“That’s good. And what about your social life?”
Kay laughed. “What social life? I’m a mommy twenty-four/seven.”
Chuck frowned. “You’re a person, too. You need to take care of your own needs as well as Jamie’s. We’ve talked about this before, Kay. You need to fit into this life. It helps you be invisible. You need to go out to the movies, dinner, whatever girls do. And who knows, you may even find a man you like.”
Kay shook her head. “I just don’t have much time. I’m still going to the Karate Palace three times a week and the gun range once a week, then between my work and taking care of Jamie, there’s not much time left.”
“Make time. Trust me on this. You need to live a well-rounded life. This is going on and on and on. I’ve seen how this works and I’ve talked to the other Marshals. Whenever we lose someone, invariably we can trace it back to the same reason. They become so depressed with their life, there comes that one day they can’t force themselves to follow the procedures. And the predators are out there watching, waiting, ready to swoop in when they see a chance. Don’t ever forget that, Kay. They’re still out there.”
Kay sat still watching him. She shuddered, then seemed to regain her balance, saying sardonically, “So, let me get this straight. If I don’t find a boyfriend, or I don’t go out with the girls, they’re going to catch me?”
Chuck glared at her. Then she saw a little quirk at the corner of his mouth. He couldn’t stop himself. He chuckled. “Okay, okay maybe I got a little revved up there, but you know what I’m saying. I really just wanted to point out that you’re in this for the long haul and you have to live your life that way. It’s the only way to fit in.”
Kay nodded. “I know. Really, I do. I’ll promise to keep my eyes open and look for opportunities to make connections.” She laughed a little, and then proceeded to tell him about the new instructor at the Karate Palace. “What you don’t understand is in a little town like Applecorners, whenever a new eligible man appears every woman in town rises to the occasion. Not just the available women, all the women. The competition is keen and frankly, I hardly think I could get to the head of the pack, even if I was trying.”
“Mom, hey Mom, can Harley and I have a cookie?” Jamie skidded into the room with a bounding dog at his heels. “And a drink?”
Kay got to her feet. “I don’t have any dog cookies, Jamie, but we can give you both a drink of water.”
Chuck reached down into his briefcase again. “Here, I happen to have a couple of dog cookies, right here.”
Jamie grabbed them and followed his mother into the kitchen. “Mom, you should see how good Harley is at catching the ball. And he can really run fast, can’t you, Harley?” He patted the dog on the head and then handed him a dog biscuit.
“Chuck, can you stay for dinner? I’ll order in a super pizza, just like you love.”
“Oh, Chuck, can you? Please stay.” Jamie grabbed Chuck’s hand, pulling on it.
“Why do I think you have ulterior motives for wanting me to stay, Jamie?”
Jamie looked sheepish. “Well, I know Harley would like to stay a while longer, wouldn’t you, Harley?” The dog pranced around the boy, nudging him with his nose.
“I guess I have time, and pizza sounds mighty good to me.”
It was a pleasant dinner. Chuck had become a good friend over the years, perhaps because he was the only one who knew Kay’s story. And even though they seldom discussed it, they both understood where she was coming from and the difficulty she had getting through each day.
“How’s your family, Kay? Everything okay with them?”
Kay nodded. “I miss them terribly, but I know it was my decision and somehow knowing that keeps me sane. I just pretend I’m living across the country from them, as I was before. I don’t know how I’d survive if Langley hadn’t agreed to relay my emails so we can stay in touch. They all love getting the photos of Jamie I attach, so they can see how big he’s getting.”
Jamie looked up. “I’m almost four. When I turn four I’m going to be one of the big kids.”
His mother nodded. “That’s right. Four year olds are the big kids at the preschool Jamie goes too. He’ll be going three days a week next fall.”
Jamie nodded with pride.
When the last slice of the pizza was gone, and Jamie had fed all the discarded crusts to Harley, Kay went into the kitchen to make some coffee and clean up while Chuck showed Jamie some of the tricks Harley knew.
Kay was pleased Chuck had stayed. She and Jamie enjoyed company and except for the babysitters, they rarely had company. Chuck was right. She needed to expand her social life a little. Perhaps she should invite people over occasionally. She had purposely tried to maintain a distance from people because she was so conscious of how dangerous a friendship with her could be. She really didn’t want to be the reason someone she knew was killed or hurt, because they inadvertently got in the way. But maybe she was being too strict. Perhaps it was safe enough now to relax a little.
She saw out the kitchen window the neighbor putting out her trash and waved. She had remembered the Murphy’s, Claire’ neighbors in Bayside, and soon after she moved in she introduced herself to all the neighbors. And once in a while she talked to them over the fence. It had been easy to explain Chuck’s occasional visits. He had told her to tell curious people he was her cousin, but Kay didn’t think they would buy that explanation considering Chuck was a big, black man with a fierce looking moustache. He was the kind of man if you met him on a dark street, you would probably cross the street to put a little space between you. No way would people believe he was related to Kay without a long explanation of the family connections. So she had merely said he was her boss and would appear occasionally to review her work and bring her new accounts. That seemed to be acceptable even in a small town like Applecorners.
When she went back into the living room she could see how tired Jamie was. “Time for bed, Jamie.”
“Oh Mom, can’t I stay up a little longer? Harley and I are having so much fun. Couldn’t he stay here tonight?” Jamie looked so hopeful that Kay swiveled her eyes to Harley, who was also looking at her with a soulful expression. She moved her eyes to Chuck who didn’t even pretend to be neutral.
“Jamie, we aren’t prepared to have a dog as a guest. We don’t have the food or anything he needs to be comfortable...,” she started.
Chuck shook his head slightly. “Well, I happen to have some things in the trunk of the car.”
Kay felt a wave of irritation wash over her, then she let go and laughed. “Of course you do. Okay, let’s give it a try. But I’m warning all of you, I’m doing this because I can see what a gentleman Harley is, and I think he can probably teach us some manners. But, Jamie, you’re going to have to take very good care of Harley. Do you understand that?”
“Oh, Mom, I will. I promise.” He threw his arms around Harley’s neck and hugged him joyously. “Harley, Mom says you can stay here. And it’s time to go to bed. Come on, you can sleep with me.” And they were both running toward Jamie’s bedroom before Kay could protest.
Chuck shrugged. “As I said, boys and dogs just seem to go together. I’ll just slip out to the car and bring those things in.”
CHAPTER 35
I watched the visitors at the Vietnam Memorial as I passed. I’ve seen it all many times so I was no longer interested in the emotion of the visitors who were confronting their issues at the wall. Instead I scanned the crowd looking for the man I was there to meet. I had selected this place for the meeting because the large number of eclectic people who always congregated here made it easy to be invisible. I followed the path past the area where the names and their wall locations were listed, past the memorial for the women of the Vietnam War, down a path bordered on both sides with benches placed under the overhang of trees. There he was. Four benches down, he sat on the otherwise empty bench.
He was a smallish man. His sharp facial features gave him a mean look. But of course
, I didn’t expect to find a saintly looking man willing to do what I was paying him to do. I never expected to be friends with the man. I was just hoping he was able to succeed where Hampton had failed.
I casually sat down on the other end of the bench, not even glancing his way. I could see from the corner of my eye he showed no interest in me either. We both sat there quietly watching the people passing and letting our eyes roam over the other people sitting in the area. After a few minutes of waiting, when there didn’t seem to be any interest in either of us by anyone in the vicinity, he spoke very softly, still not looking at me.
“The hacker I used was finally able to trace an email from the bookstore, but unfortunately, it was sent to a website located at Langley.”
“Langley? The CIA?” I was so surprised at that news I barely stopped myself before I turned towards him to clarify his statement. “Are you sure it was an email addressed to Karen? Hampton told me her father had connections to Langley. Perhaps it was some business of his?”
“No, it wasn’t the father. The email was addressed to a Kay Ricard. I have a copy of the text for you.” He surreptitiously placed a folded piece of paper on the bench seat between us.
I reached out and snatched it, unfolding it to scan the contents. He was right. This was obviously a message to Karen from the woman who owned the bookstore. Kay Ricard must be the name Karen was now using. There was nothing in the message that hinted as to where Karen and the child were, but it was obvious she was no longer in the San Francisco Bay area.
“I suspect she’s been placed on some program and given this identity to keep her safe.”
“Why would they do that?”
His reply was a bit more caustic than necessary. “Well, I suppose that shoot out Hampton’s men had in that little town in California got everyone’s attention.”
I didn’t think the sarcasm was called for, but I let it go, knowing he had made it plain he thought Hampton’s handling of the situation had only made things more difficult for him to complete the assignment. And I was hoping he would finally get me the results I needed.
“The local police, the San Francisco police, the FBI and the CIA are still looking for answers. It’s not the kind of place where people are likely to forget what happened. And when the populace is stirred up like that, they keep bugging the police for answers. And don’t forget the bookshop woman and Karen’s father still live there, even though there’s been no sight of Karen or the baby since shortly after the incident happened. People don’t know, or aren’t saying, where they went. That’s why I’m assuming they’ve joined the Witness Protection Program.”
“But, she’s not a witness!” I couldn’t believe it. Could it be that my own tax dollars were paying to hide her from me?
He shrugged, still looking off in the distance. “She’d need a new identity, new papers to stay hidden and it’s not so easy to get those these days. My guess is that upstanding citizens like they appear to be wouldn’t want to buy illegal papers on the black market. And with the father’s pull, they probably got the California State’s Attorney General to request assistance from the U.S. Marshals. Of course, that’s only my guess.”
I felt a burning in my stomach. This was an unexpected complication. I had to think this whole problem through once more. I was angry at Scott all over again for creating this mess. When Hampton came to me all those years ago with the photos and the information about the cutie Scott was playing around with in New York I was angry enough to jettison him then. But after considering the effort we had already invested in that relationship, and the results we were looking forward to, I decided it made more sense to stick with him. And it looked like it would work. At least until I learned about the pregnancy.
Too many candidates on the road to presidency had been derailed when scandals involving them in extramarital affairs were revealed. And Scott’s was not just an extramarital affair, there was a child involved. The voting public was not likely to forgive Scott for that.
It was clear to me the girl and baby needed to be removed to protect our plan. It could have been easy. It should have been easy except one solution after another had failed. And even now the woman had managed to escape all my efforts to rid us of her. It took me a long while after Hampton’s death to find someone able and willing to provide me with the services I needed. It’s not like you can just put a help wanted ad in the newspapers. And while I was searching for that perfect person, time kept marching on.
Even as I sat on this bench, the campaign manager we hired was drawing up plans to launch Scott’s presidential campaign. I didn’t think it was possible for Scott to actively pursue the nomination for presidency and still avoid being seen and identified by Karen. She would certainly recognize him as Scott Hutchins, the man who had fathered her child. I wondered if maybe she had been scared enough by the past attempts on her life to be afraid to call attention to herself by telling her story.
If only she was, I thought.
Fat chance!
No, that solution was too remote to risk. Time was running away from us. Fizzor needed to conclude this business for me soon. “Do you have any thoughts about the next step?”
He stared off into the distance, a little smile playing confidently around his lips. “As a matter of fact, I do. I’ve talked to my hacker about him fabricating an email, supposedly from the bookstore, and sending it to the address at Langley. It would carry an innocuous message and it would hide a worm he could design. When the message is forwarded to Karen, the worm imbedded in the message would activate itself and send back the location of its final destination. That way the hacker could identify the address of the receiving terminal
“Of course, there is a serious risk in this scheme. Langley has superior fire walls for protection, their people are experts at bug and worm detection, but if my guy is as clever as I think he is, the worm might get by their scrutiny. Especially if they think it’s coming from the woman at the bookstore who has been sending them innocent messages for the past few years. They may not even examine them closely by now.”
My heart started beating with a glimmer of excitement. I wondered if it was possible this could work? I threw caution to the wind and turned to Fizzor asking, “How risky is this?”
“Very risky for me and my hacker, but probably not at all for you, personally. If they identify the worm it could expose my hacker. If he gets caught, he faces a long prison term. He’s liable to turn me in to negotiate better terms for himself. So, naturally, if you want us to pursue this solution it’s going to cost you plenty. My guy knows the risk, as well as I do. He’s already said he isn’t going to take that kind of risk for nothing. But, if anyone can do it, it will be him.”
I thought some more. How much was being the puppet master to the president worth? I felt a smile tugging at my mouth. It was really just an investment decision. The risks were there, but the rewards could be off the charts.
“Do it!”
Then after a moment of silence, I added, “How long do you think this will take?”
He shrugged. “For sure a few weeks, maybe a month. I’ll be in touch. Expect instructions about where to wire the funds as we’ll want a sizeable advance. The rest can be paid at the end. Is that acceptable?”
I nodded curtly and left the bench to head back towards the Wall, and beyond to the parking lot where I left my car. I couldn’t keep the little spring out of my steps. At last this problem was going to be resolved.
CHAPTER 36
When Jack let himself into Gulliver’s through the front door both Tuffy-Two and Thoreau immediately came to greet him. The clerk at the cash register looked up from the customer he was helping to nod, and indicated with his head Claire was in the back. Jack wandered back, noticing with satisfaction the number of browsers in the store. People were preparing for vacation travel, so of course they needed information about their destinations. Last year he and Claire had debated the wisdom of continuing to stay open late during the week. It was a se
lfish issue really. It seemed he and Claire always struggled with managing their schedules so they could spend as much time together as possible. They didn’t like that his job allowed him to be mostly free in the evenings and her shop hours required she work. They finally solved their problem by keeping the shop open until nine weekdays, but Claire balanced out the store receipts at five-thirty, leaving only minimal money in the register for the two clerks to use and lock away later. That meant customers of the neighborhood restaurants could shop after their dinner, and Claire could still go home with Jack when the train let him off only a couple blocks from the store.
He poked his head in the office and blew a kiss to Claire before going out to the garden to clean up a bit. The garden was definitely a customer pleaser. Jack took it upon himself to make sure it was neat and tidy whenever he was at the store to save Claire any extra work. Today he straightened the chairs, and threw away a couple of empty bottles. When he went around the corner to the dog run that Tuffy-Two and Thoreau used for their needs, he cleaned up after them. He took one last turn around and then went back to see how long before Claire was ready to go home.
“I’m ready. Go ahead and start the car. I’ll be right there.”
“Okay, guys, time to go home.” He headed for the door with the dog and the cat trotting right behind him. The old blue SUV had been replaced a year ago with a new dark red SUV and it was parked only a couple of spaces down from the door. Both the dog and the cat waited for him to open the car door for them, then Thoreau sprang up with ease while Tuffy-Two waited for a boost. This car was a little too high for his short legs to easily navigate.
The animals and Claire were all strapped in their seats before the air-conditioning had even replaced the hot air trapped in the car with fresh cool air. And they were home and parked in the driveway in a matter of minutes.
Claire Gulliver #06 - Carnage Goes Coastal Page 17
