Safe Hearts (Amish Safe House, Book 3) (11 page)

Kate wasn’t sure if a smile was
appropriate at that moment, but the reassurance and encouragement
from her boss filled her with confidence, something she had
struggled to hold onto lately. “If that’s how you feel, then I’d
like nothing more than to help you talk to Glen and find out why he
betrayed us.”

“
Then you’re about to get
your chance. Come on,” he said, waving his hand once
more.

Kate followed Harper as he headed for
the front door. She looked around as they entered the main entrance
and walked into the lobby. She noticed a police officer as he sat
behind a pane of thick glass and answered the telephones. A cup
filled with a steaming brown liquid sat on his desk in a puddle of
its own making. She caught the aroma of the stale, unwelcoming
coffee.

David Harper smiled and shook his
head. He then walked up to the counter and tried calling to the
officer, but it took several minutes before he was able to get the
man’s attention.

“
What can I help you with,
sir?” the man said as he straightened his hat.

Harper flashed his identification
badge and explained the situation. “Officer Ryan Weaver said the
suspect is ready for our interview in Room 1.”

The officer flipped through one of the
clipboards on his desk. Kate watched as his eyes jumped up and
down, scanning the pages for a specific bit of data. As the man was
still looking, Ryan walked up behind him and placed his finger on
the paper. The cop then leaned closer to read what was being
pointed out. “Oh, I’m sorry sir. Here it is! Mr. Glen Tryston is
currently being held without bail and is in Interrogation Room 1.
Here’s the key to the room. Please return it before you leave the
premises.”

“
Thanks again, Weaver,”
David said.

Kate and Ryan exchanged glances as he
nodded to her boss, but the look in his eyes told her that he was
still in shock from the revelation of her secret. He turned away
and disappeared into another room before she could say anything.
Kate sighed as Harper nodded to the officer at the desk as he
accepted the key from him. “It should be right down this hallway,”
he said, walking past the desk toward a corridor near the back of
the lobby.

As they walked through the police
station, Kate could hear the monotony of law enforcement that she
had almost entirely forgotten: the incessant ringing of phones, the
chirping of the radios, and the constant buzzing and transmissions
of random code words and numbers. Kate sure did miss the atmosphere
of places like that, but she felt a bit sad when she realized that
the tradeoff involved saying goodbye to the friends and lifestyle
that she had grown rather fond of lately.

Kate continued behind David as they
approached the end of the corridor. A large, brown door stood at
the dead end. “This looks like the place,” David said, sticking the
key into its slot. With a quick turn, the door slid open to reveal
Glen Tryston sitting with his face down at the only table in the
room. He occupied one chair, and another was placed across from
him.

Kate walked in slowly, letting her
boss lead the interview. She went over to one of the corners of the
room and leaned against the wall with her arms folded. She noticed
the double sided mirror that lined the wall beside her. Kate
wondered if Ryan might be hiding behind it, looking in at them. She
still needed to talk to him and explain everything. She sighed
without thinking, but quickly regained her composure. Now wasn’t
the time to worry about those things. She knew she had to be on her
A-game for the interview.

Harper moved toward the table and then
sat in the chair across from Tryston, who had his wrists handcuffed
behind his own chair. He slowly raised his head and looked at both
of them. Kate felt an uneasiness welling up inside her stomach when
she locked eyes with him for just a few moments. “Oh, it’s only you
two? Mind if I go back to sleep?” he said, letting his head fall
back to the table’s surface.

“
Cut the nonsense!” David
shouted. “You sold out and betrayed your country, for what? To put
some crime-lord’s money in your bank account? We were your friends,
Glen. And then you tracked down one of your former colleagues and
accepted a contract on her life? Why? That’s all we want to know.
Why did you do it?”

Kate pulled away from the wall and
stood at full attention. She leaned her head forward, hoping to
hear a response of some kind. Instead, Glen lifted his head back up
and smiled. “Why? You stand there and ask me why? Like you don’t
know?”

Kate’s eyebrows furrowed as confusion
set in. What did he mean? Did her boss know something about Glen’s
motives that she didn’t?

“
Excuse me?” David replied,
hitting the table with his fist. “What on earth are you talking
about?” Kate could hear the rising anger in his voice.

Then, Glen spoke, capturing her
attention completely. “Remember that day we heard that Daxton would
be arrested?”

“
Yes,” Harper
said.

Glen looked over at her and hissed.
“Kate, do you remember that day?”

Kate was bewildered. “Of course I do,
but what does it have to do with this?”

“
Everything,” he said,
anger flashing in his eyes. “Those lawyers we had to relocate
ratted on Daxton, saying he’d be heading to the docks for a meeting
with one of his fall guys. Ever since Daxton had gone under the
radar and became a fugitive, a couple of the higher ups in the
agency decided that catching him was more important than anything
else in the world.”

“
Glen, you know sometimes
we get orders so high up in the chain that nobody below the
executive branch has any say in the matter, right? Either way, I
still don’t quite understand the relevance to the case at hand. Why
did you accept the contract on Kate?”

Glen leaned back, lifting the chair
from its front two legs. He rocked back and forth for a while as
Kate stared at him. “Let’s get back to that case, first,” he
insisted, clearing his throat before continuing. “My wife left me,
and I had to pay lots of child support. It ruined me! I lost
everything, but of all people, Victor Daxton offered to return what
you stole from me.” Glen grinned, but the look in his eyes turned
Kate’s stomach.

“
We didn’t steal anything
from you,” she said.

Glen laughed and then looked up at
Kate. “We’re underpaid, Kate; you have no idea. You people are all
such do-gooders. So, I decided to change the formula up a bit and
work for good money; it’s what I’m worth.” He then looked at David
with signs of anger all over his face, but he spoke in a calm tone.
“You were next.”

Kate gasped as Harper turned away from
the suspect and looked at her. She could see the horror in his
eyes. After a few moments, he turned back to Glen. “So, what
exactly were you planning to do after you ended your contracts on
both of us?”

“
Daxton paid me very well.
He wanted every marshal involved in his arrest to be killed. I
obliged; I figured it was worth the risk. Then, I could just build
myself a new life somewhere tropical and warm.”

“
You’ll be somewhere warm,
but it’s probably not all that tropical,” Harper
replied.

Kate stepped forward and approached
the table. “Glen, you used to be a good guy: one who was
hardworking, honest, and you loved his job more than anything. Why
would you let Daxton take advantage of you?”

He slumped down into the chair and
sighed. “Just put me in a cage where I belong.”

“
Don’t worry about that. We
plan to,” David said.

Glen looked up and shook his head.
“Just make sure Daxton doesn’t find out you caught me.”

“
He won’t,” Harper said.
“As soon as I walk out of this station, I’m having him relocated to
solitary permanently. He won’t be able to hear a single word from
the outside world, let alone get any orders out to his
subordinates.”

Kate noticed a smile on her boss’ face
as Glen dropped his head in defeat.

Psalm 34:
7.
The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them

Chapter 13
.

Kate took a deep breath as she raised
her hand to knock on Ryan’s front door. She didn’t know what the
man was going to do, what he would say, or how he would react. She
thought about what she would do if their roles were reversed. She
would be mad. She would be hurt. But in her line of work, she would
understand. He was a cop; maybe he would too.

Her knuckles rapped against the wood
of the front door and she took a step back and waited. She knew he
was home; his police cruiser sat in the dusty driveway. Ryan’s
house was small but nice, with a freshly mown yard and even a
little garden that ran along the front of the front
porch.

The door opened and there
he was. It was almost strange to see him in anything but his
uniform. He wore black gym shorts and a gray tee shirt with the
Pittsburgh Pirates logo on it, a yellow P. He was staring at her,
and Kate realized he must be feeling the same way that she was. She
wasn’t wearing Amish clothes now - the charade was over, and so she
was wearing jeans and button up blouse. The prayer
kapp
was gone; her hair
was loose, and swirled around her shoulders. She wore make up, not
a lot, but enough to look a bit different.

“
It’s weird,” Ryan said
finally.

Kate bit her lip. “I know.” He didn’t
seem angry with her, but she could not tell how he was
feeling.

“
I don’t know what to
say.”

Kate nodded. “I came to do the
talking.” He seemed tense, but that was to be expected.

“
Want to go for a walk?” he
asked.

Kate was surprised, and relieved. She
had expected him to invite her in; that is, if he wanted to speak
with her at all, but she quickly accepted and they stepped off the
porch together.

“
There’s a little lake back
here,” Ryan said, pointing toward the back of his property. There
was a line of trees there, and Kate supposed the lake was past
them. They walked toward the trees for some time in silence. Kate
did not know where to begin, and she suspected that Ryan didn’t
either.

Finally Kate took a breath. She said
she had come to talk after all. “I should explain,” she started,
and Ryan nodded.

Kate continued. “I was in danger; my
life was in danger. You know by now, but I’m a U.S. Marshal; I work
for WITSEC. Someone came after me, and my boss thought I should
disappear for a while. He knew the folks I stayed with. They agreed
to help me.”

“
So they knew you weren’t
Amish?”

Kate looked at Ryan. His shoulders
were tense, and we tone was even, and there was no way she could
guess how he was feeling. “On the bishop and his wife knew.
Everyone else, though, the people I met, the others in the
community, didn’t know.”

“
You lied to Amish
people?”

“
I had to.”

“
So there was no accident,
no amnesia.”

“
Right,” Kate said. They
had reached the woods now, and were walking among the trees. Kate
could see the woods did not stretch on for very long. She could see
a clearing, could see a little lake with dark water moving slightly
in the breeze.

They were silent again until they got
out of the woods, and walked to the edge of the lake. It wasn’t
large, but it was big enough to have a small, hand built, wooden
dock, with a silver and red canoe tied to the last post.

“
Want to go out on the
water?” Ryan asked, and Kate nodded. He led her to the dock, held
the boat steady with his foot as she climbed in. She couldn’t help
but think that before he had found out about the truth he would
have held her hand as she climbed in, but now he was content to let
her manage on her own. He got in after her and untied the rope
holding the boat still. They sat on aluminum benches facing one
another and each took up an oar. They paddled out into the center
of the lake and then let the window blow them this way and that as
their conversation continued.

“
Why lie to me? I’m a cop.
I could have helped you,” Ryan said, and Kate could tell he was
hurt. His voice was quieter than she had ever heard it, and his
eyes never once met hers. He glanced around as he spoke, intent on
not looking at her.

She knew how she felt about him, and
she had known he was attracted to her, but she had been left to
hope that he cared for her, the way she cared for him. He was hurt
because he liked her. He cared for her. He was hurt because he knew
that he could love her. He may already love her. Kate knew she
already loved him, if she were being honest with
herself.

Another stretch of silence as Kate
looked at Ryan and he turned his head to look toward the shore,
where a growth of green grass sat, long and swaying, among a
smattering of green and brown reeds.

“
I couldn’t tell anyone. It
wasn’t safe,” Kate said, finally.

Ryan snorted. “Oh, I could have been
one of them? One of the people after you?”