Prolonging their goodbye for as long as possible, Eric and Lydia stood on her front porch. With his arms wrapped around her, he pressed her cheek against his chest and rested his against the top of her head. The scent of her floral shampoo, now so familiar, filled his nostrils.
She tilted her head back, her gaze holding his, and said, “I promised myself that this would be okay. I promised myself that I wouldn’t cry, I’d give you a kiss and wish you well, and send you on your way.”
He saw tears gathering in her eyes and the telltale sign of her chin quivering. “How are you doing with those promises?”
Her voice cracked as she replied, “Not very well.” She blinked, and a tear slid down her cheek.
He swept his thumb across her petal soft skin and wiped the tear away, then leaned down to kiss the watery trail as another tear slipped down. “Just so you know, I made no such promises to myself, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep them.”
She swallowed audibly and inhaled a ragged breath deep into her lungs before letting it out in a long, slow sigh. “If you’re ever back in this area…or, um…if you ever just want to chat…” She tightened her lips and gave her head a little shake, before blurting, “Sorry. I know that’s not what this is—”
“I’d love to see you again.” He rushed the words, wanting to get the sentiment out.
She stared up at his face, blinking adorably, as though uncertain of his words. “You do?”
“Absolutely. Lydia, we started out as just two adults having a good time. What we’ve ended up with, at least to me and I think to you, is a whole lot more. I haven’t really thought this through, so I don’t have any idea what I’m suggesting, other than, if nothing else, I’d like us to stay in touch.”
A smile lit up her face, and he felt the punch straight to his heart. She nodded enthusiastically, and said, “I know I have very little experience in these things, but I know what I feel, and I feel the same way you do.”
Sensing there was something more, he asked, “What else are you thinking?”
“Well, I was talking to Caroline, and I’ll be flying to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Maybe I could plan on seeing you sometime then.”
He swooped in and took her lips in a celebratory kiss, knowing it was not the final kiss they would ever share. Memorizing every nuance of her mouth, he finally leaned up and placed a barely-there kiss on the tip of her nose. Giving her body a squeeze, he stepped back and said, “I’ve got a few things to take care of today, then my flight leaves this evening. I’ll give you a call once I get to Kansas City. “
She nodded enthusiastically, and said, “That would be perfect. In fact, you can call me anytime.” Heaving another sigh, she dropped her arms as well and stepped back.
He jogged to his vehicle and climbed in, tossing another wave her way before pulling out of her driveway. He had no idea what he was doing or how to make any of this work. All he knew was he was not ready to give up having her in his life.
“What have you got on Robert Edger?” Eric asked as Chris answered his call. He was on his way to the NBAF to tie up loose ends but wanted to see if Chris had made any break-throughs before he arrived.
“Probably some of the same stuff that you got from Mace. Messed up childhood with a dad that was arrested a couple of times for domestic violence. Mom finally took he and his siblings and moved out. Robert had a few skirmishes with the law as a teenager. I got into his closed files, and it looks like mostly just fights and vandalism. Does look like he got into a gang, not a major one, more like one where they did stupid shit…robberies with pretend guns, vandalism of school property, busting out windows in some businesses. A few more arrests that resulted in jail time but no serious prison time.”
“Sounds like someone who’s always searching for a group to belong to. At least that’s my armchair psychology version.”
Chris chuckled. “Yeah, I thought the same.”
“Where’s his official location?”
“He doesn’t own any property. He was raised in Georgia and has rented apartments in South Carolina, Texas, and most recently had a warrant out for his arrest for arson in California.”
Scrubbing his hand over his face, he said, “I’m heading back over to the NBAF to talk to Paul. Keep digging for a connection between Robert and any money trail.”
“I’ve already gotten into his bank account and am just starting to see what I can find. I’ll tell you, for a man who has no apparent employment, he’s got money.”
Pulling into the NBAF parking lot, he grinned. “Thank fuck. That might just be the link we're looking for.”
Hanging up, he parked his vehicle and got out. He had already called Paul and was allowed easy access back into the building. As he walked down the hall, Paul met him, his hand out ready for a shake.
“I take it by you wanting this meeting, you’ve got something. Let’s go into my office,” Paul invited.
Walking in, he saw two other DHS employees waiting. After introductions, they sat down, and he quickly gave his information. “Robert Edger is the name of the person who is working locally with, or for, the FLA. He’s the one that granted me the interview that I’ve already told you about. My guy has already looked up his information and is currently checking out his finances. My guess? He’s getting paid by a foreign source that wants to disrupt the NBAF.”
Paul looked over at the two people in his office, and said, “Take care of this. Work on a warrant for Robert Edger. Get that location from Eric, and I want a search warrant as well.”
He gave them the information that he had and watched as the two others walked out. Paul spoke, turning his attention back to him.
“Do you think that’s it? Do you think that all the chatter was just about Robert Edger and it didn’t have anything to do with any of the foreign journalists that were here?”
Shaking his head, he said, “My gut says there’s something up with Ji-Ho. He cozied up at one time to Egor from Russia, but I didn’t get a feeling about them. He also spent time with the two journalists from China. That was a little harder for me to get a read on. But what really got my spidey senses going, was when he was pressuring Dr. Hughes on the levels of security for the researchers with security clearances.”
Seeing Paul’s eyebrows raised, he added, “She didn’t give him any information, of course, and Ji-Ho moved away when I elbowed my way in.”
“I’ve got a rush on the fingerprints that you took. Once they’re in, we’ll run them through our foreign databases to see if there are any differences with the passports they came in on.”
Knowing that Mace had been able to get that information quickly, he rubbed his chin, and asked, “When do you think you’ll have those?”
Grinning, Paul said, “You think DHS can’t get it quick? Don’t worry, we should have them by this afternoon.”
Nodding, he pushed out of his chair and shook Paul’s hand. “My flight doesn’t leave until this evening, so I’ll be around for a few more hours. I went ahead and paid the hotel rooms through today, so my team member and I will be there continuing to look at the finances for Robert Edger. If you need me for anything you can get hold of me.”
“It’s been good to work with you, Eric. I’ll let you know what we find.”
Arriving back at the hotel, he found Chris busy at work. Tossing his bag to the side, he plopped down into the chair. “Anything yet?”
“Still working.” Instead of looking back down at his computer, Chris held his gaze for a moment.
Noting Chris’ hesitation, he asked, “What’s on your mind? Never known you to ponder over something without blurting it out.”
Chris chuckled and shook his head. “I was just kind of wondering about this mission. I mean, it’s not like it was a bust. You did have a weird as shit meeting with someone that we now know is Robert Edger. We know that we can look for a connection between him and foreign money, especially as it pertains to the animal extremist group, but it seems like everything else was kind of a waste.”
An image of Lydia flashed through his mind and the thought slammed into him, You’re wrong. Nothing about being in Kansas turned out to be a waste of time. Instead of sharing that personal info, he said, “Look, not every mission is going to be exciting. I warned you that this was probably not going to be a going in guns–blazing kind of mission. I’m still waiting on the fingerprint reports, not convinced that Ji-Ho is an innocent journalist. But,” throwing his hands out to the side, “we did what we said we were going to do. We were here during the foreign conference, and we gave DHS our information.”
Nodding slowly, Chris said, “I know. You’re right. I guess I was just hoping there might be something a little more exciting.” His face brightened, and he smiled. “Although we did get to go sneaking into that building, so that was pretty cool.”
Unable to keep a bark of laughter held in, he said, “I’m gonna go take a shower. You keep digging.”
Rushing around, trying to finish getting ready for work, Lydia did not mind the hectic pace, considering she was late due to her extended morning with Eric. She had so dreaded the sunrise, knowing it was her goodbye with him, but with his admission that he wanted to continue seeing her, or at least be friends, she was walking on air.
“Hey, Jim? Sorry I’m late, but I’m getting ready to walk out of my house. I’ll see you in about twenty minutes. Tell Beth that I’ll take her extra reports this afternoon since she has to cover for me right now.”
Running back into the kitchen to make sure her coffee maker was turned off, she glanced at the rinsed dishes sitting in the sink and smiled. Starting tomorrow, there would only be her dishes and not Eric’s, but she reminded herself that it was not the end of the two of them.
She slipped on her shoes and reached for the doorknob as she turned back to grab her briefcase and purse. Her doorbell rang, startling her, and she pulled her hand back to grasp her chest. Taking a deep breath, she opened her door and observed a young man, his hair slightly longish but slicked over, wearing a dark brown suit. She did not recognize him, but she was already late and needed him gone.
“I’m afraid this isn’t a good time,” she began, “and there’s nothing that I need—umph!”
He stepped over the threshold into her foyer, pushing her backward.
“Get out!” she screamed, reaching for her purse to get her phone. He was much larger than her and overpowered her quickly, in spite of her best efforts to fight back, pulling her back and slamming her against the wall.
In her struggle, the table next to the door crashed to the floor, and the contents of her purse spilled out. She continued to scream until he clamped his large hand over her mouth.
Growling, “Shut up, Doc,” he threw her to the floor and held her down, straddling her body. Grabbing her wrists with one hand, he pinned them against her stomach and used a knee to keep them in place as he pulled a syringe out of his pocket.
With his other hand still over her mouth, she fought to breathe as the panic of seeing the syringe settled inside her chest. Wiggling as hard as she could, she tried to buck him off her, but it was useless. Pain pierced her upper arm, and she quickly quieted.
Her world grew fuzzy, and the last thought she had before the darkness overtook her, was of Caroline.