Shirlee McCoy - Out of Time

“Susie? You out here?” A man called out, and Susannah turned back the way they’d come, eager, it seemed, to end the conversation.

“Near the gardens, Chad.”

Seconds later, a tall, lean man in his fifties strode into view. He met Levi’s eyes, offered a brief handshake. “Chad Morran. I’m chief of security here.”

“Ranger Levi McDonall.”

“Not a good night to be at the Alamo, I’m afraid. We usually don’t have this kind of trouble.”

“Better to have it now than on the day of the ceremony.”

“True. You’ve already checked the area?” Chad ran a hand down his jaw, his gaze jumping to Susannah.

“Not the entire compound, but we’re working toward it. So far, everything is clear.”

“Good. How about we split up? We’ll finish more quickly that way. Ranger McDonall, you want to head east? Susannah, you check the gardens. I’ll check the west gates. When Marcus and Larry get here, they can join in the fun.”

“I’m not sure I’d call this fun,” Susannah muttered under her breath, but Levi heard. She clutched a flashlight, her knuckles white as she started toward the gardens. She had a confident, brisk stride and easy movements, but he sensed her fear, wondered if it followed her the way his guilt followed him. Clinging, clutching, refusing to be ignored. If so, it was a heavy burden to bear.

He thought about going after her, asking her more about what she’d been through, what she was still going through, but he’d come to the Alamo to do a job. He couldn’t afford to be distracted.

But you already have been.

The thought followed him as he turned on his flashlight and walked across the compound.

Susannah had never been afraid of the dark. Not when she was a kid. Not when she was a teenager. Not even when she’d started her job at the Alamo and learned the shadows and silence of the compound at night. Now, twenty-eight years into her life and four years into her job, Susannah was terrified of the black corners of the garden, the dingy gray-yellow of the path.

And that made her angry.

Angry at herself.

Angry at Aaron for stealing her sense of security.

Even angry at God.

She’d spent her life believing she’d weather any storm with her faith intact, her relationship with God certain even in the face of difficulties.

And then Aaron had come along, and everything she’d believed had changed.

The beam of her light jumped across the ground as she moved through the small garden. She trained it on a line of shrubs, following the greenery to the end of the garden wall. Nothing there. No one lurking in the shadows.

Her radio sputtered to life, and she jumped, her heart pounding in her chest.

“Susannah, where are you?” Chad’s gruff voice carried over the radio.

“Just finishing in the garden.”

“Find anything?”

“No. Everything is in order.”

“Everything is clear on my end, too. Marcus and Larry are here, so if you’re done, you can head home. I want the entire team here at six tomorrow morning. We need to figure out how this happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“I’ll be here, but I have a meeting with Hank Zarvy at eight. He wants a briefing on security measures for the opening ceremony.”

“When did he set that up?”

“He called the Texas Rangers to make the request, so I’m not sure.”

“Request? Not much is a request when it comes from Zarvy.”

“Fortunately, I don’t have to deal with him on a regular basis.”

“Want me to come to the meeting with you?”

“That’s not necessary. Levi will be there if I need backup.” Levi. She said the name as if they were good friends rather than business associates. If Chad noticed he didn’t comment.

“All right. You’ll let me know how it goes, right?”

“Of course.”

“Good. Now, go on home. You’ve been here long enough.”

“I don’t mind staying.”

“I know you don’t, but it’s not necessary.”

“All right. I’ll check in with Ranger McDonall, and then I’ll be on my way. See you tomorrow.” She shoved the radio back into its place on her belt. She wanted to go home. She did. What she didn’t want to do was walk out of the compound, navigate the half mile to the parking lot where she’d left her Mustang. San Antonio was safe enough, and the parking lot where she’d left her car was well lit, but she felt like a walking bull’s-eye at night, a victim waiting to be preyed upon.

She frowned, hurrying into the chapel and grabbing her purse from a locked file cabinet in the office.

A victim?

No. She was a survivor, and she wouldn’t let what she’d lived through change that. She would walk out of the Alamo, she would walk to her car, and she’d do it with ease. Just as she had before Aaron entered her life.

She shoved the folder with the security details back in her desk and opened the office door, ready to find Levi, say good-night and be on her way. Chad was right. She’d been there plenty long enough, and the thick silence and hushed stillness of the place was eating at her, making her imagine things that weren’t there.

She stepped out of the office and straight into a warm, hard chest.

“Seems like we keep running into each other.” Levi cupped her arms, the heat of his palms seeping through her jacket and racing along her nerves.

Her cheeks heated, but she didn’t jump back, didn’t try to move away. That would say too much about her state of mind, too much about how hard she had to try to keep from falling apart. “I was just coming to look for you.”

“Yeah?” He slid his hands down her arms, his fingers lingering on her elbows for a moment before he let go and stepped back. Looked down into her face.

“Chad is sending me home. I wanted to say good-night and finalize our plans for tomorrow. Did you find anything out there?”

“Not even a jackrabbit jumping through the bushes.”

“I guess finding a guy sitting on a bench holding a stolen key would have made things too easy.”

“I wouldn’t mind a little bit of easy right about now.”

“It’s been a hard couple of months for the Texas Rangers,” she said, more to keep the conversation away from her past and her problems than anything else.

“That’s putting it lightly.”

“I really am sorry about what happened to Captain Pike. I know your entire team must be desperate to find his killer.”

“Desperate is also putting it lightly.” He offered a brief smile as he opened the chapel door and ushered her out of the compound. The air was crisp and cold, the night alive with the sounds of San Antonio. Cars. People. Life going on as it always did on Friday night. She needed to go on, too. She knew it. Knew she needed to move away from the past, move into the future, but she felt cemented to that night, cemented to Aaron’s grasping hands and fetid breath.

Cemented to fear, unease, panic.

“You have a witness, right?” She’d heard that on the news recently, had been following the story with interest just like most people in San Antonio. Violent crime wasn’t common there, and a Texas Ranger being murdered in his home had left the community uneasy.

“He’s been in the hospital since the night of the attack. He’s still too weak to talk, but we’re hopeful he’ll be able to identify a suspect soon.”

“So, in all these months, you’ve gotten nothing out of him?”

“I wouldn’t say that. He’s been gesturing to a picture of the Alamo that’s on the wall of his hospital room. We believe he’s trying to warn us about a planned attack on the compound. The timing makes sense. The Alamo Planning Committee commissioned several high-ranking politicians to speak, and it would be the perfect time for the Lions of Texas to make a move.”