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It was because of her. Her mother’s death, Aunt Katherine’s paralysis, Uncle Paul turning traitor, the Dead Reckoning tragedy.

Katherine was still talking when Spurs thoughts slammed back to the present. “ . . . Paul tried to stop me, but I was mad as hell. I drove off, tears in my eyes, damned near choking, I was crying so hard. I was driving way too fast for those old hilly dirt roads. Lost control. Went in the ditch. Hit a tree. Never walked again.

“When I woke up three days later in the hospital, Paul was right there by my bedside. The room was full of flowers. His eyes were red as peeled tomatoes when he told me your mother had drowned. She’d packed up and took you to Hawaii to be closer to Oliver the day after the accident. She hadn’t even told your father the two of you had come out. She’d rented a car and the two of you went straight from the airport to a beach. No one saw her alive again.

* * *

In front of the Royses’ house, Spurs grabbed her uncle Paul by the shoulder and spun him to face her.

“I asked you a question; why?” Spurs said.
“Or better,
how
—how could you?”

SINS OF THE FATHER

“
How
?”

The question covered more than just the terrorist plot. The affair. This was the man who had not only betrayed his country but also his own stepbrother and his wife. It was because of him that her mother had died and her father was so distant to her.

“I never intended for you to get hurt, Spurs.”

“What about the other six thousand Americans?”

“They were just names on paper. You were different. Spurs, you can’t begin to imagine how much I care for you,” he said looking pleadingly into her eyes. “I tried to stop it once I found out you were on the
Atchison
. It was too late. The wheels had already been set into motion. They wouldn’t listen to me.”

Spurs had to turn away.

“Just names on paper,” Hunter repeated.

Royse said, “I’m sorry Darren.”

Hunter shook his head.

“You betrayed your country—everybody,” Spurs
said, the anger and pain swelling up in her chest. “Over a hundred people died because of you!”

Royse laid his briefcase on the hood and opened it.

“It’s all here. Documented times, places, notes. Names of the terrorists, contacts, their leader. The countries and world leaders who contributed money and weapons. It’s all here. I knew you’d be coming to see me sometime soon.” He glanced back at Spurs. “I didn’t think you’d be able to kill Darren.”

“You can’t undo what you’ve done,” Spurs said. “There’s no kind of surgery that will undo what you’ve done to Katherine. And you really had me fooled. I thought you were the most honest, wonderful man I knew. Up until today, if I’d had my choice, I would rather have had you for a father.”

Royse seemed unable to do anything but stare back at her.

Spurs thought of Royse’s code name, Chameleon, and said, “But life’s not about what you’ve done— what you are on the outside. It’s what’s in your heart. And, Uncle Paul, it’s there, deep down inside you that scares me. That’s the ugliest part of this whole thing.”

“Always so bright, Spurs,” Royse said. “You deserved a better hand than you were dealt.”

“Me? How’s that?”
Ironic
, she thought. Before, she’d wished he was her real father, now she was glad they weren’t blood relatives.

“I guess it’s time—for the truth. I owe you that much—the truth.” He smiled at her, but that smile that used to exude warmth gave her a prickly chill. “You look so much like your mother—except for that beautiful strawberry blonde hair, of course. That’s why Oliver could never tell you. He saw your mother in those beautiful eyes of yours. Poor man, at the same time, he saw your mother’s unfaithfulness, my deceit, adultery.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The afternoon your mother committed suicide was the worst day of all of our lives.”

Spurs lost her breath. Her head swam and she felt dizzy. She leaned against Royse’s car to steady herself.
Committed suicide?
“She drowned!”

“Yes, she drowned. She couldn’t live with it anymore. The guilt was driving her insane.”

“The guilt for the affair?”

“You.”

“Me?”

“Still, you were the brightest spot in her life— don’t forget that, Spurs. Not only did we have an affair, your mother and I, it went on for nearly thirteen years.”

Spurs felt her eyes bugging. She took short gasping breaths.

“You’re my daughter, Spurs.” Royce reached out and touched her hair. “You have your grandmother’s hair.”

She took a step back so that he couldn’t touch her.

He said to Hunter, “You knew Oliver Sperling— the Admiral—was my stepbrother.”

Hunter nodded.

“His mother died when he was born. Spurs’ Grandpa Sperling—my step dad—married my mother seven years later when I was six. Oliver and I were close, though, me just a year his junior.”

Royse turned back to Spurs. “
You
knew all that. But, did you know my hair was just like
my
mother's? And
your
hair just like mine—except mine’s mighty gray, now. The Admiral knew. That’s why he stayed out to sea so much. He couldn’t bear it. But he also couldn’t shirk what he considered his responsibility. And he loved your mother so much. He got to the point he didn’t care what went on, just as long as your mother was happy. He just buried his heart in the Navy. I know it sounds incredible—but love is different things for different people.

“And Katherine—she’s a saint. She turned her head and chose not to see what was going on underneath her very nose. But when she and you saw me in your mother’s window—well, that iced it. She drove off, sure that she was through with me. Then, after the accident—and your mother died—well, we became dependent on each other to cope with the whole mess—and to raise you. I know that sounds strange, and you probably can’t understand it, but we still loved each other. And we loved you.”

Royse gazed off dreamily and continued. “But your mother and I—God, Spurs—we were so
much
in love, like nothing else either had ever felt. We couldn’t help it, Spurs.”

The pressure built in Spurs’ head, her eyes widened. “I don’t believe you.”

“I can’t blame you. Everyone knew it but you. Somehow, we thought the truth would be wrong. It was better to live a lie. Seems like that lie turned everyone’s world upside down. Be patient with the Admiral. He’s a good man. He’s done his best. He gave you everything he could because of the love he had for your mother.”

“Except, his love—to me.” Spurs looked to her feet and shook her head. “Now it makes sense. Poor Aunt Katherine.”

“Of course, she’s known it since she saw your pretty hair too, on the day you were born. Most kids are born with dark hair—but not you. It was like you were going to show the world who you really were that first day. Katherine hated me for a long time, but she never said anything. I think she tried to fool herself—tell herself that it was some sort of coincidence. And, your mother—it gnawed on your mother whenever she looked at me—hell, whenever she looked at you. Your mother was a good woman, though. It was just too much for her—your father being away all that time.”

Nothing was said for a long moment. It seemed there was nothing more for any of them to say.

Spurs didn’t look forward to the next step, taking her uncle Paul—her biological father—to jail, but, as they stood there, a car with three suits parked at the curb. Hunter pulled out a pair of handcuffs and began to place them on Royse’s wrists.

“Please, Darren,” Royse said. “Please let me see Katherine one more time—without the cuffs—once more—just me and her.”

Spurs thought for a moment, then nodded to Hunter. “What could it hurt?”

They led him into the house and into the large atrium where Katherine waited in her bed.

Katherine smiled at them all, nearly glowing.

Hunter searched Royse for any kind of weapon and found none. He and Spurs glanced around the large windows and walls of the room. There was only one door that a person could
escape through.

They left the Royses to have privacy, closed the door and turned to confront the officers who had just stepped onto the front steps.

As Spurs and Hunter walked down the hall toward them, it occurred to her that they should have checked under Katherine’s mattress.

Two shots rang out.

DAYS OF SAND AND HORSES

AFTER THE
ATCHISON
sank, Spurs had been unwilling to check on her little hero Saber—thinking he’d most likely been run over by Chardoff and his thugs. She couldn’t bear to find out that he’d been killed, preferred instead to imagine that, somehow, the wily little guy had evaded death’s grip, again.

He had—and Ma’hami had been very fortunate as a result. Struck down by the terrorists’ car, Saber had fallen into a cluster of trash barrels in the alley. He was able to conceal the pain from his severely twisted right leg, and, seeing that he wasn’t moving and his leg was broken in two places, the thugs left him for dead. After they’d driven away, Saber was able to drag himself a mile and a half to Ma’hami’s café—just in time to save the critically injured restaurateur’s life. Unconscious from a blow to the head and his throat slit, Ma’hami was slowly bleeding to death. Luckily, Chardoff’s knife had only nicked Ma’hami’s carotid artery. Ma’hami’s wife nursed him and Saber back to health after their short stay in the hospital. The doctor was sure Saber would be walking normal again in a few months, and the six inch scar on the right side of Ma’hami’s throat was
his
only remnant of Chardoff’s attack.

Three months later, a single cruise missile wiped out the terrorist leader Ma’amoun Al-Tayib and his followers at their hideout in Libya. On that day, Janelle Sperling and Darren Hunter heard the news and rejoiced while making wedding preparations for the following month. They would exchange vows in an Annapolis chapel and Oliver Sperling would give away the bride. Spurs had hopes that, even though she and the Admiral weren’t blood bound, they could start a relationship in which a healing process could begin for the both of them—a relationship neither had found, but each had always longed for.

Harley Burgess was to be Hunter’s best man. For the past three months, he hadn’t been able to apologize enough for putting Spurs so deep into harm's way. She had assured him that he’d done the right thing. He’d risked one life to save thousands. He’d had no other option.

Three days after the wedding in the states, the newlyweds would fly to Tunisia and restate their vows. In their second ceremony, Saber, most likely with a cast on his right leg, would give Spurs away, and Ma’hami would stand up for the groom.

For the next three weeks they’d honeymoon on the white sandy beaches of North Africa, riding Ma’hami’s Arabian horses and making love under the moonlight.

###

If you enjoyed
Dead Reckoning
and have any comments

or questions, please share them with the author:

Gordon A. Kessler:

mailto:[email protected]

http://gordonkessler.com

By

Gordon A Kessler

Copyright Gordon Kessler 2011

This book is
a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Kindle Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be resold or given away. If you did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your
use only, please go to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

ASIN: B0053Y1JFI

JEZEBEL
Copyright © 2001 Gordon A Kessler

eBook copyright 2011

Lyrics from “JULIE, DO YA LOVE ME” as written by Tom Bahler © 1970 Green Apple Music/Sequel Music Assigned 1986 Fricon Music Company/Green Apple Music/ Sequel Music USED BY PERMISSION ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Cover Designed by: Gordon A Kessler. Copyright © 2001 Gordon A Kessler http://GordonKessler.com, http://www.ReadersMatrix.com

EBook Version 05.05.2012

Paperback version:

ISBN-10:
0738841226
ISBN-13:
978-0738841229