Homefront Defenders. Lisa Phillips

killer? It hardly made sense.

      “I called Joe Morton,” Alana said. “Get this. He knows this guy, said all the cops do. Apparently he disappears all the time, shows up all over the island drunk and usually raving about political pawns and corruption. All that antigovernment, ‘we should live free and not under their thumb’ stuff. Joe said they usually take him in for the night and then drive him home the next day.” She paused. “I told him you’re sure that he’s the getaway driver. He’s going to update the BOLO to include that information. He said not to worry, they’ll find Brian Wells.”

      Locke motioned to the room around them. “Brian is a drunk, but he’s never broken protocol before. Not when he knows the president is coming. He’s supposed to be here for this visit, and he’s supposed to stay home while the president is in town. That’s the arrangement.” He shook his head. “Can’t put a detail on a man we can’t find.”

      “I know.” Alana’s look turned dark. “And what’s with that half-eaten meal and the TV being on? Did he come back after this morning? The truck is gone, but why walk out in the middle of dinner?”

      “We don’t have time to look for Brian before the president gets here.” Locke motioned to the food, his agent brain spinning with possibilities. “All this could be misdirection, getting us to spin our wheels trying to find him while he’s off getting up to no good. He could be plotting something for when the president shows up.”

      She pressed her lips together.

      Locke ran his hand over his head and then squeezed the back of his neck. “We need to reconvene with the team, see if anyone else has had any weird experiences this morning. Something fishy is going on here.”

      Locke continued, “The only problem is, they don’t seem to be connected. There’s nothing here that links back to Beatrice’s death. He could simply have given the yakuza guy a ride this morning. That could be his only link to this.”

      * * *

      Alana turned her phone over and looked at the screen, but it hadn’t made a noise. Her sister hadn’t returned her call. She clipped her phone back on her belt and went to the couch, where a newspaper had been discarded. “This is dated four days ago. I wonder if he reads it regularly.” She glanced around. “I think it would smell more if this meal had been here that long, or there would be animals in here by now.”

      She worked her mouth side to side as she thought, then flipped the newspaper over. “This has been circled.” She brought the paper to him. “It’s an ad, a flyer in his paper. There’s nothing on the back, but it must have caught his eye. I don’t think I even look at these inserts.”

      “I thought all that stuff was online now,” Locke said. “But I guess he doesn’t have internet all the way out here, and there’s nothing about a cell phone in his file.” His eyes scanned the ad. “Cash for work at a gun shop.”

      “Hang on.” Alana tapped the page, the phone number. “That callback number...” She swiped on her phone to a list of numbers. She’d seen that number before. Today, in fact. “Beatrice’s cell phone call logs. That number is on there. She called it, as well.”

      Alana showed him the notes app on her phone, where she’d transcribed the same number on both the ad and her list. “How’s that for a connection.”

      Locke nodded. “It certainly is one.”

      “He circled this ad, and Beatrice called that number.” She read off the date and time. “Day before yesterday.”

      Another way Beatrice, Brian Wells and the yakuza member were connected. But her sister as well? She couldn’t figure it out.

      Locke said, “We don’t have time to run down this lead before the president gets here. We already need to get to the team at Hilo airport.”

      “Get ready to bring the city to a standstill.” She sent him a wry smile. “I used to hate when the president came to town. All the roads closed, can’t get anywhere, late for everything. Such a pain.”

      Locke smiled back at her, his look understanding more than amused. “And now we’re the ones causing the mayhem.”

      “At least I’m not trying to get somewhere else, I guess.” She shrugged. “So what do we do about this?”

      Locke made his way to the front door. They stepped outside, and he scanned the area while Alana shut the trailer door. “Huh.”

      He turned back. “What is it?”

      “This lock is broken. Maybe someone came in and abducted him. Took some guns,” she said. “It explains the food he left. And the clothes. Maybe it was after you saw him this morning. He could have returned home, and then it happened?”

      Locke shrugged. “Or he had a visitor other than us.” His phone beeped. He read the message aloud. “‘Air Force One is four hours out.’ Let’s get over to Hilo.”

      She nodded, and they walked to the truck. Alana’s phone started to ring, and she whipped it out. Then sighed.

      “Not your sister?”

      “Nope.” She shook her head. “My neighbor in DC. I’ll call her back later.”

      When she was quiet for a while, he apparently decided he needed to get her to talk. Locke said, “So you surfed in competitions, isn’t that right?”

      She nodded.

      “What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?” She was sure he knew the story but he must have wanted to hear her tell it.

      “Maybe I do mind.” In the couple of seconds he took his eyes off the road in front of him, he probably saw the flash of pain in her eyes. She wasn’t going to hide it. “What are you doing, Locke? Why the personal question all of a sudden?”

      He shrugged one shoulder and flicked his wrist so his watch was straight again. “Just making conversation, getting to know someone I work with better.”

      “I was so good I was getting approached by swimwear companies, board shops that franchise all the way to New Jersey. Then, bam, I get hit by a swell and my knee kisses the bottom of the ocean while my leg is twisted...” She shook her head. “There was something down there. I still don’t know if it was an old board or wreckage from something. All I know is the pain was so bad I wanted them to cut my leg off. I’m pretty sure I screamed at everyone on that beach and cried uncontrollably until they all walked away in embarrassment, even my sister. I was so out of it with pain I don’t remember.

      “She made sure I knew, though. Told me all about how I screamed in her face to get away from me. I was in the hospital nearly a week, and she didn’t come to see me. Then when I got out, she was gone for days, busy studying. When I did see her, she’d barely talk to me.” Alana took a breath. “We were never the same after that.”

      * * *

      Locke hardly knew what to say. “She didn’t know it was the pain talking, not you?”

      Alana shrugged.

      “And now you’re back home?”

      “Now I’m back.”

      Neither of them said much on the drive to the airport, though Locke made a few calls on the car’s speakerphone. Alana made notes on her phone for him and sent emails to update their team.

      In a break of quiet, her phone rang. “Your neighbor?”

      “Nope.”

      “Your sister?”

      “Nope.” She answered it. “Mikio Adachi. How are you?” Alana sent Locke a smile as she spoke. They were a good team.

      Secret Service work was a team effort, and not just those standing between the president and whatever lone gunman wanted to kill him this week. Their biggest nightmare was a threat that originated with a group. Multiple points of attack, an IED or some other split-second