by Matt Lincoln
After explaining to the police what had happened and who I suspected the perpetrators were, I pulled out my phone to call Wallace.
“Hello? Is everything okay, Agent Gardner?” Wallace answered almost immediately.
“Uh, yes. Well, no, actually, no, it’s not,” I corrected, answering automatically before remembering that the whole reason I was calling was that everything was most certainly not alright. “The guys who bombed the office, I’m pretty sure they just set my house on fire.”
“Are you alright?” He asked, and I could hear rustling in the background as if he had suddenly stood up.
“Yeah, it’s nothing serious,” I mumbled. “Just a few minor burns. I just thought I should probably let you know.”
“You were right to call me,” Wallace stated. “Are the police still there?”
“Yes,” I responded as I took a glance around my front lawn. It seemed like everyone was still here as police officers, firefighters, and nosy neighbors all milled around the proximity of what used to be my home. My heart rate quickened as I realized that I couldn’t see Clara or Beau anywhere.
“That’s good. Stay right there with them,” Wallace emphasized. “I’ll be over there as soon as possible. Just make sure you don’t go anywhere on your own.”
“Okay, sir. I’ll see you soon then,” I mumbled distractedly before hanging up. To be honest, I hadn’t been paying much attention to what he was saying. I’d been too busy frantically searching for any sign of Beau or my next-door neighbor. I had seen her run off after the first gunshot but had lost sight of her after that. I couldn’t remember if Beau had still been in her arms when she’d run off. Maybe she had abandoned him in her haste to get away. I was starting to hyperventilate, and my fingers were curling up from the lack of oxygen.
Thinking that perhaps she had run back home, I made my way over to her house next door. When I was still a few feet away, the door opened, and Clara stepped outside, holding Beau. All at once, my resolve crumbled, and I broke into tears. I raced forward and took my dog into my arms.
“It’s okay, Beau, mommy’s here. You’re such a good boy,” I told him through tears, rubbing my face into his soft fur.
“I thought you might be missing him,” Clara whispered softly as she rubbed my back. “I took off as soon as I heard the gunshots and ran straight home. I was so shaken up I didn’t even realize I was still holding him. I thought you’d be looking for him, though, so I was about to come out and find you since I could see the police were here.”
“Thank you for taking care of him,” I smiled. Beau was the only family I had, aside from an estranged mother who’d disowned me for being unable to live up to her standards. I couldn’t imagine what I would have done if something had happened to Beau. I let Clara fuss over me for a few minutes before walking away to go sit on the curb by one of the police cruisers. Wallace had told me to stick close to the cops, and honestly, I had no problem obeying that order. Whoever had done this had now tried to murder me twice in less than a week.
Wallace arrived just a few minutes later, and I wondered how fast he must have been driving to have gotten here so fast. I got up to go greet him and was surprised when Nelson stepped out of the passenger’s side of the car.
“Oh, hi, Agent Nelson,” I greeted. “I didn’t know you were coming too.”
“Hello, Agent Gardner,” Nelson replied. “It just so happens that Director Wallace and I were in the middle of a game of poker with some old friends of ours when you called. I wasn’t about to stay behind when a member of my team is in trouble.”
“I’m so sorry,” I apologized immediately. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you on your time off or anything. Sorry.”
“Nonsense,” Wallace dismissed, shaking his head. “The health and safety of my agents is more important than a game night. Have you been seen by the paramedics?”
“Um, not yet,” I answered. “I feel fine, though, really.”
“You should still get checked out,” Nelson insisted. “Smoke inhalation can be very serious. In a lot of cases, smoke actually does more damage than the fire itself does.”
“Okay,” I conceded, feeling like a child who needed to be told how to take care of herself. I knew they weren’t trying to be condescending, but I couldn’t help feel like I’d somehow failed by not looking after my own injuries.
The three of us made our way over to one of the fire trucks, where an EMT looked me over. The most egregious injury was the burn on my hand where I’d gripped the doorknob. Already, the skin there was raw and blistered, and the EMT told me that I’d need to apply a medicated ointment and keep it bandaged for a few weeks. The cut on my right arm ended up requiring six stitches, but fortunately, the cuts on my back were shallow enough that they should heal on their own. I had some minor burns on my arms, but most of those should heal fine on their own as well.
The biggest cause for concern was smoke inhalation. I had spent several minutes inside the house looking for Beau, and as a result, had inhaled a huge amount of smoke. Unfortunately, according to the EMT, there wasn’t really a treatment for smoke inhalation aside from allowing my lungs to rest. I’d need to take it easy for a little while and not engage in any strenuous activity. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, considering how my job primarily just consisted of my sitting at a desk. Unfortunately, I had just been assigned to go on an international case, and I had a human trafficker actively attempting to kill me. I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be able to take it easy for the time being.
By the time I had finished with the EMT, I felt exhausted. It was past nine in the evening already, and the events of earlier had left me feeling drained. All I wanted to do was fall into bed, but unfortunately, I literally did not have a bed to fall into anymore.
“Do you have someone you can stay with for the time being?” Wallace asked as if reading my thoughts.
“Um, no,” I answered quietly, feeling ashamed for some reason. “But I can get a hotel or something. It’s not a big deal.”
“I think it might be safer if you stay with one of us for the night at least,” Nelson suggested. “In fact, I insist on it. Someone is clearly after you. It’s not safe for you to be alone right now, and if you were to go to a family member or friend’s home, they might become a target as well.”
The thought sent shivers down my spine. My only friends were my fellow agents, and while I was sure any one of them would be able to hold their own against whoever attacked me, I still wouldn’t want to put them in that situation. Now that I thought about it, I supposed I could have asked Naomi or Miranda if I could stay at their place. That would have put them in danger, though, so in the end, I was glad Nelson had suggested I stay with one of them.
“Well, if you’re sure you don’t mind,” I agreed, feeling relieved yet awkward about staying with either my boss or Nelson, who was basically the vice director of our branch in everything but name. Technically, our ranks were the same, but everyone knew that he was the second-in-command. Sometimes even first.
“Not at all!” He proclaimed. “I never have visitors, so it’ll give me a chance to play host. Plus, I’ll get to spend some time with this little guy.” He reached out and fluffed Beau’s head. Beau closed his eyes and pushed his head into Nelson’s hand, clearly pleased with the contact.
“Oh, yeah, this is Beau,” I said. “He’s housebroken, and he has all his shots and everything. Not that he bites. He’s really sweet. Just so you know, I mean. Since we’re staying at your place, he’s up to date on everything.”
“Well, that sounds just great,” Nelson smiled, kindly ignoring my rambling.
“If that’s settled for tonight, then I’ll work on getting you a hotel room with an armed guard for tomorrow, Gardner,” Wallace concluded. “You’ll be leaving for Japan the day after, so it should only be for tomorrow. Normally, I like to give my agents the day off before a big mission, but I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to stay put this time.” Wallace looked like he genuinely f
elt bad about asking me not to leave the hotel room.
“It’s okay,” I insisted. “As I said, I don’t really have any family or non-work friends to hang out with, so I don’t have any problems staying in a hotel room all day. It might even be nice, getting to lounge around all day.” I gave him what I hoped was a convincing smile.
“Perfect!” Nelson grinned. He always seemed to know just when to interject to keep a conversation from becoming too somber. “Well, that’s settled then. Let’s get going. Gardner, I’m going to make you my famous Spaghetti A La Nelson.”
I smiled more genuinely as he continued to tell me about the feast he was going to prepare for us once we got to his house. As we got into the car, I turned to take one last look at the smoldering remains of my home. In just a few minutes, I’d lost everything, and I was going to make sure whoever was behind this paid for everything they had done.
14
Charlie
“I’m pretty sure they invented it in the south,” Esther smirked as she speared a piece of chicken with her fork before putting it in her mouth. “It’s soul food, isn’t it?”
“It’s revolting, is what it is,” I grimaced, watching in horror as she used her fork to scoop both a bit of chicken and a piece of waffle into her mouth at the same time. “And no, chicken and waffles is definitely a New York thing. People in the south are known for their comfort food. There is nothing comforting about what you’re doing right now.”
“You’re such a baby,” Esther rolled her eyes as she smiled. “And what, are you some kind of connoisseur? How do you know so much about different kinds of foods?”
“I spent a lot of time traveling when I was younger,” I answered vaguely. I didn’t really feel like getting into that part of my life right now when we were having such a nice breakfast. There had been some fun times, sure, but there had also been some really bad times too.
“Younger?” Esther scoffed. “You’re not even in your thirties yet.”
I just smiled and brushed off the comment. I’d only been seventeen when I’d run away from home, and it had been over a decade since then. That was plenty of time for a lot of things to happen.
Now wasn’t the time to bring it up, though. Tomorrow, I was leaving for Japan on a big mission, and I wanted to spend my day off having a nice time with Esther. Diving into the past and trudging up old memories right now would only kill the mood. It was actually the first time I’d spent time before a mission with anyone other than Harry. Of course, I still had plans to go see Harry later that afternoon, but I also wanted to make sure I saw Esther before I left.
To be honest, I was a little unnerved by how much I wanted to see her. I’d made sure to keep romantic partners at a distance ever since I’d been betrayed and had my heart broken when I was still a teenager. Since then, I’d made sure to keep things casual. Esther was the first woman I’d met in a long time that had managed to sneak past my walls and move in closer. I wasn’t sure I liked it.
“How long did you say you’ll have to keep that bandage on?” Esther asked.
“The doctor said he’d take a look at it in about two weeks,” I sighed. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to take it off then. It’s kind of annoying having one of my eyes covered while I’m working.”
“I bet,” Esther hummed. “Is it really safe for you to be working like that? Doesn’t it limit your ability to see?”
“A little,” I shrugged, reaching up to touch the gauze eyepatch. “But I’ll just have to deal with it. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
I hadn’t told Esther the details about the explosion. There’d been some local news coverage about it, but Wallace had tried his best to suppress as much as he could. I couldn’t really share a lot of details about my job, and even if I could, I wouldn’t want to worry her.
Esther and I could talk for hours about anything and nothing without getting bored, and I felt like I could be open with her, but the very nature of my job meant that I couldn’t talk about it freely with just anyone. Nevertheless, we still managed to keep our conversation going until late in the afternoon. In fact, we got so into our conversation that I didn’t realize it was already noon until the restaurant started filling in with the lunch rush.
“Oh, wow, we’ve been here for three hours,” Esther giggled after glancing down at her watch. “Weren’t you going to go see Harry before you left?”
“Yeah, I was,” I answered, feeling conflicted. Of course, I wanted to go see Harry before I left, but I really didn’t want to leave Esther. She smiled and rolled her eyes, and I knew she could tell what was going through my mind.
“Just go, it’s fine,” she smiled understandingly. “It’s important to you, right?”
I leaned across the table and kissed her. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have found someone like her.
“I’ll call you later,” I grinned before leaving a large tip as an apology for taking up the table for over three hours.
We left the restaurant, and I walked her to her car. She leaned up to kiss me one more time before she finally climbed into the driver’s seat. I watched her pull out of the restaurant’s parking lot and onto the street before I finally headed over to my own car.
The drive out of Las Vegas took longer than usual as a result of deciding to leave right at lunchtime. Once I was out of the city, though, the roads were clear. The drive up to the mountain was peaceful and smooth, and although I usually enjoyed the long, relaxing drive, today, my mind was swimming with the news of what had happened yesterday.
Wallace had called me very early in the morning to let me know that Gardner had been attacked last night. He was warning everyone else as a precaution to keep us informed, but he said that we probably didn’t need to worry. The fact that they kept attacking Gardner seemed to confirm her theory that they only had her personal information, so it was unlikely that any of us would be targeted.
That being said, I was still concerned about putting Harry in danger. I’d actually considered not going to see him, but I decided at the last minute not to change my plans after all. The risk that we’d be attacked was low, and if I did suddenly decide not to go, Harry would know that something was up.
As I turned onto the steep hill that led up to Harry’s house, I shook the thoughts away. It sounded cheesy even in my own head, but after what had happened at the office with the bomb, I’d been thinking a lot about how fragile life was. If the circumstances had been just a little different, I could have died that day. When I’d first joined MBLIS, I’d rolled my eyes at Wallace’s insistence that we always spend time with our friends and family before a major case. It wasn’t until now that I realized how much I had been taking this time for granted.
Harry’s front door opened just as I was pulling into the driveway. There was still a bit of snow this high up on the mountain, and I pulled my jacket tight around me as I hopped out of the truck.
“Charlie, hurry on in here! You’re letting all the cold air in,” Harry called from the doorway as I ran from the truck toward the house.
It was always surprising to me how the weather could be so different just an hour away from the dry, temperate climate of the city. The inside of the house was warm, and Harry had the fireplace going like he usually did whenever he had company. I’d never thought about buying a house, but if I ever did, I’d want it to have a fireplace. Nothing felt nicer than sitting in front of a warm fire while the outside was blisteringly cold.
“Hey, Harry,” I smiled as I stepped into the warmth of the house. It was a relief to step inside out of the biting cold, and the entire house smelled like cinnamon. I wondered if Harry had been experimenting in the kitchen again.
“Come on in, I’ll get us some beers,” Harry called as he moved past me toward the kitchen.
I made my way over to my usual spot on the couch and took off my jacket, sighing as the warmth of the fire hit me. As I watched the embers dance beyond the metal grate, I thought about how Gardner must have felt watching the fire that de
stroyed her house. It was sobering to think about how something so pretty and warm could be so destructive and ugly. I pushed the thought away as Harry walked back into the den. He’d always been good at reading me, and he’d be able to tell that something was bothering me if I dwelled on it for too long.
“What’s that on your face?” Harry asked as he came back into the den. It took me a minute to remember that I had a thick gauze eye patch on my face.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” I lied quickly. “Just a little work accident.”
“That’s one heck of a work accident,” Harry remarked, unconvinced by my explanation. It wasn’t technically a lie, which was probably the only reason he wasn’t calling me out on it. Harry could always tell when I was lying, but I must have sounded convincing enough to him.
“So what’s on the menu for today?” I hurried to change the subject as Harry handed me a beer.
“I’m not making anything today,” Harry grinned.
“Oh, really?” I asked, a little disappointed and confused. It had become something of a tradition for Harry to have me taste test some new recipe he was trying to learn. More often than not, it ended up tasting awful, but it was nice to have something to look forward to and laugh about afterward.
“Nope, Eliza’s coming over today,” Harry said with a wide smile. That definitely explained it. Eliza was Harry’s daughter, and she was also a professional chef. She’d been the one who initially encouraged Harry to start cooking, but usually, when she came over, she took it upon herself to make something for us. Frankly, I’d rather spend my last day in Vegas having a meal made by Eliza than eating whatever experimental meal Harry might cook up.
As if on cue, the doorbell rang.
