Page 4 of Very Special Forces

"Yep," Isaid.

"There'sa lady down here asking to see someone. She says she doesn't havean appointment or any identification with her. Shall I send her upor tell her to call for an appointment?"

"Did shesay what it's about?" I asked, wondering if the woman might beconnected to one of the cases Solomon had just handedout.

"Justthat it's a case she wants to discuss very badly and she reallywants to talk to someone now. I asked her if you'd already taken itand she said no."

"Sendher up. I'll take her to one of the meeting rooms," I decided. Thework Solomon assigned to me could wait the thirty minutes or so itwould take to talk to the woman. Plus, a walk-in was alwaysintriguing. A lot of clients preferred to make an appointment inadvance. A walk-in was still deciding whether or not they needed aPI. They gravitated to the office before they could talk themselvesout of it.

"You gotit," said Jim before he hung up. I replaced the handset, thenjogged to my desk. Checking my pockets for my cell phone, I grabbeda pen because they invariably went missing from the small meetingrooms we used for new clients. In practice, any employee of theagency had access to the rooms so they were often used for meetingsor quiet work. Smartly located away from the two main offices thatencompassed the agency's working environment, there were noguarantees that things wouldn't be moved around alittle.

Thewoman that exited the elevator was taller than me, hitting aroundfive-foot-eleven in her flats. Dressed in a nice pair of navy pantsand a pale pink t-shirt that was not quite business casual butdefinitely chic, her nails were manicured and her black hair hadbeen blown out recently, possibly before work. She obviously tookpride in her appearance. She looked me over, albeit barelyperceptibly, and smiled.

"Youmust be Lexi Graves," she said, stretching out a hand to shakemine.

"That'scorrect. And you are?"

"JasKapoor. Thanks for seeing me. I'm sorry I didn't make anappointment but I was walking past your office and I thought I'djust take a chance that someone was free to see me."

"Comethrough and you can tell me what's on your mind," I said,indicating she should follow me to the meeting room. The first roomwas empty and the door already stood open. Jas followed me insideand I shut the door while she took a seat. She set her purse on thefloor and crossed her legs, her face suddenly pensive. I pulled outthe chair opposite and sat and waited.

"I don'tknow where to start," she said after a long pause. "If I tell you,I'm sure you'll say it's nothing."

"Youmust think it's something," I pointed out.

"Yes,yes, I do, but it's the strangest thing. I'm not sure I can eventell you what the problem is."

"Is itpersonal or professional?" I asked.

"Personal. Not my personal issue, as such. It's my bestfriend. There's something wrong. Something really wrong and I thinkshe might be in grave danger."

ChapterTwo

"Whatmakes you think your friend is in some kind of danger?" I asked."Has she been harassed? Perhaps received a threateningmessage?"

Jasshook her head and her shiny hair tumbled around her shoulders,giving me a case of hair envy. "Oh no, nothing like that. This iswhere you'll think I'm crazy. I couldn't even tell you why I thinkJulia's in danger. She has a great life. I know I should be happyfor her. I am happy for her! But there's something wrong. I have aterrible feeling. Do I sound crazy?"

"No, youdon't sound crazy. How long have you known each other?"

"Fiveyears. Julia moved into my building and we struck up a friendship.We realized we had so many things in common and were hanging outall the time. She even introduced me to my boyfriend although wesplit up a few months ago." Jas looked down and sighed, an ebb ofunhappiness emanating from her. "I mentioned my concerns to acouple of friends in our group and they seemed to think I want herto be unhappy too."

"In whatway?"

"I meanbecause I'm single now, they think I'm jealous that she's happilyattached and I should be thrilled for her. She got engaged twomonths ago and they're getting married next month. I want to behappy for her but there's something wrong."

"Youmentioned the feeling of something wrong several times. Do you knowwhat it might be?"

"I thinkso," she replied, nodding slowly. She met my eyes and dropped themagain and I had to wonder if it was a flash of shame I saw crossingher face. "It's her fiancé, Bryce. Bryce Maynard. They've only beentogether seven months but in the last six months, she's changed andI think it has something to do with him. She's not the same as sheused to be." Jas pulled a photo from her purse and handed it to me."This was taken a couple of months ago."

"Couldit be that she wanted to change in some way?" I asked as I lookedat the photo of the smiling couple. It wasn't rare for a person tochange a bit to impress their new partner or for some otherundefined goal.

Jasshrugged. "Well, I guess that could be the case. She dresses betternow. Not that Julia was ever a bad dresser, but she's that littlebit more chic now. She spends more money on clothes. Manicures andblowouts too. She joined a gym and works out a lot. I know, none ofthat sounds terrible! I even encouraged her but it's herpersonality that's changed. She's shyer, I think, and there's aninsecurity about her that wasn't there before. She always defers towhatever Bryce wants and if we're together, she doesn't answerwithout looking at him first. She cancels our plans." Jas stopped."I know I sound jealous but truly, I'm not."

"There'ssomething you're not telling me," I said, sensing there was stillmore to the story.

Jasnodded. "A couple of months ago Julia had a big bruise on her arm.She said she fell but I'm sure I saw deep finger marks. I didn'tsee her for two weeks after that and by then, it was gone. Itseemed like she was avoiding me."

"Do youthink her fiancé did it?"

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