewhat, many employees drifting back to their homes or vehicles, or gathering at the far end of the parking lot to watch from a distance.
“I guess they’ll keep the plant closed until they figure out who’s responsible for the bombs,” he said.
“They arrested Leo,” Merry said. “I thought he’s the one who did this. It’s no secret he blames the Strouds for killing his mother.”
“Leo was in jail when this bomb exploded,” Jace said.
“Maybe he planted it before he was arrested.”
“Maybe.” None of the other explosives had been equipped with a timing mechanism, but maybe this one was different.
“I’m going to tell Donna she needs to call the hospital and let me in to see Parker,” Merry said, and started after the older woman.
Laura moved in close to Jace once more. “We need to get to the hospital and talk to Parker,” she said.
“How are we going to do that without blowing our cover?” he asked.
“I’m his admin. I’ll say how concerned I am for him and is there anything I can do to help his mother at this difficult time.”
He put his arm around her. “Has anyone ever told you you’d make a good secret agent?”
She made a face, but didn’t move away. The public display of affection fit with their cover, but Jace hoped there was more than that to her desire to be close to him.
* * *
THEY HEARD PARKER long before they reached his room, his voice reverberating down the hospital corridor. “I told you I need something stronger for this pain. You need to get hold of that doctor now. I don’t want to hear any more of your lame excuses.”
“I see the explosion didn’t do anything to dampen his charm,” Jace said.
“At least he’s awake and lucid enough,” Laura said. They halted outside Parker’s door as a young black man in blue scrubs hurried into the hallway. He scarcely glanced at them as he headed toward the nurse’s station. Laura tapped on the door.
“Come in!” Parker barked.
Laura pushed open the door. “Mr. Stroud, it’s me, Laura. My husband is with me.”
Parker, his hair uncombed and day-old stubble softening the line of his jaw, looked younger and slightly vulnerable. Or maybe it was the faded hospital gown and network of tubes and monitors that added to his air of helplessness. “How did you get in here?” he asked. “I told them no visitors.”
“No one said anything to us,” Laura said. Security clearly wasn’t a priority at this small hospital. Jace had popped the lock on the outside door leading to the stairway at the end of this hall and they had been able to stroll in, bypassing the nurse’s station and any other authority figures. “Is there anything I can do for you?” Laura asked, approaching the bed.
“You can find my doctor and tell him I need something stronger for pain than aspirin.”
“What happened?” Laura asked. “Your mother said she sent you to look for your father.”
“So you’ve been talking to her.” His expression softened. “How is she?”
“She’s staying tough,” Jace said. “In shock, I think, but handling the press.”
“She announced she’s shutting down the factory until the police catch who did this,” Laura said. “I was sorry to hear about your father.”
“The stupid old fool.” There was no heat behind the words. Parker slumped against the pillows. “He likes to sneak away and come to the office. It doesn’t hurt anything. He types up memos or prints out reports. He doesn’t even know what day it is much of the time, but he’s harmless. But Mom worries, so I agreed to go get him and bring him home.”
He fell silent and they waited, the silence punctuated by the beep of monitors and the whirring of the automatic blood pressure cuff.
“What happened?” Laura prompted.
“I saw his car in the parking lot, and then I spotted him going into the building,” Parker said. “I followed him and he was just unlocking the door to his office when I reached him. I called out his name and he turned to me. Then everything just disintegrated.” His face crumpled. “He was smiling, like he was so happy to see me.”
Laura plucked a tissue from the box by the bed and passed it to him. They waited while he wept. When he had pulled himself together, Jace asked, “Did you see anything else when you got to the plant this morning? Any other cars in the lot, or anyone hanging
around?”
Parker grimaced. “You sound like a cop.”
“I’m curious. Who wouldn’t be?”
“I didn’t see anyone,” Parker said. “It was early and most people were still in bed. I only passed one car on the way to the plant, and that was Phil Dorsey, on his way to open the café for breakfast.”
“Merry said you were with her last night,” Laura said.
“So you talked to her already,” Parker said.
“She was at the plant,” Laura said. “She was upset that hospital personnel wouldn’t let her see you.”
“I couldn’t deal with her distress right now.”
“But you were with her last night?” Jace asked.
“I was.” He laughed, a bitter sound. “Don’t ever play poker, Laura dear. Your opinion of me shows all too clearly.”
Only because I wasn’t trying to hide it, she thought.
“You think I’m taking advantage of the poor girl, stringing her along and taking what I want. Believe me, she’s getting what she wants, too.”
“What does she want?” Laura asked.
“Money. The status of being associated with my name. It may not mean much to you, but in this town, the Strouds are about as big as they get.”
“Merry believes you’re going to marry her,” Laura said.
“I’ve never proposed. She doesn’t have a ring.”
But you haven’t told her it will never happen. “Were you with Merry all night?” Jace asked.
“Yes. Though that’s none of your business.”
The door opened and an older woman in a skirt and blouse, a stethoscope around her neck, entered. “Mr. Stroud, I understand you’re experiencing some pain.”
“It’s about time you got here. And yes, I’m experiencing pain. A lot of it.”
Laura and Jace took that as their cue to leave. She waited until they were in the truck before she spoke. “He’s terrified,” she said. “That’s what’s behind his bluster.”
“He was lucky he wasn’t killed,” Jace said. “His father was. That’s enough to terrify anyone.”
“I was almost sure he was Leo’s partner,” she said. The two of them had been seen together several times, and Parker was so circumspect about their relationship.”
“But now you’re not so sure?” Jace prompted.
“No. Why would he kill his father and risk his own life?”
“If he killed his father, he’d be more likely to inherit the business sooner,” Jace said. “He hasn’t made a secret of wanting his mother to turn everything over to him. And there are those rumors that he’s been talking about selling to a competitor.”
“But poisoning the best-selling product you make and blowing up people aren’t going to get you a good price for the business,” Laura said. She shifted to angle toward Jace. “And Parker couldn’t count on his father going to the office this morning.”
“Maybe he had the explosive with him and saw his chance,” Jace said.
She took out her phone and pulled up Ramirez’s number. “We stopped by the hospital and spoke to Parker,” she said after her colleague had answered. “He says the bomb exploded when his dad started to open his office door.”
“That sounds right,” Ramirez said. “The explosives expert says this was like the others, wired to go off when a door opened.”
“So no timer?” Laura asked.
“No timer,” Ramirez said. “And nothing to say when the bomb was put there. Donna Stroud says no one has been in her husband’s office all week. After he was diagnosed with dementia and stopped working, she moved out anything that pertained to active business. She left a computer and some older files to keep him calm on the days when he did venture into the office.”
“Did she say how often Steve came in to work?” Laura asked.
“Every week to ten days he would slip away from her or his minder and come down there.”
“So Steve Stroud was the intended target?” Laura asked.
“It looks that way.”
“What does Leo say?”
“We haven’t talked to him, but we will soon.”
“I’ve been looking into Parker’s financials and I found some things you need to know,” Laura said. She filled Ramirez in on the secret bank account and the possible blackmail.
“When did you find this out?” Ramirez asked.
“Last night.” She felt a stab of guilt as she remembered her initial resolve to contact her fellow agent right away, a resolve that had faded as soon as she was in Jace’s arms.
“Steve Stroud’s death tells us this was definitely aimed at the Stroud family, not just the factory,” Ramirez said. “That’s the angle we’ll be hitting hard going forward.”
“Anything else we should know?” Laura asked.
“The girlfriend, Ms. Winger, was here causing a scene. She corralled a bunch of reporters and told them it was the FBI’s fault that her fiancé was at death’s door.”
“She won’t be the last person to say that,” Laura said.
“I didn’t join the Bureau because I wanted to be popular, did you?” Ramirez asked.
“No,” Laura said, and ended the call.
“I caught most of that,” Jace said. “Sounds like Merry was grabbing the spotlight while she could.”
“If she keeps this up, everyone except Parker is going to think of her as his fiancé.” Laura tucked her phone into the pocket of her jeans.
“That may be what she’s hoping for,” Jace said. “Where to now?”
“Let’s go back to the trailer and I’ll make breakfast,” she said. “Let’s review what we know and brainstorm.” Maybe together they could figure out the right angle of approach.
“All right.” He took the next left turn and headed back toward the trailer. Away from the Stroud factory, the town looked almost normal, only the occasional media van out of place in the everyday bustle downtown. This was the atmosphere Jace had grown up in, a small town where everyone knew everyone else, so different from the string of army bases, all different yet all the same, that had made up Laura’s world back then.
“Why did you join the FBI?” she asked after a moment.
“I needed a job after I came out of the military and hunting down bad guys sounded interesting. Why did you join?”
“My father suggested it.” She cleared her throat. “He knew someone who knew someone—next thing I knew, I had an interview.”
“Was there something else you wanted to do instead?”
“I thought about going to vet school.” At his look of surprise, she added, “I like animals.”
“But you don’t have a pet. Do you?”
“No. This job makes it tough. But I’d like to, one day.” A dog would be great, though a cat might be easier, at least at first.
“If you could go back and do things over, would you become a veterinarian?” he asked.
“No. I like this work. And I’m good at it. I’m probably a better agent than I would have been a vet.”
“I was intimidated about working with you, you know?”
She stared at him. “You’re kidding.”
“It’s the truth. I checked your record. Commendation after commendation. You have future Special Agent in Charge written all over you. Next to you, I’m a total slacker.”
She cleared her throat. “I wouldn’t call you a slacker.” She’d checked up on him, too. He’d been a key figure in a number of high-profile investigations, but he had also been reprimanded a handful of times for crossing the line and breaking the rules. At the time, she had resented him for taking short cuts. Now, part of her envied his willingness to take risks.
“You’re not as uptight as I feared,” he said.
There hadn’t been anything uptight about her last night. She squirmed at the memory. “I believe
in playing by the rules,” she said. “They’re there to protect everyone. But I can see there are times when intent is as important as the letter of the law.” Her father would groan if he heard such rationalization. He had raised her to walk a straight line and never question authority. But she wasn’t a soldier on a battlefield. She was a civilian, involved in a different kind of battle, where the enemy was rarely obvious or even visible.
Chapter Fourteen
Merry kept an eye on Laura and Jace until they had gotten into their truck and driven away. Something wasn’t right about those two, the way they had just showed up in town, not knowing anybody, and now they were up in everybody’s business, asking all those questions like they had a right to know the answers. She hadn’t missed the way they had cozied up to Donna Stroud, either, all sympathetic and helpful. They might have fooled the old woman into trusting them, but Merry was going to be keeping an eye on them.
Most of the reporters were drifting away now. Getting their attention had been a smart move. Now everyone would know how concerned she was for Parker and his family. How close she was to them. She spotted Donna trying to slip away and picked up her pace to intercept her. “Donna, wait!” she called.
Donna turned, the blank expression in her eyes like a slap to Merry. Parker’s mother didn’t even recognize her. “Have you heard how Parker is doing?” she asked. “I’ve been so worried.” Maybe she should have said something about Steve first, but no, Parker needed their concern now. She stopped beside Donna. Merry couldn’t believe the woman had gone to the trouble to put on a suit before coming down to face everyone. As if her image as a businesswoman was more important than this tragedy. “I wanted to visit Parker in the hospital, but they wouldn’t let me in to see him,” Merry said. “Maybe you could talk to them about that.”
Donna was frowning now. “Merry, isn’t it?” She didn’t wait for confirmation. “Parker had surgery and is going to be all right but he needs his rest. I appreciate your concern, except it would be better if you didn’t visit.”
