Marc headed toward the same door through which Tony had left. It had been little more than a minute since he’d slammed it behind him, and Marc knew there were only two directions for him to have gone, so he figured he’d be able to catch up to him. Even now, with everything seeming to have come apart, he still held a slim hope that he and J.J. could get past… whatever all this was. Maybe if he could get Tony to come back, she’d see that he really cared about her. He grabbed the doorknob.
Conrad, sitting in the idling car, had also seen Tony leave. He’d seen the fury in his eyes when he raced right past the Cutlass, not so much as glancing toward him.
He hadn’t believed his good fortune when the cars had arrived and he saw them disgorge not only Marc, but J.J., Dan, some roly-poly he didn’t recognize, and a dude with bandages on his face. And then Tony got out. It had taken him a moment to place the face, but then he recognized him from pictures that had been sent to him by Marc himself.
Conrad had no idea if Tony knew anything at all about him, however.
He stopped being pissed long enough to run through a series of mental calculations. He’d seen almost everyone he wanted to get rid of enter the house. True, Tony had left and for whatever reason June was not with them. But as he watched the boy walk angrily away, he got a notion. What if he got the brat? Snatching the girl hadn’t worked out, but what if he took the boy? Since June-Bug wasn’t here, he might be able to lure her with Tony.
He flipped a switch on the small black remote in his hand and saw an amber button light up. He mashed it with his thumb, then stomped on the gas and spun around in the direction Tony had gone.
Nicole had just opened the door of the Land Rover, which she’d parked a good distance from the driveway… when the house disintegrated in a fireball that could be seen for miles around. The sound of it was deafening, literally, so she did not hear the screaming tires as the Cutlass spun into a one-eighty and sped away.
Her attention was on the house. As far as she knew, everyone except for Tony was inside.
When the house erupted, the sleeping men jumped to their feet. Even from the beach, a solid two hundred feet away, the heat was unbearable, and they instinctively raised their arms. As flaming wooden chunks flew towards them, they turned as one and ran toward the ocean, where they saw J.J. looking at the fireball and screaming.
When Dan reached her he realized that she wasn’t just screaming. She was screaming a name.
“MARC!!”
She’d done her own calculations. Even if he’d been running through the house, there was not enough time. He couldn’t have gotten out.
When Nicole did notice that the car… that Conrad was gone, she swore, then ran in the direction of the burning hole that had once been the house. The structure had been big and there was a lot of property within its fenced exterior. She moved to skirt the demolished structure and headed toward the ocean. It was a beautiful morning. Maybe someone had been outside…
She quickly saw, beyond anything she could have hoped for, that everyone seemed to have been outside. Except Marc.
Upon seeing Nicole, J.J.’s first question was if she’d seen Marc come out the front door. When Nicole pressed her lips together and shook her head, her daughter began to cry.
The young girl’s mind was whirling again. She was pretty sure that Marc had betrayed her to her psycho grandfather, but a very large percentage of her grieved anyway. She’d never felt such a strong connection to someone in such a short time. It probably wouldn’t have amounted to anything… how could it have?
But still, there had been something about that boy.
Nicole took control of the situation, moving everyone toward the street. She explained as she went that it would be much better if they were gone before the authorities started streaming in.
There wasn’t time to mentally process the catastrophe. She crammed them into the Land Rover, and by the time she saw the first flashing lights, they were passing her in the opposite direction, heading toward the smoke already several miles in her rearview.
They drove around looking for Tony for as long as they could, occasionally doubling back in the sway of some irrational hope, but Nicole realized with a sick feeling that with nowhere for him to go other than down the coastal road for well over five miles, they should have caught up with him. If he was still on foot.
As more and more emergency vehicles came screaming by, she finally decided that they needed to get completely away from the area.
Dan sat next to Cole and swore as his call to Tony went to voice mail for the eighth consecutive time. “What are we going to do?” he asked his wife.
Nicole’s face had taken on the steely mask she wore when she was fully in cleaner mode.
“Tony is smart, and he knows the truth now. I didn’t tell him about Conrad, but I have to believe Conrad knew about him.” She went on to tell her husband about the South Carolina plates, and the disappearance of the car right after the explosion.
“I think he might have gone after Tony,” she said, concluding the grim narrative.
When Cole had driven from South Carolina to Indiana, taking J.J. back to school after her harrowing ordeal there, she’d already known that Conrad was going to have to die. Until he did, she could never truly rest. She would have to constantly look in every dusty corner, over her shoulder, under her bed.
She hadn’t worked out the details or the time frame when she hugged her daughter goodbye in front of her dorm at Notre Dame. But she knew now that their paths had intersected after all these years, they’d both be looking for the opportunity to finish the other.
Now it looked like Conrad had Tony, and she had no idea where they were going. Even as stupid as her father was, evidenced by him not bothering to at least steal some California license plates, he’d know enough not to return to South Carolina, and he’d sure as hell get out of Cali as fast as that jacked up Cutlass could go.
But eliminating two potential destinations still left millions more that couldn’t be so easily crossed off the list.
She suddenly felt an odd tug. It stirred a memory she’d likely repressed, actively. When she was very little, before Conrad turned out to be the boogey man, when he was still her Daddy, he used to tell her, “Wherever I am, Junie, when I’m thinking of you, you’ll feel me tugging at your heart, right inside you. And you’ll know your daddy’s got you on his mind.”
Four-year-old June Barker smiled when she heard that.
Nicole Porter did not smile. But she felt the tug. She turned to her husband.
“Program home into the GPS.”
“What about Tony?”
“Conrad’s taking him there. He’s going to try to use him to finally get to me… maybe to get us all.”
For several seconds, the car was silent. Then, from the least likely occupant of the car came the most obvious statement yet made by any of them.
“You need to end that son-of-a-bitch,” said Neal.
Nicole had nothing to smile about. But as she looked into the rearview mirror, she saw Neal’s face. He was looking to his left, out at the ocean. She could see by his expression that he’d probably been thinking out loud more than anything else. Nonetheless, the truth of what he said rested clearly on his face.
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” she answered, pushing the pedal to the floor.
THE END
An Interview with S. J. Varengo
1. What was your inspiration for the Clean Up Crew series?
The idea came out of an experience that very much mirrors the opening of Book #1, right down to the setting. I was in fact dropping my wife off at Home Depot and when I pulled into the parking spot I heard something thump in the trunk. Now, we don’t own a Lexus, and I knew it wasn’t paint cans, so I didn’t look, as Dan did, to see what had caused the noise. But I did think, “How weird would it be if that thump was a body rolling around back there? How weird would it be to find out after all our years together that Kim is actually an int
ernational assassin?” As soon as I’d had that twisted thought, author-mode kicked in and I realized it was a great idea for a book.
2. How do you decide which location to use for the Clean Up Crew books?
It’s been different each time. Bucharest was kind of a “close your eyes and point to the map,” situation, although I didn’t literally do that. I just thought, “What would be a nice, sort of exotic place for the action to take place. For whatever reason I picked Romania. Turned out to be a good choice, and it led me to the title, The Beauty of Bucharest, which then set the format for the books to come. For the second book I knew I’d be telling Nicole’s backstory, so I had to decide where she would come from. I’d introduced Conrad Barker at the tail end of TBoB, and eventually decided somewhere in the Southeast, and eventually landed upon South Carolina. For Tijuana, there was a little more thought. I wanted a setting outside of the U.S. again, but considering the current political climate I decided on Mexico. While I wasn’t looking to write an overtly political book, I did think that dropping a few US/Mexico relations references might be fun.
3. How much research do you do for the books?
A lot. I’m not a very well-traveled man, much to my chagrin, so I have to do a ton of research on my settings. Thanks to the interweb this isn’t as difficult as it once was, back in the dark days when one would have to go to the library and open books. Google Earth is a good friend, as I can literally describe a neighborhood in Bucharest and have a Romania national ask me when was the last time I’d been there, based on my descriptions. But it’s not just the exotic locales that I need to learn. I’ve set a lot of the books, especially in the early chapters, in and around Denver, which is another place I have not yet seen.
Also, in the first and third books there was another language to take into account, and I do a lot of research on slang and colloquialisms in those places. Tijuana was actually the trickier of the two, because there are many countries where Spanish is spoken, and each tend to have their own unique slang.
And there are dozens of other times in the course of writing a book when I find myself looking something up to make sure I’m clear on what I’m talking about.
4. The books tend to have dark themes and often don’t pull punches. Do you think it’s important to keep that sense of realism, and what would you say to those who might be a bit squeamish?
Unfortunately the world in 2019 is a pretty dark place, and it seems to be getting darker. So the CUC themes basically reflect what I see every day. Further, I deal with some pretty tough issues that I know about firsthand, all too well. I’m talking specifically about child abuse, which comes into play in Book #2 to a large degree.
Answering the second part of that question, words to the squeamish, I’d point out the following:
I do not write about these issues exploitatively, but I do turn the light all the way up and look at them realistically.
I NEVER imply that there is anything remotely good about what the bad guys do in my books, and finally…
If you don’t stop reading in the middle of the book, you’re going to find far more redemption than the real world ever offers.
So if you’re not sure you can handle my subject matter, have a little more faith in yourself and in me.
5. Do you include any social commentary in the books, or is your goal simply to tell a good story?
As I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten far more socially aware, and I find that although I don’t necessarily go into a story with any kind of commentary as my agenda, some tends to creep in. I don’t ever judge other writers or feel like they need to do things the way I do or think the way I think, but for me I realize that the fact that I have an audience means that I need to entertain them, sure, but maybe I should also let them know that there are issue that need dealing with, and we’re the only ones here to do it.
6. You always include humor in the books. How do you maintain a good balance between drama and comic relief?
It’s tricky, to be honest, because I’m such a wiseass. My natural tendency is to write humorously, and there are times when the story veers in a direction where it’s not time to be funny, and yet when I read over what I’ve written, there it is again! I cut far more humor than I leave in. So the balance you speak of always comes during editing, not during writing. I know enough about what makes a story good to know that the balance is needed, and I’m getting better at knowing when it’s okay to be goofy. Tijuana has some of the funniest stuff I’ve written in all three books, and yet it still ends up being a dark, gritty story.
7. Are there ever any little hidden Easter eggs in your books that some readers might miss? And also, what the hell does “Easter egg” mean?
I’ll answer the second part first. My theory has always been that the term harkens to the tradition of the Easter Egg Hunt, where parents sneak around leaving hard boiled eggs for their children to find on Easter. Rather barbaric if you ask me, and potentially stinky of all of them are not recovered.
And yes, I’m guilty of doing this in my books, although not as much as other authors that I know and love. Mine tend to be a bit more subtle. For example, if you’ll indulge me as I refer to my other series for a tick, in the first Cerah of Quadar book I describe the dragon Szalmy’s tongue as being pink and blue, which is exactly how my dog Tanner’s tongue looked. And in Tijuana anyone who has been to Taco Bell with me will recognize Tony Porter’s order at the drive-thru as 100% what I order 99% of the time. There are probably others as well, which aren’t coming to mind at the present.
Maybe someday I’ll write a book that’s nothing but Easter eggs. Maybe I’ll call it Nothing But Easter Eggs.
8. Do you have a number in mind when it comes to the length of the Clean Up Crew series or are you just going to write until the characters decide they’re done?
Tricky question. I’ve actively been thinking about this, because I’m not sure how much longer I can sustain the series and keep it interesting. The problem with wanting to do more than just write an exciting story is that eventually I might find I’ve explored the underlying themes as well as I’m going to be able to do. At that point I’ll probably kill off my darlings and move onto something new. There’s still AT LEAST one more in me though.
9. What is your favorite moment in the series thus far? Favorite character?
Another tough one, as I’m notorious for falling in love with all of my characters, (which is part of what makes writing about them difficult sometimes – you never want to hurt the ones you love, let along murder them), but there are a couple that are special. Nicole, of course, is the hub around which everything revolves. I love her because she is so strong, yet not afraid, in spite of all she’s been through, to let herself be vulnerable. She’s a hardened killer, but truly loves her husband and her children.
Dan is based very much on myself. Not his business success, of course, but his wonderful cluelessness, and his ability to rise to situations he never dreamed of being faced with. Dan, like me, may be wrecked, but never in the clutch. (Props to Papa – that’s his line).
The big surprise for me has been Dan’s friend Neal. He appeared in one scene in Carolina, and I knew right away I’d be bringing him back. He’s just such a nut, and he’s got the single best line in all of Tijuana.
Which brings us to my favorite moment. It is the scene from Tijuana in which that line was spoken, as Dan and Neal approach an archaeological dig site. It was so much fun to write, and it makes me laugh every time I read it. Hopefully I’m not the only one laughing.
Also by S. J. Varengo
The Cerah of Quadar Series
A Dark Clock
Many Hidden Rooms
A Single Candle
The Clean Up Crew Thriller Series
The Beauty of Bucharest
The Count of Carolina
The SpyCo Novella Series
Assignment: Paris
Assignment: Istanbul
Assignment: Sydney
Assignme
nt: Dublin
The Terror of Tijuana Page 21