“I won’t dispute the first part,” I told him. “But the fact that she’s still alive tells me that she is his bargaining chip. He’s got my attention, so now he’s going to use her to get me out in the open.”
“How do you know she really is still alive?” he pressed.
“Because he would have gloated about it if she wasn’t.”
“I dunno about this, white man. You’d better hope you’re right.”
“We’ve got him crossing between two cells,” Mandalay’s voice came from almost immediately behind Ben.
My friend stepped to the side and turned to look at her. “Where?”
“Near Interstate Two-Seventy and Highway Forty,” she answered.
“Troop C headquarters is just west of there off of Forty.” Ben referred to the highway patrol.
She nodded briskly. “The field office has already notified MHP and County. I was just getting ready to call in to the Major Case Squad and let them know what’s going on.”
“Good deal.” Ben reached up to his neck but caught himself. Judging by the look on his face, he apparently managed to do so just before flexing his hand enough to bring on any real pain. He dropped his hand back down and continued. “Maybe we can put an end to this whole thing right here and now.”
“It’s not going to be that easy,” I told him as I shook my head.
He held up his hand to stop me and then huffed out a breath as he stared at my face. He was looking for something in my expression but wasn’t finding it. “Look, Row,” he said. “Do you think that maybe you just might be wrong this time?”
“You have no idea how much I’d like to be,” I retorted. “It’s not like…”
My sentence was truncated by the telephone pealing for attention once again. I snatched up the handset and brought it to my ear.
“What took you so long, Eldon?” I chided. “I was beginning to think you’d lost my number.”
“I am her absolution, Gant,” he said in a measured cadence, but this time his voice held more distraction than arrogance. “And you will be witness when she is released from her darkness and given unto the glory of God Almighty.”
“Let me talk to her,” I demanded.
He continued, ignoring my assertion. “You will know when it is time. Vengeance is mine.”
Flat resonance issued from the speaker for yet another time as the connection was unceremoniously ended.
I took in a deep breath and let it go in a heavy rush as my shoulders dropped. I rested the handset back onto the hook and looked up at Ben and Constance.
“Well?” Ben appealed.
“He wants me to see him kill her,” I answered.
“Jeezus…” my friend muttered. “He give you a place or somethin’?”
I shook my head. “No. He sounded a little preoccupied. I think he knows he was on the line too long the first time around.”
“He’s probably going to try getting off the main roads then,” Mandalay offered as she began stabbing at the buttons on her cell phone.
I could feel the icy breath of the Dark Mother on the back of my neck, and I shivered inwardly. She was waiting in the wings for someone, and I had a bad feeling that the someone just might be me. There was simply no way that this was going to play out well.
Ben stared at me and furrowed his brow. “I know that look, Kemosabe. Whaddaya got chewin’ on ya’ now?”
“Nothing,” I replied in an absent tone.
“You’re lyin’, Row.”
“Am I under oath all of a sudden?”
“Awww, man, Row…” he started.
I moved past him with deliberate purpose. “I need to go talk to Felicity.”
*****
“Hey.” I offered the word softly as I pressed my back against the door and felt it click shut.
It was quiet in the room. My wife was sitting on the edge of the bed, hunched over, with her arms encircling a pillow. Her back was to me, and I could hear her sniffling. Either she was still crying, or she had only recently stopped.
The only light in the room came from a reading lamp on the book table to one side of the bed. It cast a soft luminescence across the dark blue comforter, then dissipated, leaving Felicity in the muddy shadows just beyond its reach.
I waited for a long stretch and received no response.
“Do I need a white flag?” I finally asked.
I watched as she slowly moved, releasing her grip on the pillow and setting it aside. Her dainty hands slipped upward and pushed her mane of spiraling auburn back from her face. She continued to the back of her head, where she gathered it with a twist and pulled it into a fiery fall over her left shoulder then began to fiddle with it absently. The pale skin of her now exposed neck seemed to glow in the semi-darkness.
“Aye, it was him again, wasn’t it?” she asked, her voice almost a hoarse whisper. “On the phone?”
“Yes,” I answered, keeping my own voice low for fear of shattering the tenuous calm in the room. “It was him.”
“Is Star dead?” she asked, the words catching in her throat.
I noticed after a moment that I was shaking my head even though she couldn’t see me; I verbalized the answer. “No. She’s still alive.”
Silence filled the space between us and thickened as each second passed. The energy in the room was a chaotic mix of anger, sadness, fear, and resolve. It assaulted me on every level, igniting my nerve endings with cold fire. The physical atmosphere was warm-too warm-but I still fought off an overwhelming need to shudder as I pushed away from the door and stepped farther into the room.
“We need to talk about all of this, honey,” I said.
She still hadn’t turned to face me, but I could see her head bob in the shadows as she spoke. “Aye, we do.”
I pressed on. “Star is still alive, for now, but he does intend to kill her.”
“This shouldn’t be happening,” she muttered
“I know,” I said. “Believe me, I wish it wasn’t.”
“What did he say to you?”
“No, honey,” I objected. “There’s no need for you to…”
“Dammit, Rowan,” she half demanded, half pleaded. “Don’t leave me out. The bastard called me this afternoon.”
“Ben told me,” I acknowledged. “I was going to talk to you about that later.”
“He’s sick, Rowan.”
“I know that.”
Another lull slipped through the room. I heard her take in a cleansing breath and watched the shadows as her shoulders moved upward then slowly fell when she exhaled. She pulled her hair upward and began working it into a loose pile on her crown.
“So what did he say to you?”
“Honey…”
Insistence permeated her voice. “What did he say, Rowan?”
I lowered my head in resignation. “He said that he was her absolution.”
“What else?”
I sighed and moved another step toward the bed. “He said that I would be a witness to her release.” I left out the “vengeance is mine” comment.
“So you are going to go save her, then” came her flat reply.
“I don’t think I could live with myself if I didn’t try.”
“You could let the police handle it now.” There was a narrow thread of hope woven through her voice.
“I will. If they can…” I let my words trail off.
She turned slightly, twisting her body and glancing over her shoulder. As she repositioned herself, she moved partially into the light. My eyes were finally adjusting, and I could see that her cheeks were flushed. Her smooth skin glistened with the dampness of her tears, and she reached up to wipe her eyes.
“Aye, you think they can’t?”
“It doesn’t feel very good,” I offered.
“Aye, so you will sacrifice yourself for her, won’t you?”
“It’s not my intention.”
“But you will if you have to.” She offered the comment as a statement of fact and then pause
d before finally asking, “Won’t you?”
I didn’t answer her.
“Aye, what about me?”
“You’ll be safe,” I said softly. “Mandalay will be here with you.”
“That’s not what I mean, then, Rowan!” She turned farther into the light and glared at me sharply. “What of me? Why are you so willing to leave me alone? Don’t you love me anymore?”
“Felicity!” I was stunned. “How can you even think that? Of course I love you. More than anything, you know that.”
“Why do you want to leave me then?”
I moved forward and took a seat next to her on the bed. She leaned into me as I slipped my arm around her and pulled her close.
“Honey.” I tried to soothe her. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“Aye, but you will,” she said. “If you die…”
I didn’t want to lie to her, but I didn’t want to acknowledge the possibility either. I had nowhere to redirect the conversation, and I was beginning to share her pain.
“I have to do whatever I can to keep you safe,” I finally said. “That is what this is about. I love you. I will always love you. No matter what.”
She moved her head against me as she slowly shook it. “Aye, I am not ready to be without you.”
“I’m not ready to leave,” I told her.
“But you will…”
“If that is what it takes to keep you safe,” I said. “Then, yes, I will.”
“Do you really think that he would try to come here?”
“If he can’t get me out in the open, yes I do. And I can’t allow that to happen.”
A siren sounded outside, muted by the walls, but audible all the same. I gave her a reassuring squeeze before standing up and moving to the window. I cautiously pulled back the heavy drapes and peered out through the hole then down across the parking lot. I watched the emergency lights of a squad car flickering in chaotic strobes as the vehicle accelerated down the street. The lights disappeared, and the wailing siren slowly faded in the distance. I allowed the insulated fabric to fall shut, and I turned back to face Felicity.
“You don’t have to do this, then,” she insisted, her Irish brogue thick from her ongoing distress.
“Yes I do,” I answered, feeling a strange calm at the decision.
Her nervous fidgeting had been completed, and her spiraling curls now sat atop her head in a loose Gibson-girl. Her green eyes flashed wetly in the dim light as concern deepened the lines in her face. She’d run the gamut-anger, guilt, all of it. The tone in her voice brought everything back around to demands once again.
“What did Ben say,” she contended as if the answer would somehow make a difference.
“The same thing you just said,” I replied.
I took a deep breath as I ran my hand across the lower half of my face, brushing my bearded chin. I winced as my fingers grazed a still-healing wound on my upper lip-a leftover from my stunt with Ben’s van.
Felicity took on a pleading tone as she gazed at me, “Then why are you doing it?”
“Because we can’t keep living like this,” I answered. “Because I want us to have our lives back.”
“How can we have our lives back if you get yourself killed?”
I wasn’t sure if the next words out of my mouth were the truth or a lie. I spoke them anyway. “I’m not going to get myself killed.”
Tears were once again rolling across my wife’s cheeks, and her voice cracked as she trembled. “Damn your eyes, Rowan Linden Gant, you’d better not, then. Aye, you’d better not.”
CHAPTER 25:
“Stay right there” were the first words to issue from Ben’s mouth as I walked out of the bedroom.
Felicity was still in the process of making herself presentable before coming out-her words, not mine-and I swung the door shut to give her some privacy. I wasn’t paying all that much attention to what was going on up the hallway as I exited, but his voice was urgent and the instruction concise. The energy forming the sentence told me that I needed to pay heed.
I looked up and saw immediately that he had positioned himself at the opening of the short corridor. His back was to me, and his left hand was extended behind, motioning me to stop. I caught a quick glimpse of his right hand and saw that it was filled with his sidearm.
My heart fluttered and hardness filled my throat as my mouth went almost instantly dry. Unencumbered fear raced from my brain to my stomach and brought more life to the already churning bile. Each of my muscles tensed in unison as I froze, making my knees suddenly feel weak as they locked.
An insistent series of thumps sounded from the front door.
Beyond my friend, I could see Agent Mandalay-her hand wrapped securely about her forty-caliber Sig Sauer and her arm stiffly positioned to repel a close-quarter hostile entry.
I caught my breath as I felt the tension thicken. Ben raised his Beretta and assumed a solid firing posture in a single fluid motion.
“Tell Felicity to stay in the bedroom,” my friend called over his shoulder, keeping his voice low.
My voice was caught in my throat, and I found myself unable to move. He glanced back at me quickly.
“Just stay behind me, Rowan.”
I watched on as Mandalay reached out with her free hand, gripped the doorknob, and then brought her eye toward the security peephole.
Sharp pain arced through my body as my muscles executed the impossible task of tightening even more. I was holding my breath, and my chest was beginning to burn. I heard the latch disengage behind me as Felicity twisted the knob on the bedroom door and began to swing it open.
My immediate thought was to turn and push her back into the room, but I remained frozen. I heard the whoosh of air as she pulled the barrier farther aside, and I shot the hot breath from my lungs as I forced myself to act. I felt my arm unlock-first at the elbow, then at the shoulder. My waist broke free and started to twist as I began to move. Fortunately, I was still looking forward when Mandalay’s shoulders fell to a relaxed position. I stopped myself and jerked as my muscles tensed again. Constance carefully holstered her weapon as she glanced away from the peephole and back to Ben, just as another knock sounded.
“It’s your lieutenant,” she said with a note of relief.
“Friggin’ wunnerful,” he muttered, but he still relaxed noticeably.
“Row? What’s going on?” Felicity’s voice came from behind me, couched with a slight hint of fear.
“Lieutenant Albright appears to be dropping in on us,” I replied as my heart eased back to a normal rhythm.
Felicity screwed up her face in disgust. “Aye, that saigh? Do we have to let her in?”
“That what?” Ben asked.
“Saigh,” she replied as if the Gaelic word was common knowledge. “You know. Bitch.”
“No kiddin’?”
“Aye.”
“Hmph, I gotta remember that one,” Ben muttered then called back to her. “Well, trust me, Felicity, I’m not real excited about her bein’ here myself.”
Mandalay twisted the knob on the deadbolt and unlatched the swing bar security lock then swung the door open. Lieutenant Albright stood on the opposite side, a scowl on her face and her hand raised in preparation to knock once again.
“Just exactly what is going on in here?” she demanded as she breezed in through the open door, instantly locking her eyes on Ben. Her frown deepened measurably the moment she noticed he was in the process of stowing his sidearm in his shoulder rig. She didn’t even bother to acknowledge Mandalay.
“We were just being cautious,” the petite FBI agent announced to the back of the lieutenant’s head.
Albright swung around to face her. Constance shot her a forced smile as she arched her eyebrows.
“Do I know you?” Albright demanded. “Which department are you with?”
Mandalay reached into her jacket and produced a folding leather case which she deftly flipped open with one finger. She thrust the badge and federal ID o
ut at arm length and then made a great show of introducing herself. “Special Agent Constance Mandalay, Federal Bureau of Investigation.” She smiled sweetly once again then as she snapped the badge case closed and slipped it back into her pocket she adopted a mocking tone. “We met this morning, by the way. I guess you were just too busy to remember.”
I couldn’t see the look on the lieutenant’s face, but I made a mental note to ask Constance about it when this was all over because I am certain that it was priceless. I heard Ben stifle a snort and couldn’t help but turn one corner of my mouth up in a partial grin. Even with everything that was going on, I still appreciated the underlying humor in the moment.
Albright snapped her head around at the noise and landed her frosty stare on Ben then moved it to Felicity and me.
“This is a secure building,” she finally announced, moving farther into the room as she spoke. “Don’t you think you were going a little overboard?”
“Not in my assessment, Lieutenant,” Ben returned, his voice strained. “Porter got the phone number here somehow, so I’m not puttin’ anything past ‘im.”
“I am well aware that he has the telephone number,” she said. “However, that is a far cry from him actually showing up here.”
Ben shrugged. “Judgment call.”
“Which is exactly why I removed you from this case to begin with,” she snorted. “Your lack of judgment.”
She let out an angry breath and then looked him up and down as if inspecting a soldier in formation.
“You shouldn’t even be here, Storm,” she chided as she waved her hand at him in a dismissive gesture. “Look at you.”
“I can still do my job, Lieutenant,” he answered evenly.
“How long have you been on duty today, Detective?” she pressed.
“That’s irrelevant.”
“I am not authorizing any overtime for this you know.”
“I don’t remember askin’ for any.”
She wasn’t getting the reaction she obviously wanted, so her anger grew with each sentence.
She glared at my friend and said, “I just want to be absolutely certain that you understand that. Am I clear?”
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