"I've ruined everything, haven't I? For everyone."
Kate waited for Praeger to reassure the doc, as he had several times during their discussion. When he didn't, those tears started up again.
Kate wasn't surprised. It had been a hell of an interview.
Even she was feeling raw. And desperate.
How on earth was she going to find a man savvy enough to have murdered three women the way Vahid had—in a country foreign to him, no less—and remain at large? Where was Vahid even staying? In a remote cabin somewhere? In Little Rock or in some other relatively nearby southern city with a fellow, like-minded Iranian expat?
If so, would Arash, with even his array of connections, be able to get a bead on the man in time for them to prevent a fourth murder?
To prevent Lily Basque's?
The quickest and surest path to protecting this woman would be to get Lily out of Arkansas. But while that would undoubtedly be safest for the doc, would removing Lily from her ex-bastard's reach enrage Vahid so much that he would continue to murder others in her stead? If he was even done with murdering others.
How many women had Vahid ID'd from the clinic?
Kate swore she could see the same questions and considerations whirling through the spook's brain as he stared intently across the exam room. While she too needed a decision from the man, at this precise moment, his charge needed reassurance more. And not from her. "Chuck?"
Muted green focused. The weathered cheeks beneath flushed. "Sorry." He reached up to give the doc's shoulder a squeeze. "I need to do some thinking. Arranging. I can't lie, Lily. Vahid's involvement does change things for everyone, but especially for you."
The doc nodded, albeit numbly.
He glanced from Lily to the hall. "I need you to do me a favor. Go check on our patient. I know, I know. Daria's good. But I'd like your call on whether or not the man's ready to move." Calm, steady. Praeger's voice and his words. Kate knew they were designed to get the doc focused on medicine again. An area of her life that Lily understood and where she'd feel a measure of control.
The spook was good.
And it worked. The tears dried up as the doc nodded. "And then?"
His hand came up to gently squeeze the shoulders of those scrubs once more, to soothe the still clearly terrified woman beneath as the inevitable followed. "And then I want you to gather up anything you need from your office. You might not be back for a while."
From the look he shot Kate as Lily stood to follow through on his orders, Kate was fairly certain the doc wouldn't be back at all—let alone remaining in the world as her current self.
Praeger reached out as the scrubs cleared the room and carefully closed the door behind their owner. "She's going to need a new identity. But I need time. I have..."
"A patient to secure."
This nod was not numb. It was decidedly crisp. "I've got a flight to get him on, and it's critical that I do so. I've also got a vital event that I need to attend this afternoon."
The spook wasn't going to share the who, what, where, why or how for that pending event any more than he'd be sharing his patient's identity.
Nor would Praeger be sharing his own real birth name. She wouldn't bother pressing for that identity either. Despite their newfound detente, the spook wouldn't give it—not unless information was mission essential. That was just the way the CIA worked.
It was also clear that the spook's pending event was not one that he could attend with Lily in tow.
No matter. Kate had her own agenda.
Fortunately for Praeger, one of the leading items on her To Do list involved his charge. Specifically, keeping the woman still known as Lily Basque safe. Her motivation had increased a hundredfold too, now that she knew the doc was an innocent target in all this.
"I'll take her. I'm sure you know where I live, Chuck, so you'll know where to pick her up when you're ready."
Not to mention that her place was easy to secure. There were enough trees cut down around the split log home that no one would be able to sneak up on her. And she had Ruger. Those ears and that nose of his would hear and sniff out anyone she couldn't see. The Shepherd did it on an hourly basis.
There were her own skills as well. Taking down eleven jihad addicts after as many hours of captivity in Afghanistan tended to provide one hell of an I can keep the woman safe bullet point to her own professional résumé.
Despite that résumé, the spook stared at her for a solid eleven seconds. One for each one of those bastards. Then nodded. "Okay. You need anything? Backup? Specialized equipment to extend your perimeter? I can call it in."
"Nope." That all came with Ruger. And she trusted the dog more than a van full of electronics.
Especially over some stranger she'd never met, and that would be who'd show with those electronics if Praeger made his call.
"I'll let Lily know. Back in a few."
The unspoken wait here reverberated off the walls as the spook closed the door behind him. Firmly.
Evidently, he didn't trust her not to try to finagle a peek at the only other man in the clinic. The one down the hall in what she suspected was closer to a surgical suite in a hospital than the bare bones exam room she was currently incarcerated within.
Admittedly, she was curious. But no matter. Kate retrieved her phone from her utility belt, determined to use the time and the privacy wisely.
First up: a lengthy text to Arash—albeit, sans names—to fill the detective in on the basics in case he needed the information to round out his tea date with Lily's former neighbors. She'd have preferred the give and take of a phone call to this much typing, but she was loath to disturb Arash.
Who knew if he was at a critical juncture?
From his I'll be there ASAP she knew he wasn't thrilled with the plan to babysit their killer's prime target at her house. But her suspicion that Arash was currently immersed in his own impromptu mission was sound, because he didn't take the time to offer more, much less insult her by arguing the decision.
She took the win and pasted the bulk of the text she'd sent Arash into one to Lou, highlighting her need to serve as babysitter for a few hours, then hit send.
Her third text was truncated and sent to Agent Wynne to let the OSI agent know the case was shaping up on her end and to provide the ID on their suspect. Her fourth and final text went to Regan Chase at Fort Campbell to inform the Army.
That done, she was about to call Seth to check on the cadaver search when her phone rang. "Hey, boss."
"Hey yourself, Kato. That's some mornin' you're havin'."
She spotted a stray pair of surgical tweezers on the floor, jammed up against the base of the exam table from when Lily had dropped the tray, and bent to scoop them up. "Yeah, it's been an eye-opener. I'll provide more details in person."
"Sounds good. Gotta be honest, though. Wish you had the time to swing past here. We got our hands full."
Miller's trees. The search. "Seth said you started early. How's the dog holding up?"
"He's done."
What? She pushed back the cuff of her jacket and checked the time on Max's watch. 11:10. They'd been at it for barely an hour and a half. "That's quick."
"Yep. That asshole you texted me about may be smart, but he got lazy. Leastways with the husbands. Cain't be sure, of course, but I don't think he expected or wanted to deal with them, 'cause he didn't dig all that deep. Hell, not that a hound wouldn't a found 'em anyways. But it mighta made it more of a challenge."
"You found both sergeants?"
"In the same damned shallow grave. No obvious cause of death, but we haven't moved them yet. They're lyin' face up and side by side. The bastard buried 'em about three feet down with a layer of dirt and leaves scattered over the top. Seth, Drake, Tonga and I are on site, already processin' the scene. Nester and his boys are on the way. That's why I called. I knew you'd want to see it all for yourself. You want me to send Seth or Drake to your place to swap out the guard duty for a spell?"
You bet she did. But she wouldn't.
Couldn't.
"This woman's too skittish, boss." Too damned terrified. "But I should be turning the task over to someone she trusts within a few hours." Which was the only reason the "Uncle Lou" inside her boss wasn't throwing his own overbearingly protective fit. The timelines they'd been able to piece together for all three women had shown that they'd been abducted after dark. "There should be enough daylight left after the doc's handoff for me to head out to Miller's place and get a sense of the scene."
Hopefully, Tonga would have an idea on cause of death by then too.
"Alrighty. I'll inform the Mazelle chief of police about the find. Keep in touch. And keep that Glock and that mutt at the ready. "
Both went without saying.
Kate severed the call and shot off a follow-up text regarding the discovery of the husbands to Arash, Agent Wynne and Regan Chase. Tea time was definitely underway and steaming along, because that update to Arash went unanswered.
Less than a minute later, the skittish woman at the center of it all opened the door to the room. Still wearing the white, long-sleeved tee beneath those baby blue scrubs, the doc had added an oversized leather bag slung over her right shoulder and a subdued gray herring bone coat tucked between her crossed forearms.
"I'm ready, Deputy."
Yeah, those eyes didn't look ready. They looked terrified.
She nodded anyway and added a reassuring smile. "It's Kate."
She motioned for Lily to don her coat, then led the way out of the building, instinctively scanning the parking lot and the thick stand of trees that surrounded it as the doc locked up behind them.
The Durango was the only vehicle in sight. Even the doc's sedan had been removed.
Lily's face fell as she noted its absence. Evidently, she wasn't looking forward to having her entire life erased along with her car before the day was out—again.
Kate left her charge to her thoughts as she pointed the Durango toward Braxton.
Although she could fake idle conversation with the best of them, she figured Lily would prefer that she concentrate on figuring out how the hell a non-native American had managed to pull off all three of those crime scenes.
And then there was the military connection.
Suspicion had begun to niggle in long before she turned off the highway to take the backroad around Braxton proper. "Lily, did Vahid ever visit the States?"
If so, how and why? The woman's ex might be a diplomat, but the formal exchange of consular personnel between the United States and Iran had been abruptly severed in 1979—and for a significant reason.
Silence greeted her curiosity.
Kate glanced across the front of the SUV. Her passenger was staring blindly out of the window at the passing trees, bottom lip quivering in her reflection. At least the tears had stopped. Or maybe there just weren't any left.
She reached out to tap the doc's arm.
Lily jumped. "I'm sorry. Did you say something, Deputy? I'm afraid I was thinking...about everything."
"It's Kate. If you're Lily, I'm Kate. Okay?"
"Okay."
The woman's whisper didn't sound all that confident, but Kate accepted it as she shifted her full attention back to the road. "I've been trying to think through a few things myself. Namely, how Vahid's been able to move around the States so easily."
Getting here would've been easy enough. But not by air. Given the security checks and the man's ethnic features, he'd have been flagged even with exquisitely forged papers. Coming by sea had its own issues.
That left land as the most likely route. Specifically, the southern border. At the moment, it was little more than a sieve, and honest folks born due south of the country weren't the only ones streaming across. Vahid would've fit right in.
But once he'd arrived?
"How good is the man's English?"
"It's perfect." Kate caught the soft shake of the doc's head in her periphery. "I'm sorry; I assumed Charles had told you. Vahid was raised here. In Chicago. He liked to tell me we had so much in common. We didn't. Not only was I fourteen at the time, he was thirty-four. He was also born in Iran and immigrated with his parents in the seventies when he was five. Vahid became naturalized though. He didn't move back to Iran until after he graduated from college."
Now that didn't seem to mesh. "Why not stay?" Especially if he already had his citizenship and a degree under his belt?
"Because the Army kicked him out."
Whoa. Kate slowed the Durango as they approached a yellow yield sign. So much made sense with that comment. "What happened?"
"Vahid joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps in college. His major was mechanical engineering. He wanted to work with rivers and dams, and a captain in the ROTC unit had assured him that the best way to do that was through the—"
"Army Corps of Engineers."
"Yes."
Kate waited for a Silverado towing a doublewide horse trailer to pass, then turned in behind it. Her private drive was roughly half a mile down the road.
"So did Vahid flunk out?" And had the disappointment been enough to twist him down that path of hate toward women?
"No, he graduated. I don't think his grades were all that great, because he would have lorded that over me, too. I do know that the week before, he was called into his commander's office at the ROTC unit and told that there was an issue with his security clearance. Vahid and my father, they had another cousin. But Bijan was a few years older and still lived in Iran. Bijan was involved in the Iranian Hostage Crisis. It came out during Vahid's background check, and he was rejected. Vahid was furious. At the Army and the country, and it didn't help that his ROTC commander was a woman."
Yeah, if he'd already had issues, that would have definitely jumpstarted a deep dive into fundamentalism.
It also explained why the bastard had begun with military wives.
Getting his revenge against the child bride he'd discovered had bested him all these years was one thing. Why not humiliate Uncle Sam in the process?
Perhaps those grades weren't that poor after all.
"I don't suppose you kept any photos of the man?"
The doc shook her head—firmly. "God, no."
Great. Not that she would've held on to one herself. But still—the absence made their search that much harder.
She'd put in a rush request with the Military Personnel Records division at the National Archives, but she doubted Saint Louis would be able to cough up an image either. Vahid would've attended ROTC in the eighties. Back then, the Army wouldn't have hung on to the man's photo, since he'd never received a commission.
That left attempting to track down an old high school yearbook or microfiched driver's license photo, and hoping like hell that the resulting computerized age progression was even close to what the bastard looked like now—if Vahid was even in the former and/or had bothered to obtain the latter.
Damn it. They needed something current, and they needed it now.
Kate turned the Durango into her private drive. Despite tree frontage roughly five acres deep, she could hear Ruger's greeting well before they reached the house.
As usual, the Shepherd was overjoyed to see her. So much so, he was waiting on the far-right side of the drive, near the front of the garage. But Ruger wasn't jumping up and down. He was in guard mode, maintaining a vigilant position at the entrance to the flagstone walkway...because they had company.
Lily tensed as Kate pulled in beside the waiting Braxton PD SUV parked on the left side of the drive and turned off her own engine.
"It's okay, Lily. That's Seth. He's a fellow deputy. I trust him with my life." Though that explanation didn't answer the question burning through her brain.
What was Seth doing here? Lou had said the deputy was with him at the Miller scene, and that they'd yet to remove the bodies from the makeshift grave.
Crap.
Lou. She should've expected him to pull something like this.
She pushed down her irritation as she bailed out of the Durango to give Ruger his I missed you too hug with her left arm while she waved her right between her guests. "Dr. Lily Basque, meet Deputy Seth Armstrong, Braxton PD." She gave Ruger a final hug and told him to sit beside her. "And this is Ruger."
The Shepherd's tail thumped into the pea gravel as he crooked up his right paw, instantly charming the doc. Even better, his spontaneity had put the woman at ease.
A genuine smile warmed Lily's features as she slung her leather bag over her shoulder and bent to accept Ruger's shake. "Oh, my. He's gorgeous."
That he was. "Thank you."
And thank you, Ruger.
If Arash didn't bring another one of those meaty bones by soon, she'd have to risk swinging past the butcher's to grab a few herself.
Kate motioned for Seth to follow as she headed up the flagstone walk to let them all inside the house. She waved Seth into her kitchen and gave the doc a quick tour of the rest of the place before depositing the woman in the den with Ruger and a promise that she'd return after she spoke with her fellow deputy.
Both doc and dog were curled up on the forest green cushions of the overstuffed couch before Kate left the room.
Time to deal with Seth. Find out what he was doing here.
And what was in the manila folder that he'd brought into the house.
The senior deputy was staring down at the stacks of casework on her table when she reached his side. Specifically, at a close-up of Tahira Larijani's desecrated thighs. One look at the fresh lines bracketing her favorite bubba's mouth and carving away his innate humor, and she knew exactly why Seth was here.
Her father was so wrong about his old high school buddy. Lou Simms was a lot of things, but dumb was not one of them. Lou's manner was just...different.
Got a deputy in danger of popping his cork at a crime scene because he was having trouble dealing with all the shit he'd endured at several previous crime scenes? Got another deputy who'd agreed to babysit the target of a serial killer? Why not lie to the first and send him on to guilt the second into accepting makeshift backup?
The proof was in the pristine manila folder still tucked beneath Seth's arm.
He held it out. "Here you go. The initial Miller crime scene photos as requested, fresh off the department's printer. Sorry yours is on the fritz."
Yeah, it wasn't. But she wouldn't embarrass a good friend, let alone their mutual boss by revealing differently.
"Thanks." Kate glanced at the burdened table as she accepted the folder. "The darn thing crapped out after all that printing."
Despite the fib, she did prefer working with hard copies. Which was probably why Seth had swallowed Lou's lie so easily. And since those hard copies were not only here, but in her hand, she opened the folder and flipped through it.
Even with the dirt still clinging to their faces, both men were easy to identify. Their missing sergeants were definitely dead. But like Lou had stated on the phone, the cause was not obvious.
Hopefully, Tonga was already working his medical examiner's magic.
She closed the folder and laid it on the table.
Seth was still staring at that close-up of those charred and mutilated thighs, still looking as though he was about to lose what she suspected was a nonexistent lunch. "How do you do it, Kate?" He waved his hands at the photos. "Deal with all...this?"
"And not let it get to me?"
He nodded silently.
"I don't." Because it did get to her. Always. And it should—with every single case. Because if it didn't? Well, she just didn't want to be that person.
Ever.
But this was the moment she'd been waiting for with him. The man had finally reached out to her. She had no choice but to extend a helping hand. "Seth, that horror you've got inside you? It's already entrenched. You can stop being a deputy, and I'm not saying you shouldn't, but quitting the force? It won't make that horror go away."
In the end, she hadn't even needed her chats with Dr. Manning to press that point home. She'd bailed on the Army after what she'd endured. It was four years on now.
Look how well that tail-tuck and retreat had turned out.
She extended her fingers and gently squeezed Seth's forearm. "If you want your life back, you're going have to learn how to drive the horror out on your own. But I can give you the number of a guy who can teach you how to do it."
"Is he helping you?"
She shifted her attention to the far stack. To the worksheet she'd shared with Arash. The sheet was turned upside down now. But because of what was written on the other side, she no longer felt as though she was in the same state.
No, things weren't perfect. Heck, they weren't even all that great yet. Manning was right; it was going to take time. Baby steps, even. But, "Yeah, he is helping. I am going to get there. And, Seth, I'd really like for you to get there, too."
The man nodded slowly, thoughtfully. "I'll let you know."
"Okay."
"Meanwhile, Lou wants me to stick around. Provide backup."
"Fine. But you're making the pizza. I've got a cheese one in the freezer. You can dress it up with a few veggies from the fridge. But first, would you grab the basket from the top of the dryer?" She reached out to tap the stack of autopsy close-ups. "I need to put all this out of sight." At least while Lily was there.
As Seth headed across her kitchen to loop around the pantry and grab the basket, Kate combined the smaller stacks she'd created while reviewing the files after she'd returned from the Frasheri crime scene and the airbase the night before.
By the time Seth returned, she'd made two larger ones.
She'd just placed the second stack in the basket when Ruger shot off the couch and across the den and kitchen. A split second later, the inner dog door was flapping in the wind.
Lily came sprinting up to the table next, panic and terror stamped along every inch of her face and body. "Is that—"
"Everything's fine." Kate allowed the amusement that had taken seed with Ruger's near-Olympic dash to blossom visibly. "It seems my partner has arrived."
And the four-legged creature in her life was hoping—praying—the detective was armed with another juicy bag of contraband.
Kate hefted the basket from the table and deposited it into her fellow deputy's arms. "Lily, Seth is going to set my files on the bed in my dad's old room for me." And, hey, she wouldn't have to face any crappy memories with his doing so in her stead. "Then he's going to get a pizza started for our lunch while I brief my partner and take a walk around the perimeter. Perhaps you'd like to help add the veggies?"
The woman relaxed as Seth tipped his head and smiled down at her. Kate wasn't surprised. That sedate bubba mystique of his could soothe a meth head off the ledge of a building in the middle of an active threat to jump.
She'd seen it happen.
As for her own lie of the afternoon, it was a white one. She was due for a briefing, but she'd be on the receiving end.
She hoped.
She could only pray Arash had learned something during this morning's impromptu tea that was worth sharing. While they now knew who they were looking for, they still didn't have a single clue as to how or where to find him.
Arash had parked his black Explorer behind Seth's department SUV. The detective was still hunkered down beside his front passenger door, scratching the base of Ruger's ears as she stepped out onto the porch. From the glance Arash shot her as she headed down the walk, she knew he had learned something during that tea.
From the way that glance shifted tellingly toward the trees, she also knew he'd prefer to share it in private.
She reached the pea gravel.
It took her disloyal mutt a solid five additional seconds of ear scratching before Ruger spun around to join her.
"I think I'm jealous."
The detective laughed as he stood and dusted off the lower legs of the trousers to his suit. "I'm just the shiny new toy. And I confess; I have another bribe in the car."
He turned to retrieve an oversized, brown paper lunch sack from within as she shook her head.
"It's more than that. Ruger likes you."
Arash grinned down as the dog bumped his nose into the back of the man's occupied hand in an attempt to regain his attention—and a closer whiff of whatever was in that sack. "I like him too. I suspect he knows it." He shrugged. "I wanted a German Shepherd growing up. Badly. The kid across the street had one, and I confess, I was jealous as hell. My aunt would've gotten one in a heartbeat, too, but she's allergic."
"And now?"
In anticipation of their coming professional conversation, the two of them headed down the garage side of the house by tacit agreement and kept on moving as they cleared the back of the split-log home to gain distance from the ears within.
Ruger was at their heels. Make that the detective's heels...and that paper bag.
"And now I live in a studio apartment. It doesn't seem fair, trapping a dog inside so small a space, let alone a guy as big as yours."
"You could always move."
"I've thought about it. My lease is almost up, too. But it would have to be a special place." The man's approving glance took in the modest, cedar horse barn near the treeline on their left, before sweeping across the brittle, overgrown grass of the four-acre dormant pasture until it reached the smattering of currently naked oaks, maples and hickory trees mixed in with the shortleaf and loblolly pines off their right. "Someplace like this, in fact."
His gaze had settled on the visible break in the trees.
There was no way she was copping to the vacant log cabin at the other end of that distant, shadowy path. The one perfectly sized for a bachelor ready to give up on life in the city. Ruger would have Arash and that seemingly bottomless supply of contraband moving in before nightfall.
As it was, her salivating mutt was staring intently at the sack in Arash's hands. The man laughed as he raised a questioning brow to her.
"Go ahead."
He pulled out a paper towel and began to unwrap it. "Don't look."
But she did. Not that she'd needed to. The large chunks of beef skewered onto that bamboo stick might be stone cold, but they were kicking off enough of a residual odor that, this close to the source, she'd have known what they were anyway.
Arash pulled off the first chunk and tossed it to Ruger, who neatly snatched it from midair. Her mannerless mutt didn't even bother to chew; he swallowed the chunk whole with a happy slurping groan, before snatching up and gobbling down the three additional chunks just as easily and noisily. There appeared to be something else inside the sack. It must not have been intended for Ruger, because it remained firmly inside as Arash curled down the bag's edges, sealing it.
The dog accepted that his feast was over. He gave the detective's fingers a quick, slobbering, thank-you lick and promptly bounded off past the barn to do his business as Arash watched him go.
Yep, man and beast were officially fast friends.
The detective took in the trio of human silhouettes spray-painted onto the sheet of plywood leaning against the barn's cedar siding. It made for a handy spot to practice her knife work. And she had been practicing. Though she'd replaced the plywood and paint at the start of those sessions with Manning, two distinctive spots within each silhouette had already been gouged down to bare wood—between the eyes and over the heart.
"Impressive." Arash's brow quirked as he glanced back at her. "I'll remember not to reach rudely past your plate the next time we share dinner."
She shrugged. Ironically, one of her dad's fellow deputies—and his only other friend on the planet—had taught her. Bob Feathers had even given her a set of throwing knives to practice with on her own for her sixteenth birthday.
Her dad had been livid.
Feathers had laughed outright and promptly told her father to his face that he was just jealous that his daughter possessed the natural aim he didn't.
As for her, Feathers had drawn her aside later in all seriousness and had admitted the real reason behind the gift—and the fact that he would continue to work with her, no matter what her dad said. Everyone knew she intended on enlisting at eighteen. That meant that, eventually, she'd end up in Afghanistan or Iraq—or both. Feathers had confessed that he didn't want her in danger any more than her dad did, but he also knew she was serious about becoming an MP. So he was going to make damned sure she was as prepared as she could be by the time she became one.
And Feathers was right. She had been forced to tap into the skillset a time or two over the years. For that reason alone, she kept up her practice.
As for Arash, the detective's humor had faded as he turned back to face her.
Well, crap. Whatever Arash had learned today was a game changer. Why else had the mere thought of it eradicated any remaining trace of levity in the man?
She glanced back at her kitchen window. At this distance, and with it lighter outside the house than in, all she could see was Seth's shadowy sequoia shape standing protectively near the doc's significantly shorter and more petite one. It was enough.
She turned back to Arash. "What'd you get?"
"Her mother's still alive."
"What?"
Arash had managed to discover in one morning what a CIA operative had tried years ago to get—and failed?
Then again, Arash was Army Intel. Arash was also a dual Afghan and Iraq combat vet, with all that entailed. And the detective had managed to track down and speak with another woman from the doc's former hometown in Iran.
Even with any and all lingering cultural issues, that was a conversation easier had between a man and a woman outside of a Persian stronghold than within.
Especially since it seemed that the male relatives in the doc's previous life enforced strict purdah, right down to the separation of the sexes and the all-obscuring shuttlecock burqa in lieu of the open veil that most Iranian Shias wore.
"Yeah, I was pretty stunned too. I'd hoped for something we could use, of course. But this? It complicates things."
That it did. "How badly?"
"Enough that I wanted to check with you first, before I shared my news with the doc. Dineh—the woman I spoke with—has known Vahid's family for years, including all three of Vahid's current wives and his cousin, the doc's father Masud Baqr. Though that's not really a surprise; the town was simply that small. Dineh left Iran about six years ago. She, her husband and their daughter were smuggled out via Afghanistan with the help of their son-in-law who runs a Persian carpet store in Little Rock. According to Dineh, she and Maya became friends a year after the doc escaped. It took another two years before Maya shared her tale with Dineh. It was the anniversary of her daughter's supposed death and Maya was grieving so deeply, she finally opened up. The reason Maya wasn't kicked to the curb following her daughter's 'honor killing' was because Maya had announced a new pregnancy mere hours before she and Masud learned of Basque's death. So Masud decided to wait. Prudent, I suppose, since his second wife, though younger and Iranian, had supposedly failed with that task."
She could see where this was headed. Hell, just about anyone could. "I'll take a guess here: Maya gave birth to a boy, and Masud decided she was worth keeping."
Arash clipped a nod. "And now the woman's trapped in Iran like her daughter was, along with Naveed, Hassan and Yasmin—the doc's two younger brothers and sister. According to Dineh, Maya had no interest in leaving, because she believed her elder daughter dead and that she was responsible since she brought the girl to Iran."
"And Dineh? Who else has she told about all this?"
"She swears no one. Given her husband's surprise during the telling, I believe her. But there's more. Something Dineh's been holding onto all these years—a picture. It was taken six years ago, just before Dineh left Iran. She's kept it as a reminder of her friend. Dineh wants the doc to have it." Arash shifted whatever was still in that paper bag to his left hand so that he could slip his right into his suit jacket.
He pulled out a worn, three-by-five-inch photo and passed it over.
It was of a seated woman in her mid-to-late forties. A boy about twelve years old and two younger children—another boy around ten or so, and a girl around five—stood beside her. Mother and daughter looked a lot like Lily Basque. And everyone in that photo was still in Iran.
Damned if Arash hadn't called it. This did complicate things.
A lot.
He sighed. "Yeah, I have to be honest. I'm not looking forward to the telling."
Oh, she got that. Because while Lily would be overjoyed to learn of her mother and siblings, the doc was bound to be terrified about her family's current circumstances, doubly so in light of the bloody rampage her ex was on.
Kate flipped the photo over. Someone, possibly Dineh, had written a date on the reverse, most likely when it had been taken. "Does Dineh—"
"Have a photo of Vahid Baqr?"
Kate nodded.
"No. I asked. I figured the doc wouldn't have saved one. Since it's been eighteen years since Lily has seen the bastard and only six for Dineh, I asked Dineh if she'd work with a sketch artist. She agreed, so I called the Searcy PD. They sent someone out. The artist arrived before I left. If we're lucky, we'll have something viable soon."
Kate's phone pinged as Ruger barreled out of the trees near the rear of the barn, the slight hitch to his gait noticeable as he swiftly changed course to chase down a gray squirrel. Fortunately for the squirrel, it beat Ruger back to the trees and skittered up the closest one.
She retrieved her phone from her utility belt and clicked into her most recent text.
It was from Lou.
She shared the latest with Arash. "We've got cause of death on the sergeants. Hypoxia due to exsanguination. Both men suffered a single, deep stab wound to their right lung, followed by a complete severing of their right popliteal artery." The wounds would've occurred in that order too, since the physiological fallout would've been covered during Neutralizing Sentry Duty 101. Stab someone in the lungs and they cannot scream, much less yell to warn others. In the sergeants' cases, their wives.
And that second slice across the back of the leg behind the knee? With the popliteal artery extending down from the femoral, the men would've bled out in roughly a minute, if not less.
And during that minute?
Both Sergeant Kharoti and Sergeant Larijani would also have been immobilized and unable to prevent what was happening to their wives.
What a way to go, even with the Larijani marital issues.
"Shit." Arash scrubbed hand along the side of his jaw. "That would do it. But how the hell would some low-level diplomat know—"
"Vahid was US Army."
The detective's shock rivaled hers upon learning the news. And with each new tantalizing tidbit that she tossed on top—specifically the revelations concerning Vahid's Corps of Engineers aspirations, along with the revocation of his clearance and subsequent loss of his ROTC commission due to his cousin's involvement in overrunning Embassy Tehran in 1979—Arash, too, agreed: the motives, means and opportunities surrounding their cases and Agent Wynne's had coalesced. Become that much clearer.
She wrapped up her side of the briefing with the remaining information that the spook had passed along to her at the clinic, including the man's 'Charles Praeger' alias. Praeger was due to show soon. Arash would be meeting him at that point anyway.
As she finished, Kate held out the photo Dineh had given Arash.
He waved it off. "You give it to Basque, along with the explanation. You've established a rapport with her. Plus, with everything she's been through, I suspect it'll come easier from a woman than a man...and one who looks like her ex."
As much as she hated to admit it, Arash was probably right. "Okay. Let's get this over with then." She used her thumb and index finger to shrill out a whistle.
Ruger spun around in mid-lope and bounded up the middle of the field, tearing past them until he was leading the way to the twin doors at the back of her deck.
The dog might've sensed what was going on, or at least his mistress' mood, because he continued on into the den and hopped on the couch beside the doc, where he was duly welcomed and fêted.
Her fellow deputy was standing inside the kitchen, near the oven, waiting for the pizza to finish baking.
Kate signaled for Seth to remain where he was. Arash paused at the counter to deposit the paper bag he'd brought inside, then entered the den at her side.
Lily must've learned more from Charles Praeger than how to sanitize her Underground Railroad trail, because she took one look at their expressions and jumped to her feet. "What's wrong?"
There really was no easy way to say this. Kate opted for showing.
She held out Dineh's gift.
The doc accepted the modest, three-by-five-inch print. Her lashes flew wide as she realized what it was—who they were—but she didn't look up. She couldn't. Vahid himself could've entered the room and the woman would've failed to notice.
She was that absorbed.
A picture might be worth a thousand words, but that single photo was worth so many more...especially in tears. At least from Lily. But these tears were different than the ones Kate had cataloged earlier. Not only were these quiet and slow, they were infused with a thick, palpable joy and an utterly profound relief.
They trickled down for nearly a minute.
But then they changed. And these new tears, Kate knew all too well. Because they were infused with apprehension and absolute terror.
The woman swallowed hard as she looked up. "My mom, my siblings, they're trapped there, aren't they? In Iran."
"Yes."
Lily nodded carefully. A moment later, she sank back down to the couch. A moment after that, before their very eyes, the doc pulled all the way inward as she curled up with that worn photo and a willing and sympathetic Ruger.
Kate retrieved the oversized, sunflower-yellow afghan she'd received from a local knitter the previous Christmas and settled it over the doc, then ran her palm down Ruger's warmer, softer head and neck to let him know she appreciated the comfort he was offering a stranger. She turned around and headed to the kitchen.
Arash followed.
There was nothing else either of them could do, much less say to the doc, until she surfaced from her grief. The realization that three women and two of their husbands had been killed by her own monster of an ex; the reality that she was going to lose everything familiar to her since her life was about to be uprooted again; and now this—to discover that her mother was alive and that she had three younger siblings, but that they were all at the mercy of the man who'd given her to Vahid in the first place?
It was simply too much.
There'd be no connecting, no further information about Vahid. Not from the doc. Not until that shock wore off.
Arash's phone pinged as they reached the table. He slipped the Android from his suit jacket and glanced at his incoming text, then into the kitchen.
Seth, bless him, took the hint and announced that he was going to walk the perimeter of the clearing.
Arash waited to speak until the front door closed behind her fellow deputy. "You think Praeger will be able to pull her out of it?"
"I think so." From what she'd seen at the clinic this morning, the spook had a way with his charge, an almost father-daughter touch. Not surprising, given how old Lily had been when the man had found her, and what Praeger had risked for her back then in Iran and in nearly two decades since in the States.
"Good. Because Dineh came through. We've got a sketch. And it's pretty detailed." Arash tapped his screen several times.
A moment later, her phone pinged.
"I just sent it to you. I'd like to run it past the doc before I leave, see if she can add anything, but—" Arash glanced over at the afghan-covered figure huddled up with Ruger on the couch. Lily was still clutching the photo, but she wasn't looking at it anymore. She was staring at the wall. "—I'm not sure that woman can focus right now."
Kate nodded. "If Praeger's delayed much longer, I'll see if I can talk her out of it."
And if she couldn't?
Well, Ruger could work miracles when he set his canine heart and brain to it, along with his burrowing muzzle and those full-on fuzzy body hugs. Look how he'd managed to pull her back from the brink. More times than she could count.
"I'll show her the photo and let you know what she says. But I wouldn't delay getting it out there." They needed that sketch in front of every cop and especially every married, military Muslim couple in the state, hopefully within the hour.
Accomplishing that would have to be the detective's job, since she was stuck here for the time being. Not to mention that she and Seth had a list of Underground Railroad ticket holders to compile, phone and warn as well.
"Agreed. Good luck. If something comes up and Praeger does get held up, let me know ASAP. I plan on stopping back when I'm done with the sketch to assist with any calls that are left to make, but I can also come prepared to relieve Deputy Armstrong for the night. Until then, watch your back, partner."
"Sounds good. You be careful, too."
Arash nodded as he turned toward the living room. "I'll let Armstrong know he can come in."
"Wait."
Arash stopped. Swung back.
She pointed toward the bag he'd set on the counter. "You forgot that."
"Nope." A slight smile tipped in. "That's yours. By the way, Hashem's glad you liked his khoresh bademjan. He expects to see you dining in at his place soon."
Hashem? Surely Arash hadn't—
She reached for the bag as the front door closed. A swift peek inside had her shaking her head and smiling, because Arash had.
The man bribed Ruger with thick bones and chunks of meat. Her treats were vegetarian and far tastier. And this one smelled amazing.
Fresh flatbread.
Ignoring the audible growl in her stomach, she left the bag on the counter for later and pulled up the photo Arash had texted.
He was right. Dineh had done well. There was enough detail here to get their all-points bulletin underway. And with that distinctive mole riding the ridge of Vahid's left cheek? Unless that mark had been surgically removed at some point during the past six years, it might just get the bastard identified—and caught.
She was about to forward the sketch to Lou when her phone rang.
Praeger.
There was only one reason the spook would be calling her again, instead of showing up in person. Arash's feared scenario had come to pass.
There was a delay.
Shit. She opened the connection. "How much longer?"
Praeger didn't miss a beat. "Not sure yet. There's been an issue with finding and securing an adequate location. Given all that's happened to the woman, not to mention the determination of the bastard who's after her, I refuse to just leave her anywhere."
Not only did Kate understand, she agreed. But, "Got an estimate?"
"I may not be able to swing by 'til the morning."
Christ. Kate whirled around to face the den, the couch and the afghan-covered woman still huddled upon it. The hell with Arash's fears, she had her own to deal with.
Her body language must've radiated what her voice had not, because Ruger's head popped up over the padded arm. She could make out that canine concern even with the dining area and the width of the den between them.
"That gonna be a problem?"
"No." Yes.
Because an impromptu sleepover would undoubtedly involve sleep.
Hers.
She and Arash would have to work in shifts, one up while the other slept. It was the only way to keep the guard currently on duty fresh and alert.
Yes, she'd managed to make it through the previous night without enduring a dream so horrific and intense that Ruger was forced to wake her.
But that was one night out of the last four weeks' worth of nights.
What were the odds she'd be able to repeat it?
And while Arash would be okay with her waking up in a cold sweat and screaming at the top of her lungs, would Lily?
Granted, the woman was a doctor. And, yes, Lily knew about those hours she'd spent as a POW in Afghanistan four years earlier. But discovering that half of her protective detail still suffered from full-blown PTSD, including night terrors and quite possibly sleepwalking? Yeah, that would make the woman feel safe.
"Kate?"
She could hear the propellers of a twin engine on the smaller side as they cut in. Was that plane—and the spook—even in Arkansas?
"It's fine. Do what you need to do. We'll be here."
The spook shot off a terse "Thanks" and severed the connection.
Kate slid her now dormant phone into its slot on her utility belt as she turned to stare out through the window at the open field and trees beyond.
How she'd be spending her night was the least of her worries. The critical question was—how did Vahid Baqr plan on spending his?
And where?