Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 04 - Jupiter Returns

by Peggy Holloway

  He sat looking at me and waiting with expectation in his eyes and I wanted so badly to tell him that he would never fool someone as intelligent as Michelle Obama.

  Jupiter walked up again and asked what we were talking about. “We’re not talking about anything,” I said, “Your friend here would rather flirt with me than learn anything I have to teach him.” I said.

  She called for everyone’s attention and screamed at everyone, like she felt totally out of control. She paced and ranted and raved while everyone looked on. I looked around and wondered how anyone working for her could think they could trust her.

  She had turned on everyone who had ever worked for her and she would use up human life, and throw it away, like it was a paper towel.

  CHAPTER 32

  Jupiter kept us working until after seven and then gave us supper. By the time we got back to our room it was after nine.

  We followed Tracy’s directions and stayed dressed. We propped up against the headboard and read until after midnight and we were getting very sleepy.

  We must have dozed off because the next thing I heard was a scrapping sound. It sounded like it was coming from the closet on Julia’s side.

  We jumped up to inspect, moving clothes aside to see what was happening in the back of the closet.

  I turned on the light inside the closet and closed the door. It was a huge walk-in and we had plenty of room. We sat down on the floor in the back of the closet and I noticed a seam along the baseboard about the width of a human hair.

  I reached over Julia and, with my fingernails, pulled at the baseboard. It swung down and there was a latch up under the hole created by the loss of the baseboard.

  When I pressed on the latch a big part of the wall opened like the trunk of a car. Burt Jamison was in there but was no longer wearing his pink uniform.

  He put his finger to his lips and motioned us inside. He handed each of us a small gun and whispered in our ears, “If you have to shoot, aim for the middle. Don’t try for a head shot.”

  It looked like a cave inside the wall, with passages going off in all directions. We crawled a ways farther and a wall opened off to the right and Tracy joined us. The passageway sloped down at a sharp angle and I realized we were moving toward the first floor. Another guard joined us, no longer in uniform. I recognized him as the guards who had told us not to talk the night before at supper.

  It was hard to see in the tunnels with only the light of the small flashlights Tracy and the two agents had flashlights, but I would have followed them in the dark.

  We continued to move in a downward direction and then we leveled off. Before the passageways had been like part of the house, with side made of wood and wooden floors, but now we were in dirt, like a real cave.

  We finally came to a dead end which turned out to be what looked like a well and there was a ladder going up. I could see the sky above and realized we were in a dry well.

  We climbed up the ladder and out. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust and then I could make out what looked like dozens of men and women in the bushes dressed in black with their faces painted black.

  Tracy told Julia and me to stay put as she motioned for the others to move forward. They crawled on their bellies toward the house while Julia and I tried to get comfortable sitting on the ground and leaning against the tree.

  I sat looking down at the gun in my hand and didn’t like the unhealthy direction my mind was going in. Right now I didn’t care how healthy it was. If they brought Jupiter out alive, I was going to kill her.

  They brought out each one separately surrounded by at least four agents and walked them to the black sedans parked a ways down the road.

  I saw them bring out the fake general, the fake president and the fake Tracy and I kept waiting for Jupiter. When I saw her I gasped.

  She was walking with Tracy in front of her and she was holding a large gun to Tracy’s head. The agents who weren’t already in the cars with the other prisoners were walking backward.

  Jupiter was screaming for them to drop their weapons but Tracy was ordering them to keep the weapons.

  What I did next wasn’t because I was trying to be a hero and my nerves were steady as a rock. I crawled on my belly all the way around the house until I ended up behind Jupiter.

  I had done this so fast that I don’t think Julia was aware I had left. I laid there with my left elbow on the ground and left hand holding my right wrist.

  “Hey, Jupiter,” I yelled and she spun around just as I fired. I aimed for her middle and she went down. Tracy kicked the gun out of her hand but she wasn’t moving.

  I stood and walked toward Jupiter and when I got above her Tracy was feeling her neck for a pulse.

  She told the men to call for an ambulance but they had apparently already done that. We heard the sirens before she finished her request.

  The bullet had gone under her right rib and exited through her back. Tracy was trying to stop the bleeding and I pointed to gun at Jupiter’s heart.

  “JUdith, no!” She said but I kept aiming the gun at Jupiter’s heart. As I thought about all the horrible things Jupiter had done I knew she didn’t deserve to live.

  Tracy kept her eye on me while holding her finger over the bullet wound, “You can’t kill her, Julia. She will be prosecuted and she will be put to death.”

  I snorted, “Yeah, like she was the last time? If she had been killed the last time, Ben would still be alive.”

  Tears were streaming down my face as I held the gun on Jupiter and all the time Tracy was begging me not to shoot, “I’m not begging for Jupiter’s life Judith. I’m begging for you. If you pull that trigger, it will do something to you. You will never be the same again.”

  I didn’t realize someone had come behind me but I was all of a sudden tackled from behind and the gun was taken away from me.

  I screamed as I fell to the ground and I looked up and saw Burt Jamison. I started using language like I didn’t know I knew. He laughed the whole time and it made me even angrier.

  “Believe me, Judith you don’t want to kill anyone,” he said as he helped me up. “It takes a long time to come to terms with taking another human life. I know what I’m talking about.”

  Tracy put her arms around me, “It’s true, Judith I’ve had to kill and it’s horrible to live with. I believe in what I do but there have been times when I didn’t know if I could go on after having to do some of the things I’ve had to do.”

  CHAPTER 33

  I couldn’t believe it was finally over. Jupiter was taken to the hospital and Burt Jamison and the rest of the guys went out to celebrate after Tracy told them they could do their paperwork tomorrow.

  Tracy, Julia and I just wanted to go home. As soon as we got out of the car, everyone ran out of the house including the kids.

  Julia ran into the arms of her professor, hugging and kissing him and calling him “Walt baby.” Tracy hugged and kissed Mark and seeing the two couples like that wrenched my heart.

  I hugged and kissed the kids and then Mimi had a tearful reunion with Julia and me. We gathered in the back den and everyone was talking at once and there were plenty of questions for Tracy especially.

  We waited until after the kids had been put back in bed and we had been served coffee before Tracy began to explain.

  “Umm, where to begin. Okay, Judith you didn’t like Burt Jamison right away and that gave us an idea. We suspected that Jupiter was watching you and we decided that Burt would be as obnoxious as he could so you wouldn’t like him.

  “Then he became unreliable, on purpose, and was supposedly kicked out of the FBI. We were hoping he would attract Jupiter. We figured she would grab him up and she did.”

  I was having a hard time making sense out of any of this, “Tracy, how did y’all know about the design of the house? How did you know there was all that crawl space throughout the house?”

  She laughed, “We chose the house. The house was designed and built a couple of years a
go for the FBI as a safe house. The crawl space was put in there to give added protection, as an escape route.”

  We looked at each other and Mark said, “Tracy, honey how did Jupiter come to be in that house?”

  Tracy laughed, “Jupiter got sloppy for the first time in her life. She trusted Burt to find a house large enough to carry out her plan. That part was just luck, pure and simple, for us.”

  I thought a moment then said, “I think by then Jupiter had reached such a high level of grandiosity that she thought she was like a god. It was her downfall. What was her plan, by the way?”

  “Her people have been smuggling terrorists in through Mexico from the middle east, mostly Afghanistan and Iraq. Most have been in the country for about as long as she was in Charters.

  “No wonder those who worked for her was scared of her. She had very long arms and still so many people working for her.

  “I believe she only turned over half of what she promised in exchange for the deal we gave her two years ago.”

  “I’m still worried about her pulling a fast one again, Tracy. Is someone guarding her at the hospital?”

  “Judith, we have four men guarding her.”

  “I want to see her, Tracy. No, don’t argue with me. I want to see her to confront her just like Julia confronted Mr. Reynolds. I deserve to confront her after what she’s done to our family.

  “Don’t the rest of you want to confront her?”

  Everyone was behind me and we left for the hospital immediately. We had had little or no sleep but we didn’t care. Julia was the only one who chose to stay home with “Walt Baby.”

  We were all talking at once on the way to the hospital when I suddenly noticed Tracy on the two-way. All conversation ended when we heard her say, “She what? Where were all the guards?”

  She was yelling over the radio, giving out instructions so fast it was hard to keep up with her, but I gathered from what I heard that Jupiter had once again escaped.

  Tracy broke all speed limits getting to the hospital, hitting the steering wheel and yelling.

  Mark put his hand on her arm, “Calm down, honey. You’ll get her again.”

  I looked over at Mimi and she was white as a sheet. Tracy came to a screeching halt just outside the emergency room and Wade Russell was standing there waiting for us.

  “Okay, everyone is to stay here with Wade except John and me,” Tracy called over her shoulder as they streaked past us.

  Wade hugged me and he felt good, like a shelter in a storm. Introductions were made and then I asked him what happened.

  “Well, a nurse went into to her room carrying a hypodermic needle and I figured it was a pain shot. She later came out and walked down the hall and got on the elevator.

  “There were four of us outside the room but we took turns going to the men’s room and getting coffee. I was just coming down the hall toward the room when I noticed the nurse get on the elevator.

  “She had a hypodermic in her hand and it didn’t look just right, I mean a nurse getting in the elevator with a needle in her hand.

  “I ran into the room and the nurse was in Jupiter’s bed with her head covered up. I threw the covers back and, if I hadn’t been prepared, she would have shot me in the face.

  “I grabbed her wrist and threw her to the floor while yelling for the others to stop Jupiter who was on the elevator.

  “We think she is still in the building. The FBI was smart enough to have guards posted at every exit. What we’re worried about is that she will take a one of the patients as a hostage.”

  As I listened to him my eyes were darting everywhere. Jupiter was a master of disguises and probably didn’t need a hostage.

  An old woman walked out of the emergency room door. She was wearing a heavy coat and a scarf on her head. It was April in Houston and although we could still get some cold fronts, it was too warm to be wearing a heavy coat.

  She kept her head down as she shuffled along past us. I didn’t take time to think at all, I just pushed Wade aside and dove on top of her. I could have been wrong and injured a poor old woman but I was very sure it was Jupiter.

  She was caught off guard and went down but recovered quickly and before Wade had time to react, she drove the needle into my neck and pushed in the plunger.

  I lost consciousness immediately.

  CHAPTER 34

  The first thing I heard was crying. Julia was crying and begging, “Judith, please come back to us. We love you!”

  I tried so hard to open my eyes but couldn’t and I heard someone say as I blacked out, “It’s up to her now. We’ve done everything we can.”

  It seemed like only a few minutes between when I was conscious enough to be aware of the voices and when I was in a black void and knew nothing.

  When I was finally able to open my eyes for the first time, I saw Wade Russell sitting in a chair close to my bed with his head on his chest. He was snoring.

  I was going to say something to get his attention but I realized something was stuck in my throat. I felt like I couldn’t breathe and I began to panic and the whole time Wade was sitting there snoring.

  I grabbed the bed railing and started shaking it. It finally woke him up. He jumped up and ran out of the room. When he returned, seconds later, a nurse was with him. She pulled the thing out of my throat and it hurt like crazy.

  She raised the head of the bed and Wade came over and stuck a straw in my mouth. I sucked the straw and felt the coolness of the water. The finest wine never tasted so good.

  “I’ll go call the family,” the nurse said and left the room.

  Wade bent over the bed and grinned from ear to ear. He was the most handsome man I had ever laid eyes on and I began to feel guilty about even looking at another man so soon after losing Ben.

  “We never had our lunch date,” he said.

  I looked out the window. It was dark out and I said, “Why don’t we go to breakfast today. It’s only a day late.”

  “More like six weeks late,” he said.

  I couldn’t believe it. It seemed like only a half a day at the most that I had been in the darkness.

  “Did you get Jupiter?”

  He glanced out the window even though I knew he couldn’t see anything out there, “We got her.”

  He had tears in his eyes when he looked back at me.

  “You’d better be glad you didn’t kill her before, Judith. It doesn’t make you feel good to kill someone even though you know they’re evil.”

  “You killed her?”

  “I had to. I’m on suspension with pay right now.”

  “She didn’t deserve to live, Wade. I wish I had been a better shot myself.”

  “I’ve been on the police force for sixteen years and have never had to kill anyone before. Can you believe that? I have to see a psychologist for another two weeks before they let me go back to work.”

  I felt bad for him, that killing Jupiter had hurt him, but I was glad she was dead. I was glad to see that Wade was so sensitive, like Ben.

  CHAPTER 35

  My family came in making a lot of noise and the nurse shushed them while smiling.

  They had even let Brad, Bettina and Trudy in but John and Rosa were missing.

  “They had to get back to New Orleans, Judith,” Tracy said when she saw me looking around. “John is on his way to Monroe Beach, Georgia. He was called on a case there.”

  It took a moment to register, “Wait a minute,” I said. “I went there as an FBI consultant a couple of years ago. That was when I still had my private practice and could only spare a few days.

  “There was a guy who called himself Twoon and got sexual satisfaction by slashing people on the beach. They called him the beachfront stabber. Don’t tell me he’s escaped too.”

  “No, he hasn’t and I don’t know why John is assigned there. There is trouble there and the Atlanta FBI asked for you but I told them you couldn’t go, that you were in a coma.”

  “I’m not in a coma now, Trac
y. I can go, I want to go.” I turned to Wade, “It has the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen. It is a beautiful little town.” Then I said to myself, “I need to go to get away. I deserve it.”

  Tracy and I argued back and forth until Brad spoke up, “Don’t be mad with Judith, Mommy. She’s been sick. I’m glad you’re better, Aunt Judith.”

  “I am too, Brad.” Everyone hugged me again and then I said, “When can I get out of here?”

  The doctor released me two days later and I was mad as a wet hen. He told me I had been injected with sodium pentathol which is sometimes used as a truth serum and is one of the three ingredients used for lethal injections.

  He said it was a good thing I had already been at the hospital because she had given me such a large dosage it could have killed me.

  Everyone has gone back to their own homes and Tracy and Mark are looking for a house to buy. Mimi and I don’t want them to leave and we’re hoping they will take Mimi up on her offer to let them rebuild behind the mansion.

  I’m still working with Bettina and she’s doing better every day. Tracy is very secretive about what’s going on in Monroe Beach and we’re still arguing about me going there. It must be a dangerous case.

  I see Wade from time to time but have kept him at arm’s length. We will have lunch but that’s it. We haven’t even kissed yet.

  Jesse and Arnold have announced they will be married in June and Mimi wants them to live in the mansion and still work for her.

  I still grieve over Ben’s death and still have guilt but Dr. Anna is helping me with that and it’s getting better. I’m looking forward to another case and wish Tracy would let me go to Monroe Beach, Georgia. We’ll see.

  ###

  About the author

  After retiring from three major careers, I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing. I had read one to two books a day for over forty years and decided I could write too. This is the fourth Judith McCain thriller. I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Look for my self-help book, The Answers Are Within, my suspense novel,Double Shock, and my science fiction/fantasy, 3037, and the final Judith McCain novel, Monroe Beach.