Rogue Alliance (41 page)

             
“How could I?”

             
“What’s going on with you today? You’re grumpy as hell and it’s like pulling teeth to get you to talk.”

             
Brennan wasn’t sure if he should share the news about his health, or the incident in the woods.

             
“I haven’
t been feeling very well lately,
”
he said.

             
“What, like you’re sick or something?”

             
“Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

             
“Are you taking your supplement? Maybe you need to increase your intake.”

             
“Yeah, maybe that’s it. Don’t worry, Boss, I’ll be alright.”

             
“Well, I need you to be your best. Things are crazy around here and I don’t imagine they’ll settle down anytime soon. Which reminds me, what’s the scoop on Ricardo?”

             
“Word is
,” Brennan said,
“that
he didn’t talk while he was behind bars but he’s out now on a technicality.”

             
“Hmm,
good,
”
Victor said, easing back in his seat, “
it’ll be a lot easier to get to him on the outside. I’ll make a few phone calls. He’ll be taken care of by the end of the week.”

             
Brennan knew very well what he meant by taken care of. Why couldn’t he escape death? It seemed to permeate his everyday life no matter how he tried to avoid it.

             
After they rolled out of the fast-food drive-thru Victor bit into his burger and talked around a mouthful of beef.

             
“I
want you to keep an eye on her,
”
he said,

             
“Shyla?”

             
“Yeah, Shyla. I want you to watch her every move, let me know if she has any
plans to travel and - if you can -
tap her phone. I don’t tr
ust her. She’s like a rabid dog;
she won’t give up until she’s done what she came to do.”

             
Brennan had to admit he
liked the idea of keeping an eye on her. It meant that he could help keep her out of trouble, at least where Victor was concerned. If he was going to die soon, he figured the last thing he could do was keep her safe for as long as possible.

             
“That means I’ll be away from the house more,
” he said,
“and
not able to guard you around the clock.”

             
“I’ll hire another guard. That’s easy. My priority is to know what she’s up to at all times. She’s not the type to forgive and
forget easily. And neither am I,” Victor lowered his voice,
“I guess she and I are even more I alike than I thought. That’s bad news for the both of us and not likely to end well.”

*

             
That night
,
as Brennan laid in bed thinking, he realized
that
h
e had two sores inside
his mouth; one on his inner cheek and the other low
on the gum line. Now aware of them
, he thought back and realized that they’d b
een there for a while now, perhaps
a little over a week.

             
His mind started racing. Maybe this was just one of many of signs and symptoms to come as his body began to slowly break down under the cloak of his disease. It had been increasingly harder to ge
t up at his usual early hours, a
nd he’d already skipped his morning run twice la
st week. H
e had convinced himself
it was because of his
hectic lifestyle. Now
,
he wasn’t so sure.

             
Well
,
he wasn’t going to do that anymore, no matter how he was feeling. There was no way he was going to go down without a fight.

             
Restless, he hopped out of bed and stood in front of his bathroom mirror under the glare of the fluorescent light. Did his skin look paler? Blotchier? He opened his mouth and couldn’t help notice there were actually four small sores in his mouth; two he’d not known about on the side of his tongue.

             
I’m going to die.

             
He
ha
d
just acquired his freedom and his life was about to be cut
short.

             
He had so many questions unanswered. He
’d
told Shyla that his past was better left a mystery
,
but now he wasn’t so sure. He did want to know where he came from, who he was, who his parents
were. She’d offered to help him and perhaps, he realized,
he needed to rethink that proposition.

FORTY-FIVE

             
Shyla had placed the letter on Carmen’s doorstep in the early morning hours and returned to her apartment. Tucked away from the outside world, she spent the entire day researching everything she could find
about
Victor and his Mafia contacts in an effort to link the upcoming shipment that Ricardo had talked about with past bus
ts or
articles on the shipyard and cargo company.

             
It was dark out when her cell phone rang.

             
“Ericson here,
”
she answered,

“Victor was released this afternoon on
probation and community service,
”
Hal Jorgenson’s voice came in strong and clear.

             
“Hey, that’s progress.”

             
“Sure,
”
he snorted, “
I guess it’s better than nothing, but I’d hoped that for assaulting an officer, they’d have at least made him serve a little time.”

             
There was a soft knock on Shyla’s door. She slammed the rest of her fourth cup of coffee.

             
“Look, Hal,
” she said,
“
we both knew this wasn’t going to be easy. I’ve got some things I want to share with you about my trip, but I don’t want to do it over t
he phone. Can we meet
tomorrow?”

             
“Sure, of course. Why don’t you come by the house tomorrow after work, maybe around seven?”

             
Another knock at the door.

             
“Yeah, seven works. Hey, I gotta go. Someone’s at the door.”

             
“Probably Shawn.
I’m betting he’ll want to tell you the news,” Hal said and hung up.

             
Expecting Shawn, she was surprised to see an awkward and nervous woman standing at her door, wringing her hands together. It t
ook a second to place the face before she recognized her as Carmen’s mother,
Sue Dunsworth. An alarm went off in her brain.

             
“Well, hello, Mrs. Dunsworth. How can I help you?”

             
“Where is she? Is she here?”
Sue asked, her eyes darting
back and forth.

             
“No, I’m sorry. Carmen didn’t come by here today. Maybe she went to a friend’s house after school?”

             
Sue’s lips pinched together.

             
“Nope, nope, the school called this morning around ten to tell me that she hadn’t shown up today and asked if she was home sick. It’s not all that uncommon for her to skip, but she hasn’t done that lately. Not since…well not since she started hanging out with you.”

             
“Okay,
” Shyla said,
“
well, since she didn’t go to school and she isn’t here, where do you think she could have gone?”

             
A hint of panic welled up inside her chest but Shyla refused to acknowledge it. It was always best not to jump to conclusions.

             
“I don’t know or else I wouldn’t be here, would I?” Sue exclaimed with exaspera
tion, “a
ll I know is that she stomped around the house this morning like she had a bug up her butt and right before she
left for school, she said
you couldn’t come over today for dinner. That’s it. She left before I could ask her why.”

             
“D
id she show you the note?”

             
Sue’s expression turned wary.

             
“What note?”
she asked.

             
“I wrote her a note saying that I couldn’t make it to dinner and I thought it was best if we didn’t hang out for a while, until I get some things sorted out.”

             
Hearing the words out loud
, it sounded so trite and she felt ashamed as she imagined the way Carmen would have felt reading it.

             
“It just seemed like the right thing to do…”
Shyla added, h
er voice trailed off.

             
Sue looked to have an odd mix of emotions; anger toward Shyla and pleasure to have someone to blame.

             
“Well,
no wonder she ran away,
”
she accused.

             
“Whoa, whoa,
” Shyla said, holding her hands up, “
let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
We don’t know where Carmen is
. We can’t just assume that because she skipped school she ran away.”

             
She knew it was her fault. Why did she
write that note? Why couldn’t she have just
gone
to the damn dinner?

             
“Why don’t you come inside for bit?
” Shyla asked, recognizing the need for a new approach,
“
I’ll get you a cup of coffee and we’ll figure this out together.”

             
Sue squeezed and rubbed her hands together till Shyla thought they’d start to bleed.

             
“No, I better not…
I think I’ll go try to find her,” Sue
turned halfway
,
then paused b
efore turning back, “i
f you didn’t want to have dinner with us, you could have just made up a lame excuse. You didn’t have to hurt her.”

             
Shyla wanted to lash out and tell her that she’s the one who was always hurting Carmen, slapping her around when things got tough. But it would have only made things worse. Besides, she was the one who had inflicted this recent injury.

             
“I know…I’m sorry. Listen…don’t go. I’ve got friends down at the precinct still. We can give them a call and report her missing, see what they can come up with. They won’t file it until she’s been officially missing for twenty-four hours but I know them, they’ll get the ball rolling regardless.”

             
Sue shifted back and forth on the balls of her feet like she wasn’t sure whether to walk away into the dark night or walk into the warmth of the apartment.

             
“I did want to have dinner with you. I was just…I was just scared,” Shyla offered in her remorse.

             
Sue’s face registered shock then softened to understanding.

             
“Come in,
” Shyla said again,
“and
we’ll find her together.”

             
Sue walked into the apartment.

*

             
Neither Shawn nor Jason
were on duty
,
but they came immediat
ely after Shyla called Shawn to
gave him the run-down on the situation. They both questioned Carmen’s mother about the sequence of events. Meticulously, they went over her history in situations like this hoping to figure out where she could have gone, and a list of names of people she may have turned to. The list was short. Carmen apparently didn’t have many friends, other than Shyla.

             
“W
e’ll start a missing person protocol first thing tomorrow morning if she hasn’
t shown up by then,” Jason said, “but in the meantime,
I’ll go around town and pay a visit to the people on this list and keep an eye out for her o
n the streets
.”