Never Go Home (24 page)

He did his best
to appear panicked. He bit his lip, shook his hand, shuffled from right to left
and back again.

“What is it?”
she called out to him from behind the glass doors.

“My father,” he
said. “He called me. He thinks he’s dying.”

She looked over
her shoulder.

“Please,” he
said.

She puffed out
her cheeks and blew the air through her lips. “OK.” She reached out and grabbed
something. The lock, he presumed. Her forearm turned. He heard a click. She
stuck the fingers of both hands into the crack between the doors and slid them
open manually.

“What’s his
name?” the woman said.

Alessandro
didn’t answer. He threw a quick punch at the woman’s face. Her head snapped
back. She dropped in place. He walked over her still body. The hallways were
empty. Were any other workers there? He placed the explosive behind the desk.
The woman rolled over on the floor. She crawled toward the door. He ran to her,
grabbed her by her hair and dragged her to the desk. She flailed her arms and
kicked with her legs. She tried to scream, but it sounded like her throat was
clogged with her own fluids. He pressed her against the desk, hit her twice in
the head and let her fall to the ground.

Alessandro
didn’t stay around long enough for anyone to come to her aid. Amid the whirring
and beeping of machines hidden in rooms beyond the hallway entrances, he fled
through the open double doors. He didn’t bother to shut them. Waste of time, he
figured. He got in the car, backed up, turned toward the road. He hit the
highway and pressed the button on the remote, setting off the explosive.

He watched the
rearview mirror. After a five second delay, a fireball erupted in the center of
the building. He assumed that was only the beginning. A facility like that had
oxygen tanks. He wondered what else? Additional explosions ripped through the
building, sending another fireball into the air. He stopped a mile down the
road. The flames rose high. The smoke higher. It’d be several minutes before a
fire truck responded.

By then it
would be too late.

Marcia seemed
panicked. She insisted that we leave the house. I didn’t object. Whoever did
this could possibly have the resources to track me down in London. Or track
Sean and his family down wherever they went.

“I don’t like
this, Jack.” She stepped backward, out of the kitchen. “How did they know? What
else do they know?”

I had the same
questions. Perhaps Glenn had said something. But to who? As far as I knew, the
man who killed Craig had fled. It wasn’t as if Crystal River was the type of
place someone could hide out for weeks on end. Everyone knew everyone. A
strange face did not go unnoticed. If you murdered someone there, it’d be
stupid to return.

For the moment,
I had to work under the assumption that Glenn knew more than he let on. Matt
and Jed were meat shields and too stupid to have anything to do with it. They
were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Killing all three was an aggressive
move.

I’d have done
the same thing.

“Whoever’s
responsible is over there,” I said. “Thousands of miles away.”

She shook her
head. “You think they don’t have connections here? Didn’t you listen to me last
night? This has something to do with me, Jack. These people are everywhere.”

“You keep
telling me that, Marcia. But you’re not telling me everything. What are you
hiding?”

She turned and
took a few steps away. Her head dropped back. Her hair cascaded down to her
waistline. She wrapped her arms around her chest. I saw her fingertips curl
around her triceps.

“Jessie was
terminated. We had contact in the past. It had been some time. I can only
assume she still had information. Perhaps someone was trying to get her to come
out, reveal me for who I was.” She paused, then turned around. “Who I am. The
threats I’ve received, Jack, they say they’ll out me. That will ruin my chances
of a political career.”

“Why kill her
then? If she’s dead, she can’t help their case.”

Marcia nodded.
Her eyes glazed over. She steadied a quivering lip. “What I said is what I hope
is happening. They know who I am, my past, what I did. They know she was
connected to me. They killed her. She’s not the first. I don’t think she’ll be
the last. They are trying to erase every connection to me. They want to terminate
me and everyone I ever came into contact with while undercover.”

“Why?”

She shrugged,
shook her head. “Any number of reasons. Take your pick. I know too much about
things that happened, the corruption behind the scenes. I could use my position
in government to bring them down.”

“Who is
‘them’?”

“It’s a
collective them, Jack.”

On the one hand
it made sense. On the other, it sounded like a story made up with the intent of
pulling wool over my eyes. I didn’t have the luxury of time to debate it.

“Did you ever
meet Glenn?” I said.

She shook her
head. “Like you said, he stumbled onto something. It cost him his life. I would
assume that the man who killed the cop discovered this. He had to lay low for a
day or two, then he returned to finish the job.”

It made sense.
Loose ends were all around. Time to clip and burn them off.

Her expression
changed from scared to steeled. “We need to get out of this house, Jack.”

“You’re right,”
I said. “And I need to go back to Florida.”

“What are you
going to do there?”

“Put an end to
this.”

“How? You don’t
know who you’re dealing with.”

I walked up to
her. “Do you?”

She didn’t
move, budge, or respond.

I leaned in.
Our eyes were inches from each other. “If you know something, then you better
tell me now.”

“I don’t know
for sure, Jack.” She blinked, stepped back. “You’ll be dealing with people who
operate outside of the law, but with backing from certain high ranking
officials.”

“That’s nothing
new for me, Marcia.” She  had described the last decade of my life. My
phone rang again. “I need to get this.”

She turned away
and went to the bedroom.

I answered the
call. It was April, and she sounded frantic. I hurried to the back door and
stepped outside.

“April, calm
down.” The sun hovered over the trees. Bright rays stabbed at my eyes. “What
happened? Are you at the murder scene?”

She took
several breaths. They started ragged, then calmed down.

“I’m at the
scene. It’s bad. Blood everywhere. All three of them are dead. There was a
struggle with Matt. In the end, two of them took a bullet to the head. Matt
took several.”

I pictured the
scene. The guy hadn’t hesitated in doing his job. He misjudged the men, though,
and it nearly cost him.

“Don’t tamper
with anything,” I said. “If there was a struggle, some of that blood could
belong to the shooter.”

“Jack, wait.
Listen to me.” She paused. Someone said something to her. She responded to
them, then came back on the line. “We just received a call from dispatch.
There’s no easy way to say this.”

“Then say it.”
I braced for the news that Sean, Deb, Kelly and Dad had been found murdered.

“Someone blew
up your father’s retirement home.”

I nearly
dropped the phone. Marcia had said I was in danger, but backtracked on the
statement. I told Sean to get his family and Dad out of the state because of what
she had said to me. If she hadn’t made it seem like the end of my life was
imminent, I might not have taken that step.

“He wasn’t
there,” I said. “He left with Sean.”

“Oh, thank
God.” The words were breathy, part of a long, deep exhale.

“April, I need
to make some calls. You keep me posted. I’ll be in touch soon.”

“OK.”

We held the
line for a moment.

“Jack?” she
said.

“What?” I said.

“I love you.”

I hesitated.
“No, April. You love an image of me. I’ve told you. I’m not that man.”

She started to
say something else, but I ended the call before she got the second word out.
Perhaps there was something between us. Or maybe, there was something to end.
Either way, that required the appropriate time. This wasn’t it.

I placed a call
to Sasha. She answered on the first ring.

“Where the hell
are you two?” she said. “We’ve been by her place and yours and wherever the
hell you ditched the car. We found it, but not you two.”

“Don’t worry
about that. I need you to get me a jet.”

“Why?”

“Something’s
happened. I need to go.”

“Where?”

“Home, Sasha.
I’m going home again.”

“Christ, Jack.”
She paused, groaned. “How long till you can get to the airport?”

“It’ll take
close to an hour.”

“OK, good. That
gives me enough time to arrange it.”

“Thank you.”
She’d proven time and again I could trust her to come through for me.

“You’re going
to owe me big time. I’m talking porterhouse steaks.”

I tried to
smile. Couldn’t. I ended the call and went back inside. Marcia stood in the
living room. She looked worried.

“Our
arrangement is over,” I said.

“What?” she
said.

“I’m going to
Florida.”

“I’m going with
you.”

“Not a chance
in hell.” I walked past her.

“Jack, I’ve got
the skills and contacts you need for this. I know people here, there, in D.C.”

“So do I.”

“I’ve got
something you don’t. I can be something you can’t.”

I stopped,
looked back at her. My hand was on the doorknob. All I had to do was turn it
and walk out. I’d be done with her. Instead, I said, “What?”

“I’m the best
bait you can find. Someone wants me worse than they want you. If I’m there,
you’ll get your man.”

I let go of the
knob. More than anything, I wanted to find Jessie’s killer and make them
suffer. Chances were he was the one wreaking havoc on the rest of town. If I
was to believe Marcia’s story, whoever wanted Jessie dead also wanted her dead.
A tangled web, she had said. I saw it now.

I was near the
center. She was stuck in the middle of it.

“Get your
things. We need to head to the airport.”

Vera said, “Go
to the sheriff’s office. Kill anyone that enters. Afterward, go to the airport
and get on a plane to Boston.”

Alessandro
said, “OK.”

I took the M4
to the M25, London Orbital motorway. The entire stretch of motorway spanned one
hundred and seventeen miles around the perimeter of the city. I had to drive
just under half that distance. I elected to go south. In either direction the
drive would take an hour. This kept us moving and not sitting in traffic. I
held the speedometer at ninety miles per hour. The trip took just over
forty-five minutes. After exiting the motorway, we had to backtrack seven miles
to the airport. That took close to twenty minutes.

Sasha met us at
the airport. She stood next to her Audi. I pulled up next to her. She glanced
at the car, then me.

“Can’t believe
you ditched the car I gave you.”

“You found it
safe, right?”

She nodded her
head.

“I should be
the one upset,” I said. “You gave me a car you were tracking.”

“Give me a
reason I shouldn’t keep tabs on you.”

I didn’t. “If I
don’t make it through this, it won’t matter.” I followed it up with a smile.

She pressed her
lips together and looked away.

Marcia exited
the vehicle and joined me. She said, “I’m ready whenever you are, Jack.”

“What’s she
doing?” Sasha said.

“Coming with
me,” I said.

“No way. I’m
not letting you drag her along,” Sasha said.

“It’s her
choice, not mine.”

“Sasha,” Marcia
said. “I have to apologize. There are things you don’t know about me.”

“What are you
talking about?” Sasha looked at me. “What is she talking about, Jack?”

I said nothing.
It wasn’t my place.

Marcia stepped
forward. She said, “Operation Patheos.”

Sasha’s
expression didn’t change. The name appeared to mean nothing to her. She glanced
at me again. “They’re ready for you guys.”

Marcia walked
toward the jet. I stayed behind, waited until the woman neared the stairs.

“I feel like I
should go with you,” Sasha said.

“You’ve got too
much to do here,” I said. “Did you uncover anything on the threats against
her?”

“I’m still
working on it. I think I have a few leads. If they come through, this is way more
than political corruption and local criminals.”

I looked over
her shoulder. Marcia climbed the stairs to the jet. The sky behind the plane
was clear. Clouds hovered overhead.

“Do you think
it has anything to do with that Operation Patheos?” I said.

“First I’ve
ever heard of it.” She paused, looked toward the jet, then back at me. “Do
you?”

I nodded. Sasha
hadn’t uncovered the woman’s background yet. Letting her figure it out on her
own would uncover more than I knew. If I said anything, it would distort her
view.

“Do me a
favor?” I said.

“What?” she
said.

“Send me any
information you find. Can you make sure to do that?”

She reached
into her purse and pulled out a cell phone. She held it out. “Take this.”

“I have a
phone.”

“This is more
powerful than that old piece of junk you carry. I’ll be able to relay the data
to you on this.”

I took the
phone and stuck it in my left pocket. My cell was in the right.

“Fancy pants
two days in a row?” She gave me a half-smile.

I forced one in
return. “I’m only wearing them so I can give them back to Sean.” We stared at
each other for a moment. “Can you arrange for a car?” I added.