by L.T. Ryan
Chapter 14
Tall trees wrapped around Abbot’s lake house on all four sides. A winding gravel driveway and a simple path to the lake provided the only break in the ring. The trees kept the wind out. Despite the cool air, sweat formed on my brow as I stood on the porch and knocked on the door.
The porch light flicked on and the door opened. Abbot nodded and stepped back, waving us inside.
I scanned the room. Not much different from the last time I was here. Two full-sized dark leather couches were placed in the middle of the room and faced each other. A table made from the wide trunk of a tree was placed in between the couches. An old recliner nestled up to the corner of the room. A big flat panel TV hung from the wall. That was new.
Abbot caught me staring at the TV. “That was a gift. Once everyone found out, they all wanted to come up here on Sundays to watch the game.” He smiled and shook his head. “Can I get you all anything? Food? Drink?”
“I’ll have a beer,” Bear said. “No denying that I need one.”
Abbot disappeared through an opening to the kitchen.
Bear and Jessie sat on opposite couches. I stood by the front door.
Abbot returned a few minutes later carrying a six pack of beer and a pizza box. Smoke escaped where cardboard edges met. The smell of cheese and tomatoes and dough lingered in the air. He set the beer and the pizza box on the tree trunk table. Then he opened the box and gestured toward it.
“It got here a few minutes before you three. Eat what you want.” He sat down on the same couch as Jessie, leaning back into the corner and placing his feet on the table. “I’ve got two spare rooms. Divvy them up how you see fit.” His eyes shifted from me to Jessie, then back to me. He smiled.
Jessie looked over at me and smiled as well.
“Don’t know how much I can sleep,” I said. “Once all this is over I’m probably going to spend a week in bed.”
Bear laughed. Through a mouthful of pizza he said, “You speak the truth, Jack.”
Abbot smiled through tightly drawn lips. He crossed and uncrossed his arms. His facial expressions changed often, and he drew his brows tight over his eyes while his lips pressed together. I caught him looking at me several times, and instead of keeping eye contact, he’d look away.
“We need to talk,” I said.
Abbot nodded and set his feet on the floor. He put a hand down on the arm of the couch and pushed himself up.
“Follow me to my study.”
Bear dropped half a piece of pizza in the box and leaned forward to get up.
“Stay out here,” I said as I held my hand out toward him. “Stay with Jess.”
Bear shrugged, grabbed his pizza and leaned back on the couch.
I followed Abbot out of the room and down a hallway. We said nothing. When we came to a set of six stairs, he turned and climbed them. I did the same. He reached the top and flicked on a light.
“Room’s new,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “Built it last year. My study.” He shuffled some papers on his antique cherry wood desk. “Clarissa calls it my grandpa room,” he added.
“Is that right,” I said. “She has a kid now?”
He shook his head and looked down at his desk over his arms folded across his chest. He then leaned back in his leather chair.
“No, and I prefer she keep it that way. That girl has no business raising a child at this point in her life. Not after being raised by me.”
“How old is she now?”
“Nineteen.”
I pulled the key attached to the carbineer clip from my pocket and tossed it on his desk.
“That’s what I got from your contact.”
He pulled open a desk drawer and reached in.
I fought the urge to reach for my gun.
He lifted his eyes in my direction while keeping his face pointing down.
“Just getting my glasses, Jack.”
I nodded and sat back in my chair.
He pulled a thin pair of gold rimmed glasses from the desk drawer and put them on. They slid down his nose and he readjusted them with his thumb. The key sat on a white notepad. He picked it up and studied it.
“What’s it for?” he asked.
“Don’t know. Bullet ripped through his head before he could tell me.” I leaned forward, interlaced my fingers and rested my elbows on my knees. “I was hoping you would know.”
Abbot shook his head and tossed the key back toward me. “What do you think it unlocks?”
“Whatever is holding the documents? Look, Abbot, I don’t know what these documents contain, but it must be some heavy stuff for someone to take out Delaney like that. Not to mention follow me all the way down here.”
Abbot lifted an eyebrow. “They found you down here?”
I shook my head, stopped and shrugged my shoulders. “I can’t be sure. I went out. Ran into some rednecks. One of them struck me as odd. The way he placed me as a Marine, and said he was untouchable.”
Abbot’s eyes narrowed. He pulled out his cell phone and placed it on the desk.
“That’s another thing,” I said. “I am pretty sure they were tracking me through my phone.”
He sat up. “You didn’t bring it here, did you?”
“No. I jettisoned it before we got back on the interstate.”
Abbot picked up the phone and spun it in his palm. “I need you to wait outside the room for a few minutes, Jack. I need to make a call.”
I stood up. “Before I go…”
“Yeah?”
“You talk to Keller yet? He finally called me back, but that was when I realized they were tracking through the phone.”
“No, I haven’t heard from him yet. We can call him after I make this call.”
