Colorado Bodyguard Read Free

big man with the imposing demeanor of the US Marine he had once been, looked up from a stack of files. “Does she have any information that would help us find her sister?” he asked.
    â€œI don’t know, but I thought we should hear her out.”
    â€œAll right. Who else is here?”
    â€œCarmen and Simon were in the computer room a little while ago. And Marco is around somewhere.”
    â€œThen round them up and ask them to report to the conference room. Maybe one of us will spot something in the sister’s story that will help.”
    Ten minutes later, they all converged on the conference room. Sophie shrank a little as they crowded into the room—a mass of brown uniforms, all male except for Colorado Bureau of Investigations officer Carmen Redhorse. Carmen sat on one side of Sophie. Rand sat across from her; he wanted to be able to see her expressive face as she talked. He often learned more about people from their body language and emotions than their words.
    â€œMs. Montgomery, I’m Captain Graham Ellison. These are officers Simon Woolridge, Carmen Redhorse and Marco Cruz. I understand you have some information to share with us about your sister, Lauren Starling.”
    â€œYes.” She glanced at Rand and he nodded encouragingly. She looked down at her notebook. “I spoke with my sister on May twenty-sixth, and she was very upbeat, excited about a new project she was working on—one she said would prove to the television station that she was too valuable to let go. She’d been to see her doctor recently and she said she was doing really well on her medication. She had been through some hard things recently, but she was looking forward to the future. She wasn’t a woman who was despondent, or who wanted to take her life.”
    â€œWhat kind of medication?” Graham asked.
    Sophie’s face flushed, but she kept her chin up, and met the captain’s direct gaze. “About six months ago, Lauren was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She’d struggled for years, primarily with mania. The stress of the divorce and job pressures made it worse and there had been a couple of...episodes that forced her to take some time off work. But with the proper diagnosis and treatment, she’d been doing much better. And as I said, she was very excited about this project.”
    â€œWhat was the project?” Carmen asked.
    â€œI don’t know. But something to do with work, I think.”
    â€œShe was the prime-time news anchor at Channel Nine in Denver?” Simon, an agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, asked.
    â€œYes. And as I believe you’ve already learned, she had been told her job was in jeopardy.”
    â€œWhy was that?” Graham asked.
    The worried furrow in her forehead deepened. “She wouldn’t say outright, and the station refused to talk to me, but I suspect it was because of her sometimes erratic behavior in the months prior to her diagnosis as bipolar. She missed some work and showed up other times unprepared. But she was doing much better in the weeks before she disappeared. She was happy to know what was going on and was following her doctor’s orders and feeling better.”
    â€œBut that didn’t stop the station from threatening to let her go?” Carmen said.
    â€œRatings had fallen. Lauren told me she was going to do something that would boost ratings.”
    â€œMaybe she came here to hide.” Marco Cruz, with the DEA, spoke so quietly Rand wasn’t sure he’d heard him correctly at first.
    â€œHide?” Sophie asked. “From what?”
    â€œMaybe she faked her disappearance to draw attention to herself and to the station, and then she planned to emerge after a few weeks in the headlines.” Marco shrugged. “People have faked all kinds of things for attention, from gunshot wounds and muggings to their own deaths.”
    â€œLauren isn’t faking