by Ben Muse
“He represented Chase Hampton a lifetime ago,” I said, scrutinizing the picture.
Jackson Ellis’s dead eyes and beaten and battered face stared back at me from the back of a pickup truck, and when I saw “Rapist” written in red on a piece of cardboard hanging from his neck, I knew. Bailey was alive after all. I had no proof that she was the one who’d killed my father’s old friend, and my attorney, but given what she’d said that night, many months ago, on the Anchor Management, before she’d murdered our father in cold blood, I’d put the chances at ninety-eight percent. Despite the fact that she pushed me into the cold waters of the Atlantic and left me to die, to this day I still didn’t hate her. The thought that Bailey was alive, and somewhere out there gave me a strange, euphoric feeling, one I did not share with Alex. Even though she and I have been through it all, I haven’t shared everything about that last night on the Anchor Management. Though she is retired from the FBI, I’m not sure how she would take the news, especially now, after I’ve kept it from her for so long.
I hold onto the hope that the girl I knew and loved growing up still resided somewhere in all her darkness.
“Think that sign hanging from Streak’s neck is written in blood?” I said, keeping my emotions in check.
“It’s not written in Crayola. Streak?”
“His nickname from college, not too hard to figure out how he got it.”
“Did you like the man?” she asked.
“He was arrogant, and I’m confident he knew Bailey was my half-sister, but did nothing to use the information to my advantage during the legal process. So, no, I wasn’t that fond of him.”
“If you hadn’t gone to prison, we never would have met.”
“Yes, thank God for prison. What a blessing that was.”
“I didn’t mean it like that, you know.” She came up behind me and slid an arm around my waist.
“I know.”
“Are you happy?” she asked.
“If you’re talking about us, then yes, I am. If you’re asking if I’m happy with the circumstances of our situation, then no. I’m not a big fan of hiding.” I turned around and she took my hands.
“It’s for your safety. Our safety.” she reminded me.
“Alex, I’m dead. No one’s coming to look for me.”
“We stick to the plan and take no chances until circumstances dictate otherwise. The marshal said complacency would set in about eight months into this. Remember?”
“I miss home, and Pops. I miss my name, my identity. You may not have figured this out yet, but I’m not an Alan. And this beard . . .”
“Only makes you more handsome,” she said, caressing my face. “Just ask ‘what’s her face’ at Sierra. And if Durov finds out you are still alive, there will be a ‘Chase’ again.”
“Durov is in hiding and probably just thankful he escaped in time. Besides, WITSEC has never lost anyone in the history of the program. You heard the marshal,” I countered.
“They’ve never lost someone when their protectees have followed the rules. The FBI, on the other hand, has, and you’d be surprised how many people in the Bureau know you are alive, not to mention the crew from the Coast Guard cutter. They may not know who or where we are, but one slipup, one rogue agent, and that opens the door for danger. Durov is still out there, somewhere, and has no shortage of resources, despite being on the run.”
“You have a point,” I conceded. I winced inwardly at the knowledge that I’d already broken the rules once without Alex’s knowledge when I paid a visit to Palm Springs to gauge how my mom was doing after her son’s death. Alex was away in Vegas training for her new job. I’d struck up a conversation with my crazy mother, not once but twice, and realized that, sadly, I wasn’t missed at all.
“Alan, we’ve got a good thing going here. It’s really not so bad.”
She was right, of course. Echo Lake, California, was one of the most beautiful places I’d ever seen. After narrowing down our list of choices to three, we chose it over Lake Placid and Traverse City, Michigan. Located just south of Lake Tahoe, we were isolated, but living in an area with a constant influx of transients due to the ski and gambling industries that dominated Lake Tahoe’s economy. We lived in a comfortable, two-bedroom cabin and kept a low profile. Our closest neighbors were five hundred feet below us at the edge of the lake, and another neighbor lived a thousand feet above us near the crest of the peak. We had escape routes planned, a rallying point if separated, and our bug-out bags were always packed and ready to go, including prepaid, untraceable cell phones and code words that only the two of us would understand.
“What time is your first tour this morning?” she asked.
“Ten-thirty. Actuaries from New York. Guess I should hit the shower.” Alex followed me into the bathroom and watched as I turned on the shower and stripped off my outdoor running gear. Something about our conversation nagged at me, and I turned to her.
“You’re what’s most important to me. Are you happy?”
***
Are you happy? she asked herself. The truth was that she loved him deeply, but she had her secrets too. Secrets that could seriously damage their relationship if discovered. Happy? Her feelings didn’t really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. She just needed today to go smoothly and then she could reveal one of her secrets.
***
“I’ll let you know in thirty minutes,” she said seductively as she untied her robe and let it slide to the hardwood floor, leaving nothing to my imagination.
“Thirty minutes? You give me way too much credit.” I shook my head as she walked by me and slapped my naked butt. In the steaming shower, she turned and gave me the “come hither” look with the pointer-finger curl. Hot water pounded her and ran in rivulets down her toned arms and between her breasts.
“I’ll settle for twenty.”
As I stepped into the shower and wrapped my arms around her, the life I was leading didn’t seem so bad.
***
Seventy-five yards away on a snow-covered rock outcropping above the cabin, a man dressed completely in white rose from his cover and slowly and carefully packed up a small, expensive scope, placing it inside his pack. He was unassuming and nonthreatening, but hidden behind the soft exterior was someone who got things done. Messy things if need be. Surveilling the couple this past week was child’s play for him and his team. Depending on who they were following, things would either get messy or the team would just disappear, nobody the wiser. He could’ve taken them both out this morning if the order had been given, but they were still in the process of determining just who the couple was. The heavily bearded man in the cabin was spotted speaking to a specific female, not once but twice, generating alarm bells for someone higher up the food chain. For the past three days, they’d worked on finding out who the man was. He needed to break into the cabin, but that meant footprints in the snow. They were in no hurry. Things would go their way eventually, and a solution would present itself.
Chapter 2
“Morning, Grizz,” I heard as I stepped into the office of Sierra Adventures. I was looking forward to this morning’s ride. Snow made travel impossible on the steep road to our cabin. Alex and I parked our vehicles at the Echo Lake Marina and travelled to and from the cabin on snowmobiles. Before I left the cabin, the sun had broken through and burned away the last of the clouds on the short trip down, revealing a stunning, deep-blue sky with Lake Tahoe a sparkling sapphire in the distance. Starting the day with this view worked to keep me centered, and I knew I’d never tire of it, despite the circumstances of my new life.
After choosing Echo Lake, assimilation into our new lives involved finding a job. I wanted something outdoors, one that did not involve deep water. Snowmobile tour guide was a perfect fit. After the microchip was removed and my shoulder healed, the government paid for a week’s worth of snowmobile training in Durango, Colorado. By the time I applied at the numerous snowmobile tour operators in and around Tahoe, there
wasn’t much I couldn’t do, including repairing one.
“Morning, Jess. You tailing my ten thirty?”
“I was, except ten thirty’s been cancelled. All this early season snow and now the wind picking up this morning has prompted NOAA to issue an avalanche warning. Underlying slab’s become too unstable on the north-facing slopes.”
“That would have been nice to know before I left the cabin,” I said as I removed my gloves and reflected on the earlier activities with Alex.
“Just found out ten minutes ago. Avalanche center plans on detonating near Devil’s Jump later this morning.”
“Have we notified our ten-thirty tour about this?”
“Why, Grizz, what a great idea. As Operations Manager, I never even thought about doing that.”
“All right, smartass. I apologize. I forget how on top of things you are.”
“Apology accepted. We should be able to run the group about two thirty.”
“Keep me posted,” I said as I turned to leave.
“Hey . . . want to go grab a little breakfast?” Jessica, or “what’s her face,” as Alex likes to call her, has a crush on me. I think it’s the beard that does it for her, hence my nickname. Jess was attractive in a blond-haired, hippie, granola-eating kind of way. We’d worked together for about a month now, and she was as good as anyone on her Polarcat. From what I’d learned, she’d been in Tahoe for two years and lived for the snow.
“How about a rain check? I’ve got a few errands to run.”
“Any of them start with Alex?”
“Maybe.” I turned to leave as the bell on the front door rang, and a man with thinning, sandy blond hair, wearing dark jeans and a navy parka, entered.
“Help you, sir?” Jess asked as she stood from her office cubicle.
“I wanted to sign up for a tour. Seems like a waste spending all my time in Tahoe in meetings and at the blackjack table while I’m out here for business. So much to see and do.”
“We’ve only got one group going out today, and it’s full. Got some slots open for tomorrow’s ten thirty.”
The man scratched his neck in thought. “I’ve never ridden one. Is it easy?”
“Piece of cake. And we have the best views of Tahoe,” I said.
“Any chance I could ride on one or at least sit on one? Get a feel for it? I’ve never been too adventurous, and my wife is always telling me to get out and try new things. It’s sort of my New Year’s resolution, even though we’re not quite there yet.”
“We don’t—” Jess began, before I jumped in and cut her off.
“C’mon out back with me,” I said to the man, giving Jess the settle down look. “We brought one down from the staging area yesterday. It was running a little ragged. Now, there’s not enough snow on the ground here at lake level to ride on, but you can sit on it and I’ll run you through the basics.”
“That’d be great. I’m William. My friends call me Billy.”
“I’m Alan, and that’s Jess,” I said shaking the man’s hand.
“Thank you, Alan. I don’t mean to take up much of your time. I just like to know what I’m getting myself into.”
Billy followed me out back, and I gave him a brief overview of how to operate the snowmobile. Turns, braking, uphill and downhill stances, riding in groups. When I finished I let him have a seat on the machine.
“Hey, Alan, would you mind taking my picture? My wife would get a kick out of seeing me on a snowmobile. She’s sleeping off a late night at Vista’s blackjack tables.”
“Yeah, sure. Not a problem.” Billy fished his phone from the pocket of his parka and handed it over.
“Just press the white button at the bottom of the screen,” he said as he posed with the goofiest of smiles.
I took the picture and handed Billy back his phone. He looked at the screen and smiled up at me.
“That’s perfect, Alan. Just perfect. I have a feeling this is gonna be one hell of an experience.”
***
After picking up some spark plugs for the infirm snowmobile, I decided to surprise Alex with a visit. The news of my former attorney’s gruesome murder brought the recent past back to the surface, and my irritability at having to hide hadn’t helped. I wanted to apologize and reassure her that I was sticking to the plan despite my feelings.
As much as I needed a job with unlimited room to roam, Alex was comfortable in a cramped, dark room, poring over security cameras and assisting in the security operations of Tahoe’s crown jewel.
The Vista Resort and Casino was the newest development on Lake Tahoe, and unlike the other casinos in Stateline, Nevada, Vista was located directly on the lakefront, just east of Elk Point. It boasted two towers, twenty stories each, with two hundred thousand square feet of gaming space and unparalleled access to Lake Tahoe, complete with its own private beach and marina. And it boasted the best breakfast sandwich known to man. The Behemoth. Alex and I made it a point to have breakfast at Mama’s once a week when our work schedules allowed us to ride in together. She would stick to the egg whites, asparagus, gruyere cheese, and roasted tomato on a fresh ciabatta roll, rolling her eyes when I placed my order. Two thick pieces of Texas toast-sized French Toast with layers of chorizo, scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon in the middle, with a side order of hot maple syrup. I could hear Alex chastising me as Gigi, Mama’s owner, put The Behemoth together in front of me.
“Your beautiful girlfriend is going to kick you to the curb if you keep eating these,” Gigi whispered as she placed it in the to-go bag.”
“Gigi, you sound like Alex. I’ve not gained a single pound since I first started eating your ‘heart attack on a plate’ last month.”
“No, but the body can only withstand all these calories for so long.”
“Okay, I’ll give Alex ‘The Behemoth’ and eat her heart-smart sandwich,” I said, eliciting a smile from Gigi.
“Good luck with that. Your lady is too smart to eat this.”
“As smart as she is, she still doesn’t know what she’s missing.” I forked over fifteen dollars to the kind and matronly Gigi, thanked her, and as I turned to leave, my eyes immediately connected, not with a person I recognized, but with a disheveled black suit that had just stepped out of Vista’s lobby elevator. A quick glance at the face confirmed my suspicions, and just like that, my past had crept back into the here and now. I turned to Gigi to buy a little time while I tried to rationalize why this man was here, instead of the millions of other fucking places he could be in the world.
“Tell you what, Gigi. Can I get an order of your mixed fruit as well? Might not be a bad idea to mix a little fruit into the diet.”
“You got it, Mr. Larsen.” What Gigi didn’t know was that her sandwich creation was my only indulgence in terms of gluttonous, gut-busting food. After ballooning to almost three hundred pounds in prison, having entered into the North Carolina Corrections System at a healthy hundred and seventy, I now ate nothing but lean meats, fruits, and veggies, save Gigi’s creation once a week. However, occupying my thoughts right now was not the thirteen-hundred-calorie breakfast sandwich in the bag, it was the man in the seventy-five-dollar suit. He stuck out like a sore thumb in the luxurious expanse of Vista’s vaulted lobby, her walls and ceilings adorned in rich woods and exposed cedar trusses, her floor, rich, cream-colored Botticino marble.
I’d not seen the man in over ten months, and I wasn’t sure if he’d been provided with a current picture of me. As far as I knew, that would have been a serious breach of WITSEC protocol. The thought that he knew where I was infuriated me. As I waited for Gigi to get the fruit, I calmed myself and glanced over my shoulder as he walked onto the casino floor without paying me any attention.
I paid Gigi for the fruit and followed the man from a distance, my blue Columbia ball cap pulled down low on my head. Then I realized I didn’t have to follow him. A simple phone call would give me a sense of where Alex and I stood. I sat down at an unoccupied slot machine and pulled out my phone and felt
that everything was about to change. She answered on the second ring, a palpable tension in her voice.
“Hey, getting ready for your ride?”
“Nope. Tour this morning was cancelled. Avalanche warning. Called to let you know I’m down in the lobby and getting ready to bring you your favorite sandwich from Mama’s. See you in a few.”
“Tell . . . you . . . what,” she said, drawing the words out as if she were thinking on the fly. “Now is not a great time. We’ve got some executives in house doing a security audit and they are keeping me busy.”
“Oh, okay. Well, I’ll just come up and drop off your sandwich then. Maybe steal a quick kiss. No big deal.”
“Alan, it’s a little crazy up here.” Oh, I’ll bet. “How ’bout I come down real quick. I could use a bit of fresh air.”
“You just said you were slammed. Where’s the cool and calm Alex Larsen I know and love?”
“She will be back this evening, I promise.”
“Okay, I’ll be in the Alex and Alan booth at Mama’s. See you in five.” I retraced my route and sat down in Mama’s back booth. The breakfast crowd was long gone, and Gigi was nowhere to be seen. Alex arrived shortly from her office overlooking the casino floor, and flashed me a hurried smile as she slid in across from me.
“That busy, huh?” I began.
“You could say that. Audits by their very nature are supposed to be a surprise. They’ve brought in an outside company to look at everything. So, what have you been up to since your tour was cancelled? ‘What’s her face’ want to go on a couples ride?”
“Jess did ask if I wanted to get some breakfast, but I told her I was coming to see you instead. Then, before I could leave, we had a walk-in. Billy . . . didn’t get his last name. On business and staying here at the Vista this week with his wife. Nice guy. Wanted a little advance information on how to ride a snowmobile, so I took him out back and showed him the basics on a bum one we brought down yesterday. Took his picture, and then I skedaddled over here as fast as I could.”
