by Margaret Kay
“All the good it did, and it got Melody killed too.”
Lambchop nodded his head sympathetically. “I believe God has a purpose in all events. These people are dangerous and have to be stopped. You are the only one who can do that.” His eyes probed deeply into hers. “We can and will protect you. Sloan was right that we would die before we let these bastards get you. We need names, places, dates. Anything you’ve got.”
She nodded her head yes.
Lambchop grabbed the pad of paper from the desk and the pen. He gave it to her and then joined the others in the hall just in time to hear Sloan tell Mother, “I know, and I’ll get my shit together.”
Lambchop laid a hand to Sloan’s shoulder. “You need to remember that she did the right thing to save that girl. She needs to know you are not judging her, just that you are here to protect her.”
Sloan ran his hand through his hair. “I know. I just lost my shit hearing what she’s done. Jesus Christ! She,” he paused and shook his head, unable to say the words.
“She’s been in a very dark place for over a decade. We’re the light to bring her back, but you have to reign in your emotions,” Lambchop said.
“I know and I will.”
“I sent the mother and daughter’s names to Garcia,” Mother said. “He doesn’t think it should take too long to find out who they are, full names and address.”
“Good. She’s writing down names, dates, places. We’ll send that to Garcia too and have him do a deep dive into all of it,” Lambchop said. “When we go back in there, no judgements from anyone. She trusted us enough to tell us her story and give us all the intel we need to have Garcia and the digital unit do a deep dive into everyone concerned. Let’s stay focused on the fact that there is a fourteen-year-old girl who has been or is about to be raped. We need to identify her and get that kid help. Secondly, we have five serial sexual predators who need to be stopped. And she’s the key to that.”
Kennedy was still writing information down when the cardkey clicked in the lock and the door opened. The four men came back in. Sloan came over and sat beside her.
“I’m sorry I lost my cool,” he said. “I’m not judging you, Kennedy. I’m hurting for you. You’ve been through a lot and I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, before now. But now that we are here, we’re not going anywhere until these bastards are brought to justice.”
Kennedy nodded. She didn’t believe him though. She knew he, and every other one of the men in the room judged her and thought badly of her for what she’d done. She returned to writing down everything she could think of that might help them, right down to job titles, addresses, and phone numbers.
When she was done, she handed the pad of paper to Gary, who had sat quietly beside her the entire time. “That’s all of it, I think.”
Sloan flipped the page. She had filled two full pages. His lips curved a small smile, viewing her handwriting. She still had the most perfect, tiny writing. He’d recognize it anywhere. “This looks very detailed.” Then he handed the pad of paper to Lambchop.
Lambchop glanced at it and nodded at her with a pleasant smile. “This is enough to keep our digital guys busy all night. Good job, Kennedy. I promise you; we’ll look into each and every item you have written here.”
Kennedy nodded. She felt exhausted.
Foxtrot
Sloan glanced at his phone when it vibrated in his pocket, a text from Allen. “Ah, shit,” he moaned. “I forgot about dinner at my brother’s house.” He shook his head. “I’ll let him know I can’t make it.”
“You have to go so you don’t arouse suspicion,” Lambchop said. He saw the objection in Sloan’s features. “We’ve got her. Just don’t make it too long of a visit.”
“And maybe he’ll have some more info,” Sherman piped up.
“Okay,” Sloan agreed. “Let me catch a quick shower and change my clothes.”
“Show a little class, stop and get a bottle of wine on the way,” Mother suggested.
“Fuck,” Sloan groaned. Then his eyes went to Kennedy. “I won’t be gone long, and you are perfectly safe here. I promise.”
Panic spread through her, through every part of her. A knot tightened in her stomach. She didn’t want him to leave her, but she wouldn’t say that out loud. So, she nodded and put on a brave face.
After he left, the man he introduced as Mother took a seat on the foot of the bed. He pointed to the remote control for the television. “Do you want to find something good to watch? It’s going to be a long night. We might as well find a movie or something.”
“Sure,” she said. She handed him the remote. She didn’t particularly care what they watched.
“We watched some YouTube videos of you performing on the way out. You’re good. Not only do you have a beautiful, strong voice, you have a stage presence,” Mother said.
“Thank you. Stan always told us that there are a million pretty faces that have decent voices. I don’t know why some make it and some don’t. It’s certainly not for the lack of trying. I had one single I wrote that did well, sold, got airplay. I thought that one would make it onto the charts, but it didn’t. The coolest thing was playing a summer concert series that year and girls in the audience knew the words and sang along with me. Man, I never felt anything better than that.”
“It had to feel great,” Mother agreed. “I hope you get many more of those opportunities.”
She smiled sadly. “Thanks, me too.” She doubted she would.
Mother put a movie on, a comedy. Kennedy watched Lambchop answer his phone and step into the bathroom, closing the door. Kennedy’s eyes shifted to Brian, who sat in the desk chair near the door. Her lips twisted into a smirk. He was guarding the door so she wouldn’t try to leave. Like she would at this point?
A few minutes later the big black man stepped back into the room. “Madison is bringing us dinner. She’s got Kennedy’s phone from the police station and is flying back to HQ with it tonight.”
“What’s she bringing us to eat? Please don’t tell me it’s any of her sushi shit that she’s got Cooper eating,” Sherman moaned.
Both Lambchop and Mother chuckled.
“She’s picking up what she described as a healthy smorgasbord of American favorites.”
“Healthy, huh?” Sherman asked, not impressed. “I’m sure we can find a pizza place that delivers if it’s flavorless.”
Kennedy couldn’t help but smile as she listened to them exchange banter and barbs, which put her somewhat at ease. These were normal guys in every way, normal guys who carried badges and guns. Gary Sloan now carried a badge and a gun too. Son of a bitch, she thought. Gary’s life and hers sure went in opposite directions.
A half hour later Lambchop received the text from Madison that she was at the back door to the hotel. He took the keycard and went to let her in. The door she was at was always locked and needed a room key to open it from the outside.
He met Madison at the door. She had a big food bag in her hands. “Bless you for getting us something healthy. The Birdman would have had us order pizza tonight.”
“You’re welcome. Are you sure you don’t want to fly back with me? Or has Shepherd approved transporting her to the Silo?”
“Garcia is looking into all the intel she gave us. I sent two pages of notes from her to him earlier. I guess it will depend on what he finds if we bring her to the Silo or not. Either way, we’re not ready to leave yet. There are still some loose ends we need to be here to follow up on.”
They reached the room door. “She’s been through a lot. She could use a girlfriend right now,” Lambchop said.
Madison nodded. “Anyone stuck in a room with the four of you could.”
Lambchop laughed.
Kennedy still sat on the bed. She hadn’t moved since Gary left. She heard the cardkey click in the lock. The door opened and Lambchop came through followed by a pretty blond woman, carrying a food bag. She watched as the other guys greeted her. She sat the large food bag to the desk.<
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Then she came up to the bed and extended her right hand to Kennedy. “Hi, I’m Madison.”
“Kennedy.” She shook Madison’s hand.
“I watched a few YouTube videos of you. I loved that song, Too Good for You. You wrote it, didn’t you?”
Kennedy smiled wide. “I did. It was my biggest hit.”
“I can see why. It’s a good girl power song. By the way, what’s the password on your phone?”
Kennedy recited the code to her.
“Sloan’s birthday,” Sherman said from where he stood, still near the door.
Madison smiled a knowing smile at Kennedy. “You never forget your first love,” she said softly.
Kennedy was embarrassed. She felt her cheeks heat. “No, you don’t.”
“Don’t worry about anything on your phone. It’s safe with me.” She winked. “I have your other personal effects from the police.” She paused and when she spoke again, it was in a very quiet voice. “You won’t be getting your one-hitter back though. And the cops kept the bag of pot.”
Kennedy glanced away. Great, more for Gary to judge her on.
“Don’t worry about it. I wouldn’t want my life open to everyone’s inspection either. As I said, your stuff is safe with me.”
Then she watched Madison move away and up to Brian. “You have something for me?”
“Yeah,” the Cajun said and pulled a small bag from his backpack. He handed it to Madison.
“Okay, I better go,” Madison said. She pointed to the food bag. “There are paper plates and plastic forks and knives in there.” Then she turned to Kennedy. “It was nice to meet you. These guys will keep you safe, so don’t even worry about that.”
“Thank you, Madison. It was nice to meet you too.”
Sloan stopped at a grocery store to pick up a bottle of wine. He didn’t know what Leslie was making, so he got both a bottle of red and a white. He arrived at his brother’s house and was met by his nephews. They’d been watching for him. He stepped through the door and was greeted by the amazing aroma of something Italian. It looked like it was the cabernet that would be opened.
Then he was greeted by Leslie, right there in the foyer. “I’m glad you’re still in town,” she said, wrapping Gary in a hug. She looked behind him. “Where is your friend, Brian? He was invited too.”
“He drove all the way here yesterday while I slept. We got in quite late. He wanted to sack out early.”
“I see. That was very nice of him to come with you and do the driving.”
“Yeah, I’ll admit I mentally wasn’t in any shape to. It hit me hard, the news about Kennedy.”
Leslie hugged him again. “I know. It was hard on me too. Allen and I were so shocked when you two broke up. I already considered her my sister-in-law then. What ever happened that caused you two to break up, anyway?”
Allen descended the stairs. “Where’s your friend?”
“Back at the hotel,” Sloan replied. He shook his head at Leslie.
“I hope you still like lasagna,” she said.
“Love it and it smells fantastic. When did you have time to make it? It sounded like you had a busy day.”
“Ah, you know,” she said dismissively, taking the bottles of wine from him. “Thank you for this. We normally don’t have any liquor in the house, but I think since you’re in town, this qualifies as an exception. I’ll go open it and pour three glasses.” She retreated into the kitchen.
Sloan reached his right hand to his brother. “Allen, thanks for the invite for dinner.” He made eye contact with him. “It’s nice to be here and have the opportunity to get to know my nephews and nieces.”
Allen shook his hand and nodded. “After dessert, the girls and James are going to go to their rooms. AJ thinks he wants to join the military, and he has some questions he’d like to ask you, if that’s okay.”
Sloan could tell Allen was not happy about it. AJ was expected to follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps and become a funeral director. Sloan’s eyes went to the boys, who stood in the living room, watching them closely. He smiled and nodded at AJ. “Sure, any questions at all.”
AJ smiled wide.
They got called to the table shortly after that. The meal was incredible. Sloan remembered all the great meals he’d had here. He and Kennedy used to come for Sunday night dinner often. The boys were little then, and the girls weren’t even born yet. He realized he’d missed Leslie’s cooking. He’d missed a lot of things.
After the dessert plates were cleared, tiramisu cake, James came over and shook Sloan’s hand, followed by a hug. “AJ gave me your cell number. It’ll be okay if I text sometimes too, won’t it?”
“Anytime you want,” Sloan replied. “Just realize that sometimes I work for a few days straight and am not always able to reply right away. So, if you don’t hear from me for a day or so, that could be why. Send me a text with your name so I can add you to my contacts.”
The girls came in close for hugs next. “Goodbye, Uncle Gary,” both the girls said. “I’ll remember you next time,” Molly promised.
“Goodnight girls.”
Leslie and Allen watched them go up the stairs and then Leslie poured the rest out of the bottle of red wine, splitting it between her and Sloan’s glass. Allen was already drinking his after-dinner coffee. “Okay, AJ, you have your Uncle Gary’s attention. Ask away.”
“What’s it like being in the Navy? I’m pretty sure I want to join, but it’s a four-year commitment. What if I really don’t like it?”
“It’s a commitment, AJ, and yeah, that means you suck it up and tough it out. That’s actually what a lot of it is, sucking it up and toughing it out.”
“So, you didn’t like being in the Navy?”
“I loved being a Navy SEAL. I love the job I do now which wouldn’t be possible had I not been a SEAL.”
AJ’s eyes went wide. “You were a Navy SEAL, Uncle Gary?”
Leslie looked just as surprised.
“Yes, I was,” Sloan said proudly. “Being a part of a SEAL Team was one of the best experiences of my life, but a lot of it was sucking it up and toughing it out. But even if you don’t go that route, just serving in the Navy is what you make of it. There are opportunities, if you take advantage of them. The question I have for you though, is why do you want to serve?”
AJ’s glance flickered to his parents. “I don’t want to make anyone mad, but I don’t want to be a funeral director or an embalmer, but I don’t know what else I want to do. I like sports, like being active and I know you work out and stay in shape when in the military. I don’t really want to go to college and sit in some stupid humanities class that I have to take and will never use again. And, I like the idea of serving my country.”
Sloan nodded. “Those are all good reasons, and probably why many join the military. You can learn a good trade, or even get a degree while serving, things that will get you a good job if you get out. Or you can make a career of it. I’ve been all over the world, seen some great places, but I’ve been in a lot of shitholes too.
“You saw combat?” AJ asked.
A smirk pulled at Sloan’s lips. “I was a SEAL, I saw combat in Afghanistan, participated in special ops missions, you name it.”
“What was it like being in Afghanistan?”
“It sucked, plain and simple it sucked,” Sloan said. “Don’t let anyone romanticize what war is. It’s death, pain, and suffering. Humanity at its best and its worst.”
Sloan watched AJ’s face fall. “But you chose it.”
“I did, before I knew what it was like. AJ don’t get me wrong, the experience of serving your country, of working on a team and pushing yourself under the most trying of conditions is something I think everyone should experience. It shapes you as a person, stretches you, and gives you more growth than any other experience in life, especially when operating in the Teams. A SEAL Team is a special group of men, brothers for life. Sherman, my buddy you met earlier, we went through BU
DS together. He’s my partner, was my spotter, and I trust him with my life.
“Did you ever kill anyone Uncle Gary?”
Sloan’s eyes flickered to his brother and Leslie. Neither gave any clue on their thoughts, though Sloan knew Allen did not want AJ to join the military. So, Sloan guessed painting an unfriendly picture would probably be what Allen would prefer.
