Chapter Eighteen
Lily did not sleep two days, but she did stay in bed for ten hours before Special Agent Shipman rang her doorbell until she was forced to answer it. This time he held up his identification. “We need to interview you about what happened with you and Jackson,” he said.
A woman with a long, narrow dark face and carefully braided hair stepped out from behind him. “I’m Special Agent Green,” she said. She held up a cardboard to-go cup. “I have coffee.”
Shelby peered out from around Lily’s legs and growled. Preston frowned at the dog. “That dog doesn’t like me much,” he said.
That makes two of us, Lily thought. “She’s very protective,” she said. She held the door open wider. “Don’t make any sudden moves and you’ll be fine.” She really didn’t believe Shelby would attack him unprovoked, but she enjoyed the uneasy look on his face after she said the words. “Let me get dressed, and I’ll talk to you.” She didn’t give him time to respond, merely left the room, Shelby close after her.
By the time she had dressed, combed her hair and brushed her teeth, she was feeling more human. “Thanks for the coffee,” she said to Agent Green, and sipped from the cup. It was still fairly hot, and tasted wonderful, full of cream and caramel syrup. Far superior to the weak black brew they had drunk in the woods.
“We need your statement about everything that happened, starting when you found Jackson,” Preston said.
“First, tell me what’s going on with Mike,” she asked. “Was he behind Jackson’s kidnapping?”
The two agents exchanged looks. “I can’t reveal details of our case,” Shipman said.
She set down the coffee and leaned toward him. “The man tried to kill me. He held a gun to my head. He kidnapped a little boy I care about very much. You can at least tell me something—or I won’t tell you anything.”
“We can have the court compel you to provide evidence,” Shipman said.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Go ahead. Or you could tell me what Mike was up to and I’ll tell you everything right now.”
“We believe Michael Swanson had made a deal with the Chinese government to sell them the details for technology Endicott Industries developed for the US military,” Agent Green said. She ignored Preston’s scowl. “Agent Shipman was embedded in the company to look for evidence to refute or support these suspicions.”
“Did Denny Endicott know about this?” Lily asked. She held her breath, waiting for the answer. She didn’t want to think her friend could be involved in such a scheme.
“We don’t believe so, no,” Green said. “But at some point in the past few months, he did become suspicious that someone was leaking confidential information. He tightened security. This made it impossible for Swanson to help himself to the information he needed.”
“We believe the Chinese put pressure on him to deliver more information,” Shipman took up the story. “At first, Swanson arranged for a couple of guys to rough up Endicott and threaten him if he didn’t hand over the information they wanted.”
“That was the night I was babysitting,” Lily said. “The night you came to the house and threatened me when I wouldn’t let you in. What was that all about?”
Shipman scowled. “I was looking for evidence of Endicott’s involvement.”
“You were out of line, treating me that way.”
“I was focused on doing my job,” Shipman said. “It doesn’t matter anyway, since you wouldn’t let me in.”
“We’ve never found evidence that Mr. Endicott was involved,” Agent Green said.
“Denny said he refused to cooperate with the people who threatened him that night,” Lily said.
Shipman nodded. “The threats didn’t work, so the next phase was to kidnap Jackson. The idea was that Mike would volunteer to intercede with the kidnappers on Endicott’s behalf. He would turn over the classified information they wanted and return with Jackson. He’d be a hero, Endicott would trust him even more, and the kidnappers would disappear back to China—until the next time Mike had secrets to sell.”
“Why would Mike betray his friend that way?” Lily asked.
“He says he didn’t have a choice,” Green said. “That the Chinese threatened to kill him if he didn’t do what they wanted.”
“People like this always have an excuse,” Shipman said. “They offered him a million dollars in an offshore account. That’s plenty of motivation for a lot of people.”
“Who was the man who actually took Jackson from the ski resort?” Lily asked.
“His name was Donald Johanson,” Green said. “He was married to a Chinese national and lived in the country for twenty years before he returned to the States to do dirty work for his handlers. He took charge of the boy as a way of having more leverage over Mike. When the avalanche killed him, Mikewas frantic. He ended up kidnapping Endicott himself. But without his son, Endicott would reveal nothing.”
“But Denny was in the first helicopter that arrived,” she said. “How did he escape?”
“The sheriff’s department became suspicious when they couldn’t contact Endicott and went to his plant. They found him tied up in a vacant conference room and freed him. He told them about Mike.”
