"There was another Lana sighting," Riley said an hour later.
He'd called me at the crack of dawn and asked me to come to the office. Without Hilly. Actually, he specifically insisted that I come in alone or not at all. It took some doing. Our house had a driveway and an alley with a garage with entrances to both. I slipped out the alley side and circled a couple of times on the way to make sure I wasn't being followed.
Which was silly, because at six in the morning, the only traffic in this town were the farmers headed to The Café.
I leaned over his shoulder to see a black-and-white video behind Marlowe's grocery store. Lana paced for a few seconds before walking out of view. There was no car, but it was clearly her. What was she doing there?
"I think Hilly's here to take out Lana," Riley said as the video finished.
I sat across the desk from him. "It's a good theory. Do you think she popped Anna Beth too?"
He scowled. "I don't know. Probably. I mean, she is a CIA assassin, even though they don't have assassins," he added quickly.
See? Shock treatments.
Riley continued, "I still think it's odd that Hilly shows up here when Lana is making her presence known and a Chinese foreign agent is found dead in your yard. I'm not a big believer in coincidence."
I sighed. "Me neither. What do you think Lana's doing in town? Why make her presence known now?"
"Maybe she was working with Anna Beth?" Riley asked. "Lana's always worked for the Russians, but China is an ally."
"If Hilly is in town for work," I suggested, "Lana could be trying to find out what happened to Anna Beth." I shook my head. "But that doesn't make sense. With her agent killed, she should've blown town. Lana wouldn't stick around to get killed also."
"Maybe Lana knows Hilly is here? Maybe she's going to get revenge?"
I still wasn't ruling out that Lana was hanging around to take me out. The woman had been at the edge of my life for several months now. This was just the first concrete evidence that she was really here.
"Are you going to call Langley to report Lana and Anna Beth?"
He thought about that. "If Hilly's here working, then she already has, I'm sure. So I don't think so. I'm a civilian now. I have no interest in stirring that pot."
Would Hilly report Anna Beth's murder to Langley? Had she already? It didn't negate her vacation cover, but any CIA agent would report something like that, even if on vacation.
"She followed me last night. To the zoo," I admitted. "Scared the bejeezus out of me."
"Why would she do that?" Riley asked.
"She said she was up and bored and saw me leaving in the middle of the night. I'd probably do the same thing."
"There's another theory that should occur to you." Riley steepled his hands. "Maybe you're the target. Maybe Hilly is here for you."
I really didn't want to believe that. "Why make her presence known at all? Why not just kill me and slip out of town so that no one knew she was here?"
"You said you found her behind the restaurant the other night. By the dumpsters. Maybe you busted her and she came up with this whole vacation nonsense?"
"Let's say, for the sake of argument, that you're right," I said. "That doesn't explain why Lana is making herself noticeable or why Anna Beth was here."
We sat in silence for a few moments, letting it all sink in. As much as I didn't like it, Riley made a strong argument. But even that theory had holes you could drive my van through.
"There are too many variables that connect to the CIA," he said, counting off his fingers. "Number one is you. The second is Hilly. The third is Anna Beth. The fourth is Lana. All spy related."
I groaned. "It was fun when I thought Hilly was visiting to hang out. But now I'm wondering."
"I think you need to watch your back," Riley warned. "You just called Ahmed. When do you think he'll get back to you on Hilly?"
"With my level of impatience?" I asked. "Yesterday. But let's cut him a break and give him a few hours."
Riley shrugged and continued searching for more information while I moved to his sofa and checked my phone. Nothing. No updates from anyone. It felt as if time had stopped. I gave Riley a quick glance.
After all of those years in the field, it was still strange to see him here, in the middle of Iowa, not scheming, bossing me around, or seducing a bevy of very willing women. For a brief moment, I'd been on the list of conquests, but then I thought he'd gone back to his old ways and dumped him.
To be honest, the romantic interest was no longer there. This man had been my closest ally and biggest pain in the butt. I'd always assumed he'd go private sector or at least back to California. But he never did.
And he never seemed to mind my barging in on him. Somewhere along the line, we'd settled into a solid friendship. Even though he'd lied to me over the past few years, I was still certain, deep down inside, that I could count on him in a pinch.
Then there was Rex. My husband was a lot like Riley in some ways—smart, sexy, funny. But he had many admirable qualities that Riley did not, like reliability, honesty, and maturity. Huh. Kelly often considered me immature. Was that why Rex and I were such a good match?
* * *
"Merry." Riley's voice echoed in the darkness.
My eyes flew open. I'd fallen asleep on the couch. On the table in front of me were a plate of Oreos and a glass of milk. That had to be Claire's doing. That woman was sharp. Riley had better not do anything to send her away.
"What time is it?" I rubbed my eyes and sat up.
"Eleven." Riley grinned. "You've been out for hours."
I munched on some cookies and took a big gulp of milk. "Did you find anything new?"
He shook his head. "No. I've hit a dead end. I think we should go to Plan B. Time to see if Ahmed has anything."
"Let's call him." I took out my cell and tapped out the number, putting the phone on speaker so Riley could hear.
"You have reached the voice mail of Ahmed Bryson," a brusque female voice said. Odd. "Ahmed is unavailable at this time and for the foreseeable future. Have a nice day."
"That is not good," I said slowly. "It wasn't his voice."
Riley shook his head. "That is bad. Ahmed asked too many questions. He's probably in a cell somewhere."
"Damn. He was the only one who ordered peanut butter sandwich cookies. By the case."
"Wrath," Riley said. "This could mean that Hilly is here on business."
"Yeah, I know." I slumped in the chair.
"You're up." Claire walked over a box of donuts that she deposited on the desk before going to make coffee. There were chocolate chip donuts with sprinkles, a custom order I usually had to beg the donut shop for.
The beautiful redhead gave me a bored look. "I brought these in earlier, but you were out. Considering it's nearly noon, I thought the cookies were better."
I shook my head. "Donuts for lunch are my favorite. Thanks!"
She nodded and went back to her desk. If I kept stopping by here, I was going to weigh 200 lbs. in no time.
"How does she always know what I want?" I asked as I took two out of the box.
"When it comes to junk food, you're pretty predictable," Riley said. He didn't touch the donuts. Riley was a bit of a health food nut.
"I hate this," I mumbled through a mouthful of donutty goodness. "I can't stand not knowing what's going on with Hilly." I added as an afterthought, "Oh, yeah, and Ahmed too. I hope he's okay."
Riley ignored the last part of my statement. "I know. It sucks to find out someone might not be the friend you think they are," he said. "Remember, she tried to kill you with a car bomb."
"She saved my life from a car bomb," I argued. Albeit unconvincingly. Was everything I knew about Hilly a lie?
Riley folded his arms over his chest and sat back. "She set that car bomb."
"You don't know that," I insisted. "You've never offered up any proof."
He sighed and scratched his head. "It's just a gut feeling. You remember those? They are almost always accurate."
I laughed. "You're almost always wrong! Remember that gut feeling you had about the rodeo clown in El Salvador who almost took my head off with a sword?"
"That's different," Riley sniffed. "It's hard to get a read on a man wearing clown makeup."
"How about the time you thought I shouldn't trust the daughter of the prime minister of Paraguay and she ended up giving us excellent intel?"
"How can you trust a man's daughter to give him up?"
I leaned forward so Claire wouldn't hear. "You're just mad because she dumped you."
"She didn't dump me because we weren't dating," Riley said evenly.
"Hello," Claire's voice interrupted us. "Can I help you?"
We turned to see Erskine the farmer standing there with his bushy beard and overalls.
"Need a private investigator," he said.
"I can help you." Riley stood and offered him my chair.
The man came over and sat down after I got up. If he recognized me, he didn't say so.
I sat at a table nearby to eavesdrop.
"Riley Andrews." Riley smiled and held out his hand.
"Erskine Zimmer," the man said gruffly without shaking his hand. "Need your help."
Now what were the odds that I'd run into this guy two days in a row?
"What can I do for you, Mr. Zimmer?"
"Crop was stolen."