Borderline

by Joseph Badal

  But the meeting needed to happen. Weeks had passed. Barbara had attended three AA meetings, had kept up her exercise regimen, and had shed even more weight. What she hadn’t been able to shed was the guilt she carried because of the way she had used Marge to get at Victoria Comstock’s murderer. She anticipated Marge wouldn’t talk with her, but she had to make the attempt.

  The private psychiatric facility where Connie had been admitted was on Albuquerque’s far north side. Barbara had learned that Marge, with the assistance of a court order obtained by her attorney, Bill McWilliams, had gotten Connie admitted against the girl’s will. McWilliams had told Barbara that Marge spent twelve hours or more every day at the facility, just hanging out, in the hope of a breakthrough with her daughter. So far, nothing.

  “You sure you want to do this alone?” Susan asked Barbara outside the psychiatric facility. “I mean, it’s Friday the thirteenth, and all.”

  “Friday the thirteenth,” Barbara muttered. “That’s the least of my concerns.”

  “You want me to go with you?”

  “No, but thanks.” She got out of the car and walked inside.

  Barbara found Marge seated in the solarium, her back to the room. She seemed to stare out at the mountains, which had turned watermelon-pink as the setting sun cast its last rays of the day. The room seemed to have a spiritual aura. Barbara felt as though she had entered a church. She padded toward Marge and cleared her throat. Marge turned her head. A sudden fire sparked in Marge’s eyes, but it didn’t spread to the rest of her face, which had sagged. The hollowness in her cheeks, the dark circles around her eyes, an overall apparent lack of concern for her appearance, all spoke volumes about how recent events had impacted her. She had always impressed Barbara as a “put together” woman, a gorgeous outdoors type who could turn heads without effort. Now, she just looked well past her prime.

  “You’re the last person I expected or wanted to see.”

  “Can I speak with you for a minute?”

  Marge hesitated, then pointed at a chair a few feet away.

  Barbara tried to get comfortable in the chair, but she couldn’t do so while Marge stared icily at her. “I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about the way things worked out,” Barbara said. “I never wanted anyone to get hurt. I just wanted to catch a killer.”

  Marge relented. She looked down, then up again, and shook her head as though to clear it of bad memories. “I just hope the rest of my life is better than the last several months have been. I thought my husband’s infidelity and his suicide was as bad as it could get. I was wrong.”

  “How’s Connie?”

  Marge hesitated, as though she didn’t want to discuss Connie with Barbara. But the moment passed. “They’ve got her on medication. She’s improving. She no longer thinks I’m the anti-Christ, but I wouldn’t say our relationship is ideal.”

  “I’m—”

  “Why don’t we stop this dance?” Marge interrupted. “Shawn told me a couple of things. He explained how you and your partner always felt I was innocent, despite the fact I had motive and that I wasn’t completely forthcoming about going out to the Comstock place the night Victoria was murdered. And he told me what he did to you. And how you felt about him. I don’t know what the hell he was thinking, but he must have lost his mind. That had to hurt.”

  Barbara opened her mouth to respond, but Marge held up a hand, palm out.

  “Let me finish. But what hurts even more than anything you experienced is what has happened to my family. My mother’s in a nursing home as a result of the stroke she suffered. I put that on you. My father’s depressed to the point he can’t function. I have no desire to ever see you or talk with you again. I would be grateful if you left now.”

  Barbara slowly stood and hiked her handbag onto her shoulder. She wanted to get the hell out of here. But she couldn’t do it. She had one more thing to say to Marge. “How’s your daughter’s manic depression?”

  Marge’s face went red and her eyes narrowed to slits. She looked as though she was about to yell something, but Barbara preempted her.

  “I checked, Marge. Manic depression is very often hereditary. It commonly shows itself when the child of a manic depressive reaches his or her teenage years. Joseph Alban was manic depressive. So’s Connie. But I suspect you’re not. With what you’ve been through, if you had the condition, you would probably have shot yourself by now. And Shawn isn’t either.”

  “So what?” Marge growled.

  “You lied to Shawn, didn’t you? Connie’s not his daughter. Her father was Joseph Alban. You used Shawn as badly as he used me.”

  Marge seemed to crumble. She sagged in her chair and dropped her face in her hands.

  Barbara turned away and walked out of the solarium to the sound of Marge’s sobs. The room had gone dark, now that the sun was down. She moved into the brightly-lit main corridor and caught her reflection in a ceiling-to-floor window. She liked what she saw.

  Susan was parked right in front of the entrance. When Barbara got in, Susan asked, “How’d it go?”

  “Not good, not bad.”

  “Want to grab a bite to eat?”

  Barbara felt herself blush. “Nah, I’ve got a date.”

  Susan smiled mischievously. “It’s the lieutenant; I knew it.”

  Barbara laughed. “Give me a break, will ya? I already told you he’s not my type. Besides, I learned a long time ago not to mess in my own sandbox.”

  “So, give; who is it?”

  Barbara swallowed, anticipating Susan’s reaction. “Bill McWilliams.”

  “That guy’s a lech! He goes through women like a baby goes through Pampers. He likes his women buxom, long-legged, and vacant between the ears.”

  “Well, two out of three ain’t bad,” Barbara said.

  Susan laughed “Just remember that Billy is a defense attorney; that makes him the enemy.”

  “Thanks, Mom. Now take me home. I gotta make myself presentable.”

  Susan grinned at her. “You go girl.”

  EPILOGUE

  I know where I am. But I don’t know why I’m here. People come in and out and tell me I had a stroke. But I don’t have a clue what that means. There’s an old scrawny woman in a bed on the other side of my room. All she does is either moan or sing off key some song I don’t recognize. I would like to roll over so I don’t have to look at that old crone. Besides, my hip hurts. There’s a man dressed in a white shirt and white pants leaning over her now. I can’t tell what he’s doing or what he’s saying to her.

  I am awful tired. I tell the man in white that I’m thirsty but he doesn’t seem to hear me. Something wet is on my lips and it’s snaking its way to my cheek. I try to wipe it away but I can’t find my hands. Now my eyes feel wet, too. I think I’m crying but I’m not certain what that means either. I close my eyes but the wetness just gets worse.

  Something touches my shoulder and I try to see what it is. It takes a while, but I open my eyes and see a woman with a wonderful smile. She takes something and wipes my face. It feels good. She smiles at me again and I smile back. I think.

  “Hey, Mom,” the woman says. “It’s Marge. How ya doin’ today?”

  There’s something familiar about the woman. I know her name. She called me “Mom” but that makes no sense.

  “I wanted to let you know that Dad will come to visit you this afternoon,” she says.

  “Da?” I say. I don’t know who Dad is.

  “Connie’s doin’ better,” the woman says.

  Connie! I know Connie. As though a fog lifts and a bright light shines in my head, I remember Connie. I see a pretty face with large brown eyes. There’s an earring in Connie’s eyebrow. I don’t like that, but what can you do? And then I feel a shudder wrack my body and the light in my head seems to get even brighter.

  “What’s the matter, Mom?” the woman says.

  I try to smile again but I can’t tell if that’s what I do. The shudder goes away and warmth floods through me as
a woman’s face enters my head. It’s a beautiful face, with blonde hair and blue eyes. But there’s something wrong with it. It takes me a moment to realize that the woman’s eyes have no life in them. The name Victoria then enters my head and a peaceful feeling overwhelms me. I don’t quite understand why this is so.

  The woman who calls herself Marge takes my hand and presses it to her mouth. I like that. I want to tell her how nice she is but the image of the beautiful room in my head won’t go away. And then I see that beautiful woman scream. She’s covered in blood. Her lips are curled back and her teeth are bared. Something is stuck in her stomach.

  I don’t know why, but I suddenly feel wonderful, happy. I try to reason it out but it just won’t come. Maybe that’s what they mean when they tell me I had a stroke. A name runs around my brain: Victoria. Victoria. Victoria. Then the word “dead” comes to mind, and I know without a doubt I have never been happier.

  THE END

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Prior to a long finance career, including a 16-year stint as a senior executive and board member of a NYSE-listed company, Joseph Badal served for six years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army in critical, highly classified positions in the U.S. and overseas, including tours of duty in Greece and Vietnam, and earned numerous military decorations.

  He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in business and graduated from the Defense Language Institute, West Coast and from Stanford University Law School’s Director College.

  Joe now serves on the boards of several companies.

  He is the author of eight published suspense novels, including “The Lone Wolf Agenda,” released in 2013 and named the top Mystery/Thriller novel in the 2013 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards competition, and “Ultimate Betrayal,” released in 2014 and named the Tony Hillerman Award Winner for Fiction in the 2014 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards competition. “Borderline” is his first mystery.

  He also writes a monthly blog titled Everyday Heroes, and has written short stories published in the “Uncommon Assassins,” “Someone Wicked,” and “Insidious Assassins” anthologies.

  Joe’s next novel, “Death Ship,” the fifth in his Danforth Saga, will be released in October 2015.

  Joe has written dozens of articles that have been published in various business and trade journals and is a frequent speaker at business, civic, and writers’ events.

  “EVIL DEEDS”

  DANFORTH SAGA (#1)

  “Evil Deeds” is the first book in the Bob Danforth series, which includes “Terror Cell” and “The Nostradamus Secret.” In this three book series, the reader can follow the lives of Bob & Liz Danforth, and of their son, Michael, from 1971 through 2011. “Evil Deeds” begins on a sunny spring day in 1971 in a quiet Athenian suburb. Bob & Liz Danforth’s morning begins just like every other morning: Breakfast together, Bob roughhousing with Michael. Then Bob leaves for his U.S. Army unit and the nightmare begins, two-year-old Michael is kidnapped.

  So begins a decades-long journey that takes the Danforth family from Michael’s kidnapping and Bob and Liz’s efforts to rescue him, to Bob’s forced separation from the Army because of his unauthorized entry into Bulgaria, to his recruitment by the CIA, to Michael’s commissioning in the Army, to Michael’s capture by a Serb SPETSNAZ team in Macedonia, and to Michael’s eventual marriage to the daughter of the man who kidnapped him as a child. It is the stops along the journey that weave an intricate series of heart-stopping events built around complex, often diabolical characters. The reader experiences CIA espionage during the Balkans War, attempted assassinations in the United States, and the grisly exploits of a psychopathic killer.

  “Evil Deeds” is an adrenaline-boosting story about revenge, love, and the triumph of good over evil.

  “TERROR CELL”

  DANFORTH SAGA (#2)

  “Terror Cell” pits Bob Danforth, a CIA Special Ops Officer, against Greek Spring, a vicious terrorist group that has operated in Athens, Greece for three decades. Danforth’s mission in the summer of 2004 is to identify one or more of the members of the terrorists in order to bring them to justice for the assassination of the CIA’s Station Chief in Athens. What Danforth does not know is that Greek Spring plans a catastrophic attack against the 2004 Summer Olympic Games.

  Danforth and his CIA team are hampered by years of Congressionally mandated rules that have weakened U.S. Intelligence gathering capabilities, and by indifference and obstructionism on the part of Greek authorities. His mission becomes even more difficult when he is targeted for assassination after an informant in the Greek government tells the terrorists of Danforth’s presence in Greece.

  In “Terror Cell,” Badal weaves a tale of international intrigue, involving players from the CIA, the Greek government, and terrorists in Greece, Libya, and Iran—all within a historical context. Anyone who keeps up with current events about terrorist activities and security issues at the Athens Olympic Games will find the premise of this book gripping, terrifying, and, most of all, plausible.

  “Joe Badal takes us into a tangled puzzle of intrigue and terrorism, giving readers a tense well-told tale and a page-turning mystery.”

  —Tony Hillerman, New York Times bestselling author

  “THE NOSTRADAMUS SECRET”

  DANFORTH SAGA (#3)

  This latest historical thriller in the Bob Danforth series builds on Nostradamus’s “lost” 58 quatrains and segues to present day. These lost quatrains have surfaced in the hands of a wealthy Iranian megalomaniac who believes his rise to world power was prophesied by Nostradamus. But he sees the United States as the principal obstacle to the achievement of his goals. So, the first step he takes is to attempt to destabilize the United States through a vicious series of terrorist attacks and assassinations.

  Joseph Badal offers up another action-packed story loaded with intrigue, fascinating characters and geopolitical machinations that put the reader on the front line of present-day international conflict. You will be transported from a 16th century French monastery to the CIA, to crime scenes, to the Situation Room at the White House, to Middle Eastern battlefields.

  “The Nostradamus Secret” presents non-stop action in a contemporary context that will make you wonder whether the story is fact or fiction, history or prophesy.

  “ “The Nostradamus Secret” is a gripping, fact-paced story filled with truly fanatical, frightening villains bent on the destruction of the USA and the modern world. Badal’s characters and the situations they find themselves in are hair-raising and believable. I couldn’t put the book down. Bring on the sequel!”

  —Catherine Coulter, New York Times bestselling author of “Double Take”

  “THE LONE WOLF AGENDA”

  DANFORTH SAGA (#4)

  With “The Lone Wolf Agenda,” Joseph Badal returns to the world of international espionage and military action thrillers and crafts a story that is as close to the real world of spies and soldiers as a reader can find. This fourth book in the Danforth Saga brings Bob Danforth out of retirement to hunt down lone wolf terrorists hell bent on destroying America’s oil infrastructure. Badal weaves just enough technology into his story to wow even the most a-technical reader.

  “The Lone Wolf Agenda” pairs Danforth with his son Michael, a senior DELTA Force officer, as they combat an OPEC-supported terrorist group allied with a Mexican drug cartel. This story is an epic adventure that will chill readers as they discover that nothing, no matter how diabolical, is impossible.

  “A real page-turner in every good sense of the term. “The Lone Wolf Agenda” came alive for me. It is utterly believable, and as tense as any spy thriller I’ve read in a long time.”

  —Michael Palmer, New York Times bestselling author of “Political Suicide”

  “THE PYTHAGOREAN SOLUTION”

  STAND-ALONE THRILLER

  The attempt to decipher a map leads to violence and death, and a decades-long sunken treasure.

  When American John Hammond arrives on the Aegean island
of Samos he is unaware of events that happened six decades earlier that will embroil him in death and violence and will change his life forever.

  Late one night Hammond finds Petros Vangelos lying mortally wounded in an alley. Vangelos hands off a coded map, making Hammond the link to a Turkish tramp steamer that carried a fortune in gold and jewels and sank in a storm in 1945.

  On board this ship, in a waterproof safe, are documents that implicate a German SS Officer in the theft of valuables from Holocaust victims and the laundering of those valuables by the Nazi’s Swiss banker partner.

  “Badal is a powerful writer who quickly reels you in and doesn’t let go.”

  —Pat Frovarp & Gary Shulze, Once Upon A Crime Mystery Bookstore

  “ULTIMATE BETRAYAL”

  STAND-ALONE THRILLER

  Inspired by actual events, “Ultimate Betrayal” is a thriller that takes the reader on an action-packed, adrenaline-boosting ride, from the streets of South Philadelphia, through the Afghanistan War, to Mafia drug smuggling, to the halls of power at the CIA and the White House.

  David Hood comes from the streets of South Philadelphia, is a decorated Afghanistan War hero, builds a highly successful business, marries the woman of his dreams, and has two children he adores. But there are two ghosts in David’s past. One is the guilt he carries over the death of his brother. The other is a specter that will do anything to murder him.