Sharp Focus: A First Daughter Mystery (First Daughter Mysteries S.) - Hardcover

Susan Ford is the daughter of President Gerald R. Ford and Betty Ford, and spent her formative years living in the White House. She has had a successful career as a photojournalist and has been active in such organizations as the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the Gerald R. Ford Museum, the National Breast Cancer Awareness Program, and the Betty Ford Center. She is in great demand as a public speaker and lives in New Mexico with her family.

Laura Hayden is an award-winning author and scriptwriter who has published seven novels. She lives with her family in Colorado.

Susan Ford, the daughter of President Gerald R. Ford, once again delights her readers with this second mystery in the acclaimed First Daughter series.

It's June, and the President is scheduled to give the commencement address at the Air Force Academy. His daughter, Eve, the professional photographer who is the intrepid heroine of this sparkling mystery, has agreed to take her first glider ride with one of the young Air Force pilots. Eve's aircraft makes a safe landing, but a short time later the glider she had been riding in crashes into a mountain. Eve and her father must face the possibility that what looks like a tragic accident may in fact be very deliberate and deadly sabotage.

Eve's already nooselike security is stepped up, and she's hustled aboard Air Force One to accompany her father back to D.C. As Eve juggles her First Daughter duties with her own need for a private life, she finds her personal safety increasingly at risk and her bodyguards' task growing increasingly difficult. What seems to be a harmless tire blowout turns out to be a sniper attack. Someone important does not want the President's daughter to get to the bottom of the Air Force Academy glider-crash mystery, and that someone is willing to risk everything to stop Eve cold. As she travels back and forth across the country trying to unmask a heartless killer, Eve's own life is very much on the line, as are those of her aunt Patsy and Buck, Aunt Patsy's new beau.

Susan Ford is splendid at conveying those special little details that take her readers right inside life at the White House (bowling, anyone?). The fact that she can also keep us in suspense with an intriguing mystery is a double boon. Like her first book in the series, Double Exposure, this latest First Daughter mystery provides both charm and chills.

Chapter One

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY PUBLIC AFFAIRS

ACADEMY ANNOUNCES GRADUATION GUEST SPEAKER


U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, COLO.-Elliot J. Cooper, President of the United States of America, is scheduled to deliver the commencement address to the class of 2003 at the 45th U.S. Air Force Academy graduation beginning at 11 A.M., May 28, in Falcon Stadium ...

"Good God, Diana. What are you trying to do? Kill me?" I whispered to the woman who was strapping me into the seat.

She tightened the harness. "Not at the moment, but I may change my mind if you don't sit back and let me get on with it," she said.

My favorite Secret Service agent, Diana Gates, was in the process of restraining me in what looked to me like a death trap. It was the Secret Service's job to protect me and my family. But I was having some doubts about their intentions right now.

"Are you absolutely sure this is safe?" I asked.

"Nope," Diana said. "But the Air Force is-and they should know." She gave one last pull on a piece of canvas webbing and stepped back, ready to let the professionals take over.

Several Air Force cadets stepped forward at her signal to check over every detail of the tiny aircraft I was sitting in, as well as the straps holding me in it. If I hadn't been so busy worrying about my future survival, I'd have appreciated the view a lot more.

Bring Me Men-that's what it says in big silver letters on the ramp leading up to the Air Force Academy cadet area. When I'd seen the words, I'd had to hide a smile. The phrase sounded more like the secret plea of a high school girl than a military slogan. Now I was surrounded by an assortment of those very men-trust me, the Air Force's finest are easy on the eyes-and I was literally all tied up and too apprehensive to enjoy it. That was despite the fact that I knew that the men checking my straps were every bit as concerned about my future survival as I was. My dad was, after all, technically their boss.
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My name is Eve, and I'm the First Daughter. My father is President Elliot James Cooper, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and Leader of the Free World. I just call him Dad. And because of Dad, I was about to take part in something that the Air Force considered a high treat.

It's not that I mind flying. I like it-in large jets with even larger wings. With bathrooms. And engines-I like having engines. Lots of them. The more, the merrier.

But I was now immovably attached to a flying machine that looked like a child's toy, not an aircraft. And it was completely engine-free. My confidence in the theory of drag and lift shrank accordingly.

Diana moved closer once the fly guys gave her the high sign. "You ready?" Despite the fact that Diana had her game face on-that official Secret Service blank stare-I'd gotten to know her well enough to realize she was suppressing a small, unauthorized grin.

But Diana's expression didn't keep my attention for long. No, right now I was far more interested in the yellow glider I was sitting in, attached to its tow plane by a rope.

Not a steel cable, but a rope.

A thin rope.

Somehow, that didn't seem right to me.

Diana's attention was elsewhere, scanning the tarmac, as she remained on the lookout for danger. In this crowd it was unlikely to materialize, but it was her job to watch. The glider I was sitting in was parked on the runway of the U.S. Air Force Academy, just north of Colorado Springs, right on the edge of the Academy's eighteen thousand acres of beautiful Colorado landscape, and we were waiting for clearance for takeoff.

The local Air Force personnel wanted to make sure the time I spent with them was memorable. As I sat in that glider, my face frozen in what I hoped was a pleasant expression, trying not to hyperventilate, I knew they'd succeeded. I was just scared enough to have this moment indelibly engraved on my brain for the rest of my life.

I was here because Dad was to be the main speaker at this year's Air Force commencement celebration. It's traditional for the President to make the obligatory "For God and Your Country" speech to one of the three service academies each year-working in due course through the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, West Point in New York, and the Naval Academy in Annapolis. It was no secret that Dad was thrilled that the Air Force Academy had been first up in the rotation for him. He'd done a tour in the Air Force as an officer, and had stayed active in the reserves for a long time. He might not be an Academy grad, but some of his best friends were. And those blue-suiters do tend to stick together.

I'd been thrilled too. I grew up and went to school in Colorado, and had taken the opportunity to come in early to catch up with some old friends. As a consequence, I beat Dad to the Academy by a good six hours.

Dad was due to arrive in Air Force One later today at nearby Peterson Air Force Base, much too late to do me any good. Right now I was the only Cooper in sight. The glider ride was mine. The things I do for the press and my country ... it always amazed me.

But I needed to look less scared than I felt, because the press was watching. I didn't want to let Dad down.

At the edge of the tarmac, the light of flaring camera flashes threatened to blind me as the media took advantage of the photo op. Diana's vision was, I hoped, in better shape than mine. I wouldn't be able to spot a threat right now unless it was the size of a city bus.

"Do I have to do this?" I asked, even though I knew I did.

Diana didn't even look at me. "No. But Captain Perky will be so disappointed if you don't."

"Durkee," I corrected. That was the name of the crackerjack military media liaison who had been my guide for the VIP tour all morning. The captain was probably my age, but the severity of her uniform and her haircut made her look older-or at least much more mature. She also knew her facts and figures cold. She was the reason I knew that the Academy grounds covered eighteen thousand acres.

"Whatever," Diana replied. "Don't worry. People go up in these things every day."

"It's not the going up that bothers me." I said. "It's the coming down. Straight down."

"We've been told the glider has been thoroughly inspected. That shouldn't be an issue," Diana said. In this context "We" meant Diana and the new agent who'd been assigned to me from the White House detail for this trip, John Kingston. Evidently, the higher-ups in the Secret Service thought it was wise to match Diana with someone who was impressively large. Trust me, Kingston was huge. He looked like an agent, all right-a free agent signed by the Washington Redskins, rather than a Secret Service agent.

Lord knows, the Skins could use someone with his heft and reflexes this year.


pardBig as John Kingston was, Diana was just as capable of protecting me. Diana was fast, tough, and smart. I'd learned that back in February when she got me out of a nasty situation-one that could easily have resulted in both of our deaths. I always felt safer when Diana was around.

But in a few minutes, I'd be on my own. The glider could hold only one person besides the pilot. That would be me. Just me. No protocol officers. No journalists.

No agents.

It was a naked kind of feeling.

I was probably being paranoid. Here, smack in the middle of the Air Force Academy, should be a very safe place to be the President's daughter. And there was a Secret Service agent in the tow plane-I wasn't going to be completely alone while I was up in the air.

On the other hand, this particular Air Force base was the biggest tourist attraction in the state. Visitors came and went in large numbers through more than one...