Maggie's Image (Maggie McGill Mysteries Book 1)

by Sharon Burch Toner

  A dream. But what a dream! Ugh! Only the young had the constitution to combine curry and chocolate late at night! Whatever possessed her to eat so recklessly? Maggie thought about Hadi, trying to shake off the feeling of the dream. But the sense of danger persisted.

  She lay down again and closed her eyes. They wouldn’t stay closed. She lay in bed staring at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of the night. The wind howled around the house whistling through any little crack it could find. The screen door rattled on its hinges. A tree branch banged against the deck. Between blasts of wind, Maggie could hear a gentle wheeze from upstairs. Gabe was snoring.

  Even though it had been just a dream, Maggie was left with a sense of impending doom that she couldn’t shake. Hadi’s warning had seemed especially real. Her thoughts focused on Hadi. Who was he really? Where was he now? Hadi never had mentioned a home or even what country he was from. She realized that she knew almost nothing about Hadi’s life in those respects and yet she felt that in another way she knew him very well. Strange.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of toenails coming down the stairs. A small damp nose nuzzled her hand. Maggie scratched behind Gabe’s ears. He circled twice, lay down next to her and sighed.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Grrrrr!! Grrrr!!” Maggie was awakened by low menacing growls from Gabe. She put her hand down and found the hair on his back bristled. At her touch there was a small welcoming wag of his tail. But the growling continued.

  “What is it?” she whispered. Outside the wind seemed stronger and noisier. She could hear nothing except the howl of the wind and accompanying sounds. The screen door was banging even more violently now and the pounding on the deck had become a steady tattoo.

  Suddenly she heard a particularly strong gust of wind and a crash. The potted palm on the deck must have blown over. Maggie jumped up out of bed and rushed toward the door to the deck, intent on rescuing the plant. Not wanting to awaken Allie, Maggie chose not to turn on a light. Through the sliding glass door she could see the overturned palm rolling from side to side in the wind. Impulsively, she opened the door and stepped outside. The wind caught at her nightgown and it became a sail billowing out around her. Maggie nearly was knocked off her feet. On all fours she crawled to the pot end of the palm and tugged. Grunting, she heaved on the pot, a few inches, then a few more. Maggie closed her eyes, set her bare feet on the wood of the deck floor and pulled again. She rolled the pot a little and pulled. Roll and pull. Roll and pull. Maggie kept her eyes closed because the air was filled with dust and leaves and twigs. Slowly, slowly, she pulled the battered plant toward the door. Then over the threshold, finally into the house. One more tug. Maggie sat back on her heels and toppled over backward, grateful to be in the comparative shelter of the house. She lay back, panting, waiting to catch her breath. Beside her Gabe jumped up and down, barking sharp little barks of encouragement. “Shhh.” she gasped. “Shhh.”

  “What’s up, Mom?” came a sleepy voice from the stairs. The lights came on and then as Allie saw her mother prostrate on the floor, her voice rose in alarm, “Mom, are you okay? What’s happening?”

  Maggie rolled over and grinned, “Your silly mother is having adventures in the night! This plant’s screams of distress woke me and I had to rescue it!” Maggie panted and laughed at the same time.

  Allie sighed with relief, “Oh, thank God! I was afraid something awful had happened. What a night! I don’t remember the wind ever being so intense. Here, let me get that plant inside so we can close the door.” Together Allie and Maggie pulled the plant the rest of the way into the room and set it upright while Gabe danced around them barking.

  “Wow! What time is it?”

  “Around three, I think.” Gabe’s barking reached a crescendo. “Shhh, Gabe. You’ll wake the neighborhood,” Maggie said.

  “Thanks for saving the palm. As wild as that wind is, I’m afraid it would have been a goner by morning,” Allie said groggily. “Are you still sleepy? Let’s see if we can get back to sleep.” She turned and started up the stairs.

  Maggie turned to say goodnight for the second time when a deep voice behind them said, “Miss McGill, I think it would be better if you stayed up a little longer.”

  “What . . .?”

  “Who . . .?”

  Allie and Maggie twirled around as one person, their eyes wide, their faces white.

  Maggie’s heart pounded as she recognized the large white-haired man holding a small, business-like gun, his arm stretched out unnaturally in front of him. Allie recovered her voice first. “Dr. Albright. What are you doing here?”

  Maggie recognized Dr. John Albright from the San Francisco party. She remembered how her skin had crawled during their brief conversation. She remembered her instant and unreasonable dislike of the man, despite his distinguished appearance and seeming affability. He did not look distinguished now and he definitely was not being affable. His mane of white hair was standing on end from the wind. His khaki slacks and windbreaker were rumpled, dusty and covered with bits of debris. His chin was grizzled with a day’s growth of beard. Even more disturbing was the look in his china blue eyes. It was as if a veneer of socially accepted behavior, a facade of civilization had been removed. His eyes had a wild and raw look that was primal, the look of a crazed predator.

  Maggie glanced at Allie, then back to John Albright. It seemed she could hear Hadi’s voice telling her to breath deeply and stay calm. She took a deep breath and said quietly, “Dr. Albright, I am surprised to see you. Won’t you come in and sit down.” She reached behind her and pulled on her bathrobe.

  The normalcy of her greeting and the invitation seemed to throw their visitor off guard. He took a few steps toward a chair, then stopped and said, “You two! What are you trying to do? It won’t work, you know. I know about you.”

  Maggie continued as if he had not spoken, “Oh, Dr. Albright. You’ve caught us unprepared. Here. Let me just fold up this bed and make a comfortable place for you to sit.” So saying, she then bent down and hurriedly stripped off the bed linens and with Allie’s help folded up the sofa.

  John Albright stared at the two women, his mouth slightly agape, as if he could not take in what they were saying and doing.

  Allie, sensing her mother’s strategy, said, “Please do have a seat, Dr. Albright. Can I get you a cup of tea?” She walked into the kitchen and turned the gas on under the shiny tea kettle.

  “Here. Wait a minute. What are you trying to do?” Albright stammered. “You, young woman. You come right back in here. Of course, I don’t want any tea. I’ve come to have it out with the two of you and to take care of you.”

  Maggie did not like the sound of that. Her skin was crawling and the little hairs on the back of her neck were standing up. She looked into those dreadful blue eyes, smiled and said, “Well, Dr. Albright, if you have something to discuss with us, we may as well be comfortable while we do it. Won’t you just have a seat. We’d be happy to make you a cup of tea or give you a glass of juice if you like, but, if not, let’s just sit down and discuss the matter calmly.”

  Allie leaned against the bar that separated the kitchen from the living room and smiled, also. “So, Dr. Albright. What’s on your mind?” To herself, she wondered how much mind was left for him to have anything on!

  Albright looked from one of them to the other uncertainly, then gingerly sat on the edge of Allie’s only easy chair. An awkward silence ensued. Maggie was not sure how to proceed. One thing was certain. Of all their adventures, this was the very most dangerous. Clearly Dr. Albright was not well mentally and therefore not in any way predictable. Maggie wished she had more experience treating the seriously mentally ill.

  In the silence, the telephone rang. The three of them jumped as one and Albright waved the gun at the two women. “Don’t answer it. Let it ring.”

  They listened. One, two, three rings. On the fourth, the answering machine responded. Then as they listened, a tired, frightened voice said,
“Allie! Maggie! Harry Cavanaugh here. Are you there? If so, please pick up. I know it’s an unreasonable hour, but this is important. Maybe you already know and you’ve left. I hope so. There are fires. The whole Malibu area is burning. There are fires in Malibu and Topanga canyons. Several homes have burned already. If it comes up that canyon behind you with this wind, you might not have time to get away. I’d advise you leave right now and try a hotel in Santa Monica or the Marina. Call me when you get this message and let me know where you are. Well, anyway, I hope you’ve already gone. Bye.” The voice trailed off and he hung up.

  Maggie and Allie looked at one another then at John Albright. He appeared not to have heard the message. Maggie said, “Dr. Albright, it seems there are wild fires in the canyons tonight. It could be dangerous for all of us. Could we drive down to a restaurant and have something to eat and talk over whatever is bothering you?”

  John Albright looked at them from glazed eyes and said disdainfully, “You two are so clever! You think you can fool me. Well, you’ve met your match with me. I’ll not be tricked by phony telephone messages. Who is Harry Cavanaugh, anyway? Who does he think he is to interrupt when we have important business to discuss?”

  Allie said from the kitchen bar, “Oh, Harry’s just an old friend of the family. He’s retired. He sort of takes care of us.”

  “Retired. I’m going to retire. I didn’t want to retire so soon. But now I have to leave and retire,” Albright mumbled. He pulled his head up and fixed his blue eyes on first Allie and then Maggie and said, “But you! You’ve tried to spoil my plans. You were going to tell everyone. No one must know. It must stay a secret. You two would tell the whole world.”

  Maggie glanced at Allie, trying to make sense of this last. Just then the teakettle whistled behind Allie. She turned to extinguish the gas, but John Albright stood up and waved the gun. “Where are you going? What’s that noise?”

  Allie stopped and stood very still. Above the shrill of the tea kettle she said, “It’s okay, Dr. Albright. The teakettle is hot. I was just going to turn it off.” Slowly, she moved into the kitchen, keeping her eyes on the gun. Slowly, slowly, she reached down and turned the gas off. The shrill whistling stopped and Maggie breathed a sigh of relief.

  “You come back in here, young lady, and sit down this minute.” Albright sounded like an enraged parent. Allie moved back into the living room and took a seat beside her mother.

  Allie looked John Albright in the eyes and said, “Well, Dr. Albright. Maybe you’d like to tell us what’s troubling you. I can assure you that neither my mother nor I wish you any harm. There must be some misunderstanding. Let’s see if we can clear it up.”

  Albright’s eyes glared at them. “Clear it up? Clear it up! There’s nothing you can do to clear it up. It’s too late now. Much too late. It’s all your fault. If you’d just kept out of it. If only you hadn’t meddled . . . but you did. And now, it’s all gone. Everything destroyed. All your fault . . .” his voice trailed off peevishly.

  Maggie leaned forward and said, “Do I understand you to say that you think Allie and I have interfered in your affairs and created a problem?”

  Albright stormed, “Created a problem! You haven’t ‘created a problem’! You’ve ruined everything! Don’t talk to me about creating a problem!”

  Soothingly Maggie said, “Forgive me. It was an unfortunate choice of words. But Allie and I are trying to understand what’s distressing you so.”

  Albright answered, his voice now a low menacing monotone, “What’s distressing me so? What’s distressing me! Let me tell you what’s distressing me. It was all arranged. I’ve worked long and hard and it all was arranged. The plans were made. Everything was going like clockwork. No problems. No hitches. Like clockwork. Ahmed was doing his part over there. I was doing mine here. Our organization was working perfectly. We were winning. It only needed one final thing. One event. And that would show everyone. The world would know. It would be a consummate victory. And I. I’d lead this country into a higher vision. I’d save this country for Allah. But now! Now there’s nothing left for me but exile and retirement. That is what is distressing me. And it’s your fault! You did it!”

  At the mention of Ahmed’s name Maggie and Allie looked at one another. It wasn’t over yet. Harry had made a mistake. There was this one last loose end.

  Allie said, “Tell us about your organization, Dr. Albright. What was its purpose?”

  John Albright looked at her in surprise, “How do you know about the organization? Well, no matter now. We were working to free the world of the scourge of the materialism of the infidel. Ahmed worked in his country and I . . . I had the most important part. Here in this country I was the leader. Here I created a strong organization that was completely secret. No one even guessed its existence. We had many victories, large and small, and we were planning the most ambitious one of all, the final victory. After that, the unrest created would topple this government and we could take over. It was perfect. We’d secure this country for the one true God.” As he talked, Albright’s eyes became brighter and the glazed look lifted.

  Outside, the wind continued to rage and it carried an ever increasingly strong odor of smoke. Maggie spoke again soothingly, “It sounds as if you worked very hard for your beliefs, Dr. Albright. It can be upsetting when one’s plans don’t work out. Why don’t we three drive down to the highway where we could find something to eat and you can tell us more.”

  “Do you women ever think about anything but food!” Albright stormed again. “I’ll leave after awhile, but you’ll not go with me!”

  Again Maggie could hear Hadi inside her head telling her to remain calm, to breath deeply, to send soothing energy into the room. “Yes, that is fine with us, Dr. Albright. Won’t you tell us exactly what your plans were. You know, we really would be interested. We know so little.”

  Albright’s back stiffened. He threw his head up and tossed the trailing white hair out of his eyes. “The plans were secret, but no matter now. You’ll never tell anyone. Why not? I may as well tell you. Yes. All right. The ultimate mission of our organization, of course, is to bring Islam to the whole world. It is the only true faith. We’ve been besieged by infidels. But no matter. We’ve had our successes. The bombing of the Hotel St. Mary. Do you remember that? How many were killed?”

  Maggie and Allie exchanged glances, then nodded encouragingly to Albright.

  He continued, “That was perfectly planned and executed. A perfect mission. They still don’t have a clue about who was behind it. After that, the police commissioner lost his job and was replaced by someone who looks the other way. The mayor was not re-elected. So much fear was created that the residents of that city were ready to accept any form of government that would provide safety. There’ve been other incidents, other victories, but I won’t tell you about them now.”

  Allie asked softly, “But what about us? How is it that we’ve become involved?”

  At that Albright’s face suffused with blood and his eyes became even wilder. “How? You dare to ask me how! You! You! . . .” He sputtered. Then, making an obvious effort to control himself, he said in a quieter voice, “It was perfectly planned and it was going perfectly. The trouble started was when Charles Sandoval and Ed Martin wanted to hire Andre Fouchet for the spring semester. The fools! Fouchet is a very dangerous man. He’s the one person who might have noticed the connections between FLO and our organization. It was imperative to discourage his taking the position. But even that would not have stopped us. We’d have found a way to stop him.”

  John Albright stopped and looked at Maggie and Allie, almost as if he were asking for their approval.

  Maggie sat quietly, afraid to say anything that might anger him further. Allie didn’t move a muscle.

  Soon John Albright continued. “Yes, we could’ve dealt with Andre Fouchet, but then the two of you interfered. It was too much. We tried to discourage you. Any normal person would’ve quit after a rock fell on them in the park
, but not you! Just who are you working for anyway?”

  He didn’t give them an opportunity to respond, but looked at Maggie and went on. “Ahmed saw you talking to the Fouchets on the plane. Then, when the two of you left the airport, you took a photograph of me in the limousine with Baha Aflaki, our spiritual leader here and my assistant. If Andre Fouchet had seen that photo, it would’ve been the end of everything. It was imperative that no one knows of my connection to our organization. Oh, you thought you were very clever, pretending to be tourists! So innocent! I need that photograph. Where is it? Now that Ahmed and Baha and the others have been arrested, they’ll be looking for any other members of our organization. No one knows about me. Ahmed and Baha won’t talk. But that photograph could ruin everything. Where is it? I must have it!” John Albright stopped talking and glared at Maggie and Allie.

  There was a silence. Finally Maggie answered, glancing first at Allie and then looking at Albright, “I don’t have it. But at least now, I know what you’re talking about. Of course, I would’ve given it to you or to Ahmed from the beginning if I’d known what you wanted. Oh, now it all makes sense.”

  “You don’t have it!” thundered Albright. He jumped to his feet and waved the gun. “How can you sit there and tell me you don’t have it? I don’t believe you!”

  “But it’s true, really, it is. The photo you are asking about must be the one I snapped of Allie outside the airport. I sort of remember that there was a limo in the background. But truly, Dr. Albright, I didn’t see you in it. I’ve not seen the photo. It hasn’t been developed yet.” As she spoke Maggie remembered that she left that particular roll of film at the drug store in Malibu before their abduction. Should she tell Albright that? Her first concern was getting Allie and herself out of this dangerous situation. She feared he might carry out his threat if he knew where to find the photo. So she said, “I’m not sure where that roll of film is. I removed it from the camera and intended to take it to be developed, but then we were kidnapped. I’m not sure where it is right now. But we’ll find it tomorrow and you may have it when we do.”