Free 4 The Marathon Murders by CHESTER D CAMPBELL

Why do you
suppose he was tailing Miz Kane? I have to tell you,
Greg, your friends are holding back something. Kane has been awfully evasive. I
haven’t been able to get much out of her at all.”
    I debated for a moment what to say.
He could check into her background and hit a dead end, which I was sure he
would. But that would only make him bore in harder on both Kelli and Colonel
Jarvis.
    “Can I tell you something in the
utmost confidence, Phil? It mustn’t go any farther than right here.”
    He clenched his teeth and twisted
his mouth to one side. “You don’t mind putting a guy on the spot, do you? You old military types and your secrets. Oh, well. If it’ll
help me understand what’s going on here, let’s have it.”
    “I have your word?”
    “You have it.”
    “First, let me put in a plug for
Warren Jarvis. He’s a topnotch guy, Air Force Academy graduate, son of a
Baptist preacher from Indianapolis. You already know he was the air attaché in
Tel Aviv who provided lifesaving assistance when I sorely needed help locating
Jill in Israel.”
    “He reminded me of that.”
    “Jarvis met Kelli several years ago
when he was working on the project developing the F/A-22 Raptor, the Air
Force’s new state-of-the-art fighter plane. She suddenly left the project,
vanished like an airplane disappearing into a cloud. When he tried to find
where she’d gone, no one would tell him anything. The Pentagon even denied her
existence. Seems she was working undercover for some agency he couldn’t
discover. Well, she’s still working for them and recently got back from an
overseas assignment. When she flew to Nashville to check on her grandfather,
Jarvis was on the same plane, headed for Arnold Air Force Base.”
    “First time he’d seen her in
years?”
    “Right. He
recognized her immediately. He approached her when they landed in Nashville.
She denied who she was at first. But after Jarvis told her he’d been looking
for her all that time, even got into the intelligence business to better his
chances of finding her, she broke down and admitted he had it right.”
    “Sounds like a fairy tale romance.”
    I caught the hint of a grin. “Call
it whatever you wish.”
    Adamson sat back in his chair,
hands on his hips. “Okay, she’s some kind of federal spook. As far as I can
determine, she’s not in any way responsible for Sharkey’s death. So what’s the
problem?”
    “The problem is if the media gets
Kelli’s name and plasters her picture all over the newspapers and on TV, it’ll
probably blow her cover and could put her at risk. She may be involved in some
anti-terrorism operation, Phil. I don’t think we should do anything that might
put her in danger.”
    I wasn’t sure if the patriotic
pitch would help, but it was worth a try.
    “You know I’ll have to put her name
in the report,” he said.
    “Just say as little as you have to
about her.”
    “I’ll see what I can do. But I
still want to know the reason Sharkey tailed her and came nosing around here. Your friends claim they have no idea. I’m not so sure of
that. You got any take on it?”
    Now he had me in a quandary. “I’m
not at all sure, but it could have something to do with a case I’m currently
working.”
    “And that would be?”
    “Sorry, Phil. The client insists on absolute confidentiality.”
    “And the client is probably sitting
in there. Hey, partner. What happened to that quid pro quo arrangement we used
to have?”
    I put my hands on the table and
pushed back. “Damn. This is embarrassing, Phil. It could be something entirely
different, you know. Maybe somebody has an agenda involving Arthur Liggett.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to nail something down tomorrow on my case. If I find
any connection, I’ll let you know.”
    He gave me a chilly look. “If there
isn’t, then we may never know. From what I hear, Sharkey was a loner. He had a
hang-up with writing things down, in case his office got tossed. We’ll do it,
of