Witness Protection: Hide and Seek

by Dukes, Ursula

  I want Madison West, along with anybody else who's there, to come out of this alive, you got that? I want that woman to suffer to her last breath and I want to be there when it happens. Is that understood?"

  Manny nodded his head. "Understood boss."

  Anyway, when you're finished there, I want you to head back here to pick me up. No matter where she goes, from now on I want to follow her. It's time to heat things up a bit, and I want tonight to be just a sample of all that is to come."

  ****

  Manny could hardly contain himself when he got Castillo on the phone.

  "The folks who live there boss are Mr. and Mrs. Hank Morrison. Asked around and a neighbor told me that they're celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary tonight. What do you want us to do boss?"

  "So, she's going back to her old haunts I take it. If she thinks that after three years, I've forgotten about her, she must be stupider than I thought. Listen, here's what I want you to do…"

  Castillo quickly explained his plan to Manny and by the time he was finished, Manny told him that the party was winding down and some of the guests were leaving.

  "That's even better. Now put me on speaker, I need Carlos and Reggie in on this too."

  After the instructions were given out, Castillo demanded that Manny call him.

  "Now go take care of business and remember, call me the moment it's done."

  Castillo grinned in anticipation of what was about to happen. He could hardly contain himself. He only wished that he could be there to see the look on Madison's face. "All in due time," he whispered. "All in due time."

  ****

  As the party dwindled, Madison sat on the back deck talking to Hank, Deputy Faith, his wife Jessica, and Cole. Donna was inside the house, wrapping up plates of food for her remaining guests to bring home. When Hank asked her to join them, she refused. She told him that it had been hours since she'd had a moment to herself and now welcomed the solitude of the quiet kitchen.

  It was dark out and soft outdoor lighting illuminated the sourwood trees in the backyard. Madison purposely sat down between Hank and Jessica. She feared that sitting any closer to Cole would cause her to do something else that she might regret.

  "Madison, we're all happy to see you, but I'm not sure you made the right choice by coming here," Hank said.

  Madison frowned. "If I thought that my coming here would put anyone in danger, I wouldn’t have come. But so far, everything has turned out fine. Besides, Castillo is in prison and his number one guy is in the program, so I would think that if anything, Castillo would want Juan's head on a platter, not mine."

  "What does that feel like? Always having to look over your shoulder?" Jessica asked. She was intrigued by the entire situation. To her, being in the witness protection program was like something out of a movie. But then her husband told her that all was not as it seemed when one enters the program.

  "At first, it was scary, and then it got to be terrifying. But after I was sent to Maine, I felt safer than I ever have." She smiled at her.

  Jessica smiled back. "But isn’t it true that they kicked you out of the program? I mean, why would they do that?" Jessica leaned in closer. "Did you do something wrong?"

  "No, it was nothing like that," Madison chuckled.

  Cole interrupted. "Jessica, when it comes to the government and witness protection, if they really need a guy, they can get away with anything. And in Madison's case, they really needed Juan Hernandez."

  "Yes, but didn’t you witness the guy murdering people?" Jessica looked at Madison.

  Before Madison could respond, Cole spoke for her.

  "Yes she did, but Madison knew nothing of the ins and outs of Castillo's many operations and Hernandez did. And to the government, that took precedence over anything that Madison witnessed."

  "So they just threw you out of the program just like that?" Jessica was flabbergasted. Sure, she was married to a marshal, but she never understood exactly what it was her husband was allowed to do on behalf of the government.

  "Yes they did. When they told me that they were kicking me out of the program, I agreed wholeheartedly. At the time, I was married to a marshal, so I figured, why waste anymore of the government's money you know. Of course I didn't know that he'd be killed…" Her voice trailed off.

  The small group grew quiet then. It was a sobering moment. Jessica closed her eyes and squeezed her husband's hand. He was a marshal too and there wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t pray for his safe return home.

  "I'm so sorry about your husband," Jessica whispered softly.

  Through the soft light, Cole could see that she was upset. The conversation had gotten somber and he was sure that memories of Tristan came flooding back to the surface, which would make her all the more resentful about the kiss they'd shared.

  "Thank you," Madison whispered back.

  ****

  Donna had just finished tidying up the kitchen when there was a knock on the door. She glanced outside and saw that there seemed to be a heavy conversation going on between the group outside.

  Hank had his arm around Madison, Jessica laid her head upon her husband's shoulder, and Cole sat off to the side, alone.

  Donna wiped her hands on a dishtowel before heading to the door.

  "Who is it?" She asked.

  "Sorry, it's a little late, but it's been a very busy day.

  Forgive me miss, but my boss will kill me if I don't get this delivered," said a voice. Whoever it was, their face was concealed by a large bouquet of flowers and several balloons.

  "That husband of mine!" She beamed with excitement as she opened the door.

  Grinning from ear to ear, Donna reached for the flowers and balloons.

  The large man offered her the flowers and balloons and as she reached for them, the man lurched forward and grabbed her by the neck.

  "Get Madison West out of this house and do it now!" The man growled. He pushed her roughly up against the wall before making a hasty retreat.

  Donna felt an unfamiliar, uncomfortable pressure in the middle of her chest. The pain was so intense, that it forced her to stumble back. The vase full of flowers fell from her hands and landed on the floor with a loud crash.

  When he heard the sound of glass breaking, Hank was immediately on his feet. The others followed and found Donna lying on the floor.

  Water, broken flower stems, and glass surrounded her. Six balloons floated aimlessly towards the ceiling.

  "What the hell happened?"

  Hank and Madison rushed to her side. Hank didn’t even wince when a large shard of glass cut into his leg. He stayed on the floor and cradled his wife in his arms, while Madison held her hand.

  Her breathing had become winded as she tried to speak. "Going… after… Madison…"

  "I've called 911!" Jessica shouted out in a panic.

  Cole and Faith took off in search of the attacker.

  ****

  "I'll be there as soon as I can," Madison said to Hank.

  He'd climbed into the ambulance to be next to his wife, while Madison assured him that she would take care of everything.

  Once Cole and Faith were finished talking to the police, they joined Madison and Jessica in the kitchen.

  "Any luck?" Jessica turned to her husband.

  Robert sighed heavily before answering. "No, but I've put in a couple of calls to Riverbend. This whole thing smells like Castillo."

  Madison froze; a small knot of fear began to form in her stomach. Her mouth fell open and she looked from one man to the next in complete disbelief.

  "What? What the hell are you talking about…? Cole?"

  Cole moved closer to her and nodded his head.

  "I'm afraid he's right. Someone in his crew knows you’re here."

  "How can that be? I've spoken to no one but you all. How the hell would anyone know that I was here? This just isn’t making any sense!"

  Her head was spinning now as the realization that Castillo had not forgo
tten about her came to light. He was going to get to her one way or another. He was a patient man, a very patient man. Immediately her thoughts went to Zoe and her grandparents. Thank God they were out of the country. During their last conversation, Zoe told her that they were having a wonderful time and that they'd visited Buckingham Palace. Zoe was even thinking of studying abroad…

  "Madison!" Cole's voice brought her out of her thoughts.

  "I need you to think. Is there anyone, perhaps someone in Maine who knew that you were coming here?"

  "No! These past three years, I haven’t exactly been forthcoming about where I'm going!" She shouted at him.

  "I don’t want to talk about this right now!" She cried.

  Madison grabbed her purse and headed for the door. Cole was hot on her heels.

  "Just where in the hell do you think you're going?"

  "Where do you think? The hospital, now get out of my way!"

  "Oh, no you don’t." Cole grabbed her by the wrist and squeezed until she stopped struggling.

  "Let go of me!"

  "Madison, stop," he said, his tone warning her.

  "Let me go," she said fiercely.

  "I will. Just as soon as you listen to what I have to say. Now you're not going to the hospital alone. I'm going to drive you and before you object, I want you to think about what just happened.

  A woman that you love and look up to has just suffered a mild heart attack because someone who was looking for you, threatened her. Do you really think you ought to be anywhere near the two people that you love, alone and unprotected?"

  He stared at her, his hand still holding her wrist. "Now, is anything getting through to you? Do you understand now?"

  Madison blinked back tears as her anger slowly diminished.

  "Yes." She nodded her head. "I understand."

  "Good." He then turned to face Robert and Jessica.

  "Now you two lock up while I bring her over to the hospital. And Faith if you hear back from anyone, give me a call."

  "Will do Harding."

  "Give Hank and Donna our best!" Jessica shouted after them.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Castillo stared at the GPS tracker. Madison was still at the house in Jackson. He'd expected it to start beeping, notifying him that the target was on the move. But as he looked down at it, there was nothing, not a squeak, blip, nothing.

  "What the hell is going on?" He shouted at Manny. "Didn’t I tell you to call the minute that it was all done?"

  Castillo couldn’t understand a word that was coming out of his mouth. He wasn’t even sure if Manny was speaking the English language. All of his words sounded jumbled.

  Manny had just shoved a handful of fries into his mouth before he answered the phone.

  He swallowed hard and made a gulping sound when he heard Castillo screaming at him on the other end of the line.

  "Sorry boss, we stopped to get something to eat."

  "Did I tell you to stop and get something to eat? Or did I tell you to call me first? Which is it Manny? You incompetent bastard!"

  "Sorry boss."

  When there was a long silence, it took him all the strength he had not to smash the phone to bits.

  "PUTA! I'm waiting! Are you going to tell me what happened or not!" Castillo screamed into the phone. His shouts so loud, Reggie and Carlos could hear him above the music that was playing inside the car.

  Manny licked the ketchup off his fingers and rolled his eyes.

  "It's done boss. We did like you asked. We got the flowers and balloons, and waited until she was alone in the house. I knocked on the door and when she answered, I grabbed her by the neck and told her to get Madison West out of the house and to do it now."

  "Very good," Castillo said and blew out a frustrated sigh.

  "But the tracker has her still inside the house."

  "That's because the old woman had to be rushed to the hospital boss. She's probably sticking around until the old lady recovers."

  "And how do you know all of this?"

  Manny turned around and handed the phone to Carlos. "Hey boss, it's me Carlos. I've got this scanner app on my phone. Anytime you want to listen to police, fire, or ambulance calls, you just punch in the name of the town and it plays any and all calls. I turned it on right after we left Ridgecliff Road and almost immediately, a call came over the wire to send the police and an ambulance over there because of a possible heart attack."

  Castillo was beginning to like technology more and more.

  "Excellent work Carlos, now tell Manny to head back here. We've got a lot more planning to do."

  "Heading back towards you now boss. See you soon."

  ****

  Madison shifted uncomfortably in her seat as they drove to the hospital.

  "Everything is going to be alright," Cole said and placed his hand on her thigh.

  She was so wound up in her thoughts that she didn’t bother to push him away.

  She wouldn’t look at him, she couldn’t. Too many images flashed through her head when she did. He kept his hand on her thigh a moment longer before putting it back on the steering wheel.

  Finally, she said, "What am I going to do?"

  "Don’t worry, we'll figure something out," he said and kept on driving.

  When they reached the hospital, Madison could hardly wait for Cole to stop the car. He held onto her as they walked into the emergency room.

  Madison breathed a sigh of relief when the nurse told her that Donna had been moved to a private room and was resting comfortably.

  In her happiness, she grabbed hold of Cole's hand as they walked down the corridor to Donna's room.

  She smiled when she saw Hank. He was standing outside of the room, talking to the doctor. When he finished, he moved hastily towards them. Cole took notice of his body language. Hank was mad, he was mad as hell.

  He held up his hands barring them from coming any closer.

  "Hank how is she?" Cole asked.

  "She's going to be alright. Doc said it was a mild heart attack. They're going to keep her here for a couple of days though, just to make sure everything is alright."

  "Oh thank God!" Madison rested her hand on her chest and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "Hank I was so worried, I want you to know…"

  Hank took a step closer towards Madison and through clenched teeth said,

  "I don’t want to hear anything that you have to say right now Madison. Now that may come off as rude, but right now, I don’t really give a damn if it does. I told you that coming back here was a mistake, but you wouldn’t listen. Now because of you, my wife, the only family that I've got left is lying in a hospital bed."

  Madison could see the anger and bitterness in his eyes. And she couldn’t blame him, not one bit. It was her fault. She was foolish for thinking that things had died down.

  "Hank, I just wanted to see you and Donna. I missed you guys and I …" Hank cut her off.

  "That's what Skype is for Madison. You've got to start thinking about other people besides yourself. Ever since you witnessed that awful thing, you knew that your life would never be the same, am I right?"

  Cole rested a hand on Hanks shoulder. "Now listen Hank, I know you're upset, but let’s try and calm down. You can't to talk to her like that."

  "Harding, don’t tell me what I can and cannot do. This needs to be said and if you don’t want to hear it, then I suggest you walk away!"

  Cole moved closer to Madison, he could feel her trembling and placed his hand on her back for support. Instantly, she calmed.

  "Madison, we appreciate you making the trip out here to surprise us, but to be honest, I'm more than upset by your ignorance. Did you really think that a man with such connections was going to let this whole thing go? If you did, you're too naïve for your own good. We don’t live in that kind of world Madison, we don’t live in a world where people like Castillo forgive and forget. Some people will stop at nothing to seek their revenge and Castillo is one of those people.


  I mean, think about it, you were the one who saw what he did. You were the one who got the ball rolling. So it's only natural that the animal would forever hold a grudge against you. What in God's name made you think that he wasn’t going to bide his time and wait for the perfect opportunity?"

  "Hank, please, I…" she stammered.

  But Hank was relentless.

  "Now listen, if you think you are invincible Madison, you aren’t, no one is. You want to jeopardize your own life, that's fine, but you will not jeopardize the life of my wife. Now here's the key to the house," he said and handed her the key.

  "Harding, take her back to the house so that she can pack her things. Madison, I don’t care where you go, but I want you out of my house. I'll tell Donna that you had to go away again, but I don’t want to hear from you until all this has blown over. If it ever blows over and if it doesn't, well then, I'll say good bye right now."

  Silent tears fell from her eyes as she looked at the man who she thought of as a father figure.