Gold Hill (42 page)

“
I’m glad it worked,”
Tanesha mumbled through her wired jaw. “Jake told me you were ready
to cast your hair down for a new prince.”

“
I’ll tell you, sometimes
I hate my meddling family,” Jill said.

“
Even though you’re the
chief meddler?” Tanesha asked.

“
Even though,” Jill
smiled. “I don’t hate them today.”

“
They’ll be here in a
moment,” Delphie said.

“
Noelle,” Sandy said from
the chair on Tanesha’s right.

Noelle came over to
Sandy.

“
You remember what you’re
supposed to do?” Aden asked.

“
I’m supposed to tell them
that no one is awake and I don’t have the gate code,” Noelle bit
her lip. Her eyebrows crumpled in and she shook her head. Leaning
forward, she whispered to Sandy, “But that’s a lie.”

“
I know,” Sandy
said.

“
I can’t lie,” Noelle’s
eyes threatened tears.

The buzzer to the gate
rang.

“
I just can’t lie,” Noelle
said.

“
It’s not a lie, it’s
acting,” Sissy said from her seat next to Aden.

“
No it’s not,” Noelle
said. “It’s a
lie
.”

“
The child shouldn’t have
to lie for me,” Yvonne put her napkin on the table and stood up.
“I’ll just . . . ”

“
No you won’t,” Rodney
said.

“
I’ll do it,” Sissy jumped
up. “I’m going to be a great ballerina. Great ballerinas are great
actresses.”

“
But the
child . . . ” Yvonne said.

“
Stay here,” Sandy said.
“Sissy will buy us some time.”

The buzzer rang again.
Sandy walked with Sissy to the door. She mussed Sissy’s hair so it
looked like she’d been sleeping. Aden gave her a big T-shirt that
looked like a night shirt. She kicked off her shoes.

“
Charlie?” Sandy turned
around to find him standing behind her.

“
I got this,” Charlie
said.

The buzzer rang for the
third time.

“
Go on, Sissy,” Sandy
said. “We’ll be right here.”

Sissy puffed up her cheeks
a few times, jumped up and down, and yanked the door open. She
trotted out into the cool morning toward the two irritated Federal
Marshalls.

“
Oh. Oh. Oh,” Sissy said
when she got near them. “No one is awake and . . . I
don’t know the code . . . and
I . . . ”

“
Who does?”

“
I don’t
know . . . I don’t know . . .
Um . . . ”

“
Sissy!” Charlie yelled
from the side door. “What the hell are you doing? Mom’s gonna be
pissed.”

“
They want to get in,”
Sissy said. “Do you know the code?”

“
No,” Charlie
said.

“
Sorry!” Sissy spun in
place and ran back to the house. Half way to the door, she turned
around and said, “I’ll wake up my mom and see if she knows the
code.”

“
Thanks,” the Marshalls
gave a kind of annoyed wave.

Sissy slipped into the
house. Noelle was there to hug her and everyone gave a quiet
cheer.

“
Val?” Delphie
asked.

“
Samantha is on her way,”
Valerie said.

“
And the rest?”

“
They landed twenty
minutes ago,” Mike said. “I think they are in
the . . . ”

“
We’re
here . . . ” a man’s voice came from the
kitchen.

Having come through the
coal tunnel entrance, a group of soldiers moved through the Castle
kitchen. In the center of the group was Alex Hargreaves. Her team
was helping her dress into a blue suit while she walked. She was on
the phone. One team member held her blue shoes so that she could
step into one and then the other. She waved to everyone in the
dining room and stopped so that Margaret, MJ’s partner, could zip
her skirt. Her brother Colin and her partner Arthur “Raz” Rasmussen
were the next focus of her team’s efforts.

“
Where are the Feebs?”
Alex asked as she hung up her phone.

“
Behind you,” a man’s
voice came from the kitchen.

“
Do not be late,” Alex
pointed to the first man. He laughed and pointed to her misbuttoned
shirt. She swore and rebuttoned it. The men who’d combed through
Yvonne’s journals last night moved into the living area.

“
They are so cool,”
Charlie said to Tanesha under his breath.

“
We only think we are,” MJ
said as he passed behind Charlie to get to Honey. Honey squealed at
how ripe he smelled.

“
Just a
warning . . . ” Alex said. “We
stink.”

“
Uh, Mike?” The big guy
who took care of Teddy in the summer said. “Where’s the
bacon?”

As if it was a magic word,
the soldiers and FBI agents fell silent. All eyes turned on Mike.
The air tightened with hostility.

“
I thought you were here
to see that justice was served,” Mike said.

“
You thought wrong,” The
big guy said.

“
We’re here for bacon,”
Alex laughed.

Laughing, Mike went to the
kitchen. Sandy followed him. They returned with an extra platter of
bacon and a plate of muffins.

“
NSA?” Alex asked. She
picked up a piece of bacon from the platter as it
passed.

“
They’re outside,” an
older, thickset member of Alex’s team said. “And they are pissed. I
guess the papz are starting to arrive.”

The tall brown-haired
soldier who served as Alex’s second in command turned to
Valerie.

“
Did you release the baby
pictures?” he asked.

“
No,” Valerie
said.

“
Perfect,” Alex clapped.
“Where’s Jeraine?”

“
He’s outside,” Tanesha
mumbled.

“
Sorry, what?” Alex
asked.

“
He’s outside,” Jill the
chief meddler repeated. “Waiting for the signal.”

“
I do love this kind of
thing! Team?” Alex pointed to the kitchen.

The big guy grabbed the
platter of bacon, another soldier took the muffins and they
retreated to the kitchen.

“
Ready?” Alex asked the
FBI agents. They nodded. “Where
is . . . ”

Her eyes scanned the table
until they found Rodney and Yvonne. She smiled at them.

“
Claire told me you were
gorgeous. Nice to meet you, Yvonne. I’m Alex, General Hargreaves
daughter.”

“
One of his crazy twins?”
Yvonne asked.

“
Mom!” Horrified, Tanesha
shook her head. “She’s here to help you!”

“
I am the crazier one,”
Alex smiled. “You remember Samantha?”

“
The pretty
one.”

“
Yes, the pretty one,”
Alex smiled. “She’s your lawyer. She’ll be here in a few
minutes.”

“
Tell her what’s going to
happen,” Raz said.

“
We’re here to ensure that
you, Yvonne, aren’t whisked away somewhere. Those guys at the gate
called us when they got the order last night. I’m an old friend of
Mike’s. I knew this was going on but we couldn’t really do anything
until we heard from the Marshalls. They don’t want to have to take
Yvonne anywhere against her will. But they have orders.
We . . . ” She gestured to herself, Colin and
Raz. “We’re Homeland Security. These guys are FBI and some NSA
agents are outside. We’re going to go out there and argue over who
has jurisdiction over Yvonne. If we have to, we’ll pull out the big
guns.”

“
But . . . ” Tanesha furrowed her brow.
“Why would you help us?”

“
Bacon?” Alex
smiled.

“
There’s a group of
people, a group of men, who have used their power and influence to
prey on people,” Raz said. “They’re dinosaurs and, with your mom’s
help, for the first time in a long, long time, we have a chance of
really stopping them. A meteor called Yvonne is about to change
their world.”

“
This morning, they
thought they could get here early and make your mom disappear.
We’re going to make a big fuss over who has jurisdiction over you.
We’re mostly stalling and making a public stink so that the Denver
Police have to step in. Rodney, you ready?”

“
Yes ma’am,” Rodney
said.

“
All right,” Alex said.
“Who wants to get the Marshalls?”

“
Why don’t we all go?” the
FBI Agent in Charge said.

“
Let’s watch from
upstairs!” Charlie said.

Mike picked up Jill and
everyone trotted up the long stairway to Jacob’s old apartment;
leaving Yvonne, Rodney, and Tanesha downstairs with Delphie and
Sam.

“
Ready?” Alex called up
the stairs.

“
Ready!” Mike called
back.

“
Yes sir,” Alex’s team
called down to her.

“
All right,” Alex smiled.
“Feebs first.”

The men in blue suits went
out the door. Alex raised her eyebrows at Colin and Raz. They put
on dark sunglasses and went out into the driveway. From her spot
next to the door, Tanesha saw two men in blue suits move through
the paparazzi to the Marshalls. The men outside the gate spoke to
the US Marshalls. For a split second, Tanesha thought she saw the
Marshalls’ faces wash with relief.

And then they started to
protest.

The FBI agents took up the
challenge from inside the fence while Alex, Colin, and Raz stood
back looking sinister. In a few minutes, all of the Federal Agents
where entertaining the paparazzi by yelling at each other. When
Jeraine walked to the front gate, the photographers pressed
forward.

“
Let’s let them do their
thing,” Sam closed the door. “Come on. Breakfast is getting
cold.”

Tanesha looked at Delphie’s
worried face. Sam put his hand on her back.

“
There’s nothing we can do
now,” he said. “We have to trust that everyone will do their
part.”

Delphie nodded.

“
Come on everyone,” Sam
called upstairs. “Let’s eat.”

Tanesha followed her
parents back into the dining room. As people began to fill the
room, Alex’s team came out of hiding to join them. Tanesha leaned
over to her father.

“
Do you know what’s going
to happen?” Tanesha asked.

“
Only what she said and
what you witnessed,” Rodney said. “It won’t keep us out of the
police station.”

“
At least this time, we’re
not alone,” Yvonne said.

“
Alex, Raz and the Feebs
will be with your parents the entire time,” MJ said. “No secret
deals in back rooms. Everything up front and documented. Your mom
will be home for dinner.”

“
We have to trust the
players,” Sandy reached for Tanesha’s hand and squeezed
it.

“
It’s going to be another
long day,” Delphie said.

~~~~~~~~

Friday morning — 9:35
a.m.

Yvonne held out her hand
and Rodney took it. They walked hand in hand into the main Denver
Police Station together. Coming in from the bright day, the waiting
area seemed dark. Yvonne felt, more than saw, a man move toward
them.

“
Rodney,” the man said. “I
just heard and . . . ”

Yvonne gasped. He was the
father of the girl Rodney was supposed to have hurt. The last time
she’d seen that man, he’d threatened to cut out Rodney’s heart.
Yvonne jumped in front of her husband.

“
Stay away!” Yvonne said.
“Get away from him.”

“
You must be Yvonne,” the
man smiled or grimaced. Yvonne was so fierce she couldn’t tell
which. The big caramel colored Homeland Security Agent walked over
to her.

“
What’s going on here?”
Agent Arthur “Raz” Rasmussen asked. “Yvonne?”

“
He’s going to kill
Rodney,” Yvonne said.

“
Kill him?” The man looked
surprised. He shook his head. “No, we came
to . . . ”

“
But you
said . . . ” Yvonne looked up at Rodney. She
saw a mixture of sorrow and remorse on his face.

“
We have a lot to catch up
on,” Rodney said. “Yvonne just got home and we haven’t had a chance
to catch up on everything.”

“
It’s finally over?” The
man looked to the heavens. “Thank the Lord.”

The man took Yvonne’s hands
into his own.

“
Welcome home,” he said.
“I’m Reverend White.”

“
Yvie, Reverend White is
the man who led the group that got me out of prison,” Rodney said.
“He . . . and
I . . . ”

“
We worked it out,” the
Reverend said. “I went to see Rodney every month, just to stare at
him, and then . . . The Lord came to me. Sounds
stupid, but that’s the only explanation that makes sense. On the
thirtieth visit, more than two years after I started going up to
Canon City, I ask Rodney if he killed my daughter. He said no and
he didn’t know who did. What concerned Rodney was that a man like
that was still on the streets while he was in prison. And for the
first time in my life, the Lord spoke to me.”