Framed For Murder. Mary Alford

managed a smile...for her. In spite of everything, Liz was a good person. She’d shown that to him time and again. He’d walk through fire to protect her, but he just hoped they could stay alive long enough to figure out who was behind the murders and how the attack tonight was connected to the missing guns.

      “What I don’t understand is why are they trying to kill me? They’ve planted enough evidence to make me appear guilty. Wouldn’t killing me only shed suspicion on that theory?”

      He spared her a searching look. “Not if you’re discredited already. And if you’re dead, you can’t defend yourself.” He watched her shiver at the implication.

      “These people are cunning, Liz. If they were able to kill a federal agent and get to Sam in a secure prison, once they realize you’re still alive and not in prison, they’ll be worried you might know something. You’re better off dead to them. Hopefully, they don’t know about the cabin in Alaska or we’re in big trouble.” He shook his head and tried to rally his confidence.

      They’d been so sure Sam was acting alone. Transporting the weapons to the US for his own diabolical purpose, but what if Sam were just the supplier? How did Michael’s death fit into any of this? The note he left Liz seemed to implicate him. The only question was, in what?

      He knew Liz was watching him closely and he didn’t want to show his doubts. “We’ll figure it out,” he said with as much conviction as he could muster and then focused his full attention on the task of flying the plane in high-altitude weather conditions while trying to make sense of the last twenty-four hours. Nothing about the murders added up. He had to be missing something key.

      “I need you to tell me everything you and Michael discussed and what your last minutes were like with him. I know you said he was acting out of character, but did anything unusual happen?” he asked.

      She hesitated and his internal radar went ballistic. Why did she have to think about her answer?

      Stop it—this is Liz.

      “Beyond his wanting to speak with Sam in prison, you mean?” She glanced his way.

      That certainly had been unexpected, as was the outcome of the visit.

      He nodded. “Go on.”

      “After we left the compound, we went straight to his house...” She stopped as if she’d remembered something. “The car. The one that looked the same as the car last night. It was behind us in his neighborhood. Michael kept watching it. I could tell it made him uneasy, but when I asked if he recognized it, he said no.” She turned in her seat to look at him. “Aaron, I’m almost positive it was the same car.”

      Which seemed to indicate Michael’s killer not only knew where he lived but had been keeping tabs on him. Waiting for the moment when he was alone perhaps?

      Something she’d said earlier troubled him. “You mentioned that Michael insisted on talking to Sam, but he never spoke to him. I watched the interview. Michael didn’t say a word...” He remembered what happened right before Liz and Michael left the cell.

      “He hugged Sam.” Aaron glanced her way. “Right before you left, Michael hugged Sam. He whispered something the recorder didn’t pick up. What was it?”

      She shook her head baffled. “Are you sure? I didn’t hear anything.”

      Regret hit him like a brick wall. He didn’t believe her. The video surveillance hadn’t lied and she’d been close enough to hear the exchange.

      “Aaron, it’s true,” she said, seeing his doubt. “I admit I was surprised when he hugged Sam. He’d been so angry with him earlier. I just thought it was Michael’s way of making peace with the situation.”

      He recalled what the previous field commander Kyle Jennings had said. He’d had suspicions that someone from the Scorpion team might have been working for Sam’s organization. Could it have been Michael? If so, then why were both Michael and Sam dead unless there was someone bigger involved? Perhaps, the intended buyer for the guns. Had Sam and possibly Michael double-crossed that person? If so, it had resulted in a deadly outcome.

      With no clear answers in sight, Aaron focused on another direction. “Michael obviously had access to your passkey. He could have seen where you put it. The only question is who did he give it to and why did they kill him?”

      Liz thought about it for a second then shook her head. “I wish I knew...” She hesitated. There was something else she hadn’t told him, he could tell.

      “Aaron, when I got home after we found Sam...” She stopped for a second. “I’m almost positive someone had been inside my cabin. And there’s more.” She hesitated and then said, “I keep my spare weapon in my bedroom closet. It’s missing. Someone took it.”

      Shocked, he stared at her in disbelief. He knew she kept a Glock. Would it turn out to be Michael’s murder weapon? Coupled with what Jase had uncovered about Liz’s past, he was certain she was being set up to take the blame for everything.

      “Liz, after what happened with the missing weapons in Pennsylvania and the accusations made by Sam’s second-in-command about one of our team being dirty, we’ve been digging into the personnel files of everyone. You’re the only one who has a connection with Sam from the past. You went to the same university for crying out loud, and then you end up attending the CIA training facility around the same time? That’s an awfully big coincidence and to anyone else looking on, it appears the two of you have known each other for a while. It speaks of a possible connection to a terrorist.”

      Her face fell. “I told you Sam and I were friends. I was honest about that.”

      She was right. Liz had told him that she and Sam had hung out a lot while Sam’s team was working in the same area as the Scorpions and that they’d become friends. Which was Liz’s nature. She rarely met a person she didn’t befriend.

      “Yes, but you didn’t tell me about attending the same university or that you were at the CIA training facility around the same time.” He paused for a second to take in her startled reaction.

      “That’s because I didn’t know about them. Aaron, I never knew Sam when I was in college and the training facility is big. You know that.”

      “There’s more, Liz.” He told her about the large amount of money that had been transferred into her account.

      There was no way she could fake that much astonishment. In his mind there was no doubt. Liz wouldn’t betray her team or her country in such a way, but proving her innocence against the increasing evidence that said otherwise was going to be a near-impossible task.