by Erica Hale
I patted his knee. “But you did well. I listen to voices and speech, and pick up on body language pretty easy.”
“I know.”
Confused, I asked, “How do you know?”
“Hell, the second you came into town I found out everything that I needed to know about you. Where you’d come from, what schools you’ve attended. And how could something so pretty end up in Planters.”
I ignored the compliment. “You were the one that found out that Anthony’s mom was still alive?”
Leland looked at the wood porch floor. “Not one of my shining moments. Yes, I was the one that did that. And I will not be able to tell you I’m sorry enough. Lauren, can you forgive me?”
I wanted to hold out longer just to make him squirm. “No need to hold it over your head. I had to tell him sooner or later. Matter of fact, he's is with his biological mom as we speak.”
His eyes widened. “Now that’s cool.” He paused. “But I’m sorry.”
“Forgiven.”
He and I sat in silence, letting the cool summer afternoon warm us. “Ms. Lauren, I’m not going to keep you all day. I know that you would rather be enjoying the rest of your day, but I can’t thank you enough for allowing me to apologize to you face to face.” Leland stood. “Thank you again.”
I stood and he extended his hand to me and we shook. “Be safe and take it easy out in Boston.”
“I will. Have a good day.”
He descended the four steps that led to the walkway, and he too, got into his rental and drove away.
Unlike with my son, I didn’t watch him leave. I went straight into my house and started to dial. The phone only rang twice before E picked up.
“Man, do you have plans already for the three of us? We have to try this little Thai restaurant down on the pier--”
“Erron, I’m gonna need for you to shut it and listen. I need for you to find out everything that you can on a Leland Markley. He works for the FBI and I know that somebody in this world owes you a favor, so I’m asking you to cash that bad boy in.”
“What happened? Wasn’t he one of the hicks that was harassing you?”
“Yes and no. He was the one that kept telling me to get the hell out of there.”
“Well then, he is a good guy. Hell, I told you to get the hell out of dodge, too.”
“Something’s not right, Erron. He came all this way to ask for my forgiveness. He could have done that shit over the phone. He’s not telling me everything.” Then the unexpected happened, which angered me and caught me off guard. Erron started laughing. “What in the hell is so funny?”
“When was the last time you got some?”
“What? Got some what?” I asked.
“My God. When was the last time you had sex? With another person? That’s the only way it counts.”
I was ashamed that I had to think about it. “Hell, I don’t know.”
“So, that long then. Lauren, he likes you. Any man that would come across country to check on you has some feelings for you. You said it yourself, he could have called you, but instead, he came all the way to Washington to see if you were alright.”
“Well, he didn’t act like it,” I pointed out.
“Really? What did you want him to do write you a note and ask you to circle yes or no on whether he could take you out? Dude is not going to pounce on you. He’s taking his time.”
“He’s leaving to Boston.”
“When?”
“He didn’t say.”
“He’ll probably call you tomorrow and try to set up a date or something with you before he leaves. It’s standard. Please wear something cute, Anthony is going to need a little brother or sister in the near future.”
Erron and I laughed and argued for the next hour. Erron calling me paranoid and me calling him cupid. As hard as Erron tried to assure me that Leland had a crush on me, I still had a deep gut feeling that Leland wasn’t truly forth coming with his motives in coming to Washington. It wasn’t going to be today, maybe not even tomorrow, but I was going to find out. But what I did know was that Agent Leland Markley wasn’t from Boston.
The accent was all off. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but what I knew was the man that potentially saved my life and Anthony’s was a liar.
★★★★★★★★★★
“So, did you see her?” Leland’s brother Luke asked. “Was she okay?”
“Yeah, she’s holding up okay. What went down in Planters hasn’t affected her that much. That she will recover from.” Leland looked over his brother’s shoulder to his laptop. “So, they are still there?’
“Yeah. They are having a great time,” Luke said as they both watched live surveillance footage of Anthony at lunch with his biological mother.
Flipping the laptop shut, Luke turned to his brother and gave him a blank stare.
“You know you’re an asshole, right?”
Leland’s face twisted. “Well, yeah I’m in asshole, so what?’
“Did you really just say so what? You should have told her. You keeping this from her is not only stupid, but dangerous as well. You and I both know you can’t keep eyes on her twenty-four hours of the day. Tell her and we can get her into a safe house or something.”
Luke was right. It was selfish of him to keep a secret from her. Everyone that she knew and loved could be in danger right now.
“You just don’t know the hell that she’s been through. To spring this up on her now could…I don’t know. Give her a form of PTSD. Shit, even steel bends, Luke.”
“Unfortunately, in her case, she isn’t steel or bulletproof. You know as well as I do that we take all threats seriously. And when it’s a threat from the White Collar, we have to move and move quickly.”
Leland looked over the letter that he received last night.
Markley, you may think that she is safe
Under your watch will not be good enough to keep her alive
Regardless of what you do – she won’t be able to hide from our fury
Death is stalking her
Efforts will be futile
Running will be pointless
Looking at the first letter of each sentence, it spelled out murder. That was the plan for her. To kill this woman for stepping into a town, where in their mind, she was uninvited.
In law enforcement, you never make promises that you couldn’t keep, even when the mother of a slain child begs you to catch the killer. It is best to say that we would do the best that we could.
In this case, Leland pledged to kill any bastard that looked at Lauren the wrong way. He also pledged to keep her safe at any and all costs.
