House of Secrets

Chapter 1

Chapter One

“You’re getting pretty good at this,” Nathan told Bella as he watched her maneuver herself up and off the chair, using her two-wheeled walker to help keep her steady.

It had been a long hard seven months since her accident, but Bella Thomas had finally received medical clearance to ditch the wheelchair – for short distances, at least – and do some actual walking outside of her scheduled physical therapy regimen.

“Yep. But the end goal is to be able to walk across the stage under my own power at graduation in three months. So just be ready, because in no time at all I will be back to my old self again, and when I am, you owe me dinner and dancing,” she announced.

“Whoa, whoa. I never mentioned dinner,” her husband teased, and she playfully swatted his arm.

“It’s a given,” she retorted with a mock pout as she shuffled her way over to the whistling kettle on the stovetop.

“So, what’s on your list to conquer today?” Bella asked as she poured hot water over the teabag in her favorite mug, then leaned against the counter to wait while her drink steeped to the proper strength.

“Well, Jamesin’s trial starts today. Sadly, I am barred from attending,” Nathan answered with a grim look as he cleaned off Charlie’s face and hands, then lifted the highchair’s tray to free his son.

“Nothing would make me happier than listening to all the evidence against him being read into the record, but the Director thinks it’s best if I keep my distance.”

Bella tilted her head and gazed at him, remembering his uncharacteristic outburst of violence toward a sinister serial killer that had almost cost her family everything, including her husband’s freedom.

“I think that’s a wise idea,” she murmured.

“Yeah, me too,” he said on a heavy sigh. “But Steve sent me some files that I can be working on to distract myself. Besides, Lizzie’s going, and she can be my eyes and ears since I don’t get to see that psycho’s downfall for myself.”

And there is another thing I am grateful for, Bella thought to herself. That he and Lizzie patched things up. They make an excellent team and there is no one I trust more to watch out for Nathan.

Nathan asking Charlie, “You ready to go play at daycare, buddy?” and Charlie’s emphatic “go!” brought Bella out of her reverie, and she laughed.

“I take it that’s a yes. Have fun today, Charlie.”

Nathan scooped him up and carried him over to his mother for a big kiss before Nathan kissed her as well.

“I love you, Bella. See you this afternoon.”

“I love you too. I’ll be right here waiting,” Bella answered with a grin.

“Bye, Mommy!” Charlie whooped as Nathan carried him out, and Bella chuckled when Nathan’s conversation with the toddler floated back to her as the two loves of her life headed toward the front door.

“Okay, buddy. Let’s get you strapped in, and we will get on the road. Are you driving, or am I?”

“I just remembered that I’ve got a client meeting tonight over dinner,” Donny said, his voice and face filled with a silent apology. “Mike and Grace are in town from Vail and want to get together.”

“It’s all right, since I have no idea what time I’ll be home anyway,” Lizzie assured him as she looked through her side of the closet for a suitable blouse to wear to work. “Among other things, the Jamesin trial starts today.”

“Oh. Well, if you don’t get too caught up, maybe you can meet us? I’ve reserved a table for four at Reata. Seven o’clock.”

Lizzie’s ears perked up.

“Reata? I will try my best to be on time.”

She walked past him while shrugging into her blouse, and Donny chuckled before he reached out and caught her around the waist to turn her to face him.

“Oh, so since it’s Reata, you’re in?”

“Yep,” Lizzie fired back, her eyes sparkling with mirth.

“I see how you are,” Donny teased as he buttoned up her blouse for her. “It’s all about the food, not me.”

“That is so not true… it’s not all about the food,” she said, and hummed appreciation in her throat when he leaned down and kissed her. “And if you keep doing that, I am going to be late.”

“Hey, I’m behaving myself very well for a newlywed, thank you. Exhibit A – your shirt got less revealing with my help, instead of ending up on the floor.”

“I know, and I appreciate it – and I will make it up to you later.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that, my very Special Agent Zimmerman.”

Four hundred and ten miles south, in Corpus Christi, Texas, investigative reporter Susan Lawford was completely dumbfounded at the sudden turn the unscheduled morning meeting with her boss’s boss had taken.

“What do you mean, ‘indefinitely’?” she asked, her eyes wide with surprise.

“Exactly what it sounds like,” Roger, the smarmy seventy-something owner and editor-in-chief of underground newspaper The Watcher said smugly. “While your… relationship with Mr. Andersen is not strictly against company policy, it does fall into a bit of a gray area, and I need some time to mull it over. So, I’m placing you on paid leave until further notice.”

Susan closed her eyes and inhaled sharply through her nose, trying desperately to rein in her temper.

Who I date is none of your business, old man, she seethed in her head. Besides, didn’t your bubble-brained wife number three start out in the secretarial pool here? You have zero room to talk.

“I’m the best investigative reporter you have, and you know it. Sidelining me won’t do a thing except help you miss a lot of good stories.”

“Matter of opinion,” the owner said dismissively, waving his hand at her. “And irrelevant. What’s important is the integrity of this paper.”

Susan only barely managed to restrain herself from rolling her eyes and emitting a snort of derision.

That’s rich. He wouldn’t know integrity if it jumped up and bit him squarely on the…

And, railing about this is not helping, she chided herself. Nod and smile, get out of here, and go home and polish up your resume. It’s time to move on from this dump.

“Whatever. Sir,” Susan ground out through gritted teeth, then stood and stomped out of his office to gather up her things from her cubicle and flee.

“You going to court today?”

“I am,” Annie confirmed. “I’m supposed to leave with Lizzie in about five minutes. You?”

“I had planned to, but Nathan’s asked me to hang out here,” Ben, her teammate and boyfriend, responded with a shrug. “Steve sent down some profiles to work on.”

“Huh. Well, I guess I will see you back here at some point today, then.”

The conversation faltered into silence.

What is up with you lately? Annie almost asked but stopped herself. For two weeks solid, Ben had been giving off a strange vibe that she just could not decipher.

Can’t force it. Whatever is going on with him is his to deal with, I guess. If he wants to share, he will tell me.

“Okay, so, see you later,” she said abruptly, and left the breakroom, relieved to see Lizzie waiting for her at her desk.

“You ready?”

“I am. Let’s roll.”

The two women rode the elevator down to the parking garage in silence. It was not until they climbed into Lizzie’s vehicle that Lizzie broke the oppressive quiet.

“So, everything good with you two?” Lizzie asked Annie as they put on their seat belts.

“Truthfully? I have no idea. He’s been acting super strange lately,” Annie confessed, then turned pink. “I mean, I probably shouldn’t even be talking to you about this, but you asked me.”

“True, I did,” Lizzie admitted cheerfully as she started her SUV for the short drive to the federal courthouse. “Because I can almost cut the tension between you two with a knife lately, and it concerns me, to be honest. Last thing we need as a team are distractions. That could get somebody hurt.”

“I know that,” Annie retorted a little sharply, then hunched her shoulders when Lizzie’s eyebrow rose.

“Sorry. It’s just… I am all over the place lately, and I have no idea what is running through that thick skull of his, and yeah, I worry about whatever this is putting us and the rest of the team at risk. And I have no idea how to fix it other than transfer off the team.”

“Do you want to leave?”

“No. No, I don’t. I like being a part of this team and I don’t want to start over again somewhere else.”

“Okay, then,” Lizzie told her calmly. “Then you two are going to have to work on whatever is going on between you and get it solved.”

Lizzie and Annie patiently made their way through the security checkpoint and took seats on the last row inside the courtroom.

“Lucky we got here early,” Annie remarked quietly. “At this rate, it will be standing room only in here.”

“Especially if the media is allowed in,” Lizzie agreed. “That crowd outside was huge.”

“It was. Glad I don’t have to deal with them.”

Lizzie’s cell phone buzzed on her hip, and she retrieved it long enough to skim the message from Tank.

Tucker Cole Lydealea, nine pounds, four ounces, born at seven-eighteen this morning, the text read, and was accompanied by a picture of two tired but elated new parents with their baby boy.

She grinned and fired off a quick reply.

Tank, that’s awesome! Congrats! I am in court right now but will call you later. Love you guys! – Zim.

As Lizzie put her phone away, Annie glanced around the gallery, then nudged her co-worker.

“See that man over there? Brown suit and glasses?”

“Yes. Who is he?”

“Mark Steward,” Annie said sadly. “Elaine’s husband and Timmy’s dad. I’ll remember the day Ben and I interviewed him for the rest of my life. It was heartbreaking.”

The proceedings got underway promptly at ten a.m. as scheduled, starting with the jury being seated and the appearance of the defendant. The judge took his position on the bench and court was called to order.

Next came the list of indictments. With fifty-nine separate counts levied against Jamesin, noting the indictments for the official record took upwards of ten minutes.

One by one, the victims’ names were read. Lizzie felt her own eyes misting up in response to the soft sobs of mothers and fathers whose children’s lives had been cut short echoing through the large, eerily silent room. Her gaze drifted back to the bereft-looking man in the brown suit just in time to see tears coursing steadily down his cheeks as he stared straight ahead.

She closed her eyes and swallowed hard against the lump that formed in her throat when the memory of how the monster on trial had stumbled across Charlie rushed to the front of her consciousness.

Once the indictments were finished, the judge solemnly cleared his throat, then called for opening statements, and the lead prosecutor rose to make his first impression on the jury.

Susan had just gotten back to her apartment when her cell phone rang.

“Are you all right? I heard about what happened,” she heard Trevor’s voice, warm and concerned, say across the line.

“I’m fine, except we work for a crusty old hypocritical dickwad,” she hissed as she set the box of her belongings down on her dinette table with an extremely satisfying thud. “Let me guess. You didn’t get put on indefinite leave.”

“I did, actually - but only after Carlos in Human Resources pointed out to Roger that treating us differently was illegal,” Trevor confirmed. “So, there you go. Want some company? I happen to know for a fact that both our schedules just got cleared for the foreseeable future. I can pick up some pizza and beer on the way over, and we can work on our resumes together.”

“Sounds like a plan, because my time at The Watcher is done, I can promise you that. I am not staying in an environment where my personal life is on trial. We didn’t break any rules or company policies, and we are two consenting adults. If Roger has a problem with us dating, it is his problem, not mine.”

“Just so you know, I’m not planning on staying there, either, for the exact same reasons. And I feel the same way you do, and we’ll get through it together. Now, you want the usual?”

“Sure. See you in a bit.”

Susan hung up and headed to the shower. When she returned to the kitchen fifteen minutes later, she noticed she had missed a call, so she opened her voicemail app and pressed ‘play’.

Hey sis. Call me when you get a chance. I’ve got some awesome news!

Grinning at how happy Sophie sounded, Susan dialed and waited.

“Hey, you, what’s up?’

“I have a gig!”

“That’s awesome! Tell me about it.”

“Well, there’s this company in North Texas that’s been looking for a videographer, and they reached out. They have seen some of my work on YouTube and they want me to do a project for them as a trial run. If it works out, I will have a full-time job. I’m leaving in the morning.”

“Wow, that’s fast,” Susan mentioned as the hair on the back of her neck began to stand on end.

Something is not right here, she thought to herself. Should I mention it?

But as she listened to Sophie gush with excitement, her nerves settled. The younger half-sister that she had only discovered she had in the last year was brimming with confidence, something that Susan knew Sophie had been struggling with for several months.

You are just being overprotective. This will be good for her. Be supportive.

They talked for another twenty minutes, until Sophie said, “Guess I’d better spend the rest of today getting organized and packed so I can make my flight on time in the morning.”

“You’re flying? But you hate to fly.”

“Yeah,” Sophie sighed. “I do. But it is a five-hour drive one way. Besides, they are paying for the plane ticket, so I am only out a little of my time if it doesn’t pan out. Anyway - I am booked on the seven-fifteen flight from Houston to Dallas, and you know I am not a morning person, so, I’d better square everything away now.”

Susan chuckled.

“I remember. Be safe, and text me when you land, okay?”

“You got it. Love you, big sis.”

“Love you too, little sis.”

Susan held the phone to her ear a moment longer after Sophie had disconnected.

“It will be fine. Just fine,” she murmured to herself. “Stop worrying. She is twenty-four and she’s got an excellent head on her shoulders. She’s got this.”

Sighing, she plugged her phone into its charger.

By the time court adjourned for the day, the two FBI agents had reached their limits.

“That was brutal,” Annie sighed with sadness when she and Lizzie walked out of the building. “So much raw grief in that room. I felt it weighing me down like a lead blanket.”

Lizzie could only nod in response, her emotions too close to the surface to articulate cleanly.

I don’t know if I can deal with sitting through this every day, Lizzie realized. All those kids…

“You okay?” Annie asked.

“That was… rough,” Lizzie conceded as she turned to her teammate, “and to be honest, I was just questioning whether or not I can stand to be in there for the entire trial.”

“You and me both, sister, you and me both.”

Lizzie dropped Annie off at the office, then headed home.

On the way, she called her old partner, and began to feel the cloud lift from her soul the moment Tank’s voice surrounded her through her car’s speakers.

“Hey Zim!” Tank said softly. “I gotta be quiet, Tucker and Renee are both sleeping right now. How you doing, girl?”

“I’m good. Tank, that baby is precious. I can’t wait to meet him and hold him.”

They talked the entire drive, and Lizzie’s mood had shifted from bleak back to merely somber by the time she got home just before six o’clock. Donny sensed it, and at once crossed the room to her for a hug.

“Rough day,” he guessed, and she nodded silently against his chest.

“If you want, you can stay here and relax and I promise to bring you back some food,” he offered.

“No,” Lizzie decided, then lifted her head to look at him. “I really need ‘normal’ tonight to help wash away the horrible aspects of my day. Just let me get changed right quick and we’ll go to dinner.”

“Your call, Liz. We’ll leave whenever you’re ready.”

“There was one awesome thing that happened today. I heard from Tank,” she called out as she walked swiftly to the bedroom to change. “I’m an aunt. Renee had the baby this morning.”

“That’s great!” Donny exclaimed, following her down the hall to lean against the doorframe. “Everybody’s healthy, I take it.”

“Yep. Check out this picture,” Lizzie said, and opened her text messages then handed Donny the phone.

“Man, that kid has a head full of hair, doesn’t he?”

Lizzie grinned, her first one since before the trial started.

“I know, right? And he was over nine pounds. But Tank said everything went smoothly, no issues, and he and Renee are exhausted but thrilled. And they asked me to be Tucker’s godmother.”

“Sounds like we’re making a trip to Houston soon.”

“That we are. I was thinking next weekend. Give them a chance to get home from the hospital and get settled in.”

Nathan Thomas had just pulled into his driveway when his phone rang.

“Good, you got my message about that profile,” Nathan started to say, but Steve cut him off in an uncharacteristic show of impatience.

“Let’s get to that in a minute. I just found out some information that you really need to know about.”

Alarmed, Nathan leaned forward to rest his arms on the steering wheel and frowned.

“I know that tone. Whatever you’re about to tell me isn’t good.”

“No, it isn’t. Not at all. You know we kept the mole in place in Chicago, right?”

“Yes.”

“I just got off the phone with the Director up there. She came to him late this afternoon and told him that she’s been asked by her cartel handler for some information.”

“As usual. And?”

“Nathan,” Steve said gently, his voice tight with tension, “she’s been asked to provide in-depth dossiers on you and the people on your team in Dallas.”

Nathan lowered his forehead to the steering wheel, his mind racing as he processed the information.

“After all this time? Jones left the area months ago, so why is this happening now?”

“I know. It doesn’t make sense to me either. I don’t know what to tell you, Nathan.”

“Can she even access that information?”

“No, she doesn’t have the clearance to get into much of anything anymore – the Director made sure of that. But it worries me that the cartel even wants it – not to mention the steps they might take to get it. You watch your backs down there. Things could get ugly.”