Blowout

by Catherine Coulter

  “After a while I didn’t really ask about her anymore or think about her, accepted that my father and I were in Boston, and I went to school and made friends like any other kid.

  “Like I said, I didn’t know anything about how my mother died until I was eighteen. About two months before I graduated high school, I began having nightmares—really violent dreams about people having their throats cut, people being stabbed in the chest—horrible dreams, blood everywhere, and I’d wake up screaming.” He paused, shuddering with memory. “I remember my father came in once. He didn’t say anything, even when I gasped out the dream I’d had. He stood there, stared at me like I was a freak, like he was afraid of me. Then he left, and he didn’t come back when I had the other dreams. I woke up alone and I stayed alone.” Martin looked at Savich. “It was around that time I realized something was really wrong.”

  Martin’s father hadn’t said anything about this to Sherlock. Hadn’t Townsend Barrister realized what the dreams meant? Of course he had.

  Savich sat forward on the sofa, his hands clasped between his knees. “Later, did you talk to your father about the dreams?”

  Martin shook his head. “I couldn’t, and besides, I knew he didn’t want to know. I’d look at him and my two little bratty and normal stepsisters at the dinner table, and I’d think, I could dream tonight that someone is stabbing Cassie through her neck and cutting Tammy’s throat. And I could see their blood, their surprise, the looks on their faces and then they’d be dead.

  “It wasn’t something I could talk about. They wouldn’t understand. My father behaved as if he’d rather not even have me there, as if he’d rather I didn’t even exist. It was like he was afraid of me.”

  “Then what happened? Did you tell your father anything?”

  “Yes, I asked him one day how my mother died.”

  “Out of the blue? For the first time since she was murdered in 1973, you thought to ask him?”

  Martin nodded slowly. “Yeah. It came to me, probably because of my dreams, I’m not sure. But it came out. Suddenly I had to know.”

  “What did your father say?”

  “He told me there’d been a terrible accident on the day of my sixth birthday. My mother had slipped and fallen on a kitchen knife, and she’d died. And he’d brought me here to Boston, so we could both recover, start over again. He called her death an accident. Can you believe that?”

  “I gather you didn’t believe him?”

  “No, I could see in his eyes he was keeping something back. I realize now he didn’t want my half-sisters or my stepmother, Jenny, to find out, and be afraid, maybe be afraid of him.

  “So I went off to search on my own. I looked up the Barristers in old newspaper files. Remember, this was before the Internet, back in 1984. But it was enough to point me back. I remembered a road sign clear as day—Blessed Creek. I knew it was a little hick town in the Poconos, in northeastern Pennsylvania. I drove out there. It didn’t take me long looking through archives from that time to learn that she’d been murdered, that my father had taken me away to Boston right after the funeral.”

  “Is that why you disappeared after your high school graduation? Did you think your father had something to do with it?”

  Martin wouldn’t meet his eyes.

  “Listen to me, Martin. You were only six years old when she was killed. Kids have an amazing ability to block things out that could harm them. And that’s what you did. You saved yourself by repressing everything that happened until you were older, more ready to face up to what happened.”

  “I know, I know.” He was twisting his hands together, and Savich knew that for the moment, they’d accomplished enough.

  “Hey, don’t worry about it, Martin. Show me how that remote works. It looks pretty fancy.”

  CHAPTER

  30

  FIVE MINUTES LATER, Janet Thornton came into the living room to see her husband showing the FBI agent how to work a remote that she hadn’t yet figured out. She was carrying a colorful wooden tray, coffee, tea, and a small plate of cookies on top of it. She poured Savich some tea, arched a questioning eyebrow as she handed it to him.

  “Straight is fine. Thank you.”

  The tea was delicious. He hadn’t realized how cold he’d been. This was so mundane, so normal, sitting here learning about a remote, drinking tea, and knowing he’d find out soon enough why Martin had left the day after he’d graduated high school. For now, drinking tea was just fine. He drank, felt the warmth all the way to his belly, and thanked God he was still alive. “My wife, who’s also an FBI agent, is outside with the police and your neighbors. I’d like to call her, tell her that everything’s okay. Also, I don’t want the cops to worry, maybe fire something in here. Okay by you, Martin?”

  Martin drank his coffee, said nothing, only nodded.

  “That’s a very good idea,” Janet said as she sat herself on the other end of the sofa, as close to her husband as she could get without climbing into his lap.

  Sherlock answered before the second note sounded in Bolero.

  “Sherlock, it’s me. Martin is disarmed, we’re talking, everything’s under control. He’s calm and rational, telling me what’s happened to him. Please tell Chief Gerber and Joe Gaines, the hostage negotiator, they can stand down, at least put away their weapons. There’s no reason for anyone to get hurt now.”

  He heard her speaking, then she was back on the cell. “Chief Gerber won’t go for it. You need to tell him yourself, Dillon.”

  Savich did, slowly, easily, making certain Chief Gerber knew he wasn’t under any duress.

  “Yes, I’m sure of it. In fact, I’m drinking an excellent cup of tea at this very moment. There’s a plate of chocolate chip cookies in front of me. Janet Thornton is fine, as are the girls. I think it would be best if you dispersed the neighbors, told them that everything is all right. I don’t want them looking at Martin like he’s some sort of freak who will flip out when he walks out of here.”

  There was a long pause, then Chief Gerber said, “I’ll do that, Agent Savich. Your wife said that if I don’t believe you I might as well hang it up and sail to Fiji. Not a bad idea, really. But you’ve got to know that none of my people are leaving here until I see Martin Thornton in custody and everyone safely out of that house.”

  “Believe me, Chief Gerber, I appreciate that. Thank you for your cooperation. That will take some more time. Oh yes, would you please tell my wife it will be a little while longer?” He shut off the cell and slipped it back into his jacket pocket.

  “You don’t pull any punches, do you?” Janet Thornton said, a dark eyebrow arched up a good inch.

  “No reason to. Both of you know exactly what the score is, what’s going on outside. Chief Gerber is a good man. He’ll deal with things. As for your neighbors, I’m thinking you guys should move away from here. People don’t forget the sound of a shotgun, or police cars all over the neighborhood, not when they’ve got kids around.”

  “No, you don’t pull any punches,” Martin said. “Yes, we’ll move. I hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.”

  “Of course not,” Savich said. “Do you feel like getting back to it, Martin?”

  “Yes.”

  “Tell me why you disappeared right after you graduated, without saying a word to your father.”

  “When he looked me right in the eye and told me that my mother’s death was an accident, something died inside. I simply couldn’t accept who he was or what he was. I remember very clearly thinking my old man had lied to me, flat-out lied, not because of me, mind you, but because of his wife, Jenny, my stepmother, and their two daughters. I realized I had nothing to do with his new life. If he could, I think he would have swept me under the carpet or tossed me out with the trash.”

  “My wife, Agent Sherlock, said that isn’t true at all. When she spoke to your father, he was frantic to know where you were.”

  Martin’s clear brown eyes, very intelligent eyes, had no shadows or madness in them now,
just disbelief. “It may have suited the moment. I really don’t believe him.”

  Savich nodded. “You know him better than we. But tell me why you erased yourself.”

  “Erased myself,” Martin repeated slowly, as if tasting the words. “Yes, I suppose I did that. I got a whole new identity. It’s not hard to do if you live in Boston, and are willing to take some chances. I approached people on the street—fences, drug addicts—until I found the people who were willing to sell me an identity. I bought my name—Martin Thornton—got a social security number, a driver’s license, everything I needed, and then I hitchhiked out of Boston, didn’t tell a single person where I was going. Actually, I didn’t know myself.”

  “Where did you go?”

  “I went out to Seattle at first, got a job pumping gas, started working my way through school. The dreams stopped then. It seemed that when I found out about my mother’s murder, I didn’t need to dream about it anymore. The funny thing is, I wanted to remember my mother, I wanted to know what she was like. I wanted to know who murdered her and why. But the dreams never told me that.” He stopped suddenly, stuck out his hand for Janet to take, and said, “I dated. I slept with my first girlfriend when I was nineteen. I felt like a man. I felt normal.”

  “You are normal,” Janet said, and there was absolute conviction in her voice. “What happened to you, Martin—your mother’s murder, being uprooted, not having your father tell you the truth—you dealt amazingly well with all of it. If I’d started having those dreams, I would have ended up in Boston Harbor or slitting my wrists. You didn’t do either of those things. You survived.

  “I don’t blame you for leaving your father, for chucking all of it. The only thing is, I wish you had told me. We’ve been married eleven years, and you never told me. What Agent Savich said about the truth—he’s right, only the truth will do. I wish you’d told me so I could have helped.”

  “I couldn’t,” he said, looking directly into her eyes. “I never wanted to think about him again. I never wanted it to touch our lives. I didn’t want it to hurt you, or us.”

  “Well, aren’t you a bloody fool!?”

  He actually grinned, squeezed his wife’s hand. Savich held very still, knowing he was invisible to them in this moment.

  A few moments later he brought them back.

  “Martin, the first episode, when was that?”

  Janet Thornton sucked in her breath. “What a horrible word.”

  Savich shrugged. “But I think it fits, more or less, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” Martin said. “Now I can say that. Six months ago, it just hit me like a hammer. All sorts of wild things careened through my head. I thought I was going crazy. It lasted only a couple of hours, but I scared the hell out of Janet. She talked me down, thank God. The girls weren’t here that time or the second time either. That was about two months ago, and that one lasted longer.”

  “You were here, at home?”

  “Yes, Janet and I were having dinner—hot dogs and baked beans, potato chips—all my favorites. It was the day after my birthday. Janet thought we should have our own private celebration, without the girls. They were at a sleepover at a friend’s house. I suddenly remembered this was exactly what I always loved to eat when I was little. I started crying. Janet held me, didn’t stop talking to me, and finally, after a while, everything began to fade.”

  Savich looked thoughtful. “The day after your birthday. You nearly remembered something.”

  “You think so?”

  “Maybe. Then what, Martin?”

  “I—I was going to go to a doctor, really I was, to a shrink, but I didn’t know anyone and I was, well, I was ashamed. No, I was afraid of what a shrink would say, afraid I’d end up in a padded cell and my life would be over, all except for those horrible dreams. Believe me, Janet’s been on my case, but—I didn’t go, just didn’t.”

  “Doesn’t matter now. If it’s okay with you, Martin, I’m getting rid of that shotgun. I want you to promise me you’ll never as long as you live have another gun in your home.”

  Martin looked over to where Janet had laid the shotgun on the floor beside the front door.

  “All right. Yes, I promise, Dillon.” He rose, but Savich held out his hand.

  “Let me tell Chief Gerber that I’ll be handing out the shotgun so they don’t get nervous.”

  When Savich walked back into the living room a few minutes later, he said, “All done. Everything’s fine now. We’ve got a lot of relieved people out there. Now, you guys got a good babysitter?”

  They both stared at him. Janet nodded. “Well, yes, my mom. She lives in Rockville. She loves having the girls. When Martin had the second breakdown, I made an excuse and they stayed with her for three days.”

  “Good. Both of you are coming with me now, back to Washington. We’ll drop the girls off at your mom’s. You’ll be staying tonight at the Jefferson Dormitory at Quantico. You’ll be safe there, Martin. If something pops again in your brain, there’ll be people there to control things.

  “Where do you work, Martin?”

  “I work in the IT section at the Giant corporate office.”

  “Really? I have some interest in computers myself. Maybe we can talk about that later. Anyway, we can call your boss and get you some leave.

  “After what’s happened here, I’ll have to take you into my own custody. We’ll call it a temporary commitment. That should keep Chief Gerber from filing any charges.

  “Tomorrow morning, you’re going to meet Dr. Emanuel Hicks. I’d like him to try to hypnotize you, see if we can learn anything more about what happened to you when you were six years old. And he’ll be recommending a psychiatrist to you who’ll know all the facts. Sound okay?”

  “It sounds like a miracle,” Janet said.

  Martin searched Savich’s face, and slowly nodded. “Yes, it sounds okay to me, too.”

  Janet looked at Savich, held his eyes, and said simply, “Thank you so much for coming into our lives, Dillon. I’ll go get us and the girls packed and call my mom.”

  Savich said, “Maybe the one to thank is Samantha Barrister. Yeah, I know how strange it all sounds, and maybe I dreamed some of it. But I’ll tell you guys, she was as real to me as it gets. I’ll tell you more about it after we get to Quantico.

  “Right now, I’m going to bring in my wife—she’s the one who found you, Martin—and Detective Raven and Ms. Markham. They’ll help get us on the road. The thing is, I’m heading up the investigation of Justice Stewart Califano’s murder, and I’ve got to get back to Washington.”

  They both stared at him. Janet walked over to him and hugged him. “Bring on your wife. I can’t wait to meet her.”

  CHAPTER

  31

  GEORGETOWN WASHINGTON, D.C.

  SATURDAY NIGHT

  IT HAPPENED SO fast that Sean, playing with Legos on the floor, didn’t have time to react. Fleurette was sitting on the sofa, laughing at something Callie had said, when suddenly, one of the front windows shattered and a bullet slammed into the wall not six inches above Fleurette’s head.

  Savich was just coming through the kitchen door, carrying tea and coffee on a tray. “Everyone down! Sherlock, get Sean!” He dropped the tray, ran to Fleurette, and dragged her off the sofa. He fell on top of her, drawing his gun at the same time. He looked toward the shattered glass in the front window. Close, too close. He said, “Nobody move. Sherlock, you’ve got Sean. Ben, yeah, kill the lights, then pull all the drapes, call 911.”

  “Got it.”

  “Callie, get your nose pressed into the floor.”

  Callie was already down, in front of the sofa, not moving.

  Sherlock had Sean beneath her. He was howling under her, but she didn’t let him up, kept pressing him into the carpet, covering all of him. Ben crawled to the switch, went up on his knees, and punched off both light switches. There was still light arrowing in from the kitchen. He was crawling to the front windows to pull the heavy drapes when anoth
er shot rang out, shattering what was left of the front glass window, hitting low, then another and another.

  Finally it was silent, except for the breathing in the living room. Savich said, “Everyone okay?”

  Sean’s yell was muffled from beneath his mother, “Daddy!”

  “Sean is, but he sounds pissed,” Ben said, and punched 911. They heard him give fast, terse instructions.

  “They’ll be here soon. Savich?”

  “I’m dialing my boss right now.” Jimmy Maitland answered on the first ring. Then another shot burst into the living room, ripping the back out of one of Savich’s favorite chairs. “I heard that,” Jimmy Maitland said. “What the hell is going on, Savich?”

  “Günter’s paying us a house call,” Savich said.

  “This guy crazy or what?”

  “Bet on it,” Savich said. “Hurry.”

  “Half the city will be there in a minute. Keep everyone safe.”

  Savich punched off his phone, and wrapped his arm around Fleurette’s head again. “Okay, now, everyone stay as close to the floor as possible. Slow and easy, elbow your way out of the living room to the staircase. The kitchen light doesn’t reach there. There aren’t any windows near the staircase. It’s the safest place in the house.” He lifted most his weight off Fleurette. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  But she didn’t sound okay. “I’m going to stay over you. Let’s shimmy on our elbows together now. I’m right with you. Sherlock, you okay with Sean? You need any help?”

  “Nope, got him.” She nearly had to yell to be heard over Sean’s howls. “We’re okay. I’m dragging him beneath me. We’re right behind you.”

  Ben said, “You guys stay down. Savich, Sherlock, you’ve got your guns. Callie, you sucking the floor?”