Summer Rain (Lightning Strikes Book 3) (24 page)

Harris let out a heavy breath. "Well, I can't say that the thought didn't cross my mind a dozen times after she died. But there was no proof, Patrick. The FBI agents were thorough. I don't see how they could have missed anything."

"And yet someone seems determined to shut me up," he said.

"That's why you were attacked in the park?"

"I'm almost certain that's why, and the fact that my assailant died under those particular circumstances doesn't make me feel better."

"How does Dani figure into all this?"

"I went to DC to thank her for helping me and also to ask her to get me in to see Senator Dillon, because he's avoiding me. She wasn't able to do that, but she's been helping me try to figure out some other things." He really didn't want to get into the MDT connection yet. His father had friends who worked at the company. If he let anything slip, they'd be in more trouble. "Can you give me some time, Dad?. I promise to fill you in when I know more."

His father gave him a long, speculative look. "I can do that. But if I can help…"

"I'll let you know."

"In the meantime, you'd appreciate it if I didn't say anything," Harris finished.

"Yes. And I'd like to borrow your truck, too. My car is at my condo, and I've decided to give my house some distance for the moment."

His father frowned. "I really don't like the idea of you being on your own and in danger."

"I don't think I'm necessarily in danger. I just need to stay under the radar." He wasn't about to tell his father that someone had almost run Dani over the night before.

"All right. The key is by the front door. I have one more question, though."

"What's that?"

"Is Dani just business or is she personal?"

"She's everything, and she's important to me," he admitted.

"Really?" Surprise ran through his father's gaze. "That's the first time you've said that about any woman in a long time."

"It's the first time I've felt it."

"Then you better keep her safe."

"I intend to."

Fifteen

"When you said a cabin, I pictured an A-frame with maybe one bedroom, a kitchen with a hot plate, a microwave and furniture from another era," Dani said, as she looked around the spacious, luxuriously decorated house with the ten-foot ceilings in the living room, the long oak table in the dining room, the gourmet kitchen, and the staircase leading up to the second floor. "This is bigger than any house I've lived in, and more luxurious too."

"I told you my grandfather made some money in oil. He always called it the cabin, and the name stuck."

She set her bag down on the dining room table and said, "Well, I think this will do."

He smiled. "I'm glad. Do you want to take a nap? A shower?"

"No, I'm tired but I think I'll feel worse later. We need to figure out our plan of attack."

"I agree. I put together a list on the plane." He grabbed his computer out of its case and took it over to the dining room table.

She sat down across from him. "I saw you tapping away on the keys during the flight. I wondered what you were doing."

"It helps me to lay out everything I know." He read through his list. "We have our whistleblower, who apparently told my mother facts similar to what he told us—that there's a secret faction run out of MDT that is funneling money from the legitimate side of the business to fund this shadow company. This group is run by someone high up in the company, possibly one of the Packer brothers or their father or some other highly valued employee."

"Someone with enough power to make things happen," she agreed.

"Yes. Then we have Ann Higgins, the reporter, who probably doesn't know any more than what the whistleblower has already told us. If she had more concrete evidence, she would have used it already. So, while talking to her again might be helpful, I'm putting her farther down the list."

"Okay."

"Then there's the military connection between the pilots—the one who died on the plane, the one who missed the flight, the traitor at MDT who was your father's best friend, and even your dad."

She frowned at that. "My dad should not be on the list. We can't connect him to MDT."

"He's connected to Jerry, so, yes, he is connected to MDT."

"Only through friendship. More than half of the people in Corpus Christi are connected by friends to the company."

"I agree, but he's also a former military pilot and he died in a mysterious crash, so he's staying on my list."

"Fine. Go on."

"Tania Vaile. We don't know what her connection is, but the whistleblower wants us to talk to her, so we need to find out more about her and set up a meeting." He glanced up from his computer. "The rest of the people on my list are tied to your group: Senator Dillon, Erica Hunt, his trusted chief of staff, and Stephen Phelps, his press secretary."

"What about Congressman Parker? Let's not forget that he replaced your mother, just as Dillon replaced Stuart. We can't leave him out of this."

"Good point. He also told my father I was asking questions, and I'm not sure why he did that, so he's still on the list. Who else? What am I missing?"

She thought about his question. "There's the cashier at the convenience store. We saw him in a photo with Stephen, but that's it, and we don't even know if they just happened to be at the same bar." As soon as she said the words, she realized she was going back to coincidence again. "But it probably wasn't random."

"It's definitely worth figuring out if there's any other link between them," Patrick said. "But we should start with Tania Vaile. I've done a little research on her. When she's not working at MDT, she's an avid and experienced equestrian. She participates in horse shows at Barclay's Barn and Equestrian Center, not far from here. And when I say
barn
, you should know that I'm referring to a very sophisticated equestrian center that also offers a spa to relax your tired muscles after riding."

She smiled. "I already knew that. I'm familiar with Barclay Barn. I've ridden there a few times."

He raised an eyebrow. "You ride?"

"Of course I ride. I'm a Texas girl. Don't you ride?"

"Not since I was about twelve."

"Until I went to DC, I rode probably once a week—not anywhere as fancy as Barclay's Barn, though."

"Maybe you'll get another chance. Tania Vaile is featured on the Barclay's Barn website. Apparently, she won one of the events in their horse show last weekend, which has put her into the event finals this weekend." He turned the computer around so she could see the photo of Tania astride a black horse, a blue ribbon around the horse's neck. "I'm thinking we should try to catch her there. It will be easier to talk to her outside of MDT."

"But how will we know when she'll be at the barn? Are we going to stake it out all weekend?"

"We might have to. Or…"

"Yes?" she prodded when he remained lost in thought for a moment.

"We need a ruse."

"What kind of a ruse?"

"I'm thinking."

She could see that. She could also see that Patrick thrived on impossible challenges. Most people would have quit by now or just gone to the police and asked them to figure things out. But Patrick wasn't most people, which was probably why she liked him so much.

"Why don't you pretend to be an employee with Barclay Barn?" he suggested. "Call her office and ask her assistant, or her, if by any chance she comes to the phone, to confirm her next riding session?" he suggested. "Tell her there's been a glitch in the computer and the reservations got screwed up and with the event finals this weekend, you want to make sure she has her practice time…or something like that."

"That's clever, assuming that they use a computer for reservations and that she actually reserves riding time before the show."

"It's a gamble," he agreed.

"Why me? Why not you?"

"As a woman, I think you'll be less threatening."

"I feel like I should tell you that's sexist. Do you think only women take reservations?"

"No, but a soft, friendly female voice can sometimes disarm people more than a man."

He had a point. "All right. I'll do it."

As she reached for her cell phone, he stopped her. "Not from your phone. Use the one our whistleblower gave to us. It won't be traced to us."

"You are one step ahead of me."

"Not my first go at this kind of thing."

"If your writing gig doesn't work out, the CIA or the FBI might be interested in you."

He grinned. "I'm too much of a loose cannon for those agencies."

"Probably true." She took the phone. "I suppose you have her number handy."

"I have the main company number. I'm sure they'll transfer you." He rattled off the number.

She punched it in, then hit the speaker as she set the phone down on the table between them. After working her way through the central operator, she reached Tania's assistant.

"I'm calling from Barclay's Barn about Ms. Vaile's reservation for this weekend's horse show," she said. "Is she available?"

"No, she's not. Can I help you?"

"We had a little problem with our reservation system today, and I'm calling everyone personally to confirm their next riding time. Can you check with Ms. Vaile or perhaps she has it down on her calendar?"

"Just a moment."

Dani gave him an excited look. "I think this might work," she muttered. "Her assistant doesn't seem suspicious."

"You were convincing," he said with an approving nod. "You have a talent for subterfuge."

The woman came back on the line. "She'll be in at three o'clock this afternoon."

"That's what I have down, too. Excellent. Thanks so much." Dani disconnected the call. "She's going to be there today. How lucky is that? I can't believe it. I feel like we're actually making some real progress."

"Almost. We know where she's going to be. Now, we need to figure out how to approach her."

"And what we want to say," Dani added. "The whistleblower said Tania might be in the mood to help us because she's not as tight with the Packer men anymore. That implies she had a personal relationship with one or more than one of them. Is she married?"

"I don't believe so. I haven't seen her linked with any men on social media except the Packer brothers. And if I had to guess which one, I'd pick Reid. He's been divorced and single for most of the past decade."

"But he recently got married to a young, beautiful swimsuit model. I saw her at the gala. She's stunning. Maybe Tania is a scorned woman."

"That could be good for us," Patrick replied.

"I'm going to look her up, too."

For a few moments, they both worked in silence. Dani found out a few more details about Tania. The woman had grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area and had graduated from Stanford University with a master's in economics. She traveled frequently and had made several trips to Cancun in the past year. That gave her pause. "Interesting," she muttered.

Patrick gave her a questioning look. "What did you find?"

"Trips to Cancun."

"Why is that important?"

"Katherine's brother TJ was kidnapped from a conference in Cancun, and the ranch in Mexico where TJ and the stolen weapons from MDT were found is not far from there."

He sat back in his chair. "Tell me more about that."

"It was a ranch in the Southern Yucatan owned by the Calderon family, a long-time trafficker in drugs and weapons. The Calderon family ran that territory. The police were in their pockets. They terrorized the local villages, including the one where my great-grandmother lived. The ranch was as luxurious as this cabin, every modern amenity, and the barns didn't house horses but rather weaponry."

"What kind of weapons?"

"There were two railguns at the ranch."

"Our whistleblower mentioned the railgun," he said with a nod.

"It's the newest weaponry in the MDT arsenal. It fires projectiles using electricity instead of chemical propellants, which increases its velocity, range, and striking capability. I learned a lot about it during the Senate hearings. MDT is still testing the guns. They're not in use yet, at least not from the legitimate side of the company. Apparently, there have been some problems. TJ was actually kidnapped because he had some technical knowledge that was needed to fix a problem with the weapons at the ranch. Luckily, he was rescued before he did that, and the weapons were destroyed in a massive fire. In the subsequent investigation, MDT claimed that those were the only two weapons that were missing from inventory. But there are a lot of people who don't believe that, including my siblings."

"That is interesting. So Tania's vacations to Cancun could have been tied to the ranch in Mexico."

"Yes."

"Can you find out who she went with?"

Dani turned her attention back to the computer. A moment later, she said, "Tania was at the conference that TJ attended before he was kidnapped. I don't know if that matters…"

"I'd like to talk to TJ. He might be able to tell us more about Tania. Does he still work at MDT?"

"No, he left the company after he got back from Mexico. He works in the health industry now. He didn't think he'd ever feel safe at MDT again, although he told the FBI everything he knew, so he hoped there would be no reason for anyone to come after him. I'm sure he's not going to want to get roped into all this stuff again."

"But he owes your brother his life, and he may have information we can use."

She knew he was right. She also knew that sooner or later she was going to have to bring Alicia and Jake in, too. "I'll call him," she said, pulling out her phone. She looked up TJ's number, then punched it into the other phone to connect the call.

TJ answered on the second ring. "TJ Barrett."

"Hi TJ, it's Dani," she said, putting the phone on speaker.

"Dani. This is a surprise. Is everything all right? Is Katherine okay?"

Of course his mind would race to the worst possible scenario. After all the events of the past year, she couldn't blame him. "Katherine is fine. I just have a question for you. Do you have a minute?"

"Sure. What's up?"