“I understand,” he said has he turned and began walking back toward the house, already dialing a familiar number on his cell phone. He heard the doors on the vehicles close as his sister answered her phone. “Gwen,” he choked out, “I—I need your help. How fast can you get to Florida?”
When he walked in the house, Nadia was on her phone, still holding Kimmy in her lap. She was talking with David. “He wants to speak with you,” she said, holding out the phone with a trembling hand.
“Yeah,” was all he could say into the receiver.
“Ah, man, tell me it ain’t so little brother. Nadia said the troopers just left, but are you sure it was her?”
“David, I’m not even sure I’m breathing right now. But, from everything they’ve told me—yeah, they’re pretty sure it was her. They won’t give me too much information and they won’t let me look at what they’re finding, so I called Gwen. She’s on her way to the airport right now. I—I’ve just got to have some answers,” he said breaking down again.
“Has anyone called Mom and Dad?”
“No. We just found out ourselves. Nadia called you?”
“No—it’s already on the national news about the wreck and who they think was involved. As soon as I saw it, I called her. I’ll call Mom and Dad before they see it on the TV. I’m—I’m in the middle of something here so I can’t get there for a few days, but hang in there. You know that’s what Leese would want.”
No sooner than Micah closed her phone and handed it back, his phone was ringing. Hope against hope told him that when he looked at the display it would be Leese and this would all be some huge mistake. But it wasn’t her; it was Ryan’s number. This was going to be harder than talking with David about what happened.
“Hello?”
“You’re gonna tell me she’s home, right? I saw something on the news about an Aero crashing in West Palm and they… God, Micah—please tell me that she’s home.”
“No—she’s not here and she was driving her Aero—she’s gone and I don’t know what I’m going to do without her.” He was trying to stop all the sobbing, but he couldn’t hold it back as every moment the pain inside him sharpened. He could hear Ryan cussing and yelling, crying and growling at the same time.
“I thought you wanted her to get rid of that damn car! She’s freaking pregnant, man! She shouldn’t be driving it! She shouldn’t…” Everything he was saying was in the present tense, as if she was still around and somehow Micah could grab onto her and stop this from happening.
Micah could no longer recognize what Ryan was saying as his words melted into emotions of anguish, pain, and loss. He heard him take a long breath, and then Ryan spoke clearer. “She can’t be dead,” he finally whimpered. “It wasn’t her time—God should have given her more time. What can I do? Is there anything I can do to help you and Nadia?”
“There isn’t anything that anyone can do, but I do appreciate the offer.”
“We want to be there for the—the funeral. You will call me, right? I could fly down tonight, but I imagine you’re—you’re going to need some time.”
“We’ll call you. She’d—she’d want you here.”
“Micah—I’m sorry if I said anything… I mean, I know this wasn’t your fault. I just freaked out for a minute, but… I hope you don’t think I’m frigin’ stupid, man, but I love you—like a friend, a really good friend and I know how much you loved her. I finally realized that when you two came back here; you never wanted to hurt her. Please, take care of yourself. Okay? I’m not gonna hang up until you promise me that you’re going to be okay. Leese would hate me if I wasn’t just as concerned about you as I was about her when she really needed a friend.”
He didn’t know what to say. He’d never had another man tell him he loved him. But Ryan was the genuine article—he was a good person. He was the ‘other’ guy in Leese’s life who would have lain down his life for her. Still, he couldn’t return the deep compliment. He knew Ryan was waiting on a promise not to do anything stupid, but right now all he wanted was to do something stupid so he didn’t have to feel this searing pain that was enveloping him.
“Micah, I mean it. If you need a friend, I’ll head to the airport right now. You can make it through this. Promise me you’re going to try.”
“I—I appreciate the offer. I’ll be okay, I promise. I’m just kind of stunned right now. I’ll call you when the arrangements are finished. Goodbye.”
He wanted to be alone like he’d never wanted to be alone in his life. The thing that pissed him off at the moment was that his guns were gone. He really wanted a gun at the moment. He needed a gun at the moment. And, if his wife didn’t love him so damn much, those guns would still be here and all this pain would be abbreviated and he would be with her right now. He was standing there wishing for an end when he felt warm arms around his waist.
“You promised,” Kimmy said quietly.
Micah picked her up and headed for the recliner. She was pretty intuitive, so he was wondering if she was speaking about his promise to hold her, or that he’d just promised someone that he would try to make it through the worst tragedy he’d ever faced.
She laid her head against his chest as she clung to him, whispering that she loved him. He had never noticed before, but when Kimmy said those words softly, she sounded just like Leese.
His phone rang again. Kimmy never moved as he jockeyed it from his pocket to look at the caller ID. It was Jonathan. Micah was sure he’d seen the news. “The hell with you, asshole,” he snarled as he hit the silent feature and slipped it back into his pocket. As far as he was concerned, this mess was Jonathan’s fault. He never should have asked Leese to go out to the property. He wrapped those strong arms around the tiny girl and let the silent tears fall.
Gwen arrived a little after eight p.m. She’d brought one of her best forensic investigators with her and the two of them were getting ready to head for the Sheriff’s Office where the vehicle had been taken, but she needed to see her brother first. Kimmy was asleep on his lap, still hanging on to him tightly. He had tried to lay her down, but she began to cry so he just reclined in the chair and let her sleep against him. They only spoke briefly in whispered words, then Gwen leaned forward and kissed her baby brother’s color drained forehead and was gone.
Eventually, Micah rose and carried Kimmy upstairs and placed her in her bed. Her eyes fluttered open as he tried to leave the room; she asked him to stay. He pulled the covers up to her chin and said he’d stay for a little while.
“Will you say prayers with me?” she innocently asked. Someone always tucked her in, usually Nadia or Leese, but whoever did would stay and say prayers with her. He’d been in the room before when Leese would put her to bed so he knew the prayer she always said. He closed his eyes and began, “Now I lay me…”
Kimmy joined in, “…down to sleep. Pray the Lord my soul to keep. Guard me Jesus through the night and wake me with the morning light. And special prayers…” She always had special prayers at the end. It was usually a list of people, but tonight it was only one. “…for my sister. I know she’s in heaven with you, and I know she’s happy to be there, but please tell her that we’d like her to come home. I know you usually keep who you take, but we’re not happy without her. She was my sister, but she was my friend, too. Mommy and Micah miss her really bad, and I know they wish she was home. Thanks for listening and, if you can’t let her come home, would you please just let her be an angel so she can watch over us? Oh, and please tell her we love her and said goodnight. Amen.”
“Amen,” he silently mouthed. The sound from his vocal cords couldn’t get past his throat. He stayed until her eyes closed and her breathing became deep and steady. He slipped downstairs. Nadia was sitting at the dining room table holding onto a cup of decaf coffee. She wasn’t drinking it, she just held it. “Come on,” he said softly, removing the cup from her hands as he led her out to the couch. They sat together as he pulled her against his chest and let her cry herself to sle
ep.
When morning came, Nadia woke on the couch with her head on a pillow and a blanket over her; Micah was sitting out on the pool deck watching the sunrise. He actually did try to get some sleep, but his thoughts wouldn’t shut down and the pain only worsened when he tried to relax.
Gwen showed around eleven in the morning looking haggard. She had been up all night with the team that was working Leese’s case. Broward County had been good to extend the professional courtesy to her, but more than that, they really needed the help of Thomas McFarren, the forensic expert she had brought with her.
She had a lot to tell her brother, and none of it was anything she wanted to say. Nadia offered her and Thomas coffee, but they both declined saying that as soon as she talked with Micah, they were going to head back to their hotel and get some sleep. Nadia tried to talk them into staying at her house, but Gwen said the rooms were already booked and the department was picking up the tab.
“If you don’t mind, Nadia,” she began, “we really need to speak to Micah alone and then he’ll let you know what’s going on.”
“I’d rather—”
“Please, Nadia. I’m sorry, but you don’t need the kind of details that he needs. It’s bad enough I have to tell him.”
She nodded, though it wasn’t immediately obvious if the gravity of what kind of details were getting ready to be disclosed entered her mind as she took Kimmy upstairs.
Micah started to speak when Gwen put up her hand to silence him, “There has to be somewhere more private than this living room to discuss this.”
Micah led the way to the apartment off the pool deck. They went inside and sat silently at the small dinette.
Gwen’s eyes were red and watery, partly from lack of sleep, but mostly because this was going to be so damn hard. “It wasn’t an accident,” were the first words out of her mouth. “It was professional, and when I say professional, I mean this was done by the best out there. The front tire was evidently rigged so once the car went over a certain speed, any reduction would cause it to blow. She must have been doing one-forty or one-fifty when she finally tried to slow down.”
Micah’s eyes closed slowly; she shouldn’t have been going that speed. He reopened them and stared at his sister.
Gwen drew a shaky breath and continued. “She was moving so fast when the tire exploded there was no way she could have recovered. The car was air-born, over the rail and flipped at least a dozen times before it hit the trees. Tom is going to tell you the rest,” she stated as she grabbed hold of Micah’s hand and clamped down tightly. She was bracing him for the final blow.
“There was a second explosive charge set in the car and, as close as I could tell, its timer was set in motion by the first explosion. No one could have gotten to her in time. It was probably only set for about a ten to twenty second lapse. The driver’s seat,” he paused and looked to Gwen.
She nodded for him to keep going.
“Under the driver’s seat were, I believe, special gelled fuel packs. Not only did the second explosion ignite the fuel tank, but it also ignited the gel. Someone didn’t want any evidence left. I know it’s no consolation, but it was fast. She didn’t have time for pain. I’ve only ever seen two other jobs done this thoroughly. Most investigators wouldn’t have noticed the tell-tale signs about the fuel packs because they are destroyed in the fire, but, if you know what to look for… Anyway, the carbon body on her car only served to hold the heat inside and the gel doesn’t extinguish until it’s gone. There wasn’t much left for identification, but they did find a few things.”
Gwen reached into her bag and pulled out a small container. “They want these back, temporarily, for evidence, but they needed you or Nadia to identify them. At least until they can figure out if they can do DNA or something on the—the remains.”
She opened the container and poured out the contents. The gold was misshaped from the intense heat, but the stones were undeniable. Leese’s wedding set with the five carat, Asscher-cut stone and a gold, tangled mass with a brilliant orange diamond.
Micah burst into tears and sobs so hard he couldn’t breathe. “God, Gwen—why? Why her? If someone was after me, why not rig my Vet? Why her?” he repeated.
“I’m sorry, Micah. I wish I had more answers for you. Hell, if I had names, I’d kill the son-of-a-bitches myself.”
Micah wiped his eyes to remove the tears from his vision as he stared at her jewelry. He inhaled and looked at Thomas. “You said you’d only seen two other cases done this way—where were they?”
Thomas cut his eyes to Gwen and she shook her head no.
“Don’t hide stuff from me, Gwen,” Micah warned.
“It doesn’t matter where the other cases were. It—”
Micah’s fist came down on the table so hard that the jewelry flew inches into the air. “The hell it doesn’t!” You might as well tell me because you know within thirty minutes I’m gonna know every place that son-of-a-bitch ever worked.”
“I don’t want you flying-off-the-handle and doing something really stupid. Give us time to figure out what’s going on first.”
“Where were those cases?” he demanded with so much malicious intent in his eyes that Thomas was visibly shaken.
“All right,” Gwen conceded, “I’ll tell you, but you have to promise me—and I mean it, Micah—you’ll give us a couple weeks to work on the case before you try to take this on yourself.”
He wasn’t responding as he stared at Thomas.
“Nadia and Kimmy both need you right now. Help them get through this and then we’ll do this together—as a family.”
It was going to be someone big if it was going to take the family.
“Agreed?” she asked.
The blank look in his eyes slowly faded as he turned to her, “Agreed.”
Gwen gave Thomas the nod.
“New York.”
That was all he had to say to finish off what remained of Micah’s world. The man who had granted his pardon; the man who had kept him untouchable; the man who even a Gavarreen was afraid to approach, had plans for him—plans that didn’t include him having a wife and child tagging along. Nadia and Kimmy weren’t safe here. He doubted the next strike would be immediate, that might look too suspicious, so there was a little time. As soon as David got his ass untangled from whatever he was doing in Louisiana, if he really loved Nadia, he was going to have to take them into hiding.
There was nothing left to say as she picked up the jewelry and placed it back in the container. She rose and embraced Micah, but he was too numb to respond. He wasn’t sure how long he sat there after they left, but he had to decide what to tell Nadia. She had been through so much hell with Robert that he really didn’t want her to know another mad man was targeting her family. He would sit there until the ability to lie returned to his brain and then he would face her.
CHAPTER twelve
By late afternoon, Kimmy had put on her bathing suit and was in the pool. She wasn’t swimming, splashing, or enjoying her time in the water, she was lying on a floating mat and staring up at the sky through the screen cage. She appeared to be deep in thought for someone so very young.
“Can you tell me, Micah, what Gwen found out? I don’t know if I want to hear it, but I have to know if she—if she suffered at all.”
He unconsciously chewed his lower lip as he watched Kimmy floating. He finally seemed to wake from his trance as he reached out and gathered her hand in both of his. “They said it all happened incredibly fast. No, Nadia, she didn’t suffer—it ended quickly. They—”
“No, Micah,” she stopped him. “That was the only detail I wanted to know. Nothing else matters to me and I don’t want you to have to make up lies to cover what your sister told you.”
How did she know? He was baffled, but he didn’t care; he didn’t have to lie, and he was actually glad that she wouldn’t let him continue.
“But, you and I need to talk—about her funeral.”
“I honestly don’t
know if I can do that.”
“Then I’ll talk and you listen. My daughter, your wife, was a beautiful person and that is how I want her remembered. I spoke with Pastor Anderson today and he suggested we do a celebration of life ceremony. They’re going to bring in a huge movie screen. He wants us to pick out all our favorite pictures, videos, and television clips, and he is going to have someone put it together. I want to see her singing, dancing, rejoicing, and being the person I remember, because every time I—I think about—I don’t want to remember what happened in that accident.” Nadia’s eyes welled with tears, but a large smile filled her face. “But I think God may have granted her a wish she once made.”
Micah couldn’t imagine what wish could have been a part of the tragic ending she endured.
“When she wasn’t much older than Kimmy, I think she was nine or ten, she got infatuated with the Wes King song, “I Believe,” and she wanted to perform it for the church. Anyway, there is a line in the song that says something about Elijah never died but caught fire from heaven on a mountainside. She loved that line and she said when she died…” Nadia paused as the tears overran her lashes, “She said that was how she wanted to leave this world. Someday, she told me, God would just sweep her up in a huge burst of fire and take her, like Elijah, straight to heaven.” Nadia’s voice at this point was cracking and shaking, but she went on to finish what she wanted to share. “I don’t know how fast that car was traveling, and it doesn’t matter now anyway, but I know as soon as that fireball went up, her spirit flew straight into God’s arms.”
Micah was also smiling, “That sounds like her. I wish I could have seen her performance.”
“I taped it!” Nadia said, jumping up. “I’ve got a bunch of old home videos that I had transferred to disk. I almost forgot, but I know I taped it. This is what I wanted, Micah. I want you to go through the pictures and videos with me so we can decide what to give the pastor. Can you get me some clips from Remake?”
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