Page 58 of Deadly Storms (Sunrise Lake #3)

“My client has information pertinent to your case,” Raymond Decker informed Rob Howard and Len Jenkins, the two FBI agents working on the murders in Yosemite.

The two men exchanged a long look, and then both sat in the chairs at the table Rainier indicated. Raine was already seated there. Rather than meet at the house, Decker had suggested they meet in the café. He was very clear that Shabina wasn’t to answer any question without his permission.

Rainier sat beside her, his hand firmly circling hers.

Just having him there gave her more confidence.

Shabina was surprised that the revelations about her father had given her more confidence and strength—not less.

Without the heavy guilt weighing her down, guilt that she’d caused her parents such pain.

Guilt that she wasn’t doing as they wanted.

Guilt that she wanted her own life and not theirs.

So much. Realizing that her father had gone to such lengths to be rid of her or force her into compliance had not only lifted the guilt from her shoulders but left her feeling much more confident.

Rainier had asked her what she wanted to do about her father.

He sat across from her in one of the comfortable chairs her friends loved sitting in.

A fire blazed in the fireplace, and her dogs crowded around her.

Rainier had looked at her not only with love but with compassion.

And he’d asked what she wanted to do with the revelations about her father.

Just remembering how he gave her the choice to make the decisions—that he cared how she felt—made her love him more.

She knew what his preference was. He told her without hesitation that if it were up to him, he would kill her father and free Yasemin and Shabina from his tyranny.

He went on to say the decision was ultimately hers.

Although the subject had been serious, Shabina had wanted to laugh at Rainier’s simplicity of solving the problem. “You can’t use killing as a solution every time someone is a bully or mean.”

He’d raised an eyebrow. “Actually, Qadri , I can. Enemies tend to disappear when I’m around. It is that simple.”

“You’re going to have to turn over a new leaf. Once we have children, what is that going to teach them?”

“Survival.”

She did laugh then. “Fortunately, I think good came out of the newest revelations about my father. I don’t feel guilt anymore.

I’m happy to never talk to him again. I don’t want him in my life.

I feel sad that by cutting him out of my life, I won’t be able to see my mother, but I know there is a price to be paid when you do something so drastic. ”

“You could have your mother if you let me do what needs to be done.”

Shabina had shaken her head while she stroked her fingers through Malik’s fur.

“No, my mother loves my father. She isn’t like me.

She’s very fragile. She needs him. I’m good with my decision to cut him out of my life.

I do feel it is necessary to give the information about the items from Saudi Arabia to the FBI.

They can decide if they want to question Jack or just leave it be.

I’m sure if they try to question him, he’ll threaten their careers. ”

“That isn’t your problem.”

“No, it’s not. Raine wants Decker—he’s a lawyer for the CIA—to arrange the meeting. I’d like you to be there for moral support, but I’ll understand if you prefer not to go.”

“My preference is always to be with you.”

Now they sat side by side at the table facing the agents. Her dogs lay in their beds in the room off the kitchen where they stayed when she was working. Outside the café, she was certain Larado and Dimitri were close.

Decker nodded at her, indicating she should give the agents the information they needed.

“It’s recently come to my attention how the items from Saudi Arabia ended up on the altars of the murder victims. At least, what most likely led up to the murderer using them.”

Howard and Jenkins had placed recorders on the table with her permission. Now they exchanged an alert look. Jenkins indicated for her to continue.

“As you are aware, I was kidnapped at the age of fifteen and spent a year and a half in captivity, held for ransom. The last six months I was held by a man known as Scorpion and his men. Those months were horrific. I suffer from PTSD, and a couple of times I’ve nearly landed in the hospital.”

Rainier’s fingers tightened around hers, and he brought her palm to his chest, over his heart. “When I’m with her, we can combat the episodes together, but if I’m away on business, she has a much more difficult time.”

“I don’t know if you’ve had dealings with my father before, but if you haven’t, he’s a man who wants his way in all things, and he goes to any length to get it.”

Decker held up his hand and leaned in close. “Be careful what you say here. Clarify exactly what you mean.”

Shabina nodded. She was being truthful about her father, but she could understand the lawyer’s worry that if Jack was played the recording, he might sue her for defamation of character.

That would be like him. It would never occur to him that she would speak the truth in a court of law and deliver evidence against him, not only for hiring the two university students but his attempt at contacting a known assassin to murder her.

“I would describe my father as ruthless if he wants something. Determined. He wanted me to come home. He claims he wanted me home for my own good, but the reality is my mother is upset and worried for my safety. Jack insisted I give up the café and living here in Knightly and return to Houston. When I didn’t, he decided to act to force me to comply. ”

Raine placed two photographs on the table in front of the FBI agents.

“Jack hired these two university students to do whatever was necessary to bring on a PTSD episode. He believed he could bring me home, hospitalize me and get power of attorney so I had no say in my life. That way he could keep me home.”

Shabina thought she would feel an enormous amount of guilt relaying to the FBI what her father had done, but she felt nothing. She truly had cut off her emotions toward him.

“The students have been officially identified as Emil Salhi and Jamal Talbi, both from Algeria,” Raine said.

“I will turn over the correspondence and proof that Jack Foster hired them. Both men confessed to Shabina in my presence. Stella Harrison-Rossi, Harlow Frye, Zahra Metcalf and Vienna Mortenson were also present.”

“State your name for the record, please,” Len Jenkins said.

“I’m Raine O’Mallory.”

“Jack sent several items from Saudi Arabia to Salhi and Talbi. Specifically, flowers, two live birds and a number of other items,” Shabina continued.

Decker broke in. “We’ve prepared a list of the items.”

“The men sacrificed the birds to get feathers to leave at my workplace and home. They had taken a box with some of the items on a secluded trail where I go to film the nest of a mated pair of California condors. That trail is closed to all park visitors, but Jack told them it would be a good place to put some of these items. According to the two men, they heard voices coming toward them, and, thinking it was me bringing someone with me, they hastily shoved the box of items in the brush and took off. When they went back, they couldn’t find the box.

They thought they just didn’t remember where they’d put it until the items showed up on an altar at a murder scene. ”

Shabina fell silent. The agents didn’t have to believe a word she said, but she didn’t see how they could spin it and make her a suspect again. In any case, she felt protected with Decker, Raine and Rainier right there.

“As you can imagine, I am very upset that these men took part in a scheme to essentially push my wife into a PTSD episode,” Rainier said. “They are here on student visas. I asked my boss to pull some strings and have their visas revoked. There is plenty of reason to do so.”

“Are you telling us these men may be leaving the country soon?” Rob Howard asked.

“I’ve attempted to explain to my husband that these men come from a different culture.

It is ingrained in them that women obey their fathers, brothers, and husbands.

I wasn’t doing as my father requested, so in their eyes, I am a disrespectful daughter.

My father, according to the way those men were raised, had every right to do whatever it took to get his errant daughter to comply with his demands.

Jack, however, was not raised in that culture, and he knows better. ”

Len Jenkins regarded her with shrewd eyes.

At another time in her life, he might have intimidated her with his direct stare, but she was married to Rainier Ashcroft.

No one could give a more penetrating, unsettling look than Rainier.

His stare was laser sharp and seemed to lay bare one’s deepest secrets.

“You don’t want these men to be deported,” Jenkins guessed.

Shabina shrugged. “Being deported could very well bring disgrace to their families. They need the education to help their tribe. I didn’t give you the information to exact revenge. I believe you need it to help solve the murders. Whoever is committing these crimes must be stopped.”

Jenkins looked over the list of items carefully and then handed it to his partner. “That kid at the hot springs doesn’t fit with the others. The ME doesn’t believe it’s a copycat. I don’t either, but he doesn’t fit.”

“Yeah, it put the entire murder spree out of focus,” Howard added.

“Age isn’t the same with any of the victims,” Raine said. “They don’t look alike. They aren’t in the same profession. A couple of them had girlfriends. They came from various backgrounds.” There was speculation in her voice.