by Jack Ford
And another number.
‘This helpline and center is now closed, your nearest center…’
Pacing back into the front room, Cooper leant on the back of the chair. Breathing deeply. He could do this. Hell, how hard could it be? Maybe he’d been a bit hasty smashing that bourbon. Come on. He couldn’t let it beat him…Again.
Glancing up, he stared at the TV. Then stared harder, trying to process exactly what he was looking at.
Jumping over the back of the couch and hurriedly shoving his hand down behind the cushions, Cooper searched for the controls, wanting to catch the last part of the report.
‘…coast of Algeria, up to eighty children.’
Aghast he watched the full horror of the story unfold. On a small cove of beach were the bodies of children. Strewn like discarded rubbish. Washed up. Lifeless. Bloated. Mottled and discolored from the water. And then a thought. Through his blurry recollection. A hazy realization becoming clearer until he suddenly understood what he was thinking.
‘Oh my God.’ He heard his voice out loud. Hearing the fear. Hearing the panic.
Pulling out his cell, he punched a quick dial number.
Waited.
A click.
A voice.
‘Hi this is Maddie and Cora, I’m sorry we’re not here to take your…’
Cooper cut off the call. Rushed to his desk and grabbed up his car keys, picking up some of the scattered pills, before running out into the night.
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA
USA
48
Ngf4 Kg7
‘Tom, what’s wrong? God, you look terrible. You know it’s almost 3 a.m? If this is about yesterday I don’t want to talk about it.’
‘It’s not.’
Maddie wrapped her pale blue cotton robe tightly around her. The days of Arizona might be hot but the night-time air certainly chilled. She stepped outside onto the wisteria-covered porch, letting the door swing behind her.
Her corkscrew brown hair fell like waves over her freckled brown face. ‘Then what is it?’
Cooper’s words poured out to match the pouring sweat which seemed to seep out of every pore. ‘Remember the boy on the boat?’
‘Are you serious? Of course.’
‘Well, do you remember what he was wearing?’
‘No… I dunno, maybe.’
‘Think Maddie, think.’
‘Ok… he was wearing short pants and a T-shirt.’
‘Yeah, but what color was the top?’
‘Yellow, I think.’
Cooper, nodded frantically. ‘Exactly. That’s what I thought but I had to double check with you. But it was a yellow top… Have you seen the news tonight?’
‘Tom, look, I’m tired…’
‘Wait. Just give me a minute. I was watching NBC and there was a news report about some kids being washed up on the Algerian coast. And when they showed the bodies all over the shore line, guess what, Mads? They were all wearing yellow T-shirts. So it means our boy has something to do with these kids. Which also means Ismet has something to do with these kids.’
‘Just because somebody’s wearing the same color T-shirt…’
‘It wasn’t just yellow though, was it?’
Maddie thought for a second. ‘No, it also had that large logo on it.’
‘Like the kids on the beach.’
Watching Cooper’s hand shake as he lit a cigarette, Maddie said, ‘But we located the boat off the coast of Libya, not Algeria. It doesn’t prove anything.’
‘You’re right, it doesn’t, but it does prove there’s more to it. Plus…’
Cooper stopped, realizing he was about to mention Woods’ warning about leaving well alone. But he couldn’t. Wasn’t even a possibility. Maddie had no idea of his relationship with John and Jackson. Granger did. Rosedale did. So did Levi and Dorothy. Not the full story but part of the secret nonetheless. Even Cora was more in the know than Maddie, and that’s how it was going to stay. Not because of anything other than it was easier that way.
Even the accident; she didn’t realize it was the same yacht that Jackson had been on that day, mainly because of the way John and the powers that be had controlled the reporting of it. With the Navy helping to keep both his and Ellie’s identity out of the news. Making it look like they were entirely separate incidents. And nobody was going to tell her otherwise. Not Granger. Not Rosedale. No-one.
‘Plus what, Tom?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Tom, listen, you heard what Granger said, you gotta leave it. If you go digging around, you’ll never get your job back. Let him cool down for a few days and then call him, but if you start doing this…’
Agitated, Cooper walked up and down the porch. ‘You think I care about my job when this has happened? Up to eighty kids, Maddie. Eighty. How can you even compare it?’
‘Of course I’m not. You know I wouldn’t do that. What I’m saying is there’s no proof. There’s nothing concrete to connect those kids to that boy, so what you’re doing is putting your job in jeopardy. For what? So there’s the T-shirt, but then what? What exactly are you saying?’
‘I’m saying the kids were on Ismet’s boat. They have to have been.’
‘But why? It doesn’t make sense. How can the kids have got from Ismet’s ship all the way to Algeria? The ship was anchored down the coast, off Libya. And you know as well as I do the Mediterranean doesn’t have a tide.’
‘I know something’s not right. I just need you to trust me on this.’
‘Tom, I know you care, but feeling something isn’t proof. You need facts and there aren’t any.’
‘Why do you always go by your head, Maddie? What about in here?’ His fist pounded his chest, his heart. ‘Tell me you don’t think there’s something too.’
‘I don’t. What’s more likely is a dinghy capsized which was trying to carry the kids across to Europe. Over-loaded, or just not a suitable vessel for crossing the Med.’
‘That’s exactly what they were saying on the news.’
Warmly, Maddie looked at Cooper. ‘Well, there you go then. Tom, go home. Go to bed and call me in the morning. You need to get some rest.’
‘Don’t patronize me, I’m not crazy.’
‘I never said you were. I’m just saying maybe you’re not thinking straight. Get some sleep… and get some help… Goodnight, Tom.’
Cooper walked down the wooden steps of Maddie’s house. He stopped and turned and pointed and said, ‘Are those Rosedale’s cowboy boots?’
Maddie glanced to the pair of boots by the front door, then she looked back down at Cooper. And in a quiet voice she said, ‘Tom, go home. Don’t do this to yourself.’
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA
USA
49
Kg2 Kf6
‘Tom, it’s Maddie. Call me.’
Maddie put the phone down, looking around the Onyx office. The whole place had been trashed, but oddly it didn’t look like much had been taken. If anything.
She’d arrived as she always did at the weekend, in the early hours, knowing there’d be no-one here to disturb her, hoping to finish off the dull but necessary administration, dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s for the various banks and insurance companies, which, once completed, allowed her to get back and spend the day with Cora who she’d left with Rosedale.
Though when she’d arrived today, against the background of the rising Arizona sun, even before she’d pulled up she could see the place had been broken into. Inexplicably, neither the Onyx alarm, nor the alarm which was linked to a system at her house, had been triggered.
‘So, what’s the damage?’ Granger growled, strolling up heavy-eyed behind Maddie. He sighed. Tired. Irritated. And the clock on the wall mockingly striking 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning certainly didn’t enhance his mood.
‘Nothing much.’
‘You call this nothing much? I’d hate to see what it looked like when it really was something. Have you called the cops?’
&nb
sp; ‘Yeah, but they said it might be a couple of hours before they could send anyone.’
‘I’ve got a good mind to stop paying my Goddamn taxes. What sort of country is this when it takes a few hours to come to the scene of the crime?’
Maddie, not bothering getting embroiled in Granger’s morning mood, continued to look around. ‘I guess they think it’s not an emergency. They did ask me if I thought it might be kids.’
Still growling, Granger snapped. ‘Look around. We’re in the middle of nowhere. What kind of kids are going to come all this way just to mess up this place? Let alone get past all the security.’
‘Obviously it’s not kids, but I can see why they don’t think it’s an emergency.’
‘I might point out that’s exactly why we have such a problem in the United States right now, because people like you go around calling this kind of crime nothing.’
‘I didn’t say it was nothing.’
‘No, but you might as well have done.’
Without replying, and not wanting to be caught up in another one of his rants, Maddie walked out on Granger, heading down the hallway towards the far end of the building where Granger’s office was, immediately making a beeline for the CCTV equipment.
Logging in and accessing the Onyx security files, it didn’t take her a moment to figure out all the camera footage had been wiped, and the hard-drive folders tampered with.
‘Stop touching everything, Maddie, the cops will need to take fingerprints.’
‘Seriously, Granger, I don’t think they’re going to bother for a few upturned chairs. I wanted to see if there was anything on the CCTV.’
‘Well?’
Continuing to focus on the computer, Maddie replied slightly off-hand. ‘Nothing. All gone.’
‘What are you talking about? Have you any idea how much I spend on security? How can it be so easily wiped out?’
Maddie said nothing.
‘Maddie, are you listening?’
‘Yes, Granger, I am listening, and I know this is a really sophisticated system, so for them to be able to access it without locking themselves out of it and the alarms going off, they’d have to know what they’re doing. But who would or, more to the point, who could do that?’
‘I’ll tell you who.’
‘Go on then.’
‘It’s obvious.’
‘Oh for God’s sake, Granger, can you just tell me?’
‘Maddison, I don’t appreciate your tone.’
Hands on hips, Maddie looked at Granger exasperated. ‘Granger! Just tell me.’
‘Okay. Cooper, that’s who.’
‘Tom? No way! Don’t even think that. I don’t want to hear that.’
Granger stepped in Maddie’s eye view. ‘Why? Come on, is it so far removed from reality that he could’ve done something like this? The guy’s got a screw loose. He’s on some kind of destruction derby. This is his doing, mark my words.’
‘He wouldn’t do something like this. He loves his job and he sees everyone here as his family. You know that as well as I do.’
‘Is that why he betrayed you for that crap he puts down his throat? Lied to us all? Pretended it was in the best interest of you and Rosedale?’
Weakly, with not much certainty, Maddie said, ‘That’s different.’
‘No, it’s not. Tell me how.’
‘Well, for a start…’
She trailed off, unable to come up with something solid. Not wanting to catch Granger’s eyes, to let him see her wavering belief in Cooper, she turned away.
‘It’s clear why he did it. Revenge. Because he’s angry with me.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Granger.’
‘Money, then. So he could go shopping for more doctors to give him that stuff he likes to take.’
‘You’re talking crazy. Tom has a lot of money.’
‘Really? Well, I’m clearly paying him too much. So what then? Because there’s got to be something. Aren’t you worried about the way he’s been behaving?’
Maddie paused for a moment before saying. ‘Well, he did come to see me late last night… He was agitated, and even more so when…’
Interrupting, and unwittingly saving her from having to tell Granger about Rosedale, Granger slammed his hand on the table. ‘So he wasn’t so far away? He was in the area. It all makes sense.’
‘No, it doesn’t. He needed to see me.’
‘What about?’
Taking a deep breath, which gave her chance to figure out whether to edit the truth or not, Maddie answered as vaguely as she could. ‘Things. You know. Cora… and stuff he’d seen on TV?’
‘You’re trying to tell me he came to see you in the middle of the night so he could talk re-runs of Bonanza with you?’
‘No, of course not. It was something he saw on the news made him think… It probably sounds worse than it is, but it made him think about Ismet’s company and what might be really going on.’
‘I knew it. Goddamn him.’
Maddie, fading out from what Granger was saying, stared at the computer. A heavy, sinking feeling hitting her. ‘Oh Christ…’
‘What is it?’
‘Just wait.’
‘Maddison, can I remind you who the boss around here is.’
‘Be quiet, Granger.’
Resentfully, Granger stopped talking.
After a few minutes of muttering and mumbling and tapping and side glancing Maddie, with as much hostility he could muster, she turned to look at him.
Her face was solemn. ‘I’ve just had a quick look at the files. Don’t worry, they all seem fine… apart from one.’
‘And?’
‘It looks like the only file which has been hacked and compromised is Ismet’s one… The Turkish file.’
Enraged, Granger pushed the few remaining things off his desk. ‘That son-of-a-bitch.’
‘You can’t jump to conclusions.’
‘Can’t I? Oh look, I just have… Come on Maddie, you’re not really going to say it wasn’t Cooper, are you? Who else? He was dead set on digging up something. Well, let’s hope he included his Goddamn grave in that… I’m calling the cops.’
Maddie grabbed the cell out of Granger’s hand. He exploded, firing his words as loud as she’d ever heard him.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing? Give me that back. I said, give it me.’
‘No. For a start you can’t bring the cops in on this. What happened to sensitive and highly confidential, hey? There’s one thing them coming for a small break in; it’s another thing letting on our computer and security systems have been compromised. Not exactly great for that reputation of yours. And besides, both of us know you don’t want to do that to Tom. Not really.’
‘Oh, I do.’
‘No you don’t. Look, we don’t even know he had anything to do with it. You wait here for the cops, and I’ll take the helicopter and fly over to the ranch to see what he has to say for himself.’
‘Okay, fine. But Maddie, you may not want to see him in trouble again, but right now I’d be happy if they locked him up and threw away the Goddamn key.’
COLORADO, USA
50
Bd5 Ra5
‘Don’t do this to yourself… Don’t do this to my Goddamn self?’ Cooper ranted out loud, as he had done for the past few hours on the drive back from Maddie’s. Her words inflaming every part of him. Burning across his brain like they’d been branded with a hot iron.
Sighing loudly, exasperated, he parked up at the ranch by the white picket fence. Hit the steering wheel hard with both fists. Imagining it to be the face of one Austin Rosedale Young.
So Maddie had left him. So he was a dead beat husband and a dead beat Daddy. He knew that. He knew he’d made mistakes and he sure as hell was paying for them. And he deserved to. Deserved not to have his family, after all the pain he’d caused them. He got that. But did that make it alright? Did that make it alright for the woman he still loved to jump into bed with that snake Rosedale?
‘No it Goddamn didn’t!’ The bellow of his voice in the quiet of the Colorado early morning gave even him a fright.
Christ. He needed to hold it together. He’d try to focus on something else.
‘Shit! Shit!’ Easier said than Goddamn done.
Trying to calm himself down again, Cooper stepped out of his Chevrolet. Muttering. Cursing. Kicking any stone. Kicking any blade of grass in his path. But then a sudden exhaustion. A weight. A feeling like he was carrying a 55 gallon drum of Georgian corn on his shoulders.
Wearily he staggered up to the front door.
But stopped.
Short.
Dead in his tracks.
Listening.
Looking.
Listening some more.
Slowly. Real slowly, he put his hand down the back of his pants, pulling out a loaded Glock. Stepped sideward. Edged along the front of the house. Dipping down under the windows. Crawling along. Glancing inside. Glancing along. Still listening. Still watching. Straining his ears for something. Looking around for anything. Anything which would give him the sign that told him for certain something wasn’t right.
Cautiously he opened the door, sliding his body inside, with the gun held tight against his chest. He stopped to look round. The room was a mess.
The broken bottle of Bourbon.
The scattered pills.
The cushions thrown off the couch.
The leaflets on the floor.
Phone off the hook… But then that was him, wasn’t it?
Frowning. Searching his memory, Cooper began to recall the night’s events. He’d been feeling damn sorry for himself then… Yeah, he remembered trying to call the helpline and getting no answer, dashing his stuff on the floor. Watching the news before he’d gone to Maddie’s. Rushing out and clearly, as evidence seemed to show, he’d left one helluva mess.
Breathing a sigh of relief, and pissed with himself at how paranoid, how jumpy he was becoming, Cooper put his gun back in his holster. Walked into the kitchen. Attempted not to think about Maddie and Rosedale. Attempted not to think about the two of them naked in –
A violent cruel blow to the back of Cooper’s head knocked him unconscious, sinking him to the floor.