The Value Of Valor - KJ3 (28 page)

Lorraine fumed silently in the backseat.

As she and Peter approached the USAir ticket counter, Kate’s stomach lurched. In a matter of minutes, she would be on her own again, running for her life. She wanted to throw up.

As if sensing Kate’s emotions, Peter remained close to her side. He stayed with her as she used her false ID to purchase a one-way ticket to Los Angeles; they went through security together, and he sat alongside her as they waited in the boarding area at gate number seven for her flight to be announced.

The Value of Valor

“Attention in the terminal, USAir is now boarding Flight 160, non-stop service to Washington, D.C.’s, National Airport. All passengers should now be on board at gate thirteen.”

Kate turned to Peter. “You could make that flight.”

He shook his head. “I’m staying here with you. I’ll catch the next one.”

“The next one isn’t for another three hours.”

“That’s fine.”

Kate knew better than to push him. Instead she squeezed his hand.

“Thanks.”

“None necessary. I hate sending you off on your own again—you know that, right? I wish I could go with you, but we can’t defeat the Commission that way. We can’t.” He took her hands. “You’ll be back here soon enough. We’ll expose these guys and we can get on with our lives.”

She nodded, unable to speak around the golf ball-sized lump in her throat. She leaned her head on his shoulder, enjoying the closeness they shared and silently hoping his confidence in the outcome would rub off on her. At the moment, she didn’t feel very strong or very certain.

Jay looked out the window of Flight 160 as the rest of the passengers filtered onto the plane. A lone tear trickled down her cheek. Leaving Terri had been hard; going home would be harder. She felt a complete sense of desolation. In less than two months time, she had lost everything. Her memory, her physical well-being, her love, and her life.

It simply wasn’t fair. She pounded the armrest with her fist. She’d sat in the boarding area for an hour trying to sort through everything, but the emotions had overwhelmed her. She’d gotten up, walked around, found a pay phone, and tried to call both Peter and Barbara. She’d hung up on both of their answering machines. It was as if everyone and everything in her life had moved on without her.

Where is my place now? Where am I supposed to go? What am I
supposed to do?
She thought about going back to New York and
Time
, but she couldn’t face that yet. She didn’t see how she could simply pick up the thread where she’d left off before she’d left for Arizona.

Jay closed her eyes tightly and tried to make some sense out of the senseless. Kate was dead. She’d been left for dead on the side of a cliff in the middle of nowhere, she’d broken Trystan’s heart, and Terri was hurting over mistakes she couldn’t change and grieving her absence already. Maybe when the funeral was over, she should just pack up Fred and disappear.

She shook her head in frustration. Running away wasn’t the answer and she knew it. She knew it just as surely as she knew she couldn’t stay
Lynn Ames

in their house in Albany with memories of Kate crowding her everywhere. It would be too much.

There would never be another woman for her—Kate had been the love of a lifetime. Jay buried her face in her hands and wept for what seemed like the millionth time in the past two days.

“Are you all right, miss?”

Jay rubbed the heel of her hand over her eyes and looked up to see a concerned flight attendant standing over her. “I-I’m fine. Thanks for asking. Just having a tough day.”

“Can I get you anything?”

Can you get me my life back?
She smiled. “Not unless you can do something about time travel.”

“Sorry, they didn’t teach us that at flight school.”

“Yeah, I didn’t figure they did.”

“How about a nice cup of tea instead?”

Jay’s smile was bittersweet. “I guess that’ll have to do.”

The Value of Valor

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

hat’ll have to do then,” Peter said into the pay phone outside

“T the boarding area where he’d gone to make a quick call. He could’ve waited until Kate had left for L.A., but the clock was ticking loudly and he didn’t want to waste any time.

“You know I’ll do the best I can, but I can’t give you any guarantees.”

“I’ll take whatever you can give me, Doc. I’ll be in touch soon.” Peter hung up and went back to where Kate was sitting.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“So far. I didn’t want to wait to get the ball rolling.”

“Who did you call?”

“You’re a great reporter, how would you go about uncovering this story?”

Kate didn’t hesitate. “I’d start in the most obvious place—prove the murder. How did the president really die? We have a body to work with; who did the autopsy? What were the results?”

Peter smiled and nodded. “That’s where I thought we’d find the smoking gun, too.”

“So back to the original question. Who did you call?”

“I called a friend who works for the medical examiner at Bethesda Naval Hospital, where the president died.”

“Did you get anything?”

“Not yet. She says she never saw the body.”

“Does she usually?”

“She’s usually the one doing the autopsy.”

“Oh. Hmm.”

“Exactly.”

“What does she think is going on?”

“She isn’t sure. The ME is being particularly closed-mouthed about it. I asked Melanie if she could send me a copy of the autopsy report, but she said every copy made is accounted for and requires the sign-off of the ME. The best she could try for would be to get a peek at the report herself and relate the findings to me over the phone.”

“It’s better than nothing.”

Lynn Ames

“Barely. We’d need the actual report if we wanted to prove anything.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Kate said.

“Mmm hmm.”

“What is it?”

“She sounded really uneasy. Like she was scared.”

“Of what?”

“I’m not sure. I think I’ll buy her dinner when I get home, though.”

“Good thinking, Romeo.”

“Not that kind of dinner, gutterbrain. I think she was reluctant to talk over the phone. Perhaps she’ll tell me more in person.”

“Mmm hmm. What exactly does this doctor look like?”

Peter pretended to think. “Let’s see…five-foot-eight, nice body, long blonde hair, legs that go on forever, sky blue eyes…”

“Well, it’s great that you’re willing to make a sacrifice for the cause by going out with her.”

“I know. I’m selfless that way.”

“USAir is now boarding Flight 7188 to Los Angeles. All first-class passengers, passengers requiring assistance, or those traveling with small children are welcome to board.”

Kate sucked in a sharp breath. “Well, I guess this is it then, eh?”

Peter put his hand in his pocket to hide the fact that it was shaking.

“Yep, they’re calling your number.”

Kate shifted from foot to foot. “You’re going to call me, right?”

“You know I will, Spinmeister. I promise you, you won’t be alone out there, okay?”

“Okay.” She paused. “How long do you think I have before they figure it out and come after me again?”

Peter had been waiting for the question. “It’ll take them four hours to get to Flagstaff and back alone, unless they find themselves a plane. That doesn’t include the time they’ll have to spend up there trying to figure out where you might have gone after you made the last ATM

transaction.”

Kate looked at Peter’s mischievous grin. “You’ve got more in store for them, I take it?”

“You bet. I haven’t decided yet whether you should head toward Colorado or Alaska.”

“You’re evil.”

“I can be.”

She kissed him on the cheek. “I’m glad you’re on my side.”

Peter gathered her into his arms and squeezed tightly. “Always. Be safe,” he whispered in her ear, his voice choked with emotion.

The Value of Valor

“I will be. After all, if I don’t come back, Fred will weigh three hundred pounds.”

“I think that’s just a little bit of an exaggeration, don’t you?”

Kate laughed. “Not by much.” She gave Peter one more kiss on the cheek. “Give him a scratch for me, will you?”

“You know I will. I’ll be in touch soon, I promise.”

“You’d better be.” She broke contact first and moved toward the jetway. When she reached the ticket agent at the threshold, she looked back one last time and waved weakly, willing herself not to turn and run back to where Peter was still standing.

Peter waved back, watching as Kate disappeared from sight. He sat down in the empty boarding area, put his head in his hands, and cried. He wept for Kate, knowing how scared and alone she felt; he wept for Jay, cruelly murdered for meaningless vengeance; and he wept for himself, for all that he held inside. He hadn’t told Kate the very thing he’d flown back to Washington to tell her in the first place: that he knew who had ordered Jay killed. He didn’t want to depress Kate further or distract from her focus. He also knew that if he told her, there was a good chance she would go to Southport and strangle David Breathwaite with her bare hands. He vowed that he would tell her as soon as this was over.

Whenever that would be.

Jay stopped just short of baggage claim when she saw a pay phone.

She threw some change in the coin slot and dialed Peter’s number in Albany. After the fourth ring, knowing the answering machine was about to pick up again, she hung up. She repeated the same process with Barbara, getting the same results. It finally occurred to her that they were both probably en route to D.C. for Kate’s funeral.

The thought of it made her sick to her stomach, and she ran to the nearby ladies room, where she threw up. When she could gather herself again, she washed her face, rinsed out her mouth, and walked back into the baggage claim area.

She hesitated, then walked over to the hotel courtesy phones. Even if she had a key to her and Kate’s condo, she knew she couldn’t go back there—not yet. She shuddered. The very notion of returning to the home they had so recently bought together, furnished, and planned to share made her stomach roil yet again. She picked up the phone and dialed the phone number for the Marriott in Alexandria.

Kate arrived in L.A. two hours before her flight to Auckland was due to take off. She purchased a ticket under her new alias, browsed a bookstore on the concourse, bought several mysteries to read on the plane, and made her way to the boarding gate. Despite the fact that she
Lynn Ames

knew her pursuers were probably still looking for her in northern Arizona, she took care to sit where she could see everyone coming and going.

She cracked open the first novel, hoping to distract herself. She managed to read two paragraphs in twenty minutes. She sighed and closed the book, focusing once again on the situation at hand.

Maybe Peter was right—she should try approaching the problem like a good reporter. She sorted through the available facts. They knew the partial answer to who was behind the scheme, but they might never know all the players. They had discovered at least one facet of the endgame—

open the Communist countries to capitalism to exploit those markets.

The first step was already under way, based on the order Wheeler gave to the CIA station chief. China was the first target.
Okay, that takes care of
the who, what, why, and where.
As for the when, Keith had said his boss gave them a three-month window in which to work, with the rebellion beginning in April.

What evidence did they have? A dead president; the CIA station chief’s notes—which had no doubt either been destroyed or safeguarded by this time; Keith, whose body might never be found; phone records tying the vice president to the CIA station chief; a phone call between Wheeler and Hawthorne; and the information that Kate had gleaned thirdhand from Keith. Without the autopsy results proving that the president was murdered, they didn’t have much that would stand up in a court of law.

As Kate finished her musings about the Commission and the plot, a stray thought occurred to her. “Damn!” She pounded her fist on her leg.

In all the excitement, she’d forgotten to ask Peter the outcome of his trip to see the detective in New York City. Wouldn’t he have told her if he’d come up with a lead in Jay’s death? She pondered that for a moment. Not if he was afraid it would distract her from the matter at hand. “Damn it all!”

By the time Peter turned the key in the lock at his place, it was after midnight. Fred barked on the other side of the door, and Peter hurried to get inside so he wouldn’t wake Barbara.

“Shh. Shh, buddy. I see you.” Fred danced in and out of Peter’s legs, his tail wagging furiously. Peter knelt down and gave the dog a long hug.

“That’s from your mama, buddy. She can’t wait to come home to you.”

“How is she?” Barbara asked as she walked into the living room.

“Hey.” Peter walked over and gave Barbara a hug. “She’s okay.”

Barbara raised an eyebrow, and Peter shrugged.

The Value of Valor

“She’s scared, she’s depressed, she’s lonely, and she’s being hunted by some very dangerous people. Under the circumstances, I’d say she’s doing about as well as can be expected.”

“You found her based on what I told you?”

“You said someplace hot and dry.”

“That was all you needed to know?”

Peter laughed, “It was enough.”

“Where is she now or shouldn’t I ask that?”

Peter debated whether or not to share everything with Barbara. The information could make her a target, too. On the other hand, the more people who knew, the harder it would be for the Commission to keep their plan under wraps.

Before he could answer, Barbara said, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“It’s not about whether or not I want to, it’s a matter of your safety.”

Barbara digested that for a moment. “Oh. You think they might come after me?”

“I think they’ll do whatever they think is necessary to find Kate at this point.”