Once Upon a Life - Short Listed on ONC2023

Chapter 17

We sat in silence around the table, each mulling the news Tom had brought. FBI investigators had gone back through the files and learned the names of the people attending the meeting where the incriminating document had been discovered. When they returned to Crawford's boss's home to exercise the subpoena, they found Morris Harrison's body.

"Glover told us that his boss, Phillip Stone, was running the operation for Harrison, and he has done a runner."

"I don't see how that affects us," Kristen said.

"Your material and your statements are all that tie him and his secret department to the Crawfords, and we only have Glover, who has clammed up tight and accepted his fate. Ignorantly loyal to a fault."

"He did give you Stone." I pointed out.

"At that point he would have given us his mother, but we didn't think we needed more. Pays not to assume."

Kristen looked shocked, and I spoke up again. "Once we see the notary, won't that nullify his threat?"

Tom took a deep breath and sat back looking at us.

"He was found in the wreckage of his car two days ago, on the way here."

"Oh! How terrible!"

I looked at Tom, receiving a covert nod. This was serious.

******

"Sir, you have let this take control of your good sense." Lev steered the SUV through the city streets, cautiously.

"I know what I'm doing" Phillip snarled back. "The woman and that hick cop are the last obstacles. Without them, their material is worthless."

"But what then?"

"We vanish. If a simple garden variety family with kids can do it, so can we."

"Sir, I still think--"

"I don't want to have to question your loyalty, Lev."

"No, sir."

"Find a place to hole up , then we'll end this fiasco once and for all."

******

Kristen stood in the kitchen, her posture one of stubborn defeat. I was out of words. The argument had raged for a good thirty minutes, with Tom finally offering a futile apology and taking his leave.

I saw him to the door, and he gripped my arm. "Stone will come for you, Ralph, I guarantee it. You both need to be very careful. Don't expect him to waste time either." I thanked him, and we shook hands. High Noon in Benton City. I closed the door and went back inside.

"He pops down here with stories of a tragedy and possible threats, and says his hands are tied?" She slapped the refrigerator door angrily. "Why are his hands tied? What about you? Why can't the police in this city take some action?"

Her voice broke and she began to cry. I hesitated approaching her, trying a few more cliché phrases first.

"Kris it's just very complicated."

She looked up with distaste, through red eyes. "I'm not stupid you know. I can understand things - when they make sense. Just because I'm a woman . . ." She sobbed again, and this time I moved.

"Don't! Don't try holding me like some fragile- thing." She snuffled and straightened up, wiping her face with her hands. "I think you should probably go."

A gut punch. "Kris, I can't. I can't leave you here alone. Not now." I moved a little closer. "Listen, please. Tom put his career on the line when he opted to work with us after his place was tossed. He has been avoiding his superiors the whole time. When he arranged for the arrest of the two agents, it was with another group of men that operate in the shadows."

"Oh for God's sake! How many secret departments are there in our government?" She bridled.

"Probably more than we want to know. The point is, he can't compromise those men by revealing how he found out about Stone."

Her gaze was stony. "And the police here in Benton?"

"It would amount to the same thing, Kris. I would have to explain why this all came about."

She flapped her arms and stomped out of the kitchen. I followed, bracing for another bout.

"Kris, just slow down , okay? We'll handle this."

"By yourself."

Her derogatory statement left me helpless to respond. I sighed and tried to look competent enough to satisfy.

Her tears had stopped, and she seemed to regain some poise in light of my attempts to appease.

"How do you see this unfolding?"

She gave me the opening and I plunged through.

******

"I didn't expect your grand plan to include sleepovers."

"Wouldn't have been much of a grand plan then would it?" I dodged the pillow she brought for the sofa.

"If Tom was right, we should be expecting something pretty soon. I can imagine the FBI has dispatched another notary, this time with support."

"Are you going to sit up all night? Don't you want some sheets?"

"I won't be sleeping, Kris, but you should. Remember what we talked about - the stress and everything."

"Oh, yes, no stress here at all. Goodnight, Detective." She shut out the lights and went to her bedroom.

I don't know how long I sat in the dark. I don't even know how many nights it was, but when I heard the noise, I knew the time had come. Creeping to the window, I peered through the curtain. Nothing. I stood and moved to the kitchen, trying that window. Still nothing. Back in the living room I stood rock still and listened. The slight scrape at the door told me this was the moment, and I moved into the hallway directly opposite.

It opened slowly, leaving the figure silhouetted in the frame, in the hand I could see the barrel of a silenced weapon.

"Drop it right there and keep those hands where I can see them."

The figure jerked and then dropped to a knee. From behind a second man appeared and the flash from the muzzle was followed by a sharp bang. A second shot ripped through the plaster wall near my head, and instinctively I pulled the trigger on the Remington 870.

Kristen came running from the bedroom, shouting my name and skidded to a halt beside me, clutching my arm. The door hung at an awkward angle, splinters of wood sticking out like shocked hair. On the stoop a pair of legs lay bent, the owner sprawled down the steps. On the lawn, another body jerked convulsively then stopped.

"Oh, my God! Are they-?"

"Go back inside. You don't need to see this." I steered her back into the living room then went outside and checked both men. Some neighbours had come out onto their porches, and I groaned at what I knew would come next. I went back inside and pushed the broken door closed as best I could.

"Well that kind of settles that. I had hoped to just surprise and arrest someone, but there were two, and they didn't see it that way."

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