Our sojourn with Chayton's mother and family was all too short. I finally got them all straight and actually made the family tree after finding a great app for it. I put portrait shots of each of the children by their names adding all the important dates as well. I even got some of the past generations into it.

Once I got started, I decided to go through our grandfather's files and see if I could find any records of my own family. Perhaps there was some clue in them as to my father was. Malia said she remembered him as a kind man with a vicious temper. Mom never said a bad word about him, even when she was near the end of her life.

Tallulah and I had a huge library of plant pictures to add to my gallery of photos. I promised her a couple of prints of her best photos and added them to the order Sakari made. I knew I had a few frames in storage along with some other prints and the personal treasures I didn't want to leave in my condo, so the best picture I caught of a soaring turkey vulture already had a frame waiting for it.

Kate and Aaron offered to take the furnishings in their offer for the condo, and I made a date with them to make sure there wasn't anything else I wanted to take out of their future home. She had a marketing and advertising schedule for Chayton's new products ready and assured me the one for Malia's would be ready in time for shearing. The cheeses she would start in the next weeks wouldn't be ready for a few months.

Ella's and Madelene's last facetime call ended with our honorary niece declaring goat butter was the best ever, and she was taking care of the hens and eggs herself now. Her Grandmother said, "She's great with numbers and now she wants to add quail to the coop."

As we drove back into the office, I had another voice mail from our mystery caller.

"You are wasting time. You should be following the trail to India and the nest of the viper who lives there."

Analysis of the files and contracts at Domestic Agency in the United Arabian Emirates wasn't complete.

"I don't think so. Why are they so insistent on us hurrying into India or Afghanistan?" I wondered out loud.

"Exactly my question. And why don't they actually want to talk to you. Have you noticed?"

I nodded. "Not once. They hang up before I can say a word. I don't get a response when I try to send a return text. Just another message from a new phone number."

"The bigger question is how do they know what we are up to? Where's the leak? Or do we have malware somewhere it shouldn't be, reporting back to them?"

Chayton's thoughts echoed mine. When my phone rang again. It was my business line, and the direct phone number for the president of Seeking Hozho. The second SIM was far more convenient than carrying around another cell phone.

"Hello?" It was Meixing, and I put her on speaker.

"Alyana, I've been asked to fly out to Quantico to meet with BAU. They're sending their jet to pick me up tomorrow and I'll be gone for a couple of days."

"No problem. I was about to request the data from Special Ops operations in the Middle East. When you get back can you analyse the files and do the research required on anything you spot of interest? Maybe connecting it to our mystery caller."

I could here her moving around in her office.

"What brought that up? Because I've got some ideas on those calls and text messages too."

"I feel like there's a threat in there, more than encouragement. Like she's trying to lure me into something before I have all the information I need to proceed. I think the answers might be in the files Mooch and Spunky picked up in the other Domestic Aide Agencies."

"Exactly!" She sounded excited. "I would love to talk to those two. Do we have copies of their debriefing?"

Chayton answered her question, "I'll see you get them. And I'll talk to my contact from when I was in and find out if we can get them out to Arizona. Spunky is a free agent so to speak, and I'd like to recruit her as a field investigator/rescue leader."

I nodded. "I agree. We're on our way into the office, Meixing. We'll discuss this further when we get there.

"My flight out is overnight, so we'll have a bit of time. When will you arrive?"

Again, Chayton answered, "After lunch, shouldn't be much later than 13:30."

"Oh, before I forget, I have the budget for plant care for you Alyana."

I was impressed. "Great. I told Jane you would work up a budget. Get it to her and take it on. It would be nice to keep our orchids alive for more than one blooming season."

"I guarantee you will. I'm bringing a few of my younger plants in as well. We're going to be known as the PI with the orchids. It's good for the office as well because it will bring the humidity up, but not too much. I'll teach you all how to keep them happy."

We were approaching the turn off to avoid the construction site, and I knew we would lose signal shortly.

"I'm looking forward to it. We'll talk when we get there. We're turning off to get around the construction, so no signal. I have to say goodbye."

"Thanks Chayton, and you too Alyana. See you when you get here."

"Bye." I hung up and continued, "Progress. She's calling me by name instead of Ma'am or Boss."

"Thank you for going along with my idea for Spunky."

"I swear you can read my mind at times. I was heading there too."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We made it to the office just fifteen minutes late. Our staff was sitting around the boardroom table, and a heated discussion about the way law enforcement dealt with missing persons reports was raging as we walked in.

"Sorry, we got caught by a crash just inside of the city limits," I apologized.

Marcel giggled, and said, "You have no luck at all when you're coming back from the nation."

I made a face at him and continued, "Give me your progress reports. I've heard from Meixing, but what about you, Tommy?"

"We've identified all six of the Meadow victims. Between the official missing reports and the lists our resident hacker has compiled we know them all. We had a small ceremony for her Grandmother and sister. The other two pairs were also related, a mother and a daughter, and a niece and her aunt."

"How many were official?" I was betting with myself that it wasn't going to look good on the local law enforcement.

"Two." This came from a young woman who brought a tray of sandwiches and various drinks in with her.

"Thanks Maureen. By the way, Alyana, Chayton, this is Maureen Jones. Edison's granddaughter and a student at the local college," Joey said.

"She's an ace at filing too," Marcel said, giving the petite blonde a thumbs up.

I flipped open my laptop. There was an email from a strange address sitting on my phone with an attachment. I wanted to get to it right away.

"Thanks Maureen. Glad to have you aboard. Meixing, would you take a look at this email and make sure it doesn't have a virus attached. I don't have a scanner installed."

She came around behind me and I rolled my chair out of the way.

"Watch, so you can all do this. See this icon?" My desktop appeared on the Smart TV screen. "I've installed it on all of our office laptops and towers. It detects malware and viruses on any attachments. Double click on it before you go into your Outlook and it will scan everything. Wait for it to give you the all clear before you open any email, and absolutely do NOT open an attachment without running it."

"We think we might have a leak. Those mystery messages --- they are way too specific. Someone out there knows too much about the entire Lost Sheep operation." I saw the expressions around the table, "I'm pretty sure it isn't in this office. Meixing has already checked it out. She'll be checking out our phones next and then moving around to all the other offices which are receiving the communications updates on the mission."

Comprehension and ah-hah looks spread as I spoke.

Chayton continued, "We'll wait for her report when she gets back. The BAU is in the same building as our liaison. But this started before the network was established. We think it was targeted at Alyana in particular."

"By the way," Meixing added, "the FBI is letting me use their private jet to get around. I should be back in four days. If you need me, email, text, or call. I'm not going to bite too hard if you wake me up."

I opened the email after letting the scan do its thing.

"It's from an archeological forensic coroner. I didn't know we even had one of those in state, a Dr. Dale Morrison. They have attached Haloke's autopsy report. Another cold case for us to dig into."

"I'll start researching her last days if you like." Maureen volunteered.

"Do you have enough time?" I asked.

"I'm here Monday, Wednesday and half days on Friday. All my classes are in the evening and Tuesdays and Thursdays. No problem."

"I'll shoot you the details then. Jane are you tracking who is working on what?"

"I am. I'll add this to my spreadsheet." My office manager started typing on her laptop.

"I think that's it for now. Tommy, Joey, you'll forward me your findings on the Meadow victims when you have a good understanding of their last days."

"Sure. I've got the one for Olathe and Amelia done. Thanks to Meixing for helping me out there," Joey said. "Do you want it now?"

I shook my head. "Let her take it with her for BAU. They're the ones who really need it. When you have the other two pairs finished, send all of it to me." He nodded and I looked around the table. "Anything else?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Great. Meeting adjourned."

"We're going to need Spunky. This is getting messy," I said when everyone but Chayton had filed out.

"No kidding. I'm afraid you're going to be the bait."