Chapter 5

The following morning, I felt half asleep as I sat in the back of a grey Ford truck. Apparently, this was Oscar's motor which was why he was driving. Me, I wanted to take advantage of the time to close my eyes. I hadn't slept very well the previous night and cursed that my self pity and reminiscing had given my brain permission to highlight people, places and events from Trenton. So in true Stephanie Plum style I managed to fall asleep.

It was the feel of the truck turning and then the bumpy ride that woke me up with a start. Looking out of the window all that I could see were trees as they crowded over the road. Suppressing a yawn that desperately wanted to emerge I caught sight of Oscar looking at me in the rearview mirror. Was he smirking at me? I quickly looked away, slightly embarrassed now that I'd fallen asleep. Had I missed hearing something important?

Looking out of the window I was surprised as the trees disappeared behind us and the view opened out onto open fields. A lot of tall grass and what I determined as weeds gave me the impression that the land wasn't being used for anything. Beyond the fields the outline of buildings came into view. I sat forward as though that would help me to see more of them.

"Those are the buildings that you saw on the arial photo"

No shit, almost came from me, but I held back on saying anything. Oscar maneuvered the car onto a dirt road and then across a grassy area before he brought the car to a stop. We were still maybe 100 feet from any of the buildings which had me curious. Looking toward the buildings I couldn't see any signs of any vehicles but that didn't mean to say that there wasn't anybody here that might see our approach and be annoyed with us. As we waited, I looked over at the buildings. There were five smaller structures built from wood that could have been where people had lived. A sixth structure looked like a barn to me and certainly supported the idea that this had once been a small community.

Seeing Oscar and then Jex open their doors and get out I followed them until we were all stood in front of the truck.

"Okay. First, we need to find out if anyone lives here. Wouldn't be good if someone thought the worst of us and came at us with a shotgun"

I definitely agreed with that.

"Okay, we're going to walk to each house and knock on the door. If anyone answers, then we're here to talk to. Annie what was the name of that woman?"

"Elizabeth Lehman"

I answered providing the name of the woman who I thought was Banning's mother.

"If the place is empty then we each take a building and look around. Remember, have your gun at the ready and keep your eyes and ears open"

Looking around again I was pretty sure that there was no one here but I wasn't going to argue with what Oscar was suggesting. I, well Jex as well, let Oscar take the lead as he began to walk away from the truck. Was I feeling nervous? Maybe. My nerves were certainly making me feel on edge. The first building that we arrived at was tall and thin with a window on either side of a front door. I was pretty sure that there was a window at the side up in the roof, but even as Oscar stepped to the door, I think that we all knew that the place was deserted. No glass in the windows, no drapes billowing in the breeze and the front door being open were the giveaways.

"Okay. Annie, you check out this place and Jex and I will move onto the next one. Keep your comms link open"

I tapped my ear to show that I already had the earpiece in place and then pulled the small mic down toward my mouth. Anything and everything that any three of us said would be heard by everyone else. I watched as the two men walked away from me and then after taking a deep breath stepped up to the front door. I wasn't sure what to expect as I pushed the door further open, making sure that it was open far enough that I could see inside.

Of course, it gave out a horrendous creaking noise that had me taking a step back. Get a grip, I told myself. The place is empty. Which as I looked through the door was certainly the case. The only thing taking up residency that I could see was dirt and dust. I let out the breath that I was holding and stepped inside. With so much light coming in through the windows it was easy to see the layout of the place. I guessed from the size that maybe I was in an open plan space, where a kitchen, dining room and lounge might have been. Not that there were any clues. Standing in the middle of the room told me nothing about who had lived here and only about the animals who had taken up residence. Spiders webs covered the beams above me, and I was sure that the hole gnawed through the wood in the corner of the room might be squirrels.

With a sigh I headed down the small corridor that had four doors leading from it. To be honest having scanned three small rooms that were equally bare of anything, save for some grimy looking rug in the room at the back. I wasn't expecting too much from the fourth door. I had to pull really hard to get the damn thing open. After using my foot against the wall, I almost toppled backward as it eventually gave way. Okay, maybe it took a section of wood away with it, but this was an old house, so the wood had probably swollen and there was the chance that some of it was rotten as well. Not a room though. Instead, I was looking at wooden steps that turned before heading upstairs. That had me remembering seeing a window high up toward the roof.

Okay, those stairs did look dark. Nothing the light on my phone couldn't put right. I wasn't feeling as confident as I made my way up the stairs. They were steep which had me putting my hand down on the wooden steps in front of me. Once at the top I stepped through an opening and came to a stop. Well shoot. Where downstairs had been empty and deserted this room was full of furniture and ornaments covering surfaces. There was still that layer of dust covering everything, but it was almost as though someone had just up and left everything as it was. Stepping further into the room the light from the window caught my attention. Maybe it was the shadows? Don't go there, crossed my mind as I looked at what, or should I say who was sat looking out of the window.

"Err, I'm so sorry. I thought the house was empty. I didn't mean to barge in here uninvited"

"Annie?"

Damn, I was hearing Jex in my ear now but at least he would know that I'd found someone. I stepped closer to the chair, an old wooden rocker, expecting some sort of movement. Nothing. Maybe whoever it was, was asleep. A step closer and to the side gave me a glimpse of pale brown hair against the back of the chair. Unruly hair that looked as though it hadn't been washed or brushed in an age. My hand went to the arm on the chair, an arm that was wearing a dark blue blouse, hoping to awaken them gently. I just never imagined what came next. At the sound of a thump on the floor I'm sure that I let out a scream before tripping over my own feet and landing on the floor on my backside.

"Annie, we're on our way. Talk to me girl"

My heart was going ten to the dozen and my breathing was far too fast. Pulling my knees to my chest I rested my head on them trying to calm myself down. Stupid, stupid, stupid. For heaven's sake I'd seen a dead body before now so why had I reacted so badly? Surely finding a bloated swollen man in the bath or one that had been sawn in half on my couch was worse than this. As my breathing slowed and I felt more in control I lifted my head to look at what had fallen to the floor. A hand and arm, well the bones of a hand and arm. Okay, it was just a shock. Like being inside one those house of horrors at the carnival when a skeleton shoots out in front of you. Only this wasn't a carnival, this was real. As I pushed myself to my feet Oscar's voice came through, obviously he was worried.

"Annie, where are you?"

"Up here"

I shouted, expecting that Oscar was probably downstairs by now. By now I'd moved and was standing between the window and the body trying to work out how it was possible for me to be seeing this. I was looking for Elizabeth Lehman or someone who might know where she was. And in typical fashion I'd come across a dead body.

"She's been here for a long time"

Words that had me nodding my head in agreement. I looked carefully at the skeletal remains in front of me. From the clothes it looked to have been a woman but anything else was lost on me. The color of the hair that I'd first seen looked to be light brown but looking at it now I wasn't so sure. It probably had a lot of dust and dirt going for it. Seeing as I was no good at deciphering clues from dead bodies I turned and looked out of the window. Had this person known that they were dying, maybe even committed suicide? Were they looking out of this window as their last breath left them? The question that was bugging me the most was who was she?

I turned, deciding to make better use of my time, my eyes skimming around the room. Had this person lived here? It sure looked like it. It was locked in time with what was here, and my curiosity was piqued at what that life had been like. Even as I started to walk over to one of the bookcases, Jex was pushing some latex gloves into my hand.

"Feds are on their way"

I blew a strand of hair from my face after he said that. Great. Men in cheap suits who liked to show us mere mortals just how superior they were. I was pretty sure that it would be a while before they got here so continued to browse through the contents of the shelf. Knickknacks certainly weren't as interesting as the photo frames. Using my phone, I made sure to have copies because something was telling me that there was more to find here than just a dead body. I was looking at photos of a boy, probably taken at school, seeing as he was wearing a white shirt and blue sweater. The photos depicted how that boy had grown up from the freckled kid with a missing tooth to the teenager with long hair combed down over his forehead.

"Jex!"

Wanting Jex to come and see what I was looking at.

"What do you have Annie?"

Was I imagining it or did this kid look like a younger version of Elijah Banning?

"Am I seeing something that isn't there or does that look like a young Elijah Banning?"

Getting no answer, I turned to see that Jex was using an iPad and scanning it over the contents of the shelf including the photographs.

"There's certainly a similarity. Let me load the photo and do a comparison on one that we have for Banning"

The importance of that finally sunk in and okay, maybe my brain was doing a lot of leaps and bounds on its own, but realization suddenly dawned on me.

"Could that be his mother?"

I never got an answer from Jex because suddenly we were being invaded by the men in suits. Sheesh they soon got here. That wasn't the worst. One of those feds was shooing us from the room like he was rounding up a flock a sheep. Who the hell did they think they were? I was the one who discovered this place, who put together the link from working so hard. My Jersey attitude began to rear her head as I stared at the older man who wanted us out of the room, but fortunately it was Oscar who turned me around before I lost my temper.

"Cool it. Be nice to them and they might be nice to us and give us the details of what they find"

Huh, yeah right. Who was Oscar trying to convince, me or him? Seems that I didn't have a choice and not only were we escorted back to the truck we were told to leave the property. I was one pissed off woman.

By the time that we arrived back at the office in Braintree my mood hadn't improved. There had been so much in that room that I hadn't been able to look at. That the FBI could just turn up like that and throw us out after all that time and work had been put into finding the place. Well, you can imagine how I felt. Then as I thought about it, I was asking the next question that became obvious.

"How were the FBI there so quickly?"

"That is my fault. Not a mistake that I'll be making again"

We all turned to look at Jonas as he stood at the back of the room. Huh, I'd been so annoyed when I got here that I hadn't even noticed that he was already here. Having the three of us just looking at Jonas, well maybe I was glaring at him, had him stepping toward us.

"I met with the lead agent this morning to inform him of your find, the bracelet that he missed and mentioned that you were going to look at a property that could tie in to Banning's mother"

"So he hijacked our information?"

At least Jonas was looking a slight bit embarrassed, though it didn't make my temper feel any calmer. The nerve. Were the FBI so incompetent that they were dependent on other people finding them leads? Don't answer that.

"I made a complaint to his superior and he assured me that we'd have full access to whatever they find"

I wasn't convinced of that happening but there was little that any of us could do about it now. What surprised me was when Jonas pointed to the table and intimated that we joined him. If we were going to continue to look for what had happened to Lisa, I wasn't sure what we could do now. I sat down in my normal place and stayed quiet.

"Jex did you manage to capture enough information?"

Capture information? What did that mean? I looked over to Jex curious now with what they were talking about.

"Yes, I think so. I'll set up the hologram in the room next door. It'll take time to merge together, and Oscar has some detail that can be added. Give me a day"

Hologram. Okay, so how would that help us to determine anything that was important in that room? I didn't want to appear stupid so didn't ask anything. Wait and see was going to be my motto.

"Oscar. The drone?"

"Got a full sweep of the area. I'll transfer the data over into a more manageable format. I also managed to land her at the edge of the woods, part way up a tree but I'll have to go back to download the data and wait to retrieve the drone"

I was impressed with what Oscar had managed to do and all sorts of ideas were running through my head. Would we be able to see what the FBI was up to? Okay, so maybe I wasn't feeling as bad as I had done.

"Annie. I have a big favor to ask of you"

I turned to Jonah wondering what he could possibly mean by that. He was my boss so he could ask me to do anything, within reason.

"My niece is on vacation from university and is looking for something to keep her occupied. I managed to salvage what was left of those journals from the fire so am going to ask her to go through them and record any information that she finds"

Okay, not something that I would want to do. It would take hours, even weeks to sort through. Was Jonas sure that this niece of his was aware of the daunting task that he was asking her to do.

"Kiera, my niece, has her eyes set on becoming an obstetrician. Those journals will provide her with an excellent source of information for her thesis"

There was a sense of pride for his niece as Jonas gave us an explanation and it also assured me that Kiera would be very diligent with how she recorded the information from those journals. Maybe she might even find an entry that related to Banning's home birth.

"I'd very much appreciate it if you would pick her up from the airport"

How could I refuse? I couldn't, even though it wasn't somewhere that I wanted to go. What were the chances of me being seen and recognized? None. So, I nodded my head at Jonas and smiled as he handed me a piece of paper. Looking at it there was the details of her flight and arrival time and even a headshot of her. Seems that tomorrow I'd be busy as well. At least by the day after, I'd be privy to whatever Jex and Oscar had discovered about that house.

I left soon after that, deciding that I wanted to visit the pool. Maybe the exercise, okay, I admit that was what I was doing when swimming, would alleviate some of the tension from the day.

It was early evening by the time I returned to my apartment from the pool. I admit that mentally I felt more at ease even if my muscles were aching. Seems it isn't such a good idea not to maintain some regularity of exercising. Of course, Luke had been there, and he was keen to push me to my limits both in the pool and with the weights. Geeze, what would some of the men at Rangeman say if they knew that I was converse with using weights. Maybe they'd have a laugh at how light the weights were but as Luke had said, I was using the weights to tone and strengthen my muscles not to be become a body builder.

Once showered I salvaged any fresh vegetables left in the fridge and with some chicken pieces cooked myself a roast concoction. It wasn't bad, edible, but not the greatest meal that I'd had but after a bowl of Rocky Road ice cream I felt full. Certainly ready to relax in front of the television for a couple of hours before going to bed.

It was an easy drive from Braintree to Boston Logan airport but knowing me and my luck with parking I decided to make sure that I arrived well ahead of Kiera's arrival. In actuality parking in the short stay car park was easy so I was soon walking toward the terminal. Being early gave me the opportunity to look around but who was I to resist Dunkin Donuts and buy a latte coffee to go with a donut. With my coffee in my hand and the bag with the donut inside I found a place to sit that gave me a view of the screen for arrivals. Kiera's plane was due in at 11.12 which gave me thirty minutes to wait before I made my way to the arrivals area.

I watched the people around me as I ate and drank. The young woman who greeted an older couple, probably her parents. The lone man who looked so nervous as he paced back and forth. People disappeared to be replaced by more. That I began to feel nervous surprised me, had Kiera arrived and I'd missed her? Looking at the screen showed that her plane was still ten minutes out, so plenty of time yet. Then I watched as an elegant woman waltzed her way past where I was looking. Men were turning to look at her and women were giving her a glare. I could understand the reaction that she was having. Long straight blonde hair that seemed to shimmer in the glare of the overhead lights. Her fitted black dress accentuated her figure. Large breasts, thin waist and long legs. I couldn't help but to follow her with my eyes as she made her way to the arrivals area wondering who she would be meeting.

As she waved, I watched with interest to where she was looking and then was slinking low in my seat. NO, no, no. Maybe I'd made a mistake, so from behind the tall fake plant took another look. There was no mistaking who I was seeing. I'd admired that man for long enough. His dark hair that looked shorter than when I'd last seen him, the black Armani suit that emphasized his muscular physique and the way that he walked toward her. That he smiled, something that he rarely did, took my breath away but when he scooped the blonde up in his arms and twirled her it had a part of my heart breaking. I looked away and moved out of sight not wanting to be seen. From the corner of my eye, I caught them walking out through the sliding doors, his arm around her, bending down and kissing her on her cheek. They made for a beautiful couple.

I wondered if he called her Babe, a thought that had my eyes watering and my head lowering. I knew that Ranger didn't travel alone, he always had someone with him to watch his back. I had no desire to know who that would be because they would be so much more alert and aware of their surroundings than Ranger had been. Pulling out my phone from my bag that was on the floor I'd stay here, like this for another ten minutes, pretending to be looking at my phone. Yeah, that would be long enough for any Rangeman to have left the airport. It was also long enough for what I'd seen to really hit me.

He wasn't mine. I had no claim on him so what did I expect. Of course a man who looked like Ranger did would have his pick of women. Here I was in my usual jeans and T-shirt with unruly hair pulled back in a ponytail and no makeup. I was plain and ordinary and judging by the look of that woman, he went for an elegant, sexy, blonde. Was I jealous much? Yeah, I was, but I also realized that someone like Ranger would never look at me twice, not the way that he'd looked at her. We'd been friends and much to my embarrassment lovers. Hell, I hated to think what his opinion was of me. An easy lay, good for a romp between the sheets. Entertainment provided through my stupid antics. I was this pathetic woman who he took notice of when it suited him.

After ten minutes my eyes were dry and the shaking for the loss of the love of my life had changed to shaking with anger. He was just like the rest of the men in my life. A user. I hated him for doing that to me, but I also hated myself for letting it happen. I'd honestly thought that Ranger at least respected me. Could I hate him? Probably not. He'd never told me a lie about his intentions. He admitted that he was an opportunist and also told me that he didn't do relationships. Well not with me it seems. I sat up in an attempt to pull myself together and caught sight of the arrivals screen. Shit. Kiera's plane had landed.

Okay, I was a coward. I stood a few feet beyond the barrier with a large card in front of my face. The card read Kiera Penderton in large bold writing, so I was going to wait for her to approach me. No way did I want to be seen by anyone else that might know me.

"Err, hi. I'm her"

Peeking around the card I was seeing a petite woman with hair as black as night. In fact, she just wasn't what I expected. Maybe I was biased with the look that Val came home with. I'd expected bleached blonde hair with streaks and a golden tan from the glorious sunshine. Instead to go with the black short hair, she was wearing black jeans and a black loose cotton blouse.

"Kiera? Of course you are. Your uncle asked me to pick you up"

I looked down to see her pulling two large bags so being the friendly person that I was I bent down and took the handle of the smaller one.

"I'm Annie, I work for your uncle, though you probably already know that"

Hell, I was jabbering like an idiot. Get a grip Stephanie before she thinks that I am.

"This way"

I led the way to the elevator pleased when the doors opened without us having to wait. From level 4 across the pedestrian bridge was done in silence until we reached my car. Once Kiera's bags were in the trunk and I'd managed to navigate my way out of the airport then I began to relax.

"Sorry. I'm new to here so I was a bit anxious at getting out of the airport and onto the right road"

Which was so very true. Now I could relax a bit knowing that I'd had no sightings of any black SUVs. I took a quick glance sideways at Kiera, seeing a young woman who seemed relaxed. Time to try out talking to her I suppose.

"Your uncle said that you were aiming to be an obstetrician, that must be a difficult area to get into"

"Difficult in that it takes years to get there. I start my OBGYN residency program in the fall, four years, but that should be cool because I do rotations in obstetrics, gynecology, gynecologic oncology, reproductive endocrinology, and ultrasonography. Anything to do with pregnancy and babies"

Which meant that she'd already spent four years at medical school. That took dedication.

"Are you okay doing the work on the journals?"

Because if it was me, I would want to relax and make the most of any vacation time.

"Oh yes. Uncle Jonas knows me well. I'm only ever happy if I have a project to keep me occupied. Besides I think it will be pretty interesting. Uncle mentioned that some of them got badly damaged?"

I took a breath and tried to decide how much to tell Kiera. The truth with some omissions was probably the way to go.

"Unfortunately, they were being kept in a summer house and there was a fire. I was gutted when I realized what had happened to them. I was after finding out about a home birth some twenty seven years ago"

Was that too much information to be giving her? I didn't think so because being alone with her in the car was an ideal opportunity for me to steer her in the right direction.

"No problem. Give me what you have and if I find anything I'll pass it on to you. So you said that you're new here. How long have you been here?"

That was the start of our conversation. I was very vague about where I had come from, in fact I used my life as a lingerie buyer for E E Martin as my life story. In turn Kiera was very open about her life in San Francisco. It seemed that her looks were very contradictory to her personality, and she openly admitted that it was a way of keeping people away from her.

"Don't worry, I have normal clothes in my bags. Wouldn't want uncle thinking the worst of me"

That had me relaxing, so by the time that I dropped her and her bags off in front of Jonas's house we had agreed to meet up for a coffee. As I drove round the block to my apartment, I decided that I liked her. She'd made a shitty day bearable.

After a private pity party consisting of lots of ice cream and Ghostbusters, I'd come to the decision that I'd moved on. Emotionally? Well, that was up for debate, but I'd moved on with my life. I had an amazing job working in a new city with some incredible guys. I had to purge myself of all things Ranger. Prove to myself that I was capable, not a woman muddling her way as a bounty hunter. That was in the past.