by J. T. Lewis
I smiled at her assessment of the aloof butler. I realized that he had jumped up a notch or two on my respect meter after his actions during the emergency. Could it be he had some kind of military or police training to remain so cool in the moment?
I suddenly stopped in my tracks as the house came into view. The front wall of the house was no more, with only the ends of the various levels of floor visible from where I was standing. Memories of Oklahoma City popped into my head as I took in the devastation before me.
“Lord, help us,” Preacher mumbled beside me, more sadness than fear showing on his face.
Although Abby had glanced at the house on her way to check on us, her present appearance left little doubt in my mind that she was just now realizing the enormity of what had happened.
Visibly shaken, I moved next to her and hugged her tight as my own emotions kicked in. There were probably only seconds differentiating what had happened today versus what could have occurred. A chill ran down my spine at the realization.
Hearing voices, we all looked to our right, our eyes focusing on a sight to behold.
There was Raven and May, hand in hand, being led through the rubble by the Jasper brothers.
Giving Abby another quick hug and a peck on the cheek before releasing her, we all started making our way over toward the approaching group.
I suddenly heard sirens in the distance…many, many sirens by the sound of it.
Looking over at Preacher, he nodded at me and turned back towards the woods from where we had just come, making his way back down towards the wreck. He would find a way to get back to town…somehow.
It wouldn’t do to have the cops asking questions of a man that didn’t “officially” exist.
“How do we explain his car?” Abby asked with a worried look.
“The car is officially a rental vehicle, owned by a holding company that is owned by a holding company. Ultimately of course, it’s owned by Preacher’s old agency. After Preacher gets clear, he will call somebody. By the time the police get through to someone at the company, it will probably look like I rented it for a few days.”
I turned back toward my approaching friends. Although they both had a worried look on their faces, I was relieved to see that the ladies were not only unhurt, but seemed to be holding it together as they followed the directions of the two brothers. The Jaspers for their part also appeared to be unscathed from the blast, which I was truly thankful for.
Noticing our approach, May and Raven made a beeline toward me, both of them engulfing me in a hug, one from each side.
“It’s good to see you guys too!” I laughed as they almost knocked me over.
“Ya’ll had us mighty worried,” Hank Jasper intoned before letting loose a stream of tobacco juice.
“We was a quarter mile from here when it happened,” Bill Jasper added, “Knocked us on our ass before we knew what was happening.”
“One second we was walking, the next we was staring at the sky!” Hank offered.
“Yup!” Bill chimed in with a nod, “Starin at the sky.”
“Anyways,” Hank continued, “We sat up and saw the smoke and hightailed it over here.”
“I’m glad you guys weren’t any closer,” I told the brothers, “we found a body over the hill that we were hoping wasn’t one of you two.”
Hank and Bill’s eyes lit up at the mention of a body, and they took off over the hill to have a look without another word to us.
I was still wrapped in the arms of my two friends, so I gently pushed them back to get a better look. Both women were partially covered in dust, but there looked to be no physical wounds on either.
“I’m sorry this happened,” I said, guilt rising within me once more. “I should have reacted sooner…”
“Nonsense!” Raven’s voice interjected suddenly, her self-assurance putting force behind the words.
“There was nothing you could have done that would have stopped that maniac,” Raven finished. “He might have killed you if you had gotten in his way,” May added as she once again finished Raven’s thought.
“We all survived Gabe, that’s the main thing,” Raven lectured. “The house can be rebuilt…or maybe I’ll just tear it down and build something different.” A gleam in her eye told me that the thought might be an exciting prospect for her.
“You should have seen Abby, Gabe,” May beamed as she now stood with her arm around my daughter. “She was cool as a cucumber. She packed Raven and I into a corner of the safe room and then shielded us with her body to protect us.”
“I did?” Abby asked, truly surprised at the statement. “I don’t remember,” she said with a shy grin.
Our reverie was interrupted at that moment by the arrival of a multitude of police cars entering the property with sirens blaring and lights flashing. Although still hyped up on adrenalin, I didn’t relish the next few hours of endless explanations and reliving of the incident.
“Well, at least someone is out of the picture,” I said as I looked back down the hill toward the body. “I just wish we knew if he was responsible for all of this, or if he was just a hired hand.”
“Oh!” Abby exclaimed, “I didn’t get to tell you with all of the excitement!”
My heart skipped a beat as I looked back toward my daughter.
“Tell me what Abby?” I asked, needing to hear some good news for a change.
A wide grin on Abby’s face told me it was good news, but she looked over at May and said, “You tell him, May.”
Now May was also grinning as she joined in the fun of keeping the information from me as long as they could.
“May?” I asked my old friend, getting just a little annoyed. “You have something to tell me?”
“Well, umm…” she stammered, “You see…”
“Dammit ladies, will somebody please enlighten me before I pass out from all this tension?”
Putting their arms over each other’s shoulders, they stood side by side as they happily grinned at me.
“We were going over the books today…” Abby started.
“And we found something,” May added happily.
Abby couldn’t hold back her excitement any longer.
“We found a name!”
Chapter 57
September 23, 1999
“You found a name?” I asked excitedly.
“Well,” Abby said with a little less enthusiasm, “Two actually…but I’m betting they are the same person!”
“William Marcel,” May threw the name out with an eager grin, “And William Tullier.”
Abby beamed at May before looking back toward me, “Jessica Jordan told me that the guy that was asking about me was named Bill Jones. That can’t be a coincidence, can it? And they both have French origins…that’s gotta mean something!”
Smiling, I nodded at Abby assessment as I mulled the names over in my head. Neither were familiar to me of course, but I hadn’t expected them to be.
I heard rapidly approaching footfalls behind me and turned to find a young deputy running toward our position.
“Everybody ok?” he asked, the adrenalin pumping through his veins evident on his face.
He had a familiar look to him, but I didn’t recognizing him from being with the Sheriff’s office. Glancing down for a nametag, I noticed he wasn’t wearing any.
“Yes deputy, everybody here appears to be unscathed, at least physically.”
I glanced back behind me. “There is a man in a tree back down there that I can’t say the same for however. We believe he was the one driving the truck…the one who set off the bomb.”
He stared off down the hill before looking back at me. “Ok, I’ll go check it out. In the meantime, I need everyone involved to stay close. Everybody that’s anybody in this county will be wanting to talk to you about this.”
He looked a little nervous at the thought of all of his bosses congregating in the same location as he turned to head for the body.
“Let me know if any
of you need anything sir,” he said as he started for the hill.
“By the way,” I interrupted, my curiosity getting the best of me. “What’s your name deputy?”
Stopping in midstride, the deputy turned back toward our group with a shy smile. “Lewis sir,” he exclaimed, touching the brim of his wide-brimmed brown hat in an offhand salute, “JT Lewis.” With that, he turned and strode off down the hill without another word.
“Abby!”
We all turned at the sound of the new voice to find Nate Stafford running toward us at full speed. Abby rushed out toward him, jumping into his arms at full speed. Swinging her around effortlessly, the look of relief showing on Nate’s face was felt by us all at that moment.
“Oh my God!” he exclaimed as tears ran down his face. “When the call came in, I just knew you were here…I don’t think I took two breaths of air the whole way out here.”
Abby, for her part, was covering Nate’s face with kisses as she excitedly told him what happened.
“I remember those days,” I heard softly beside me then. Glancing to my left, I found a dust covered yet beautiful Raven smiling at me with a glint in her eye. “It doesn’t seem all that long ago actually.”
Moving closer, she put an arm around my waist as we watched Abby and Nate’s reunion.
“My, she seems rather smitten with him,” May smiled from the other side as she too wrapped her arm around my middle.
I realized at that moment how utterly unreal this day had become:
A massive and unexpected explosion.
An apparent heavenly intervention.
Now I’m standing in a yard with two women I care for in an embrace, as my daughter is playing kissy face on her boyfriend not three feet in front of me.
Times have sure changed as of late, but I still had a nagging question that kept rattling around in my head.
What’s next?
Chapter 58
September 23, 1999
Son of a bitch!
Bill couldn’t believe his eyes!
He had been watching the TV coverage of the explosion at the Forrester estate with high hopes.
His anticipation had been cruelly dashed however when the onsite reporter had just conducted an interview with the survivors of the explosion!
Early reports had indicated that there had been several casualties, but the current report had revealed that there was only one.
Yet to be identified, Bill was certain that the mentioned victim was indeed Hector.
At least that part was according to plan.
Bill had arranged for most of the materials needed for the bomb, directing Hector to a storage complex to retrieve them. One of the most important pieces of the bomb was, of course, the timing device.
In Bill’s eyes, Hector’s usefulness had run its course. Telling the hapless assassin that the timer would give him a full minute to get away, in actuality it only gave him a mere twenty seconds.
Bill giggled at the thought of Hector’s surprised look when he realized he was dead. His glee was short-lived however when his mind wandered back to the survivors of the explosion.
The survivors that still needed killing!
“Son of a bitch!” he screamed to his empty house.
Chapter 59
September 24, 1999
“Just which part of this calamity was it that you thought you had control over?” Allen Vanguard asked quietly while staring out the window behind his desk. “Was it the house getting destroyed, or the fact that you survived being blown into a tree?”
Unclasping his hands from behind him, Allen turned and flopped down into his chair, staring unbelievingly at me as I sat silently across from him.
“How did you get out of that car anyway?”
Allen had been unusually quiet at Raven’s house yesterday during the investigation, but I could tell he was seething inside.
And I didn’t blame him.
“Just luck I guess,” I mumbled, rubbing the back of my neck as the heat returned.
“Lucky my ass!” Allen jibed, “Lucky would be escaping with your life, not completely unscathed. And since when did you start driving a Road Runner?”
I shrugged, trying to think of something to say to move the subject of conversation off of this point.
“Look Allen, I admit we were unprepared for anything like this. But in our defense…who would have thought they would have tried anything this grandiose? Everything they had done to this point involved a single assassin going after a single victim.”
Allen picked up a picture, grimacing at the sight of the man plastered to the tree.
“You won’t have to worry about him anymore at least,” he deadpanned before flicking the picture back onto his desk.
The driver of the van had yet to be identified, the few fingerprints they had been able to obtain not being in the system. DNA would take awhile, but I had little hope that they would reveal an identity. Hired assassins were the most valuable when they couldn’t be traced.
“We need everything you have on this investigation now Gabriel,” Allen said determinedly, “You have no choice in the matter anymore. We know who your clients are now, and these perp’s are now posing a threat to everyone in the county…and beyond. Without your full cooperation from here on out, I’ll be forced to throw you in jail for…I don’t know what. I’ll think of something!”
I nodded in agreement; I was no longer able to come up with a good reason to keep him out of the investigation.
“I’ll have Abby get everything to you. Who will we be working with?”
“The Major Crimes Taskforce will be assigned the case, but I will have Nate be your contact for coordinating with them. I trust you won’t be keeping anything from Abby’s boyfriend?”
“Nope,” I said in resignation, “We’ll be good.”
Nodding, Allen slid a legal pad closer to himself on his desk.
“I assume that you believe there is someone else involved in this case…besides the scarecrow in the picture?”
“Yes, we had just come up with a couple of names before all of this happened. We are assuming that they are all aliases of the same person.”
“To what end is this guy supposedly having people killed,” Allen asked thoughtfully as he stared at the paper. “What is he getting out of it?”
“We don’t know,” I answered truthfully.
“You don’t know?” Allen looked up, disbelief on his face.
“Not for sure,” I responded, “But we believe it revolves around a financial trust that at least two of the victims have had. Both Calvin Forrester and Tom Lassiter had in their possession copies of a leather-bound book containing Trust documents. May Lassiter and Abby have been working through them for a few days now, but they are full of some high-powered legal gibberish.”
“Books you say?” Allen said over his reading glasses with confusion.
“Yes, books titled ICOD…In Case of Death.”
Allen stared at me for a few seconds as he digested the information.
“I may be able to help with the legal gibberish at least,” he sighed as his eyes went back down to his notes.
“Anything else I need to know?” Allen asked then.
I shrugged, “Not that I can easily explain in words, I’ll have Abby get you what we’ve got this afternoon.”
Nodding in understanding…or maybe not trusting my answer, he waved toward the door, indicating the meeting was over.
Being used to Allan’s penchant for dismissing people without a second thought, I rose from my chair and headed for the door.
“Gabe,” he said suddenly as if forgetting something.
“Yeah Allen?” I asked as I turned to find him still going over his notes.
“We’ve missed you around here.”
I stared at him for a few lingering seconds as I thought back on our lifelong friendship. Giving no further indication that he wanted to talk, I turned back toward the door and continued on my way.
; Exiting the office, Ellen handed me a folded note as I passed, seemingly not even looking up to notice my approach.
“What’s this?” I questioned, unfolding the note and finding a telephone number.
“That’s my number,” she said softly, a warm smile on her face. “In case you ever get…lonely, or need a friend…or a date for that matter.”
I blushed at the gesture, nodding my head and thanking her before sticking her number in my shirt pocket and proceeding out of the building.
Just what I need, I mumbled under my breath.
Chapter 60
September 25, 1999
I suddenly found myself sitting on a stone wall in Miller’s Meadow, a tear working its way down my face as my heart breaks. I was mad at myself for being so stupid…for falling so hard for her, unable to see the deception right under my nose.
Her arm wrapped around my waist, comforting me as my body shuddered involuntarily. Putting her head on my shoulder, I feel a tear seep through from her eye and into my soul.
It’s comforting, and my heart jumped a little…the first time in days. It’s May who is with me now, but it is Raven I am heartbroken over.
I finally recognize that I am reliving a moment from when Raven unceremoniously dumped me in college. May had taken me for a walk out to Miller’s Meadow as she tried to help me through it.
I reached around with my other hand and placed it on the side of her face, gently hugging it against my shoulder as I let out a shuddering breath.
“Thanks kid,” I whispered as I felt the love of my best friend warmly beside me, “You’re the best!”
“I’ll always be here for you Gabe…you know that.”
I nod sadly, my voice catching in my throat before I can answer.
“I know, but I bet you never thought I would use up all of your time with my continually shitty love life!”
May giggled, “You have no more failures than any of us Gabe…remember Jason?”
I nodded; Jason Applegate was a frat boy at May’s college that she thought she was in love with. It turned out that May was one of six girls that he was wooing simultaneously. I assumed that it wasn’t seven because he needed a day off during the week to recuperate.
