by Dale Mayer
“No. That’s why I switched to teaching,” Nancy said patiently. “But, if I can’t get a job in my chosen field, I have no income to pay the bills.”
“But every day is more experience. Eventually you’ll get a full-time teaching position.”
“Sure, but, if I went to an area that needed teachers, chances are I could get a job easier.”
“Start applying. If you get a job, well, I guess that’s where you’re going.”
Nancy chuckled. “I have my résumé open in front of me. I’m updating it.”
Morning felt a jolt to her system. “Wow, then you are serious.”
“More so than I have been in a long time.”
The two talked a little longer; then Morning ended the call. Yet she spoke to herself out loud. “Nancy, you do love teaching. I don’t know why you don’t like Midlands High School.”
But, of course, Nancy had already hung up. Nancy wouldn’t answer that question.
Morning had asked her several times before and always got an answer that some of the teachers were good and that some were kind of creepy. Just like the students.
She’d never heard Nancy talk about students like that before. She’d always been a cheerleader for the kids. So that was already a different take. Still, if her friend did move away, Morning would miss Nancy. And that just brought Morning back to her own fear of losing her home. It might be good for her to move, … to release her father’s asset. But doing what was right didn’t make it easy.
Just then she heard a vehicle out front. She got up, checked her watch, thought it might be the two men. As she walked toward the front door and opened it, she saw her four o’clock guests had finally arrived, who were now quite late.
The pair came in amid a tumble of exclamations and apologies and luggage.
She smiled and quickly put them at ease. As soon as she got them settled into their room, she said, “You’ve had a hectic day. If you’re hungry, I do have fresh homemade shepherd’s pie. I’d be more than happy to serve you some of it.”
Both nodded and exclaimed in joy.
Smiling, Morning went downstairs and into the kitchen. She served up two decent-size plates, which still left half the shepherd’s pie. Should be enough for the men.
She quickly tossed together a Caesar salad and added place settings to the dining table. When her guests arrived, Bruce and Brenda Carter—and, boy, did she have to smile at those names—they sat down at the table. She brought a cup of coffee over and joined them.
They explained about one of their flights being canceled because of a door that wouldn’t seal and how they’d been shunted to another plane and then still another plane and so would be staying longer here at the B&B, if that was okay. They really shouldn’t, but, after their rough trip, they felt they deserved a second day.
Morning just nodded. “Traveling these days, it’s not always as simple as it’s made out to be.”
As soon as the couple ate, they headed out, promising they’d be back by eleven as per her rules. Some people didn’t like to follow rules. And those individuals she told not to come back. She deliberately wasn’t supercheap in her pricing. It was her home she was opening after all. Other places in town were less expensive for an overnight stay, and that worked for her.
She was cleaning up their dishes when she heard a knock at the front door again. She walked toward it, smiling, as she opened it. But there was no one there. Frowning she stepped out and looked around. But there was no sign of anyone. Probably just kids. Stepping back inside, she closed the door then called Geir. “I don’t know when you’re planning on coming back tonight …”
“Sorry,” he responded. “We didn’t mean to be this long.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I’m not trying to check up on you. Just thought I’d let you know that dinner is here for you whenever you get hungry.”
“We’re at Midlands High School right now,” Geir said. “We thought it would still be open but hadn’t realized how late it was.”
“Staff is often there until five,” Morning said. “A friend of mine will work there tomorrow.”
“Doing what?”
“She works as a substitute teacher on an on-call basis.”
“Any idea why she got called in?”
“Apparently the school just found out one of the teachers has died, so she’ll be subbing for that teacher tomorrow.”
“We will be there soon,” Geir said abruptly and hung up the phone.
“What’s the chance the guy we found dead in the alley is this teacher who died?”
“It’s hard to say.” They stood on the school steps, but the doors were locked, and the playground was empty. Garbage blew aimlessly across the parking lot. “There should be a staff directory online.”
Geir pulled out his tablet as they walked toward his truck. “We never did get an ID on the dead guy.”
“The cops won’t release that until the next of kin is notified. So chances are, it’s early for the school to have been notified.”
Geir nodded. But he couldn’t help thinking it was odd to have just heard of a teacher being killed after finding a body. “Unless, of course, Poppy had something to do with it, and he told them.”
“Which would be easily verified and not smart on his part.”
“I know.”
As they walked back through the parking lot, a vehicle came in. Geir and Jager studied it. The driver took one look at them, then bolted out of the parking lot.
“Interesting.”
“Could be anything from a parent trying to do a late pickup of a child and is afraid of getting in trouble for having missed them, to somebody looking to score drugs and the dealers have already left the school grounds,” Geir said drily.
“True enough.”
They stopped at the edge of the parking lot, took one last look at the school. Jager said, “We’ll check in again in the morning.”
“What about Mason?” Geir asked.
“I doubt Mason knows more than he did at our meeting in Santa Fe before we left.”
“True, but I just feel like there should be some names by now.”
“He did say the navy found signs of tampering within their personnel database. Names, dates, etc. The navy says the hacking only worked because they were changing their software from an ancient system. The files were placed in the archive system, then automatically updated to the new system, overriding the old files.”
“And, if it happened during the systems update, then you would think that the hacking could have been done by a programmer.”
“It’s possible.”
“Right, so we don’t know if Mouse was part of that or not.”
Jager shook his head. “No, we don’t, but a part of me says he may have been because he was terribly incompetent in so many other things.”
“He was tech-savvy. When Laszlo and I talked to Lance, before someone took him out, Lance told us how Mouse had ‘techno guts and brains,’ where Lance had the brawn. Yet, despite Mouse’s fear of water, he still managed to make it as a SEAL.”
“And, of course, that’s the next question. Did he? What if somebody gave him a pass on his BUD/S training in his file? Add that information to the rest of his record, and he was given a unit to work with. That’s a hell of a hacking job, and that’s with him making it into the navy on his own. But what if it’s more than that? What if he didn’t even qualify for the navy, much less the SEALs?”
“Something’s majorly wrong with our system when somebody can fake any of that.”
Jager stopped and looked at Geir, then asked, “And, of course, along with that disturbing element is, did somebody take out another SEAL so Mouse could take his place?”
“The students came from across the country to pass BUD/S training. There are photo IDs, all kinds of checks and balances to make sure it all works.” Jager frowned. “But why? Why go to all that trouble?”
“Because it’s what Mouse ultimately wanted and didn’t fig
ure he could make it any other way.”
The two men stopped beside Geir’s truck. Geir could see Jager’s rented Jeep Wrangler a few vehicles ahead. Geir shook his head. “It’s pretty sad if that’s how Mouse got in.”
“What about fingerprints?”
Geir said, “Remember? Mouse burnt his fingers badly. The prints would never be comparable to earlier ones. You know yourself we only use our ID tags now. We never have to go through fingerprinting or anything else anymore. My prints were taken when I had my first complete medical examination.” Geir turned to face Jager. “So maybe Mouse stole someone else’s identity and stepped into the navy. Not going through any of the normal channels.”
“You mean, Mouse found someone who had already passed BUD/S training? Then targeted him, and, when an opportunity arose, he took him out?”
“It’s possible. You know it is. And, of course, he’d arrive green, wouldn’t know anybody, wouldn’t have a clue how it all worked. But, because he’d passed, he would have been accepted. All his paperwork, his documentation would have been in order.”
Jager leaned his arms atop the truck. “That makes more sense than to think of anybody trying to fake it from the very beginning of the navy induction. Just to get into the navy entails so many background checks and mountains of paperwork and manifold identification confirmations for the initial process. But, if Mouse took out somebody and stepped in after the fact, then the danger was only if anybody was able to identify him as an imposter.”
“Exactly. But he’d have to make sure it was a damn close match.”
“Or was a close-enough match that a little bit of surgery or a different hairstyle or makeup would do the trick.”
They looked at each other.
“Are we really suggesting,” Jager said out loud, “that the Mouse we had in our unit could have done something like this?”
“It would explain a lot of things,” Geir said slowly. “And I don’t want to be speaking ill of the dead if it’s not true, but we all know that, even though Mouse had some training, he was terribly inept at so many things.”
“And yet he was fit, very physically strong, capable. And we did an awful lot of one-on-one training with him to bring his skills up to snuff.”
“But, at the time, we were like, What the hell? This guy is desperately in need. How had he made it this far? But we never questioned that maybe he didn’t make it this far, that maybe something else was going on.”
Jager glared at his friend with a hard look. “Why would we? He was a SEAL. He was one of us. And, like everything else we do, if he was one of us, we would help him make it through his weaker areas.”
“And we didn’t go on many missions with him.”
“No, the couple missions we did, one off in Italy and the training mission we did out of Australia, he had a broken leg, didn’t he?” Jager asked thoughtfully. “When you think about it, Mouse, who was only with us for that year, wasn’t in a position to swim much.”
“Considering we spent weeks skydiving, conducted over-the-beach landings and landed via small rubber craft, swimming hadn’t been a requirement. In one mission, remember how we had to take down a ship in our own high-speed boats by boarding the ship at night?”
Jager nodded.
“Mouse had been with us all the way. And he’d been in the water—occasionally. But I don’t remember seeing Mouse doing more than the bare minimum when it came to swimming. … Of course we weren’t looking for any signs of deception back then.”
“Shit,” said Jager. “It makes my stomach churn to think that’s what was going on.”
“But we can’t jump to conclusions,” Geir said. “There could be another explanation.”
“Maybe. But I’m not seeing it right now,” Jager said quietly.
Chapter 4
On Wednesday, Morning was up early. She felt bad that the men had missed out on dinner and chose not to charge them for it. Breakfast was included, and she suspected they could make a pretty decent dent in whatever she had. She did up a plateful of sausages, and, as the men came in, she turned with a bright smile. “How do you want your eggs?”
“Sunny-side up,” they both said.
She nodded, pointed at the urn and said, “Coffee’s ready. Help yourself. I’ll have your eggs ready in a minute.” She cracked two into the pan and then two more. At the silence behind her, she turned. Both men sat at the eat-in kitchen table and stared at her frying pan. She frowned and said, “Okay, so how many eggs will it take?”
They both grinned. “Another each would be good.”
She rolled her eyes. “Typical big healthy males.”
They nodded.
She needed a second pan for frying that many eggs, so she filled another pan and then turned to the bread. “Toast?” She pointed to the fresh bread she’d just pulled out of the oven.
“It would be a waste to toast that,” Geir said. “But I’ll take a slab with butter.”
She nodded, and, with a quick glance at the eggs to make sure they were okay, she walked to the fresh bread and cut off four slices. Jager snagged the crusty end piece.
“Hey, I was gonna grab that,” Geir said.
Jager just shrugged. “You were too slow. You’ve always been too slow.”
Geir shot him a look but reached for the butter and slathered the creamy yellow stuff on his bread. Jager didn’t seem to mind no butter, at least on the crusty slice. But when he went for the second piece, he buttered it.
As Morning served the eggs and sausages, she shook her head. “Do I need to cut another few slices?”
“Yes, from the other end,” Geir grumbled.
She laughed and obliged.
With delighted surprise he accepted the crust she handed him and then smirked at Jager. “Ha, ha.”
Jager, in response, grabbed two of the center pieces. He looked at her and said, “Do you have any honey or peanut butter?”
“Oh my, I totally forgot.” She walked to the formal dining room table already set and brought back a small tray she kept full of honey, jams and peanut butter for breakfast.
Jager’s face lit up. He polished off his sausage and eggs faster than anybody she’d ever seen, whereas Geir ate slowly, savoring bite for bite. By the time he was done with his food, Jager was well into a thickly plastered peanut butter and honey sandwich.
She studied the two men in fascination. “Do you guys eat like this all the time?”
They stopped and stared at her.
She chuckled. “Right, this is just normal.” She could hear movement upstairs. “My other guests will be coming down soon.”
Geir’s gaze narrowed. “How many?”
“Two, a husband and wife. They’ll be here all day today, overnight again and leave tomorrow morning.”
Geir nodded. “Anybody else coming in?”
“I’m waiting for a family to confirm sometime today when they are due to arrive. They weren’t sure if they’d be in Wednesday—today—or Friday, depending on flights. There was an issue with one of them. What are you two up to today?” she asked. “And it occurred to me when I woke up this morning, do you need or want to speak to my friend who’ll be working at the school?”
Geir tilted his head and gave a quick nod. “That would be a good idea. Does she get breaks? We only need to meet with her for a few minutes.”
Morning nodded. “She does indeed. I’ll send her a text and see what she says.” She pulled out her phone and sent Nancy a text, asking if she had a moment to speak with the two men at school today.
Nancy’s response was an immediate question. The cute ones?
Trying to keep her face straight, she replied, Find out for yourself.
Sure, I’ll have a break between 11:30 and 12:30.
Where can they meet you?
At the office.
Morning looked up and said, “Nancy can meet you between eleven-thirty and twelve-thirty—the earlier the better. She’ll meet you at the office.”
“Tell he
r eleven-thirty. And thank her for us.”
Morning nodded. “I just confirmed that with her.” She brought up Nancy’s profile and held up the picture of her friend. “Just so you recognize her.”
Both men took a moment to study her friend, whose curvy proportions had often made her very popular with the guys, but they were usually after one thing, according to Nancy. And she wasn’t interested if that was all it was. She wanted marriage and two kids in the little white house with the picket fence. She also wanted to stay married for sixty years and grow old in rocking chairs on the front veranda of the same house. She often asked Morning why she wasn’t of the same opinion.
So far Morning hadn’t had a decent answer. But she figured, if she ever found Mr. Right, she’d take whatever it was Mr. Right had in mind so she could be with him.
She was tied to this place, but she wasn’t so tied that she’d walk away from a relationship she believed in 100 percent. She did believe in compromise, but, in the end, she guessed she was a romantic because no way would she walk away from that person who she’d been waiting for all her life.
She glanced at the men as they finished their coffee. “So now that you’ve tanked up, are you heading to the school?”
Both men shrugged in a noncommittal manner, which she took to mean it was none of her business. She nodded as she swept the plates out from under them. “Have a good day hunting.”
That stopped them short. They turned to look at her.
She gave them a bland gaze back. “Obviously you’re hunting somebody at the school. I get that. Just stay safe, all right?” Then she beamed. “Besides I have to redeem myself at dinner. If you’ll be here for it, that is,” she said.
The men stared at her. “Redeem yourself?”
“Sure. You came in to warmed-up plates of shepherd’s pie. I pride myself on my cooking,” she said by way of explanation. “Now, if you guys can give me a time that you’ll be here, I could give you a lovely meal.”
Both men looked interested, but it was Geir who said, “Shepherd’s pie wasn’t lovely?”
