Authors: Arlene Brathwaite
“You’re late,” Saint screamed out of an upstairs window. “The party’s over. Everyone’s dead.”
“You’re not.”
“That’s the only way you’re getting me out of this house.”
“Listen to me—” Dale ducked behind a tree as Saint emptied the .45 into the front yard. The Snipers, who were posted in the trees opened fire.
Dale sniffed the air and then cocked his head. “Hold your fire!” he said into the bullhorn. “You smell that?” he asked the agent who had took cover behind a tree next to him.
“It smells like gasoline.
“What the fuck is going on?” he said out loud, but to no one in particular. Then he saw it. Thick black smoke was seeping out the house.
“Shit, we need a fire truck,” Dale yelled. “ASAP. And I need a couple agents willing to go in with me.”
“Are you out of your mind?” One of the agents said.
“Do you know who this guy is?” Dale asked.
“I don’t give a fuck who he is. I’m trying to risk my life to catch him.”
Dale looked around and realized that the other agents felt the same way. The only other one who was willing to go back in, was one of the women that Glenn and the rest of the women were restraining.
I can’t believe that I’m just going to sit here and watch this man turn to charcoal
. He knew there was no way out. They had the whole mansion surrounded. He thought back to the call he received earlier that morning from Saint, wanting to turn himself in. He had given him the mansion’s address and told him to be there no later than four o’clock on the dot or he was leaving. He looked at his watch, it was four-thirty.
Glenn stopped struggling with Olivia when the phone that Saint gave him started to ring. “Oh shit!” He fished it out of his pocket and answered it. “Hello!”
“Calm down.”
“Calm down—”
“Put her on the phone.”
“What’s happening in there?”
“Put her on,” Saint said, a little firmer.
“He’s on the phone,” Glenn said holding it out to Olivia.
She immediately stopped struggling and snatched it from him. “Saint?”
“If we would’ve met in another life time, we would’ve been the perfect couple.”
“Don’t do this to me, please. Come out of there. I’ll empty my bank account, sell my business, my house, whatever. We can disappear, go anywhere in the world, and spend the rest of our lives together.”
Saint was silent, as if he was really considering her proposal. “I’m tired of putting the lives of the ones I care about in danger. I can never love someone without someone else wanting to kill them. It’ll be better for everyone this way.”
“Not for me. Saint, I’m begging you. Don’t leave me.”
“I’ll always be with you. I love you.”
“Saint? Saint?” Olivia shook the phone and put it back to her ear, but all she heard was the dial tone. Then she heard an explosion.
The house was totally engulfed in flames, now, and the fire truck was no where in sight.
Six months later, Glenn and Grace’s dream was becoming a reality.
“Do you, Glenn Lemora, take Grace Williams to be your lawfully wedded wife, until death do you part?”
“I do.”
“And do you, Grace Williams, take Glenn Lemora to be your lawfully wedded husband until death do you part?”
“I do.”
“By the power invested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
Everyone in the church stood and clapped as Glenn and Grace shared their first kiss as Mr. and Mrs. Lemora. Olivia couldn’t wait to get out of her bride’s maid outfit. She peeked over her shoulder at Baby, and by the way she kept tugging and adjusting the spaghetti straps, she could tell she couldn’t wait either. She looked out into the sea of faces, astonished that the church was nearly filled to its capacity.
Toward the back of the church, she spotted a couple. An older man with a young woman. Her heart started to race as she made eye contact with him. He was thinner than she remembered, but the eyes were unmistakenly his.
No matter how much we try and disguise ourselves, we can never fool the ones we love
. His words echoed in her head, as she stepped down from the altar. She worked her way through the crowd of guests, never taking her eyes off him. She was so focused on not letting him out of her eye sight that she bumped into Grace’s grandmother.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Williams.”
“You’re getting married next, I feel it in my bones.”
Olivia smiled at her and then redirected her attention back to the gentleman in the back. Her breath got caught in her throat when she looked up and didn’t see him. Half running, half walking, she approached the young woman.
“Where did he go?”
“Excuse me?”
“The man you’re with, where did he go?”
“I’m not with any man. I came alone.”
“There was a man, just standing next to you.”
“If he was, I didn’t notice him.”
Olivia ran out of the church and stood at the top of the stairs, looking around.
“You okay?” Miki asked, following her out of the church.
“Yeah… I’m fine. I just needed some air.”
“Looks like you were looking for someone.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You thought you seen him again, didn’t you?”
Olivia sighed. “He’s not dead, Miki.”
“He’s gone, and you have to accept that.”
“That’s not what my gut’s telling me.”
“You mean the official CIA report that Mike pulled strings to get you.”
“If you count Van, his three men, Seeger, Saint, and Josephine, that’s seven. But the report says they only recovered five bodies from the fire. They identified Seeger through his dental records and the other four could not be identified. And of the four, none of them were female.”
“Keep in mind, Olivia that you have a copy of the ‘official’ CIA report.‘Official’, meaning, putting on paper
only
what people need to know. So, they could’ve just as easily left Saint and Josephine’s bodies out of the report.”
“What about the information Gates dug up for me?”
“That French private investigator you hired in France to do a trace on the name Saint gave you, Saint Mac something?”
“Saint Christopher Mackalister. Doesn’t it sound too much of a coincidence that the only Saint Christopher Mackalister he could dig up was one who died in a fire at the age of fourteen? The same age Saint was when him and Josephine left the covenant.”
“Saint never mentioned the convent burning down.”
“According to Gates, the fire department ruled the fire was started with rags and gasoline. Everyone was able to get out, but the young nun who was caring for the young Mackalister. He ran back in to try and save her. When the firemen tried to go in after him, a beam fell in front of them, blocking anyone from going in or coming out. You’ve got to see what I’m seeing here, Miki.”
“Okay, for all intents and purposes, let’s say him and Josephine somehow made it out of there, that still doesn’t change the fact that he’s not coming back.”
“He came back once.”
Miki looked away as she pulled her shawl over her bare shoulders.
“I know he’s not coming back,” Olivia finally said. “I would be able to deal with this much better if I knew for certain that he, in fact, did make it out alive, and that the CIA isn’t just doing one of their infamous cover ups.”
Miki put her arm around her. “There’s one thing you can be certain about. You know he wouldn’t want you to put your life on hold, hoping that one day he will return.”
“You’re right.”
“What you two had was special, and you will always have a piece of him with you. Right in here.” Miki pointed to her heart.
They both looked up as the church door opened.
“There you are,” Baby said, stepping out. “Y’all got us in here looking all over for you two.”
“Girl, put your strap back on your shoulder. You ain’t wearing overalls,” Olivia said.
“I can’t wait to get out of this girly outfit,” she said pulling the strap back on her shoulder. “What are y’all doing out here, anyway?”
“We’re just getting some air,” Miki said, winking at Olivia.
In Sri Lanka, in the highlands, a middle-aged woman carefully plucks the ripest leaves for her famous Ceylon tea. Long days in the sun has pleasantly baked her skin to a cinnamon complexion. She continues to carefully select her leaves, although she felt someone approaching.
“How was the wedding?” she asked without turning around.
“How’d you know it was me?”
“Woman’s intuition.”
Dressed in a worn, orange robe, Saint gazes over the country side and then closes his eyes. His mind takes him back to the day him and Josephine first visited the mansion in the Catskills. He wasn’t too fond of the hundred and fifty year old mansion. Just as he was going to tell the real estate agent that they weren’t interested, he took them down into the basement. He started explaining to them how the architect had the furnace installed away from the house so that the noise and smoke wouldn’t disturb the occupants.
They stopped in front of the steam tunnel that led to the furnace. It was about five feet in diameter.
“We’ll take it,” Saint remembered saying. He had a contractor come in a few weeks later and re-route the steam tunnel. Instead of it ending at the furnace, it now led out into the woods to a cave.
Then his mind flashed to the moment he kissed Olivia’s hand and closed the front door.
“Josephine! We’ve got to get out of here.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said, looking at his forearm. She could see the bullet protruding through the skin.
“Do you want to stay here and die or do you want to leave?” “What do you need me to do?”
“Follow me.”
They ran to the basement where Saint had two pressurized canisters by the mouth of the steam tunnel. “You know the drill,” he said handing her one. They headed back up stairs. Josephine drenched the first floor with gasoline while Saint did the same on the second.
“Mr. Andrews, I thought we had a deal.” Agent Dale said.
Saint opened one of the upstairs windows and screamed out. “You’re late. The party’s over. Everyone’s dead.”
“You’re not.”
“That’s the only way you’re getting me out of this house.”
“Listen to me—”
Saint pulled out the .45 and aimed at the tree Dale was standing next to and fired. When the gun was empty he dashed downstairs.
“I’m done,” Josephine said, trying hard not to inhale the fumes.
Saint grabbed her by the hand and headed toward the basement door. When they got to the doorway, he lit a book of matches and tossed it on a puddle of gasoline.
By the time agent Dale saw the smoke, Josephine and Saint were coming out of the other end of the tunnel and into the cave. Saint moved a couple rocks and pulled out a disposable cell phone. He dialed a number and then threw the phone into the tunnel.
“What was that for?”
“I just activated the C4 I planted in the tunnel six years ago.”
“Six years ago?”
“In case of a situation like this.”
“Always a step ahead.”
“Try three.” Saint winced and grabbed the shoulder that Josephine shot him in.
Tears came to her eyes as she put her hand on top of his. “God, I’m so sorry. Saint, please forgive me.”
“Let’s go!” He grabbed her by the hand and headed to the brown Buick. Twenty seconds later, the explosives went off.
“So… how was the wedding?” Josephine said, again, bringing him out of his thoughts.
“It was beautiful. It was in a big church. Grace looked stunning and Glenn was putting a hurting on the white and lime green tux he was wearing.”
“White and lime green?”
“Don’t ask.”
“And how did Olivia look?”
“She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
Josephine put the leaves she had in her hand in the bag strapped on her shoulder and stood up. She took a step to him and ran her hand down the side of his face. “A few months ago, I would’ve tried to kill you for saying that.”
“What’s changed?”
“Knowing that you will always love me.”
“Who said I loved you?”
“Why else would you save the life of a woman who tried to kill you twice?”
“I’m still asking myself that same question.”
Josephine sensed the pain in his eyes as he looked to the ground. “What is it?”
“When I was in the church, I spotted at least five CIA agents.”
“That’s why I was against you going to that wedding in the first place. Promise me that you won’t go back to the States.”
He shook his head. “I love her, Josephine.”
She palmed the sides of his head and made him look her in the eyes. “Get that thought out of your mind. It can never work between you two.”