Back on Solid Ground (30 page)

“It’s Agent
Parker.”

“Oh, good
morning,” she said.  “You want to bring those pictures over?”

“In about an
hour?” he asked.

“I’ll see you
then,” Stacy said.

She hung up
and poked her head out the front door.  “Hey, Alex,” she smiled.  “Have you
been here all night?”

“Good
morning.  No,  I just got back on duty.”

“At the risk
of sounding like I’m required to wait on you,” Stacy said, “would you like a
cup of coffee?”

Alex
laughed.  “I’d love one.”

“Come in,”
Stacy said. Alex followed Stacy into the kitchen and she handed him a mug from
the cabinet.  “You didn’t bring donuts or anything?” she asked.

“No,” Alex
laughed. 
Is this chick for real
, he thought.

Stacy was
standing in front of the refrigerator holding the door wide open.  Maybe if she
stood there long enough something would materialize that she could eat. 

“You’re
letting all the cold air out,” Alex said, pouring coffee into his mug.

Stacy closed
the door.  “There’s nothing in there anyway,” she said.  “Have you eaten
breakfast?” Stacy asked.

“Hours ago,”
Alex said. 

“I’m not
supposed to drive,” Stacy said, and Alex saw it coming.  “Will you please,
please, please drive me through Taco Cabana?” 

Alex
groaned.  “Where’s Holly?”

“She can’t
come over right now because I’m supposed to look through some photos with Agent
Parker.  He’s coming over in 45 minutes, so we need to go right now,” Stacy
said.  She headed towards the door but stopped. “I don’t have any money.  Will
you buy me a taco?” she asked.

“Yes, I’ll
buy you a taco.  Come on,” Alex said, feigning annoyance.

“Will you buy
me two?” she asked.  Alex gave her a look and she laughed.   “I’ll pay you
back!” she said.

Alex rolled
his eyes and walked out to the elevator while Stacy found a spare house key. 
She came out with two cups of coffee and handed him his.  “You forgot your
coffee.”

They went out
in the parking lot and got in Alex’s car and as they drove past the slot where
Stacy’s car should have been, she shouted, “Wait!”

Alex slammed
on the brake.  “What?”

“Someone
stole my car!  My car should be parked right there.”

“Are you
sure?”

“Of course
I’m sure,” she snapped at him. “What kind of question is that?”

Alex ignored
her.  “We’ll check it out when we get back.”

Stacy laid
her head against the seat and closed her eyes.  “I’m sorry.  I’m just hungry.”

He looked
over at her and couldn’t help but smile.

Alex took her
to the drive-through of the familiar pepto-pink Mexican restaurant.  It was a
late-night place for partiers who had the munchies and a place those same
people went when they were hung over the next morning.  The palm trees and
tropical setting made Stacy think of Niki and the island and it gave her a
queasy feeling in her stomach.   They went back to her condo and Stacy had her
bag of tacos in her hand when she approached the building’s security guard.

“Hi, Santos,” Stacy said.

“Stacy!  How
wonderful to see you!” he said.

“Thanks,” she
said smiling.  “Hey, do you know anything about my car?  It’s not out there.”

“Your father
sold it,” Santos said.

“Oh. Thanks.” 
Alex was waiting at the elevator.  “It wasn’t stolen.  They sold it.”

“You can get
another one,” Alex said.

They rode up
to the penthouse and Stacy unlocked her door.  “Thanks for the tacos.  I owe
you three bucks,” Stacy said. 

Alex handed
her his empty coffee cup and sat back down outside her door. “Thanks for the
coffee,” he said. 

Stacy had
just finished devouring her tacos when Parker arrived.  He declined coffee and
they got to work. 

“You were
right about your father’s involvement in the bank robbery.  We’ve dug up an
insurance scam that he and a local jeweler were trying to perpetrate.”  Parker
held up a photo.  “Have you ever seen this man before?”  It was the beheaded
guy from the bank and Stacy’s heart skipped a beat.

“Yeah.  He
was in the bank that day.  He held the door open for me.”

“He was
decapitated a few days ago, found behind a dumpster.”

“That’s
horrible,” Stacy said, trying to act shocked.  “And you think he was involved
with my father somehow?”

“He filed
insurance claims in the millions of dollars range and so did your father.  On
the insurance claim the jeweler filed, he stated that he was in the bank that
day to put certain pieces of jewelry, including your mother’s necklace and bracelet,
in a safety deposit box, and that they were stolen when the bank was robbed.”

“Who killed
him?” Stacy asked.

“We don’t
know.  And we can’t rule out the possibility that your father hasn’t met with
the same fate.”

Stacy was
quiet, thinking, and Parker went to his briefcase and pulled out a stack of
photos.  He handed them to Stacy and she sat at her dining room table and went
through photo after photo, looking for a familiar face.  She stopped at a photo
of a man whom she thought she had seen in Colombia. 

“Do you
recognize him?” Parker asked.

“I’m not
sure.  The man who flew the helicopter looked kind of like that, but he had a
thick beard.  It could be him, but I couldn’t be certain,” Stacy said.  She
handed him the photo, he set it aside, and Stacy resumed the photo search.  She
had gone through an entire stack and couldn’t identify anyone with certainty. 
“Sorry,” she said. 

“I’ve got
more,” he said, handing her another stack. 

Stacy looked
through a half dozen more photos when she flipped to one and her blood went
cold. In a flash she was back in the motel room and images of their fight were
clicking through her head.  The photo had set off a chain reaction that took
Stacy totally off guard.  One minute she was fine and the next she was
completely panicked.  She could feel the man’s warm blood dripping on her face
and arms, and she started shaking violently, trying to wipe it off. 

The attack
came on so fast that it took Parker completely by surprise.  He yelled for Agent
Kanes, and when he came busting through the door, Parker was trying to talk
Stacy back from whatever nightmare she had slipped into.  She was backing away
from Agent Parker, crying. “Stay away from me!”

Parker spoke
calmly, “Stacy, it’s Agent Parker with the FBI.  You’re safe.  No one is going
to hurt you.  You’re okay, Stacy.”

Stacy wasn’t
pacified.  She had backed herself up into a corner and she slid her back down
the wall and curled up into a little ball on the floor, where she was pleading
for Parker not to hurt her. 

Parker looked
over at Alex, at a loss. “You try,” he said.

Alex moved
over to where Stacy could see him.  His movements were slow and deliberate as
he approached her, but he spoke in his normal tone of voice. “Hi Stacy,
remember me?” 

She went
quiet and looked from Parker to Alex with a blank look on her face.

“It’s Alex. 
You know, I bought you tacos this morning.”

No
response.

“You owe me
three bucks,” he said, and at last there was some recognition in her eyes. 
Alex moved closer and squatted down beside her.  “Do you know who I am?” he
asked.

Stacy nodded her
head yes, but didn’t say anything.

“You okay
there?”

Stacy shook
her head no. “I don’t think so,” she said with tears rolling down her cheeks. 
“Something happened to me.  I was back in that motel room.” Stacy looked over at
Parker, and was mortified at what she had done.  “I am so sorry.”

“Don’t
apologize,” Parker said.

Alex took Stacy’s
hand and squeezed it.  “You’ve been through hell,” he said.  “What you’re going
through is normal. You just need some time, Stacy.  That’s all.  You’re going
to be fine.”

Stacy wiped
her eyes on her sleeve. “I don’t want to look at any more pictures today.”

“I don’t
either,” Parker said, gathering up his things.

“Come on.  Let
me help you up,” Alex said, and he hooked Stacy under her arm and helped her to
her feet.  “Can I get you anything, a cold drink or a snack or something,” he
asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“I take it
you recognized the man in that photo,” Parker said.

“Yeah, but
you don’t have to worry about catching him.  I killed him,” she said, and
Parker nodded. 

Stacy was wet
with perspiration after her flashback episode and she was wiping the back of
her neck with her shirt. She went in the kitchen and pulled off a paper towel
and wiped her forehead.

Parker spoke
so she couldn’t hear him. “She’s in a bad way,” he told Alex.

“I’d say
she’s handling it all amazingly well,” Alex said. 

Alex resumed
his position outside her door, and Parker left shortly afterwards.  Stacy
walked over to the window and looked out at San Antonio.

“
Please
call me, Niki
,” she said out loud, then she admonished herself for acting
like a fool.
Get your shit together.  You’ve never waited around for a guy
to call before and you’re sure as hell not going to start now.
  She went in
the bathroom and turned on the shower.  When the water was steaming hot, she
got in and cried her eyes out while she washed away all the bad karma she had
gathered over the last week.

When Stacy
got out of the shower, Holly was knocking on her door.

“Thank goodness
you’re here,” Stacy said.  “I don’t have a thing to eat in this whole place,
and my asshole father sold my car.  Can you take me to the grocery store?”

“You’re not
supposed to drive anyway,” Holly told her. “He sold your car, already?”

“Yeah, the
prick,” Stacy said.

Stacy was
rummaging through her desk and she pulled out a pad of checks.  It was one of
the few accounts Eli hadn’t messed with, and she hoped there was still money in
it.  They left Stacy’s condo and went to the grocery store and were headed back
to Stacy’s when she suggested  a detour. 

“Will you
take me by a dealership.  I need to buy a car,” Stacy said.

“You’re not
even supposed to drive,” Holly said. 

“I have to
have a car.  It’s psychological.  If I know I’m stranded at my condo, I’ll go
nuts,” Stacy said. 

Holly pulled
her BMW into a car lot and salesmen swarmed from every direction.  It looked
like they had been hiding in between the cars. 

“Good morning
ladies,” said the first salesman to reach them.  He stopped in his tracks, “You’re
Stacy Trent!”

“Yeah,” Stacy
said embarrassed. 

“Are you
looking for a car today?” he asked enthusiastically.

“Yes, I am. 
But I already know what I want,” she said.   She pointed to the black Viper
sitting up on a ramp.  “That one.”

The salesman
got a huge smile on his face.  “You want the Viper?” he repeated.

“Yeah, but I
want to test drive it.  Can you get it down for me?”

“Absolutely,”
he said, and he disappeared into the office.

“You’re
getting a Viper?” Holly laughed.

“What do you
think?” Stacy said.  “I saw one on the road a couple of weeks ago.”

“It’s
awesome!” Holly said.

Stacy spotted
Alex’s car in the parking lot and she lost her train of thought.  She walked
over to his black sedan.  “I’m getting ready to test drive a car.  If I lose you,
I’ll meet you back at my condo.”

“Which one?”
he asked.

“The Viper.”

Alex
laughed.  “I thought you weren’t supposed to drive.”

“One little
test drive isn’t going to hurt anything.”  The salesman had taken the car off
the ramp and was standing beside the car waiting for Stacy.  “I’ll see ya
later,” she told Alex and she and Holly got in the Viper and Stacy put the
window down.  “We’ll be back in about twenty minutes,” she told the salesman
and she put the car in gear and took off.

“This is
awesome!” Holly yelled.  “You have to get this car!”

They got onto
Hwy 281 and Stacy punched it. “It’s the bat mobile!” She drove out to Loop 1604
and turned around and was headed back to town when she blew past a policeman
running radar on the side of the highway. His lights went on and she looked in
her rearview mirror and could see him pulling onto the highway.

“Uh oh.”
Stacy said. 

Holly turned
around and looked out the back window.  “Bummer.”

“I could
outrun him.”

“No! You need
to pull over,” Holly said, adamantly.

Stacy pulled
the Viper to the side of the road and waited for the policeman to catch up to her. 
Stacy rolled her window down and the officer walked up to the car with his pad
out.  He was lecturing before he even got to the car.

“Do you know
how fast you were going back there?”  He looked in the window and there was
instant recognition when he saw Stacy, and he changed his tone completely. 
“You’re the girl who escaped from Colombia!” he exclaimed.  He stuck the pad in
his back pocket and leaned into the window and looked into the passenger seat. 
Holly smiled and waved.

“That was
some story I read about you,” the officer told Stacy. “Looks like you went
through a pretty rough time over there,” he said, motioning to her face. 

Stacy looked
in her rearview mirror at the bruising.  “It’s actually gotten better.”

“Is this your
car?” he asked her, checking it out.

“I’m taking
it for a test drive,” she said.

“It’s a
beautiful machine, but slow down before you hurt someone,” he said, and he headed
back to his vehicle.

They drove
back to the car lot and Stacy bought the Viper and drove it home. Alex was
sitting outside her door.

“Did he give
you a ticket?”

“A verbal
warning. You want to take it for a spin?” she asked.