Chapter 88—Jack gets story straight
with Kate
2:52 a.m., Friday, December 30
The officer nodded in agreement, and smiled back at Jack. The officer had overheard Jack dressing down the captain, and he wanted no part of Jack’s anger.
Jack then closed the door and walked back toward Kate. He pulled up a chair around the back of the bed, and drew it in close to his daughter. He wanted to be able to speak in private, and to keep his eye on the door as he did.
“How much do you remember, Kitty?” Jack asked. “You know, about the whole thing—kidnapping and all?”
“How much do you think I should remember?” She asked, signaling her father that he was making the calls. “After all, I was traumatized. And shot.”
“This is how I see it,” Jack said. “We need to leave Roger and Reg out of this whole thing. Roger would want it this way. The less known about his involvement, the better. And there is nothing to be gained by bringing Reg into it, either.”
“You saved me by yourself?” Kate asked.
“Not exactly,” Jack said. “Beyond the business with my working on the puzzles for you, you should leave me out of this. That’s the safest approach. … Reg is dead, nothing will bring him back. Roger will take care of the cover story as far as Reg is concerned. You know, as far as his family is concerned.”
“Nothing else about Reg?” Kate asked.
“Nothing,” Jack said. “No need to. No one can say for sure that he was there, except for you, me and Roger. There’s some talk that there was a third party, and that he died on the scene. But no one knows anything about that for sure. Roger’s men sanitized the scene pretty well. What they could not clean up, they contaminated. You can state that you do not recall anything about your escape. There was an explosion, and you ran out. All the kidnappers are dead. That part worked out well. Two of them came after you, and they are both dead. So there is really no one left to refute your story. Besides, you’ve been drugged. You can easily claim loss of memory.”
“Will they want me to get on the machine?”
“They can’t do that,” Jack said. “They can’t force you to do it. And you should not volunteer. Besides, if it becomes an issue, get your union rep in. He will back up your refusal. Makes no sense to put a wounded warrior on the machine.”
“Can they force you to do it?” Kate asked.
“They could request it, but I cannot be forced to take one either.”
“Could they be recording us now?” Kate asked.
“Sure,” Jack said. “Anything is possible. But if they did that would be eavesdropping. They would be in deeper water than us. We’re on pretty solid ground here, Babe.”
“Who do you think is behind this?” Kate asked.
“Beats me,” Jack said. “Roger and I think it is someone in the department—pretty high up the food chain. Whoever it is, it is clear that they pushed that big guy, Smith, on your boss. He was in on it.” Jack paused for a moment, then continued. “I don’t think you met that fellow, did you?”
“Not a new guy named Smith, kate answered. Can you describe him?”
“Tall, with enormous hands,” Jack said. “Must have gone 6-2, 270. No fat.”
“That sounds like one of the men who I saw in that house,” Kate said. “Big man. Not one of the kidnappers, but he showed up a couple times. Could that be him?”
“Most certainly,” Jack said. “I suspected that he was one of them from the beginning. He seemed much too interested in your condition. He had come back to kill you. He knew you could recognize him. Damn, kiddo, they never intended to free you.”
Jack reached over and took his daughter’s hand. “My God, Kitty. We have so much to be thankful for. If it weren’t for Reg and Roger, they would have killed us both.”
“Well,” Kate said. “Reg did what he did because he was your friend. You would have done the same thing for him.”
“Perhaps,” Jack said. “We’ve been through a lot together. We always had each other’s back. That’s for sure.”
“Dad, if Reg had not wanted it this way, he would not have gone in there after me. He did what he did because he was your friend. You don’t need to feel guilty about anything.”
“It’s not guilt,” Jack said. “I don’t sense guilt. It’s my loss. I will always wonder what I could have done differently. How I could have protected him better. … I will never have another friend like him. Every time I look at you, I will think about what Reg did.”
Kate looked up at her father’s rugged face. Not only was the fatigue evident, but his eyes were red, and tears were running down both cheeks. She reached over with her hand, and wiped them away. “Dad,” she said, now with her own tears dripping off her chin, “I don’t remember ever seeing you cry before.”
Jack smiled at his daughter, swiped two napkins from her tray, and wiped his face off. He then tenderly stroked the tears from Kate’s face with his palms.
“This will pass, my darling. You are safe, and that is all—absolutely all—that matters to me.”
Jack then stroked his daughter’s hair, as he stood to leave. “I’ll call you in the morning. Or you call me. If you need something in the meantime, call me anytime,” he said, writing his new cell phone number down on a piece of paper and handing it to her. “Put this away—don’t leave it laying around for your boss.”
“Dad, could he be involved?”
“Definitely not,” Jack reassured her. “He’s not talking about it, but he knows he got snookered by that Smith fellow. And I suspect he has a pretty good idea who in his department set it up. At least he probably can narrow it down to a few—all of them his superiors. That’s got to be hell for him.
“Does that affect us?” Kate asked.
“Not really,” Jack said. “But Spencer, that’s a different story. He might opt for early retirement. Especially if more people start dying around him. Who knows? But it won’t be our problem.”
Jack bent over his daughter and tenderly kissed her on the head. “You get some rest now, Kitten,” he said. They exchanged smiles, and Jack turned and began walking toward the door.
But before he reached it, his phone rang.
No comments:
Post a Comment