Framed For Murder. Mary Alford
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he was cleared, the doctor had wanted Michael to go straight home and rest, but Michael had insisted on visiting Sam Lansford in prison first.
It had been unthinkable that someone the team all knew and trusted had turned out to be the Fox. When their chopper had crashed, Sam and several of his men had been captured. The team had immediately transported their prisoners to the Scorpion headquarters outside of Painted Rock, Colorado, for interrogation. The weapons Sam had smuggled into the country were still unaccounted for and they needed to find them as soon as possible.
Still, Liz didn’t understand why Michael had insisted on seeing Sam. Once the two had faced off, there had been no words exchanged between them.
She glanced around the living room, seeing things through different eyes than when she’d first entered. There was no sign of a break-in. Had Michael known his killer?
One of the cushions on the sofa caught her attention. It was visibly out of place as if something were tucked under it. Liz carefully eased it up and found a large manila envelope stuffed there haphazardly. Her name had been hastily scribbled across the front of it in Michael’s handwriting. But it was the next line written there that was the most alarming.
For Your Eyes Only!
Dread wrapped itself snugly around her shoulders. What was Michael trying to tell her that only she could witness? Before she had the chance to open the envelope, headlights flashed across the front of the house.
Liz shoved the envelope in her purse and hurried to the window. She parted the curtains, expecting it to be Aaron. Michael’s place was at the end of a sparsely populated cul-de-sac. A car had pulled into the drive and flipped its lights on bright.
She shielded her eyes and managed to get a better look at the vehicle. It looked like the same car that had Michael spooked earlier when she’d driven him home after that strange visit with Sam.
Once they’d turned onto his street, Liz had caught a glimpse of a car behind them. She didn’t think anything of it until she saw how Michael had reacted. She’d asked if he knew the person, but he’d denied it.
Liz rushed from the house with her weapon drawn as the car quickly reversed and headed down the street picking up speed along the way. The license plate had been removed.
While the shock of realizing it was the same car as before and that someone had gone to great lengths to hide their identity froze her in place, two additional sets of headlights came down the usually quiet street. Liz squinted through the blinding lights and was able to identify Aaron’s SUV. Aaron pulled up beside her. “Did something else happen?” he asked as if reading her thoughts.
She quickly nodded. “I’m pretty sure the car that just passed you was here earlier today when I brought Michael home.”
Aaron got out of the SUV and hurried to the truck behind him. “See if you can catch up with the car we just passed. They might be involved.”
The driver of the truck, Alex Booth, nodded, put the truck in Reverse and made a quick U-turn before flooring the gas.
Aaron came back to her. Liz knew he could see that she was still shaking in reaction to finding Michael and to seeing the suspicious car. “Are you okay?” he asked in that serious Southern drawl of his that was always so charming. Now it was laced with worry.
It was so like Aaron to be concerned about her, especially after she and Michael had barely escaped death. He’d always been there for her whenever she needed to talk. Strong. Caring. A true man of valor. She’d often wondered why someone as handsome and as captivating as Aaron was still single.
He ran a careless hand through his chestnut hair before those intense midnight-blue eyes focused on her and just for a second, she lost her train of thought.
“I’m okay,” she managed.
Aaron had been tasked with heading up the critical investigation into how someone as close to the Scorpions as Sam Lansford could turn out to be the Fox. As a former CIA agent himself, Sam had quit the Agency to go into business for himself as a hostage retrieval agent. On several occasions, Sam had provided the team with useful information that had led to the capture of some very dangerous people. They’d all thought they knew him. They’d been wrong.
The team had been trying to bring down the Fox and his weapons-smuggling activities for more than seven years. No one expected the terrorist to be someone they all knew.
Yet even with the pressure for answers so great and the guns Sam smuggled out of Afghanistan still missing, Aaron had found time to check on her when Liz’s injuries had her sidelined. That was just his way.
He glanced up at the house, his expression solemn. “Take me through what happened. Why are you here so late anyway?” he asked curiously before stepping up on the porch. Was there something accusatory in his tone or was the outcome of the day playing tricks on her?
“I was worried about Michael. I’d been trying to reach him most of the afternoon.” She followed him up the steps to the porch. “Since the accident, he wasn’t himself. I knew something was troubling him, but he didn’t say what.”
Aaron nodded. “I noticed it as well. What did you find when you arrived?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary at first, until I tried the door. It was unlocked. I went inside, searched the place and...” She snatched a much-needed breath. “Found him in the kitchen.”
Aaron took her hand and squeezed it. “I’m sorry,” he murmured with sincerity.
From this day forward, they both knew nothing would ever be the same for her. She’d lost someone else she cared about to an unknown enemy. She still mourned the loss of her husband Eric who had been taken from her far too soon. And now Michael was gone. She considered him family.
Liz waited in the living room while Aaron examined the murder scene. A few minutes later, Alex and Gavin returned from the hunt.
Alex Booth and Gavin Dalton had been with the Scorpions since its inception. They were the best of the best and she was glad they were on her side.
“No sign of the car,” Alex told Aaron when he came into the room.
“There’s no murder weapon either, but my guess is it was a Glock. The perp must have taken it with him.” Aaron nodded to Alex. “Search the place. Maybe we’ll get a lead. Call in the local police to canvass the area.” He turned back to Liz. “What’s your theory here? You knew him better than any of us.”
She glanced through to the kitchen where Michael’s body lay and tried to hold back the emotions. “I think he must have known his killer. There’s no sign of a forced entry or a struggle.” She hesitated briefly and then voiced her thoughts aloud. “Aaron, we need to talk to Sam right away. If anyone knows what happened here tonight, it’s the man who almost took Michael’s life once before.”
* * *
Aaron drove to the secure prison inside Scorpion headquarters where Sam Lansford had been held since his release from the hospital. Aaron’s thoughts were working overtime trying to make sense of their fallen comrade’s death.
As much as he wanted to believe Sam was behind Michael’s death, too many things didn’t add up for it to be so. The biggest being how would Sam have managed to order the murder in the first place?
The capture of the Fox was big. The CIA hadn’t taken any chances that Sam might escape. He’d been heavily guarded at the hospital. When he was transferred to his prison cell, a state-of-the-art security system watched his every move twenty-four hours a day. No one got in or out of the compound or the prison without a passkey that was only issued to Scorpion team members.
“What I don’t understand is how did he accomplish the hit?” Aaron asked because he couldn’t make it make sense in his head. As his second-in-command, Liz had a way of cutting through the clutter.
She turned in her seat. “I beg your pardon?” She’d clearly been lost in her own thoughts.
Aaron