Once a Hero

by Jan Thompson

  “We need to stop meeting in the middle of the night like this.” Jake chuckled. “Beatrice, meet Earl. Earl, this is Beatrice.”

  “How did you find us?” Earl covered his face with his grimy hands. He winced at his own slightest move.

  “We almost didn’t. You’re hiding behind this old redwood tree that must be at least thirty or forty feet in circumference.” Raynelle patted the tree trunk.

  “Thank you for calling 911,” Jake said.

  “Talk later. Your friends are coming back once they figure out where we are,” Beatrice said. “How badly hurt are you?”

  “Ankle broken, probably.” Earl pointed.

  “It’s a good long way out.” Beatrice removed her backpack. She handed Jake and Earl bottles of water, and then went to work making a splint for Earl’s ankle.

  Raynelle helped her to duct tape around the two small travel pillows.

  Jake’s eyes were on the third person, a heavily armed man. He hadn’t removed his night vision goggles or his ski mask, and he hadn’t said a word.

  This must be the mystery third person on Beatrice’s team.

  More twigs snapped.

  Jake drew a deep breath. “They’re back.”

  Beatrice’s hand reached for her semiautomatic bullpup rifle hanging over her shoulders on a strap.

  Jake placed his hand on her arm. “Let me.”

  Beatrice frowned.

  “Let him have it,” the silent man finally said.

  “Don’t side with him, Ken.”

  Ken.

  Jake remembered now. Back at the Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, Beatrice had told someone named Ken to call 911 after the sniper fired into the crowd.

  “Give him one of yours,” Beatrice ordered Ken. And he did without a complaint.

  Jake didn’t have to show off that he could handle practically any weapon like a pro.

  “If you want to come with us, one of your people can stay with Earl,” he said quietly to Beatrice.

  “Ken and Ray are better shooters than I am,” Beatrice reply. “I’ll stay with Earl. Please be safe.”

  “I will.” Jake wanted to hug—or maybe kiss—her to show his appreciation, but it was probably too soon.

  Still, the fact was undeniable. She had come to his rescue yet again.

  If they kept crossing paths and heading in the same direction anyway, maybe they ought to work together and consolidate resources.

  If they survived tonight, Jake would suggest a collaboration, if not an alliance.

  After all, they seem to be on the same side now against a mutual enemy: Molyneux.

  Chapter Twelve

  With her flashlights turned off, Beatrice sat in the dark with Earl. Her night vision goggles revealed Earl’s foot sandwiched between the two travel pillows that she would have to replace for her van.

  Earl closed his eyes and leaned back against the tree trunk.

  All around them were giant trees that were wider than Beatrice could stretch out her arms. By eyeballing, she roughly estimated that the girths of those trees were even bigger than the one they were hiding behind.

  Beatrice closed her eyes and found her other senses enhanced in this dark night. She heard the close combat battles happening on the other side of the tree they were leaning on.

  There must not be much room to maneuver on the narrow forest trail. The driver they had thrown into the SUV earlier had said that two men entered the forest, but perhaps he lied. It shouldn’t take Jake, Raynelle, and Kenichi this long to handle only two men.

  The smell of pine was strong in Beatrice nose, as was the smell of dirt and muddy soil after the heavy rain earlier in the night. She smelled upturned dirt.

  Plus human sweat.

  Very strong sweat.

  Click.

  Beatrice opened her eyes.

  A barrel was in her face.

  A man wearing night vision goggles pointed his weapons—one in each hand—at her and Earl.

  At the same time, Beatrice could still hear the fighting behind the trees.

  The driver had lied to them. More than two assailants had entered the forest. If the rest of them were as heavily armed as this man—

  A gunshot blast.

  Behind the tree.

  Jake.

  Beatrice had no idea why he came into her mind first.

  “I don’t think Molyneux would want you to shoot me,” Beatrice said to the man in front of them.

  The man’s eyes widened, as if he was surprised by her statement. His handguns moved slightly—

  And Earl took the opportunity to wrestle one weapon from his attacker.

  Beatrice kicked his other arm.

  He went down and Earl tackled him. Beatrice heard bones crack.

  Earl pointed his newly acquired handgun at the man on the ground.

  Suddenly a shot rang out and Earl fell backward, a dark blob on his stomach.

  “Earl!” Beatrice gasped.

  She turned to find a second gunman approaching them.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  Beatrice had no choice. “Where to?”

  “To collect my bounty—”

  The man lurched and collapsed onto Beatrice.

  She screamed.

  Someone pulled the dead man off her. Now she could see Jake wearing a pair of night vision goggles similar to what her assailant had worn. Maybe he had confiscated them. Spoils of battle.

  “You have a bounty on your head?” Jake reached for her hands to pull her to her feet.

  Beatrice ignored him. It should have been obvious. Why else would she need a bodyguard if her life wasn’t in danger in any way?

  “Earl.” Beatrice crawled toward him. “He was shot.”

  Earl was not moving. Beatrice felt a shallow breathing.

  Just then, giant flashlights lit up the area.

  Beatrice lifted her night vision goggles. She could only see tree trunks all around her, the top of those three-hundred-foot trees had disappeared into the night sky.

  She heard dogs barking, and their handlers meting out brisk orders.

  “We’re here! Help! Man down!” Jake shouted.

  And then the sweetest sight of the night.

  Raynelle came toward them, surrounded by the local police.

  Around them, lights continued to sweep the forest.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The heroes of the Eureka Bay Police Department had reached their battleground and made short work of the arrests.

  The driver had lied, obviously, saying that only two assailants had entered the forest, going after Jake and Earl. In fact, five men had entered the forest. Three battled Jake, Raynelle, and Kenichi. And two nearly took out Beatrice and Earl as they hid by the tree roots.

  The Eureka Bay PD rounded up the rest of the men who were still alive and read them their Miranda rights.

  Beatrice hoped they would reveal who had paid those people to attack Jake and Earl. She had her own suspicions but no proof.

  Problem was, so far she had been on the defensive—and so had Jake. It was time to turn the tables.

  But first, the emergency room.

  The paramedics had determined that Raynelle’s right arm—her shooting arm—was broken. Beatrice couldn’t get a clear picture of how it had happened, but suffice to say that Molyneux’s men put up a formidable fight, and Raynelle held her own. In the scuffle and close combat, she had done more damage to the other side than they had done to her.

  Still, a broken arm was a broken arm.

  The paramedics loaded Earl and Raynelle into their ambulance, and off they went to the emergency room where they would treat Earl’s gunshot wounds and do something about Raynelle’s broken bones.

  Kenichi and Beatrice waited for Jake. How else was Jake going to get back to town with his SUV tires blown out and no spare? He called the tow truck and retrieved his and Earl’s bags from their SUV while Kenichi scrambled to tidy up the van and hide their laptops and equipment under the seats.
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  No more than half an hour later, they were at the hospital, following the ambulance.

  Kenichi and Jake left the van to give Beatrice some privacy to change into clean clothes. She went with a pair of cargo pants with pockets to keep her driver’s license, passport, and her debit cards. Plus the three-amber brooch.

  Benjamin had cautioned her about carrying her passport everywhere, but she wanted to be ready hop on the airplane at a moment’s notice.

  As for the brooch, it was a replica that she and Benjamin had worked on for years. The real thing was in a safe deposit box in San Francisco. She’d have to pick it up soon.

  She wondered where Jake and Earl kept their one-amber brooch. Eventually they’d have to reconcile and she’d have to return the three-amber brooch to the authorities. With the mole inside the FBI, there was no way Beatrice was going to give it to them now, even if they had an FBI Art Crime Team.

  The hospital waiting room wasn’t crowded. Beatrice didn’t have to sit around, but she was waiting for Raynelle to see the doctor.

  As for Kenichi, he returned to the van to wait for them. He’d rather be working on his laptop inside the van—away from people, he said. He texted Beatrice, saying that he would need about half an hour. Beatrice replied that they’d probably still be in the hospital for the next hour, at least.

  And no, he couldn’t go to the cabin without them.

  Beatrice knew it was hard for Kenichi to sit and wait, but she was sure he’d make himself useful.

  Meanwhile, Beatrice had booked two rooms at a hotel. She wanted her own room, but Kenichi insisted that Raynelle not leave her side. Something about not wanting Beatrice to have to kill any intruder herself. Sigh.

  It sounded like what her brother would say. It also made Beatrice wonder if Kenichi was working for Benjamin rather than for her.

  In any case, they would stay one more day here in Eureka so that Beatrice could check out Philomena’s lakeside cabin.

  They had Jake to thank for that. Thanks to Kenichi’s sleuthing—basically tapping Earl’s communication with Helen Hu and Jake—they knew about the cabin.

  However, they did not know where it was. That was why they had followed Earl and Jake all the way from San Francisco to Eureka and beyond.

  Beatrice prayed that all this would soon be over. Every day cost her more and more. In fact, her savings were rapidly depleting in this year alone due to her many trips back and forth from Europe to the United States.

  All in search of the Amber Room with the hope of defeating Molyneux. She had to pay for her crimes.

  Beatrice looked up from where she was sitting, hoping to see Raynelle. She had texted her to let her know where to meet.

  Instead of Raynelle, Jake walked in. He had taken off his outer shirt, leaving an olive-green tee shirt, but there was still mud caked to his boots. He was drinking from a paper cup. He tossed it into the trash can before he approached her.

  “I thought you had left,” he said.

  “I thought you had too.”

  “Are they putting a cast on her arm?”

  Beatrice nodded.

  “I have some questions about last night,” Jake said. “Obviously, you followed us without our knowledge.”

  Beatrice mulled over how to respond. If she said yes, then it meant someone on her team had broken into his burner phone. Never mind that he already knew that.

  If she said no, she would be lying.

  “Aren’t you glad we came to your aid?” She ended up saying.

  “You sure you weren’t on your way to the cabin?” Jake sat down two seats away, as if to give them some space. He faced her.

  “Cabin? What cabin?”

  “I don’t know. You tell me.”

  “Is this an interrogation, secret agent man?”

  Jake chuckled. “I’m no longer one.”

  “What happened?” Beatrice knew what happened, thanks to Kenichi’s connections, probably via her brother.

  More and more, Beatrice was convinced Kenichi was working for Benjamin. She’d have to ask him later if he was drawing two paychecks.

  “Long story.” Jake’s eyes looked distant. “I won’t bore you.”

  “Bore me. I’m waiting for Raynelle so we can get going. She’s taking forever.”

  “Get going where? Back to Charleston?” Jake asked. When Beatrice didn’t answer, he continued. “Yes, we know a lot about each other’s business, and we seem to be looking for the same things and perhaps the same people. It’s a shame we’re doing things in parallel and not cooperating with each other.”

  “Cooperating?” Beatrice wasn’t sure where he was going with it. “On what, exactly?”

  Several people came in and sat down near them. This wasn’t the place to talk about whatever it was Jake wanted to get off his chest. Beatrice waited to see how he would handle it.

  He scooted to the seat next to Beatrice. “I’d like to talk with you about potentially working together.”

  “Are we on the same side?” Beatrice smiled.

  He stared.

  Beatrice waved her hand in front of his face. “Seen a ghost?”

  “The way you smile reminds me of someone.”

  “Good or bad?”

  He swallowed. Placed his palm on his thigh. And winced.

  “Are you okay?” Had she triggered a memory?

  He drew a deep breath.

  It made no sense to Beatrice. How could he even suggest that they worked together? Didn’t he remember all the things her team had done to his team?

  Raynelle had stolen the three-amber brooch from under Jake’s nose.

  Kenichi had hacked into Jake’s burner phone.

  Beatrice had typed texted messages on that phone.

  And yet he wanted to team up? Would that mean they would see each other’s resources? Secrets? Methods?

  Jake lowered his voice. “The fact that they know we’re here means they’re probably at the cabin as we speak.”

  The cabin.

  Beatrice wondered what they would find there. Perhaps Philomena had kept some photos of Dad. Those memories would be more precious to Beatrice and her brother than anything else.

  Possibly even more precious than the Amber Room.

  That had been more of a mission of revenge than anything, right? To get to the Amber Room before Molyneux did had been Beatrice’s mission for the last ten years.

  Maybe Jake could help. He was a former FBI Special Agent. Surely he could be trusted.

  “What’s the cabin to you?” Beatrice asked.

  “A place of intrigue and history. Maybe it has secrets we don’t know about.”

  “Pieces of the puzzle?”

  “Something like that.” Jake studied her. “Maybe if we go in the late morning we could catch lunch afterwards.”

  “Did you just ask me to lunch?” Beatrice acted surprised, but she was warming up to him.

  Eventually they’d have to tell each other the truth about themselves.

  “Looks like it.”

  “A business lunch if we’re working together,” Beatrice said. “I said if.”

  Still, she was grateful that Jake had come to her rescue behind the redwood tree. She and Earl would have both died because she could not pull the trigger.

  She couldn’t do it.

  That was why she had hired Raynelle to be her security detail.

  All these close brushes told her one thing: Molyneux was onto her.

  Eventually they would have to confront each other.

  Beatrice had so many questions for Molyneux. Why did she have to kill Dad? Why not just walk away after their divorce?

  And then there was the unanswered question about Beatrice’s own mother. The story had always been the same. Molyneux had killed Beatrice’s mother. Was that the truth though? Could her biological mother be alive still?

  Another question that begged for an answer was about her bother, Benjamin. She knew that they had the same father. But who was Benjamin’s mother? Cou
ld it be Molyneux?

  Beatrice might never know.

  Dad and Philomena, the two people who could tell her the truth about their biological parentage, were both dead.

  “Are your parents still around?” Beatrice asked Jake.

  He nodded. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because mine are dead.”

  “I’m sorry.” Jake extended his hand toward Beatrice.

  She didn’t take it. “Well, such is life.”

  Raynelle entered the waiting room, her elbow in a Pepto-Bismol pink cast.

  Beatrice had never pegged Raynelle as someone who liked pink. “I thought black was your favorite color?”

  Raynelle lifted her arm slightly. “It’ll be under a sleeve.”

  “What did the doctor say?”

  “Broke a few bones. I’ll heal.” Raynelle didn’t look too confident. “I can’t use my right arm for a while. At least six weeks.”

  “I’m sorry.” Beatrice knew what that meant. Raynelle’s right hand couldn’t shoot. “You’re still my bodyguard. You may have to stay in the van and let Kenichi run about.”

  “Ha!” Raynelle made a face, as if relinquishing her job to a security specialist like Kenichi was beneath her.

  Beatrice didn’t want to say anything in front of Jake, but she knew that Kenichi had enough training to go toe to toe with Raynelle, even though he was at least ten years older.

  “Well, Jake, nice to see you again,” Beatrice stood up and changed her mind about accepting Jake’s offer to visit the cabin together.

  “What about the cabin?” A slow smile appeared on his face. “And lunch with me?”

  “Raincheck?” Beatrice read her watch. “It’s almost seven in the morning now. I need to get some sleep and I doubt I’d be up in time for lunch. Are you staying here?”

  “Yeah. I’ll wait until Earl comes out of surgery.” He looked a bit disappointed that she was leaving. “I’ll get some breakfast at the cafeteria.”

  “Thank you again, Jake.” Beatrice wanted to shake his hand but she did not. “Earl and I would have died if you hadn’t shown up.”

  “I wouldn’t have been able to follow the two men if Raynelle and Kenichi hadn’t taken over beating the guys to a pulp.”

  “Thank God we made it out of the forest alive.” Beatrice smiled at him one last time before they parted.