The Case

by Lee Cunningham

  As he drifted into a deep sleep, Patrick Beckett began to take shape and beckoned to Shane from the recesses of old memories mingled with a fresh dream. Patrick drove down the sunny, coastal highway in the T-Bird, as his young son questioned him about life, and the absence of fairness and justice in the world. Patrick smiled at Shane and said, “Son, the success or failure of fairness and justice in any society, is dependent on the goals and ambitions of those in charge.”

  As Shane was drifting further in to a deep sleep, another man, a few miles away, lay in a motel bed going over his plan for the next day’s events. And he, too, knew exactly what he had to do.

  6

  “Coffee in England always tastes like a chemistry experiment.”

  (Agatha Christie)

  Shane saw the glow of a campfire far off in the distance, as he made his way down the last mile of trail, from the mountain pass to the “valley of the river.” The annual trek to this fishing spot had become a summer tradition for Heath, Shane, their dad, Uncle Pete, and a few close friends. It was the last full week in August, before school started. The fishing was good, the nights cool, and the last summer days hot, and perfect for swimming in the deepest holes of the small river. Cool water bathed hot bodies in refreshing waves of outdoor heaven, after a long day of hiking and fishing in the alpine sun. The annual trip was a summer highlight for everyone.

  Shane’s dad, Patrick Beckett, always remarked on the trip, “After a long, hot day, a cold swim in a clear mountain pool rejuvenates the soul.” He made this same declaration each year, as the familiar group of family and friends sat around the campfire after the evening swim, just before dark. This was one of many valued traditions born over the years, on this most special trip that began when Shane was a small child.

  At the nightly campfire, his dad’s close friend Kent Murray, a DEA agent, always sat to his dad’s right, and Pete always sat on the left, making it difficult for Shane to sit and talk to his dad. Having just arrived at camp from fishing, Shane thought he would wait until one of them got up, and he could take their place to sit next to his own father. After all, it should be his special place, sitting next to the man he idolized.

  Shane waited patiently, standing silently behind his dad. Kent suddenly stood up and walked to a camp table where the scotch and glasses were waiting. Shane had carried two bottles of the scotch up in his back pack, as that was his trusted assignment each year. He did so proudly, and always received appreciated praise from the fellow campers as the scotch was unpacked. After all, the liquid in glass was heavy, and it proved he was both trusted and strong, he thought.

  Shane was just about to sit down by the fire next to his dad, to ask him the question that had been bothering him, when he heard, “Shane, we need to get up, honey.”

  The scene began to fade quickly. Shane still needed to ask the important question, so he tried to hold on to the scene. But, try as he might to embrace one more second and glimpse of his father, the voice was persistent. “Shane, honey, are you awake?”

  Shane opened his eyes to see Kate, and for a split second was sad to see her instead of his father. He didn’t have the chance to speak to him in the dream, and he urgently wanted to talk to his father. Shane missed his dad, and knew he was the one person who could fill in the blanks, and help him right the wrongs in the lives of these two united families.

  “Two families merged into one by a terrible set of murders that destroyed lives and changed a normal history,” Shane thought out loud. “I still need to ask the question!”

  “Shane?” Kate shook him by the shoulder in an attempt to make sure he was awake.

  Shane looked at Kate and smiled. “Just a dream, but I seem to be having more of them lately.”

  Kate gave him a look of concern. “How long have you been having these dreams?” Shane looked down at the sheets, as if searching for the answer hidden in the thread count.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said, without emotion, throwing up a flimsy temporary barrier he immediately realized Kate saw through.

  “Shane, that won’t work for us, if there is to be a lasting us. We need to grow through everything together, and become stronger everyday. I can’t have the relationship I need with you, if you don’t trust me enough to let me inside your pain and concerns, as well as your joy.”

  Shane let out a sigh of humiliation. “I know you’re right. I really do know you’re right,” he persisted when she cocked her head at him. “It’s a learning experience for me. I haven’t had this close of a relationship since my mom and dad, except for Heath, Pete and Claire. Three of them are dead, one went off the deep end and ended up in prison, and Pete and I drifted apart a little when I began working in police work. I have spent so much time alone. I hope you can forgive me. You deserve so much more than that. I’ll try harder.”

  Kate flashed a smile that lit up Shane’s heart. Then with a quick, but soft, rap on his shoulder with her fist, she said, “Then let’s try it again, mister, the right way…our way.” She leaned in and kissed Shane softly, tenderly, passionately. When she pulled back slowly, and waited for an answer, Shane continued.

  “I started dreaming about mom and dad about a year after they died. In the next few years, the dreams became more vivid, more alarming, really. There were nights when I spent hours just running, trying to prevent their inevitable deaths. Other nights, I was fighting with shadowy figures that kept coming at us, over and over again, regardless of how hard or long I fought. I would wake up in sheets soaked with sweat.”

  “I began speaking in a foreign language. Claire and Pete would come in and sit in the room, listening, trying to figure out what I was saying, hoping to learn how to help. Sometimes they would ask me a question, and instead of answering, I would repeat the statement I had just made, in a strange language they could never identify. The more they asked, the more I became irritated, until finally, they would remain silent or wake me. If they did wake me, I was even more irritated, and tried to go back to sleep and back to the fight.”

  “When I would wake up after an all-night ordeal, with sweat-soaked sheets, I would be so exhausted, Claire would change the sheets and let me go back to sleep to get some rest. After a few years, they were half convinced I was battling some evil demonic force. Claire and Pete were so concerned that they sought a physician’s advice. He advised them to let me continue on my own and work through the dreams. The dreams lasted for a few years, but, during that time, became less frequent and of shorter duration and intensity.”

  Shane looked up at Kate, who was expressing wide-eyed concern. “Sounds kind of spooky, I know, but it was so real. Sometimes I could remember the dreams for days, but never clearly enough to give me a clue as to what forces I was really fighting. I never won, but I never lost…I just kept on fighting...running and fighting…never winning or losing!”

  “Heath could sleep like a baby every night, but not me. Its just part of the curse of being me, I guess. The funny thing is, the dreams had subsided until recently. I was only having them every few months or so. With all the rapid changes in my life, I guess they have accelerated again.”

  “And now, a lot of them are not about fighting. It’s more like I’m just trying to make contact with my dad to ask for advice. Yet, I know as well as I know I love you, I know that there is something, some clue in these dreams that I just keep missing.” Shane looked into the eyes that calmed him, reassured him, and gave him hope.

  Kate picked up Shane’s hand in her two hands and studied it, as if she were reading his palm. She closed her eyes and spoke remotely, as though to someone else. “I love this man, and I pray that he will find peace, with me, and with our future. I have never wanted anything more than this. I tell you this because you have known my prayers and dreams all my life, and you know this to be true.”

  Kate softly kissed Shane’s hand, caressing the calluses grown from lifting weights, vaulting fences and jumping into trees at night. Kate kissed each of the small scars born from the wou
nds of countless days of training and missions past. Then she kissed the partially healed small wound the strong right hand had suffered during this assignment, as if her kisses had special healing powers.

  Shane sat mesmerized, looking at the cut on his hand when she pulled away, almost expecting it to be completely healed. She then took the injured hand and placed it against her soft cheek, pressing it tightly into her face, as she again closed her eyes. She rubbed it slowly against her face, as though she could take any pain and roughness away, leaving just tender, unwounded skin in its place.

  Shane had learned that Kate was sensitive to his needs, independent when she needed to be, understanding of his emotions, desiring him and only him. Most importantly, she was not self-absorbed, like so many women he had known. Having this relationship with him was more important to Kate than anything she could attain alone. She thought like he did, had values like he did, and loved like he did. Yet she maintained an independent and strong nature, not at odds with him, not striving to be in front or behind in life, but rather, to be a true partner, side by side.

  “What a rare find in a sea of people, and what a gift,” he marveled.

  For her part, Kate was ready to sacrifice anything necessary to protect family, and now that included Shane. And, while it seemed to Shane that God Himself, had taken time from His busy schedule to design the perfect woman specifically for him, to Kate it seemed that God had placed Shane in her life at the right time, in answer to her prayers.

  In truth, the right set of circumstances had come together, under many different pressures, to allow the new lovers to grow their relationship and lean on each other for what they both expected would come…a long and protracted battle against evil. And now, the time was right, and they were ready for each other’s love.

  Both Kate and Shane knew that, at this point in their lives, they were ready enough and experienced enough to not waste their one chance at true love. Shane leaned down and gently kissed the top of Kate’s gorgeous head, drawing her to him tightly with his free hand. They held each other until there was a fast knock on the door.

  “Shane…Kate! Sorry for the interruption, but I need to speak to you. It’s important.” It was Pete’s voice coming from the other side of the door.

  “I haven’t heard that much concern in Pete’s voice since Claire was sick,” Shane whispered to Kate. “We’ll be right there, Pete,” Shane called, as he and Kate threw on robes. Shane half ran to the door.

  But when he opened the bedroom door, Shane was greeted by Pete, Lee and Walter. They rushed through the doorway, in unison, seemingly pulled in by some invisible force. Lee slammed the door behind them.

  Pete placed his finger to his lips to indicate no talking, as he said loudly, “So do you know whose birthday you forgot?” Without waiting for an answer, Pete said, “No… I didn’t think you’d remember.” Kate and Shane stood, confused, searching the three new faces in their room, waiting for some explanation, as both complied with the request for silence.

  Pete launched into a bogus story about a fictitious distant relative who was having her 80th birthday today, and who would be crushed if Shane didn’t call her. While Walter stood with his finger over his lips to reinforce the request for silence, Lee scurried about with a “bug finder.” Lee swept every nook and cranny in the bedroom suite and bathroom, including the closets and all the clothing, and finally Kate and Shane themselves.

  Then, with Pete droning on about the fictitious person’s life (she had become Shane’s great-aunt by now), Lee re-swept the room, with another electronic device retrieved from a case he had brought into the room. Kate and Shane stood watching, honoring the silence, until Lee gave the all-clear sign with a thumb’s-up.

  Lee spun around quickly, and said to Shane and Kate, “We have a problem.”

  “This family? A problem? No!” Shane said sarcastically, with a wry smile.

  Lee continued, “You had a delivery today at your old apartment. The surveillance team picked it up directly from the UPS driver, who was going to leave the package at the manager’s apartment. The team took the box to a field near the apartments where Jesse met them and used his sweepers to check for explosives. He x-rayed the package with his portable unit, and found an electronic device inside. When he placed his audio enhancer on the package, he heard a ticking. The software discerned that the ticking was a digitally-created sound. Further inspection revealed there was no bomb.”

  Kate and Shane relaxed, releasing a little tension.

  “I gave the go-ahead to Jesse to open the package as soon as I arrived. Once I was at the field, I made sure I was the only other person in the area with Jesse at the time…no sense in too many people being injured, if we were wrong,” Lee smiled.

  Shane returned the smile, recognizing and appreciating swift, decisive, unselfish action and leadership. He was beginning to admire Lee.

  Lee continued, “The device is a 10-inch computer, containing two files on the hard drive. One is a dossier on Undersheriff Brian Grant, and the other is a timer, with the audible digital ticking, set to count down to 2:00 PM today. Jesse is digesting the entire file on Grant right now, but it doesn’t look good. So far, we have discovered that, according to the file, Grant is working for someone connected to the Magadinnos, and we have a mole here in my unit reporting to Grant.”

  “I cleared the house of my staff. They are all out doing counter surveillance, or grounds and exterior building sweeps, with Jesse’s staff. They have not been told about the computer. For now, we have to assume that the Magadinnos know everything we know.”

  Lee suddenly sat down on the bed like he had lost his strength. Then, realizing he was sitting on someone else’s bed while they were dressed only in robes, he stood up quickly, and said, “Sorry, I’m a little preoccupied. The best thing is for you to replace me immediately, with another security company. I can give you some excellent references, and you can have new men here in 24-48 hours. The mole will have to go when I go.”

  Pete and Walter nodded in agreement. Kate walked slowly to a window, and stared out in thought.

  “No, no, no…this is perfect,” Shane said quickly. “What a blessing in disguise.”

  Walter and Pete looked at each other in disbelief. Lee searched Shane’s face for an answer, not knowing what to expect. Shane continued, pacing slowly in a circular motion around the room, as the plan formulated in his head.

  “We have a way to communicate directly to the Magadinno’s contact, and maybe the Magadinnos themselves, without them knowing they are receiving the information we want them to have. As long as they think their spy is intact, we can feed them disinformation they will automatically believe. And then, we will have someone working on the inside of both the Magadinnos and our own forces, feeding them misinformation. We can use this setup to protect ourselves!”

  “All we need to do is keep a few of us, who are beyond suspicion, in the loop with all the correct information, and let some disinformation go out to our entire force, bit by bit, knowing it will find its way to Brian Grant and his contacts. While we slow everything down, we’ll focus on identifying our mole, by changing the information we share with each person. We can also work on discovering the identity of our friend on the outside. If we can keep everything in place long enough, we’ll have a double advantage over the people who now believe they have the upper hand over us.”

  A slow smile formed and then broadened on Lee Sprague’s face, while Shane explained his plan. He was no longer the dejected man who believed he had failed an important client and friend.

  Lee now joined Shane’s excitement. “Shane’s right! We can feed selective facts to segments of our own forces until we find the mole when the specific fact comes back to us from the other side. We’ll have to start with a list of our own people who are above suspicion. Each day, we’ll pick a handful of the others and release the key information. Then we monitor whether it goes to Grant or the Magadinnos, so we can narrow the field until we have our man.�
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  “We have another important twist to consider,” Shane said. “Obviously, the Magadinnos aren’t receiving all the information. They are still talking business in Franky’s house, where my bugs and cameras are planted, and Hector is still using the phone I provided, for business. We have confirmed their plans with surveillance, so they must not know we are watching and listening.”

  “Just yesterday, we monitored Hector overseeing a meth shipment our surveillance team video taped. The mole and Brian Grant aren’t giving all the information to the Magadinnos, so who are the mole and Brian really working for? What game is someone playing, and who are all the players?”

  Kate was still gazing out the window at the Sierra Nevada mountain range, as she often did when in deep thought. Her excitement had built with Lee’s and Shane’s, but no one had noticed. When she could contain herself no more, she turned back to the room, excitedly.

  “This is even more perfect than we thought! If the mole is working for Brian Grant, then the information is going to Brian and someone else. If the Magadinnos knew that Grant was holding out on them, then Grant would be dead…and could be dead in the future, if they were to find out.”

  Now Kate walked slowly toward Shane, her thoughts unfolding as she spoke. “If Brian is a bad guy, working against us for someone else, then the Magadinnos will eventually find out, and he will be taken care of the hard way. But you have to wonder what his end game is, and who he is working for…or, more importantly, what he is working toward to take such risk with these killers. Maybe he and the mole are holding all the information between them, until the time is right for them to use it for some other personal gain.”

  She continued. “Why would you be connected to the Magadinnos and holding out on them, at the risk of death?”

  Before anyone else could respond, Kate answered her own hypothetical question. “Because you’re trying to use the information to take the Magadinnos down, so you could control them, or you need to put someone else in place. It’s the only logical motive.”