Mission: Memory Recall. Virginia Vaughan

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СКАЧАТЬ felt her face redden. She and Dillon had become very close over the past year. He’d indicated he wanted more than to be just friends but she’d put him off several times. She just didn’t believe she was ready for that even though deep down she knew he was a great guy.

      He was handsome and charming and one of the more successful agents in the terrorism division. They were well matched and she knew the job often caused trouble in marriages, but marrying a fellow agent meant being with someone who understood the job. And he was the one who continually encouraged Bethany to return to the field.

      She hung up with Dillon, still pondering the state of their relationship. She’d spent months putting him off because of her obsession with finding Marcus. Now that’s she’d done it, was it time to give Dillon the attention he deserved?

      She sighed.

      The truth was that she’d never felt the spark with Dillon that she’d felt with Marcus. She knew it was silly to feel this way. Dillon was perfect for her.

      She reddened again, remembering that what she’d felt for Marcus had been fabricated. It hadn’t been real, only a con she’d fallen for.

      That was enough. It was time to stop focusing on Marcus. She took some satisfaction in knowing she’d been right...that she’d been vindicated. Now her life of living in limbo was over. Though, what did that mean exactly? She’d spent so much time and energy hunting for Marcus that it had consumed her life for the past two years. It would take a while to adjust to her new normal.

      Blowing out a breath, she grabbed her keys and headed out to her SUV. She wasn’t going to sleep tonight because she was too keyed up. She might as well go over the evidence obtained from the rooftop. Because if someone else was after Marcus, as she suspected, they would have a fight on their hands to keep him out of harm’s way.

      * * *

      When Bethany parked her SUV in the parking lot of the police station and got out, she was immediately approached by Marie and Milo.

      “Why did you have Marcus arrested?” Marie demanded. “He wasn’t the one shooting. He was helping people get to safety.”

      Bethany could see their deep concern for their employee. He’d obviously made an impression on them, but then, he was good at getting people to trust him then running out on them. She decided they needed to know who it was they were putting such faith in.

      “I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but he’s not the man you think he is.”

      “He told us all about his past...or rather that he didn’t know his past.”

      Bethany narrowed her eyes at them. “He told you he didn’t know who he was yet you hired him, anyway?”

      Milo nodded. “He needed help. That was obvious. We met him when he first arrived in town. He attended a service at our church. He seemed lost and alone, but a decent fellow. At first we gave him small jobs around the diner but he kept going above and beyond what was asked of him. We soon realized he was a decent, hard worker, and wanted to know more about him, so we had him over to supper.” He took a breath. “That’s when he told us about the amnesia and how he was looking for answers about his life. We encouraged him to stay here in town and let us help him.”

      “And you truly believe he can’t remember his past?”

      “Sure. Why would he lie about something like that?”

      “When you said you knew him, I was thrilled,” Marie stated. “I couldn’t wait to tell him. Now I’m regretting that a little bit. I had no idea you would arrest him.”

      “You said yourself you had no idea who he was or what he’d done. You can’t be too shocked to discover he was on the run.”

      “No, ma’am. No idea,” Milo reiterated. “That boy was trying to be found by someone. He contacted the news station in Dallas, hoping they could spread his story around but the producers wouldn’t help him. Apparently, it didn’t make good news. He also had the local PD fingerprint him and run his prints, but they came back without a match.”

      Bethany wasn’t surprised about the fingerprints. Military files weren’t usually included in local print searches. Those were generally limited to the criminal databases. But she was shocked to hear Marcus had made attempts to try to be identified. What sort of game was he playing?

      “So am I the first who’s come looking for him? Have there been other instances like the one today?”

      “Not a one. As far as we know, he’d never been to Little Falls before. He just ended up here. We never expected this. Marcus arrived in town seven months ago and nothing like this has happened. Are you sure the person who was doing the shooting was after him?”

      “Who else would he be after?”

      “Well, you’re CIA, aren’t you? Don’t you people have enemies?”

      Bethany wanted to quickly reassure Marie that this shooting had nothing to do with her, but she tamped down the thought before she voiced it and said instead, “We’re investigating all possibilities.” She hadn’t done field work except for her time spent tracking Marcus since the night of the ambush. She’d immediately requested and been granted a desk analysis job. It wasn’t unusual for agents to opt out of field work for a brief time, but her reprieve had turned into a permanent position a long time ago. No one except Dillon had brought up the idea of her going out into the field in over nine months’ time. And the chances that someone was targeting her on the exact day she’d located Marcus seemed much too impossible to be true. Marcus had to have been the target of that sniper’s bullet.

      She turned her focus away from the incident and to the couple in front of her. They’d been around since this morning and it was now pushing 8:00 p.m. Had they been here all day waiting on news for someone they hardly knew? “What are you two still doing here?” she asked. “Visiting hours have been over for quite a while.”

      “We brought something for Marcus, only that Patrolman Dwight won’t let us see him to give it to him.”

      “Well, he’s not really allowed any outside belongings.”

      “But surely his Bible isn’t included in that,” Marie proclaimed. She reached into her bag and pulled out a large, well-worn, leather Bible. “I know for a fact he reads from it every night without fail. Maybe you could get it to him?”

      The pleading in the woman’s voice was something Bethany couldn’t ignore. “I suppose I can.”

      “Thank you,” she said as she handed it over.

      Bethany watched the couple load into a pickup, wave and then drive away. She stared at the Bible in her hands. Was this really Marcus’s Bible? When she’d known him, he hadn’t been religious.

      She flipped through the pages and noticed writings and markings with notes in the margins. Whoever this belonged to had used it, studied it. She shook her head. Another thing about this entire situation that didn’t seem to make any sense. As she turned to go into the jail, a piece of paper slipped through the pages and landed on the ground. She knelt to pick it up. The paper, too, was well-worn, but it wasn’t a page from the Bible. It was a napkin with a drawing of a woman’s face...a woman with long hair and full lips, in head garb. She recognized it immediately.

      The СКАЧАТЬ