by Maris Soule
He stopped pondering his reaction as a sporty red Ford Fusion zipped past him, going at least ten miles over the speed limit. Jack considered going after the car and giving the driver a speeding ticket, then changed his mind when he saw the right-turn blinker come on and the car pull onto the driveway next to Mary Harrington’s parked car.
He pulled his own car over to the curb and watched as a willowy blonde got out of the Fusion and headed for Mary Harrington’s front door.
And then there were three, Jack thought and headed for home.
By nine o’clock, dinner had been eaten and the dishes stacked in the dishwasher or washed. David had rolled up his shirtsleeves and dried. Cups of coffee had once again appeared, replacing the glasses of wine. Mary chose decaf. ‘Otherwise I’ll be up all night,’ she told David. ‘Caffeine does that to me.’
‘I should go get a room at the motel,’ David said, but he made no move to put on his jacket or get up to leave.
‘Why spend money on a motel room?’ she said. ‘Stay here.’
‘Are you suggesting something?’ he asked, a slight lift to his eyebrows.
Mary wasn’t sure what she was suggesting. Because of Harry’s cancer and death, she hadn’t had sex for years, wasn’t sure she could still please a man like David. Maybe she was in good physical condition, but her hours in the gym hadn’t stopped the pull of gravity and the signs of age. No more pert breasts, tight butt, or flat stomach. Her skin was wrinkled and marred with age spots. ‘I don’t know, I …’
The sound of the doorbell cut off her reply. She frowned when she looked at the clock on the wall. ‘Now what?’ she asked, and headed for the front door.
Although it was dark out, her living-room drapes were open, and the moon provided enough light for her to see Shannon’s red Fusion parked next to her car. She glanced back into the kitchen. David had rolled down his shirtsleeves and was slipping on his jacket. She chuckled. Either she went without company for weeks, or everyone showed up.
‘And to what do I owe this late-night visit?’ she asked as soon as she’d opened the front door.
Shannon stepped inside and glanced around. ‘Is he still here?’ she whispered.
‘If you mean my friend David, yes, he’s still here.’
Shannon grimaced. ‘Dad sent me,’ she said, still whispering.
‘Come on in. Let me introduce you.’ Mary walked away from her granddaughter, leaving her to close the door. David stood by the table, and Mary stopped by his side. ‘David, I’d like you to meet my favorite granddaughter, Shannon Harrington. Shannon, this is a friend of mine from years ago. David Burrows.’
‘Your only granddaughter,’ Shannon said, coming into the kitchen. She extended her hand. ‘Mr Burrows.’
‘Call me David,’ he said and engulfed her small hand in his. ‘You remind me of your grandmother. I always thought she was one of the most beautiful women alive.’
Shannon looked at her, and Mary knew her granddaughter was trying to visualize her as a younger woman with blonde – not white – hair, and smooth, non-wrinkled skin.
He went on. ‘She’s still beautiful, and so are you.’
‘Yeah, uh well.’ Shannon pulled her hand free from his grasp. ‘Thank you.’
‘Is that your pin she’s wearing?’ David asked, pointing at the pin on Shannon’s coat.
Mary nodded. ‘I gave it to her for her birthday. I hope you don’t mind.’
‘No, of course not,’ he said, but his frown indicated otherwise.
‘This is the man who gave you the pin?’
Shannon looked at David, and then at Mary, and Mary could imagine the thoughts running through her granddaughter’s head. ‘We were …’ She hesitated. ‘Good friends.’
David chuckled. ‘You’ve heard about Pandora and her box of evil. Your grandmother was the wicked one.’
‘I was not,’ Mary said, searching for something to say that would get them off the subject of Pandora before one of them said too much.
It was Shannon who changed the subject. ‘Grandma,’ she said, clearing her throat. ‘Can we talk?’
‘Sure.’ Mary wondered what her son wanted her to say to Shannon that she hadn’t already told the girl.
‘Privately.’ Shannon’s gaze shifted to a door off the living room. ‘Maybe in your bedroom. There’s ah, there’s … there’s something I need to discuss with you.’
‘If it’s about that trip to Europe …’
‘No… . No, something else.’ She took Mary’s hand and gave a tug.
‘I’ll be right back,’ Mary told David as she allowed her granddaughter to lead her to her bedroom.
As soon as they were in the room, Shannon closed the door. ‘Grandma, are you sleeping with him?’
Not yet, Mary wanted to say, wondering if David and she would have ended up in bed if Shannon hadn’t arrived. Or if they still might. What she managed was, ‘I don’t think that’s any of your business.’
‘Dad said he was good-looking. My god, Grandma, he’s boss.’
‘Boss?’
‘Studly. I mean, he’s old, but he’s …’ Shannon grinned. ‘Studly.’
Mary laughed, but the description did fit the man. ‘So does that mean you approve?’
‘No.’ Shannon shook her head. ‘I mean …’ She blew out a breath. ‘Jeez, you’re my grandmother.’
‘Meaning I shouldn’t be having sex.’
‘We shouldn’t even be talking about it.’
Mary agreed. ‘Shannon, David and I are friends. I think what we do … or don’t do, should be between us.’
‘Dad’s worried about you.’
‘I know.’ Mary remembered her son’s reaction.
‘He thinks this guy is after your money.’
‘Now, that’s funny.’ Or maybe it wasn’t. Mary hated to think her son was afraid she’d be foolish enough to be taken in by a man. ‘Honey, David is not after my money. He saw that article about me and thought it would be nice to reconnect, especially since a conference he’s attending in Chicago put him closer to Rivershore.’
‘So he hasn’t asked for any money?’ Shannon didn’t look convinced. ‘Hasn’t told you about an investment that will make you lots of money?’
‘No, all he’s told me is someone else I knew years ago, someone I really don’t want to see again, is looking for me.’
‘Eww.’ Shannon frowned. ‘That sounds bad.’
‘Hopefully, it won’t be.’ Mary put her hand on the doorknob. ‘Now, if I’m not mistaken, you have school tomorrow. So you need to head home.’
‘And leave you two alone. Right?’ Shannon didn’t move. ‘Promise me, if he asks for money, don’t give him any.’
‘I promise,’ Mary said, remembering how much money she’d earned during her years with the agency. Unless David had made some bad investments, he wouldn’t need to ask anyone for money, now or ever.
‘Well then, I guess …’
Mary opened the bedroom door, and Shannon started for the living room. From her position behind her granddaughter, Mary could see David seated at the kitchen table, turning his coffee mug around in his hands. She also could hear a vehicle coming down the street, its muffler so loud it sounded like a jet engine.
Later she would wonder what made her clamp a hand on Shannon’s shoulder, stopping her granddaughter from stepping into the living room.
‘What?’ Shannon started to ask as the sound of squealing tires turned into the scraping crunch of metal on metal.
Two blinding bright lights poured into the living room, then moved away, and Mary caught her first glimpse of the truck outside her house. It had changed its collision course, but was on her lawn. She saw an arm snake out of the passenger-side window and throw something. The glow of a flame came toward the front window, and Mary pushed Shannon to the floor.
She used her own body to shield her granddaughter as a thunk against her plate-glass window was followed by the sound of a bottle breaking, then an explosive bang.
&
nbsp; For a second she didn’t move, and then Mary pushed herself back on her haunches and stared at the window. Flames leapt out of the bushes that bordered the front of the house.
She could hear the truck as it roared off into the night, but she didn’t have a chance to move as another set of lights lit up the living room.
‘Stay down,’ David yelled from the kitchen.
Mary obeyed, again covering Shannon as she heard another thunk, followed by another explosion.
‘What’s happening?’ Shannon cried out as Mary moved off her granddaughter’s back.
‘We’re being attacked,’ she said and crawled over to the phone by her bed. Quickly she punched in 911.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
LESS THAN AN hour after driving away from Mary Harrington’s house, Jack was back, standing on her front lawn, looking at the scorched bushes in front of the house and the tire tracks on the grass. Fire trucks and police cruisers, their flashing lights illuminating the night sky, filled the street, while an acrid, smoky stench filled the air. Neighbors had come out of their houses wearing hastily thrown-on clothes and robes, some simply gawking at the scene, others talking amongst themselves. All would have to be interviewed.
The blonde he’d seen get out of the red Fusion stood by the back of her car, staring at the crumpled fender and broken tail light. Mary Harrington stood beside the girl, her arm around the girl’s shoulders. The blonde was obviously shaken, her face ashen. Mary was talking to her, her words too softly spoken for Jack to hear over the noises surrounding him.
‘Since you were asking me about the break-in last night,’ Officer Mendoza told Jack, ‘I figured you’d want to know about this. According to Agent Burrows,’ Jennifer indicated the man Jack had met earlier that day, ‘there were two vehicles. First a truck, then a car. They came one right after the other, a Molotov cocktail being thrown out of each.’
‘He was in the house at the time?’ Jack hoped Ella had continued her watch of the car parked across the street from her house. If she had, she might be a good witness.
‘He said he was in the kitchen, and the two women – Mrs Harrington and her granddaughter, Shannon – were just coming out of the bedroom when the first vehicle hit the granddaughter’s car, came across the lawn, and the first bottle was thrown against the living-room window.’
‘Good thing the window didn’t break.’ They would have been looking at a lot more damage if either of the bottles had gotten inside. He assumed they’d been filled with gasoline, an oil-soaked rag used as a wick. Once that bottle broke and the gasoline was released, the explosion would have spread the fire over everything in its path, possibly including the two women.
‘Agent Burrows said the same thing. You’ll want to talk to him.’ Mendoza led Jack over to the man.
‘We meet again,’ Burrows said, extending his hand.
Jack accepted the handshake, noting the man seemed quite calm concerning what had recently happened. ‘You were inside when this occurred?’
‘In the kitchen. I heard a really loud muffler and had just gotten up from the table to see what was making so much noise. For a moment I thought the truck was going to run right into the living-room, but as you can see,’ he pointed at the tire tracks that led toward the house and then veered away and back to the street, ‘they turned just before they reached the bushes.’
‘Did you see what kind of truck it was?’
Burrows shook his head. ‘As I told Officers Mendoza and VanDerwell, all I can tell you about the truck is it was dark colored. Maybe black, dark blue, or green. The car that followed, however, was a Buick. Older model. Probably early 90s. It was white.’
‘See who threw the bottles?’
‘Not out of the truck. That took me by surprise. But the car had at least three people in it, all male as far as I could tell, and the one who tossed the bottle had some sort of tattoo on the back of his hand and up his wrist.’
Not a lot to go on, but a good start.
‘Truck was black,’ Mendoza said. ‘We found some paint chips on the ground near the Fusion.’ She grinned. ‘Black with some red now on its front fender, I’d guess.’
That would help narrow the investigation.
‘Also, one of the neighbors said she recognized the driver of the car. If she’s right, he belongs to Jose’s gang.’
‘Jose?’ Burrows said.
‘He’s …’ Jennifer started, but Jack interrupted her.
‘Officer Mendoza, I believe you’re wanted over there,’ he said, pointing to where Officer VanDerwell stood by the crime-scene tape that had been installed, talking to one of the onlookers.
She got his message, nodded to Burrows, and headed for her fellow officer, leaving Jack alone with Burrows. ‘And this Jose is?’ Burrows asked again.
Jack shook his head. ‘We’ll take care of this, Mr Burrows.’
‘Agent Burrows,’ the man corrected.
‘For an agency that doesn’t seem to exist.’ He watched Burrows for his reaction. What he got was a smile.
‘I take it you tried looking up the Department of Special Forces.’
‘And found nothing.’
‘We don’t advertise, but if you want to call the President, I’m sure you’ll get a confirmation of our existence.’ His smile widened. ‘And probably a visit from Secret Service.’
‘So I’m simply supposed to take your word that there is such an agency?’ Jack wasn’t that gullible.
‘Yes.’ Burrows looked over at Mary Harrington. ‘She needs protection.’
‘Because?’ Jack hoped Agent Burrows would tell him something about Mary Harrington’s past, about her connection to this non-existent agency.
Burrows frowned. ‘Because her house was broken into last night and tonight they’re trying to burn it down. Isn’t that a good enough reason?’
‘What connection does she have with this Department of Special Forces?’
‘No connection.’
Burrows said it firmly, and Jack almost believed him. Almost. ‘What about in the past?’
‘Sergeant,’ Burrows ground out the word, ‘I’d suggest you focus on the present. Although I’ve had no contact with this woman for years, I consider her a friend, and I don’t want to see anything happen to her. She needs protection.’
‘OK.’ He got the message. The man was not going to reveal anything about Mary’s past. ‘We’ll increase patrols by her house. I’m pretty sure she pissed off one of our local gangs. We’ll pull those gang members in and check their vehicles. It shouldn’t take us long to find the two that were used tonight.’
‘And then what? Put a couple kids in jail? You need to eliminate their leader.’
‘We’re working on it.’
‘I’m glad to hear that. And this leader’s name is…?’
Jack would admit the man was persistent. ‘Forget it, Burrows. You’re out of your jurisdiction … whatever that might be. And if you mess up the investigation we have going, big-shot agent or not, you’ll end up in prison right alongside him.’
Burrows merely smiled.
‘And,’ Jack pointed at Burrows’ jacket, where he knew the agent’s gun was strapped, ‘I’d better not find any bullets in any of the gang members that match your weapon.’
‘Trust me, Sergeant, that would never happen.’
‘And you’d better tell your girlfriend to come clean with us.’
As if she knew they were talking about her, Mary Harrington came toward them. ‘David, I’m going to drive Shannon home,’ she said as she neared. ‘And as long as this is a crime scene, I’m going to spend the night at my son’s.’ She held up a reusable shopping bag. ‘Officer Mendoza let me go inside and get a few things. Will you be around tomorrow?’
Burrows nodded. ‘I’ll be around.’
Mary Harrington switched her attention to Jack. ‘How long before I can reclaim my house?’
‘Maybe you should stay somewhere else for a few days,’ he suggested. ‘Until we catch the people
who did this.’
‘No.’ The set of her chin matched the firmness of her response. ‘I’m not letting them scare me out of my home. How long do you expect this to take?’ She indicated the scene in front of them.
‘I don’t know for sure.’
‘Do you think I can come back tomorrow afternoon?’
‘I suppose.’ As far as Jack could tell, the evidence they needed was outside of her house, not inside.
‘Good.’ Again she looked at Agent Burrows. ‘Stop by tomorrow afternoon.’
‘Are you coming, Grandma?’ the blonde called from the driveway.
‘Coming.’ Mary Harrington jiggled the set of keys she held. ‘We’re leaving her car here, taking mine. You won’t need to take hers anywhere, will you, Sergeant? We’ll want to get the insurance adjuster to look at it as soon as possible.’
‘It will stay here,’ Jack said, noticing Agent Burrows’ smile as the man reached out and caught a blackened piece of wood dangling from Mrs. Harrington’s key ring.
‘This the kubotan you made?’ Burrows asked.
‘It is. I thought it might be handy to have around.’
Burrows nodded and released the wood. ‘Take care of yourself, Pan. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
Pan? Or did he say Pam? Jack smiled. Like in Pamela?
He had a clue.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
SHANNON DIDN’T STOP talking during the drive from Mary’s house to Robby’s and Clare’s, and Mary didn’t try to stop her. Listening to her granddaughter, Mary remembered her reaction after her first assignment. The mixture of fear and adrenaline had her pacing the room as she told Carl exactly what had transpired. He’d calmly listened to her, just as she was with Shannon, until exhaustion finally took over.
The high in her case, however, lasted for days, maybe for years. Back then she’d loved the danger and excitement that went along with the job. It wasn’t until she’d reached her late twenties that the tension began to wear on her, and she started questioning how long she wanted to work for ADEC … or if she could ever quit. She’d come to a point in her life where taking someone else’s life – justified or not – didn’t seem right.
