A Silent Terror (16 page)

“I was supposed to meet my girlfriend, Kelly, outside her dorm. But then she texted me and told me to meet her down by the little pond at the president’s house.” The president of the school lived on campus in a nice Victorian two-story home. Recently, maintenance had built a small man-made pond that included some beautiful goldfish.

“So, I started walking toward the pond and see this guy writing notes to a couple of my buddies. I go up to see what’s going on, and the guy starts freaking out, slapping his head and walking in circles.”

Alonso swallowed, looked down. “I pulled out my notebook and started writing notes to him.” Most deaf people carried a pad and pen to assist in communicating with the hearing population. “He offered us a hundred dollars each to trash a car.” At this point, Alonso’s Adam’s apple bobbed several times. “I said, sure, to count me in. Then I found out which car…and I tried to back out. I wasn’t going to rat on my friends, but I didn’t want to be one of the guys who…” All of his defiance had leaked out of him during the telling of this story. Both Marianna and Ethan sat, not wanting to say anything for fear the boy would clam up once again.

“But this guy shoved me up against the car and told me if I didn’t cooperate, he’d…he’d…”

“What, Alonso?” Marianna asked gently.

“He’d slit my throat.” The signs were slow, as though he didn’t want to relive the moment – or tell the two adults about it.

Marianna blanched, sat back and put a hand to her throat as though she could feel the blade pressed against it.

“So, I did it.”

“And while you guys were vandalizing Marianna’s car, this guy was staked out in the gym waiting for Marianna to show up so he could scare her to death.”

Thoughts swirling, she fought to process everything, line it all up in some kind of order. “But why involve the boys?”

Ethan pulled at his lower lip. “My guess is he got caught.”

“What?”

“One, or both, of those guys came up on this dude messing with your car, searching it or whatever. He had to come up with a plan that wouldn’t expose him and the only way to do that was to involve the kids. If they had a hand in helping him, there’s no way they would go to the cops or volunteer information. Then Alonso walked up, so he had to be part of it.”

“He warned us about leaving prints.”

“What?”

Alonso nodded. “He made us take off our socks to cover our hands so we wouldn’t leave fingerprints.”

Ethan explained. “If prints were found on the car and traced back to the boys, most likely they would tell what they knew about the man who hired them.”

“But he pushed Alonso into the hood of the car before he made them do that.”

“Which is why his fingerprint was there. And if you hadn’t had the car detailed that day, you never would have thought anything about it.” Scary.

Ethan drilled Alonso with his gaze. “Do you remember anything at all about this man? Anything?”

“No, just that he had on a warm-looking leather jacket and a baseball cap pulled down real low. I don’t think I ever saw his face, now that I think about it. And he probably didn’t belong on campus because he didn’t know sign language at all.”

Marianna jerked as an idea hit her. “Alonso, do you still have that money the guy gave you?”

Guilt mixed with remorse…and possibly a little relief flashed in his expression. “Yes, I felt so bad I couldn’t spend it.”

There was hope for the boy, yet, Marianna thought with gratitude.

Ethan caught her eye and nodded his approval, her heart warmed.

He said to Alonso, “Show me where it is. Marianna, get me a little plastic bag, will you?”

Three minutes later, five crisp twenties sat in the see-through bag, ready to be processed at the lab to see what evidence remained.

Saturday morning found Marianna and Catherina heading for the downtown shops while Alonso confessed his actions to his parents.

The police had pulled the other two boys in for questioning and Ethan promised to let her know if anything new came up.

In the meantime, Marianna determined to enjoy herself and see if she could find Joseph a birthday present. Unfortunately, she found it hard to focus, to concentrate on having a good time, when all she could think about were the events of the last two weeks.

And the fact that her fellow teacher and her ex-boyfriend, Misty and Curt, had once been an item – now that was just plain puzzling. Yet she felt relieved at the same time too. At least now she had an explanation for the woman’s nastiness.

As she and Catherina exited the small antique store to head down the sidewalk, the hairs on her neck stood up and a shiver danced down her spine. Shifting the strap of her purse a little higher on her shoulder, she glanced back, to the side and up ahead.

Normal Saturday shoppers milled, spending money, strolling with children. Everything looked line. So why did she feel…nervous? Anticipating danger around every corner? Maybe she should have stayed home.

Setting her jaw, she refused to cave in to the fear that could take over her life if she allowed it. No, whoever was causing her all these problems would not win, would not take away the independence she’d fought so hard for. Somehow, someway, she’d figure out who was doing this to her and why. Lord, keep your hand on this, please. Put all the pieces together for us. Show us the next step to take in _figuring all this out.

In the next shop, Marianna tested the scented candles, picking them up and sniffing them, one at a time. Catherina had wandered off to check the birthday cards. When Marianna turned to put the cinnamon-bun scented jar back on the shelf, she caught movement in the mirror above the display.

She blinked. A man, head bent, studied a rack of antique fishing lures. And he had a ball cap pulled snuggly against his forehead; he also wore a leather jacket. Like the one Alonso had described the night he’d vandalized her car? Coincidence, or was he following her? Did she take a chance on ignoring the guy? Should she just see if he stayed with her or go ahead and put Ethan on the alert?

Subtly, she pulled out her BlackBerry and sent a text to Ethan. “Am shopping downtown shops with sister. Man in leather jacket and ball cap following me. I think. Can you meet me?”

Gripping the device, she waited for a response. And waited. While she stood there, pretending to peruse the inventory, the man turned and went out the door. Relaxing a fraction, Marianna decided that maybe she’d overreacted. After all, there was probably more than one person in town who owned a leather jacket and a baseball cap.

Right?

Still…she glanced at her screen. Nothing yet from Ethan.

Catherina walked up holding a T-shirt that said “Kiss the Cook!” and signed, “I’m going to get this for Joseph for his birthday.”

“Joseph doesn’t cook. What are you thinking?”

“That he needs to find a woman who does.”

Chuckling, Marianna turned back to scan the mirror. Still no sight of the man she thought might be following her. And still no response from Ethan. She realized she missed his presence. When he’d been her “copilot” for the trip to Beaufort, she’d thoroughly enjoyed his company. Shivering, she wished he were here now.

But he wasn’t.

Ethan tossed down the paper that held Gerald Chambers’s information. Why was this guy so hard to find? Probably because he’d been in the military once upon a time. Not special forces, but still military. Which meant he knew how to take care of himself and stay out of sight unless he wanted to be found.

Obviously, he didn’t want to be found. The lab had run tests on the money Alonso had given Ethan and come up with nothing but a bunch of prints that would take forever to identify and would probably mean nothing. The police had an APB out on Gerald and had flashed his military ID on the news asking for information, asking him to “stop by” the station. They’ d stressed he wasn’t a suspect, just a person of interest they’ d like to talk to. Ethan wanted to show the picture to Marianna, but she hadn’t returned his text yet.

As far as viable information on Gerald, there’d been nothing that had panned out. Of course they had the usual crackpot phone callers who think they see a bad guy on every corner, but none of those had been the real deal.

And they followed up on each and every lead. His boss, Victor, had been adamant about that. He wanted to catch this guy every bit as much as Ethan did. Ethan gave a wry grin. No doubt Joseph was checking in on his baby sister’s case on a regular basis.

Which was fine with Ethan; he’d have done the same thing if it had been Ashley.…

He also suspected that Marianna’s case was the main reason Ethan’s boss was in his office this Saturday morning. He’d just come from the man’s office after hashing out the information they had. And it all kept coming back to one man.

Gerald Chambers. Gerald Chambers. For some reason that name was ringing a bell in his mind. Ethan picked up Gerald’s file and read some more.

High society, dated a movie star once upon a time. Entered the military against family wishes. Family. That was it. Who was the man’s family?

A few quick taps on his computer brought up the Internet, and he typed in a search for Gerald Chambers. He’d already done this once, but this time he was looking for something more specific.

Quite a few pages of information were listed below his search. He clicked and read, clicked and read. Time passed before he found what he was looking for.

A newspaper article. “Gerald Chambers, son of House of Representatives member Chase Chambers, has been arrested for DUI.

This comes as a shock to his family, and the senior Mr. Chambers had expressed his disappointment in his son’s activities. A bright political future looks to be in question as talks of rehab centers and AA meetings abound.”

The article went on to cover Chambers’s military career, where he’d had a few scrapes with the law but nothing major. Then the little note at the bottom caught his attention. “It might be of interest to some that Chase Chambers did a little string pulling to get his son honorably discharged from the army and placed on the campaign committee for Clayton Robertson. It seems Gerald is headed for a career in politics whether he wants one or not.”

Ethan grunted. No wonder the guy drank. He could almost feel sorry for the man except for the fact that he broke into Marianna’s home. And the fact that Roland Luck, also part of Clayton Robertson’s political campaign, was dead. Now how did those two facts add up, and what did they have to do with Marianna?

Because there was no way this was all just a coincidence. He reached for his phone to call Catelyn and slapped empty air.

What?

He frowned, glanced around his desk. Nothing.

Then he remembered he’d gone into Victor’s office to talk for a brief moment. He’d set it on the side table, then walked off without it.

He got up to get it when his boss appeared in the doorway holding the device. “Hey, O’Hara, this thing’s been going off for the last ten minutes. You want to get it? I was on the phone or I would have brought it out sooner.”

“Yeah, thanks. No problem.” Ethan took the phone and looked at the screen. Marianna had sent him a text. Clicking on the button, he pulled up her message and read, “Am shopping downtown shops with my sister. Man in leather jacket and ball cap following me. I think.

Can you meet me?”

Cold dread settled in the pit of his belly. “Hey, Chief!”

Marianna continued to shop, keeping an eye out for the man in the baseball cap. So far, so good. Nothing for the last fifteen minutes or so even though she couldn’t shake the feeling she needed to stay on guard. Watch her back.

And while she enjoyed the time with Catherina, she couldn’t shut off the part of her brain that insisted on going over every detail she could remember about the case. Not to mention the worry about Alonso. True, he seemed genuinely remorseful over his part in the vandalism, yet…

She sighed, and looked up into the window of the next shop.

Catherina touched her arm and signed, “I want to go in there. I’ve got an apartment to furnish in a couple of months.”

“I can’t believe you’re graduating from college already.” She smiled. “Mom and Dad are so proud of you. We all are.”

Catherina blushed, but the pleased look on her face told Marianna that her words meant a lot. She nodded toward the store. “Go for it.

I’m going to grab an ice-cream cone.” If she was being followed, she wanted her sister somewhere else. She wouldn’t bring this danger into her life.

Oblivious to Marianna’s tension, her sister laughed. “Get me one, too.”

“Absolutely.”

Catherina disappeared into the store and Marianna turned to walk over to the portable Bruster’s Ice Cream stand. As she ordered the treat, she glanced over her shoulder. Maybe she should have stayed with her sister. The man behind the counter held the cones out and Marianna took them.

Then something crashed into her back, her feet went out from under her and she let out a scream as the cones went flying to splat on the ground next to her. Pain shot up from her hip to her spine. Her left elbow hit the concrete and agony seared her arm. She felt her purse ripped from her shoulder, saw running feet pounding past her.

Groaning, she scrambled to her feet, ignoring the aches and pains – and terror – to stumble after the fleeing thief. Then a police car pulled up beside the escaping man and slammed on brakes. The officer – Ethan? – jumped from the vehicle to give chase.

Marianna hobbled along as fast as her throbbing hip would allow.

The two men disappeared into a little alley set between two stores.

Hurrying, she rounded the corner and stopped. Ethan and the thief were locked in combat, each struggling to get the upper hand.

Marianna had a hard time keeping up with who was who and which fist landed where. Ethan pushed the guy off him, and the man landed on several metal trash cans. Even Marianna’s hearing aids picked up the screeching clanging.

A man in an apron stepped out the back door of his restaurant kitchen, flying pan in hand, held as a weapon, to investigate the ruckus. Catching sight of the action before him, with eyes wide, the heavyset chef turned to scuttle back in, but before he disappeared, Marianna grabbed the flying pan from his hand. He offered no protests as he slammed the door.