Ben spat his reply, “Crystal.”
“Feel the love,” Mandalay muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear.
Albright ignored her, but Felicity snickered, and my grin spread wide enough that I found it necessary to lower my head and turn it to the side in order to hide from the lieutenant’s scrutiny. At this point, the stress had been so cloying, for so long, that the momentary release combined with our exhaustion had made us somewhat giddy. There was still a nervous overtone to the transpiring events, no doubt about that, but it was impossible not to be amused by Mandalay’s sardonic observation. Of course, the lieutenant immediately put an end to it.
“Mister Gant,” Albright snarled. “I do not think you are in any position to find this amusing. Nor you Miz O’Brien.”
“Don’t lecture me, Lieutenant,” I answered. “I’ve had more than enough for one day, and I’m in no mood for it right now.”
She unsheathed the sharp edge of her voice as she glared at me. “Gant, if I were you I would take a different tone. As it stands now, you will be very lucky if you are not charged with accessory to murder.”
“Do what?” Ben barked.
I shook my head, and my eyes involuntarily squinted as obfuscation took control of my face. “Excuse me?”
“Your telephone exchange with Porter was utterly irresponsible,” she detailed, pointing at me with a stiff index finger. “The comments you made regarding Miss Sullivan and the lengths to which you endeavored to antagonize Porter may very well cost that young woman her life.”
“Awww, Jeez…” Ben muttered.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I demanded. “How do you even know what was said?”
Albright folded her arms across her chest and continued glaring at me.
“The phone’s tapped, white man,” Ben said aloud as he reached up to smooth back his hair. He caught himself once again, but this time he lifted his other hand and began tearing away the gauze wrappings just as I had earlier predicted. I was mildly surprised that it had taken him this long.
“Sorry, Rowan,” Constance added. “We did it after he called the Harper residence. SOP. We didn’t really expect him to call here, but we couldn’t take the chance that he wouldn’t. I was going to tell you, but we got sidetracked.”
“Okay,” I returned. “I guess I shouldn’t be overly surprised by that. So exactly what is your problem, Lieutenant?”
“And I quote,” she said. “‘Then what exactly makes you think that I am going to give a damn about some insignificant woman’s life,’ end quote.”
I stared back at her. “You’re just as bad as Porter when it comes to taking things out of context, aren’t you?”
“Don’t you dare compare me to that sick individual, Gant,” she ordered.
“Listen to me, Lieutenant,” I took on my own hard edge. “When this SOB starts calling you and threatening your life, and more importantly the life of your spouse…” I paused to suck in a breath and try to temper my composure somewhat. “…Eviscerates and kills one of your friends, then kidnaps someone else you know and threatens to do the same to them, THEN you can say whatever you want to him. Until that happens, what you can do is get off my ass.”
“You are pushing it, Mister,” she threatened.
“Lady, the only one pushing it here is you,” I barked. “Now get out.”
Ben cleared his throat in a loud burst and then mumbled, “Calm down, Row.”
Albright raised her voice. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Get out of here before I throw you out.”
Ben cleared his throat again and shot me a warning glance. “Shut. Up. Rowan.” He quietly voiced the instruction in a purposeful cadence, but it was too late. I was already well on my way over the line.
Albright cocked one eyebrow into a shallow arch, and from where I stood it appeared as though a thin smile passed briefly across her lips.
She held her voice even as she spoke. “Did you just threaten me, Mister Gant?”
“Threat, promise, whatever,” I responded. “Take it how ever you want. What I can tell you for a fact is that if you were a man I’d be escorting you out, if you get my meaning.”
Albright reached inside the open front of her trench coat and slipped her hand toward her back. When she withdrew it, there was a bright clink of metal against metal, and a pair of handcuffs rested in her tight grip.
“Lieutenant,” Ben spoke up. “Don’t do this.”
She glanced at him with a look of contempt but didn’t respond to the plea. Instead, she snarled, “Get out of the way, Storm.”
With that, she fixed her stare on me and started across the room. She didn’t have much distance to cover, and before I could blink, she was standing in front of me. In a quick motion, she took hold of my wrist and twisted. A searing lance of pain drove inward through my left shoulder as she wrenched my arm behind my back in a rough motion. I grunted at the discomfort as she continued to lever my forearm up until my wrist rested between my shoulder blades. I quickly turned my head in defense of my nose as she shoved me forward, and my face slammed against the wall.
Felicity had been elbowed out of the way, and my gaze met hers as my head turned. I could see that another bout of fear and anger was welling behind her tired eyes.
My wife quickly darted her head away and yelped, “Ben, do something!”
I could hear my friend behind me trying to soothe her. “Calm down, Felicity. We’re gonna fix this.”
She turned back to me, her eyes wild and then panned her glare on to the lieutenant as she launched into a violent-sounding string of Gaelic. “ Fek tu S aigh! Loscadh is do ort! Damnu ort! Tu tuaireapach! An-duine! Tu striopach! Go n-ithe an cat thu, is go n-ithe an diabhal an cat! Tu fead pog mo thoin saigh! ”
I only picked up a few of the words; considering what I actually did understand, it was for the best that she had chosen Gaelic for the diatribe.
“Felicity! Honey! It will be okay.” I tried to reassure her as she spat the curses. “Call Jackie and tell her…”
Before I could get the instructions for our attorney out of my mouth, Albright barked, “Shut up, Gant!”
Felicity drew closer and launched another expletive-ridden sentence at her, “ An cac capaill, saigh! Go hifreann leat! ”
Thankfully, Ben took hold of my wife’s arm and pulled her away, interposing himself between her Irish temper and the lieutenant before this could escalate to a physical level. I wasn’t so certain that I would trade places with him at the moment.
That was, of course, until the real pain started.
Agony shunted into the center of my brain as my ears began to fill with the sound of rushing blood. My teeth clenched hard, and the horrid metallic tang from earlier in the day returned in force. I bucked against my body’s sudden desire to posture and fall to the floor.
Sharp pain bit into my wrist as Albright slapped the edge of the handcuff against it. I focused on that sensation, using it to divert the inexplicable seizure I felt approaching. The sound of the metal teeth ratcheting grated in my ears as she snapped the circlet shut and continued to tighten the restraint until it pinched my flesh. Still holding me pinned against the wall, she grasped my free arm and yanked it behind my back as well.
Her hand pressed deep into my back, and her touch felt cold. I involuntarily seized on the sensation and immediately felt intense alarm. I gasped a startled breath and closed my eyes.
Distorted, three-dimensional shapes ricocheted through my brain, layering atop one another in jerky, freeze-frame motions. As they joined, I could begin to make out a defined image. In a sudden burst of light, I found myself staring at a contrasty countenance, inverted though it was. Hanging before me in the void was a woman seated upon an ornate throne. A crown rested atop her head, and her vestments were regal, those of royalty. Even though the image is inverted, her dark eyes seem to be looking down upon me imperiously. In her right hand, she is holding forth a shining sword.
I knew immediately that I
had seen this image before. It was the face of a tarot card-specifically, the Queen of Swords.
My eyes snapped open and locked on the wall. Still, the afterimage floated in the empty space before me, in crisp focus, as clear as a framed photograph. All sound around me began to echo languidly in my ears as the light in the room flared then dimmed.
“You are under arrest, Mister Gant,” Lieutenant Albright announced. Everything became surreal as I struggled to keep myself in this reality. Voices began to slur, and all sound took on the quality of mud. When she continued, her voice came thick and slow-the words blending into one another as they thudded against my eardrums. “Yooouuu haaaaavvve ttthheee rrriiiigggghhhtttt tttoooo rrrreeemmmaaaiiinnn ssiiilleennntt. Ifff yooouuu gggiiivvvee uuuupp…”
CHAPTER 26:
I wasn’t willing to let this happen again.
Not now. And, definitely not with Albright here.
I sucked a deep breath in through my nose and struggled to ignore the pains that seemed to be checking in from every inch of my body. I held the breath for a few seconds and then began allowing the air to flow out between my lips in a slow stream. Inside my head, I began my bid for control.
My snap decision was to counter whatever was happening to me with the simplest defense I could imagine. Mutely, but with great concentration I began to recite the alphabet, backwards.
I closed my eyes and focused a small part of myself on maintaining a steady cadence with my breathing. In through my nose, out through my mouth, repeat. Z, Y, X, W… In nose, out mouth, repeat… V, U, T, S… Breathe in, breathe out, repeat… R, Q, P, O…
What I was doing was simple. It was textbook, obvious. It was also something that in my off-kilter state, I had been forgetting to do. I was grounding and centering-this was Psychic Self-Defense 101.
The rush in my ears began to fade, and the Doppler distortion of sound accordioned in upon itself, collapsing everyone’s words into tonal reality. For what had to be the first time today, I felt almost relaxed. Pains were still assaulting me from every corner of my being, but they were tangible pains and real aches-discomforts born of the physical realm instead of the ethereal. In a bizarre sense, I welcomed them.
“I believe you might want to re-think this action, Lieutenant.” Mandalay’s voice worked its way into my ears through the various commotions. As close as I could figure, she was somewhere behind me and to the right.
I opened my eyes and could see that Ben was still restraining Felicity with as much care as he could, considering her angered state. I could barely hear him talking to her-or trying to talk to her at least-as she continued to vent poignant comments in Gaelic, occasionally intermixed with colloquial Irish profanity.
“Stay out of this,” Albright barked at Agent Mandalay, then pressed the other cuff against my still free wrist.
“I am very serious about this, Lieutenant,” Mandalay continued, undaunted, raising her voice to be heard. “I think that you may be on some fairly shaky legal ground here.”
“I don’t think that…” Albright started to reply but suddenly shifted her attention to the side. “Storm! Can’t you get her to shut up!”
“FEK TU SAIGH! ” Felicity’s voice rose sharply as she twisted around Ben and struggled to break free.
“Good Lord,” Albright spat. “Cuff her, Storm.”
“Leave her out of this!” I demanded as I tried to twist my head farther around, only succeeding in giving myself a cramp in my neck.
Ben answered harshly, “No way, Lieutenant. Not happenin’.”
“Storm!” she snarled.
Felicity’s angry voice pierced the atmosphere in the small corridor once again. “ FEK TU! Pog mo thoin saigh! ”
“Christ!” Albright exclaimed. “What is that gibberish anyway?”
I don’t think she really wanted an answer, but I gave her one anyway. “It’s not gibberish. It’s Gaelic.”
She barked at me. “You shut up, Gant.”
I really wanted to spout off a comeback, but I wasn’t entirely sure that it would be in my best interest. I quickly weighed my situation and, right or wrong, decided it probably couldn’t get any worse. However, just to be safe I kept my comment near the middle of the road. “You’re the one who asked.”
She was not amused. “Did I not just tell you to shut up?!”
“I must have missed that,” I returned with heavy sarcasm.
Albright took on a threatening tone. “All right, Gant, would you like to add resisting arrest to the charges?”
“Who’s resisting?”
“Speaking of charges, Lieutenant,” Mandalay started again. “Just exactly what would those be?”
“I can think of several,” Albright shot back.
“That’s interesting.” Mandalay spoke in a professional but condescending tone. “Because I can’t imagine a single one that would stick. However, I can think of several that Mister Gant can bring against you.”
Albright had completed handcuffing me but continued to hold me against the wall as if I were some danger to her and everyone around me. My arms were starting to cramp, and I had lost feeling in one side of my face where my cheek was pressed into the wall. I couldn’t see what was going on behind me, obviously, but it sounded as though Albright might have turned to face Constance before she spoke.
“I am not interested in your opinion,” she snarled.
“Well, I’m going to give it to you whether you want it or not,” Mandalay continued, unfazed by the older woman. “In short, that opinion would be that you are very close to violating Mister Gant’s civil rights.”
Albright let out a supercilious cackle that actually made me nauseous. “You Feds amaze me,” she asserted. “Every single one of you thinks you know more about the law than any other cop, no matter how much experience they have. Does the Bureau issue the attitude with the badge, or is it learned behavior?”
“Actually,” Mandalay said, not missing a beat, “I paid for mine.”
“Excuse me?” Albright retorted.
“Oh yes. I just paid it off last year as a matter of fact.” Mandalay adopted her own attitude in rebuttal. “Cornell Law, class of ninety-seven. Of course, you could be correct; I might not know what I’m talking about. I was only the salutatorian.”
Edgy silence filled in behind the explanation. Even Felicity had stopped struggling with Ben, and for the first time since the altercation started, she was mute.
“He threatened a police officer,” Albright finally declared, her voice filled with a tenuous confidence.
“I perceived no threat,” Constance offered. “How about you, Storm? Did you see Rowan threaten the lieutenant?”
“Threaten?” Ben asked with mock surprise as he turned toward them. “No, I musta missed that.”
“You’re walking a VERY thin line, Storm!” Albright said.
My friend shrugged. “Sorry, Lieutenant. I must’ve been pre-occupied or somethin’.”
Albright snarled. “You both know full well that it was a verbal threat.”
“Sticks and stones, Lieutenant,” Mandalay offered. “Sticks and stones.”
Albright expelled an angry breath but remained mute.
“Back to what I was saying, Lieutenant.” Mandalay began speaking again, completely in control of the situation. “You might want to re-think this action, and I’ll tell you why. Let us just forget the civil rights violations, the inevitable lawsuits, and the bad press for a moment. Instead, let’s look at some basic facts. One, you presently have Eldon Porter loose on the streets of Saint Louis. Two, Porter has abducted a woman with the intention of killing her. And most importantly, three, your one and only link to Porter is Rowan.
“Now, once again this is just my opinion.” Mandalay added an infusion of sarcasm to the comment. “But I think you would be better served by releasing Rowan, bidding a hasty retreat, and allowing Detective Storm to act as your liaison.”
Weighty tension flowed in to mix with the silence following Agent Mandalay�
�s carefully worded suggestion. I was still making an indelible impression of my face in the surface of the wall, not of my own choice of course. My earlier mental exercise had done wonders for my inner self, but it wasn’t accomplishing much regarding the physical aches and pains that were wracking my body. While I had somewhat welcomed them a few moments ago, I was more than ready for them to be gone.
The muscles in my arms were now approaching the full throes of cramping. If I was unable to change my position soon, the heightened discomfort I was currently battling was going to become searing agony. If that wasn’t enough, Albright had not bothered to set the stops on the handcuffs-purposely I’m betting-and the metal bracelets were cutting off the circulation to my hands. The first one she had slapped the restraint around had already gone numb, and the second was well on its way.
Topping it all off, I was still dealing with the complaining nerve endings that surrounded my various injuries of the day.
I heard Albright force out another angry breath although this one sounded as if it held a bit of resignation as well. A moment later, the pressure against my back released and the jangle of keys met my ears.
“This is not over by any means, Gant,” Albright warned as she unlocked the cuffs, taking little care as she did so.
First, one of my arms, then the other fell, coming down to my sides just as the initial wave of severe cramping was about to attack. I shook them loosely and then stretched.
“You had best hope that Porter does not harm that young woman.” Albright continued to lecture me.
I worked my fingers in and out of my palms as I turned to her and then inspected my wrists. I stopped for a moment to rub the thick, red depressions that encircled them, biting my lip as feeling returned, taking the form of countless shards of broken glass and barbed hooks rattling about inside my digits.
“I doubt you’ll be able to find anyone who is hoping for her safety any more than me,” I echoed with as little anger in my voice as I could manage.
She simply glared at me, her jaw working as she clenched her teeth behind the thin gash formed by her intense frown.
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