Silencing Joy (20 page)

“
You little piece of shit! You think you can fuck
with me and get away with it!? I am going to bury you so deep that
worms won’t be able to find you!”

The team of agents that swarmed the area earlier
never even move.

“
Why aren’t they moving in?” Will wonders aloud.
Derek shrugs his shoulders in the dark.

“
They’re waiting for Matthews,” Derek
offers.

Headlights are coming towards the fence.

“
Look,” Will says.

“
Who the fuck is this, now?” Derek asks.

“
It’s not a car. It’s a truck or something.
Matthews ordered a freakin’ paddy wagon to take us away? I thought
he wanted us dead.”

The vehicle slows and stops at the agent by the
fence. They speak for a second, and the agent lets it through.

The vehicle rolls forward and stops. Bill hops out
and stands by the van, using it for cover.

“
Bill? Holy shit! Is he trying to get shot?” Derek
curses.

Bill’s gun is drawn, and he calls out to
Matthews.

“
It’s all over! Throw down your weapon,
Al!”

“
How nice of you to come, Bill!” Matthews
chastises. “I have some business to take care of. I’ll be right
with you.”

“
Business is over, Al!”

“
I have agents all over this place! Stand down!”
Matthews yells to Bill.

“
You are incorrect, Al! I have agents all over
this place!”

The click of gun barrels and the shuffle of feet
carries from all over the parking lot. Matthews freezes. Derek and
Will are confused.

“
Go! Go!” someone yells.

“
What the hell?” Derek curses in
confusion.

Derek and Will brace to be overtaken, but the team
doesn’t move towards them, they swarm Matthews and Tommy. Sirens
whirl in the distance. Police cruisers and an ambulance come to a
screeching halt by the parking lot.

Watching from their place of cover, they see Tommy
and Matthews pushed to the ground and handcuffed, beams of
flashlights span the region. The entire thing has blown up into a
crime scene to fortify and investigate.

When they are finally authorized by agents, EMTs rush
to Mouse and Brian. Bill is barking orders and instructions. Derek
and Will take it all in and emerge dumbfounded. Bill is on the
phone, recapping the entire episode. Policemen force the criminals
into the back seat of their cars.

Bill clicks his phone off.

“
There you are!” he says, glad to see
them.

“
The perimeter is secure, and we have retrieved
the other perpetrators,” a policeman informs Bill.

“
Good.”

“
Sir, the mayor would like to speak with you,” a
woman tells Bill.

A phone is handed to him.

“
Yes, Sir.” (pause) “The area is secure and all
suspects are in custody.” (pause) “Yes, Sir. Thank you.” Bill taps
the phone off and hands it back to the woman.

“
What is going on?” Derek asks
incredulously.

“
You guys did a great job,” Bill says proudly. “I
could have never wrapped this up without you.”

“
What?” Will asks.

“
Let’s get to the hospital, and I’ll explain it
all.”

Time dragged with worry and darkness. A nurse
finally came out of the operating room, followed by Dr. Morgan. Jen
sat up, and her face was crawling with anxiety. Her outfit,
combined with her worry, made her look years older.

“The bullet has been removed. We gave the
patient two pints of blood, and he is stable. He is in the recovery
room,” Dr. Morgan informed us. “You can go in to see him in about
twenty minutes.”

“Thank you.” I said, breathlessly. My
breathing had stopped as soon as I saw them come through the door.
They left us, and I turned to Jen.

Jen crumpled in the chair and silent tears
slid down her face.

“That’s good, right?” she asked. “I sort of
blacked out after the bullet part.” I rubbed her back with small
circles.

“He is going to be fine. We can see him in a
few minutes,” I reassured her.

Where was Will?

Jen cleaned up her face and took a small
drink of water from a stainless steel fountain. We went to check on
Kara since we had a few minutes before being able to see Jake.

“A little walk will pass the time,” I told
her. She nodded her head.

We walked back through the corridors to
Kara’s room, and coming down the hall from the other direction were
Will, Derek, and Bill.

Will!

I ran across the tile floor, and jumped into
his arms.

“Where have you been!?”

He pulled back and kissed me, then he hugged
me tightly.

“I was so worried about you,” I told him.

“I couldn’t stand not knowing if you were
okay,” he mumbled into my hair. We separated, but Will continued to
hold my hand.

Everyone else had gone into Kara’s room, and
we followed them, standing over her bed. She was asleep, but looked
better. Derek kissed her forehead. The monitors that she was hooked
up to were quiet. That was a good thing.

“So?” Will said to Bill.

The nurse came in.

“You can visit Mr. Reynolds, now,” she
stated. “Two at a time, only.”

“Let’s go see Jake, then I’ll tell all of
you.”

We walked back to the OR recovery room. Bill
and Jen went in. The rest of us waited.

“What a hell of a night,” Will said to
Derek.

“Uh huh,” Derek responded distractedly.

After a few minutes, Jen and Bill came out.
Bill had his arm on her shoulder, and Jen was blotting her nose
with a tissue. I touched her arm in comfort, and followed Will into
the recovery room.

Jake was in the first bed by the door. His
eyes were closed, and he had three different IVs attached to his
arm. His skin was very pale, probably due to the blood loss. His
shoulder was covered with heavy, thick, white bandages.

His eyes opened to slits and he smiled.

“Hey,” he said groggily.

“Hey,” Will said softly. “You look good,
man.” Will smiled at him.

“I’m gonna have a hell of a scar,” Jake
croaked out weakly.

“That’s okay. Chicks dig scars,” Will
joked.

“Do you think
that
chick digs scars?”
Jake motioned to the door slightly with a nod of his head.

Will looked to me for affirmation.

“I am sure she does,” I told Jake.

Jake looked really tired, and his eyes
closed. Will signaled to me that we should leave.

“We’ll see you soon, buddy. Get some
rest.”

“My orders were directly from
Washington.”

We were assembled in the waiting room. No one
was there but us, and we listened intently to Bill.

“I was the mole. I was the agent that needed
to take down Matthews. It’s tricky and confusing because I had to
go along with everything. Matthews thought that everyone was afraid
and looking the other way. He was quite clever. He acted like he
wanted to infiltrate, and take down an operation that he was
running. He thought he was throwing everyone off his trail. Putting
you guys in the operation to try and flush out his guy Tommy, it
was a perfect scenario. Matthews was always one step ahead until
Tommy turned on him. Matthews could falsify documents, make
evidence disappear, even all traces of people’s lives. Kara was
caught in the cross fire between Matthews and his flunky, Tommy.”
Bill paused. “I couldn’t tell you. I had to wait until the time was
right. The DA has been abreast of this entire case. I’m sorry you
all had to go through this. I had to let it play out.” Bill ended
his recount on a remorseful note.

He had spilled his guts to all of us. It made
sense. One wrong move and Matthews would have known the FBI was
onto his charade. It’s hard to catch a criminal when the criminals
are the ones in charge.

“What about all the people and girls that
passed through Tommy’s warehouse?” Derek asked.

“Some of the girls were recovered, a few were
plants, but I have a team in the south and one on the ocean trying
to recover the rest of them.”

I felt a little bit of relief knowing that
there was someone looking for the girls who were taken.

“You did a great job. It will not go
unnoticed by the bureau,” Bill added.

“My camera!” I startled everyone with my
outburst.

“It was recovered at the scene and will be
used, along with all of our other evidence, to put Tommy and
Matthews away for a long time. You’ll get it back soon. Or I will
personally buy you a new one. Those pictures are what is going to
mold this case into an unbreakable rock.”

Kara’s father was going to jail for
committing despicable crimes. I don’t know whether to feel relief
for Kara...or sadness.

We spend the night and the whole next day at
the hospital. Kara and Jake were doing extremely well. I sat at the
foot of Jake’s bed watching Jen as she fluffed his pillow and gave
him sips of ginger ale from a straw. He had a smug expression on
his face as she doted on him. Will had been writing reports and
filling out paperwork for the last two hours on a laptop Bill had
dropped off for him. Derek had not left Kara’s bedside. She slept
non-stop for almost twenty-four hours, waking later in the
afternoon. Occasionally, I went and laid down on the couch in the
waiting room next to Will as he worked. I slept in spurts of
thirty- and forty-five-minute naps.

In the late evening, Kara and Jake were
released. I don’t think it was hospital protocol; I think it was
Bill’s doing. We were all just happy to get out of there.

The girls we found in the warehouse were
being remanded to Child Services for evaluation and treatment.
Their hospital stay would be longer. Hopefully, they could get help
and homes.

In the bitter end, Bill informed us that six
people had been arrested in total. Brian was at a different
hospital recovering from a gunshot wound to his lung. Derek
believed that, with Brian’s testimony and his cooperation, he would
get a light sentence. Mouse, Tommy, and two others would be
prosecuted as adults to the full extent of the law. Matthews would
be headed to federal prison to await trial. It was a relief to know
that they were off the streets...that it was safe to go home.

I wake up in my own bed, in my own little
apartment. I shift and focus on the window with the fire escape. I
remember clearly the night Derek came and whisked me away to run
for my life. So much has changed...I’ve changed. I have a thicker
skin, yet I realize the importance of letting people in...I realize
how lucky I am.

Wafting from my kitchen, I can smell coffee
brewing and hear the clank of dishes. I stretch my arms behind my
head and touch my pillow. Boy, how I missed my pillow. I took a lot
of time to pick this particular one. About six months ago, Jen and
I stood in the home goods store debating its fluffiness and
durability for a long time.

Movement in the doorway of my bedroom makes
me look up. Will is standing there, grinning at me. His lean fit
body is wearing only the sweatpants Ann gave him the night we
stayed at her B&B. I think it’s safe to say I have a
boyfriend.

I let myself go and gave into the amazing
urges that have surfaced since finding Will beaten on the ground
under the bleachers. I gave all I have to him; even though it was
something I never thought much about losing.

It seems like a lifetime ago, Will stretched
out on the cold ground, moaning from the massive hits he took. My
old life seems like the dream now and not this one I’m in. I lived
a lifetime in one week. I gained a new appreciation for all life
has to offer...like hot sexy, FBI boyfriends. I don’t really think
it matters if you have known someone five years or five days, it
just seems right between us. It’s like we have always been
together. Will is perfect for me! He is my balance.

“You ready for coffee?” he asks me.

I nod and stretch some more, relishing just
relaxing in my bed. My body is really tired. I feel like I ran a
marathon with no shoes on.

Will disappears back into the kitchen, and I
hear my front door open.

“Hey, Joy-Joy!” Jen yells through the
apartment. Muffled voices come from the kitchen. A deep gravely one
and Jen’s high pitched girly voice.

Will comes back into the bedroom and hands me
a mug of coffee made just the way I like it. It smells
heavenly.

Jen sings songs my name again.

“Joy-Joy!”

“I’m back here!” I call out to her.

I glance up and see her in the doorway. Will
has parked himself on the mattress next to me. He is stroking his
hand up and down my leg from knee to ankle. I take a small sip of
my coffee.
Mmmm!

“Coffee served to you in bed? He is
definitely a keeper!” Jen imparts her words of wisdom emphatically.
“I’m not here to bother you; I just need to borrow your coat.” She
goes into my closet and rummages around. Pulling out my navy pea
coat, Jen removes it from the hanger. “Jake is taking me to the
park this morning. The fresh air should be good for him. Are we all
still meeting for lunch?” she asks, talking a mile a minute.

“Yeah,” Will answers. He gives me a look like
does she does this all the time?
“I guess we will be
spending some time at my house,” he mumbles to me under his
breath.

“What was that?” Jen asks sarcastically.
“I’ve already seen your lily-white ass in the air early this
morning.”

OMG!
Jen came down here this morning.
I flush with mortification, but Will, who has learned Jen’s
disposition over the past week, gives it right back.

“Well, at least she is getting
some
?”
Will says challenging her. I can’t believe Jen walked in on us.
Holy crap!
I didn’t even hear her, and neither did Will. I
pull the sheet over my head.