"How's our patient?" Will Foster asked, looking over at Alex, sleeping again under the influence of a sedative and the controlled release of pain medication for his multiple wounds.
Hanna said, "We're lucky either of us is even here."
Sharron Fairfield said, "The Coast Guard filled us in on your story as we were coming over. We were quite surprised to hear you were a former acquaintance of this hired killer."
"I still don't believe what happened. An old friend from college returns, a close friend, actually. He starts pressing me to think about getting serious again and going away with him. The next thing I know he's got a gun to Alex's head and he nearly kills both of us out on the Atlantic. If I hadn't..." She couldn't finish.
Fairfield put her arm around Hanna's shoulders. "Are you sure you're okay? That must have been terrible out there."
"To be honest, it all still seems like a really bad dream."
Foster said, "Did Alex have a chance to tell you our progress on the Dellahousaye case?
"What case?" Hanna asked, knowing Alex was looking into something about the gangster but not totally clear on all that was involved.
"An informant has led us to a huge fraud and bribery effort linked to pending legislation to broaden gambling access in the state. A number of people have also ended up dead thanks to your now departed friend."
Hanna winced at the reference to Sam Collins. "An informant?"
Foster continued, "We aren't in a position to reveal our source, but this individual is being extremely cooperative. Alex also provided some additional evidence against Dellahousaye that will be helpful in the prosecution."
A weak voice behind them said, "Who called in the cavalry?"
They all turned. Alex was awake and struggling to sit up. Hanna reached over to help him get pillows positioned. She and the two FBI agents stood around his bed.
Fairfield said, "You seem to have nine lives."
"Only about two left, I'm afraid," Alex replied.
Hanna put her hand on his shoulder. She couldn't keep it from shaking. The doctor thought she was still experiencing symptoms of shock.
Will Foster said, "Had an interesting meeting with your boss this afternoon."
"Guinness?"
Fairfield said, "Of course he denied everything, but he's being processed as we speak on charges of accessory to murder just for starters."
Hanna watched Alex close his eyes and his chest heaved in a deep breath.
Fairfield continued, "Your Internal Affairs department is not pursuing any further action against you at this point."
"Thank you," Alex said, the relief in his voice obvious.
"Our D.C. office paid a call on the Honorable Senator from South Carolina this afternoon," Foster said. "As you can imagine, he has ten excuses and alibis for every charge. I'm sure there will be a Senate Committee investigation along with our criminal case. I don't see much chance of a re-election run for the Senator."
"Jordan Hayes?" Hanna asked in surprise.
"We can't reveal the details," Fairfield said, "but Senator Hayes is closely linked to the corruption in this case with Dellahousaye."
"And when are you bringing Asa D in?" Alex asked.
Agent Fairfield said, "He was taken into custody this afternoon at his home out on the coast. The U.S. Attorney's office has a list of charges as long as your arm to pursue. We don't expect Mr. Dellahousaye to see light outside a prison cell for a very long time."
Hanna looked down at Alex. He smiled back at her through his battered and bruised face. She turned to the two agents across the bed. "And who is this informant?"
"As soon as we're sure we have this individual secure, " Foster replied, "we'll be able to talk to you about it. In the meantime, it looks pretty likely that Witness Protection will be the best option to protect our source."
Chapter Fifty-four
Alex was finishing a call with his father back in Dugganville, filling him in on the day's nearly tragic events. He looked up when he saw Lonnie Smith's wife, Ginny, standing in the doorway. Hanna was down in the cafeteria trying to find some edible food and in Alex's mind, likely trying to sort through her feelings about the death of a man she had once loved, who had somehow become a killer.
"I'll call you tomorrow, Pop." He listened for a moment while his father continued to scold him about "being safe".
"I'll be okay, Pop. Goodnight. He smiled as Ginny came into the room and over to his bed. He sat up slowly, trying not to let her see the discomfort he was in. They embraced and Ginny pulled up a chair.
"Hanna called to tell me what happened... that you'd been hurt again."
Alex didn't quite know how to respond. The guilt he felt about the death of this woman's husband still haunted him, and he was finding no path to forgive himself for how it had gone down.
Ginny said, "This man on the boat today, he's the one who killed Lonnie?"
Alex nodded and lay back in the pillows behind him. "He won't hurt anybody again, but..."
"No 'buts', Alex. He's gone and thank God for that."
Alex saw the last moments of Lonnie's life play out in his mind again; Caine throwing open a door in front of him, knocking him down and knocking his gun across the floor. Quick bursts of gunfire from the killer that ended Lonnie's life in a split second and then the gun turned back on him. Alex could not imagine a more terrifying sight than the cold cylindrical barrel of a gun pointed at your head, about to explode and end your life. His colleague, Beatty, had burst into the room just in time to disrupt the shooter's aim. The bullet had seared through his neck and fortunately not split the middle of his forehead with a lethal round.
"I was supposed to have Lonnie's back, Ginny."
"Enough, Alex! No one is holding this against you. I'm not. The kids surely aren't. They love you and they need you now that Lonnie is gone."
Alex sighed deeply, closed his eyes and let her words of comfort and assurance try to break through the wall of guilt he was unable to tear down. She leaned in and hugged him again. "You need to let this go, Alex."
If only it was that easy, he thought. How many years had he been carrying the guilt of taking his men into a situation that day in Afghanistan that had almost gotten them all killed? Despite the findings of the follow-up investigation of the incident where he was cleared of wrongdoing that could have led to charges being filed, Alex knew in his heart that Sergeant Grove from his unit was right in his accusations. A split-second decision made without sufficient intel had suddenly led his men into an ambush. His initial reaction to the chaos and death raining down on the them further exasperated the situation and ultimately got two more men under his command killed. Over the years, he had second-guessed his actions and reactions over and over and was never able to fully accept he had done all that could be expected under such sudden and deadly circumstances. He also knew there would be no relief from his guilt over losing his friend in this shootout with the killer named Caine.
He felt Ginny Smith pull back and he looked at her sad face. "Let me know what I can do to help with the boys," he said.
"They've been asking about you. I didn't want to bring the entire herd of them down here, but when you're ready."
"I'll stop by in the next day or so," he said.
"Thank you, Alex. Please get some rest and get well."
He hugged her again and watched as she walked out the door. He wondered what was keeping Hanna and then the episode earlier on Caine's boat came back to him.
Caine, he thought to himself, or Sam Collins. How could this monster have ever been close to Hanna? He just couldn't see a way Hanna would be attracted to such an evil force. Had the man changed that much since they were together in college? He still couldn't get the image of their kiss in the car from his mind.
Hanna walked in with two cups of coffee in her hands. She handed one to Alex.
"You just missed Ginny," he said.
"No, I saw her down the hall.
She said you had a good chat."
He thought about that for a moment. Had anything really been resolved?
Hanna walked over and stood looking out the window to the street below. She sipped at her coffee, then turned and said, "I need to tell you something."
"Okay."
"I still can't believe what happened today with Sam. That person on the boat wasn't Sam, Alex. I don't know what's happened over the years he's been away, but that's not the man I knew."
"I have to believe that," Alex said.
"Even in the couple of days he's been back, I didn't see any sign of this in him." She paused. "You need to know he was actually trying to get us back together and quite honestly, the way things had been falling apart between you and me, I was actually giving it some serious thought."
Alex stared back at her waiting for her to continue. When she didn't go on, he said, "I saw the two of you kiss in the car last night in front of your office."
Hanna's eyes opened wide and she was obviously stunned. "You saw us?"
"I was waiting across the street for you. You wouldn't return my calls."
She walked around the bed and came up beside him. "I can't tell you I didn't have feelings for the man. He meant a lot to me many years ago and when he came back, all those emotions came, too."
"Would you have gone back with him?" Alex said, feeling a hollow emptiness in his chest.
"I don't know! Honestly, I don't know."
"Fair enough," Alex said, though thinking just the opposite.
"And by the way, he kissed me!"
"And your mouth just happened to get in the way," he said.
Hanna didn't reply.
Chapter Fifty-five
Two Months Later
Alex adjusted his tie and looked back over the small gathering seated on the lawn of his family's backyard in Dugganville. The familiar faces of his childhood and more recent years in this remote fishing town looked back at him. The old bartender, Gilly and his wife sat in the front row. Sheriff Pepper Stokes saw his gaze and smiled back.
The preacher's words brought him back to the moment. "We are gathered here today..."
Alex looked over at his father standing beside him, dressed in a new blue suit with a bright red silk tie, the first time he could ever remember Skipper with a tie on, let alone a suit. He was holding the hands of Ella Moore as they prepared to take their vows.
Alex had been stunned when his father called a few weeks earlier to tell him he and Ella had decided to "tie the knot". The two of them had been a train wreck together as long as Alex could remember. Skipper had assured him they had worked through all their past issues and wanted to be together as "man and wife" in the years they had left. As the date approached, Alex had finally been able to reconcile his father's decision and he was hopeful the two of them would find some sense of happiness and fulfillment. He was not particularly optimistic, knowing the full history of their tumultuous affair, but let's hope for the best, he thought. He also knew his father would need a companion to help with his declining memory and the likelihood of oncoming dementia.
Ella looked ten years younger with her hair beautifully arranged, her face tastefully done. She was dressed in a peach lace dress that matched the color of the flowers in her hair. She smiled back at him past his father and Alex nodded, happy now for the two of them... and hopeful.
Beyond Ella Moore, soon to be Mrs. Skipper Frank, stood Alex's ex-wife, Adrienne. She had come into town the night before for the wedding from Florida, but Alex hadn't seen her until a few minutes before the ceremony. She was standing as her mother's maid-of-honor. When Alex had heard she was coming back, he cringed to think about another reunion with a woman who had made his life miserable in so many ways. Her last attempts to win him back with a false claim about Alex being the father of her son, was only the latest example of the woman's treachery. He had been cordial when they met earlier before the ceremony, but it was all he could do not to just ignore her presence. He realized he had been staring at her when she smiled back at him.
"Do you Ella, take this man..." the preacher continued.
Adrienne was dressed in a surprisingly tasteful white dress, Alex thought, compared to her normal look of clothes two sizes too small revealing way too much of everything. Her hair was piled in sweeping curls on top of her head, matching her mother's and Alex had to push away thoughts of how good she looked today, past memories coming back to him of their happier times together in high school and the early days of their marriage before it quickly went all to hell with her infidelity and lies.
He looked away and turned to the preacher as he reached the end of the ceremony.
"If anyone has reason..." Alex heard the man say and of course he had twenty reasons why this marriage was a bad idea, but he would "forever hold his peace."
Alex stood at the bar set up in the back corner of the yard and took another cold bottle of beer from the bartender. Over the past weeks he had worked with his doctor to get help with pulling himself away from the dependence to the pain meds that had dragged him down again after the gunshot wound. So far so good, he thought. This was the first alcohol he'd had since checking out of the hospital after nearly dying out on the salt at the hands of Asa Dellahousaye's killer, Caine.
He took a sip from the beer and looked out across the gathered reception. His father and Ella were holding court with their friends. It was a beautiful afternoon in the Low Country, despite Alex's dark mood at his ex's return and the fact he and Hanna had yet to work through their own issues.
Alex had seen Hanna twice since being released from the hospital. They had both come prepared to work out the differences that had come between them, but both times they left each other with little resolved. Hanna was, for good reasons, still terribly shaken by the violent death of Sam Collins... Caine, when she pushed him into the frenzy of sharks out on the Atlantic. She had saved Alex's life and perhaps her own, but the man had once been more than close to her, even the father of her aborted child. There was a lot for her to sort through there, and Alex knew he had to give her time.
His own reservations still lingered about getting close to any woman again with the chaotic and dangerous life he lived as a police officer. Was it fair to pull anyone in to that craziness?
He had invited Hanna to come to Skipper and Ella's wedding, but she had hesitantly declined, finally being open about the fact she wasn't keen on another encounter with Alex's ex-wife, Adrienne, when she found out she was planning to attend.
The old town sheriff, Pepper Stokes, walked over and touched his beer glass to Alex's. "To the happy couple," he said.
Alex nodded, remembering not that long ago the sheriff was seeing Ella Moore. Just a little more drama for the newlyweds, he thought.
"How you been, Alex?"
"I'm okay, Pepper," Alex replied, but it was clear in his tone he was far from it.
"Nasty stuff with Dellahousaye and how that all came down. And really sorry about your partner. He was a good man."
The mention of Lonnie Smith grabbed at Alex's gut. "Thanks Pepper."
"Heard that lawyer Holloway was the damn informant that took Asa D down. Brave sonofabitch. He better be watchin' his back."
Alex said, "My sources with the Feds tell me he's been sent away in the Witness Protection program. I hope they put his ass out in the desert somewhere."
Stokes laughed and said, "The man took down a lot of people."
"They all deserved it."
"Thought I'd get to see the beautiful Hanna today," Stokes said, looking out across the crowd.
Alex was about to reply when Adrienne walked up. She hugged the sheriff who quickly excused himself leaving the two of them alone.
"How you been, soldier?" she asked, smiling up at him as if there was no dark history between them.
"I'm not in the mood, Adrienne..." he started before she put a finger to his lips.
"Can't we put everything behind us a
t least for today for our parents?"
"Sure," he said, clearly not meaning it. "Where's the husband?"
Adrienne hesitated, then said, "We're working through a few things. He's back home with Scotty."
Alex thought about the young boy who for a while, Adrienne had convinced him was their son. "Scotty doing okay?"
"He's fine. Playing football now. You wouldn't believe how much he's grown."
"Look, Adrienne..." Alex started, trying to get away.
"I just want to say I'm sorry... for everything. I know there's a lot to forgive, but you need to know I feel terrible about all I've done and wish, well... I wish things would have been different."
Alex looked back at the face that had once been all he thought about. He had truly loved Adrienne Moore and still couldn't shut out the deep emotions of their early time together. He saw Ella coming toward them. "I think your mother needs you," he said and then walked away.
Alex sat in a folding chair on the aft deck of the old shrimp boat, the Maggie Mae, tied up at the docks along the river in front of his dad's house. The music from the wedding reception echoed through the tall trees and he could hear muffled laughter and conversation up behind him. He was staring down the river toward the west as the sun fell below the tree line. The beer in his hand was untouched and he noticed the condensation dripping onto his pants. He leaned down and placed the bottle on the wooden deck.
His thoughts were swirling from women to lost friends, to a future that remained uncertain.
He heard steps on the dock and turned, expecting to see Adrienne, but instead, it was Hanna Walsh.
DEATH ON THE NEW MOON (A Troubled Waters Suspense Thriller Book 6) Page 21
