Chain Reaction (19 page)

‘Muslims don’t pray,’ Connelly said.

‘Now you know that’s not true, man. You’ve heard the calls to prayer from the minarets – shoot, they answer the call to prayer five times a day.’

‘That’s what they tell us – but they’re not really praying; they’re bowing to Satan. That’s all Mohammed is – another name for the devil.’

Jake looked hard at the two men cuffed to the appliances, hoping they’d get his message to play along with his plan without really knowing what he was doing. ‘Well, see, that’s just it, Connelly. These guys aren’t Muslims.’

‘Then why do they have that crap on their heads?’ Connelly said as he snapped his shotgun closed again.

‘Because they’re undercover, man. And you just about blew their cover in this so-called doctor’s office.’

‘Undercover?’ Connelly said. ‘Why didn’t they tell me?’

‘They weren’t allowed to tell anyone. They know how tricky those Muslims are. You could have been one of them. How would they know?’

‘I don’t believe you, Lovett. If there was an undercover operation, I would have known.’

‘Yeah,’ Jake said with a sigh. ‘I’m sorry, Connelly, I really am. They told me I couldn’t tell you. I argued against that decision but got nowhere. I had to follow orders.’

‘They who?’

‘The FBI, man. I can’t tell you how stingy the home office is with information. I don’t know how many times I’ve told them that we need to work with the ATF. But you know how the brass is – everywhere. They get all pissy about their territorial imperatives. You know that. But listen, Connelly, you and I – we can make a deal on the side. We can agree to share everything with each other. Screw those other guys.’

Connelly studied Lovett’s face. ‘OK, Lovett, say I believe you – what do you think we should do now?’

‘Easy, Connelly. We’ve got to get back to work. We’ve got to get these special agents back to work. We’ve got to catch the damn Muslim bastards that blew up the high school. We sure can’t do it out here in the middle of nowhere.’ Jake prayed that he’d laid the foundation and struck the right tone to make his act credible. Dr Singh and his patient still appeared bewildered but at least they’d done nothing to give the lie to anything he had said.

‘I can’t say I totally trust you, Lovett. But what you’re saying does make a lot of sense. But why did you just leave me there in his office? Why didn’t you tell me then?’

‘I was ordered not to tell you, Connelly, and I thought, for sure, these guys would level with you if I wasn’t around. So I left. I had no idea they had this much discipline. You gotta admire men who can maintain their cover when they’re under adversity.’

Dr Singh finally spoke. ‘I am sorry, Agent Connelly, that I felt an obligation to continue in deception. It is my training, I fear. We have been so indoctrinated that it requires intensive deprograming for us to let down our masks.’

Ohmigod! That was brilliant
, Jake thought. He flashed Dr Singh a tight smile. ‘So c’mon, Connelly, let’s get this show on the road – who knows what those terrorists have been plotting while we’ve been away? Hand your shotgun to me while you get those cuffs off and get the hell out of here.’

‘Do your rear doors have automatic locks?’ Connelly asked.

Jake snorted. ‘I’m driving a sweet 1966 Impala Super Sport, buddy – what do you think?’

‘Then we’re taking my car – just in case these guys have you fooled.’

‘Your car has no windshield, Connelly – remember?’

‘I’m not real comfortable with this. You gotta put the top up on your car.’

‘Good idea, Connelly. And first sign of trouble, I promise, I will pull over and we’ll deal with it – you and I – and if they try running off, I won’t stop you from shooting them. Can we go now?’

Connelly looked around at the three faces, passed his shotgun to Jake and walked over to unfasten Dr Singh’s cuffs.

Jake stifled the sigh of relief that wanted to escape. He reached out and pulled his revolver out of Connelly’s waistband.

Connelly spun to face him. ‘I knew I shouldn’t trust you.’

‘Oh, relax,’ Jake said, sliding the weapon into his holster. ‘I was just thinking you were right to be cautious. What if they are double agents? I don’t think they are, but why take chances? One of them could have grabbed that gun just as easily as I did. Now –’ Jake patted on the outside of his jacket – ‘it’s all tucked away so it’s not a temptation for anyone.’

Connelly squinted his eyes and studied Jake again. Then his shoulders dropped as he released the tension. He patted Jake on the shoulder and said, ‘Sorry, man, I’m not used to having someone on my side these days. I’ve been telling them about the problem and no one takes me seriously.’

‘I talked to your office manager; I think she did,’ Jake said.

‘Well, yeah, but I don’t think she could shoot an elephant standing four feet away,’ Connelly said as he chuckled. He stepped over to the patient and unlocked his cuffs. ‘OK, Lovett, let’s hit the road. You two,’ he said, wiggling his finger at the two other men, ‘you walk out first and get into the back seat.’

‘Good thinking, Connelly,’ Jake said, making sure he was behind Connelly as Dr Singh led the small procession down the dirt driveway to where the Impala was parked. Jake kept up his act, spouting anti-Muslim garbage until Connelly dozed off and filled the air with a loud snore.

C
harley was surprised when she and Amber approached Amber’s home. It was a cute little bungalow in a revitalized part of town. The lawn was mowed, daffodils lined the sidewalk with cheer, pots filled with amaryllis added color to the front porch, everything appeared neat and tidy. Knowing what happened to Amber, Charley had expected to arrive at a dark, miserable hovel – something more in keeping with the evil acts the four walls had witnessed.

Amber slid her key into the lock but before they could open the door, they heard Andy sobbing, ‘No, no, no.’

Amber hurried inside and said, ‘Andy it’s me. It’s OK.’

The little boy threw himself at her, wrapping his arms around her waist and sobbing into her shirt.

‘Mom still asleep?’ Amber asked.

Andy nodded his head up and down, wiping his nose on her clothes. Then he pulled back. ‘I don’t think I got it all, Amber.’

‘That’s OK,’ Charley said as she pulled out her iPhone and flipped on her flashlight application. ‘Look what I have. We’ll find every little bit with this.’

‘You sit down over here, Andy,’ Amber said. ‘We’ll get it all. You just rest for a minute and try to calm down, OK?’

Charley and Amber peered at every centimeter of the fireplace, using a pair of tweezers to pick the smallest bits out of the mortar and uneven surface of the bricks. When they were satisfied, they moved on to inspect the carpeting around the hearth. That area proved a bit more difficult: extracting little glass slivers from the tufts was exasperating.

They stood back and sighed, rubbing on their lower backs when they finished. ‘That’s it, Andy,’ Amber said. ‘We got it all.’

Andy gave them a weak little smile from beneath his reddened eyes and runny nose. ‘Thank you,’ he whispered.

‘Go get his things,’ Charley said, ‘and let’s get out of here.’

‘Go on, Charley,’ Amber replied. ‘We’ll be OK.’

‘You will not! Your mother is still conked out. That man will be back here any minute. You can’t stay here. And we can’t leave Andy. Get his things and let’s go before it’s too late.’

‘If I take Andy away from here, we’ll both be in trouble.’

‘If your mother’s boyfriend comes back, you’ll both be in trouble.’

‘Well, we got all the glass up,’ Amber objected.

‘But he’s drunk, Amber. He could do anything. And if I go home and leave you here, I’ll be in trouble.’

‘Oh, Charley, you don’t know what trouble really is. If I’m not here, he might do to Andy what he did to me. I can’t let that happen. It was a mistake to leave. Andy’s not safe.’

‘That’s why I said we need to take him with us.’

‘If Mom wakes up and he’s gone, she’ll freak out.’

‘Leave her a note – but hurry. We have to go,’ Charley pleaded. She could hardly stand still to talk to Amber. Her knees wobbled; she felt shivers running up and down her spine. The urge to flee fought with her best intentions.

‘I don’t know,’ Amber wailed.

‘I do. Let’s go.’

The snick of a key going into the lock froze them all in place for a second. Then Charley grabbed Amber’s hand and reached out and latched on to Andy’s as they ran down the hall. ‘Which one is your room?’ Charley asked.

‘That one,’ Amber said, pointing a little further down the hall. They ran into it and shut the door.

‘Where’s the lock?’ Charley asked.

‘He took it off,’ Amber wailed.

Down the hallway, a male voice echoed. ‘Andy! Where the hell are you? Come out, you little bastard!’

‘Hurry. Help me, Amber,’ Charley said as she pushed a chest of drawers toward the doorway.

Andy whimpered and stuck four fingers of one hand into his mouth.

‘Sssh, Andy,’ Charley urged.

A fist pounded on the door. ‘You in there, you little bastard?’

‘The bed,’ Charley whispered. ‘Help me push it.’

As they got the second piece of furniture into place, a crack appeared in the entry. ‘Lean against it, Amber.’

Amber pushed with all her strength but she was losing ground. Charley jumped in and shoved as hard as she could.

‘What the hell are you doing, you sniveling little snot? Let me in there now.’

To their great relief, the pressure on the other side eased and the door slammed shut. Charley pulled open the door to the closet and forced it all the way open, wedged against the bed. ‘C’mon. Sit on the floor in front of the closet door.’

Amber, Andy and Charley sat with their backs against the door, their feet digging into the floor. Charley punched the screen of her iPhone, feeling the pressure on her back of renewed pushing from the hallway.

A
fraid that it was not actually Jake on the other end of the line, despite the name on the screen, Lucinda answered, ‘Pierce.’

‘Hey, Lucy! Looks like I’ll be back home tonight after all. But I’ve got a few things to take care of first, so don’t expect me for dinner.’

‘Jake, are you OK?’

‘Sure, sure. Just took a drive. Everything’s fine. Don’t worry about a thing. Don’t wait up. I’ll snuggle you when I get there.’

‘Do you need help?’

‘Don’t need a thing, Lucy. I’ll see ya sometime tonight.’

‘Jake, where are you?’

‘Oh, you did? Well, I wasn’t getting a signal out in the country so I never heard it ring.’

‘Are you saying you’re not alone and can’t talk to me now?’

‘You got it, girl!’

‘So you’re on your way back from Smith Mountain Lake?’

‘Sure thing, sweetheart. Hope you get your errands done soon and get to head on home. I’ll meet you there as soon as I can. Talk to you later. Bye.’

Lucinda pulled into a convenience store parking lot and called Captain Holland. ‘Lovett is on his way back, sir.’

‘Do you know where he is?’

‘Just that he is somewhere between Smith Mountain Lake and home.’

‘Is he in trouble? Does he need assistance?’

‘He obviously wasn’t alone and couldn’t talk freely but he made it clear that he didn’t want or need any help and had everything under control.’

‘Well, you’re needed back here anyway. Does the name Tom McCallister mean anything to you?’

‘Yes, that’s Brittany Schaffer’s date last weekend. I interviewed three teachers and she was on the top of my list for possible involvement in the explosion. I was in the middle of writing a report to you when the crap hit the fan over Lovett.’

‘He’s here waiting for you right now. We told him we weren’t sure when you’d get back from the field but he insisted that he was staying until you were.’

‘What made him show up there?’

‘He said that he heard you wanted to talk to him and he sure didn’t need you showing up at his place of business and causing problems. So, here he sits.’

‘I’ll be there in an hour or less,’ Lucinda said, then circuited the parking lot and pointed the car back toward town.

Back in her office, Lucinda sat down with an extremely attractive but obviously conceited Tom McCallister. ‘Sir, I just have a couple of questions for you—’

‘Yes, I did go out with Brittany Schaffer on Saturday night. Yes, I did spend the night at her place and left late Sunday morning. And, yes, I sure would like it if you could keep this very quiet. My wife won’t be too happy to learn that I wasn’t out of town on business.’

‘My, my, my, Mr McCallister, you are full of surprises.’

‘Yeah, yeah, can I go now?’

‘Just a couple of additional questions. Did you see Ms Schaffer’s truck when you were at her house?’

‘No.’

‘Could it have been parked in the garage instead of out in the drive?’

‘Absolutely not. When I arrived, I parked in the garage. I didn’t want anyone seeing my car there.’

‘Did you stay in all night?’

‘Nah. We went out for dinner and some dancing.’

‘Was the truck there when you returned to Ms Schaffer’s house?’

‘No.’

‘How about the next morning?’

‘I wish it had been but no, it wasn’t there.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yeah, I’m sure. I wanted her to give me a ride back to my car.’

‘Back to your car?’

‘Yeah, we had a bit too much to drink Saturday night and had to take a cab back to her place. So, the next morning, I had to get a taxi again to pick up my car.’

‘What cab company did you call?’

‘Darned if I know. Brittany called them and I didn’t pay any attention.’

‘Did you ask Ms Schaffer about the whereabouts of her truck?’

‘Yeah, she said it was in the shop. You need anything else?’

That’s one of Brittany Schaffer’s lies uncovered – what else might she be hiding?
Lucinda wondered. ‘No, sir, that’s just fine,’ she said, rising to her feet. ‘Thank you for your cooperation.’ She stepped out into the hall and watched him walk away. He certainly was a rude guy but definitely fit in the eye-candy category. She returned to her desk to finish up her report to Captain Holland.