Cold Silence (A High Stakes Thriller) (42 page)

Mei tightened her grip on the woman. "Megan?"

At that moment, they heard sirens blaring through the quiet dark. One of the agents came running toward them. He was from the Sacramento office, Mei thought, but in her exhaustion, she wasn't certain. And she realized she didn't really care.

Three squad cars came streaming into the lot, their sirens piercing the darkness. Behind each car was a trailer pulling a snowmobile.

The agent looked back at her and Andy. "It's all clear. Four dead, one injured."

Mei let go of the old woman, who immediately slipped.

Andy caught her.

Mei turned back and took her arm again, but she moved closer to the agent at the same time. "Megan Riggs? Is Megan there?"

"No. The dead men are all young—thirty to forty, I'd guess, so I don't think we've got either Ryan Riggs or Oskar Kirov."

"The injured man, who is he?"

"He says his name is Walter Turner. Colonel Walter Turner. He's lost a lot of blood, but he was worried about his wife, Florence. Said she was in a car out here." The agent motioned to the older woman. "Looks like you guys have that under control."

Andy and Mei exchanged glances but neither said a word.

"Does the colonel know where Megan Riggs is?" Andy asked.

The police were out of their cars as the other FBI agents came back. Two of them were carrying Walter Turner on the bench from a picnic table as though it were a stretcher.

"Oh, thank God, Walter." The woman stepped toward him. "Where on earth have you been?"

Walter took the woman's hand. "Sorry, Florence. Didn't mean to scare you." He looked up at Mei and Andy. "Oskar Kirov had a snowmobile. Cody took off after him."

"Cody?" Wisenor asked.

"The name Megan Riggs has been using," Mei said.

The colonel nodded.

"Any idea where they went?"

The colonel frowned as though he'd caught a wave of pain. "None."

Just then a man came running up. "They're on the other side of the lake. I was trying to get through but the snow's too thick."

Mei looked at him. "Who are you?"

"I'm Travis Landon. It was my son who was supposed to have been kidnapped." He looked over at the colonel, who turned away. "It was a media ploy by a firm some of my investors hired." He frowned. "It wasn't supposed to turn out this way."

"You did know about it!" the colonel yelled.

Landon shook his head. "Not until I finally got through to our director of marketing on my cell phone. When the kidnapper was using my house, I figured someone I knew had something to do with it. I just finished making some calls."

The colonel grunted, but Mei ignored him. She'd obviously missed something earlier on, but she didn't care right now.

"Tell us where Megan and the boy are."

"The lake wraps around," he said, pointing into the softening light. "They've been gone almost forty minutes or so. If you follow the lake, I think you'll find them. Without a snowmobile, I couldn't keep up." He looked at the colonel. "Plus, I couldn't leave Florence long enough to keep going."

The police and the other Bureau members huddled over three snowmobiles that the police cruisers had towed in.

"How do you want to handle this?" Bernadini asked Andy.

"Those are two-seaters?"

One of the local law nodded.

"Take six, then," Andy determined. "Three who know the area and three of our guys."

"I want to go," Mei said.

The men all started shaking their heads and talking at once.

Mei started to drum up ways to explain it to them.

"Cody doesn't trust anyone," the colonel said above the other voices. "You're not going to be able to help her without a face she knows."

"It's too dangerous," Andy said, but when he met her gaze he shook his head. "Maybe."

"No way," Wisenor said. "You're not letting her go."

"There's only one other snowmobile out there besides Megan's. Even if you don't want to count me, you'll have plenty of manpower with five," Mei said.

"At least we'll have someone who will stop to ask directions," Bernadini cracked.

"I need to be there. No matter what's happened, I'm the closest thing Megan and Ryan have to family right now," Mei said.

"And she's going to need family," the colonel agreed. "That's the most important thing," he added in a raspy whisper.

The two officers loaded him into the back of a cruiser and one went to help his wife into the car with him.

"You tell her to call me when she and Ryan are home safe," the colonel said. He looked at Travis and added, "And I hope those assholes who did this end up rotting in jail."

Landon nodded. "Me, too, Colonel. Me, too."

Mei looked straight at Andy and watched him concede with a short nod.

"She goes," Andy said. "Bernadini and Wisenor, you go, too." He met her gaze and said softly, "Please be careful."

She was waved to the back of one of the snowmobiles and she pulled on the helmet and gloves she'd borrowed from one of the locals. It was all too big but at least it buffeted off the freezing wind.

The snowmobile lurched forward and Mei was forced to tighten her grip around the middle of the officer in front of her. She wondered how much dare-deviling he would do to try to convince her she should have stayed back.

She blinked hard and told herself she didn't care. She could handle it. And she was going to be there when they got Ryan and Megan back. That was all that mattered.

With Landon's directions, it only took ten minutes to get around the side of the lake on the snowmobiles. About a quarter mile down, they found one abandoned snowmobile. Mei and two others jumped off in search of bodies, but there was nothing.

"I've got blood," one said.

Mei squeezed her eyes shut to keep from crying.

Just then she heard something.

"Move on up?" Bernadini said.

"Shh," she hushed him, straining to hear.

She heard it again.

"Someone's there."

"Hello?" she called.

Several of the men shot her glares for calling out, but the response she got was all she needed.

"Here," a woman's voice called out. "We're down by the water."

Mei didn't bother to get back on the snowmobile. Instead she turned and ran down the frozen bank toward the water's edge. "Bring blankets and supplies. They might need them."

As she cleared the trees, she saw Megan Riggs sitting on the bank. At first she didn't see Ryan, but then she noticed another pair of legs sticking out from Megan's lap.

"It's me, Mei."

Megan Riggs smiled at her and Mei was sure it was genuine. She reached Megan and Ryan and dropped to her knees. "Are you okay?"

Megan was crying and that was all Mei needed for her own tears to start. "We're okay. I think we're going to be okay."

Mei looked around as the other agents arrived, pulling heating blankets and first aid from a pack one carried. "And Kirov?"

Megan's eyes shone. "He's gone, Mei. He's gone forever."

Mei stood back as Megan held her son. Both of them wrapped in blankets, Megan whispered softly to him and he smiled. Mei thought again of Jennifer and wondered if her parents had ever held her the way Megan held Ryan.

Mei thought probably not, but she bet that it might have made all the difference.

Epilogue

Ten Days Later

Cody watched through the living room window as Ryan and Peter Landon and the colonel's grandson, Michael James, ran back and forth across the grass in their small yard, chasing after a bright orange soccer ball. She cupped the hot tea in her hands and pulled the blanket over her legs again. Ryan had managed to bounce back from his time in the freezing lake as only an eight-year-old could. In the meantime, Cody had suffered the worst cold she'd had in a decade.

But they were there. They had survived.

The colonel shifted back in the chair he'd started to claim as his. "You let me drift off again."

She looked over at him, his bandaged leg propped on a pillow. "You need your rest."

From the kitchen, she could hear Roni and Florence talking. They were making sugar cookies in the shapes of footballs for the boys. Roni had come down to take care of Florence while the colonel was in the hospital. He'd been out three days now and she'd made no mention of going home. They had a lot of issues to work through. Roni's marriage had had its rough spots, but her husband, Doug James, was a good father and husband, and after all these years, they'd worked through the worst stuff.

The colonel supported her fully, he said, and Cody was pretty sure he was dead serious about it. Doug had been down a few times, and he was trying to get to know the colonel and Florence as though courting their daughter for the first time rather than having been married to her. It wasn't easy for any of them, but they were muddling through. That was what family was about, and Cody was happy to watch it.

Cody hoped Roni stayed awhile. It was nice for all of them. And she was taking notes of her own. She'd called her family and told them her story. She'd been on the phone at least four times a day with them since her return. She and Ryan were booked to go to Chicago in a month, and in some ways Cody felt as nervous as poor Doug looked. She still didn't know who had pointed the Russians to New Orleans. Mei Ling had volunteered to head a team to look into it. Cody thought maybe it was Jennifer, maybe someone else. The important thing was that everyone thought she was no longer at risk.

Still, since she and Ryan had returned home, she'd hardly had a day without the colonel, Roni, and Florence spending a few hours at her house. The colonel swore it was because his oven needed repair, but Cody knew they were taking care of her. And she was starting to like it.

Florence seemed to be doing better. The Alzheimer's wasn't improving, of course. The disease didn't work that way, but having her daughter around seemed to make her lucid moments all the more enjoyable.

And the colonel was all but bursting with joy at having his grandson around. The boy and Ryan had become fast friends, and they'd even had two sleepovers in less than a week.

"He's quite an athlete," the colonel said.

Cody looked at Michael and smiled. "Must get it from his granddad."

The colonel grinned. "I was thinking he gets it from his mother."

Cody watched Ryan dribbling the ball, as Florence and Roni entered the room with cookies. Roni went to round up the boys for treats, and Florence sat in the chair beside the colonel. Cody envied them each other, but as Ryan bounded into the room and took a cookie in each hand, she knew she had all she needed.

Roni reappeared, wearing a frown.

"What's wrong?" the colonel asked.

"Travis Landon's at the front door. He wants to talk to you," she said to Cody.

"Tell him to get lost," the colonel said.

"Not in front of the children, Walter," Florence whispered.

"It's okay," Cody said. "I'll go." She pushed the blanket aside and set down her mug. As she passed the boys, huddled in front of the television, she leaned down and gave Ryan a kiss on the forehead.

The other kids laughed as Ryan's face grew rosy.

"Aw, Mom," he complained.

"Sorry. You're just going to have to live with the kisses." She passed them and went to the entryway.

Travis Landon stood at the door. He wore a dark gray suit and a navy tie. But despite the attire, he looked disheveled and uncomfortable.

"Peter's fine playing, if he wants to stay for a while."

He nodded and clasped his hands together and stared at them. "Thanks. I appreciate it." He stopped and looked up. "That's not why I'm here, though." He shook his head. "I mean, of course, I'll take Peter home if it's time, but I wanted to talk about everything else."

She paused and then waved him into the dining room, away from the crowd. She knew they'd have to have this discussion, but she wanted it to be quick and then over. She'd heard the confessions of those who were responsible for the ridiculous media plan that had led to Ryan's almost-fatal disappearance. Still, she couldn't help but think somehow Travis had let it happen. He wasn't to blame criminally, of course. He had scapegoats for that. But how could he not have recognized that table? How could he not have had some clue from those first pictures? She just didn't buy it.