White Lies Read Free Page A

hallway, and she locked the door behind her, wondering why she
felt as if she would never be back.
                  * * *
                  She slept on the plane. She hadn't meant to,
but almost as soon as they were airborne and she relaxed in the comfortable
leather seat, her eyelids became too heavy to keep open. She didn't feel Payne
spread a light blanket over her. Payne sat across from her, watching her
broodingly. He wasn't quite comfortable with what he was doing, dragging an
innocent woman into this mess. Not even McCoy knew how much of a mess it was,
how complicated it had become; as far as the other man knew, the situation was
exactly the way he'd outlined it to Jay Granger: a simple matter of
identification. Only a handful of people knew that it was more; maybe only two
others besides himself. Maybe only one other, but that one carried a lot of
power. When he wanted something done, it was done. Payne had known him for
years, but had never managed to be comfortable in his presence.
                  She looked tired and oddly frail. She was too
thin. She was about five-six, but he doubted she weighed much over a hundred
pounds, and something about her made him think such thinness wasn't normal for
her. He wondered if she was strong enough to be used as a shield.
                  She was probably very pretty when she was
rested, and when she had some meat on her bones. Her hair was nice, a kind of
honey brown, as thick and sleek as an otter's coat, and her eyes were dark
blue. But now she just looked tired. It hadn't been an easy day for her.
                  Still, she had asked some questions that had
made him uncomfortable. If she hadn't been so tired and upset she might have
pinned him down on some things he didn't want to discuss, asked questions in
front of McCoy that he didn't want raised. It was essential to the plan that
everything be taken at face value. There could be no doubt at all.
                  * * *
                  The flight from New York to Bethesda was a
short one, but the nap refreshed her, gave her back a sense of balance. The
only thing was, the more alert she felt, the more unreal this entire situation
seemed. She checked her watch as Payne and McCoy escorted her off the private
jet when they landed at Washington National and into a government car waiting
on the tarmac for them, and was startled to see that it was only nine o'clock.
Only a few hours had passed, yet her life had been turned upside down.
                  "Why Bethesda?" she murmured to
Payne as the car purred down the street, a few flakes of snow drifting down
like flower petals on a light breeze. She stared at the snowflakes, wondering
absently if an early-winter snowstorm would keep her from getting home.
"Why not a civilian hospital?"
                  "Security." Payne's quiet voice
barely reached her ears. "Don't worry. The best trauma experts were called
in to work on him, civilian and military. We're doing the best we can for your
husband."
                  "Ex-husband," Jay said faintly.
                  "Yes. Sorry."
                  As they turned onto Wisconsin Avenue, which
would eventually take them to the Naval Medical Center, the snow became a
little heavier. Payne was glad she hadn't asked any more questions about why
the man was in a military hospital instead of, say, Georgetown University
Hospital. Of course, he'd told her the truth, as far as it went. Security was   the reason he was at Bethesda. It just wasn't
the only reason. He watched the snow swirling down and wondered if all the
loose threads could possibly be woven into a believable whole.
                  When they reached the medical center, only
Payne got out of the car with her; McCoy nodded briefly in farewell and drove
away. Snowflakes quickly silvered their hair as Payne took her elbow and
hurried her inside, where