She landed on the grass as quietly as she could. No way to avoid the surprise, though. She’d just jumped over the fence.
Allyson planted one knee on the gravel in front of a woman. A familiar face and yet, in a way, the person huddled before her was a total stranger. Older. Dressed in black skinny pants and a shredded and stained blousy shirt. Smudges of dirt marred her skin, and she had a deep purple bruise around her eye.
“Vanessa.”
The woman flinched, eventually looking up. Blinked. “Allyson.”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“You found me.”
“I did.” She reached out. “Can you stand?”
Vanessa’s eyes shifted over Allyson’s shoulder, looking at something beyond her. Behind her.
Again she flinched, and Allyson caught a quick intake of breath.
“That’s my friend, Sal.” She touched Vanessa’s elbow and braced to help her stand. “He’s a US Marshal.”
Vanessa shifted, and Allyson helped her up. “Can you walk?”
She swayed. “I’m okay.”
Allyson held onto her with two hands now. Vanessa moved, and then Allyson was swallowed up in a hug. She stiffened, her instincts catching on to how much closer her old friend was to her gun than she was. Then everything rushed back.
The loneliness. The loss of her friend, the first person after her father’s death who really understood her. She had truly felt a part of Allyson’s life. Other people who knew them both had said they thought Vanessa was a faker, like she was only pulling the wool over Allyson’s eyes.
No one could fake that level of friendship. Not the way they’d been during that first semester of college. Vanessa had become her family in that short time.
Then there was Vanessa’s father, who had drawn her into his family as well. As though she and Vanessa were sisters or something.
The tragedy was that Bill hadn’t lived long enough to see his daughter found.
“You’re here.” Allyson let out a breath that sounded like it’d been held for ten years.
“I’m calling an ambulance.” That was Sal.
Vanessa pulled back, retreating from Allyson’s hug. Eyes wide, her gaze darted around. “No, no, no…no ambulances.” She took two additional steps in retreat.
She reached out, but Vanessa got too far away. Allyson stopped. What was she going to do, grab her? Allyson tensed. What if her friend ran again? What would she do if Vanessa disappeared again?
Vanessa glanced between her and Sal, as though at any moment the marshal would attack her.
“Sal is a friend of mine and a good guy.” The fact she wouldn’t mind being more wasn’t exactly the point right now. “He helped me find you. That’s what he does.” Both the helping part and the finding people part. “You’re safe now, Van. We’ve got you, and we’re going to make sure you continue to be safe and that you get whatever help you need, okay?” Allyson didn’t wait too long, not especially needing an answer to that.
Sal took a step closer. “Are you hurt, honey?”
The soft tone of his voice made Allyson want to shut her eyes and just soak in it. Until it clicked that he’d never called her any kind of endearment. Now he was using one on a victim, her friend?
Allyson shrugged aside her jealousy. “Can you walk? We’ll drive you to the hospital, but we really need to get you checked out.” She gave her friend a small smile she hoped made Van feel better. “Make sure you’re all right.”
They headed for her car, Vanessa taking shaky steps as Allyson helped her along. Her friend’s clothes were disheveled and dirty. There were smudges on the front of her shirt, blood from her split lip. Still, her clothing was clearly the expensive kind. Well made, maybe even tailored. A blouse. Slacks. She’d lost her shoes. Vanessa’s bloody, cut-up feet left smudges on the concrete as they walked.
“Almost there.”
As Bridget McNamara, she had been working for a top pharmaceutical company in San Francisco. She was an executive assistant to one of those c-suite, corner-office types. Not a world Allyson was all that familiar with, but she at least knew enough to know Van clearly hadn’t been a kidnap victim for every one of those years. She’d managed to make something of her life, emerging from that pit to rise high.
And yet, she hadn’t reached out to anyone throughout that time. She had never called to say she was okay. Not in all the years since.
They rounded the corner and headed for the car. Vanessa looked over her shoulder at Sal, bringing up the rear and Allyson felt her shudder. Because she was scared of men? She might have been abused. Allyson’s stomach rolled over at the thought of it. She didn’t work sex crimes, but sometimes it was part of what she did. She never liked those cases even if they were a reality of life.
“Who was at the house with you?” She waited for a second, and when Vanessa said nothing, she asked another question. “Where did they go?”
Someone had held her. Bound her. Hurt her. Where were they now?
“I think they left.” Vanessa took a breath. “I got out of the garage. I heard them looking for me, but I think I was pretty well hidden.”
Sal had managed to find her. The man who had picked up his pace to a run and now approached them, driving the car. Allyson helped her into the backseat and got in beside her. He then drove to the hospital while they sat in silence in the backseat.
Allyson didn’t know what to say. She prayed the whole way there, lips moving quietly. Once Vanessa was seen by a doctor, and they knew the extent of the damage, then they could figure out how to move forward.
Would the task force show up then, swoop in, claim her as their witness? Probably Sal had gone to get the car not just because Vanessa shouldn’t walk all that way, but also because it gave him time to call into his office and update them about her rescue.
Allyson tried not to be mad considering it hadn’t happened yet. But it was a better distraction for her brain than being scared about what Van had been through.
When Vanessa climbed out of the car at the hospital, Allyson stalled her for a second with a hand on her arm. “I know you’re hurt but…it really is good to see you.”
Her friend sort of smiled, but it was wobbly and directed at the front doors of the hospital. Allyson spotted the sheen of tears in her eyes. It would be a long process, but time really would bring her friend back to herself. How long would she need Allyson’s help to do that? She intended to stick with Vanessa for as long as it took. She was in this for the long haul, friends forever. Just as they’d sworn to each other years ago.
Did she know her father had died?
Sal held the door, and Allyson took her inside. Vanessa refused a wheelchair. She wanted to walk in under her own steam.
“I’ll give you a hand.” Allyson didn’t really know what to do with herself but thought of something. “With the paperwork and stuff. You don’t need to worry about that.”
She glanced back and shared a look with Sal before he let go of the door to go park the car.
For a second there, it almost looked like he was proud of her.
. . .
Sal leaned against the wall in the hall, outside the room where Vanessa was being checked out. The woman was clearly in shock, her rich-businesswoman clothes rumpled and stained. Chipped nails, like she’d fought someone. Gashes and scratches that would need to be cleaned. Who knew what internal injuries she had that the doctors hadn’t found. Things that went deeper than the physical.
Allyson had been in the room since the doctor allowed her back there. Before that, she’d paced the hallway in front of him, back and forth at a clip. Still, in her restlessness, her boots made almost no noise on the floor.
He’d half expected the rest of his team to show up already. Despite the fact Bridget McNamara was Allyson’s friend Vanessa, they were all anxious to find out what she knew about her boss Kennowich’s activities. The things the team believed he’d been doing for months now. He’d told them to wait. That there was little chance Vanessa would open up to anyone except the woman she knew. The one person in the world right now that she trusted.
The door swung open before he could figure out how to delay them until a better time. But given Vanessa had just been admitted to the hospital, a better time could be days away. Would Allyson be okay with his team coming in to interview her friend in the meantime?
Allyson strode out, shut the door behind her. She sucked in a choppy breath, and her expression changed. As though she’d been holding all the emotion back. In one rush it came over her.
Sal crossed the distance between them and pulled her to him for a hug while she let out a sob. Was she going to lose it? He didn’t think she was the kind of woman who did that readily, but what did he know? She sucked in a few choppy breaths but didn’t break down into actual tears.
Had Vanessa told her about her experience?
He started, “Did she…”
Allyson stood back, shaking her head. “I had to tell her that her father was dead.”
Ah. “Soon enough all the hard parts of this will be over. She’ll find joy again, and you’ll be able to help her move past this.”
She nodded, pulled out her hairband and flipped her head forward. She ran her fingers through her hair, which he figured she did to compose herself. When she straightened to retie her hair, he saw that the wet in her eyes was gone.
Sal had never been on this end of things. He’d protected witnesses before, but nothing like this. Generally he worked on tracking down fugitives and keeping his team safe. The part where he just kept the rest of the task force alive was in itself a full-time job. Certainly it had been lately. During their most recent investigation, he’d infiltrated a terrorist organization to take them down from inside. He didn’t usually work like this, on the back end, where it was about moving on from the terror of it all.
“Soon will be nice.” Too bad she didn’t sound super happy about that. “But that’s not the whole reason I came out here, other than just needing a minute’s break. She wants to talk to both of us.”
“Is she okay?” Did she know who he was, or was she interested in the marshal badge and what he could do for her?
“She’s been beaten, but the doctor said it was superficial. No broken bones. She wasn’t raped.”
Thank You, God.
Allyson nodded, evidently seeing the relief on his face.
He followed her into the room. Given his impression of the woman and how wary she had been of him, Sal hung back and stayed close to the wall. He didn’t want to freak her out. The fancy clothes had been replaced by a hospital gown. Long blond hair fell past her shoulders, disheveled, making her look younger than Allyson. She picked at the blanket threads, manicured nails ripped and chipped, blood and dirt in the corners.
The woman had been through enough, and now appeared to have pulled herself together enough to speak with them.
Allyson wandered to the bedside and sat close to her friend, reaching out to run her fingers down strands of hair on the side of her face. Vanessa shifted into the touch. Seeming to preen under the attention. Kind of like a cat asking to be petted just so it had an excuse to purr.
Why Sal thought that, he wasn’t sure.
Allyson shifted closer. “Vanessa?” Her friend said nothing, seemingly lost in a peaceful moment. “You wanted to speak with both of us?”
Finally, Vanessa nodded. She still didn’t look at Sal.
It was clear they were awkward with each other, unsure how to be since it had been so long, and this was a delicate situation. He didn’t know how to read where they were at, but he knew Allyson pretty well and she seemed unsure. One of the few times since he’d met her that he saw her like this.
Vanessa shifted. She worked her mouth like she was gearing herself up to say something that was maybe painful. He wanted to hear what it was, and not just because it was possible she knew who he was. Maybe she knew what his team did, and who they were, because of her boss. Their existence wasn’t publicized.
He had to wonder if this was Kennowich’s doing.
“I need your help.” Vanessa looked at Allyson then. “That’s why I called you. Because you’re the only ones who can help me.”
She did know who they were. Who he was. Why were they the only ones who could help her?
Sal said, “What do you need our help with?” And how did her kidnapping, and escape, play into all this?
Vanessa continued, “He’s…” She didn’t finish before a sob escaped her. She turned to Allyson. “Don’t let him take me again. I can’t go back to him.”
“Who?”
“Malcom Kennowich. I finally got away, and I have a flash drive of information that can bring him down. That’s why I need your help. Both of you.” She looked at Sal then. “I saw that research lab in Portland on the news. I looked into what happened. I know it was you and your team who brought down that whole conspiracy.”
They’d had help, but yes, his team did that. Still, her connection to Kennowich was entirely too coincidental considering they’d been looking into the man. Yes, she’d clearly been the victim of a kidnapping and attack, but there was something about this that didn’t sit right with him.
He asked her, “Allyson was your intended route to the Northwest Counter-Terrorism Task Force?”
“You’re the ones who can finally stop him.” Her face had reddened, her voice breathy.
“I get that you need our help, but that means you have to be one hundred percent honest with me.”
Displays of emotion from a victim weren’t going to persuade him to believe her. This was their case, and that was why he would work with Vanessa. Listen to her, and take what she said into account as part of their investigation.
Allyson could help, but she was far too close to this. Too emotional—which was the reason she glared at him now.
He watched as tears rolled down Vanessa’s cheeks. “He’s planning something terrible. He’s going to hurt a lot of people.”