Afterthoughts (2 page)

Paige laughed, “You jerk!”

She put on a bullet proof vest and
flipped out her badge that hung on a necklace. She threw on the
headphones and grabbed the binoculars.

She could see across the street. Two
men were in a room having a heated discussion. One man, the one
that appeared to be the head of the operation remained with his
back to her. She couldn’t get a good look at them.

“
You will be responsible
for distribution and collection in St. Matthews and Middletown,
while we will continue to control Prospect and the eastern
county.”

“
So it’s pretty much the
same deal as before?”

“
No your group has more
responsibilities.”

“
And more risk! If that
clown gets re-elected then we will be more exposed while you get to
sit back and rake in the cash.”

“
Well, I hate to break it
to you but that clown was just re-elected and there wasn’t a damn
thing that went right to prevent it! So just get over it and get to
work. If you don’t like it you can just leap off of the Sherman
Minton...” he took a breath and paced the room. “What did I do
wrong? How could this have gone this badly? Ah, I know what to
do.”

Suddenly, Paige closed her eyes. She
envisioned that one man was shooting the other. She could see the
gun drawn and the finger pull the trigger. She threw off the
headphones and took off, leaving Jay behind. She flew down the
stairs and ran across the street and didn’t pause until she reached
the door at the bottom of the stairs. As she placed her hand on the
door just as a shot went off, knocking her back against a wall. She
slowly fell to the street. She got a shot off as well, but missed,
hitting the frame above the door. Both suspects pushed past her and
ran down the street.

Jay’s voice crackled over the radio.
“Hey can’t you wait for me? I heard gunfire. Are you
okay?”

Paige slowly sat up, out of breath and
pushed herself into a standing position. She was totally pissed off
now.

She reached for her radio and pushed
the button, “I’m fine. But get here quick. They are getting
away.”

“
On my way! Back up is
almost here.”

The sounds of sirens filled the air.
Paige sat down on the curbside and waited. When Jay showed up, she
pointed him in the direction where they escaped. He took off but
continued to look back at Paige. She waived him off to show she was
okay.

Moments later, Jay returned empty
handed to find Paige fighting off the other officers as they
hovered over her to make sure she was all right. She refused their
desperate pleas to get her to go to the hospital, however she did
allow the EMTs to get a look at her. As Jay made his way to her,
the press arrived wanting pictures and asking questions. Jay pushed
them away and pulled Paige toward her car.

“
My God, you were shot!
Are you sure you are okay?” he asked her. “Maybe you should take
some more time off? Ya, know, deal with the added stress. You’ve
been through…”

“
Are you kidding me? I’m
fine
…
Stress?
You don’t know about stress until you find out you’re suffering
from amnesia after being found in a friggin’ ditch, half dead! This
is cake!”

Jay wished he hadn’t pissed her off.
“All the more reason. You need to take more time and deal with
that. It’s only been a ...”

“
What do you know? I
thought you were on my side. You sound like David.”

Paige shoved Jay off and stormed to
her car. Jay’s mouth opened, trying to find a response. When none
came he tried to chase her down. Too late. She was in and started
her engine before he could get to her.

Chapter 3

Paige drove around for nearly an hour
trying to blow off steam. She was sick and tired of everyone
coddling her like a child and desperately wanted to get back to
something normal even if that meant being shot. She stopped the car
and laid her head on the steering wheel.

After only a moment, she dozed off.
Her thoughts drifted to someone who was pacing around her. His
presence surrounded her. She could feel his eyes boring holes right
through. The feeling of suffocation took over and she fought to
breathe. Paige felt hands on her throat. Her lungs felt like they
were on fire!

Paige jolted awake, flung open the car
door and threw up. As she collected herself, her phone rang. She
could see it was Sarah.

“
Hey sis!” Paige
answered.

“
Oh my God, Paige.
Anthony… he’s dead.” Sarah was half sobbing.

“
What? What
happened?”

“
I’ve called 9-1-1. I came
home from the hospital and he was lying on the bedroom floor. I
couldn’t… Oh my God, I couldn’t save him. I couldn’t bring him back
to me!”

“
Sarah, calm down. I’ll be
right there. I’m … I’m…” Paige looked around her and realized she
had stopped her car only a block away from Sarah’s house. She could
see several police cars had already arrived. “I’ll be right
there!”

Paige jumped out of the car and ran
for the Stecklers’ Estate. She pushed her way through the officers
to get to the door. Richie grabbed her as soon as she made
it.

Hysterical, he sobbed, “I was asleep.
I was in my room the whole time. I was.”

Paige was a bit disoriented, “I’m
sorry. I know you were. I know you were.” Before she could catch
her breath, Sarah fell into both of their arms, sobbing
uncontrollably.

Jay arrived on the scene. He scoured
the crowd to locate Paige without any luck. He asked a few
questions of the officers as he worked his way around the yard.
Finally, Jay found Chief John Waters and headed into the garage to
talk. “So, what do you know?”

Chief Waters looked at his notepad,
“Sarah came home from the hospital this morning to find the Senator
dead in the bedroom. It’s all preliminary, but it looks like the
Senator was killed by strangulation. We’ll have to wait to find out
for sure.”

Jay nodded. “Have you seen
Paige?”

“
Yeah, she ran into the
house a few minutes ago.”

“
Thanks,” Jay said as he
put his hand on Chief Waters’ shoulder. “I’ll go find
her.”

Jay worked his way into the house and
up the stairs where the Senator’s body was found. There he found
Paige with a host of officers and FBI agents in tow. He watched as
Paige methodically made her way around the body. She looked closely
at his neck, just as if it were any other case. Careful not to
touch anything, she made every effort to take in every single
detail.

As she worked, one of the FBI agents
watched from the corner. When he paced a bit, his shoe hit
something on the floor. He looked down and found Paige’s ID badge
from the election party. Carefully, he picked it up while making
sure no one else in the room had noticed and carefully placed it in
his pocket.

Paige continued to stand over the body
as the investigators took pictures, oblivious to the actions around
her. She had yet to realize that Jay had entered the room.
Unconsciously, her hand rubs her throat and she swallowed hard.
Tears started to form in her eyes. Before she let them fall, she
turned from the group. She caught sight of Jay and motioned for him
to follow her.

Jay walked with her into the guest
bedroom. “Paige, one of the neighbors came by. She said she heard
Richie and Anthony arguing last night.”

“
So. They don’t get along.
What teenage boy gets along with his father?”

“
True, but Richie was the
only one home at the time of the murder.”

“
What are you
saying?”

“
Just prepping you. Right
now, he’s the last person to see Anthony alive.”

Paige shook her head and
stepped back out into the hallway. She ran down the stairs without
stopping until she hit the front yard. Breathless, she surveyed the
scene. By now, there was a huge mass of people that gathered around
the estate; reporters, police, FBI, neighbors, and the woman she
ran into at the election party. Paige frowned at the thought of
recognizing her. However, she ran into the crowd of people. She
felt like they were swirling around her, yet she managed to see
someone slipping from view in the shadow of some trees. Paige
fought her way toward them, chasing them on through the
neighborhood until she reached her car. They were gone.
Who was that?

Chapter 4

One week later…

Paige fought hard against the nausea
that was quickly consuming her. She leaned against the tree trunk
of a huge oak that stood in her adopted sister’s front yard. Her
hands shook violently as she tried to cover her mouth. Her stomach
gave another turn. Taking a deep breath, she stood up straight and
squared her shoulders. Gathering up her remaining strength, she
walked back toward the garage.

Unusually cold for a late
August evening in Louisville, Kentucky, a soft breeze swirled
around her; raising the hair on the back of her neck as her eyes
made their way from the floor to the scene. Suicide. It’s never
easy to see. But her seventeen year old nephew? A boy she felt was
as much her very own son.
Why?

She clutched her hands to her chest to
keep her heart from escaping and circled around the lifeless body
that hung in front of her. Richie’s face was already swollen and
blue. The smell of death filled the garage. She swallowed hard,
forcing down the lump in her throat as she cautiously stepped over
the small step ladder that was kicked aside to accomplish the deed.
Paige steadied herself by grabbing the elbow of a fellow officer
and maneuvered between the others. Silence swept through the room
as everyone watched her. An investigator’s camera flashed just as
tears filled her eyes. She fought back the urge to run home
screaming as she slowly backed away and turned toward the garage
door where her partner stood.

Jay didn’t try to force a smile when
she walked toward him. Instead he offered her his handkerchief.
“Hey, Paige,” he half whispered. “You okay?”

“
N ... no. I am never
ready for anything like this,” she replied as she took a deep
breath, not noticing the light mist that formed. It was difficult
to draw another breath in, like trying to blow up a new balloon.
Hugging herself tightly to fend off the nausea and chills, she
leaned against the garage door frame beside Jay. “Have you talked
with Sarah? Is she okay?”

“
Yes, she’s inside. Tom’s
with her,” Jay sighed; scuffing his feet on the driveway as he
mindlessly glanced at what was left of the sunset. “She’s had to
deal with so much lately,” he said as he gently put his hand on
Paige’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “She needs you and if you
need me, I’m right here. I mean it.”

Paige couldn’t feel his touch. “I
know,” she drew in another deep breath while she covered his hand
with hers trying to reach for some sort of reality. “I’ll go on in
and talk to her,” she could only whisper as she walked around the
front of the red BMW parked in the driveway.

Pausing when she reached the end of
the gray stone sidewalk, she leaned against the railing.

She absentmindedly ran her hand across
the top of the shrubs that she and Sarah had planted. Paige’s
parents died when she was three and Sarah’s mother and father had
adopted her. They passed away several years later while both Paige
and Sarah were in college.

They were not only sisters
but best friends as well. How could she help her now? Again, she
felt helpless
. “If only I had come out to
see Sarah when I wanted to earlier, Richie may have been
okay,”
she thought to herself. Tears
burned the back of her eye lids again as she thought that maybe,
just maybe, she could have prevented Richie from killing
himself.

She remembered Richie playing in the
back yard and picking dandy lions for her. He would run up to her
with handfuls of the bright yellow flowers along with the grass and
clover that had happened to grow alongside them. She wanted to once
again touch his red hair and freckled nose as he would smile up at
her and shower her with hugs and kisses.

Paige remembered the panic-stricken
phone call from Sarah only thirty minutes earlier. “He’s … dead …
oh God … he’s dead!” was all that Paige could make out between
Sarah’s sobs.

“
Who? Anthony?” Paige
tried to ask calmly.

“
No … oh, God Paige … its
Richie … he’s in the …” Sarah’s frantic words became impossible to
understand between the sobs.

“
Have you called 9-1-1?
I’m on my way!” Paige threw the phone down and ran out of the door.
When her car squealed onto Sarah’s street in Gellendale Estates,
the police were already there, lights flashing in unison with an
ambulance in the yard.

The silhouette of someone hanging from
the garage ceiling made her stop in her tracks as if she had been
smacked in the face with a baseball bat.

Paige snapped back to reality when
another detective brushed her arm as he passed. She realized she
was still standing at the foot of the sidewalk, white knuckled on
the railing.