Savage (A Blood Feud Novel)

Chapter Ten

Patrick O'Grady was with his wife Carolyn O'Grady inside their red Volkswagen on an early Thursday morning. He was ready to exit the car and enter the small house the couple shared. He had a pack of Marlboro cigarettes with him.

Carolyn was at the wheel. "I don't care what the Chief says Patrick," Carolyn said as her husband exited the vehicle.

Patrick threw her a worried look and gently closed the door. He inserted his right hand in his right pocket. He held his house keys out and inserted them back in.

"Carol," he said to her through the rolled down door window. "It's not that I don't support what you're doing. You're however making a big mistake by pursuing it."

"So you're saying dear, that even though you support me, you don't want me to write the story?" Carolyn asked. She was wearing a bright red jacket with dark blue jeans and had a tape recorder inside the breast pocket of her jacket.

"Leave it alone, sweetheart," Patrick said. "Please."

Carolyn bit her lip. It wasn't the first time her husband had been on her case about a story. The editor of the local paper was, however, waiting for the final draft to be sent in.

"Patrick, have they gotten to you?" Carolyn asked as she buckled her seat belt.

"No," Patrick replied with a chuckle. "No one had gotten to me."

"Then leave it alone."

"That's what I said," Patrick said.

"No," said Carolyn. "I was referring to you."

Carolyn was working on a story that would expose the local town mayor of being involved in the murder of a banker two decades ago. Her investigating helped illicit information that linked the mayor to some mercenaries with ties to legendary mobster Whitey Boulger.

Carolyn was aware that she and the editor of the local paper were targets of death threats over the last few days. Patrick went as far as to change the locks on all the doors and purchased himself a pump action shotgun.

Carolyn got out of the car. She said, "Patrick, I need you to understand that this story is important to me. It's important to Aignéis Daily. It's important to the good people of the town."

Patrick sighed. He wasn't going to argue with his determined wife. He decided there was no use in trying to convince Carolyn to change her mind.

"Well then, fuck it," he said as he turned towards the front door of the townhouse. "I'm not going to douse myself in flames just because you decided not to put out the fire."

"What the hell does that mean?" Carolyn yelled.

Patrick turned around. He came back to the car, looked at his wife, and then said, "I'm not happy that you'd spend more time away from home and at the paper. Our son barely sees you."

He went back to the house and went downstairs to the cellar room. He'd notcome back to return to his wife.