LS02 - Lightning Lingers (6 page)

"Do you really want to go back there, Jake?" The question slipped past her lips before she could stop it.

"No, I don't want to go back there," he snapped. "It was the worst time of my life."

"Then why do this?"

"Because my sister is convinced there's more to find out, and if there's some small chance that she's right and someone had a hand in my dad's death, then I couldn't live with myself if I didn't help her get to the truth."

Jake had always been an intensely loyal person and very protective, especially when it came to his family. "What does your mother think about all this?"

"She doesn't want to talk about my father—not his life, not his death. For the time being, we're going to leave her out of the loop until we figure out if there is something for her to know."

"Has she ever remarried?"

"No. She still works at the university. She has a lot of friends and seems happy enough. She's sad to see Dani leave and wishes Alicia would move back, but she seems to have accepted the fact that the girls are going to go their own way."

"She still has you."

"Yeah, but I don't go shopping with her," he said dryly.

"Well, I'm glad she's doing well." Jake's mom had been very nice to her when they'd been together, but after the breakup, she'd delivered a few choice words to Katherine—

words she probably deserved. But with all that was going on in her life, she didn't know if she could handle dealing with Jake's mother, too. "Is your mom home now? Will we see her?"

"I have no idea. She was there earlier, but who knows? Why?" He gave her a thoughtful look. "Do you have a problem with my mom?"

"I think she might have a problem with me."

"Not that I've seen," he muttered. "She loves to tell me how great you're doing."

"Really? After we broke up, she wasn't too happy with me."

"How do you know that?"

"We ran into each other at the store one day. She said a few things."

"What kind of things?"

"I don't remember exactly. It doesn't matter."

For a moment, she thought he might argue the point, but then he said, "You're right, it doesn't matter."

And they went back to a tense silence.

Ten minutes later, she parked in front of his mom's house and then followed him inside.

Alicia was waiting in the living room. She looked as exotically pretty as ever with her dark hair cascading in waves down her back, her deep-brown eyes and warm smile.

"Katherine, it's been so long," she said with a smile, giving her a hug. "How are you?"

"I'm all right." She wasn't sure what Jake had told Alicia on the phone, and she was actually a little surprised at Alicia's warmth. She didn't think his sisters had been any happier with her than his mother had been after she'd walked away from their relationship. But apparently Alicia hadn't held a grudge.

"I want you to meet my fiancé," Alicia said, grabbing the hand of a darkly handsome man. "This is Michael Cordero. He's a brilliant architect and real-estate developer, and he's also going to be my husband once we set a date. Michael, this is Katherine Barrett—Jake's high school girlfriend—and a brilliant doctor."

Michael smiled and shook her hand. "From one brilliant person to another—it's nice to meet you."

She smiled back. "Alicia exaggerates."

"I know it," he said. "But as long as it's in my favor, I don't care."

Alicia playfully punched Michael's arm. "I spoke only the truth—about both of you." Then she turned to Katherine. "So what's going on? Jake didn't say anything except that he was bringing you by and that you wanted to talk to me about TJ. I have to admit I'm surprised that you and Jake are talking about anything together."

"Why don't we sit down?" Jake suggested, waving Katherine toward an armchair.

She took the chair while Michael and Alicia sat down on the sofa together and Jake perched on the arm of another chair. As everyone settled in, she debated what she wanted to say. She'd made a promise to TJ to keep quiet. On the other hand, as Jake had said, going to Mexico without as much information as she could get wasn't smart, and she'd always prided herself on making intelligent decisions.

"You can trust Alicia," Jake told her. "And we don't have all day, so…"

"So," she continued, very aware of the ticking clock. "TJ called me last night. He mentioned several people he worked with at MDT had been killed. He said he was afraid he might be next—that he knew too much about whatever they were involved in. He was calling me from Mexico. He said someone was after him, and he didn't think he could get on a plane so he was going to hide. I'm on my way to find him. Jake agreed to fly me down there, but he wanted me to talk to you first. He said you know something about the recent problems at MDT."

"I do," Alicia murmured, exchanging a pointed look with her fiancé, before adding, "I wish I could say I'm surprised that TJ is now in danger, but I had a feeling this wasn't over."

"What is
this
?" Katherine asked.

"It's a long story," Alicia said.

"Can you give me the highlights?"

"Let's see. Your brother worked for Professor Bryer before getting a job at MDT."

"I know that part," she said.

"When Professor Bryer was moonlighting as an engineering consultant at MDT, he discovered that one of the employees, Connie Randolph, was selling classified weapons information to a former MDT employee by the name of Jerry Caldwell. Jerry was also a friend of my father's. They flew together in the Navy. I thought he was a good guy. He wasn't. When Connie realized she'd been made, she turned to Jerry for help. He assured her he'd take care of the professor, but what he did was kill both Connie and Professor Bryer, framing Bryer's wife for the murders. He almost got away with it, but the wife appealed her conviction, and in unraveling that case, we discovered that Jerry was the guilty party. He went after me to shut me up, but fortunately I escaped. Unfortunately, a lot of innocent people died before Jerry did."

Katherine's stomach turned over with Alicia's words. "That's awful. And TJ knew this Jerry?"

"And Connie, and, of course, Professor Bryer," Alicia replied. "After Jerry's crimes were revealed, the police and several federal agencies worked with MDT to make sure that there were no other employees involved in Jerry's scheme to leak classified information. At that point, I was cut out of the investigation but told everything was being done that needed to be done. The fact that your brother is in hiding suggests they missed something."

"And TJ might have found whatever they missed," she murmured, feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem.

"If he calls you again, you need to ask him what he knows," Alicia said.

"You should probably go to the authorities," Michael suggested.

"I do have the name of an FBI agent who wasn't as dismissive as the others," Alicia added.

"I can't do that. TJ made me promise not to tell or trust anyone," she said. "I'm already breaking my promise by talking to you."

"You can trust us," Alicia said. "But you're probably smart not to trust anyone else." She paused. "If I were you, I'd look for TJ on my own. MDT is a huge corporation, whose board members are closely tied to the government. It's possible that the reason no one found out anything after Jerry died was to save MDT's reputation or government contracts. If TJ thought he could trust someone at MDT, he would have already called them."

She nodded. "That's what I think, too. I need to find TJ so I can help him figure out how to get out of the mess he's in. Since he's going into hiding in Mexico, I believe he's going to try to get to your great-grandmother's village. He was always enthralled by the stories Jake told him about that part of the world."

"You're going to Nic Té Há, Jake?" Alicia asked in surprise, referencing the town where their great-grandmother lived.

"I'm just flying Katherine down there. Then she's on her own."

"But if you're that close, you should go see Mamich. You should tell her what's going on."

Jake shook his head. "She's an old woman now, and she was heartbroken after Dad's death. I don't think we need to hurt her again by telling her it wasn't an accident."

"I already wrote to her after Jerry tried to kill me. I told her what he said."

"Why the hell would you do that?" Jake asked in annoyance.

"Because she's the only one who believes the way I believe. The lightning showed me what I needed to see. It led me to Jerry and to this clue about Dad. I don't believe that's a coincidence."

"Well, what did she say?"

"She hasn't answered my letter yet. It usually takes a few weeks to hear from her. She doesn't have a computer, and I think the mail only goes out once a week. Plus, she said her arthritis has gotten worse, and sometimes she has to wait for one of the women from the village to help her write down her thoughts. You need to go see her, Jake. She might be able to help you find TJ. She knows everyone in that part of the country."

"Alicia is right," Katherine broke in. "Your great-grandmother could be a valuable resource. And it's been years since you saw her."

Jake held up a hand. "Don't push it, Katherine. I said I'd fly you to the nearest airport. That's it."

She wanted to argue, but decided to save it for later. She didn't want Jake to back out of flying her to Mexico. Once they were on their way, she'd try to convince him to go a little farther.

"Don’t be such an ass, Jake," Alicia said. "You can help Katherine out."

"I am helping her out, and you can stay out of it, Alicia. You and your lightning obsession are not part of this."

"Of course I'm part of this. That's why you brought Katherine here to talk to me."

"Well, I'm already regretting that." He got to his feet. "If we're going, we need to go."

"All right," Katherine said, standing up. "Thanks, Alicia."

"Keep us posted. And stay safe," Alicia said. "I'm not going to stop worrying about you until you come home."

Alicia's words sent a chill through Katherine's body, but they were going to come home safe, and they would bring TJ back with them. Failure wasn't an option.

Four

They drove back to the airport in silence. When they pulled into the parking lot, Jake told her it would probably be another thirty minutes to get the plane ready to go. She could either leave and come back or wait in the lounge. Since she already had her bag in the car, she decided to stay at the airport so that they could take off as soon as possible. She was actually happy to have a little time on her own to catch her breath and regroup. Alicia's story had given her a lot to think about. She still didn't know exactly what TJ was caught up in, but she was more convinced than ever that he was in danger.

As she entered the airport waiting room, she saw a stand filled with maps, and she was thrilled to see one of Mexico.

She took the map over to a table and opened it up. Jake's great-grandmother, who he fondly referred to as Mamich, the Mayan nickname for great-grandmother, lived in Nic Té Há which loosely translated from Mayan dialect to Flower Lake, a small village in the Mexican state of Chiapas located in southern Mexico near the Guatemalan border. She couldn't find the village on the map, but she was able to locate the closest airport in Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

Chiapas had diverse geography with several mountain ranges as well as one of Mexico's largest areas of rainforest. There were also hundreds of cenotes, which the Mayans called sacred wells, and a multitude of ruins that paid homage to a lost civilization. Reading about the area reminded her that she and Jake had talked about going to Mexico together, exploring the ruins, boating the rivers, listening to the howler monkeys in the rain forest. But their romantic adventure had never materialized. They'd broken up and Jake had gone to Mexico on his own.

She hoped she could convince him to go with her now. Looking at the map, she couldn't imagine how TJ would find his way to a remote, unmarked village, or how she would find Nic Té Há on her own. She would have to hire a car or a guide or both, but that meant bringing some other individual into the situation, which she didn't really want to do. Maybe Jake would change his mind once they were on their way to Mexico. He would have the opportunity to see his great-grandmother again. That had to be worth something to him.

Setting aside the map, she pulled her laptop out of her bag and got on the Internet to do some research. She wasn't used to going anywhere without a plan. She didn't like to be unprepared, and she preferred to know as much as possible about whatever she was doing before she did it, which meant she needed to do some quick cramming on not just Mexico but also her brother's company.

She typed in Mission Defense Technology. There were hundreds of items that came up on the search. She skimmed through the first several articles, noting that MDT employed over 30,000 people around the world, that the company was run by the Packer brothers, Reid and Alan Packer, who had inherited MDT from their father, who still held a seat on the board of directors.

In addition to weapons defense technology, the company had numerous other divisions that worked on everything from telecommunication to artificial intelligence and aviation systems. They were one of the top companies in the world and were always first in line for large government contracts.

No wonder all the governmental agencies had gotten involved when two employees had been murdered by a former employee who had admitted to selling secrets. MDT was hugely important to national security. What she couldn't understand was how her twenty-seven-year-old brother had gotten himself into so much trouble. He was a small cog in a very big wheel.

The only thing that made sense was that he had had a tie to Professor Bryer, and he was working in the same area where Bryer had been consulting, so it was possible there was someone else in the company doing some double-dealing. Maybe TJ had found out about it. But why couldn't TJ take his concerns up the chain or to one of those governmental agencies investigating the company?