Authors: Maris Soule
‘T
HANK GOODNESS YOU’RE
here,’ Jack said, the moment Jennifer Mendoza entered the barn, her weapon drawn. ‘Call an ambulance.’
Gun still drawn, Jennifer stood where she was, her gaze moving from where Jack knelt beside David Burrows’ body, to where Mary Harrington was cutting the rope holding her granddaughter’s arms behind her, to the Impala, and then back to Jack. ‘What happened?’
‘We were struggling with the gun, and it went off.’ Jack touched the side of Burrows’ neck, waited a few seconds to make sure he didn’t feel a pulse, then shook his head. ‘Never mind calling the ambulance. We’ll need the county M.E.’
Frowning, Jennifer holstered her weapon and pulled out her cellphone. ‘Is that Agent Burrows?’
‘It is.’ Jack rose to his feet and took the Glock over to Jennifer, handing it to her butt first.
‘I thought he was with law enforcement. The other night … when those boys fire-bombed her house …’
‘He had us all fooled,’ Jack said, knowing he should have trusted his gut feelings about the guy. ‘He kidnapped the girl, then grabbed me when I followed him out of town.’
‘But why?’
That was going to be the difficult part to explain, at least without revealing Mary Harrington’s role in the situation. Jack looked back at Burrows’ body. ‘I guess that’s something we’ll never completely understand.’
‘This isn’t your weapon,’ Jennifer said, carefully handling the Glock he’d handed her.
‘No. I’m not sure where mine is.’ Last Jack remembered he’d had it in his hand as he approached the back of the black car. ‘Maybe in the woods … or maybe in his other car.’
‘There’s a black Nissan parked outside and a gray Chevy.’
‘The Chevy’s mine,’ Mary said.
Jack looked her way. Mary Harrington was standing, her left hand pressed against her right side, while her granddaughter remained seated, rubbing her wrists and flexing her shoulders. ‘You two all right?’ he asked, knowing how sore his shoulders felt from having his arms tied behind his back, and how painful a kick to the side could feel, especially if Burrows had broken any of Mary Harrington’s ribs.
‘Yes, thanks to you.’ Moving slowly, Mary Harrington left her granddaughter’s side and came over to where they stood ‘Thank you, Sergeant.’
‘You’re the one who called 911, aren’t you?’ Jennifer said.
‘I did. I—’
Jack interrupted her. ‘I was at Mrs Harrington’s house when Burrows came over, driving that black car. He was putting something in her car when he saw me and took off. She followed me, saw what was going on, and tried to rescue us, but he got the drop on her, too. It wasn’t until he cut me loose that I was able to catch him off guard. We were struggling with the gun when it went off.’
Again Officer Mendoza looked at the gun he’d given her. ‘Wow, sounds like you were lucky.’
‘Very lucky,’ he agreed.
Sirens could be heard in the distance. Officer Jennifer Mendoza glanced that way. ‘Dispatcher put out an “all units” call. Others should be showing up soon.’
Jack turned to Mary. ‘Why don’t we step outside for a minute so you can call your son and daughter-in-law and let them know their
daughter is all right.’ He looked at Jennifer. ‘If that’s all right with you?’
She hesitated, then shrugged. ‘I guess so.’
Jack knew he was playing on Jennifer’s lack of experience, but he wanted to talk to Mary and her granddaughter before others arrived. ‘Come with us,’ he motioned to the girl. ‘We need to call your parents.’
‘Shannon,’ Jack said as soon as the three of them were outside of the barn. ‘Your grandmother does not want others to know what she did in the past or what she’s capable of doing. Do you think you can keep what you heard and saw today to yourself?’
‘At least until I decide what to do next,’ Mary added.
‘I … I guess so.’ The girl looked at her grandmother as if she’d never seen her before.
‘In that case, we need to make sure our stories are the same.’ He pointed at Mary. ‘You came in with the pitchfork. Poked him in the side. That will explain any tine marks they find on his jacket. He knocked you down and kicked you. Then he cut me loose. He was going to take us outside and shoot us, but I managed to get hold of the gun, we struggled, and he ended up being shot.’
‘Grandma broke his arm,’ Shannon said. ‘How are you going to explain that?’
Jack looked at the girl. He certainly couldn’t tell Wally or others that he broke the guy’s wrist using the nunchuck. It wouldn’t take long to prove he had no idea how to handle one of those. ‘He fell on his hand?’
‘Tell them you have no idea how he did that,’ Mary said and put a hand in her pocket and pulled the nunchuck out so both he and her granddaughter could see the tops of the two rods and the chain holding them together. ‘I picked it up before I released Shannon. Without the weapon, they’ll just be guessing how David’s wrist was broken.’
Jack noticed one other weakness in their story. ‘You have some blood on the front of your jacket.’
‘He was a friend of mine,’ Mary said. ‘After he was shot, I went over to see if I could help him. I must have gotten some blood on me
at that time.’
The sirens were coming closer, and they could see the flashing lights and headlights of the cars as they neared the farm. ‘So we’re agreed?’ Jack asked.
Both Mary and Shannon nodded.
‘For tonight we keep your past a secret, but Mary, if Burrows didn’t want you talking, how long before someone else connected with the agency shows up to keep you quiet? You need to tell that congressional committee what’s going on.’
‘But I haven’t been with them for over forty years,’ she said. ‘What can I tell anyone?’
‘That it exists.’
She said nothing for a moment, then nodded. ‘I’ll think about it.’
I
N ADDITION TO
Officer Mendoza, two more Rivershore police officers showed up at the barn, along with deputies from the Van Buren Sheriff’s Department and officers from the Michigan State Police. Mary was separated from Shannon and Rossini. She hoped their three descriptions of what had happened in the barn would be close enough to be believable but not so close they seemed prepared.
The paramedics checked out her ribs and told her they couldn’t tell if they were broken without an X-ray, but when they suggested taking her to the hospital, she refused. ‘I’ll see how I feel tomorrow,’ she told them and signed the release.
It was after eleven o’clock when she was told that she and Shannon could leave. She knew Robby and Clare would still be up. When Shannon had called them earlier, she had said, over and over, ‘I’m fine,’ but Mary knew Robby and Clare would want to see for themselves.
Standing around, talking to one officer after another, there were moments when Mary wished she had taken the paramedics up on their offer to transport her to a hospital. Once in her car, she
decided sitting wasn’t going to be much better. Every inch of her body was beginning to hurt. She had the car started before she realized Shannon still hadn’t gotten in.
Passenger door open, Shannon stood next to the car without moving.
Mary hoped there wasn’t going to be a problem. ‘Get in,’ she urged. ‘We need to get you home.’
‘I …’ Shannon shook her head.
‘I’m not going to bite.’ Mary had no idea what her granddaughter thought of her after what she’d heard from David, but they’d have to deal with that later.
‘I know. I didn’t think …’ Shannon sniffed and looked at her. ‘I wet my pants, Grandma. I was so scared, I peed all over myself. If I get in, I’ll get the seat wet. All smelly.’
‘Oh, hell.’ Mary started to laugh, then stopped herself at a warning stab of pain. ‘Don’t you worry about the seat, Shannon. Your dad’s right. It’s time I got a new car.’
With her granddaughter in the car, Mary headed back to Rivershore. She drove as fast as she could within the speed limit, but every bump and jolt in the road caused a pain in her side. She didn’t realize how often she gasped until Shannon said, ‘Are you OK, Grandma?’
‘I’ve definitely had better days.’
‘So have I.’
Mary looked at her granddaughter. ‘I’m so sorry, honey,’ she said. ‘I never thought he would kidnap you, that he’d use you to get to me.’
‘He was so nice at first, said he wanted to talk to me about you, that he was worried about you and wanted my opinion.’ She shuddered. ‘And then he got nasty and pulled out that gun.’
‘Did he do anything to you? I mean, besides tie you up?’ That was one thing they hadn’t discussed before the police arrived, and Mary had no idea what Shannon had told the police who interviewed her.
‘You mean like rape me? No. But he was mean. He wouldn’t let me go to the bathroom, wouldn’t give me anything to eat. I’m starving.’
Mary glanced over at her granddaughter, amazed by the girl’s resilience and relieved that food was Shannon’s main concern at the moment. ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until you get home to get something to eat.’
‘Yeah, I figured as much.’
Mary wasn’t sure what to say next, or how to broach the subject of what David had said. Shannon resolved the problem. ‘He said a lot of nasty things about you, Grandma. How you were the director’s favorite and that’s why you were allowed to leave the agency. Did you really kill people?’
Mary hesitated, and then nodded. ‘All but one were people who deserved to die, but I guess that doesn’t really make it right.’
‘He said you both worked for a secret agency, one I wouldn’t have heard of.’
‘I doubt if more than a handful of people know of its existence.’
‘Why did you quit?’
‘Because the agency made a mistake, and I killed the wrong person. And I think I was getting scared. You can only live on adrenaline for so long. I knew, sooner or later, one of my marks would figure out I wasn’t who I said I was, and I’d be the one who died.’
‘You slept with them?’
Mary wished David hadn’t told Shannon that, but she wasn’t going to lie to the girl. ‘With some.’
‘Do Mom and Dad know about your past?’
‘No, and I’d hoped they’d never find out, that you’d never find out.’ But that wasn’t to be.
Shannon reached over and gave Mary’s leg a light pat. ‘Don’t be embarrassed. I think it’s kinda awesome.’
‘Awesome?’ Mary again glanced her way.
‘Not everyone has a secret agent for a grandmother. And the way you broke his arm with that stick and knocked him down. In a way, it’s not fair that Sergeant Rossini gets all the credit.’
‘I’m perfectly happy to let him take the credit.’
‘My grandma’s a secret agent.’
She said it so proudly, almost like a chant, and that scared Mary. ‘Shannon, that isn’t something I want known. I did what I thought
was right at the time, but when I moved here, I wanted to forget that life. I don’t want people looking at me and seeing some sort of James Bond figure.’
‘Yeah, well, maybe, but I think Sergeant Rossini is right, you should tell people about the agency. I mean, if you don’t, someone else might try to kill you.’
For the first time, Mary heard a note of fear in her granddaughter’s voice. When she looked over, she saw tears sliding down Shannon’s cheeks.
‘I don’t want anyone to kill you, Grandma.’ The girl’s voice trembled. ‘They might come after me, too, just like he did. I don’t want to die.’
‘Oh, Shannon, honey.’ Mary pulled over to the side of the road. ‘Come here.’
In spite of the pain in her side, Mary drew her granddaughter closer and kissed her forehead. ‘I am so sorry you had to go through this. I never thought David would do such a thing, and I promise you, I’ll do everything I need to do to make sure no one ever comes after you.’
‘Or you?’ Shannon sniffed.
‘Or me.’ Mary gave her granddaughter’s shoulders a squeeze. ‘Now, let’s get you home.’ The pain in her side made her grit her teeth. ‘And then I think I’m going to go visit the emergency room.’
‘Dad’s going to wonder what happened to you.’
Mary chuckled and pulled back onto the road. ‘We’ll tell him I ran into something.’
C
HRISTMAS BREAK WAS
over, and life in Washington D.C. was back to its normal, frenzied pace. Snow had fallen the night before, the outside temperature hovering around twenty degrees, so no one paid much attention when a white-haired woman entered the Russell Senate Office Building wearing a hooded, calf-length wool coat.
The two senators who accompanied her hustled her through security and into one of the staffrooms. Once they were sure someone would bring her a cup of hot tea and were assured she was comfortable, they scurried off to find the remaining three senators on their committee.
No recording devices were evident. No TV cameras or reporters. When her lawyer had contacted the committee and explained there was a witness who could provide a substantial amount of information about the agency they were investigating, he’d set the parameters for her testimony. She would tell what she knew. After that it would be up to members of the committee to verify or dismiss her information.
The five senators entered the small room, some frowning, some grumbling when they saw her. She didn’t care. She would agree with them that her information was outdated, but one person had considered her a threat to the agency. She hoped what she told these senators would be enough to keep anyone else from bothering her.
‘Good morning, gentlemen,’ she began. ‘I’m here today because for thirteen years I was an agent with America’s Department of Environmental Control, otherwise known as ADEC. During those thirteen years, I participated in the elimination of twenty men and women considered threats to this country. In other words, I helped control the environment we now live in. If you have any questions …’
The phone rang, and Jack looked at the clock. It wasn’t quite 4.15.
Mary
? She’d said she’d call and let him know how this first day of testimony went.
He hoped everything was OK. The week before, when they’d had dinner at the Shores, they’d talked about what she was going to say. He knew she would have preferred to put her past behind her, to forget she was ever known as Pandora Coye. But as he’d reminded her, she didn’t really have a choice if she didn’t want another ADEC agent showing up in Rivershore.
From what she’d told him over dinner, her granddaughter was doing well, had seen a trauma specialist a few times, and didn’t seem the worse for her experience. Shannon had vowed to keep her
grandmother’s past a secret, but Jack was still surprised that Mary’s son and daughter-in-law had no idea what actually went down in that barn. The day Jack talked to Robert Harrington, telling the man he was putting the final touches on his report about the abduction, he’d nearly laughed when Harrington expressed his concern about his mother’s welfare. It had taken Jack all of his self-control to simply say he thought Mary Harrington would be all right living alone in her home, and that he didn’t think she’d be bothered by any gang members in the future.
The phone rang again, and he answered, ‘Hello.’
It wasn’t Mary.
‘Hey, Dad, you’re a grandpa again.’
‘Angie had the baby?’
‘Jaxson Rossini – that’s Jax with an x – entered the world at 2.25 p.m. Eight pounds, five ounces and twenty-one inches.’
‘He’s a big one. How’s Angie?’
‘Doing all right. I just left her. She’s a little groggy from the shot they gave her. She did want me to ask if you thought you could get time off and come here next month. She’d like to get Jaxson christened when he’s a month old.’
‘Actually, I’m scheduled to fly into D.C. tomorrow. I have a friend who may need a little moral support. I’d like you to meet her, but if that would be too much …’
‘No. No, that would be great, Dad.’ His son gave a chuckle. ‘You are full of surprises.’
‘I’ve been learning from a pro.’