Tim finished eating in no time. He looked at the kids and asked, “How are you guys holding up?”
Pete looked at Tim for a long minute. “Daddy, can we just go to bed now?”
Tim smiled at his son. “We sure can. Let’s get to the room and get some sleep.” He paid the bill and gave the waitress a nice tip.
“Why, thank you, sweetie,” she said as she counted the money.
Tim wanted to suggest that she save it for some dental work, but he didn’t.
They walked out of the restaurant and carefully crossed the highway. He sensed fear as they were wrapped in…
the fog
.
He had been lying silently in the grass for more than an hour. The fog was his envelope. He could not be seen. He had watched the woman and the two children go into the restaurant. He also saw the man go to the room at the end of the motel wing.
He fought off the physical passion he felt building within him. His mental strength and discipline forced him to concentrate on the details playing out in front of him. Mistakes were not an option. They never were. Mistakes were for those who would be caught and punished for their stupidity. That would not happen tonight.
All was perfect. There would be no mistakes. He knew that the fog would drive people to this motel. He had watched the others come. But none of them had children.
His mind drifted to what he would do with either one of them. His hand began to tremble as he rubbed himself with satisfaction. His breathing got deeper as his passion grew to the point of pain. In his mind’s eye, he saw the look of terror and horror from what had happened so long ago. He thought he had purged all of that evil from his mind. But now it had come back with a vengeance—from hell. He heard the screams and felt the release that came from his final act. He was living it all over again. He snapped his head back as he focused on the motel room door that the family had just entered.
He knew that it was now out of control. It would happen again. All of God’s power couldn’t stop what would be his deed. The past was now a fury in his mind. He could not escape his own plan. And neither could one of those children.
He crawled along the hedge line closer to the room. He knew he was invisible to all except God, and that didn’t matter. His face was painted as black as the night. The fog was his cover. His training of so long ago had prepared him for this very moment.
A tiny frog leaped and landed by his nose as he crawled. He quickly pinched it between two fingers and put it in his mouth. He slowly swallowed and thought of a time when he had survived on less. It was that time and place that drove him crazy with the demons who now returned in force.
He was now within ten feet of their room and their car parked outside it. His heartbeat slowed as he controlled all of his senses. Time lost all meaning. He looked up as he heard their motel room door creak open. He sharpened his focus and couldn’t believe what was unfolding before him.
His moment was near.
More than two years had passed in his life. Some days had been longer than others. The shorter days were those he spent doing things that had escaped him when he lived the corporate existence. There was now time for kayaking along the New River or hiking along the Rocky Knob Gorge along the Blue Ridge Parkway. There was time to plan his hike of the Appalachian Trail, all twenty-one hundred miles of it, from Georgia to Maine.
The long days happened when he was alone with his thoughts. Flashbacks of tender moments shared with Ellen were painful. The kids and grandkids had busy lives of their own. Soccer games and school activities took most of their time. He attended and cheered as often as he could. Face-to-face interaction faded to telephone calls, which quickly morphed into text messages. Their lives changed, and so did his.
Friends played Cupid and planned dinners with single women who they thought would be great matches for him. He endured many awkward moments as he tried to be sociable with women with whom he had absolutely nothing in common. Facebook friends suggested female friends who they believed might fill the void in his life. Anthony, a Twitter aficionado, brought new faces to his attention, but he simply wasn’t ready for another person in his life.
He had become comfortable in his aloneness. He ran in the morning as each new day dawned. He immersed himself in the online editions of the
Wall Street Journal
and the
New York Times
during breakfast. His new road bike came out after lunch as he rode mile after mile on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Evenings were for emails to the children and friends who were checking in on his mental well-being. Time slowed to a delightful crawl as he engaged in his passion for fine wine which was the path to mellow moments watching mountain sunsets. Life was settling into a very comfortable rhythm.
* * *
The invitation was delivered by overnight mail. His new life had no need for overnight mail. Much to his surprise, the interior envelope was from the FBI. That got his attention. What looked like a fancy wedding invitation was actually an invitation to a retirement party.
Randy O’Brien, the number two man at the FBI, was about to retire to his farm in Montana. Randy was a senior administrator who was well liked by the rank and file. He was fair and as direct as he needed to be, and he avoided the usual Washington bullshit. Quinn knew him from some work they had done to help clear a young agent who was accused of taking bribes from a corporate mover and shaker. Quinn’s expertise in corporate financial crime helped him get to the bottom of the allegations and clear the agent, who happened to be Randy’s nephew. The Bureau would never admit that they had solicited outside help to get one of their own out of a jam. Randy never forgot Quinn’s contribution. He became a good resource in Washington as well as throughout the Bureau’s global labyrinth of networks.
The invitation came at just the right time. Perhaps a trip to the other end of Virginia and the District might be a pleasant diversion. Besides, he hadn’t been to DC Coast, a swanky watering hole used by politicos and business executives, in years. He could catch up with two of his favorite barkeeps, Laura and Ned. He had met them before they were married and when they had just started working at the Coast. While he hadn’t seen them in a while, they stayed in touch on Facebook.
* * *
The five-hour drive across Virginia was peaceful. After he checked into the Sheraton in Crystal City, he took the Metro into the District. When he walked into DC Coast, Laura ran around the bar and jumped into his arms.
“You big, handsome man!” she blurted out as she kissed him.
He gave her a peck on the cheek as Ned pulled out a bar stool for him.
“You don’t mind me kissing Laura, do you?” He shot a quick look at Ned. “Hey, you might be married to her, but I know she loves me.” Quinn continued.
“Hey, old man, she can kiss you all she wants. Then she’ll understand what kissing an old fart is all about!”
They laughed and reminisced while he sipped some very good white wine. After a while, he looked at his watch and realized he needed to get to the private reception area for O’Brien’s retirement gala. Being late was not an option.
A pretty, young waitress handed him a flute of champagne as he entered the room. There had to be fifty or so people in attendance. He recognized some of them as career FBI agents and some from other agencies. He mingled and made polite conversation about Randy’s accomplishments. Out of the corner of his eye, he focused on a tall, attractive redhead who was making the rounds in the crowd. It suddenly dawned on him that she was Louisa Hawke. The grapevine had passed along an e-mail announcing her recent retirement from the Bureau as chief of the Criminal Investigation Division at headquarters. Rumor had it that she didn’t see eye-to-eye with Peter Finch, the newly appointed director of the FBI. He had met her in passing on one of his visits on the O’Brien assignment. She certainly was easy on the eyes.
His delightful train of thought was interrupted by a hand resting on his right shoulder. He turned to see Randy O’Brien smiling at him. “She’s a remarkable and very attractive woman,” he remarked, noticing the direction of Quinn’s gaze.
“Can’t deny that, my friend. She must be making someone happy.” Quinn suggested.
Randy laughed. “Not recently. I believe she has been a free agent for quite some time now. She was the consummate professional workaholic. There was never any time in her life for a relationship.”
Now there’s an interesting piece of intelligence,
he thought.
“Quinn, I’m very sorry about your loss and that I couldn’t be with you during your time of need. Ellen was much too young to leave this world. I sincerely hope that you’re feeling better with each new day,” Randy offered.
For a moment or so, Quinn was silent. “Randy, I’ve had to deal with some crappy situations in my life. I have seen and lived with all amounts of grief. But never has my life been as devastated as it was, and for a while there was no end in sight. The rock of my life was taken in a heartbeat. She never heard me say goodbye.” he paused and then said, “It’s all finally coming around, my friend.”
They caught up with each other for the next ten minutes or so. He was soon pulled away as the formal part of the gathering started. He enjoyed hearing kudos showered upon a public servant as deserving as Randy. He was a credit to the FBI and would be missed.
After the event wound down, he slipped back to the bar to spend a few more minutes with Laura and Ned. As he sidled into the empty stool near the end of the bar, Laura said, “That was some high-powered group of folks in that room, Quinn. Did I see the attorney general arrive a little late in the evening?”
“That indeed was the man who runs the whole justice show. It was a real tribute to Randy that he gave up some of his precious family time to be here tonight,” he offered.
They continued to catch up, with lots of past highlights and gossip to digest.
Suddenly, Quinn thought he detected a female voice addressing him. He looked around to see Louisa Hawke standing next to him.
“Is this stool taken, Mister McSpain?”
He was taken aback for a moment before he blurted out, “It’s reserved for a pretty redhead who plans to buy me a drink.”
She smiled a sly little smile as she slid in next to him. He immediately felt her presence and tried his best not to show it. Laura winked at him from the other end of the bar.
“What are you drinking?” he asked.
“Whatever you’re having will be fine,” she answered.
“I was just thinking of a great white wine I love that’s actually from a Virginia vineyard. Chateau Morrisette in Meadows of Dan makes Angel Chardonnay. Have you ever had it?”
She looked at him and laughed. “First of all, where the hell is Meadows-of-What in Virginia?”
“I guess you simply have spent too much time here in northern Virginia and have neglected the more scenic parts of the commonwealth.” He looked at Ned. “One bottle of Angel Chardonnay for the lady.”
“Do you remember me, Quinn?” Louisa asked.
“Let me take a look at my card catalog of great looking redheads who cut a gorgeous silhouette, are brilliant, and just happen to be sitting next to me.”
She laughed uncontrollably.
“Of course, I remember meeting you. It’s too bad we never got to know each other. I was busy helping Randy O’Brien, and you were busy being you.”
“I understand what you did for Randy’s nephew. Your hard work saved his ass. We were all convinced he was guilty as hell. We were glad you proved us wrong. Many of us—me included—didn’t want you involved at all.”
“I was happy to do what needed to be done. He didn’t deserve all the crap the Bureau put him through. Maybe I just got lucky in the end.”
“Quinn, you were much more than lucky. You were very professional and got the job done.” She paused for a moment and then changed the subject. I’m so sorry that you lost your wife. Randy tells me that you were one of the most happily married couples he ever knew.” “When did he tell you that?” he asked.
She blushed. “Well, to be honest, about an hour ago when I asked him if you were married.”
They both smiled. Just then, Ned arrived from the other end of the bar, bottle and glasses in hand. “Hey, are you two ready for some great wine?”
“I guess we are,” Quinn replied as he thought about Louisa’s probing question to Randy.
As Ned poured just the right amount of wine into their glasses, his BlackBerry chimed with a text message. He took a peek at the screen. It was message from Laura at the other end of the bar.
“She is so hot, Quinn!”
“Tim, this room is awful!”
“For crying out loud, Susan, it’s all we could get and it’ll have to do!” Tim retorted. He reached for his cell phone. “I’m going to call my brother and tell him we’re going to be late.”
The kids were watching TV and it was way too loud. Tim went into the tiny bathroom and sat down on the toilet. Susan squeezed in beside him.
“I’m taking a shower,” she announced. She leaned on him as she started to take her clothes off.
Katie appeared at the door. “Mommy, Daddy, I forgot my teddy in the car. I need teddy to sleep tonight.”
“Pete,” called Susan, “Go out to the car with your sister. Take the keys and lock it after you get her teddy.”
Pete proudly grabbed the car keys and motioned for Katie to follow him. Already in their pajamas, they walked out the door and into the parking lot.
* * *
He saw the children come out from the room. He expected to see a parent follow, but instead the young girl followed as the boy unlocked the car with the electronic button. The little girl went into the back seat, looking for something.
He knew he had to act fast. He silently sprang up from the side of the hedge and reached the boy in a single motion. He clamped his hand across the boy’s mouth and nose and held his thumb on his carotid artery. The boy looked at him in horror but didn’t move until he quickly slumped, unconscious, in the cradle of his arm.
The little girl finally found what she was looking for and slowly backed out of the back seat, holding a teddy. Still holding the boy with one hand, he slipped his other hand around the girl’s head and clamped down hard on her mouth and nose. She began to wiggle but soon passed out. He pulled them both close to his body and fell back behind the hedge. Out of sight now, he dropped to his knees and pulled them both along in the tall grass around the building to where he had parked his van.