First Family (7 page)

The cowed man looked down, opened the door, and with a hesitant wave of his hand motioned the two men to step out. Their legs were shackled together too, so they hobbled forward. When they
came into the wash of light from Carlos’s flashlight, the perspiration shone clear on their faces.

One of the men said, “I’m sorry. Jesus, sir, I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too, Daryl. This doesn’t give me any pleasure at all. None.”

While Daryl was thickset the man behind him was tall and reedy. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down in his terror. “We didn’t mean to do it, Mr. Quarry. But after we got the kid knocked out she came in and started screaming and fighting. Hell, look at Daryl’s face, she damn near scratched it off. It was just self-defense. We were trying to knock her out too and get her with the syringe, but the lady just went nuts.”

“What’d you expect a momma to do when you’re taking her baby? We went over that scenario a hundred times and what you were supposed to do in every damn situation. Killing was not an option. Now I got a little girl who’s never gonna see her momma again and it never should’ve happened.”

Daryl’s voice was pleading. “But the daddy was home. And he wasn’t supposed to be.”

“Don’t matter. Planned for that too.”

Daryl was not giving up. “She scratched me up good, dug a finger in my eye. I got real pissed. Lost my head. I just swung with the knife. Caught her right in the neck. I didn’t mean for it to happen. She just died. We tried to save her. Nothing we could do. I’m sorry.”

“You already told me all this. And if that had made a difference you wouldn’t be standing here right now and neither would I.”

Daryl nervously eyed the Patriot. “We always been there for you. You know that. And we got the little girl for you. Not a bruise on her.”

“One exception breaks the rule. When you agreed to help me do this, I told you there weren’t many rules, but you broke the most important one. You swore me an oath and I accepted that oath. Now here we are.”

He nodded at Carlos, who reluctantly gripped the men by their wrists and pulled them down to their knees.

Quarry stood over them. “Speak to your God, men, if you got one. I’ll give you time to do that.”

Daryl started mumbling what sounded like the fragments of a prayer. The thin man just started to cry.

Sixty seconds later Quarry said, “Done? Okay.”

He placed the Patriot against the base of Daryl’s skull.

“Oh, Jesus. Sweet Jesus,” wailed Daryl.

“Please,” screamed the other man.

Quarry’s finger slipped from the metal guard onto the trigger. Yet he ended up pulling away the Patriot. He didn’t exactly know why, he just did.

“Get up!”

Daryl looked at him in astonishment. “What?”

“I said get up.”

Daryl stood on shaky legs. Quarry stared at the man’s scratched-up face and the blood red right eye, then he ripped open the front of Daryl’s shirt. A large purplish bruise was revealed between the man’s muscled pecs.

“You say it was a woman who shot you?”

“Yes sir. It was dark, but I could still see it was a girl.”

“That
girl
was a damn good shot. By all rights you ought to be dead anyway, boy.”

“Wore the armor like you told us,” Daryl gasped. “I’m sorry she got killed. I didn’t mean for it to happen. I’m sorry.”

“And you say you
think
you left a vial behind?”

“Just the one. It was all rushed like after what happened, especially when the other folks showed up. We counted the vials up on the way back. But they gonna know we took the woman’s blood anyway, when they cut her open and stuff.”

Quarry looked uncertain for a moment. “Get the hell on, then.”

“What?”

Quarry nodded at a relieved Carlos, who quickly unshackled Daryl. The man rubbed his raw wrists and looked at the thin man still on his knees. “What about Kurt?”

Quarry shoved the muzzle against Daryl’s chest. “No more
talking. Now get on before I change my mind. Kurt’s not your concern.”

Daryl staggered off, fell, picked himself back up, and stumbled onward into the dark.

Quarry turned back to Kurt.

“Please, Mr. Quarry,” the condemned man mumbled.

“I’m sorry about this, Kurt. But what we got here is an eye for an eye, boy.”

“But Daryl’s the one what killed the lady, sir.”

“He’s also my
son
. I don’t have much, but I got him.”

He pointed the pistol at Kurt’s head.

“But you’re like a daddy to me, Mr. Quarry,” said Kurt, the tears lapping down his cheeks.

“That’s what makes this so damn hard.”

“This is crazy, Mr. Quarry. You crazy,” he screamed.

“Damn right I’m crazy, boy!” Quarry shouted right back. “Crazy as a mad hatter on crack. It’s in my blood. No way to shake it.”

Kurt threw himself sideways and tried to wriggle away, his clunky boots throwing up little clouds of coal dust. His screams swept down the shaft, like the Union soldiers before.

“Hold the damn light closer, Carlos,” ordered Quarry. “I don’t want him to suffer one second more than he’s got to.”

The Patriot barked and Kurt stopped trying to get away.

Quarry let the gun drop and swing next to his side. He mumbled something incomprehensible while Carlos crossed himself.

“You know how pissed off I am about this?” said Quarry. “You understand my level of rage
and
disappointment?”

“Yes, sir,” said Carlos.

Quarry nudged dead Kyle with his boot, stuck the heated Patriot in his waistband.

He turned and marched on down the shaft. To daylight.

He was tired of the dark.

He just wanted to fly.

M
ICHELLE LEFT HER PISTOL
in her locked safe box in the SUV. She had no desire to sit in a federal prison for the next several years contemplating the error of her ways for trying to waltz into the White House with a loaded weapon.

They had lost the reporters hanging outside their office, although the effort had cost some rubber off Michelle’s truck tires and one of the journalist’s cars had banged into a parked van during the abbreviated chase. She had not stopped to assist.

They passed through the visitor’s entrance. They expected to be led into the White House but were surprised when after they’d been wanded and searched one of the agents stationed there said, “Come on.”

They were hustled into a Town Car waiting outside the entrance. It sped off as soon as the door closed.

Sean said to the driver, “Where the hell are we going?”

The man didn’t answer. The guy next to him didn’t even turn around.

Michelle whispered, “SS doesn’t look too happy right now.”

“Blame game’s started,” Sean whispered back. “And they might know why the First Lady has asked us here. And they probably don’t like outsiders snooping around.”

“But we used to be one of them.”

He shrugged. “I didn’t exactly leave on the best terms. And neither did you.”

“So the FBI hates us and so do our own guys. You know, what we need is a union.”

“No, what we need is to know where we’re going.” He was about to ask the question again when the car slowed and stopped.

“Out here, in the church,” the driver said.

“What?”

“Get your ass in the church. The lady’s waiting.”

As soon as they stepped out of the car they realized their trip had been very short. They were on the other side of Lafayette Park from the White House. The church was St. John’s. The door was open. They walked inside as the Town Car drove off.

She was seated in the front pew. Sean and Michelle sensed rather than saw the presence of the security detail around the room. When Sean sat next to Jane Cox, he couldn’t tell whether she had been crying or not. He suspected she had, but he also knew she was not the sort of woman who showed her emotions easily. Perhaps not even to her husband. He
had
seen the woman become emotional before, but only once. He had never expected to witness another such episode.

Under her black overcoat she wore a knee-length blue dress, along with sensible pumps and little jewelry. Her hair, though covered in a scarf, was in its trademark upsweep that many had compared, mostly favorably, to Jackie Kennedy. The woman had never been flash, Sean knew, just classy. Elegant. She never tried to be something she wasn’t. Well, that wasn’t exactly true, he concluded. A First Lady had to be many things to many people, and there was no way any single personality could accommodate so many different requests. So some role-playing was inevitable.

“This is Michelle Maxwell, Mrs…. Jane.”

Jane smiled graciously at Michelle and then turned back to Sean. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me so quickly.”

“We thought it was going to take place at the White House.”

“I thought so too, but then reconsidered. The church is a little more private. And… peaceful.”

He leaned back in the pew and studied the altar for a moment before saying, “What can we do for you?”

“You really were there when it happened?”

“Yes. I was bringing a present for Willa.” He went on to fill in
the details of the night’s events, withholding the more graphic elements.

“Tuck doesn’t remember much,” she said. “They said he’ll be fine, no internal bleeding or anything, but his short-term memory appears to be impaired.”

“That often happens with blows to the head,” Michelle remarked. “But it might come back.”

“The Secret Service is undertaking protection of the… extended First Family now,” she said.

“Smart move,” said Sean.

“The Achilles’ heel finally exposed,” noted Jane quietly.

Sean said, “The FBI is investigating. I’m not sure there’s anything we can do that they can’t.”

“I threw a birthday party for Willa at Camp David. Pam was there, Willa’s friends, her brother and sister. It was a very special day for a very special girl.”

“She is special,” Sean agreed.

“To think that on the same day of that wonderful celebration this… this horror would have happened.” She suddenly stared at Sean. “I want you to find Willa. And the people responsible for this.”

He swallowed nervously. “It’s a federal investigation. We can’t get in the middle of that. They’ll eat us for lunch.”

“You helped me once, Sean, and I’ve never forgotten that. I know I have no right to ask, but I desperately need your help again.”

“But the FBI?”

She waved a dismissive hand. “I’m sure they’re very good. But it goes without saying that because of Willa’s relationship to me this will very quickly become a political punching bag.”

“How could anyone make the murder of a mother and the kidnapping of her child political?” Michelle asked.

Jane gave her a smile that came awfully close to condescending. “We’re in the middle of a reelection campaign. This town specializes in making the apolitical political, Michelle. There are no limits to the depths to which some people will go.”

“And you think that might influence the FBI’s investigation?” Sean said.

“I don’t want to take the chance that the answer to that question is yes. I want people with only one agenda. Finding out the truth. Without smears. Without spin. Which means I want
you.
”

“Do you have any idea why someone would have done this, Mrs. Cox?” asked Michelle.

“I can’t think of anyone.”

Sean suggested, “How about the usual suspects? A terrorist group? The First Family is too well protected so they go against a softer target.”

“If so, we should hear some group taking responsibility then, or a demand of some kind,” added Michelle.

“We might soon. What does the president think?” asked Sean.

“He’s as worried and concerned as I am.”

“I meant does he have any idea who might have done this?’

“I don’t believe so, no.”

Sean added in a delicate tone, “Does he know you’re meeting with us?”

“I see no reason for him to know, at least not right now.”

“With all due respect, your Secret Service detail knows, ma’am,” said Michelle.

“I believe I can rely on them to be discreet.”

Michelle and Sean exchanged a nervous glance. There wasn’t a Secret Service agent alive who would intentionally hide anything from the president. That would be career suicide, discretion notwithstanding.

“Okay,” said Sean. “But if we’re going to look into this thing, our involvement may come out at some point.”

Michelle interjected, “If it does we can claim we’re just doing it because Sean is a friend of the family and was actually there when it happened. In fact they tried to kill me. So maybe we hang our hat on that.”

Sean nodded and glanced at Jane. “We can play it that way, certainly.”

“Good.”

“We’ll need to talk to Tuck and John and Colleen.”

“I can arrange that. Tuck is still in the hospital. The children are staying at Pam’s sister’s house in Bethesda.”

“And we’ll need access to the crime scene.”

Michelle added, “The FBI will have all the forensics evidence. We’ll need to see that too if we’re really going to get anywhere.”

“I’ll see what I can do. After all, this is my family.”