Page 22 of Yankee in the Wind

They exited the car and walked back to where the police were blocking the street that led to the Medical Examiner’s building. Lots of curious pedestrians were already flocking to the scene.

“Can you see what’s going on?” Lilly asked Jack, who was much taller than her.

“Looks like a pedestrian got hit by a car.” He reached for her hand. “Let’s get through here.”

Jack made his way through the crowd, Lilly following him closely. Lilly glanced to the street where the ambulance was parked and police officers cordoned off the scene.

They were only about fifty feet away from the entrance to the Medical Examiner’s building now. From there, people exited and ran out toward the ambulance.

Lilly could hear a woman cry out. “Oh, no! Amy!”

Jack suddenly stopped and looked over his shoulder at the person lying on the ground in the middle of the street. He pushed through the bystanders, still holding on to Lilly’s hand, until he reached the cordon. From there, Lilly could see that the person on the ground was a woman.

“What happened?” Jack asked somebody next to him.

“Hit ‘n run,” the man next to him said.

“Do you know who it is?”

“No idea. But I think she came out of the building behind us.”

Lilly froze. The building behind them was the Medical Examiner’s office.

“Let me through!” a woman called out from behind them, and pushed through the crowd, until she reached the cordon next to Lilly. “Oh my God! Amy!”

“Do you know her?” Lilly asked the tearful woman.

The woman sobbed. “It’s my colleague, Dr. Price. I saw it from my office window.” She let out a heart-rending sob. “The car didn’t even try to stop…”

Lilly looked back at the scene on the street, where a police officer put a sheet over the victim.

Dr. Amy Price was dead.

11

Jack knew immediately that Dr. Amy Price’s death was no accident or coincidence. Somebody had killed her so she wouldn’t reveal how Thomas Reed had really died. Whether Dr. Price had been complicit in Thomas’s death, or coerced into signing a death certificate with a fake cause of death, was immaterial. The result was the same: now only the killer knew how Thomas had died.

Jack drove Lilly back to the safe house, using the same precautions as before and wiping his and Lilly’s fingerprints from the borrowed car. Then Jack contacted Ace and Fox to update them on what had happened, and to ask them to review any traffic cameras in the vicinity of the Medical Examiner’s building to see if they would provide any leads on Dr. Price’s killer.

Then Jack drove back to the plaza where Lilly had nearly been killed. It was dark now, and quiet, though the police had cordoned off the area of the shooting. Jack didn’t approach but remained on the opposite side of the street, not wanting to be noticed. For what he needed to do, he didn’t need to be too close. He looked around and surveilled the area. There were no traffic cameras, although there were several security cameras at the entrances and exits of the Delta Labs building where Lilly worked. However, they were pointing too low, and if Jack’s assumptions were correct, the shooter had been aiming at Lilly from a higher perch.

Judging by the direction of the bullet, the shooter had been in an above-ground parking garage. Jack went to the garage and checked all five levels for any signs such as spent casings from the sniper’s rifle, but while he found imprints of a tripod on a ledge that had a clear view of the plaza, he found nothing else. The sniper had cleaned up. This was a bust.

It was past ten o’clock when he returned to the safe house. In the garage, he rid himself of his disguise then entered the house. Jack closed the door quietly. Only the lights from the kitchen illuminated the living room dimly. Lilly lay on the couch, now dressed in her own clothes again, sleeping. The wig and glasses lay on the coffee table, and the clothes that had turned her into a shapeless woman, were neatly folded on a chair.

He tread lightly and approached Lilly. There was a peaceful expression on her face, and it reminded him of the day when he’d snuck out of the hotel room, while she was still sleeping.

He reached for a blanket, and spread it over her, when she suddenly shrieked and sat up. Jack stepped back and raised his hands. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Her eyes focused on him. “No, no, it’s fine, I just… I’m just a little on edge.” She took a deep breath. “I can’t believe somebody killed that woman just so she couldn’t tell us how Thomas died.”

“I know. But the people after me and after all Stargate agents are unscrupulous.”

She reached for his hand and motioned him to sit next to her. “I can’t imagine how you and Thomas must have lived for the last three years. It’s not even been a day for me, and already I’m a nervous wreck.”

“Thomas and I were trained for this. You’re a civilian.”

“Still, no matter the training, I can’t imagine how the last three years must have been for you.”