by B. J Daniels
No reason? She was about to meet a dangerous killer, possibly from her mother’s past. If true, then what did that make her mother?
Max, on the other hand, looked cool and calm. She couldn’t believe that she’d let him come into her life and turn it upside down. What was it about this man that she’d let him in?
“Mason Green isn’t the one who was my mother’s lover, right?”
He glanced over at her. “He’s not the man believed to be the coleader of the group, if that’s what you’re asking.”
She closed her eyes for a moment as she realized he, too, wondered about Red’s relationship with the seven men in the Prophecy.
“Red was involved in five killings, and you’re worried about her morals?” Max asked, humor in his voice.
“I was thinking more of the families they destroyed, and for what end?”
He shook his head as he turned in to the prison gate. A guard stepped to the driver’s side of the car and asked for their identification. Max handed over their drivers’ licenses and, after a few moments, the guard handed them back and instructed them where to park.
“Do you want to wait here?” Max asked as he cut the engine to the rental car. “You can, if this is too much for you.”
She shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“Then, let’s do this.”
Max took her hand on the walk to the entrance and the processing area, squeezing it as if he thought he could press his warmth into her icy fingers. Once inside, another guard took her purse and waved them through a metal detector. Sounds seemed to echo through the building, making her aware of her own footfalls, her own pounding heart.
With relief, the metal detector didn’t go off. Max had warned her not to wear any metal, including an underwire bra, jewelry, or even metal buttons or studs.
“If your bra makes the metal detector go off, you have to remove it and be searched by a guard. If they can’t figure out what it was that made the alarm go off,” Max had warned her, “then you’re looking at a strip search.”
“If you are trying to scare me...”
He’d laughed. “I just want to make this as painless for you as I can.”
As she stepped through, another guard used a handheld device to take surface samples from her hands, clothing and purse. Max was put through the same process.
Max had also jokingly warned her about what not to wear. “No see-through clothing, bare midriffs, no plunging neckline, short shorts or miniskirts. Oh, and try to wear appropriate undergarments.”
“Very funny,” she said, since this was so far from how she dressed. “This sounds worse than the airport.”
Max had made arrangements so that they wouldn’t be visiting in the main area. As they passed what looked like a large cafeteria with a line of vending machines against one side, Kat saw that some of the hunter green–clad prisoners already had visitors.
The windowless room where they were led was small. It had a wide table at the center with plastic chairs on each side and room for nothing more.
“I thought we’d be talking to him on phones and separated with a glass,” she said, her voice breaking.
Max looked excited, while her heart was threatening to pound out of her chest.
“You asked for another room,” the guard said.
Kat shot a look at Max. Another room?
The guard pointed to the door she hadn’t noticed behind them. “Do you want me to open it for you now?”
“If you wouldn’t mind,” Max said and turned to Kat. Lowering his voice, he said, “Give me five minutes with Green alone. I don’t want him to see you until it’s time.”
“And you’re just mentioning this now?” she whispered back.
“Miss?” the guard said as he opened a door at the back of the small room. She could see another room much like this one, maybe smaller. She looked beseechingly at Max.
“It’s for the best. Trust me,” he said.
She looked into his blue eyes and felt a shock. She did trust him. It made no sense intellectually, but she did. With a slight nod, she let the guard lead her to the adjoining room.
“The door will be open when you want to enter the other visiting room,” he said. “But the outer door is locked.”
Kat nodded mutely as she was left alone in the small room where she couldn’t help feeling the onset of claustrophobia. She listened for a moment, wondering what was happening in the adjacent room. Pulling out her cell phone, she set her alarm for five minutes. Then she moved to one of the plastic chairs, pulled it out and sat down. Her legs were shaking.
* * *
ADDISON “ACE” CRENSHAW, PI, had told Angelina that she would contact her when she had something.
“In the meantime, don’t bother me,” the gruff Ace had said. “You’ll hear from me. But I suspect this could take some time—and money.”
Angelina could well imagine what Buckmaster would say if he knew that she’d hired another private investigator, this one more costly than the other two.
But she had to know the truth. Buckmaster had to know the truth, whether he wanted to hear it or not. He’d been moping around since Sarah had announced her engagement to Russell Murdock. He seemed to really believe that Sarah was going through with the marriage.
“I wouldn’t worry about buying a wedding present just yet,” she’d told her husband. “That wedding is never going to happen.”
“Why would you say that?” the senator had asked.
She’d heard a little too much hope in his voice. “Because Sarah will never go through with it. She is just trying to get you to dump me and go back to her.”
He’d groaned as if pained by what he called her unflattering jealousy. “Sarah doesn’t sit around plotting, no matter what you think. She wants to move on with her life. It’s the best thing for all of us.”
Angelina had had to bite her tongue. She hated it when he defended Sarah. If she heard one more time, “You’re talking about the mother of my children,” she thought she would scream.
Just because she’d borne him six children didn’t mean the woman wasn’t the devil incarnate. Men could be such fools. Was she the only one who saw through this transparent attempt by Sarah to get Buckmaster to do something before the big wedding day? Apparently, Angelina thought. But how far would the woman go to get Buckmaster back? Did Sarah, who pretended to hate being in the limelight, want to be the wife of the next president that badly? Or did she have some other motive?
Angelina checked her cell phone. Why didn’t Addison Crenshaw call?
* * *
MASON GREEN HAD appeared to be a good-looking jock in the Prophecy snapshot the group had taken of them thirty-some years ago. He’d been a small-town hero football player in high school and had gone to college on an athletic scholarship. But after a year, he’d flunked out and had gotten odd jobs until his arrest several years later.
The man the guard led into the prison visiting room was pushing sixty. He was still big, but his thick head of curly dark hair was gone. His head was shaved and glowed under the overhead light. While he’d clearly bulked up in the weight room, he had an unhealthy pallor, making Max wonder how many more years—if not months—he might have left.
Green was wearing handcuffs on his wrists that were connected to the thick leather belt at his waist. He jangled them as the guard led him over to a chair on the opposite side of the counter.
“You have thirty minutes,” the guard said. “If there is a problem, just push that button.” He pointed to a red button on the wall next to Max. There was one exactly like it on the other side of the wide table.
Green glared across at him. “So you want to do a story on the Prophecy?” He looked both smug and suspicious. “About time.”
Max pulled out his notebook. “The truth is I have
n’t found anyone who’s even heard of your group.”
Anger sparked in the big man’s dull brown eyes. “We started the revolution, man.”
“What revolution is that?” Max asked. “I have to admit, I’m not sure I understand what the Prophecy’s mission was.”
Green sat back as if Max had slapped him. “To make people aware that their own government is plotting to take away their rights, man. The government is run by secret globalists aimed at taking away American freedom.”
Max shook his head. “That just sounds like the same old rhetoric to me. You sound like those people who keep everyone worked up with the alleged threat that the government is poised to take away our guns so the gun and ammunition companies can make a small fortune off their fear.”
“You wait until they come knocking at your door, like they did in Germany, and take your gun.” Green was sweating now, spittle at the corner of his mouth. “It isn’t just a few radical groups anymore. Are you aware that the number of antigovernment groups have reached an all-time high? Hate groups have also grown to unbelievable numbers. What do you think that means?”
“Look, I’ve heard all this before. Unless there is something new...” Max started to rise. He knew that after being locked up all these years, a man like Green would want to convince him—and himself—that the cause was worth merit. Otherwise, he’d thrown his life away, and for what?
“The rage is building, man. You better listen to what you call the same old rhetoric. It’s a barometer of the explosion that is building in this country. You think it’s over? It’s just begun, man, and when it blows...” He smiled for the first time, showing yellowed teeth. “It is going to make a very loud bang.”
“So you’re saying you have something planned?”
“We started it. Now we’re going to finish it.”
“Who are we?”
Green just gave him a knowing smile. “The Prophecy.”
“Are you sure the rest of the members aren’t living normal lives, having completely forgotten about you? I can’t see how you’re going to be doing anything from a prison cell.”
Green smiled. “We’re not all locked up. We’ve just been biding our time.”
The door opened behind Max. He heard Kat step in, but he didn’t turn. His eyes were on Mason Green, who looked as if he’d swallowed his tongue. His gaze went from Kat to Max and back again. He looked poleaxed, mouth opening and closing as he sucked air like a fish thrown up on the bank.
“What’s going on?” Mason demanded when he found his voice.
“I see that you recognize Sarah Johnson’s daughter.”
The man’s eyes looked as if they might pop out of his head.
“You were saying that there are more members of the Prophecy who aren’t locked up?” Max asked. “Are you that sure they still give a damn about your old agenda? Maybe they are busy living their lives, just like they have been for the past thirty years, and have completely forgotten about you. Did you know that Sarah is getting married—and not to her former husband. She said she wants to get on with her life.”
“Screw you, man.” Green stumbled to his feet, all his bravado gone. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You wait. You’ll see.”
“When that big boom happens?”
“It’s going to rock the world and bring all you smart-asses to your knees.” Mason hit the button on the wall, and the guard appeared almost instantly.
“I’m ready to go back to my room,” the prisoner said.
* * *
KAT WAS STILL shaking as they walked out of the prison. The aging man she’d seen across the table from Max had looked nothing like the young idealist who’d been in the Prophecy photo. But when he’d looked up and seen her...
“I feel so...dirty. That man...” She heard the tears in her voice and fought to hold them back. “He...he thought I was her. I saw the way he looked at me. The way he...”
Max stopped and turned. He quickly stepped to her and took her in his arms, holding her close. She pressed her face against his broad chest and tried to breathe and not cry. Her mother was Red. There was no doubt.
“Let it out,” Max said quietly. “Just let it go.”
“I don’t...cry.” The sobs rose from her aching chest, rattling out of her with each shuddered breath. He held her more tightly as the implications of what they had learned hit her like a fist to the gut. She sobbed her heart out in his strong arms until there was nothing left inside her but a deep sadness and a feeling of impending disaster.
Max handed her a tissue from his pocket. He’d known she would break down. He’d been expecting it. She was touched by the gesture and at the same time angered by it.
“What did that accomplish back there?” she demanded as she wiped away the tears and pulled herself together.
“You wanted proof that your mother is Red. Do you have any doubt now?”
“So, that back there was all for me?”
“No, we know now that they’re planning something. Something big, according to Mason.”
She stared at him. “That big bang you asked him about?”
Max nodded.
“We have to go to the sheriff, FBI, Homeland Security,” she said as they walked the rest of the way to the rental car.
It wasn’t until they were inside and Max had started the engine that he looked over at her. “We can’t do that.”
“We have to.”
“We have no proof. Not even that your mother is Red, let alone that something as vague as ‘something big’ is going to happen.”
She watched him back out of the lot. “You said that man just admitted that they are planning to do something...terrible.”
“The man is a criminal. Do you really think he would tell the authorities the truth? Or that they would believe him? He isn’t going to give up your mother, but I suspected that would be the case from the get-go.” Max raked a hand through his thick blond hair. He’d mentioned that he needed a haircut, but he hadn’t gotten one. Nor had he shaved in a few days either. Surprisingly, both looked good on him.
Who was she kidding? The man was drop-dead sexy, and he knew it.
“There has to be something we can do,” she said when he looked over at her and seemed to realize she was no longer listening.
“Kat, your mom doesn’t remember. Unless the FBI had Red’s fingerprints or DNA at the scene of one of the bombings or bank robberies, there would be no way to prove she was involved.”
“Wait, if she doesn’t remember, then she won’t do anything.” When he said nothing, she prodded, “What?”
“We don’t know why your mother can’t seem to remember certain things,” he said carefully. “But I get the feeling she might have been...programmed.”
“Programmed? Like some robot that is sitting quietly right now, but push the right button and...”
“Yeah, like that.” He held up a hand. “I know it sounds crazy. Another reason you would be wasting your time trying to get anyone to believe any of this.”
“But you believe that she’s going to do something. If she’s antigovernment, though, wouldn’t she and the others be glad if my father is elected? He would fight for less government.”
Max shook his head. “These people aren’t antigovernment. They want to destroy all government. They’re anarchists who want disorder. But the good news is that I believe they’ll wait until the primary or, if your father wins that, then the election.”
Kat stared at him. “We can’t wait that long. She has to be stopped now. You said yourself that my father could be in danger.”
“It would help if we knew what she had planned—if she has anything planned. Like I said, Mason Green is a hard-core criminal. He could be pulling our chain.”
“I can tell that you don’t believe t
hat.”
“Not to mention,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard her, “your mother is about to marry Russell Murdock. Mason Green can’t have seen your mother for years. Who knows if they have even had any recent contact? Maybe she’s not that woman anymore. Maybe there is nothing to fear.”
She gave him an impatient look. “If you’re just saying all of this for my benefit—”
“I’m not. Maybe you shouldn’t listen to me. What do I know?”
She tried to find some solace in that but realized she trusted Max’s instincts. He hadn’t gotten where he was by being wrong about things. She kept thinking about Mason Green’s panicked look when he saw her.
Max said nothing as he drove away from the prison.
“I have to at least warn my father.”
“He won’t believe you.”
She remembered what her father had told her sister Olivia. He’d said that Sarah was the only woman he’d ever truly loved.
“Kat, I saw the two of them together when I got that lucky shot I took of your mother. There was definitely chemistry between them. I could see the tension in the way they reacted to each other. Your father is still in love with her.”
“Then I’m glad he’s married to the Ice Queen,” she said.
Max chuckled. “You call your stepmother the Ice Queen?”
“I better never see that in print,” she warned. Looking up, she asked, “Where are we going?”
“To the other prison where Wallace McGill is serving time, but we can’t get in until tomorrow, so I booked us a motel near the prison.”
“If it is anything like an airport motel, I can hardly wait. But why do we have to see another one of these men? Didn’t you accomplish what you set out to do without having to face another one of them?”
Max shot her a regretful look. “Sorry, but if I’m right, Green will contact McGill. If we hope to find out if there is anything to Green’s threat... You look like a woman who could use a stiff drink.”
“I don’t drink alcohol.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
