“All I know is that she got caught up with the wrong people. People, who on the face of it appeared to be do-gooders, but were anything but. Arms dealers is what I’ve been able to glean, though there’s been no official confirmation.”
“The commune in Taos?”
Cash leaned forward and put his hands on his knees. “Yeah, that’s part of it.”
“Why didn’t she call?” Sawyer stood up and began pacing. “You were a fed. You could’ve helped her.”
“Best I can come up with is that she got in over her head and didn’t want to get us involved. Didn’t want us to face any danger.”
Sawyer’s head snapped back. “She wasn’t working with these people, was she?”
“No, I don’t think so. According to my source, she legitimately thought these yahoos were trying to feed the world and stumbled across something she shouldn’t have. That’s where things get hazy. No one will tell me who these people are or what Angie found. But somehow she went to the ATF or they came to her and she’s been an informant ever since. I’m speculating here, but I’m betting this commune…farm…was the group’s headquarters and Angie went to spy. Someone must’ve made her and that’s when she had to go underground.”
Sawyer tried to absorb what Cash was telling him. Arms dealers. Informant. Underground. He had more questions than answers.
“Why didn’t she contact us, Cash? All these years and she couldn’t pick up the goddamn phone? We could’ve kept her safe.”
Cash leaned his head against the chair and squeezed the bridge of his nose. “I don’t have the answer to that. But keep her safe? Sawyer, we don’t have a clue what she was up against. For all intents and purposes she was an undercover agent for the federal government, infiltrating a dangerous organization. You ever think that perhaps she was trying to keep us safe?”
Angie would’ve gone to the ends of the earth to protect her family…her friends. There was no question of that.
Sawyer’s emotions were all over the map. Relief, fear, even anger. He wanted his sister back. He wanted his family to be whole again.
“When can we see her?”
Cash rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. The room was so quiet, Sawyer could hear the pounding of his own pulse. He sat again, knowing the answer before Cash even muttered the words, “Maybe never.”
Those were the rules of WITSEC. No contact with former associates. Sawyer had covered stories about the program, which for the most part was shrouded in secrecy. All anyone really knew was that a witness was moved to an undisclosed location, given a new identity and history, and was forbidden from staying in touch with or revisiting anyone or anything from his or her prior life.
“Is that what your people told you?”
“They didn’t tell me much, Sawyer. As far as they’re concerned, Angela Dalton no longer exists.”
It was a tactful way of saying that although Angie was alive, she may as well be dead to her family.
“I assume at some point she’ll have to testify.” Sawyer crossed his legs and then uncrossed them. He was having trouble sitting still. “If there’s a conviction, will she be able to resurface?”
“I don’t know. It’ll depend on what kind of crime organization this is. Is it a situation where if you chop off the head of the snake, you kill the heart? Or are we looking at something with long-reaching tentacles? I wish I had the answers, Sawyer. Believe me, I tried to get them. I called in every favor owed to me. This was the best I could do.”
Sawyer sank deeper into the couch. “What you did…what you got…she’s alive, Cash. Angie is alive.”
“She’s alive. And if she follows the rules she’ll stay safe. Let’s not mess that up.”
He wouldn’t. Sawyer loved his sister too much to risk her security…her life. “But I have to tell my folks. I have to let them know that she’s all right.”
“Yep. Agreed. I called them already. My folks too. Yours are flying in. My parents will pick them up at Sacramento International. They’ll be here in a few hours.” Cash’s eyes wandered to the clock on the wall. “I figure it’ll be easier to break the news of Angie while we’re all under the same roof.”
“What about Jace?”
“I called him. He’s on his way too.”
Sawyer nodded. It was a lot to parse. He stared out the window off into the distance, thinking about Angie. Did she live in a big city or a rural town? Did she have a job? Friends? A man?
“You okay?” Cash rose and Sawyer got to his feet as well.
“Yeah. Just need a little time for it to sink in.”
“I’ve got to put in some time on the job before everyone gets here. You want to do this here?”
