The only sound in the room was the ticking of the old school clock behind her on the wall, and the deep sigh she rendered. Pulling strength from somewhere, she pushed herself up and rested her elbows on the arms of the chair.
She looked down at her hands as she picked at a wrinkle in her jeans. Shame riddled her. It was yet one more bad decision in a long line of bad decisions.
“I thought if I hurried I could get them back. Sandy was panicked. She didn’t want Beth or Randy to know. It was important to her that she get the girls back quickly before anyone found out. At that time we had no reason to believe they had done anything but run away back to Pride’s house.
“It seemed to be just a matter of going and picking up two girls who had run away.” She paused for a moment to gauge Bracket’s reaction. When he continued to sit waiting, she continued.
“Before we knew it, things were out of hand and I was reacting. I didn’t have any reason to expect that Gus or his men were watching Jenny or Pride. There is nothing you can say to make me feel any worse.”
Bracket nodded and leaned back in his chair. Carrie was a good agent no, a great agent. She was one of the sharpest and best agents he had ever worked with. But she had issues she needed to resolve. Was this latest episode driven by some internal need that drove her to make the same bad choices in her personal life or had she genuinely thought she was doing the right thing?
“I understand that you responded to Sandy’s call out of compassion, that you wanted to help her. Did you not see where this could end up?”
“I honestly thought we could get them quick and get them back to the safe house safely.” She was honest. Yes, there was that little niggling feeling she had had that was attempting to caution her, but she had over road it.
“You think you can do anything, Carrie. You don’t think you need anyone else. This job, this agency is a team effort. We work together here and with other law enforcement agencies. If we don’t work together, things don’t get done right and people get hurt.”
Carrie nodded. She knew she had issues about asking for help, in anything. She was still struggling with her drinking because she was convinced that she could handle it herself and refused to ask anyone for help.
“I’m going to put you on administrative leave…
"Carrie jumped up before Bracket could finish his sentence. “You can’t! I know too much. I can help. You need me on this case and the drownings.” She moved closer to the front of his desk and rested both hands on it and leaned in.
“Please don’t take me off of this case.” Carrie hadn’t pleaded like this… well, ever. “Please.”
Bracket sat and thought, then leaned his chair forward. “Forty-eight hours.” I do not want to see you around here for forty-eight hours.
“I also want you to report to the agency counselor and continue regular weekly meetings with her for the next three months or… Brackets' hand went up to stop her from protesting. “Or… until she says they are no longer necessary.”
“Can I at least work here in the office?”
“No. I want you to go home, and I want you to get some sleep. You don’t sleep enough, or eat enough by the looks of it.”
Carrie knew there was no use protesting any longer. Bracket was compassionate, and she didn’t want to test the limits of that compassion. She was truly exhausted, so she agreed.
“Can I ask one thing?” Carrie asked. “Will you please keep me in the loop? I’ve grown fond of Jenny. Pride too.”
“No. I want you home and work free.”
Carrie once again nodded and turned to go. The looks from co-orkers were still there but this time she looked back and could even return a bit of a smile. Were they wondering if she had been fired? her She probably should have been.
She walked back to her desk. Randy was not at his, and she wondered where he was. Should she wait to talk to him or search him out before she left?
Deciding to wait until she was rested and had a clear head before talking to Randy, she looked down and noticed an envelope on her desk. It was a plain white long envelope. On top was written, ‘Please give to OSBI Agent Carrie Border’.
She picked it up and turned it over. On the bottom was a sticky note that read, ‘Found this at the crime scene this morning. It was lying on top of the table next to the recliner.’
Carrie stood and looked at the sealed envelope. It felt thick as though it contained several pages. It couldn’t pertain to this morning's events. It would have to be something that Pride had done since the last time she had seen her. If it was evidence in the case, she felt certain that Pride would have given it to her earlier.
Carrie folded the envelope in half the best she could, shoved it in her back pocket, and headed towards the door. She couldn’t read it now. She couldn’t think about Pride right now, or Jenny, or Sandy, or Lisa. The list was long of people she couldn’t think about right then.
She would go home and try not to drink.
Randy was beside himself with worry. He hadn’t been able to look at Carrie and made sure he was not around when she left. He was gripping the rail that ran along the top floor hallway that looked out into the lower entrance.
As he stood watching for Carrie to leave, his knuckles were white and taught. He was using the rail to anchor him in one place. He didn’t trust himself right then to say or do anything, so he had come to the top floor and stood where he could watch for her to leave.
When he saw Carrie come out of their office on the floor below and walk down the stairs to the lobby, his teeth ground together. They had worked together for years and she was his closest friend. He had loved having her for a partner, but that was all over now.
Just as Carrie reached the front door, she turned and looked up to where Randy stood. She must have felt his presence. Their eyes locked and several seconds passed as they both stood there. Randy with rage in his eyes and Carrie with tears in hers.
Finally, Carrie’s upper body shuddered in a motion of defeat that disengaged her eyes with his. She turned and left the building.
Randy continued to stand for a while longer. Rage filled the cavernous space within him. Sandy’s abduction and Carrie’s betrayal had left him feeling empty, alone, and fearful.
“Randy.” Bracket’s voice jarred him out of his mental focus. He stood and turned to see SAC Bracket coming toward him.
Bracket rested his hand on Randy’s shoulder and said, “I will tell you to go home, but I know you won’t. I will also tell you that if you can’t push past what you are feeling, I will take you off of this case completely. There is a conflict of interest. This is your wife. I’m concerned that you will do more harm than good.” Bracket stopped to gauge Randy’s reaction. When there was none he continued.
“You are temporarily confined to office duty. You can do good here, and I can’t have you back in the field yet.”
Randy nodded. He knew what Bracket was saying was right, but he had to be searching for Sandy and out there actively helping. He also knew Bracket wanted him here in the office so he could keep an eye on him to make sure he wasn’t out there. If Bracket sent him home, he would still look for her outside of Brackets purview and Bracket knew this.
Bracket gave Randy’s shoulder a double-pat and turned to go. “Come on, we need your help if we are to find Sandy.”
The office was a flurry with all hands on deck. Agents had dropped everything and were busy on the phones, computers, and discussing possible options. Sandy was important to them because she was important to him.
He forced his body to move towards his desk. It seemed as though he were moving solid blocks of stone rather than his normally nimble legs. Once there, he stood staring before him at Carrie’s desk. Her cheery face floated before him. He’d grown used to seeing her there, and it usually brought a sense of solidarity and comfort. But not today.
He sat down and tried to regain control of his thoughts. Thinking strategically was what he needed now, not wallowing in emotions.
The DMV would have Gus’ license plates. They could also put out BOLO’s for those. He logged into the system and saw that another agent had already thought to do that as well.
Just then, commotion from the other side of the room stirred him back to life. As he turned, he saw Bracket motion for him to follow him into the conference room. Several other agents were also heading that way.
The clatter of chairs and rustle of arms and legs brushing against furniture halted when Bracket raised his hand from the front of the room.
“Good work so far. You have pushed hard. I wanted to get everyone in here together to go over what and where we should go from here.
“First off, the car we assume that Jenny Mason drove from this morning’s crime scene where Diane Smith’s, a.k.a. Pride’s, body was found this morning. It was at the Petro Truck Stop off of Martin Luther King Ave. and Reno Ave. We also found that a Greyhound bus left for Dallas, Texas just thirty minutes afterwards.
“It would be safe to assume that Jenny, Jennifer Mason, parked the car at the truck stop then walked to the bus station just a block away.” Bracket stopped for a minute, looked down and shuffled through the stack of papers he had before him on the table.
“No sign of the two vehicles which are registered to Gustavo Hernandez have been seen. I think we can assume that he knows that is one of the first things we would look for and has hidden them. There is no one at his primary residence either. On another note, the medical examiner said his preliminary exam shows that Diane Smith, Pride, died from heart failure. Her health was poor, and the possibility of a heart attack was imminent, but the trauma forced upon her by Gus instigated it.
“However, there is a bright spot, Gerald found a link between another property and Gus. I am confident that is where he is. I want a team of our agents to go down there with SWAT.”
The room rustled to life and several agents stood to leave. Everyone was ready to go. “Randy, I want to see you in my office.” Bracket said.
Randy was still seated. He knew he couldn’t go to the house. Why did he feel as though he was already grieving? She wasn’t dead. They would find her. He stood to walk to Bracket’s office.
Bracket followed him in after giving further directions to the lead agent on this op and closed the door behind him.
“You know why you aren’t going with them, right?” Bracket asked.
Randy nodded. To be honest, he felt so defeated that he suspected the worst and wasn’t sure he wanted to see what they would find.
“Randy we will find her and find her alive. I can see it written all over your face you’re expecting the worse case scenario. You can’t do that.” Bracket stopped for a moment.
“I want you on the comm system with me so you will hear what is going on even though you aren’t there. As soon as we know anything, you will head there.”
“Or the morgue,” said Randy as he sat there. He knew he needed to have hope, but from the moment Sandy brought up working at Safe At Last, he’d had a dreadful foreboding in the pit of his stomach. He was now convinced that this was why.
Bracket was not in Randy’s shoes and couldn’t disregard how he felt, but that kind of self pity wouldn’t serve anyone. “Get up. Come with me.”
Bracket led Randy out to the tac gear room where the agents were gearing up. He handed an earpiece to Randy and placed one in his own ear.
Bracket’s last-minute instructions to the team were lost on Randy. He stood numbly by, staring off at nothing, Bracket’s voice sounding like white noise.
The staging area was one city block from the house where Gus held Sandy and Lisa captive. There was an old commercial business, now defunct, that had a large parking lot. It sat diagonally behind the house, with heavy tree foliage and vegetation between them and the house, there was no way that someone from inside the house could see them.
Once all personnel were there, OKCPD, SWAT, and OSBI, Bracket gave the go ahead. They had seen no one coming or going. SWAT was approved to lead the raid.
Gus was sitting on the sofa fuming. The women were still where Vince had planted them in the kitchen. He’d replaced blondie's rag after the kiss, and he hadn’t taken their binds off or pulled the rags out since.
Two of his men sat at the kitchen table playing cards, keeping an eye on the women, as if they could go anywhere. Vince was in the living room with Gus.
Suddenly, with no warning, SWAT busted down the front door. Gus and Vince were immediately on their feet with their weapons pulled.
Before Gus could realize that he was out manned and out gunned, he fired, with Vince doing the same. As his finger was pulling the trigger, Gus realized that he was a dead man.
With bullets flying in the living room, Gus’ other two men ran through the back door where more OKCPD waited for them. They raised their hands in surrender and the cuffs were slapped on.
OSBI Special Agent Gerald Walker rushed in and was by the women’s side as soon as the gunfire ceased. Kneeling down by Sandy’s side to cut loose the zip ties which held her, he felt her tears like raindrops falling on his balding head. It was a good feeling.
Both women felt weak as the reality of their rescue sank in. The men had locked the ties down so tight it had almost completely cut off circulation, which made it difficult to stand and walk. The needles flowed through their hands like rivers of glass. Even rubbing their wrists and hands to sooth them didn’t seem to help.
Sandy looked around for Randy and Carrie but neither one were there. Why, she wondered? A new wave of panic surged through her. Were they dead? What had happened after she and Lisa had been captured?
Gerald felt a solid jerk as someone grabbed and pulled the front of his vest downward. Standing there was Sandy looking up at him with pleading eyes.
“Where’s Randy?” Her panic chilled him even though he knew Randy was safe.
“Randy is at the office. He will be here soon. SAC Bracket prevented him from coming since it would be a conflict of interest.”
Relief like a wave of nausea threated to drop Sandy to the floor. Reaching behind her she felt the cold of the old aluminum kitchen chair. She’d grown up with that same type of old 50s style kitchen chair and its old familiarity comforted her.
Her strength evaporated then, and just like a rag doll, she leaned forward laying her forehead on her legs. She wept with relief, not from fear. “Thank you God. Thank you so much!”
As she sat there doubled over, warmth filled her and she felt familiar arms wrap themselves around her. Without even looking to see who it was, she leaned into them and sobbed.
Sharp pains ripped through Randy as he sat holding the love of his life. He was trying not to sob himself. The thickness in his throat prevented him from speaking, but words were not enough for this moment, anyway.
A female OSBI agent had tended to Lisa and stood by her now as emergency personnel tended to her wounds and checked her vital signs. Heartsickness and despair threatened to take her under as she stood by and watched Randy and Sandy.
Lisa wondered if it would even matter if she left this way of life, the way Safe At Last was working hard to do. Would anyone ever want her the way Randy wanted Sandy? No, she thought, not after the things she had done. The filth she had laid in and with while allowing herself to be defiled for a little bit of money.
Suddenly she lurched forward and was sick on the floor of the kitchen. The stench of vomit caused both Randy and Sandy to sit up alert.
Sandy jumped up and ran to Lisa. She brushed her hair back from her face. “Oh sweetie, are you okay?”
The medics quickly provided clean cloths to wipe her face and bottled water to rinse. Sandy pulled Lisa to her breast and held her as she had often held her own children. As she patted Lisa’s hair and rubbed her hand
along the windblown locks, she cooed, “It’s going to be okay. I promise, it’s going to be okay.”
Randy watched as Sandy exited her own trauma in order to comfort this girl. The pain that had consumed him since Sandy’s abduction, the pain that had driven him to rage was now melting like snow on a warm day.
Watching Sandy, and her ability to move beyond herself, made Randy stop and think he too needed to correct himself and forge past his anger and fear, but was it possible?
Randy stood and left to go find Bracket. What he found was Gus laying sprawled in a pool of blood on the old carpet. Vince was draped backwards over a stuffed chair.
Randy was standing silent and numb as Bracket walked up beside him. “Does this solve the drowning cases?” Randy asked.
“I don’t know, but I doubt it. Are we certain that Gus was the perpetrator on those since his DNA didn’t match?” Bracket asked.
Randy shrugged with both hands still in his pockets. “Both girls were Gus’. We haven’t had a new murder in a couple of days. I’m fairly certain he was our guy, but not one-hundred percent.”
“We need more proof. We’ll have the tech crew go over both properties with a fine-tooth comb. Maybe there will be something there that will lead to the drownings. I’ll send two of our guys over to his primary residence and have a couple stay here with the tech. You go home and be with Sandy.”
Randy just nodded. Words still seemed elusive to him. He had been fueled by high octane adrenaline for several hours now and fatigue threatened to bring him down rapidly.
He walked back into the kitchen to find Sandy. The paramedics had finished with both ladies, but strongly suggested that they be checked out further by a doctor.
Sandy was standing holding Lisa and gently talking to her as she brushed her hand down the length of her hair. Walking up, he could hear her say, “Lisa you are loved and there are people who do care about you. Nothing you have done matters. Not to them. Not to me.”
Her comforting words were cut short when Randy walked up. Sandy looked up at Randy and gave him a big smile. Then remembering where she was and why she was there, the smile faded. Suddenly conscientious about a possible onslaught of reprimands from Randy, she ducked her head and looked around the room suddenly unsure of what to say or do.
The Water Page 17
