"Who's this?" a sleepy voice answered, but Annie could hear the smile.

"Someone who misses talking to you," Annie said with a soft laugh, twisting the stem of the glass around on the table.

"No one I know. What're you up to?"

"Around five-foot-eight." Annie shut her eyes, seeing wavy black hair and beautiful black lashes over brown eyes.

"Sorry about dropping the phone. Are you ready for tomorrow night?"

"I've done two days, twelve hours straight, shooting promos, fighting over the speech, clothing, and a zillion other things that won't amount to anything after our few minutes on live television. I'm ready for it to be over with, but I get to play tomorrow. I'm going to have lunch with my producer's wife and then spend some quality time at a 125 a the art galleries. Ah, heaven." Annie pulled the blanket up around her again. "What are you doing?"

"I fell asleep over one of your books on Islam. Pretty exciting stuff, right? How's your arm?"

"Fine, but thanks for asking. I've been faithful to my exercises in the hotel gym, but it's a pain. Just for the record, Josh Palmer lost me for the whole afternoon yesterday, and I sent security after him." Annie laid her head on her arms.

"Annie, other than that happening, anything I should know about?

He's just at the beginning of his career. Is there someone else working with him?"

Annie heard the change of tone in Sarah's voice and was quiet for a moment. "No, all quiet on the eastern front. Two older men have been with him, except for yesterday. Sarah, he's just untried. I'm sorry.

I shouldn't complain."

"Yes, you should. I'll be at a friend's house tomorrow night to watch you on television."

Annie's head came up and she sat straighter. A friend? "You have a friend? Oh wait, Sarah, I mean I'm glad you'll be at a friend's house tomorrow night." She gave a little laugh. "God, did I really say that?"

Sarah laughed with her. "When you get back, we'll get together.

I've known these two women over ten years. One of them was my instructor when I was in training. It's the ranch where I board my horses.

Her partner has a business in Milwaukee that does work for Charlene's Angels. She knows your mom and your sister Molly."

"Really, Mom and Molly? Who is she?"

"Nina Webster, owns her own computer business."

"I've actually seen her. Tell her to remember the ad that Molly did for her, about the bears. I did the artwork. She'll remember, Sarah, and I'm sure we met when she came in to review the ad. Attractive lady."

"What time do I pick you up Saturday? And we have the party at Majer's that night."

"Around noon, Saturday," Annie said, wishing it was Saturday already. "You'll still be at my house that night, right?"

"Absolutely, and you know what you forgot? Do I get to see the painting?" Sarah joked just before they hung up, making them laugh.

Annie finished the wine and checked out the moon one last time before she pulled the drapes and got into bed. She lay there, thinking a 126 a about her painting. At first, she had considered doing the face in a half shadow, giving it a little intrigue. On second thought, she wanted the face fully into the viewer's eyes. Those eyes and that mouth. She smiled. Yeah. That face should be seen completely.

v Sarah watched Annie's show with Nina and Sherry.

"Did you find that crow statue?" Sarah asked Sherry.

Sherry chuckled. "Yes, it's in the kitchen in the box on the counter.

Don't forget it tonight."

"It's for Annie. What are the chances we'd both like crows?"

Sherry groaned. "Crows, God."

They quieted as the show started. Sarah's throat was tight as she watched. This would be a perfect moment for something to happen, people coming and going. You wouldn't want obvious crowd control on television. It was bad for public relations. She wondered who was with Annie tonight, who would take her home and stand watch at the hotel. Her mind fretted as she watched images float across the screen including the promos for Annie.

The network had won five awards, three connected to Annie's story. When it was time for Annie's award, she looked every inch the professional she was, but also the woman Sarah knew. She wore a revealing pale yellow dress with transparent yellow sleeves flared at the wrist. Sarah would have bet the sleeves were to hide her arm.

"Beautiful dress, but, oh baby, fashion today certainly doesn't hide much." Sherry chuckled.

"Look how bright she is," Nina said.

Annie's speech was short, beginning with thanks and recognition of fellow correspondents that had been murdered while they were in Iraq. More than any other conflict in modern times. She also talked a bit about the desperate conditions in Iraq, the deteriorating situation, and loss of control. She ended with a few obviously heartfelt words about Jack Keegan. Before Sarah knew it, Annie was walking back toward her group with the statue in her hand, handing it to them, laughing.

Sherry was right. That dress didn't hide much. Sarah wondered if the FBI was even there. Her stomach clenched.

"Your mouth is open, Moore," Sherry commented dryly.

a 127 a "I'm trying not to drool." Sarah laughed with her friends. "Have you ever seen her artwork? Stop into the women's clinic and look at it. And she's an award-winning author, but did I mention-" She looked at Sherry and Nina grinning at her. Damn. "Okay, enough. I'm babbling."

"She gave a nice speech," Nina said. "Drew very little attention to herself."

"Want to help me put the barn away for the night?" Sherry raised her eyebrows at Sarah.

Sarah nodded and stretched. Work would get rid of the energy she'd been accumulating. She hugged Nina, thanked her for the evening, and looked for the box with the carving of the crow.

Later, finishing the barn, they sat on the tack box talking.

"Well, when do we get to meet her?" Sherry asked.

"We have a party to attend tomorrow night, and the minute it's over I'm taking her away from here. Going up to Rosy's in Green Bay.

Could you get away and join us up there?"

"Maybe. I'll ask Nina, but her schedule's pretty full. Still, it would be fun. I love that wild poker they play, and both of us really enjoyed that weekend."

Sarah nodded. "You've seen me be a lot of things, Sherry, but never this. Just for openers, I've never even considered stepping over the line with a client. I just can't settle down."

"You never break rules." She shook her head. "You know this may not be possible. She looks as if she's just hitting her stride, and it appears she's going to be recognized for what she does. The rest of her talents may just be what rounds out the person."

"She seems to be watching me, interested, and I'm certainly watching her. Something's happening between us."

"You're at the beginning. Stay in touch with me as this goes along, but right now, just enjoy. I assume she'll go back to Iraq when she's recovered and the case is resolved. By the way, what's the level of danger?"

Sarah shook her head. "A lot more than she'd like to believe, but when you've been where she's been, I understand her attitude. She showed me some pretty raw photos from Afghanistan the other day, and tonight she mentioned the people who were killed who worked with her. I've never been involved with a client who has come out of such a a 128 a perilous situation into this kind of threat. That man, Jack Keegan from her network, shot right next to her, and then the bomb. She just shakes her head at me when I talk about it. She's so used to living around fear that she's not your average citizen, but she definitely doesn't like it in her home. Who would? And you're right, Sherry, she probably will go back to Iraq. Although, God, did you hear what she said about journalists becoming targets?"

Sarah stopped talking and watched her breath in the cold night air.

That's exactly what she felt Don was doing, dangling Annie out there, like a target.

"In her home?" Sherry asked.

"There was someone in her home who knows how to get by her very sophisticated alarm system and trash our first computer. I spent this week running down leads from our domestic terrorism group in Virginia and came up blank. Truthfully, we're pretty much spitting in the wind right now. Well, we have one lead." Sarah thought for a moment. "Something else. She's restless and feels kind of isolated to me. There's a sort of fight-or-flight kind of thing around her. You've worked with veterans. Wouldn't this be similar?"

Sherry nodded. "Is she seeing a therapist?"

"I think she has, the first week she was home. In the beginning, before the break-in, she certainly didn't want the FBI around her either.

I'm not sure she does now." She told Sherry about the day Annie had manipulated Scott to take her around the city and the party in her basement.

Sherry chuckled. "Nina would have done something like that.

You've always had good instincts, Moore. That's one of the reasons that I recommended you for profiling. But throw personal feelings into the mix, and it's a mess. Remember, this is how I met Nina. She was my client, and I'll never regret it, although I almost lost my job over it."

"Don and I argued-really fought-over getting her out of here.

He doesn't want to tip our hand. I'm about ready to jump out of my skin."

"Don Ahrens? Haven't thought about him for a while." She tossed some tack onto the shelf and sat down next to Sarah. "You'll do what you have to. After it's all said and done, it really doesn't matter."

Sarah stood. "She matters. A lot."

a 129 a a 130 a

ChAPTER FOuRTEEN.

The next morning, Don and Sarah drove around the Majer home before Annie's plane came in. The home, north of the university campus, sat back from the road and was surrounded by trees.

They took photos of the grounds surrounding the house to go with the maps and structural blueprints they had posted in Don's office.

"How can he afford this on a professor's salary?"

"I was just thinking the same thing," Sarah said as they made one last pass at the property. "I know you've had his bank records pulled."

"Sam has the information, and when we meet tonight, you'll get a look at all of it. You're on your way to the airport?"

Sarah nodded, feeling a little rattle of excitement. "A lot of this feels wrong about Majer, doesn't it? Or maybe it's family money.

Something he brought into the United States."

Don shook his head. "Not according to the records we have. By the way, those photos from Ms. Booker are creating quite a stir. Everyone believes that one of the men in the photos is the anti-American cleric Amer al-Sadr and two of his pals. They still haven't identified the man you both saw that night, but they're working on it. The thing with Amer is powerful and I wonder how Jack Keegan got those photos. Sarah, it may have been what got him killed."

"That man we saw might be connected to Amer? Christ, Don.

What does Homeland Security say?"

"They haven't told us one damned thing. As usual. Where are you taking Ms. Booker after tonight?"

"Up to Green Bay, to Rosy's house." She looked at him, not hiding a 131 a her unhappiness with the situation. "I feel like we've put her out there like a target, and you know it."

"Maybe. But I couldn't see any other way to do this. This is two- plus year's work, and I know we're going to nail them tonight."

"That doesn't make it right."

"That's why I had you document my position on your reports."

"Great. I get to be right if something happens. That's not much consolation, Don. I'll be glad when tonight's over. My instincts are screaming."

Don sighed and turned the car toward downtown Milwaukee.

"There's something going on, and it's not the Web site. I think it's the photos and they're using the Web site like a big neon light, broadcasting her name out there. They'll blame Jaish al-Basca for whatever they want to do."

Sarah was quiet, thinking of the three-to-four-month gap in Annie's life that she'd been working on. "There is something else, Don, three years ago. She didn't say any more other than there was some serious trouble. I checked it out. Even talked with the network, but all they would say was that she was aoff assignment,' and I mean that's all.

Apparently, it's personal, but I'll ask her again tonight."

"No, Sarah, don't ask . Get the information."

"I got the search as far as her going into Saudi Arabia but couldn't find any documentation of her leaving the country. Then I caught up with her entering and leaving Switzerland about a month later, but I can't find out where she was while she was there." Annie was not deliberately hiding information. She just hadn't realized how important it might be.

The airport was as crowded as the day Sarah had put Annie on the airplane. Sarah looked down the concourse as she held her badge at security once again. Walking down to Annie's gate, she saw TV cameras and news reporters. How did they get back here, to this part of the airport, she wondered, looking around. You couldn't do this without some kind of security clearance, and her adrenaline shot up.

People were already coming off the plane, and when Annie came through Sarah started toward her, but cameras and news people made a wall around Annie. Damn, I should have had one of the team here with me, she thought. Feeling more frustrated with each passing minute, a 132 a Sarah swept the crowd with her gaze and then saw a familiar face, a tall woman with dark hair. She tried to move for a better look, but the woman disappeared into the crowd and Sarah lost her. Pondering the face, she looked at Annie again. Annie moved off to the side so other people could get by. She was answering questions, laughing, and obviously, she knew most of these people. Her gaze connected with Sarah's, and she had a heartbeat's silence. Then Annie looked away, answering another question. Twenty minutes later, the crowd broke up and Annie moved to Sarah.

"Sorry, I wasn't expecting that."

Sarah took her backpack. "It's hell to be famous, right?"

Annie stopped and gave Sarah an even stare. "Don't say that to me. It's not true."

"Many more awards like that, with national TV coverage, and it's going to be, whether you like it or not."

"Just the locals, wanting their moment. I've known many of them for a long time, worked with some of them. It's just a professional courtesy." Annie leaned over for her other bag. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

Sarah frowned. The slip in security could have turned into an ugly scene. She paid the security office a visit on the way out of the airport.