In Case of Death (The Adventures of Gabriel Celtic Book 3) (2 page)

I have to admit however, that even before I knew she was my daughter, I had come to respect her insight and strength. After the initial shock of discovering I had fathered her while in Vietnam, it was an easy jump to acceptance of the facts. Not that I claim any special parenting abilities, mind you.

Smiling now at Abby, “I have a feeling that we will have a
real
case waiting for us when we get back.”

“Oh yeah,” she said as she looked back down at her papers again. “Is this one of your intuitions speaking…one of your visions?”

“No,” I laughed, “just a hunch.”

I would often have dreams that gave me clues to a big case when I was working one.  They had been long absent since Abby and I had broken our last murder case. A monk in the Catholic Church had taken it upon himself to weed out the sinners of the various parishes he would be assigned.

The weeding out was of the permanent nature!
(1)

I
was
disturbed by a couple of dreams that I had experienced lately though. Nothing to do with the mysterious room I usually visited when I had a vision, but of an old girlfriend from high school. I hadn’t thought much about her in years before the dreams started coming, especially since I had met and married Betty.

My lovely Betty had been murdered over two years ago now, and I still missed her daily.
(2)
But I had finally come somewhat to terms with her death last year, and even though I still missed her, I now knew that I could keep on living without her.

Abby had been very instrumental in bringing me to that point.

“Hunches are good!” Abby said while looking over her shoulder at the prisoner we had handcuffed in the back seat. “I’ll take one of your hunches any day!”

Looking into the rearview mirror, I spotted our prisoner; a trickle of dried blood had run down his forehead onto his nose. Having attached his handcuffs to a special steel ring we had installed in the back seat, he had worked for the first hour to get out of them. Failing that, he had decided it would be a good idea to beat his head against the steel mesh divider we had installed between the front and back seats.

He had finally calmed down after almost knocking himself out, drawing blood in the process.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” he said when he caught me looking back at him.

“We will be back home in an hour,” I said as I again concentrated on the road ahead, “You can hold it that long.”

“I’m gonna piss myself in like five minutes!” he puffed out loudly, “You better pull off!”

“Everything’s vinyl back there Adam…go for it!”

Looking up in the mirror again I saw a confused look cross his face, surprised I guess by my cavalier attitude. Anytime you could avoid releasing a secured prisoner, you were better off.

Seeming to give up on the idea, and apparently not that bad off after all, he finally leaned back in his seat. Time would tell if he tried something else before we got back to Allenville.

I hated bounty hunting.

Chapter 3

March 5, 1999

Cairo, Egypt 

Lieutenant Botros pulled up to the bazaar in his faded blue Nasr automobile. Turning the key to shut off the motor, the car continued to rattle and sputter for several moments before finally dying. By the time it stopped however, the officer was several feet away as he walked toward his men.

Seeing the Lieutenant approach, a private whispered to him,
“another American.”
Lifting the yellow tape erected to keep others away from the crime scene, Botros nodded, feigning boredom as he proceeded toward the body sprawled on the ground.

Noticing the owner of the bazaar standing off to the side of the path, the policeman changed directions, making his way over to him instead of the body.

“Good morning Omar,” he yelled in his native language as he flashed his best fake smile. “Sorry to hear about yet another murder in your fine establishment.” Stopping directly in front of the man now, “I’m afraid we will have to maintain the crime scene for several hours until we can get to the bottom of this. It is indeed unfortunate that your business will be hampered in such a way. ”

Placing his hand on the officer’s shoulder, Omar gently turned Botros so that they were facing away from the crowd.

Handing him an envelope, he uttered, “250 pounds as usual…for you and your fine men, Lieutenant.”

Pocketing the envelope with a smile, the policeman assured him that he would handle the situation.

Turning to his men, he yelled, “Just another accident men, call the funeral house and let’s get him ready to transport back to his home country!”

Turning back to Omar, “These Americans, such a careless people.”

Returning to his car, he removed two hundred pounds and placed them into his pocket…he would split the rest with his men later.

As the car sputtered back to life, Botros smiled as he shifted it into gear.

It has indeed been a good day.

Chapter 4

September 14, 1999

I turned on the kitchen light as we piled into the house carrying our equipment. It had been a long couple of days, and we were both exhausted.

“I’ll take care of the costumes if you get the weapons,” Abby mumbled tiredly. I nodded and grabbed up the guns to deposit into the safe. I figured that cleaning them could wait until the morning.

Abby took the clothes we used for our disguises and deposited them into the washing machine, everything except my ratty gray wig. She lovingly deposited this on the head of a plaster bust of Caesar, patting it playfully with a smile before reentering the kitchen.

“I’m beat!” she exclaimed as she came over and gave me a peck on the cheek. “I’m going to bed.”

I reached around her shoulder with one arm and gave her a quick hug.

“Ok kid, see ya in the morning.”

I had invited Abby to live at the house with me when we had started our business. She had happily accepted, setting herself up in the unused downstairs bedroom. Having been apart for most of
her
life, we both still relished any time that we could spend together.

Her sometime guest and boyfriend, Nathan Stafford, was not here tonight, as we had not known when we would return. When he was here however, he was a welcome addition to the family. The old house hadn’t known this much activity in years.

Heading into the office from where we ran the agency, I contemplated making a pot of coffee. Looking at the clock, I realized that it was almost 10:00, and decided against it. Not that I ever had trouble sleeping after drinking coffee late, I just didn’t have the energy to make it.

Deciding quickly to just go to bed, I began to turn toward the stairs when the phone started screaming at me.

What the hell?

I couldn’t imagine who would be calling this late at night, and was not happy as I retraced my steps back to the desk.

“Celtic,” I almost yelled as I picked up the receiver.

There was silence for a long few moments, and I was contemplating hanging up when I heard a soft voice say, “Gabe?”

“I’m sorry to call so late, but I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all day.”

I glanced down at the answering machine, noticing finally the fast blinking indicator. Since Abby usually took care of returning calls, I very seldom paid it any attention.

“Anyway,” the voice continued, “I’ve been trying to contact you because I believe I may be in need of your services…if you have time that is.”

There was something very familiar about the voice but I couldn’t place it. Normally I may have let the person talk until I could figure it out, but I was majorly tired and had very little patience left for the day.

“Who is this?” I finally asked, a little too gruffly.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” A nervous giggle crossed the phone line. “I guess I was just assuming you would know who it was. This is May… May Lassiter.”

***

May Andres Lassiter was my best buddy from before I could remember. I had also longed for her to be my girlfriend for many years, but it just hadn’t been in the stars. She had married a fine man out of college, moved to Indianapolis, and had a couple of boys if I remembered right.

We had communicated less and less as the years progressed, with her Christmas cards being our only real contact anymore. I felt a little guilty over my lack of keeping up my end of the friendship.

“May? This is a surprise…”

I detected what I thought was a sniffle before she answered.

“I know, I’m sorry Gabe…life just seems to get in the way of old friendships.”

“I’m not complaining May…we all do the best we can. So what’s up with you these days?” I asked as I tried to remember any details from her last Christmas card.

“I need to hire you Gabe…can we meet tomorrow?”

I readily agreed to meet her and wrote down the address, a local address I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I determined that I would figure it out tomorrow as we said good night.

I was puzzled. I couldn’t fathom what she would possibly need my services for, but I was looking forward to seeing my old friend nonetheless.

As I made my way up the stairs to get ready for bed, I thought about my old pal and our times together.

We had been through a lot.

But an even stranger thought was nagging at me. Having thought of May less and less over the years, it was strange that she should call at this point in time.

As I lay down, I hoped that the dreams I had been having would not keep me awake most of the night as they had been…the dreams of May.

Chapter 5

September 15, 1999

The room was warm and comfortable as usual, and my heart skipped a beat at finally being here again. I made my way over to the chair and took my seat, taking up the mug filled with the most intoxicating coffee ever made.

Glancing over at the table while I drank, I saw that the board had been set up for a new game of chess. I concentrated on the game for a few moments and made a move.

I was certain that it was my grandfather who tested me in these games. Having died over 30 years ago now, he had taught me the game in my youth. Challenging me with every match to beat him on my terms, he would never take it easy on me or just let me win.

There were no easy choices in chess…or in life.

Having finally formed a strategy, I leaned back to watch the fire as I continued to sip on the hot black liquid.

The fireplace glowed as it filled the room with warmth and light, but soon the light started dimming as I realized that my now heavy eyelids were closing. Knowing I could not stop the process, I let the cup settle into my lap as my eyes finished closing.

I was surrounded by darkness. I looked around, trying to get my bearings. Faintly at first, I heard the sound of children playing in the background. A warm breeze washed over me as I found myself sitting on my bed…my bed from a long time ago!

“There you are!”

Startled out of my reverie, I looked up to see May standing in the doorway. Beautiful May, my next door neighbor who I thought I was secretly in love with.

She looked to be about sixteen, which I thought was strange until I realized that I also seemed to be that age. The memory of the day came flooding back then, it was my grandfather’s funeral. I had been holed up all day in my room, reading his journal and effectively ignoring the throng of people milling about.
(4)

“Hi!” I sputtered as I sat up quickly, trying to act cool.

May came over and sat next to me on the bed like we did it every day. She then grabbed my hand and looked deeply into my eyes with concern on her face.

“I’m really sorry about Gramps, I really miss him too.” A tear pooled up in the corner of her eye as she said this. “It won’t be the same around here without him.”

Being like one of the family in my Granddad’s eyes, May had been included in many of our activities over the years. Granddad and May had developed a special relationship of their own, and it had always seemed natural to me. It was always comforting having May around.

Reaching up to May’s face, I gently wiped the tear away with my thumb. She smiled a sad smile, and reached over and gave me a hug.

“We’ll get through this together,” she whispered in my ear, “I promise.”

My heart pounded loudly in my chest as we hugged each other for a long time.

Finally pulling away, “Your mom said the meal is ready, we should go down.” I nodded as she stood and then pulled me up with her hand, giving it a squeeze before pulling me toward the hallway.