Undercover (30 page)
Authors: Maria Hammarblad
One day, Jenny brought Alexander to the market, and Lindsay and Alex stayed home. He was engulfed in what he was doing, and when the door opened, he was sure it was his daughter. No one can be alert all the time, every day, and it was an honest mistake, but it was one he would have to live with every waking hour and sometimes in his dreams for the rest of his life.
A voice behind him drawled, “I knew I’d find you eventually. Get up, but do it slowly and keep your hands where I can see them.”
Alex obeyed, and looked into the black eye of a gun. The weapon was firmly held by a hand belonging to Tom Johnson. This was bad. “Well, it seems like you found me. Let’s go.”
If this was to happen, he wanted to get out of the house before Jenny got back. Before this man got the idea to bring any more members of the family, but it was already too late.
“No, it’s not going to be that easy, son. I didn’t just come for you. But, don’t worry, I’ll make sure you and your pretty wife get cells next to each other. Maybe in thirty or forty years, I’ll see to it that your children can come visit you. By then you might be grandparents. Or great grandparents. If you live. People in these kinds of prisons don’t usually grow that old.”
The man was ready to squeeze the trigger. Johnson had waited for too long to be patient any longer. If roles had been reversed, he would have done the exact same thing.
He prepared to throw himself to the side, hoping to take the shot in a shoulder or even not at all, so he could stay alive long enough to warn Lindsay.
He heard the soft sound of a gun with a muffler, but didn’t feel any pain. Maybe it was just initial shock. Johnson couldn’t have shot him from this distance and missed.
He expected his legs to fold under him, but they didn’t. Looking down, he couldn’t see any blood either. The realization that he had been wrong about everything dawned slowly on him when Johnson slumped to the ground. Behind the body, Alex saw his daughter.
Lindsay stood with her feet apart and both hands around one of his guns, with a muffler attached to it. Her eyes were wide with shock and surprise, and her lip trembled. “Daddy, Daddy, please don’t hate me. I heard what he said, and I couldn’t let him do it. I just wanted to protect you and Mommy, Daddy, please…”
Tears rolled down her cheeks. He needed to shake himself out of the surprise that still held him frozen in place. If she never had before, his daughter needed him now. Unless, that was, he was going to let her grow up to be a carbon copy of himself.
He approached her slowly. “It’s okay, pumpkin. Put the gun down.”
She didn’t move, and he took it away from her. She didn’t struggle, she just let it go. He put the large weapon to the side, marveling she’d been able to hold it, and held her in his arms, her little body shaking with sobs.
Alex couldn’t believe what just happened. His little girl saved his life, yes, but at what cost to herself? How could it have happened? Ever since she was born, he kept all weapons in the house taken apart, and even though she was a smart kid, he didn’t see her putting a clip in, getting a muffler on, and taking the safety off to go shoot an intruder.
“Sweetheart, how did you know what to do with the gun?”
Kids got over everything so much faster than grownups, and she was already past the worst fit of crying. Most things just scratched their surface. Drying her tears with his thumb, he looked at her and forced himself to smile. “I’m not angry with you, pumpkin, but it’s important you tell me. Where did you learn about guns?”
His daughter’s answer made him feel cold inside. She still sobbed a little, but was completely coherent, and he wondered how so many years could have passed without him seeing. He had truly been blind, and more things had been wrong with his life than he could ever have imagined.
“Remember Miss Nielsen at my daycare center, where you and Mom used to leave me when you went to work?”
Alex nodded. Miss Nielsen was a bouncy, blond, young woman with happy eyes and freckles. She was pretty enough to make Jenny just a little bit jealous, and he always made sure to keep his distance. Being nice to a kindergarten teacher wasn’t worth upsetting his wife. In retrospect, avoiding her wasn’t his best idea ever. If he had paid closer attention, he might have seen what was going on. On the other hand, if he had paid closer attention then, he would probably be dead now.
“She taught me all sorts of things, and made me promise never to tell anyone. She taught me about guns and bombs and safes, and how to kick a man where it hurts. She said I’d grow up to be a great countr… countra…” she frowned, unable to get the word right. “Just like my dad.”
Alex ran a hand over his forehead. All these years when he thought he was protecting his family, they were already working on changing his daughter. How long had this been going on? He had truly been an idiot thinking he could keep his family safe.
“Alright. You’ve done well. You saved my life. No matter what, don’t ever blame yourself for that. Do you understand?”
She blinked several times and nodded. Her faith in her father still was greater than the boundaries set by society. He just didn’t deserve it.
It wasn’t easy to force himself to smile, but he managed, and he was happy to see her smile back. “This is what we’re going to do. No one must ever know about this, and if they find out anyway, we’ll say I did it, okay?”
Lindsay looked puzzled. “But, won’t I be going to jail? They wanted to put you in jail.”
“No.” They were deep in Mexico’s countryside, and he doubted anyone would care all that much about a stranger disappearing. Ironically, he and his family were regarded as valuable members of society, bringing prosperity to a poor community, and they would have at least some protection.
“What about Mom? Can I tell Mom?”
He hesitated. Saying she shouldn’t tell Jenny might put too heavy a burden on the girl’s shoulders, but at the same time, he really didn’t want Jenny to know. “I would rather this be our secret, just yours and mine.”
An inspired lie came to him. “If we tell your mom, she will be so worried for you, and she will blame herself for not being here to protect us from the bad man. If it’s okay with you, I think we should keep this between us.”
Lindsay nodded. “Mommy does worry a lot. She doesn’t need to know.”
It took a while longer before Alex was convinced his daughter was alright. He wanted to stay on the floor with her, but Jenny and Alexander could return at any time. He still lingered a moment longer. “Sweetie, if you ever need to talk about this, or about anything, I’m here for you.”
When she nodded, he picked the weapon up from the floor and cleaned it off. It went into Johnson’s pocket. He rolled the thick rug up with the man inside it, and said with some humor, “If Mommy asks what happened to this, we’ll tell her I spilled tomato juice on it. How’s that sound?”
Lindsay exclaimed, “Eeeewwww, tomatoes are icky.” Maybe she’d be alright. It didn’t make him feel any less guilty. He needed to make his children less useful, less vulnerable.
Johnson wasn’t a big man, and moving the rug to the car didn’t take much effort. It was very strange to go dispose of a dead body together with his daughter.
Chapter Thirty-Four
When Jenny returned home that day, she found her husband and daughter sitting side by side in the porch swing. He sipped a cold beer and she a ginger ale, and there was something about them that didn’t seem quite right.
Alex said with a smile, “Look Lindsay, our queen has returned,” and their daughter giggled.
Something had changed, but she couldn’t figure out what. “Is everything okay?”
He got up to kiss her and offered his place in the swing. Behind them, Lindsay pulled Alexander around the house, chiming, “C’mon, let’s go play.”
When Alex flashed his thousand watt smile, she
knew
something was up. He seemed the epitome of innocence when he said, “Let me take those bags, lover dearest. I will get you a beer, or would you prefer a glass of wine?”
He didn’t have any visible wounds, and she couldn’t see anything destroyed in the yard. She still crossed her arms. “You’ve been up to something.”
“Beer it is. I will be right back.”
She took a seat and listened to the sound of playing children. Whatever he’d been up to might not be too bad after all. It was a fine day, and much too hot to worry. Alex returned within minutes with a cool drink for her, and when he sat next to her and wrapped his arms around her, it was difficult to stay suspicious.
Just as she started to relax, he said, “You’re right. Something did happen today.”
“What?”
“Mister Johnson from the CIA came for a visit. He will not be back. However, someone else might be.”
She whispered, “Oh no.”
“I have been thinking. This place is not safe anymore, and it is much too warm for a northern diamond such as yourself. How would you feel about moving to Bulgaria? Or maybe to the Ukraine? We could live by the shores of the sea, the countryside is beautiful, and people speak a language you know. The American authorities would be very far away.”
Ukraine? What would they do there? He didn’t look like he was kidding.
Alex flashed another dazzling smile, and before she knew it, she started to laugh, thinking they were all crazy.
The End
About Maria Hammarblad
As a little girl, Maria was fascinated with books. Before she could read or write, she made her mother staple papers together to resemble books. She drew suns in them and claimed they were “The Sun Book.” They were all about the sun. The four-year old also claimed her existence on Earth was a mistake, a result of a horrible mix-up, and that her real family would come to bring her home to her own planet at any time. This didn’t happen, but her fascination with both books and other worlds stayed with her.
Originally born in Sweden, she moved to Florida late 2008, and today she lives in the Tampa Bay area with her husband Mike and their rescue dogs. Her biggest interest besides writing is playing bass, and through the years she has played in a number of Swedish rock bands. She also enjoys photography, and volunteers at a local dog rescue.
http://www.hammarblad.com
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
