The Caledonian Inheritance (The Athena Effect) (25 page)

“So we can find Layla’s car?”

“Yes! The device sends a in signal every few minutes, but I have to log in on the police computer to get the latest co-ordinates.”

Caledonia grabbed her purse, racing for the door. “Lets go!”

~

Agent Kim had stayed late at the police station, taking over the desk in Sherriff Brown’s Office. She’d been out to the suspect’s ranch to oversee the evidence collection, and had personally inspected the barn and grounds. Finding the girl in the dark must have been like finding a needle in a haystack, and everything she saw raised more red flags.

All of her suspicions led back to the red-haired girl.

Layla Reed. She’d run a complete background on her, but it was as if she’d been invisible her whole life and then simply materialized, fully grown, in the past year. The same thing applied to her twin brother, and aside from an impressive amount of on-line banking activity on his part, the more she dug into their backgrounds the less she found. There were people in the witness protection program that were less well hidden.

She watched the recording of the jail cell
encounter again and again, turning the facts over and over in her mind.

Officer Ruiz
was either mistaken or lying when he claimed that the suspect had called out to him and his date; the tape clearly showed the couple making a direct line to the holding cell. He also told her they returned to the station to pick up his bankcard, but it was pretty clear from the surveillance tape that he never made it into his office to retrieve anything.

And he’d paid for a pizza that very night with a bankcard.

She watched the footage over and over, looking for a clue as to how Layla could have possibly extracted a confession so quickly. She knew that crack interrogators took days to break down a suspect’s defenses, and yet this girl had reduced the man to a quivering mass of jello with the snap of her fingers. Even the most talented FBI profiler needed more than a few minutes to figure out how to approach a subject.

“Impressive,” agent Kim said out loud to the empty room. The more she thought about it, the more eager she was to begin her interrogation.

Officer Ruiz had been stonewalling her all day, promising to bring the girl in for questioning first thing in the morning. She’d been calling Layla’s phone all afternoon to set up an appointment with no luck, and she decided that this simply would not do.

She would g
o to Layla before Ramon had a chance to coach her.

Agent Kim knew she was onto something, and like her father always said, once she sunk her teeth into a problem, she was as stubborn as a mule. She wasn’t about to let this thing drop without getting to the bottom of it.

“There’s no time like the present,” she spoke again, going back into the records to pull Layla’s address. She gathered her things and left the station, passing by a lone receptionist on the way out with a curt nod. She got into her car and started it, formulating her line of questioning on the drive.

Only a few seconds after she pulled out of the station, Ramon’s car pulled back in.

~

Chapter Twenty-One

AGENT KIM

~

A brisk knock on the door pulled Michael’s head out the refrigerator
. “Coming!” he called, ambling over to the door, fully expecting to find Layla loaded down with one too many shopping bags to get a handle on her keys.

I
nstead, a sylphlike beauty stood scrutinizing him like he was a bug under a microscope. She wore a no-nonsense pantsuit, carried a briefcase, and occupied his porch with an air of authority. Her glossy black hair was pulled back into a severe ponytail, accentuating her high forehead and almond eyes.

He was immediately intimidated, stammering, “M-may I h-help you?”

“You must be the brother,” she said, extending her hand for a shake. “I’m agent Kim, with the FBI. I’m here to speak to Layla Reed.” She held out her identification for him to inspect.

His eyebrows shot up. “Regarding what?” he asked.

“There was an incident at the police station last night... I have a few questions.”

“Sh-she’s not here,” he managed to choke out.

“When do you expect her back?”

“I don’t know… I just got in the door myself.”

She took a step closer, not about to take no for an answer. “Do you mind if I wait here for her?”

“Right now?” he asked.

“There’s no time like the present,” she said.

“Uhm… Sure, okay.” Michael stood in shock as she walked past him and into the house. She turned to look to him for some direction,
so he gestured towards the living room.

“Why don’t you have a seat?”

Calvin was in the garage, arranging their riding gear onto shelves when Michael slipped in, closing the door behind him with a panicked look on his face.

“You’re not going to believe this, but some FBI agent chick is sitting on our couch!” he stage whispered. “She says that she wants to ask Layla about something! Did Cali say anything to you?”

Cal shook his head no. He’d last seen Caledonia over breakfast, and she’d promised to cook them all a surprise dinner. It wasn’t like her to forget something like that, and he’d been uneasy ever since he and Michael had returned to find a dark and empty house. He’d told himself that he was being silly, and that she was probably only out shopping with Layla.

Now a
familiar shiver of fear tingled across his scalp.

“What should I do?” Michael asked desperately, looking to Calvin for guidance.

Calvin reached for his phone. “Go talk to her… Keep her busy, and I’ll find out what’s going on.”

~

Ramon pulled up in front of the hotel, and it didn’t take them long to stumble upon Layla’s abandoned car.

“Now what?” Cali asked.

“Lets go ask around at the restaurant,” Ramon suggested.

They questioned the hostess and both waitresses on staff, but no one remembered seeing a red-haired girl that day. “We sent the day shift home an hour ago,” a waitress explained, “If you come back tomorrow they might
have seen something.”

They stepped outside, and both of them automatically looked towards Layla’s car and back up at the hotel.

The phone in Cali’s pocket rang and she grabbed it, checking it and telling Ramon, “It’s Calvin.” She stepped aside to explain where they were and what was going on. Ramon listened as she tried to reassure an obviously frantic Calvin that she’d be careful. It made him even more worried for Layla.

“I gotta go… I know… Don’t worry, I will. I’ll call you back as soon as I can.” She slipped the phone back into her pocket.

They went into the lobby and approached the front desk, questioning the clerks with no luck. Ramon flashed his badge to summon the manager, and she combed through the computer, shrugging apologetically. “Sorry, no Reed here.” Cali used every bit of her persuasive powers to encourage the staff to remember everyone they’d seen or checked in, but no one could recall seeing Layla or the professor.

They manager was more than helpful, offering to pull the surveillance footage and go over it with them, but Cali caught Ramon’s eye and shook her head no. “She didn’t come in here,” she said. “They’re all telling the truth.”

They stepped out into the cool night air and Caledonia slumped with defeat. “Where do we go from here?” she lamented.

“I have an idea,” Ramon said tersely. Caledonia followed him as he headed back towards the hotel. Instead of
returning to the lobby he walked with determination towards the back of the building, passing dumpsters, recycling bins and service trucks.

“Where are we going?” Cali asked
, trotting to keep up with him.

“Housekeeping,” Ramon replied, “If anyone knows what goes on in
side a hotel it’s them.”

Steam spewed from a vent above an open door, and Caledonia followed him inside, walking past grumbling ice machines and wheeled car
ts lining a hallway. They finally burst into a room where half a dozen women in maid uniforms were laughing and chattering in Spanish as they folded towels and linens on a large tabletop. The women all looked up skeptically, but when Ramon flashed his badge they froze in alarm.

He held up his hands in a disarming gesture, “Yo
necesito ayuda!”

Caledonia watched as he spoke, unable to understand the words, but reading the
ir emotional reactions as clear as a bell. The women looked at each other, answering with many different voices. All of them shook their heads in denial.

Ramon’s heart sank, and he turned to Cali in despair. “I told them a girl went missing, and asked if anyone had seen or heard anything out of the ordinary. No one knows anything.”

Caledonia pointed to one of the women. “She does.”

~

Michael sat down across the room from his unexpected guest awkwardly, not sure of what to say. “Would you like a cup of tea… or something?” he asked.

Agent Kim hesitated. It had been a long day, and hot tea sounded good. Her professional side told her not to get too cozy, but when he smiled over at her hopefully she nodded. “Yes please.”

She watched his tall rangy frame as he moved around in the nearby kitchen, noting the resemblance between him and his sister. His hair was rusty red, longish and swept back behind his ears, but his skin was ruddy from time spent out in the sun. He wasn’t heavily built, but the past few months of dirt-bike riding had given his arms some lean muscle, and his shoulders were broad beneath his motocross jersey.

“Black or green?” he asked.

“Black,” she replied.

“English or Irish breakfast?”

She shrugged, “Is there a difference?”

“The Irish seems a
bit stronger to me… I take mine with milk.”

“Sounds good,” she said.

He emerged from the kitchen with a tray holding a teapot and a plate full of cookies. He took a seat alongside her on the couch, pouring them each a cup with a splash of cream. “Sugar?” he asked, a spoon poised over a bowl.

“Thank you,” she said when he handed her a cup and saucer like he’d been doing it all of his life. “Do you drink a lot of tea?”

“Not lately,” he replied, “But I grew up with an aficionado.”

“My parents only liked ginger tea,” she said with a grimace. “For medicinal purposes.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever tried that,” he said politely. He finally held out his hand. “I’m Michael, by the way,” he said.

She took it, surprised when he gripped hers firmly, “Mina,” she said.

“Mina,” he repeated.

A little three-legged dog came over to beg for a treat and he bro
ke off some pieces of his cookie, showing her some tricks he’d taught it. He was so sweet and patient that she decided right then and there that she liked him. She sipped her tea and she found herself talking to him like she was actually socializing, as if she were on a real date or something.

They talked about the dog and they talked about the weather, growing more comfortable with each other as the minutes passed. Michael started asking her about her life, and he seemed so
sincerely interested that she was flattered. For some reason she found herself answering his questions, her professional façade flying out the window in the face of a curious boy.

“So you grew up in LA?” he asked. “What part?”

“Koreatown,” she replied. “My family runs a restaurant there.”

“I love LA. Why did you leave?”

“I had to get out of there.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want to live the life they chose for me… Or marry the person they chose for me.”

“I see
,” he nodded thoughtfully. “So what made you want to be an FBI agent?”

“I studied criminal psychology in school, and it led me into law enforcement. Everyone told me I could never get into the FBI, so that’s what I decided to do.”

“Stubborn any?” he smiled.

She grinned.
“As a mule. After I graduated the academy I ended up assigned to the field office in Ukiah.”

It was as if all of a sudden he remembered why she was there, and his freckled face darkened. “What do you want with my sister anyway?”

“She’s not in trouble. I only need to ask her about the confession she witnessed.”

“Confession?” he was confused.

“When was the last time you spoke to your sister?” she asked.

“Uhm, yesterday morning… I think.”

Now she felt like she owed him an explanation, regretting letting her guard down in the first place. She told him about the kidnapping, and how Layla and Ramon had taken the confession that led to the child’s recovery. “Tell me Michael… Is your sister a trained hypnotist?”

Michael understood what had happened all at once. He’d spent his entire life watching Layla in action, and nothing she could make people do surprised him. He was suddenly reminded that the pretty girl sitting next to him was a cop, and he was still a law-breaker.