by Ali Vali
“She had a gun, I saw it,” Kyle objected, before anyone accused him of any other wrongdoing.
“Agents Curtis and Simmons, take care of Agent Kyle and take possession of his weapon. If he resists, shoot him,” ordered George. He had seen the shock that took hold of Shelby’s features as she gazed past Kyle when Emma screamed.
Kyle stared at George and laughed at the absurdity of the situation. “You’ve finally lost it, George. We’re surrounded by a shitload of illegal liquor, and I’m the one in trouble? I don’t think so. This is my operation, old man, so you and your goons are free to leave. Jones, start inventorying the cargo in those semis.”
George motioned to his lead man. He had tried the easy way; now it was time to wrap up. A second later Kyle was on the ground and cuffed, with Rocky practically sitting on him to keep him down. Another one of George’s men read him his rights, ignoring the cursing and spitting coming from the big blond on the ground.
The government’s head attorney in the city squatted next to Kyle as the paramedics rushed in and spoke softly enough for only the agent to hear. “Barney, you’d better start praying now that she lives, because if she doesn’t, I’m going to bury you so deep you’ll be wishing for death.”
“Please, this is all a misunderstanding. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You shot an unarmed woman in the back in her place of business. I’d say that was plenty wrong. Take him in, and I’ll be along shortly.”
Cain was already loaded on the gurney when George got up. The fact that the three paramedics were still hooking up IVs and working furiously gave him some comfort. He hadn’t lied to the young people who had come to him earlier that day. Cain Casey was a friend to a lot of people, most of whom owed her more than they could pay back in a lifetime.
Twelve Years Earlier at Cain’s Warehouse
“Cain, you aren’t going to believe who’s on line one,” Mrs. Michaels, Cain’s assistant at the warehouse, said over the intercom. The woman had worked for Dalton for years and just kept coming to work when his daughter took over. Cain never questioned her presence, and the elderly woman kept her schedule and took her calls with meticulous care.
“Is it the police wanting me to turn myself in?”
“Close enough. It’s George Talbot.”
Cain picked up and accepted his invitation to play golf that afternoon. She didn’t question why or if George wanted something. A little ruse on her part ensured her conversation with George would be just between the two of them. Her constant shadows at the warehouse were still in the building across the street, thinking she was in-house. Not one of them noticed the bug exterminator truck that pulled out, or the fact that a different worker drove it.
On the fourth hole, as they drove out to take their second shots, George started talking. “Cain, do you have children?” He knew the answer, but it was easier to get the conversation started this way.
“I just recently started living with someone, sir, but I’m hoping she’s agreeable to a family someday. Family is something that’s very important to me. Do you and your wife have children?” She too knew the answer to the question, but it was an icebreaker to keep George talking.
“We have a daughter. Her name’s Monica, and she’s in the middle of her junior year at Mount Carmel Academy.”
Cain stopped their cart well short of the balls and pointed to a bench under a large oak tree. “That’s a beautiful name. Is she enjoying her year, getting ready for college and all that comes with growing up?”
“She was, and she seemed so happy until she met this guy. All I know is his name’s Eddie, and he dropped out of school last year before he graduated. The headmaster of his school told me he had been in some trouble before that, and they were going to expel him soon anyway.” George leaned forward and sighed like a man with a heavy burden. “When you become a parent, Cain, you discover a fine line between being too soft and having your child end up with someone like Eddie, or going too far in the other direction and having her hate you. Do you know what I mean?”
“Yes, sir. Times have changed. I don’t envy you having to deal with a teenager.”
“She’s missing, Cain. She left for school two days ago and never came back. Her mother and I’ve looked everywhere. We called all her friends, but no one knows where she is.” He dropped his head and grabbed two fistfuls of hair in frustration.
“Mr. Talbot, I feel like an idiot for asking, but shouldn’t you be talking to the authorities?”
“I would, but I’m afraid of what they’ll find. My career isn’t important here, so don’t think that, but we found some stuff in her room.” George stopped and stared up at her, hoping she would understand his dilemma and what he wanted for his daughter. “I want her to have a future without something always out there threatening to drag her down.”
“What sort of things did you find? I need to know what I’m up against.”
He described the bent spoon and needles, along with the rubber tubing that meant Monica was in big trouble, the kind you were led into and never escaped just by sheer will.
“Sir, I want you to do me two favors.”
“Anything.”
“I need a current picture.”
He pulled one from his shirt pocket.
“And I want you to go home and spend the afternoon with your wife. Do you think you could do that for me?”
George nodded and wanted to cry from relief.
“You go home and tell Mrs. Talbot not to worry. Monica’s going to be just fine. I promise you that on my honor. It’s going to take some time, but I’ll return your Monica to you.” Cain stressed “your Monica,” meaning she would return the girl the parents remembered before Eddie had sunk his claws into her.
Three months later an elderly Carmelite nun pulled up to the Talbot home with a very contrite and apologetic Monica Talbot. Sister Mary Jude explained to the tearful parents that their daughter had kept up with her schoolwork and was fine after her bout of the flu. Monica’s school was informed of her illness, and her teachers were anticipating her return the following Monday.
George never asked what had happened to Eddie, and his daughter never mentioned her time away. The thing—which didn’t surprise him—was that Cain never called to ask for any payment. The rehab center Sister Mary Jude was in charge of was effective but expensive, but no bill ever came to their house, nor was their insurance notified. When George called to take care of the bill, he was informed that no record existed for anyone named Monica Talbot.
The only reminder was the small bouquet of forget-me-nots that Monica received on her birthday, with no card attached. In her senior year George watched his daughter when he handed them over, thinking they were from a friend. She just stared for a long moment before dropping into the nearest chair. The flowers arrived religiously on every birthday, and after a few years, the scared expression turned from fear to almost comfort, the way she ran her fingers over the petals.
George surmised the flowers were from Cain, and like their name, she never forgot to send them. They symbolized something she didn’t want Monica to forget. The troubled girl took the lesson seriously and went on to graduate in the top one percent of her class, both in high school, then in college. In law school she was first in her class, and then started on a successful career in the district attorney’s office with no criminal record to hold back her career.
The young mother of four little boys, married to a cardiologist, bore no sign of being the teen who had run away from home. George remembered that afternoon when he had sat under the massive live oak with Cain, and how she had taken charge of getting his little girl back. This had been his opportunity to repay her kindness, and he felt like a failure. With the gravity of her wound, it was possible that no car would pull up to the Casey home and bring Cain back to Hayden.
“Gentlemen, Kyle was right about one thing. We need to inventory all this stuff before this group of drivers decides to go for a spin.” He pointed to the trucks lin
ed up along the docks.
The first truck was already open and a few of the crates unloaded. Lionel found the word ‘Sardines’ stenciled on the sides, just like Cain had said in the bunkhouse when she made the deal. When they demanded the next few trucks open their cargo doors, they found the same stash of crates, stenciled the same way. It was over. Kyle had made his case, but none of them felt much like celebrating.
*
“Call ahead, Murphy. Tell them to have an OR ready to go, and call the folks in the blood bank.” The woman nicknamed Tex was barking out orders as she ran alongside the gurney holding a compress to the hole in the front of Cain’s chest. Kyle’s shot had gone completely through, leaving a much larger exit wound and one hell of mess. The legs of the gurney folded under when they pushed Cain inside the ambulance, freeing Murphy to run for the driver’s side.
Tex let her other partner climb in next and was almost knocked down by the two women trying to follow him. “Hold up there. Where in the hell do you think you two are going?” The paramedic held her hands up and stood in the opening to keep anyone else from entering.
“That’s my partner in there. I’m coming with you,” said Emma. She looked dazed but deceptively calm, despite the fact that she was standing there covered in Cain’s blood.
“Ma’am, that’s our patient, and you need to give us some room to make sure she’s all right. I’d love to stand here and talk at length to you about it, but I don’t have the time. I’m sure one of the officers will be glad to give you a ride. You sure don’t need to be doing any driving.”
“Come on, Ms. Casey, I’ll take you.” Shelby put her hand on Emma’s shoulder and pulled her back so the ambulance doors could be closed.
The ride seemed to take an eternity as the two women followed the flashing lights of the large vehicle in front of them. Every so often Emma would look from the ambulance to the woman sitting beside her. The image of her comforting Cain was hard to erase as she took in the tight jaw muscles and worry lines across Shelby’s forehead.
“Can I ask your name?”
“I’m sorry. I’m Shelby Daniels.”
“Are you and Cain good friends?” It seemed ridiculous to have this conversation now, but she needed some reassurance of where she stood and what her role would be once they reached the hospital.
“We met just recently.” Shelby took a hand off the wheel and put it on Emma’s knee. “I work for the FBI, ma’am. That puts Cain and me in an awkward position for any romantic relationship, but it doesn’t make it impossible for us to be friends.” Friends who share some pretty nice kisses, but that’s all it’ll ever be.
Emma swiped at her veil of blond hair as she leaned forward a little. “I’m sorry. You probably think I’m just an idiot, but when I saw the two of you earlier I thought—”
“I know what you thought, ma’am, and like I said, Cain and I are merely friends. We got to know each other because Cain saved my life. If it weren’t for that, I’d probably only know her as the voice on the tapes we have.”
Needing some comfort, she put her hand over Shelby’s and looked up at the ambulance. “Do you think she’ll be all right?”
“I have faith Cain loves life more than anything. Giving up isn’t in her vocabulary, so maybe we should have the same belief in her. I think she’ll be just fine.”
Shelby and Emma left the car in the emergency room lot and ran in after the gurney. Tex was now on it, almost straddling her patient as she held an ambu bag over Cain’s face, pumping to keep her breathing. The sheet Cain was lying on was saturated, signaling them that the bleeding hadn’t stopped.
So much had already happened, but in reality the night was just beginning.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The doors of the exam room swung closed, and Shelby and Emma neither saw nor heard of Cain for hours. Coffee cups still full of bitter-tasting liquid sat before them untouched. An intern had taken Emma into another of their exam rooms and checked her for injury and shock. She had only a scratch on her side where the bullet had exited Cain and grazed her. Once she rejoined Shelby each, as if by silent agreement, took hold of the other’s hand and didn’t let go.
“I should call the house and ask Merrick to speak to Hayden.” Emma was dreading having to tell her son what had happened but felt he would want to be there supporting his mother.
“It’ll be okay, Ms. Casey. This wasn’t your fault.”
“Please call me Emma, and you don’t understand our son. He idolizes Cain, with good reason, I guess. She never abandoned him, not like I did.”
Shelby tightened her hold on Emma’s fingers and smiled. “You’re his mother and he needs you now, even though he’s bigger than both of us and might not think so.”
The cell phone Shelby was holding up looked almost frightening, but Emma rubbed her hands along her legs and accepted it.
“Casey residence.” Merrick’s voice sounded tight and cold from the waiting.
“Merrick, this is Emma.”
“Ms. Casey, Cain’s not home.”
“Could you put aside your feelings for a minute and listen? I know Cain’s not home, that’s why I’m calling. She was shot, Merrick, and she’s still in surgery. I need you to come and bring Hayden with you, but please bring extra protection. I promised Cain I’d look out for our son, and I need your help.” Her grip on the phone was making her hand cramp as she anticipated Hayden’s response.
“What hospital?”
She told her the name and where she and Shelby were seated.
“We’ll be there in ten minutes.”
The second hand of the large clock on the wall of the waiting room swept around with a low grinding noise thirteen times after she ended her call before Merrick, Hayden, and Mook filled up the small room by sheer presence. She stood up and prepared herself for whatever reaction Hayden was going to have. His poker-serious expression softened just a little when he saw the blood covering her blue dress.
“It’s not mine, Hayden. Don’t be afraid. I just don’t want to leave until I know Cain’s all right.”
“She said you were here to make things right between the two of you. Did you?”
She was surprised by the question, thinking that he would have asked about Cain before anything else. “To be totally honest, it’s going to take more than just one night to do that, but I’m hoping we’ll eventually get there. You may find it hard to accept, but Cain and I were the best of friends at one time, over and above the love we shared.”
“She told me that too. The nurse informed us on the way in that it’ll be another couple of hours, but Mom’s hanging in.” The information was the only comfort he gave her.
Ah, of course he would have stopped to ask. He’s Cain’s kid, after all. The woman could have done commercials for the Boy Scouts--always be prepared.
Emma knew Cain’s idea of being prepared meant getting all the information about any given situation. Hayden was no different. “Thank you, and thank you, Merrick, for getting him here so quickly.”
The room was small, granted, but Merrick had noticed how close the two were sitting. “Did you and Agent Daniels have lots to talk about before we got here?” She had already come up with two scenarios as to why Shelby was there—to either help finish Cain off or something more intimate.
“Agent Daniels was nice enough to give me a ride to the hospital from the warehouse.”
Hayden walked nearer to his mother and the other woman sitting right behind her. “You were there?”
“We both were, Hayden.”
“What happened?”
Riffling through her hair and taking out the pins that held only strands now, Emma took a deep breath. “It happened so fast that all I remember is standing next to Cain and then someone yelling at her to throw down her gun, which didn’t make any sense. You and I both know Cain doesn’t ever carry a gun.”
Behind Hayden, Merrick nodded in agreement. Cain didn’t need to carry a firearm. She was surrounded with them all the ti
me.
“Before I could react she grabbed me and swung around, and something knocked us both to the ground. When the lights came back on I realized it was the force of the bullet that knocked her off her feet. She saved my life.”
“It seems that every time she protects you from something, she loses big in the end, doesn’t it?” said Hayden.
The tears came when Emma faced such anger in her son. Any chance of reconciliation with Hayden was as slim as with Cain. “I’m sorry. I can’t say anything other than that. This may sound like an old cliché, but if I could trade places with her I would.” The sobs that were threatening came spilling out then, and she ran out to escape any other sarcastic comment he had.
“Wouldn’t it have been more effective to just slap her and get it over with?” Shelby asked him, never getting up from her seat.
“What do you know, lady? You’re just here to try and drag my mother down.”
“Check that attitude with me, Mr. Casey. I’m not Emma, and I’m not going to put up with it. Granted your other mom is in there fighting for her life, but I’m almost positive that if she were out here, she’d have slapped you down by now herself.”
It was remarkable to look into his eyes and find so much of Cain there. They held the intensity in their blue depths, and the same fire.
“Don’t come in here and spout off about things you know nothing about. My mother lets you see only what she wants you to see, and nothing more. Even you can’t be so stupid not to have figured that one out.”
“I’m not stupid, Hayden. I just heard what she told you in the restaurant tonight. You’re smart enough to know we’re always listening. ‘To be a man you have to respect your mother and your family.’ Isn’t that what she told you? One little setback and you have to lash out at the easiest target? One you know isn’t going to fight back. Maybe Cain’s right, and following her father’s rules does show what caliber of man you will become. But you act as immaturely as you just did, and people like me will finally break you.”