Lean on Me (8 page)

“
When did you first hear?”
Vince asked.

“
Three weeks? Maybe four?”
Alex shook her head. “Sergeant Dusty had an Army Ranger friend
disappear. He thought it was weird because the guy was about to
have a baby.”

“
The timeline fits,” Vince
said.

“
Anyway, I’m on it. These
things take a lot more time to set up than you ever think they
should.”

Vince turned to see the door to the bathroom
was still closed. He grimaced.

“
Can I use yours?” Vince
asked.

“
Sure,” Alex said. “I have
to go wake Mattie.”

“
No you don’t,” Matthew
said as he walked down the hall toward them. Vince scooted out of
the room to use Alex and John’s bathroom. Alex turned to Matthew.
“Grace has a four o’clock feeding.”

Alex hugged Matthew. In Special Forces
training, he’d gone from being her enemy to being her friend. She’d
rescued him twice and won countless mixed martial arts
championships as his partner. When it was time to build a team, he
was the first person she hired. He kissed her cheek.

“
You ready, Poppa?” Alex
asked.

“
Excited,” Matthew said. “I
feel like I’m getting back to myself. I’m not healing from a
gunshot, working off an injury, taking meds for
parasites…”

Alex laughed as he listed his most recent
maladies.

“
I love seeing you so
happy,” Alex said.

“
Me too,” Matthew said. “I
was going to help Troy with the boys.”

“
Good idea,” Alex said. “We
eat in about a half-hour.”

Matthew raised his hand to Alex. She
retreated down the stairs.

“
And?” Raz asked when she
reached her workroom on the main floor.

“
Missing Navy team,
probably SEALs. Missing British team,” Alex said.

“
The British satellite data
is interesting,” Colin looked up from his computer.

“
Shouldn’t you be getting
ready to run?” Alex asked.

“
Did that,” Colin said. “We
only have a few more hours before the police come for Troy. I
wanted to see if I can find anything.”

“
James suggested he set it
up beforehand,” Alex said.

“
Do you have Troy’s
schedule?” Raz asked.

“
Not when he was at the
house,” Alex said. “I think Mattie or Joseph kept his schedule.
I’ll ask. That’s good thinking.”

“
If this was as well
planned as it seems?” Raz shook his head. “We’ll need a healthy
dose of luck to figure it out.”

“
We haven’t had it so far,”
Colin said.

“
Keep looking,” Alex said.
“Remember. We’re the pros. Hector was not a pro.”

“
Could he have hired one?”
Colin asked.

“
Sure but no one’s claimed
credit,” Alex said.

“
That gives me an idea,”
Raz said.

“
James suggested we call
Cian,” Alex said.

“
That’s another good idea,”
Raz said. “I’ll do that now. Is he at the bakery?”

“
Should be,” Colin
said.

John’s elder brother, Cian Kelly, appeared
in the middle of an awful year a few years ago and was now a member
of the family. He and his best friend, Eoin, went from being IRA
thugs to owning a popular bakery with Colin.

“
Have the number?” Raz
asked. “He won’t answer the bakery phone while he’s
working.”

“
I can reach him,” Colin
said. “Should I call?”

Raz nodded.

“
I’m going to the map room
to think,” Alex said.

Raz watched her leave the room and Colin
waved. Smiling at them, she took the stairs down a level to the
room she’d used most of the beginning of the year. Her identical
twin, Max was sitting on a couch. She sat down nearly on top of
him. He gave her a macchiato. As if to combine their brain power,
the twins leaned their identical heads against each other.

“
What do you think is going
on?” Alex asked.

“
Missing soldiers? Or
Troy?”

Alex shrugged.

“
You’re right,” Max
said.

“
They feel like the same
problem,” Alex said.

Max nodded.

F

CHAPTER FIVE

Sunday morning

October 25 – 5:52 a.m. EDT

Marine Marathon start, Arlington Boulevard,
Washington DC

Alex threw open the
helicopter door and Matthew jumped out onto Arlington Boulevard.
Vince got out and helped Amelia out. Jimmy stepped out. Colin
followed right behind him. They wore light blue exercise shirts
with a black Vivaldi
F
on the back and dark Ray-Ban Wayfarer glasses. At her old
teammate Jax’s insistence, the Fey Special Forces Team had run the
big marathons together. The shirts and glasses had been part of
their image.

Alex hadn’t planned on continuing the
tradition, but Joseph wanted to honor the memory of their amazing
medic, Jax. The shirts, the glasses, and marathon running helped
solidify the Fey Team image as ready and capable. This Marine
Marathon was their first outing as the Fey Team. She smiled at the
group of blue shirted runners. She hugged John.

“
Good luck,” With her hands
around his face, Alex kissed John. “I’ll see you at the
finish.”

“
Love you,” John’s finger
stroked her cheek. “I have my phone. Keep me in the
loop.”

“
You too,” Alex kissed him
again.

“
Sorry,” Troy’s Army JAG
lawyer, Captain Tyler said. “We’ve got to go.”

“
We’ll set the wrong
impression if we’re late,” Troy’s expensive civilian criminal
lawyer, Hawkins Mac Alister said.

John nodded. He raised a hand in good luck
to Troy and jumped out of the helicopter. The helicopter rose
slowly, hovered for a moment, and took off toward Fredericksburg.
Alex sat down next to Troy.

“
How are you?” Alex
asked.

“
Okay,” Troy said. “Back to
numb, I guess. You’re sure the boys are all right?”

“
They’re with Margaret and
MJ,” Alex said. “What could happen?”

Trece laughed. Alex and Troy looked over at
him.

“
When we left, they were
just learning how to play Cowboys and Indians,” Trece said. “Jesse
Jr. was going to play with them.”

“
See,” Alex said. “Cowboys
and Indians. You can’t get more normal than that.”

Trece struggled to keep from laughing.

“
What?” Troy
asked.

“
Margaret’s teaching them?”
Trece asked. Alex laughed.

“
So?” Troy
asked.

“
The Indians are the good
guys and the Cowboys are the bad guys?” Trece laughed.

Everyone laughed.

“
Five minutes,” Zack called
over the intercom. As if he’d turned off the lights, the mood in
the passenger compartment darkened. They fell silent.

“
I’ve spent so much of my
life missing her,” Troy said. “Why would I kill her?”

“
Why does your father say
anything?” Alex shook her head.

“
You’re going in for
questioning,” Hawkins Mac Alister said. “That’s all. No charges
have been filed. We’ll answer a few questions and be home for
lunch.”

Troy looked at the man. He was smart,
articulate and wearing a very expensive suit. He had been the lead
persecutor for the District of Columbia. He became a criminal
defense lawyer after one of his death-row convictions was
overturned due to DNA evidence. He couldn’t live with the
uncertainty. He’d made his career on clearing innocent men wrongly
accused. Zack began his descent into the street in front of
Fredericksburg.

Troy noticed that his Army JAG lawyer,
Captain Tyler, was staring at Alex. He didn’t know how Alex was
able to get this man, but he was grateful to have him. The JAG
lawyer was fit, even a little over muscular, with the look of a
scrappy fighter. On their first meeting, he told Troy he’d gone to
the same adventure camp Troy had grown up in. Troy knew that no
matter what happened, this lawyer would fight for him.

“
I just jump out?” Hawkins
Mac Alister said.

“
Don’t lower your head,”
Troy said. “Makes you look like an amateur.”

“
My Captain at Airborne
training said to pretend you’re a rock star,” Captain Tyler said.
“It sounds dumb but you’d be surprised just how far a little
pretense gets you.”

Nodding, the criminal lawyer buttoned his
coat jacket.

“
Call me, and we’ll come to
get you,” Alex said. “We won’t be far.”

Troy nodded. Alex opened the helicopter
door, and Troy’s Army JAG lawyer hopped out. Troy followed him.

“
Like a rock star?” the
criminal lawyer glanced at Alex.

“
Don’t duck,” Alex
said.

With his head up, he got out of the
helicopter. Zack waited until they were on the sidewalk before he
took off. Alex sat down, strapped in, and put on her headset. Trece
did the same.

“
He knows were coming?”
Zack asked.

“
He knows,” Alex said.
“We’re going to nap.”

“
I’ll wake you when we’re
close,” Zack said.

FFF

Sunday morning

October 25 – 6:45 a.m. EDT

Marine Corp Air Station, Havelock, NC

“
What’s it say?” Trece
asked.

Alex was peering into the Magic 8 Ball.
Seeing only the dark cloud, she shook the ball and turned it over.
Same thing.

“
Nothing,” Alex
said.

“
Nothing?” Trece
asked.

Alex threw the ball to him. He turned it
over and saw the same layer of blue particles blocking the die.

“
That’s weird,” Trece said.
“It’s like those blackish particles in the water are baked onto the
plastic.”

“
What’s weird?” Zack said
over the intercom.

“
Nothing.” Alex stuffed the
Magic 8 Ball into her backpack.

“
Broke your Magic 8 Ball
again?” Zack asked.

“
Again?” Alex
asked.

“
Again,” Zack said.
“Listen, I don’t like this – too many extra people, too many extra
eyes.”

“
Did it work the last time
we were here?” Alex asked.

“
Sure,” Zack said. “But
I
can
get us onto
the island.”

“
Of course you can get us
onto the island,” Alex said. “Hell, you can land on a sliver of a
sandbar. This isn’t about you; it’s about arriving undetected. A
helicopter on a small island is big news. This is his home. We’d
never get within a mile of him.”

Zack landed the helicopter on the tarmac of
the Marine Air Station. Rather than their usual crowd of admirers,
a line of five men stood at attention outside the helicopter. Trece
got out of the helicopter first to check the men’s fingerprints on
his handheld computer. Zack and his co-pilot US Air Force Sergeant
Clifford Mauer came from the cockpit.

“
We’re coming with you,”
Zack said.

“
Last time I checked,”
Cliff said. “We were soldiers too. We’re on the Fey team
and…”

“
It will be nice to have
you,” Alex said.

Beaming, Cliff looked at Zack who winked at
Alex.

“
Here are some rules,” Alex
said. “This man is very skittish. Don’t say anything to him or look
at him. If you breathe a word about anything that happens when we
exit this helicopter to anyone, even your own mother, you will die
in your bed.”

“
Is she serious?” Cliff
asked Zack.

Zack nodded.

“
Yes sir,” Cliff
said.

“
Are you armed?” Alex
asked. Zack and Cliff displayed their handguns and ammunition.
“Body armor?”

Zack and Cliff nodded.

“
Jackets?” Alex asked. They
put on their camouflage Fey jackets.

“
All clear,” Trece said
from the tarmac.

Alex put on her dark Ray-Ban Wayfarer
sunglasses. Zack and Cliff followed suit. Without saying another
word, Alex stepped out of the helicopter. Zack and Cliff followed.
She returned the salute from Marine escort. They followed the men
to a waiting jeep. They sped across the Marine Air Base to the
small watercraft dock. Two Marines jumped out of the jeep and ran
down the dock. They whistled to indicate that the dock was
secure.

Trece, Alex, Zack and Cliff ran down the
dock. Trece stepped into a speed boat to check the two Navy SEALs
waiting for them. When Trece nodded, Alex, Zack and Cliff stepped
into the speed boat. The speed boat took off into Pamlico Sound.
They passed West Bay, rounded the islands at Black Bay and sped
into Core Sound. Within fifteen minutes of landing at the Marine
Air Base, they were docking at the Cape Pointe Marina on Harkers
Island.

“
What happens now?” Trece
asked.

“
We wait,” Alex said. “If
he wants to talk to us, he’ll send a couple men. If not, we go
home.”

“
How long do
we…”

Two men ambled down the dock. From a
distance, they looked like salty rejects from the local bar. One
man walked as if his right knee was locked. The other man walked
with a slight bend in his back. His long yellowing gray beard hung
down to his belt buckle.