Pike was your captain?”
“I guess you’ve heard of him?”
“I saw the story in the news a few months ago. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“So am I.” Greg had been a great man, a fantastic captain, a wonderful father. Now, he was gone, and there was nothing Levi wouldn’t do to find his murderer.
“Come on. We’d better get started on our search.” He pushed his sorrow aside, pushed his anger away, refused the guilt that always seemed to be just a memory away. If he’d been just a few minutes earlier, would Greg still be alive? It was a question he’d asked a dozen times a day in the weeks following the murder, but there was no answer. No way to go back and relive the moments after he’d received the text summoning him to Pike’s house.
“Do you really think whoever came in would hang around and wait to be found?” Susannah pushed her Stetson down onto her head as they stepped into the compound again.
“I don’t know what the motivation was for entering the Alamo after it closed, so I can’t say if the person would hang around. Has this kind of thing happened before?”
She hesitated just long enough to make him wonder. “Six months ago, I was scheduled to open the compound. When I got here, the Houston gate was already unlocked. Someone had stolen the keys and used them to gain access to the compound after business hours. That time, we found out who was responsible.”
“He’s in jail?”
“He’s dead. Killed during a police standoff a month later.”
“Was he a Ranger here?”
“No.”
“Then he knew a Ranger.” How else would he have gotten the keys?
“He knew me.” Her tone was stiff, her expression unreadable. Whatever she was thinking and feeling was hidden behind a mask of indifference.
Which meant it was a subject she cared deeply about.
Or felt deeply about.
“I’m sorry.”
“Not as sorry as I was.”
“He was a boyfriend?”
“He thought he was.”
Her words sparked a memory. A news story that had broken a few weeks after Greg’s death. A woman viciously attacked, clinging to life in the hospital. A suspect leading the police on a high-speed chase through downtown San Antonio. All of it ending with the suspect dead.
“He nearly killed you.” It wasn’t a question. He already knew that the girl he’d grown up looking out for had been brutalized and nearly killed. He already knew that she’d suffered things most people couldn’t even imagine.
He knew, and he wanted to pull her into his arms, tell her everything would be okay.
“Let’s try to stay focused on the present, okay?”
“Ignoring the past can’t make it go away.”
“Do you really think it’s possible for me to ignore it?” She laughed, the sound hollow and empty.
“I think that you’re a survivor. I think—”
“Don’t.” She raised her hand, stopping his words. “I’ve heard all those things a thousand times, and I really don’t want to hear them again. I just want…”
“What?”
“To go on with my life.”
“Susie? You out here?” A man called out, and Susannah turned back the way they’d come, eager, it seemed, to end the conversation.
“Near the gardens, Chad.”
Seconds later, a tall, lean man in his fifties strode into view. He met Levi’s eyes, offered a brief handshake. “Chad Morran. I’m chief of security here.”
“Ranger Levi McDonall.”
“Not a good night to be at the Alamo, I’m afraid. We usually don’t have this kind of trouble.”
“Better to have it now than on the day of the ceremony.”
“True. You’ve already checked the area?” Chad ran a hand down his jaw, his gaze jumping to Susannah.
“Not the entire compound, but we’re working toward it. So far, everything is clear.”
“Good. How about we split up? We’ll finish more quickly that way. Ranger McDonall, you want to head east? Susannah, you check the gardens. I’ll check the west gates. When Marcus and Larry get here, they can join in the fun.”
“I’m not sure I’d call this fun,” Susannah muttered under her breath, but Levi heard. She clutched a flashlight, her knuckles white as she started toward the gardens. She had a confident, brisk stride and easy movements, but he sensed her fear, wondered if it followed her the way his guilt followed him. Clinging, clutching, refusing to be ignored. If so, it was a heavy burden to bear.
He thought about going after her, asking her more about what she’d been through, what she was still going through, but he’d come to the Alamo to do a job. He couldn’t afford to be distracted.
But you already have been.
The thought followed him as he turned on his flashlight and walked across the compound.
THREE
Susannah had never been afraid of the dark. Not when she was a kid. Not when she was a teenager. Not even when she’d started her job at the Alamo and learned the shadows and silence of the compound at night. Now, twenty-eight years into her life and four years into her job, Susannah was terrified of the black corners of the garden, the dingy gray-yellow of the path.
And that made her angry.
Angry at herself.
Angry at Aaron for stealing her sense of security.
Even angry at God.
She’d spent her life believing she’d weather any storm with her faith intact, her relationship with God certain even in the face of difficulties.
And then Aaron had come along, and everything she’d believed had changed.
The beam of her light jumped across the ground as she moved through the small garden. She trained it on a line of shrubs, following the greenery to the end of the garden wall. Nothing there. No one lurking in the shadows.
Her radio sputtered to life, and she jumped, her heart pounding in her chest.
“Susannah, where are you?” Chad’s gruff voice carried over the radio.
“Just finishing in the garden.”
“Find anything?”
“No. Everything is in order.”
“Everything is clear on my end, too. Marcus and Larry are here, so if you’re done, you can head home. I want the entire team here at six tomorrow morning. We need to figure out how this happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“I’ll be here, but I have a meeting with Hank Zarvy at eight. He wants a briefing on security measures for the opening ceremony.”
“When did he set that up?”
“He called the Texas Rangers to make the request, so I’m not sure.”
“Request? Not much is a request when it comes from Zarvy.”
“Fortunately, I don’t have to deal with him on a regular basis.”
“Want me to come to the meeting with you?”
“That’s not necessary. Levi will be there if I need backup.” Levi. She said the name as if they were good friends