B00CCYP714 EBOK

by Bradshaw, R. E.

  She returned a broad smile and gestured toward the front door. “Welcome to our home.”

  Chapter Nine

  Katie met them at the door.

  “Welcome, Colonel Asher,” she said, and then stood on her tiptoes to kiss Rainey on the cheek. “After you put your weapons away, Rainey, Mack has something to show you.”

  “Thank you for having me,” Colonel Asher said, though it was not really his choice.

  He gave Rainey a quizzical look over the weapons comment. Rainey pointed at a brass sign on the foyer table, which read, “All weapons must be checked at the door.” He took out his pistol, dropped the clip, and cleared the chamber, before handing it over to Rainey. Katie, who was nearly bouncing with excitement, grabbed Rainey’s hand as soon as she closed the gun safe, pulling her toward the den, with the colonel following.

  When Rainey reached the top of the two steps down into the den, she could see the grandmothers standing, watching the triplets. Gunny was sitting on the couch and everyone was grinning from ear to ear. Weather, Timothy, and Mack were hanging on to the coffee table, balanced on wobbly legs. Their heads turned simultaneously, as their mothers entered the room.

  Katie opened the baby gate and stepped down into the den. “Come on,” she said, urging Rainey to hurry. She dropped to her knees at the bottom of the steps and smiled at the triplets.

  Rainey followed Katie down to the floor, anticipating what she thought would happen next. She smiled at her children. Mack turned toward her and dropped his grip from the table. Rainey held out her hands, encouraging him. “Come on, Mack. Walk over here.”

  Mack was the largest of the triplets, thick and strong. He had been flirting with his first steps for a few weeks. His face broke into a wide smile, as he threw his right foot out in front of him, and then he toddled over into her arms, his momentum flinging him into Rainey’s chest, while he giggled with delight.

  “Well, look at you, big guy,” Rainey said, laughing.

  Weather let go of the table and tried to follow Mack, but only made it a few steps before toppling over and crawling the rest of the way. Timothy held on the longest, choosing to drop to his diaper-cushioned butt, before following his siblings into Rainey’s lap. All the adults were laughing and clapping, while Rainey squeezed her children into a hug that ended with her rolling in the floor with giggling babies crawling over her. If only she could freeze these moments, keep the world out and simply love her family. Awash in baby giggles and “Nee nee nees,” Rainey could not imagine life without the family she never thought she would have.

  Katie kissed her on the forehead, and stood up. “Play with the kids while I put dinner on the table. Then you can go off to your office to plot and plan.”

  Rainey watched her walk away, still unable to believe Katie was hers, these children were hers, and this was their home, their lives. She looked up at the colonel and was reminded that the other shoe could always drop. He stood there smiling at her children, but there was sadness in his eyes. He no doubt was remembering his own little girl’s first steps.

  From her position flat on her back, with a baby on her chest and the other two trying to pile on, Rainey made the introductions. “Colonel Patrick Asher, this is my mother, Constance Herndon.”

  Constance stepped forward, extending her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Colonel. I am so sorry about your daughter.”

  Rainey indicated the older version of Katie. “And this is Katie’s mother, Melanie Meyers.”

  Melanie stepped forward to shake the colonel’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Colonel. I, too, am sorry to hear about your daughter. You’ve come to the right woman for help. Rainey saved my Katie. I will always be grateful for that.”

  Gunny stepped forward. Rainey nodded in her direction. “Colonel, this is retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant Naomi Pierce.”

  Gunny shook the colonel’s hand with a strong grip. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir,” she said. “Just call me Gunny.”

  “The pleasure is mine, ladies,” the colonel said.

  Rainey sat up, holding out Weather to the colonel. She did not know anyone that could be sad while holding the little strawberry blonde with green eyes. Rainey’s daughter was a charmer and she knew it.

  “Here, hold her a sec, while I wrangle these two brutes,” she said with a grin.

  The colonel looked shocked at first, and then took Weather into his arms. He smiled at her and she smiled back. Weather seemed to be searching his eyes, as she touched his face, and then nuzzled under his chin. Yes, Rainey’s girl was a charmer and she melted the sad man’s heart.

  “Isn’t she the sweetest thing,” Melanie said.

  Constance chuckled. “She’s just like Rainey was, very in tune with people. She always seemed to know what people were feeling, even as a baby.”

  The colonel patted Weather’s back, hugging her to him. “What’s your name little one?” He asked, as Weather leaned back and tried to stick her fingers in his mouth, studying his face.

  Rainey remained in the floor, a giggling baby boy under each arm, and introduced her children. “That’s Weather, and this is Mack and Timothy.”

  The colonel looked over at Rainey. “You have a beautiful family.”

  “Thank you, Colonel. We got a late start and there were all these bedrooms, so we had them all at once.”

  The colonel handed Weather back to Rainey. “Spend some time with your children. It passes so quickly. I need to talk to my wife. I’ll step into the hall.”

  “Come with me, Colonel. I’ll show you where you can have some privacy,” Melanie offered, escorting the colonel out of the room.

  Weather wriggled out of Rainey’s arms to stand in front of her, using Nee Nee’s chest for balance, while babbling a series of sounds. Mack hung off Rainey’s right shoulder bobbing up and down, doing a dance to his own drummer, and occasionally jabbering back at his sister. Timothy knelt on her left, completely engrossed in one of Rainey’s pants pockets. While her children used her for an activity center, Rainey turned her attention to Gunny.

  “I understand you were not happy about your weapon being seized.”

  “No ma’am, I was not,” Gunny responded, with more than a hint of military in her tone. “As I explained to the officers, the warrant was for your weapons, not mine. I also explained that I was on protection detail.”

  “A legitimate argument,” Rainey commented, waiting for the rest.

  “Your lawyer told me the warrant read all firearms on the premises, including the garage, so I was not given much choice in the matter. Your wife then subjected me to an interrogation, as to why my weapon was out of the safe. I regret to inform you that you are in deep shit, boss.” She quickly added, “Sorry, deep guano.”

  Rainey smiled at her. “We’re going to have to work on your weapon- hiding skills.”

  “Oorah, boss. And may I add, I can see why you don’t like to cross her.”

  “Hands on her hips, huh?” Rainey asked, able to imagine exactly what Katie looked like when she questioned Gunny, and fully expecting to see it herself again, very soon.

  “When she gets going, you can’t get a word in there, can you?”

  Rainey chuckled. “No, you really can’t.”

  Gunny winced in pain and her hand shot to her temple.

  “Are you all right?” Rainey asked.

  “Just a headache. If you don’t mind, while you’re here, I’m going to lie down for a bit.”

  “Are you sure you’re okay? I could call Junior, so you can go home,” Rainey suggested.

  “No, no, he’s with Mackie. I’ll be fine. I just need to close my eyes for a minute or two,” Gunny said, still rubbing her temple.

  “Really, if you need to go home, I can find someone else to stay here.”

  Gunny hated her disability, and that’s what these headaches were. They ended her military career, the only life she had known since the age of eighteen. Rainey saw flashes of brain injury behavior, moodiness, irritability, bu
t Gunny tried to maintain an even keel. She disliked having someone ask her if she needed to rest. Gunny prided herself in showing no weakness. Rainey should have remembered that.

  Gunny’s reply had an edge to it. “If you don’t think I can take care of your family, then maybe you should call someone else.” As soon as it was out of her mouth, she apologized. “I’m sorry. I just need a few minutes.”

  “No problem. Go rest. I’ll tell Katie to save you some dinner.”

  After politely excusing herself, Gunny left the room, leaving Rainey alone with her mother and the triplets. She was trying to extricate her tightly clasped breast from one of Weather’s tiny hands without losing skin, when Constance started speaking.

  “Are you all right, Rainey? You seem rather calm in midst of the current tempest surrounding you.”

  Prying Weather’s little fingers from her shirt, Rainey said, “I think I may be mellowing with age.”

  Constance chuckled, and took a seat on the end of the couch near Rainey and the children. “You, mellow? That would be a first. Beware the raging current beneath the smooth surface, I’d say.”

  Rainey grinned at her mother. “That’s your tax dollars at work. They train us well at Quantico. Emotional involvement precludes brain function.”

  “You know, when you grin like that, you look just like your father. I’m not sure you have a single strand of my DNA.”

  Rainey’s smile grew. “Dad always said I reminded him of you when I was mad.”

  Katie’s mother stuck her head around the corner. “Food’s on the table.”

  Rainey handed Weather to her mother, stood, and took a boy into each arm, thinking she had gotten away with that shot across the bow.

  Her mother, following closely behind her to the dining room, was not about to let that pass. After all, it was at the knees of Constance and her grandmother, Martha Lee, where Rainey learned the art of retort.

  Constance said softly, “Well played, Caroline.”

  “Touché, Connie,” Rainey said, smiling over her shoulder.

  “Billy Bell, as I live and breathe,” her mother said, sighing.

  They both started laughing and headed into family dinner. Like resigning from the FBI, falling in love with Katie, and becoming a parent, sitting down to dinner with Constance and being happy about it was something Rainey never imagined. She smiled, hugging the boys closer. Yes, she was a swirl of raging currents underneath, but for these precious moments, Rainey was determined to float peacefully on the surface with her family.

  #

  “This is going to be good.”

  Those were his parting words to Bladen. He left her suspended from the picquet, one wrist attached to a bar above her head, her opposite foot on a blunted stake on the floor. It was blunted, but sharp enough to cause severe pain if she tried to relieve the strain on her wrist. He told her this form of punishment was used on soldiers in medieval Europe. It would not kill her, unless he left her there for days. He knew this because he had done it to one of his first conquests, as he called them. Bladen was being disciplined for kicking him in the ribs when he unbuckled her leg from the rack. She did not care at that point if the kick made him angry. She had decided she was going to take one good shot at this guy before he killed her. She saw her chance and took it. Instead of anger, he was pleased that she still had some fight left in her, after the torture he just administered.

  He laughed at her, even though she was sure she hurt him. “I guess you didn’t like that last little ass fuck. Maybe another session with the Pear will make it easier for you.”

  Bladen screamed in rage and tried to kick him again, but this time he jumped out of the way. His fist to her jaw was the quick response. While she was still dazed from the blow, he removed her from the rack, dragging her by her hair to the picquet.

  “I see some discipline is in order while I’m out. I’d love to stay and see to your correction personally, but this will have to do until I get back. I don’t want to miss the show,” he said, as he pulled the rope tight around her wrist.

  “You’re fucking insane,” Bladen shouted.

  “No, I’m not. I’m quite sane. I just don’t give a fuck.”

  #

  After dinner, Rainey retired to her office with the colonel. The first thing she did was look to see if the .38 was still secreted away. It was.

  The colonel chuckled. “They missed one, eh?”

  Rainey smiled back at him. “Only you, me, and my deceased father know about this. Let’s keep it that way.”

  “I take it Katie would not approve.”

  It was Rainey’s turn to chuckle. “Oh no, she would hit the ceiling if she knew this was in here. My philosophy is what she doesn’t know doesn’t hurt.”

  The colonel shook his head. “Word of advice from an old married man, that philosophy will get you a night or two on the couch.”

  “I’ll remember you said that,” Rainey said with a wink.

  She crossed to her desk and sat down, where she attempted to make contact with her satellite image source. She received only a standard recorded message stating Brooks was out of the office, which was highly unusual, both in style and content. Rainey sent an encrypted email requesting a new satellite image for the GPS coordinates she supplied, and waited for a reply.

  “She might be out of the office,” Rainey explained to the colonel, “but she is never far from her email.”

  Curious about the videos on the flash drive Sheila gave her, she plugged it into the computer and clicked on the file labeled “Hospital Security.” A video of the emergency room waiting area began to play. Rainey recognized the moment, because she saw herself stand and hug her stepfather. She stopped the video and restarted it, this time watching the other people in the room.

  Looking over her shoulder, the colonel pointed at the screen. “There. See that guy. He’s watching you.”

  Rainey restarted the video again. Leaning on the wall near the entrance of the waiting area, a man was focused on her, while pretending to be engrossed in his phone. She actually saw him snap the picture that ended up on the Triangle Lesbian blog minutes later. Regrettably, Rainey could not see his face. The stalker/blogger was concealing his identity with a baseball cap and seemed to know right where the security cameras were. Rainey replayed the video, this time catching a glimpse of Martin Douglas Cross, the writer, standing on the other side of the exterior wall of windows, looking in on the scene. She was pondering that, when the video skipped forward to another short clip attached at the end. Rainey forgot all about the writer.

  “Gotcha!” she said with delight, as she watched Cookie Kutter give the stalker money. Rainey still could not see his face, but she clearly saw him hand Cookie a flash drive.

  “I assume this is good news,” the colonel commented.

  “You have no idea how good,” Rainey said. “I’m about to send a copy of this to my lawyer and then I’m going to watch Cookie crumble.”

  Rainey saved a copy of the video to her hard drive and then sent an email to Molly with the video attached. She wrote, “Make an appointment with the judge,” in the subject line, and “See attached,” in the body of the message. Uncharacteristically, Rainey added a smiley face icon at the end. As an afterthought, she wrote, “I want this guy’s name, whatever it takes.”

  She checked to see if Brooks had responded to her earlier email and then opened the second file on the flash drive. The view from a patrol car’s dashboard camera popped on the screen as the video began to play. The patrol unit was parked behind Rex King’s unmarked vehicle.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Rainey whispered, as she watched Rex hand her Glock to Martin Douglas Cross.

  Rex then exited the vehicle, leaving Cross alone with Rainey’s weapon. The video went on for several minutes, as Rainey stared in disbelief. Three minutes and thirty-two seconds into the video, Cross exited the car.

  “Reasonable doubt,” the colonel commented. “Probably ought to send your lawyer a copy of that
one too.”

  Rainey agreed. This time she simply wrote in the subject line, “We need to talk.”

  She then clicked on the images of the shell casing, noting the markings left by the weapon that fired it. She was zooming in on the image, when her phone rang. Rainey did not look at the caller ID, assuming it was Molly calling.

  “That was fast,” she said into the phone.

  “No kidding,” Sheila said. “How did you know?”

  “Sorry, I thought you were Molly. What’s happened?” Rainey asked.

  “I’m on my way back to the office. Just pulled into the parking garage,” Sheila said, excitement speeding her words. “They patched a call through to my cell phone. It was him, the killer.”

  “What makes you so sure? What did he say?” Rainey asked, knowing so many nuts inserted themselves in investigations, even falsely confessing to garner attention.

  “First, he asked for me specifically and flat out told the dispatcher he was the man who was holding Bladen Asher. Second, he said, ‘Tell Rainey Bell she might need to refer to her notes.’ I asked him what notes he was talking about and he said, ‘Schaefer, DeBardeleben, Bundy, they are just part of my study.’ Only a handful of people know we discussed those killers and I trust every one of them without reservation.”

  “Did you tell him I’m not on the case?”

  Rainey could hear Sheila’s heels tapping on the parking garage floor as she answered, “Yes, but he said if we wanted to keep Bladen Asher alive, then we better call you in. We haven’t released anything about her abduction, so how would he know her name? He also said he didn’t want a bunch of amateurs evaluating his work, since the FBI couldn’t be bothered. Boy, you really nailed this guy’s reaction to the press conference.”

  “Was the call recorded?” Rainey asked, already preparing to leave.

  The colonel knew something had happened and was anxious for information, but did not interrupt. Rainey held the phone to her ear as she walked out of the office, the colonel following, while Shelia relayed the conversation she had with a killer.