“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m tying my tie,” MJ said.
“You’re hair is wet,” she said.
“I showered in the office bathroom Jacob insisted on making for me,” MJ said. Turning back to the mirror, he added, ”Smart man that Jacob. I never get a shot in the big bathroom.”
Honey chuckled.
“I made your tea,” MJ said. He pointed to the travel cup on the table. “Delphie stopped by to say she had a light breakfast ready for you, if you have time.”
MJ lifted the hanger holding his jacket from the high back of a dining room chair. He slipped the jacket off the hanger and began buttoning the jacket.
“Where are you going?” Honey said.
“I’m going with you,” MJ said. “I called the LC last night and asked. Turns out she has some emergency cartography pop up out of the blue. The team is going to help or do some training or whatever until the trial is done.”
“And the map work?”
“Surprising how it coincides with your sister’s trial,” MJ smiled at her.
“Sorry, I don’t really get it.”
“There’s always a ton of map work for the LC to do. The intelligence center makes a bundle on them, so they want her to work on them. It’s an easy excuse to tell brass. Plus brass has put priority on a couple of areas of the world. Can’t really go to war if you don’t know how to get there.”
“What if people need you? You can’t stay here just because of me!”
“If the team needs to go, they have to go,” MJ said. “Family is the most important factor to the well-being of any military team. That’s what the LC says but I think it’s something her Dad used to say.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll be by your side the entire trial,” MJ said. “We’ll also have a team member to help us get food and stuff like that. Margaret will be there when she’s not doing translations.”
“Oh.”
“You don’t sound happy.”
“I’m… I…” Her eyes welled up with tears. “Thanks. I don’t know how to thank Alex. What should I do?”
“Get through this stupid thing,” MJ said. “That’s what she said. Ready for a light breakfast? A car’s coming for us around at 0740.”
“A car? You’ve taken care of everything.”
“That’s what husbands are for,” MJ said. “Speaking of which, are you going to wear your diamond?”
“Oh, I forgot,” Honey said. “I usually just wear my band to work.”
“I know.” MJ slipped the ring on her finger. Their eyes caught and he smiled. “I think Jill and Katy are eating with us. Shall we?”
Honey smiled. She wheeled behind him as he opened the door. Sam was waiting for them in the hall. Sam followed Honey through the house. The family was assembled in the dining room. Valerie and Jacob were deep in conversation at the far end of the table. Sandy, Aden and his kids took one side of the table. With Katy wrapped in a pink cotton blanket on her lap, Jill sat across from Sandy and Aden and next to Jacob.
“What? Why is everyone here?” Honey asked.
“We couldn’t send you off by yourself!” Delphie said. “Val? Sandy? Can you help me carry?”
MJ helped Honey to the table then sat next to her. Leaning over, he kissed her cheek.
“You’re not alone anymore,” MJ whispered. “You have all of these people who love you.”
Honey sniffled back her tears. Valerie came in with a plate of eggs and sausage. Sandy brought a plate of her special blueberry muffins. Sam carried a pot of coffee and a pitcher of water. Delphie delivered a bowl of yogurt, fresh fruit and a smaller plate of banana muffins.
“Sandy made these for you, Honey,” Delphie said. “They shouldn’t make you sick.”
Without ceremony, everyone began filling their plates. Valerie laughed as a groggy Mike wandered in from upstairs. Jill leaned over to promise Honey she would be at the trial as soon as school was out. As Honey looked from face to face, she saw the laughter and love in their eyes. They couldn’t do this hard thing for her. But they would be there every step of the way.
And that was all that mattered.
~~~~~~~~
Friday morning — 9 A..M..
Locust Street
“What are we doing here?” Sandy asked when Valerie turned onto her father’s street.
“You’ll see,” Valerie said.
Driving her ancient Mustang, Valerie stopped across the street from Sandy’s childhood home. There was a group of twenty or so men and women wearing Lipson Construction shirts and hardhats standing around the house. A large Mack truck hauled a bulldozer and excavator pulled up to the house. A man ran up to Valerie when she got out of the car. Sandy didn’t hear what they said, but the man ran back to the house. When the man whistled, a woman and man ran to him. Together, they jogged up to the house and went inside.
“What’s going on, Val?” Sandy asked.
Heather and Tanesha pulled up in Aden’s SAAB sedan.
“Why is she driving Aden’s car?” Sandy asked.
“She’s trying out all the cars. Aden let her use his today because he’s home with the kids,” Valerie shrugged. “Blane wants her to have the perfect car. They’re so sweet.”
“They are…” Sandy puzzled at Valerie. “Do I need to ask again?”
“Ask what?” Valerie gave Sandy her movie star smile. “Jill wanted to be here but she has school. So did her Mom.”
“Did they know what was going on?”
“Oh, I think so.”
Valerie jogged over to direct the men unloading the bulldozer and the excavator. Heather and Tanesha came over to give Sandy a hug.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Sandy asked.
“Not a chance,” Heather said. “Jill said Jacob said Valerie has been acting weird since yesterday. She won’t tell him or Mike what she has planned. She just asked for a Lipson team and the equipment.”
“Oh, and she made Jacob buy your Dad’s house yesterday,” Tanesha said. “They took possession at about three yesterday afternoon and the FBI finished last night.”
The women turned to watch the delicate dance of people and machines. Valerie and two men unloaded the equipment. The men scrambled up on to the machines to start them. Valerie jogged over to confer with the people inside the house. A woman ran over to give them hard hats, dust masks and thick Lipson Construction jackets.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Sandy asked the woman.
She smiled and ran back to the rest of the employees. A truck pulled up to roll off a construction dumpster. Valerie walked over to where Heather, Tanesha and Sandy were standing.
“Are you ready?” Valerie asked.
“You know, I’m not feeling really great,” Sandy said. “I don’t really know…”
“You can do this! It won’t be hard. That’s what we have the machines for! Come on!”
Entranced by Valerie’s infectious cheer, the women followed her to the machines Valerie climbed up on the excavator then helped Sandy into the cab with her.
“You can come with me on the bulldozer or watch here,” the man who turned on the excavator said. “We’re taking a video for Aden. I think the FBI is here, too.”
The man pointed to a non-descript woman holding a video camera.
“If this is what I think it is, I want to participate!” Tanesha said. “Yes I do.”
“Me, too,” Heather waddled after Tanesha.
The man helped the women up onto the bulldozer then took over in the driver’s seat.
“Ready?” Valerie said into her walkie-talkie.
The people on the ground moved away from the house.
“Are you ready, Sandy?” Valerie giggled.
“I guess so.”
Valerie drove the excavator up onto the lawn. She moved the arm near the exterior of the house.
“Go ahead, Sandy,” Valerie said.
“What am I doing?”
“You’re demolishi
ng your father’s house, the place you were so awfully hurt.” Valerie’s eyes were huge. For all of her actress ways, Valerie was one-hundred percent heart. “Just move the lever and the walls will fall. When you’re done, the bulldozer will scrape the mess. These folks will get all the destruction into the dumpster. In a couple of hours, you won’t know there was a house here.”
“Really?” Sandy bit her lip. “Why would you do this?”
“I think every woman knows what can happen to children. I’ve always been very lucky. But I’ve known a lot of women who weren’t so lucky. My college roommate killed herself because of her sexual abuse. I wanted you to… be able to have some real peace, start some healing. I know you’ve had therapy but I gave Aden a list of some good people. We’re going to get you on our insurance plan and you can get some professional support while you go through this.”
“Why would you do this? For me?”
“Because you matter. Because you deserve to have some justice for yourself. Because some things are too awful to standby and do nothing,” Valerie said. “Plus, this is going to be fun. Put on your mask!”
Sandy and Valerie put their dust masks on. Valerie swung the bucket of the excavator forward.
Smash! The bucket created a hole in the wall of the house. Sandy screamed, hooted, laughed and cheered. Heather, Tanesha and the crowd of employees cheered. Valerie maneuvered the bucket near another piece of the wall.
“Your turn!”
Sandy smashed the wall with the bucket, and then smashed it again. Within minutes they had demolished the exterior wall. The roof fell in. Valerie demolished the roof debris and the flooring. She backed up the excavator so the bulldozer could clear off the mess. The workers began clearing bricks, old furniture and everything the bulldozer didn’t carry into the dumpster.
“Ready for the next set of walls?”
Valerie drove the excavator close to the interior walls. She reached the arm over the wood floor interior next to the wall. Thinking this non-load bearing wall would fall over with one solid thump, Valerie lined the excavator bucket near the middle of the wall.
“Go ahead!” Valerie said.
Sandy thumped the wall. Unlike the exterior wall, this wall didn’t come apart.
“Go again!”
Sandy moved the bucket more quickly. The wall shimmied then seemed to sigh. A chunk of plaster slipped down to reveal metal sheeting underneath.
“That’s weird. Try again!” Valerie said.
The excavator bucket made its third contact. The wall seemed to bend forward, collapsing from the inside. A moment later, a stream of green paper flew up in the air. The paper caught a warm draft from the excavator exhaust and began flying all over the yard.
“Is that what I think it is?” Valerie asked into her walkie-talkie.
The workers ran forward to check.
“Hundred dollar bills!” came over the walkie-talkie. “There’s a million dollars here – minimum.”
“Did you know?” Valerie asked Sandy.
“He always said it was safer to keep his money at home,” Sandy said. “I didn’t know about the walls. Why would he sell the house?”
“He told his attorneys he had to get money out of the house to pay their fees,” Valerie said. “Guess they misinterpreted what he meant.”
Sandy laughed.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
In motion
Friday midday — 11:45 A.M.
Valerie skipped over to the limousine and slipped in the back. She threw her arms around Mike. Laughing, Mike kissed her cheek.
“You seem very happy and very dirty,” he said.
“I happen to be very happy and dirty.” She beamed at him. “Guess what my master secret plan was?”
“Tearing down half of Sandy’s father’s house?”
Laughing, Mike buckled Valerie’s seat belt. He tapped on the glass and the driver took off toward Denver International Airport.
“I wanted to tear the whole thing down but the FBI had other ideas,” Valerie laughed.
“What happened?”
“We found like a billion or so dollars in actual hundred dollar bills inside the walls of the house,” Valerie said.
“A billion dollars? What?”
“I don’t know exactly how much money. But a lot. Check this out. I’m there arguing with the FBI person about who owns the house and the money, when an armored car pulls up,” Valerie said.
“An armored car?”
“Sent by Jake,” Valerie said. “The Lipson people and the armored car guys had most of the money loaded before the agent could get an answer from his higher ups. By the time the FBI got there, the money was already off to the bank to be counted.”
“Why would Jake send an armored car?”
“Just thought we might need one,” Valerie repeated Jacob’s usual cover for his psychic abilities.
“He didn’t know anything yesterday,” Mike said.
“His skills are changing, strengthening,” Valerie said. “He’s gotten really powerful. How did it go at the Castle?”
“The big unveiling? Katy squealed, laughed, hopped around and begged Jill to bring Paddie to see. Jill cried when we said goodbye. Delphie made me take some brownies with us. I think everyone is going to miss us.”
“You,” Valerie said.
“Us,” Mike said. “You and me. Over the last months, we’ve become family. It’s been nice. For everyone.”
“I’m sorry to take you away from your family,” Valerie sniffed.
“Our family.” Mike stroked her face. “And we’re both going to Prague. You’ll be away from your family.”
“My family...” Valerie sighed. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. It’s been… nice. Dad was really sweet when I left. He told me he loved me and would look forward to seeing me soon. Nothing special but… it felt really good.”
Mike leaned over to kiss her but pulled back before their lips touched.
“When are you going to shower?” he asked.
“Airport VIP lounge.” Valerie laughed. “Wait ‘til you see how bad I smell on set. They strap me into some leather or plastic outfit with my breast pressed up to my chin then I jump around for twelve hours and…”
Glancing over at him, she caught his lust-filled look.
“I can hardly wait.”
~~~~~~~~
Friday afternoon — 2:11 P.M.
Aden cursed himself. He’d been so sure Nash would be able to return to school. After all, the assistant principal was in jail. The boy who Nash fought with all year was arrested for sexually assaulting at least four girls at school. Nash and his friend Teddy should have been able to get back to their classes.
He’d been so certain.
And he was so wrong.
He glanced over at Teddy’s father Zack Jakkman. Captain Jakkman was speaking to the principal in a near deadly tone. The principal was firm. The boys would not be allowed to go to school there this year and possibly never again.
“Let me get this straight,” Aden interrupted Zack. “You have a pedophile working here as an assistant principal and my son is still expelled?”
“Sir, these boys have had a lot of problems this year,” the principal said. “They’ve been in numerous fights. They were appropriately suspended for their behavior.”
“Nash got in fights after being harassed by a boy,” Aden said. “The boy who was arrested for sexually assaulting your students! Here! At school!”
“I’m not sure where you or Mr. Jakkman…”
“That’s Captain Jakkman, ma’am,” Teddy’s father said.
“Captain Jakkman. We are not here to talk about other children’s tragedies. We are here to talk about your out of control sons and their excessive use of violence. Is it possible Captain Jakkman that your son’s violent behavior is designed to get the attention of his absent soldier father?”
“I’m an Air Force pilot,” Zack said. “And no, it’s not possible. I can assure you if my son used violence, i
t was absolutely necessary.”
“That’s true for Nash too.”
“What do your surveillance videos show for the last fight?” Zack asked.
Zack Jakkman leaned back in his chair. Aden saw the confident look on the man’s face. Zack must have already seen the surveillance video.
“Unfortunately, the camera for that area is dysfunctional. We are looking into why it didn’t work during the fight.”
Zack shifted forward with surprise. He turned his head to look back at Aden and shook his head.
“Come on Norsen,” Zack stood from his chair. “Our kids deserve better than this.”
“They will not be able to attend Denver Pubic School for at least the rest of the year,” the principal said.
“What? Because of a pedophile?” Aden gulped back his rage.
“Because of their inappropriate behavior.”
“Come on, Norsen.”
Zack pushed Aden out of the room. Before Zack closed the principal’s office door, Aden said, “You’ll hear from us.”
Aden shook his head. The men walked down the hall in silence
“I’ll buy you a beer,” Zack said as they reached the entry hall.
“Sober,” Aden said.
“Coffee?” Zack laughed.
“Pie?” Aden smiled.
The men walked out the front of the middle school.
“God, I hated this age,” Zack said. “You?”
“I don’t remember much. I started smoking pot and drinking when I was ten. I was on my own at fifteen.”
“I remember it well enough for both of us. I had the hots for this girl. She was… yeah. She wouldn’t have anything to do with me. We were friends as kids. Once we hit puberty, she completely ignored me. I’m permanently scarred by the sights and sounds of middle school.”
Aden’s head jerked to Zack when Zack gave an exaggerated sniff and whipped an imaginary tear from his eye. They both laughed.
“What are you going to do?” Aden asked.
“Teddy can go to Catholic school. His Mom used the kid’s school money to buy drugs. That’s why he’s been in public school.” Zack shook his head. “Luckily, she’s not an issue anymore.”
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