Wrestling the Kraken

Mahone

Mahone

Mahone opened his garage door. Clearing away some clutter that had long been collecting dust, he came across a couple boxes of items belonging to his wife. He didn't even know she had placed them in here.

Opening one of the boxes, he smiled, touching her wedding dress. She had taken his breath away coming down that aisle and still couldn't figure out why on God's green earth she had said yes that day. He was glad she did. Closing that box, he opened another one. There were some old linens, a few decorative statues she had picked up at a flea market, and an album. Picking up the album, he turned through the pages, stopping on one of him and his wife together. Shaking his head, he laughed to himself, seeing how young they were.

"Hey dad." Mahone looked up to see his son rolling up on his skateboard.

"Hey, why don't you get cleaned up. Dinner is in the oven, almost ready. Where's your sister?"

"She's sleeping over at Pam's house, remember?" Mahone nodded his head, forgetting all about the sleepover. "What's for dinner?" His son asked.

"Tuna Casserole."

"Oh, you always burn those!"

"You complaining about my cookin? And what do you mean by always?"

"Can I eat at Billy's house? They're having pizza tonight." He asked.

Mahone sighed. "Fine, go eat at Billy's..." He said, resigned. Then pointing a finger, he turned his voice stern. "... but I want you home by 8:00."

"Dad, I'm seventeen."

"Oh, I'm sorry... 7:45"

His son rolled his eyes, then placed his skateboard back on the ground. "You hear me? What time you got to be home?" Mahone demanded.

"Yeah, I got it." His son said, rolling away down the street.

Mahone shook his head in disbelief. "Sheesh, kids these days." He said to himself. He closed up the boxes. "Pizza." Then for a moment, he wished he was eating at Billy's house too.

With the space cleared up, he pulled a table to the center. Then heading to his car, he hauled out a large box. Unpacking the contents, he began the assembly.

Standing back to see his handy work, a cork board on wheels, he was satisfied with the space. Grabbing some files he brought from work, he began the work of pinning up copies of headlines and photos. Mahone wasn't a rookie. With a case this important he knew to have backups of everything ready.

"Ah-crap! The casserole!" Mahone took off running to the kitchen. He could already smell the burnt dish. Opening the oven, he grabbed mitts and pulled the dish out, waving at the smoke. The crust was a bit crunchier than he had hoped for and he didn't think the hard black layer on top was how it was meant to look. Tossing the dish into the sink, he walked back out to the garage.

Mahone spent hours staring at the board and its contents. The file his buddy sent over arrived earlier that day, but he conveniently left it out of the box he handed over to the suits. A note came along with it explaining how the official copy seemed to be missing, but just like Mahone, his buddy was in the habit of keeping backups. It was a thick file and had a lot of notes written in the margins of everything. Grabbing a slice of pizza from the box on the table, he opened a file that his buddy had labeled: Dante.