Intersection (48 page)

“I know,” Alex sighed. “Cass…”

“Did you like the picture of the sunset over the mountain on the front?” That was it. Any doubts Alex had were gone. She picked up the card with the picture of the ocean on the rocks and a crystal blue sky. Fisher was there.

“Mmm… I did. I would rather watch the sunset with you, though,” the agent said feeling a tear well in her eye. “When I get back.”

“When are you coming home?” Cassidy’s voice began to falter and Fisher grabbed her arm to caution her. The teacher closed her eyes and listened.

“I’ll be home before you even know I was gone. You just wait for me….Cass…”

“Je t’adore, Alex.”

Alex pressed on her temple with her thumb lightly and a tear escaped her eyes. “Chocolate and vanilla….okay?’

Cassidy managed a slight chuckle as a tear fell down her cheek. “I prefer Vanilla.”

“I know you do. Cassidy, I love you more than anything… we’ll have that vanilla cake… I promise.”

“I love you too, Alex. Get home soon,” Fisher took the phone from the woman’s hand and put it on the receiver as Cassidy’s tears flowed freely.

“Touching,” he said. “My turn.”

“What the hell is your problem?” Brackett pulled away from Agent Fallon’s grasp.

“I don’t have time for this, Brackett. Fisher…is he alive or not.”

“What are you talking about?” The redheaded agent glared defiantly.

“One chance, Brackett… Don’t test me.” Fallon grabbed the woman’s arm and pulled her to him. “If anything happens to Cassidy I will make it my mission to destroy your career. Do you understand me? And I can promise you that will be nothing compared to what Toles will do.”

“Why would I know?”

Brian Fallon tightened his grip on the woman’s arm. His eyes were narrowing to slits and his voice became a haunting echo as he spoke in her ear. “Yes or no.”

Claire Brackett’s body shivered. John Merrow had warned her about Toles and Fallon, to be careful. Now she realized his caution was warranted. There was more to Fallon than she thought and the tingle of fear running over her caught her attention. “Yes,” she whispered.

Fallon let go and stood watching her with a fierce stare. He could not speak to her as he pulled out his phone. He pressed the necessary button and managed only three words, “you’d better pray.”

Congressman Christopher O’Brien watched the tall FBI agent as she lowered her phone and rubbed her face forcefully. “Is he there?” The congressman cautiously asked. Alex felt her body shaking. Her anger and her fear were overwhelming her thoughts and she needed to put both aside if she hoped to help Cassidy. “Agent Toles?” He called to her.

Alex let out a sigh and looked at the congressman. “I don’t care what you want to do to me, O’Brien...I don’t care what you think of me…but I swear,” she stopped and controlled her words. She shook her head, “yeah… he’s there.”

“What are you,” before the congressman could finish his question Alex was on the phone.

“Brady here.”

“I need your help.”

“Toles?”

“I need you to get to Cassidy O’Brien’s….quickly but quietly.” Alex was rummaging through the top of a closet in her hallway.

“Toles…where are you?”

“D.C. … Fisher is there with her.”

“What?” Steven Brady asked in disbelief. “Taylor said he was…”

“He’s not…. Listen, O’Brien is here with me.”

Steven Brady was already walking out the door of his office. “How much time?”

“I don’t know… he’ll want to play,” Alex’s voice dropped an octave as she confronted the likelihood of what Carl Fisher was planning for her lover. “Depends on what you mean for time.”

“Understood….any idea where they are?”

“Kitchen or bedroom, that’s where the phones are…betting kitchen…he’ll stay on the lower level…just in case he needs an exit,” Alex said.

“I’m thirty minutes out, best case scenario. Windows?”

Alex swallowed hard. Thirty minutes was a long time. A lot could happen in thirty minutes; a lot more than the agent wanted to imagine. “Back yard… sliding glass doors to the deck off the kitchen… small window over the sink…good vantage point is a tree house just to the right…But he’s smart, Brady… if you can get there – then maybe…”

“Spook the spook,” he said.

“Maybe.”

“I’m on my way.”

“Brady….” Alex need to convey to her friend the urgency of the situation. Fisher would likely view Cassidy as a recreational activity. That could mean almost anything and the thoughts running through Alex’s brain were making her ill.

“I know,” he answered.

Alex hung up the phone and loaded the pistol she had pulled from the top of her closet. She attached her holster and put her sidearm in it when the phone buzzed again. “He’s alive,” the voice said.

“I know. Fallon, he has Cass.”

“What now?” Fallon asked.

“Big guns…. I gotta’ go…. Call Ferro…Fill him in…” Alex looked at the congressman. “Where is Krause?”

“I don’t know,” he said flatly. “Agent Toles, I had no way of knowing…”

Alex let out a disgusted chuckle. “You play with fire Congressman, you get burned. Those are the odds.”

“It’s not what you…”

She turned on her heels and looked at him. “I don’t care what it is. I don’t care why it is. Now, I have to find a way to get Fisher out of that house before he hurts Cassidy.”

“Maybe if there’s nothing to…”

“Fisher doesn’t care about what Cassidy knows, O’Brien. He’s obsessed. He doesn’t give a shit about you or Krause. Your jealousy and your selfishness created the perfect opportunity for him. I don’t have time for this. You found your way here; you can find your way out.” The agent grabbed her keys and her wallet, checked her sidearm and walked out the door leaving the congressman alone in her apartment to ponder the picture on the table in front of him.

“So….you are just full of surprises,” Carl Fisher hissed in the school teacher’s ear. Cassidy closed her eyes and kept picturing Alex. She knew Alex would do everything she could to protect her, but Alex was so far away. Cassidy couldn’t imagine how Alex could do anything. How did she even know that Fisher might be there? “Do I make you….nervous?” Fisher whispered and ran a hand along Cassidy’s leg. She shuddered at the sensation and fought her tears.

“Yes,” she answered.

“Oh,” he smiled with satisfaction. “But you like excitement, don’t you? I mean politicians, FBI agents….mmmmm.” His touch became more insistent.

“Not really,” Cassidy replied growing as angry as she was afraid.

“Oh….I don’t believe you….Agent Toles has quite a reputation you know.”

“No, I’m afraid I don’t know,” the teacher said pointedly.

“Surely,” he breathed in her ear, “you don’t think you are her first? I mean,” he stopped and licked behind her ear before whispering again, “you think she would give it all up for you? Hmmm? Like me…”

Cassidy swallowed hard and turned to face him with disgust. “Yes, actually I do.” Maybe there was no way out but the teacher was not going to play the willing victim to this sadistic son of a bitch. There was no way if she was going to die here that she would betray who she was and what she felt for Alex.

Fisher stepped back a pace and ran his fingers over the top of his head in frustration. He turned and grabbed his red duffel bag off the kitchen table. Cassidy took the brief opportunity to survey her familiar surroundings, wondering if she could out run him, but that seemed unlikely. He let out a maniacal laugh as he came face to face with the teacher again and grabbed her. “You think you’re brave?” He laughed harder and pulled her across the room, throwing her into a chair. “We’ll see.” He grabbed the rope from his bag and tied her hands behind the chair, pulling the rope so tightly that Cassidy winced at the burning sensation. “Now what were you saying…about that agent? You think she loves you?” He mocked the woman.

The teacher looked her assailant squarely in the eyes, a single tear rolling down her cheek. “No.” He smiled with satisfaction at her response and then she continued, “I know she loves me.”

Fisher became enraged. “ENOUGH talk!” He retrieved a roll of duct tape from his bag and ripped off a large piece. He slapped it over Cassidy’s mouth, pulling her face to look at him as she attempted to turn away. “NOW…I will speak and you will listen...MY TURN.”

Alex started her car as she waited for a voice to answer her call. “Alex?”

“John, I need your help,” there was a distinct panic in the agent’s voice that John Merrow had never heard.

“What is it?” The president asked.

“Fisher is at Cassidy’s.”

“Alex, that’s…”

“John… please…”

The president sighed and swallowed hard. His fears were being realized. Fisher posed an exposure risk. He needed to be removed. If anything happened to Cassidy it would galvanize Agent Toles beyond the resolve he was certain she already had to get to the bottom of the congressman’s dealings. He’d warned Brackett and he had hoped that his call the prior day would have prevented this. It appeared his efforts were too little, too late. Now, he would need to play the game very carefully. “What do you need?” He asked.

“I don’t have my badge and I don’t have time, John. I need to get there and quickly…and I need to be able to coordinate on the way.”

“All right. Andrews. I will make the call.”

“John… I …”

“Alex… keep your head in the game. Is anyone else there? Dylan? I will call Taylor.”

“Dylan’s with Cassidy’s mom…Brady’s on his way,” she informed him.

“Well, we may have closer assets. How long?” The president asked.

“I spoke to him ten minutes ago…another twenty at least.”

“Let me go, Captain…I’ll take care of what I can. Expect Captain Abel at Andrews. I’ll make the request…Have Agent Fallon meet you. You will be cleared.”

Alex tried to concentrate on the road. “Thank you.”

***

“Dammit!” The president yelled into the phone. “I thought this was taken care of.”

“Where is he?” The voice asked.

“He’s at the house….and NSA is on the way.”

“Does he have her?” The man’s voice seemed to tremble slightly.

“Yes.”

“How far out is NSA?” The voice inquired.

“Probably twenty.”

“I am almost there now…I will be there in ten.”