“Do you mind if I check?”
“Go for it.” I couldn’t even believe I was saying that, but considering the town, it made sense.
He ran up the stairs as fast as he could, making me want to laugh at him.
The phone rang and I answered it. “Moody Funeral Home, serving the needs of the living and the dead. How may I help you?” I hated saying all of that.
“Is this Jane Black?” It was a deep male voice.
“Yes, how may I help you?”
“Harley Jane Black?”
“Who is this?”
The phone went dead. Karma had come to get me for all the bad things I’d thought and for wanting to ride that bike.
Chapter 30
As the hair went up on the back of my neck, I stared at the phone.
Chris came in from behind me. “That’s a phone. You’ll have a test next week, and we’ll talk about the desk then.”
“Chris, we need to have a talk.”
“We do?” He sat down beside me. “You’re finally giving up on Jim and are ready to fall into my arms, right? Fall away, baby, I’ve got ya.” He put his arms out while I shot him the ‘get serious, idiot’ look.
He cleared his throat and put his hands back on his lap. “Tell me what’s up.”
I leaned closer. “Someone just called for Harley Jane Black.”
“What’s your middle name?” he whispered back.
“Jane.”
He leaned even closer, his eyes meeting mine. “Why did you use that?”
“In case someone wanted to look at my driver’s license, I could cover my tracks easily. I don’t even know if Jim knows my middle name because I never use it.”
“I’m on it.” He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and walked outside. I waited, but couldn’t concentrate on any paperwork, for fear someone had found me out.
Chris walked back into the office just as I put my head on the desk. “You okay?”
“Sure.” I lifted my head.
He reached over and pulled the sticky note from the desk off my face with a grin. “Jim’s on his way. You’re out.” He sat down beside me.
“I am? But nothing happened yet.”
“Tough. You’re out. Your cover’s been blown, and it’s too risky with the Russians still on your tail from your U.N. job.”
“But my job here…”
“Done. And you did well for your first mission,” he whispered. “It happens to the best of us.”
“You?”
“Never. I wasn’t stupid enough to use my real last name.” He rolled his eyes.
“Now you’re calling me stupid?” I put my hands on my hips.
He laughed at me. “No, but think about it.”
I stood up and walked to the back. “Mr. Moody, I have to resign.”
“Why? You were doing so well.”
“I have a family emergency and have to leave town. I can’t stay here, but I thank you tremendously for the opportunity.”
“Are you coming to the funerals this afternoon? They’re so much fun. I’d love for you to see what you did to help me out. Please?”
“I have to see if I can make it. Are they being held in the viewing room?” I pointed to the room on the far left.
“No, they’ll be upstairs. We’re opening all the partitions to create one big room. They start at three and go on until six, every hour on the hour. Four back-to-back. I could really use your help.”
I glanced out at Chris, sitting at the front desk, and turned back to Mr. Moody. “I may just do that. I have to see when I can get a ride to the family emergency.”
I heard the front door open, looked out, and saw Jim, Archie, and Damon waiting for me. I didn’t want to go. I wanted to finish what I’d started, but someone had figured me out. It was frustrating and very nerve-wracking.
“Jane,” Jim said. “Ready to go to lunch?”
I turned to Mr. Moody. “I have to leave. I need a shower, but I hope to be back before three to help you out. Chris is here, so at least you’re not alone.”
“I really need you to be here. I can’t do this without you.” I looked into his eyes and saw some sort of deceit.
“Why do you need me here?”
“It’s a long story, but I need you, specifically, here to help me. And I need you for the entire time, too.”
I nodded slowly. “I understand.” And I did, too. He was the contact and I knew it. He was the one talking to the terrorists, but I didn’t want to tip my hand.
I turned and walked toward Jim, making eye contact as I did.
“You okay?” Jim asked.
“I guess so.” I glanced over at Chris. “It’s lunchtime. Did you want to get a shower?”
“I’ll meet you guys,” he whispered.
We left the mortuary, with all three men flanking my sides. As soon as we got into the car, Jim did his wanding ritual for everyone, declaring us all clean. No one said anything else until we drove away and were out of the town, heading north of Señora Bonita.
As Archie drove, Jim swiveled toward me from the passenger’s seat. “So, you’ve been made.”
“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say. No one told anyone my real name.”
“But you used your middle name? I should’ve guessed. You answered to it too easily.”
I looked out the side window. “I always wished my name were easy when growing up. All my friends called me Jane instead of Harley. But as I got older, Harley fit my personality better.” I stared back out the front window, right past him. “Fire me. Go ahead. I’ll find some other job somewhere.”
“No, Harley,” he said. “Kent’s glad they called you. We want these people to come out of the woodwork, and you’re just the person they’re hunting for. We think it’s the Russians. We’ve been waiting for this break for six months now, and we think we know who’s behind everything.”
“So I’m not fired?”
“Not at all.” He smiled. “Now tell me what the voice sounded like.”
“Deep male voice, with an accent. A Russian accent, I’m sure.” I looked up ahead. “Where are we going?”
“Hachita. Kent wants to talk to us outside the city.”
“Kent’s here?” Rotten luck. I didn’t want to fight with anyone and didn’t want to talk to him, of all people.
“Yep,” Jim said. “It’s now become personal to the DHS. When they pick on one of our undercover agents by name, that tells us it’s a bigger job than we thought it was.”
I lowered my eyes. “I guess I won’t be able to go to the funerals today.”
“Not unless you know the bad guys will be there,” Jim said.
“They probably will,” I said, looking up at him.
He suddenly looked confused. “What do you mean? Did they talk to you? I thought they just asked for Harley Jane Black on the phone. That’s what Chris said.”
“They did, but Mr. Moody knows more than you think. He almost demanded I be at the funerals today. I asked him why I needed to be there, considering I’d just quit the job, and he said ‘it’s a long story, but I specifically need you there.’ That sounds fishy to me.”
“It sure does.” He glanced over at Archie, who was driving. “What did you find out?”
“Vladimir doesn’t work at the copper mines any more, but I talked to Assam. He’s clueless, or plays like he is, to where Vladimir is right now. I went out to the house, but no one answered. So I kind of broke in and checked it out. Nothing is there, and I mean nothing. There’s no furniture, nothing in the cabinets or closets, and the place looks like no one has lived there for years.”
“How odd is that?” I asked.
“It’s a front,” Jim said. “They live somewhere else, like maybe at Roger’s Imports or nearby. Damon checked that place out this morning.” He stared at Damon, sitting beside me. “What did you find?”
“Same as Archie. Absolutely nothing. It looks like they pulled everything up and moved the entire store. It’s locked up
tight, but I could see in the dirty windows. It’s empty.”
“Is it for sale?” Jim asked.
“No sign it out front, but there is a sign on the front door that says they’ve moved to Animas.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “I have the address right here.”
“Check it out this afternoon.” Jim then returned to see Archie. “What did you hear at the diner this morning?”
“Well, these people are definitely in la-la land and none of them are drinking anything caffeinated. It’s always water.
“Nothing else?” I asked. “Not even decaf tea?”
“Nope. They only have water on the menu, too. I have a sample that I’m sending to the lab, but I think it’s bottled, because they pour it from a bottle at your table. The townspeople also think Mexico’s a part of the United States, and there’s an extra state right beside Texas that’s Russian.”
“That’s the mind control they mentioned,” Jim said. “What do the customers base this on?”
Archie lifted a paper from the floor and handed it to Jim. “This was right beside the national newspaper at the diner.”
Jim read the paper. “Some of this is in Russian, too.”
“The people were talking about learning the language, since they now have a Russian state in their midst.”
“Is there anything in the national news that would contradict this?” I asked. “Maybe they think that’s the only news around?”
“Right on the front page, there’s an article in the national news that mentions the fifty states, in the headlines. Two old men were talking about it, with the two newspapers side-by-side. One guy said, ‘you’d think the national news would know about the eighty-two states instead of fifty.’”
“Mind control,” Damon said. “I’ve heard of it, but never seen it in practice. I wish I could’ve been there to see it.”
“Is there anything else?” Jim asked Archie.
“Yeah. I found fingerprints on the hooker’s car, and ran them through the database. No match. However, I found more fingerprints at the house with the black windows and one of them matches the fingerprints I found. So whoever killed Alana was in the house with the black windows.”
“Do you have Tilvin’s prints on file?” I asked.
“Tilvin?” Jim asked. “Why?”
“He showed no grief or remorse when Homer died this morning. It’s like he has no soul or something, almost laughing at the dead.”
Jim shook his head, still staring at me. “I want you at those funerals today. We’ll all be there, paying our respects. Does anyone have anything else?”
“I went up to Hagar Lawns this morning, too,” Damon said. “But they use all natural things, mainly bugs and things like that. I took samples of everything they had and they’re in the trunk. I also have a sample of the soil at the gardens, but nothing is growing there right now.”
“I also let Kerenza go,” Archie said. “Her family wasn’t willing to press charges and we all think it was the drugs. So she’s resting at home, and her husband is keeping tabs on her.”
“This is definitely a weird place.” Jim stared at me. “You’re fine, too. There’s nothing in your system right now, and your blood sugar is back to normal. Vic’s at the clinic, and Pearl and Norman are helping him. Some people are complaining of sore joints today. Do you feel anything?”
“Nope.”
Archie finally took an exit off the highway, drove to a police station, and parked the car. We all got out and Jim grabbed my hand, pulling me to him. “You’re with me. Nothing bad is going to happen to you.”
“Uh-huh.” I wasn’t buying it and he should understand. If things went as I thought they would, I’d be sacrificed to get the bad guys.
Chapter 31
Upon entering the police station, we were ushered into a back room by three armed police officers. Kent was sitting at a table beside an evil man I knew from what had happened in New York.
“Well, hello,” Kent said. The door went shut behind us and I knew I was trapped. He was an older man with dark hair and graying sideburns. While average looking in build and height, his attitude is what got to me. I never knew what he was thinking because he rarely smiled.
The other man, the evil Dr. White, sat to Kent’s left. I hated that man. A psychologist by trade, the man loved twisting my words to make me look like the bad guy, while Jim helped him.
“Have a seat,” Kent said. “I take it you all know Dr. White?”
We all nodded and sat around the table. I sat far away from the two leaders, but considering it was a round table, it wasn’t far enough. I just kept out of their line of fire, two seats down from Dr. White. Jim was between the evil doctor and me, and there was an empty seat to my left.
The door opened suddenly and Chris walked in. “I’m sorry I’m late. I was tied up at the office.” He sat beside me in the empty seat, smiling. “Fancy meeting you here.”
I crossed my arms on the table. “Yeah. Didn’t get that shower, either, did you?”
He smelled his armpits. “Bad, huh?”
“No worse than me.”
“We called this emergency meeting because we heard that Harley’s been identified.” Kent turned toward me. “What exactly happened?”
I had to answer him, but his expression told me he didn’t trust me. Regardless, I had to persevere. “We were at the mortuary this morning, and after digging some graves, Tilvin walked in, telling us there was a dead body at the copper mines.”
“Tilvin’s the mayor’s son,” Kent said to Dr. White. “We think he’s in with the terrorists.”
“Last name?” Dr. White asked.
“Nilly,” I said. “He’s Willy’s and Billie’s son, and Jilly’s and Milly’s brother. They call him Tilly Nilly.”
“Someone’s been smoking something,” Archie muttered. I looked directly across the table at him and chuckled.
Dr. White took notes. “Go on.”
“Tilvin told us about the death, so we went to the copper mines to get the dead body. Since I looked exhausted, Jim took me back to the mortuary. Chris came back with Mr. Moody, the owner.”
“I don’t understand why you had to dig graves,” Kent asked.
“It’s part of the job description,” Chris said. “She and I mark the graves with shovels, and Mr. Moody digs the rest with a backhoe. That’s why we’re both sweaty.”
“I see.” Kent looked up from his paperwork. “Continue, Harley.”
“Well, since I got back before Chris and Mr. Moody, I sat at the front desk. Willy came in, wanting to use the dead guy for his foursome—”
“He what?” Kent asked.
I shook my head. “You wouldn’t believe it even if you were there. He, his wife, and the dead guy, who was his neighbor, meet with the wealthiest town hooker for foursomes on party night. Since the dead guy wasn’t alive, Willy went upstairs to the brothel and looked for the wealthy hooker. Her name’s Shirley. After that, I was alone downstairs. That’s when the phone rang.”
“Describe the caller,” Dr. White said, still writing.
“He sounded like he had a Russian accent, I think. He asked if I was Jane Black. I said ‘yes.’ Then he said, ‘Harley Jane Black,’ and I asked who it was. He hung up.”
Dr. White turned toward Kent. “Could he have heard someone using her real name? One of our guys?”
“It’s possible, but doubtful,” Jim said. “We only used that name in the doctor’s house. We were all really careful.”
“I looked up ‘Jane Black’ on the Internet,” Kent said. “And Harley’s name came up as an interpreter at the U.N. It’s possible they tracked her down from that. I’ve put out a cease and desist order from our government to remove her name from all websites, but it might be too late.” He looked up at me. “From now on, all your legal documents say Brittany Bond on them, including your driver’s license.”
“Brittany?” I pointed at myself. “Do I look like a Brittany?”
&nb
sp; “No, but it’s common enough, no one will think you’re Harley.” He turned toward the rest of us. “Her name is now Brittany, everywhere, and her last name will be different on each case.”
Brittany? And I had no say in the matter? I wasn’t happy and crossed my arms.
“I don’t think you’re making friends,” Dr. White whispered to Kent. It was loud enough, all of us could hear it.
“Yeah, I see that,” Kent said, staring at me. “What name would you like?” he asked.
“I like Harley.”
He shook his head in slow motion. “Not an option. I don’t even want you using it around the house, because it’s an unusual name. Pick another one.”
“Do I have time to think about it?”
“No. I need to know right now so we can change everything for you. And I don’t want it starting with an ‘H’. It’ll be too close to Harley if it does.”
I looked around the room. I wanted a cool name. I wanted to stick out, like the name Harley did. I wanted to keep my name. “No.” I turned back to Kent. “No. Bond is my last name now, making me different. I want the name Harley. Change my middle name, but my first name is Harley.”
He raised an eyebrow. “But they’ll find you.”
“Maybe, and maybe not.” I sat up to see him better. “Think about it this way. If they find me, we know who ‘they’ are. Otherwise, they’re sleepers and we won’t find them until it’s too late. I want Harley. Make my middle name something else, but Harley stays.”
Kent crossed his arms. “You’re very stubborn.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Jim muttered. I nudged him with my elbow, making him laugh.
“If we don’t change your first name, that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?” Kent asked.
“Then don’t change my name at all,” I said. “I like my name. If need be I can quit and work somewhere else.”
Kent sighed, glancing over at Dr. White. “That’s not an option.”
Dr. White shook his head. “Nope. You’re still being hunted, Harley, and it’s up to the U.S. government to protect you, because you saved all of us.” He turned toward Kent. “Her name stays; however, she needs a new identity for missions.”
Murders on the Edge Page 18
