people in this neighborhood. Most have more than we do, and what I have is mostly well hidden. We live fairly low-key. Why wouldn’t someone go after Larry down the street? He makes several million a year, and flaunts it. No, this is something else.”
“Enemies?” Laney asked.
“Only the ones that I might have made working with you guys, and none of them are supposed to know what happened. Besides, I haven’t been involved in anything in months. Why now?”
“Maybe it took some time to set up,” Carlson suggested. “Maybe there is a leak here at the Agency, and someone learned belatedly about you, and is planning to take revenge or try and force you to do something for them. We’ve always worried that last adventure might have revealed you to some people. Maybe I need to have a check made of everyone involved.”
“That might be a good idea,” Jake agreed. “They can’t understand what I can do very well. If they did, they’d realize I can effectively get back and act at a time before they can do anything.”
“Perhaps that’s why whoever hired those two thugs is being so careful,” Laney suggested. “Maybe you should take a vacation?”
“That would only delay the inevitable,” Jake pointed out. “If someone is targeting me, they’ll wait until I have to return. I’ll have to hope whatever they do, I can counteract.”
When the call was finished, Jake wandered back out of his study where Karin was trying to get Janna to eat her breakfast. The little girl was happily distributing the food in all directions except toward her mouth. Karin was liberally coated with kiddie breakfast as well.
“What did they say?” she asked.
“The men don’t know anything useful,” Jake explained. “They were simply hired help. If all had gone as planned, you and Janna would have been handed over to someone else. As it is, there are no leads. They’ll keep trying, but don’t hope for much.”
“That means whoever is behind this might try again,” Karin said, grasping the essence of the situation.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Jake admitted. He walked over and put his arms around his wife. “We’ll have to stay alert until something provides a clue so this can be brought to closure.”
“You’re going to have to back-track, aren’t you?”
“Probably, but there’s nowhere to go at the moment. We’ll just have to wait and see. The only lead that we have would require going back a full month, and then it’s a long shot. I don’t want to do that except as a last resort.”
Karin was about to say something, when the phone rang again. She handed Jake the spoon. “See if you can get her to eat anything,” she said and walked over to answer the phone.
Jake tried playing airplane. Often Janna thought that immensely fun and would cooperate. Obviously that wasn’t going to work this morning. Two attempts at getting something in her mouth failed.
“Jake,” Karin said shakily.
Something in her voice caught his attention immediately. He looked over at his wife, and saw that she was visibly pale.
“You better take this,” she said, holding the phone toward him, her hands shaking.
His first thought was that it somehow related to the kidnapping, but as he took the phone, Karin said softly, “It’s Cheryl. Zack is in intensive care.”
Stunned, Jake accepted the phone. “Cheryl,” he said softly into the receiver.
He listened for a long while, adding only a few grunts and “I sees” to the conversation.
Karin could see the concern in Jake’s eyes as she dealt with Janna. Finally Jake spoke. His voice was soft, and she could tell he was shaken but trying to be reassuring.
“We can fix this,” he said into the phone. “Once I’m finished, it will never have happened. Remember your mom.”
He listened again, then said softly. “I’ll see you soon.” Then he hung up the receiver.
“What happened?” Karin asked, her eyes dark with worry.
“Zack’s car went off the road early this morning. He was headed up into the mountains. It’s been snowing there quite a bit, and the back road that leads into the east side of the Tetons, is steep and twisty. It was a long drop and he wasn’t discovered for some time because of the limited traffic and poor visibility. They don’t expect him to make it.”
“Is it related to what happened here?” Karin asked.
Jake looked at her in surprise. There was no reason it should be, but he’d been having the same thought. Coincidences happened, but he had never trusted them. First his family and