by Sarah Holman
She sighed. She sounded like a broken record. Besides, these kinds of thoughts did not help her to focus on playing the part of a happy sister to Brian. She forced a smile on her face as Brian finished paying for their tickets to Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens. Perhaps this location was not as fancy as Middleton Place, but she looked forward to the tour. She heard they had fantastic live presentations on Gullah culture. Of course, Gus was the reason they had chosen today to visit. The sky was overcast, and it looked like rain would fall any minute. However, it would be a welcome relief from the heat.
“So, I heard about this place from Patrick called Sesame Burgers and Beer. I think we should go there for lunch.”
Kate couldn’t keep a snort from escaping. “Brian, it is only…” she looked at her watch, “eight forty-five and you’re already thinking about lunch.”
He shrugged. “I skipped breakfast.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “That seems to be a habit with you.”
“I’m not a breakfast fan.”
She quirked a smile. “Yet you’re always hungry in the morning. Don’t you realize that if you eat breakfast, that will fix the hunger pangs?”
“But I don’t like breakfast,” Brian said matter-of-factly. “Why should I eat a meal I don’t like? I have to watch the weight somehow.”
Kate smiled without having to force herself. Talking about light subjects was nice. “What is wrong with breakfast?”
Brian opened his mouth to say something, and then he stopped. Smiling widely, he leaned closer. “Look over there. It’s Gus, but he’s working on a computer. Let’s see what he’s doing.”
Kate laughed lightly for show, and they meandered down a path and stopped behind Gus. Brian pulled out his phone and fiddled with the camera.
“So, what is wrong with breakfast?” Kate continued, moving so that Brian’s actions couldn’t be seen by some passing tourists.
“Eggs and sausage. Have you ever seen any breakfast dish without eggs or sausage?”
“Sure. Have you ever been to Chick-fil-A?” She could see Brian had zoomed in on Gus’s screen with a camera. “But I guess most have eggs and sausage. What’s wrong with that?”
“One, I don’t like eggs. Two, I only like sausage in moderation. Three, this means I hate breakfast.”
“There are other breakfast foods, oatmeal being my favorite, fruit, nuts…”
“Whoa, you are making it sound way too healthy.”
She laughed. “Okay, what about pancakes, waffles…”
“It’s no good,” he said, still recording. “I don’t like breakfast. It’s too early to eat.”
She wanted to lean closer to see what they were capturing on film, but she didn’t want to give them away. “So, you would just rather starve until lunchtime.”
He gave her one of his winning smiles. “Technically, since I don’t die, I don’t starve, but you’ve got the basic idea.” He looked down at his screen and then gave Kate a victorious smile. Whatever they were capturing on the screen was obviously helpful for the case.
“How could we have been brother and sister for so long and I not know this?” she asked.
“Obviously, you haven’t been paying attention, sister.” He flashed a smile and then looked back down at the screen.
Kate looked at his boyish face, intently focused on the screen, and sobered. How could he be so happy if what Patrick had said about his past was true? She was intensely curious about all the team members now. She shoved her curiosity to the back of her mind. She would be leaving soon. It was better to avoid talking about their past so they wouldn’t reciprocate with questions about hers. She glanced over at Gus in time to see him close the laptop, and Brian pocketed his phone.
“So I guess oatmeal is your idea of breakfast?”
“I like fruit in it.”
“Yuck, you just took something nasty and made it even worse. I know that isn’t how Mom and Dad taught us to eat.”
“Hey, don’t mock my oatmeal.”
“At least tell me you like pancakes, waffles, and stuff.”
“As long as they don’t have a lot of sugar in the mix and they’re topped with fruit instead of syrup.”
Brian threw his arm over her shoulders. “Sister, I’m picking the place we eat, and I am ordering for you. You need some help when it comes to food. I think I’m going to be the one to do it.”
They moved toward one of the slave cabins.
Kate put her hands on her hips. “You do realize that I’m not a greasy, deep-fried kind of girl? I like my salads, vegetables, and…”
Brian shook his head and tugged her into one of the empty cabins. “Which is why I’m going to save you from the fate of eating that way.” He glanced around them.
She looked too, and she realized there was no one else around. “What did we get?” she whispered.
He smiled as he tapped on his phone, no doubt getting ready to send a video to Kim. “Financial records.”
Kate smiled. Jackpot! This was perfect. Hopefully they had gained enough information to prove that Gus was either in on the pirating scheme or not. However, Brian didn’t look happy; he looked sober.
“What is it?” Kate asked softly. “Did the video not save?”
He shook his head. “Two students died of a drug overdose at Charleston College. One of them was Patrick’s lead. Another two students are in the hospital. A meeting has been called to discuss everything.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow morning, early.”
“As in before ten?” Kate teased.
Brian rolled his eyes, and they went back out into the sunshine. They quickly discovered Gus was not far away, setting up with his guitar, and a crowd was already gathering.
“They’re holding the meeting at seven.”
“That isn’t bad.”
“For the girl that beats the farmer out of bed, it isn’t.”
“Oh come on, I can’t believe you sleep in often with three kids in the house.”
He grinned as they moved toward Gus. “Why do you think I wanted to come on vacation with my sister?”
Kate placed her hand over her heart and put mock horror on her face. “I thought it was for my delightful company.” Somehow, it was easier to be lighthearted and teasing when Brian was around. He had rightly earned his nickname of CU.
Gus started strumming. A family with Guitar Gus T-shirts stood on one side, jumping excitedly as the song began.
Their song is still sung
Their plight remembered
Their stories told
They are the slaves of Boone Hall
Boone Hall with pillars high
Remind me of the past
Lead me to the future
Teach me today
Their contributions are still seen
Their bravery remembered
Their home still visited
They are the owners of Boone Hall
Boone Hall with pillars high
Remind me of the past
Lead me to the future
Teach me today
“Not one of his better songs,” Brian whispered.
“No, but still he has a way of capturing the places that he sings about,” Kate admitted.
“Come on, let’s go see the grounds; we don’t need to talk to him today.”
She turned, knowing there was much to see of this place, but still a little reluctant to leave. She had become attached to this young man and his plight. She hoped that they were able to stop whoever was ripping him off.
Unless, of course, he was somehow involved.
“Kate, I feel I should apologize,” Brian said as he changed direction toward a live demonstration.
She sighed inwardly. She didn’t really want to get into a serious conversation, but she was beginning to realize that it was unavoidable with this team and with Brian in particular. “What do you think you should apologize for?”
“For how I handled the other day. I think I could have been
gentler. Don’t think I haven’t noticed it has made things awkward between us. You have been avoiding me.”
She looked at the ground and shoved her hands into her jeans. She wished she had been a little more subtle. She hadn’t wanted it to be obvious. “It’s okay.”
“Are you seriously thinking about leaving your job?”
Clever, Brian was addressing the topic in a way that no one around them would even suspect. “Yes, Brian, I really am. I don’t want to talk about it.”
Brian watched the woman demonstrate some sort of food preparation for a moment, but his eyes soon swung back toward her. “Just read your Bible, about how believers are supposed to interact, before you make your decision. That’s all I’m asking.”
Kate chewed on her lip and then gave a nod. She would do it, but she didn’t think it would matter. Her mind was made up. She couldn’t be who they wanted her to be, she couldn’t share like they wanted her to share, she couldn’t live like they did. She didn’t want to disappoint them, but sometimes you had to do what was best for you no matter who got upset. Didn’t you?
Stonewalled
Thursday, June 18 7:00AM
The meeting room felt small with all of them packed inside. Patrick looked to where Kate sat next to Brian, eating a bowl of oatmeal. She ignored the chatter of the others and only briefly acknowledged or responded when anything was directed at her. He turned away. Hadn’t he learned his lesson by now? Kate didn’t want him in her life; she didn’t want any of them. He needed to let her go.
Thomas cleared his throat, and the chattering stopped. Patrick gave his full attention to his boss. “I’m not making much headway into the organization. I know enough to know that the operation here is big and part of a larger organization. I’m helping in the background, but so far, I haven’t been given access to much.” He nodded to Kim.
Kim stood and pushed a button on a remote. “What you’re seeing is a compilation of the surveillance I have run on the traveling CD salesmen. As you can see, while the CDs are all he has displayed, occasionally he is reaching into the cooler and handing bags with drugs to them. I’m guessing there are some verbal cues, but I wasn’t able to do much with sound. It’s recorded, but not much of it is usable. I’m waiting for a lip reader to get back to me. I was able to follow this salesman for the last few days, but as soon as the news broke that two students had died, this guy got off the streets. I’m guessing that he was the one selling to them. I’m reviewing all the footage to see if I find the exact moment when he sold it to the students.”
“What’s this?” Patrick asked, lifting his hand toward the screen.
Kim turned to look and then turned back, smiling. “This footage is captured from Brian’s cell phone. Brian had correctly surmised that Gus was working with a financial program. Because of the high quality of the camera Brian has on his phone, I was able to see the screen quite well. I went over all the numbers that I could see, which was extensive. Gus scrolled back through almost a year’s worth of data. Through that, it was easy to see that Gus is not profiting from the pirated copies. While he is making more money than many artists, he’s still making just about minimum wage when you average it out. The last six months, there has been a steady downturn in the profit amount from his CDs.”
“So we can assume the CDs have been on the market for six months?” Logan asked, a blue ball bouncing between her palm and the floor.
“Some of it, but there was a dramatic dip starting three months ago. Some of the dropoff may be a natural decline as the fad dies.”
Patrick shifted in his chair. Sharleen was dead, Gus wasn’t involved in the illegal activities, the drug seller they knew about had stopped peddling, and Thomas couldn’t get into the organization. They were doing a great job of killing all their leads in this case, some of them literally.
“Thanks, Kim. Brian?”
Brian stood. “Kim pretty much covered it. Kate and I have had a lot of fun exploring the sights of Charleston. We reported the CD slash drug vendor, and we have spent some time with Gus, but there hasn’t been anything unusual.”
Thomas nodded. “Brian, be on standby. We may need to have you make a drug buy when our vendor reappears. It will help us tighten the case. Patrick?”
Patrick stood. “The student population is pretty shaken by the deaths of their classmates. Sharleen wasn’t loved by many, but still…” He didn’t know how to finish. He cleared his throat and moved on. “Krista, on the other hand, was a student that had her sights set on becoming a journalist. She had a lot of friends, and a lot of the students knew her on sight. The college is making counselors available to the students as well as distributing fact sheets on the dangers of drug use. They’re hoping this incident will help the students to see drugs for the danger they are.” Patrick took a breath. He had so little to show for his time. “Jasper, Sharleen’s boyfriend, hasn’t been seen on campus since her death. I wish I had more to report, but there isn’t much.”
Thomas nodded. “Logan?”
Logan stood, rolling the ball between her palms. “I’ve been working as a waitress at the University Pub. So far, I haven’t overheard any conversations that really help with the case. I can tell you that Jasper threatened a lot of male students and Sharleen made a lot of threats against the police.”
Thomas rubbed his forehead. “I feel as if we’re being blocked at every turn in this case. My ID as Mr. Brown, drug runner, should be enough to get me into this kind of organization, yet they keep me doing trivial tasks. Every lead we had has dried up.”
Patrick felt all his muscles tense. “You think they’re onto us?”
Thomas waved his hands. “Not exactly. If they were, I think we would be hitting harder walls. I think most of it’s bad luck. I’m going to push my employers this week. I’m going to see if I can work my way deeper into the organization. If I can’t make any progress, then I’m going to start looking for what is causing the stonewall.”
Patrick rubbed his neck. He hoped it was just cautious drug dealers and bad luck. If some criminal element had found out Thomas was a law enforcement agent, they would have a real problem.
Thomas rapped his fist on the table. “We stand adjourned. Everyone get busy.”
Patrick moved toward the door but gave a backward glance when he realized that Brian and Kate were still sitting. They were leaning over Brian’s phone, discussing something that was on the screen. He sighed and turned to get back to class. People were hard to figure out.
Classes were normal. Patrick had turned in a paper and gone through the motions of being a student. This was what he hated about his job: being stuck somewhere where nothing was happening. He couldn’t leave; they might still need him at this location.
Patrick flopped down onto the inviting grass in the Cistern Yard. The smell of earth and growing things surrounded him. The sky had gone from bright blue to gray while he had been in the classroom. The dark clouds churned, threatening rain. He opened a textbook so that he would look like he was busy. On the inside, his brain was in turmoil. This was a frustrating case and frustrating time. He went over his conversation with Kate. Things had been going so well between them as they walked along Colonial Lake. He had missed her. Since their case at the Texas Capitol, he had tried to give her space, but he didn’t like it. He wasn’t sure how she had managed to get under his skin so quickly, but she had. He didn’t want her to leave the team; he didn’t want her to walk out of his life.
Sniffling caught his attention and he closed the textbook and sat up. A girl sat with her back to a tree, hugging her knees. Patrick moved toward her.
“You okay?”
The girl lifted her teary eyes and red face to meet his. Her from-a-box blond hair fell to one side. She quickly wiped her runny nose on her long-sleeved College of Charleston shirt. She looked around and back up at him.
Patrick sat down so that he was eye level. “Do you need some help?”
The girl shook her head and sniffed and then nodded. “I d
unno know where to go, you know. Everyone tells me to shut up or that I’m crazy, but I’m so scared, you know.”
Patrick sat on his legs. “Boyfriend trouble?”
The girl bit her lip and shook her head. “You know Krista?”
Patrick cocked his head. “The girl that died of a drug overdose?”
She nodded. “Yeah, only I don’t think it was a simple overdose. I saw Jasper give Sharleen some stuff. They had had a big fight the day before, you know. Jasper had said he would make her pay. I think he had caught her kissing with some other guy. I think he poisoned them. I went up to one of the cops that was investigating and I told him what I saw, and he told me I better not repeat it if I knew what was good for me.”
Patrick’s heart pounded. Either he had a crazy girl on his hands or a cop was possibly in on this thing. While one couldn’t always tell by looks, this girl didn’t look crazy. And except for the part about the cop, her story fit with everything he had already learned about Sharleen and Jasper.
“He killed her, you know,” the girl wailed. “He wanted to get back at Sharleen, and he killed Krista.”
Patrick patted her shoulder and then stood. “I think I might have an idea. Just give me a minute.” He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Kim’s number.
What If
Thursday, June 18 1:00PM
Kate watched the streets that she and Brian had traversed many times go by as they rode in a horse-drawn carriage facing each other. Brian was taking in the scenery, and enjoying some French fries that smelled good. Kate wondered how much longer this case would drag on. She liked Charleston. It was different from the other cities she had spent time in. There weren’t many modern buildings and no high-rises, and church spires could be seen everywhere.
She smiled as they passed a middle-aged bride and groom in a horse-drawn carriage. They had seen several wedding parties during their time in the city. She had heard somewhere that Charleston was second in the nation for destination weddings.
