Hitman's Creed - 30

 

"Forget it, you're too damned young," Glenn growled, heaving a sigh of relief when the computer dinged to tell him he had mail. He read the message, made notes, took Miriam's cell from his pocket then opened one of the desk drawers. He took out a sim card reader/writer, took the sim card out of the cell phone, put it into the reader/writer, and plugged that into one of the USB ports.

When that was done he read from the notes he'd made, typing out the information he needed then sent it to the reader/writer. After he'd finished, he replaced the sim card in the phone. "That will keep your father from finding our location."

"Why not just have her do it from somewhere else?" Joey asked, understanding that Glenn planned on having Mary use his mother's phone for her call.

"Because we don't know where he is, yet, but we will once she calls him." Glenn explained. "And I need to be here and on the computer when she does."

"Whoever's helping you will triangulate where he is when he answers?"

"Yep, unless he's smart enough to have done what I just did, which we can hope he isn't." Glenn got up and went to the wall across from the bookshelves. He turned to look at Joey. "You can go back downstairs now if you want or," he cracked a small smile that didn't reach his eyes, "you can stay here and see what's behind the secret panel—the lady or the tiger—to speak metaphorically."

Joey bit his lip as he glanced from Glenn to the door and back again. "Am I going to wish I'd left?"

"Possibly. Just know that, god only knows why, I trust you enough to have offered to let you stay." He meant that quite literally, he had no clue why he wanted Joey to see what amounted to a part of his life which to all intents and purposes he'd left behind him. Perhaps he hoped to scare the kid away, perhaps he wanted him to know exactly what he'd be getting into if… and it was a huge if… the connection that seemed to be developing between them happened.

"I'll stay."

With a nod, Glenn touched a spot on the wall and a panel slid to one side to reveal a door with a touchpad mounted on it. He tapped the buttons then pushed and the door swung open. He stepped through, beckoning for Joey to join him.

When he was inside, Joey looked around then up at Glenn. "So what's so special in here? You use it for storage from the look of it."

He was correct. It did look like a storage room lined with shelves. Some held a variety of camping gear; others had neatly stacked pants and shirts that ran the gamut from primarily black to a couple of sets of white. On the shelves on the short wall opposite the door there were several metal cases with security locks.

"Yes, it's for storage." Glenn went to one of the cases, spun the dial on the front to unlock it then handed a pistol to Joey.

"All right," Joey said hesitantly. "What is this? I mean it's a gun, but...?"

"Ruger MK III." Glenn opened a second case and handed Joey another pistol. "Ruger 22/45 with a picatinny rail instead of a fixed sight."

Joey weighed them in his hands and commented, "The 22/45 is lighter and you can add a scope." He looked at Glenn, one eyebrow cocked. "Which one is more accurate?"

"I prefer the 22/45 because of the threaded barrel and it is lighter, but the MK III is a bit more accurate if you're new to them both."

"The other cases are for guns as well?" When Glenn nodded, Joey asked, "Why? Why all the firepower?"

"I like guns." Glenn replied with a slight smile. "And they were part of what I did before I retired."

Joey handed the guns back, chewing on his lip. "Guns, probably knives somewhere here, survival gear," he nodded to what he'd at first thought was just camping gear. "What the hell kind of security did you do?"

"Let's just say it was more than going around rattling shop doorknobs and leave it at that for now." As he talked, Glenn put the MK III back in its case. From the other case he took out a custom made side holster for the 22/45 and a scope. Once he'd attached the scope he put the pistol into the holster and clipped it to his belt. Then he reached for another case, unlocked it, took out two sheathed knives and closed it again. Finally he chose pants and a shirt, picked up a bag from another shelf and said, "That should do it for now. Take the phone down to Mary, wait five minutes, then have her make the call. She's to tell Fairburn that you picked her up at the gas station and now you've stopped at a fast food place to get something to eat before you take her to meet your mother."

"He won't like that."

"No, but he will wait for her to call again."

Hitman's Creed - 29

 

Joey stared stonily at Glenn. "Are you sure you want some novice helping you?"

"Get over it, kid. You know what I said was the truth." Glenn pocketed Miriam's phone when she handed it to him, wrote down the number Mary gave him and said to Joey, "Now move it. The sooner we get this done the sooner Fairburn will be out of our hair."

Joey followed Glenn upstairs, still pissed as hell but at the same time very interested in what Glenn was planning. The wood-paneled room they entered was obviously used as Glenn's office, with shelves along one wall and catty-corner from them a large desk with a computer and all the necessary peripherals.

"Nice," Joey said almost enviously with a nod toward the computer.

Glenn shrugged as he sat down and booted it up. He logged in, hit the internet, worked through several screens until he got to the email account he needed. He sent a message to his hacker, and then while he waited for a reply he turned to look at Joey.

"I know you're angry with me and I'm sorry but this isn't a game or a textbook exercise. Your father needs to be stopped and I intend to do just that."

"I understand, but you're talking like a gunslinger going off to a shootout on Main Street or something," Joey replied, leaning against the wall by the desk as he stared at Glenn.

"Exactly." Glenn cracked a small grin for a second. "Maybe not on Main Street, but your father is a bastard and killer who seems to have no boundaries. I plan to find out where he's gone to ground and deal with him."

"Kill him?"

"If necessary, yes."

"There are laws against that, you know," Joey told him somewhat snarkily.

Glenn nodded. "I'm well aware of that. I'll try avoid it but if it comes down to him or me then I'm not going to wait for some lawyer to tell me if I'm in the right or not."

"I can help."

"How? Could you shoot a man if you had to?"

Joey's mouth tightened. "To save a life, I think so."

"Have you ever fired a gun?"

"I've gone hunting a few times with friends."

"Kill anything?"

Joey shook his head.

"Why not?"

"We didn’t come across any deer, which is what we were hunting," Joey admitted. "But I could have, if we had," he added somewhat defiantly.

Glenn rubbed his forehead between his fingers. "You've held a hunting rifle, probably practice shot it at a few trees, never even killed a rabbit or a bird to say the least of anything bigger. Like I said earlier, right now you're all book-learning with nothing practical to back it up. No way in hell do I want you to have my back in a situation like this. You'd probably end up either as a hostage or dead."

"You don't know that," Joey spat out angrily.

"You're right, I don't, but now's not the time to test your mettle. I don't want to be worrying about you when all my concentration should be on him."

"As if you would," Joey muttered, then said quietly seconds later, "Sorry, that was uncalled for."

"Yeah it was because I would. Even if you were just, well, any old someone I would, but you're not." He sighed to himself when Joey's eyes lit up. "And don't take that as some kind of romantic declaration, kid. I'm fond of you; I don't want to see something happen to you."

"Fond?" Joey scowled. "Mothers are fond of their kids; kids are fond of their pets."

"Bad analogies. Mothers love their kids and kids love their pets and… fuck…"

"And?" Joey said, pushing for what he wished Glenn would say and knew he wouldn't.

Hitman's Creed - 28

 

"Why did you want me back here?" Mary asked. "I thought you wanted me somewhere safe." She looked both puzzled and afraid as she huddled in the corner of Glenn's sofa.

"We do, and after thinking more about it I decided that your father probably does know about Harv. It would explain why he decided Miriam and Joey are here."

"It was 'cause of the coffee place," Mary said.

"Oh?" Glenn cocked an eyebrow.

She chewed her lip as her eyes flicked from person to person. "He said that their stupidity in calling it 'M and J's' was their undoing. He said it took him some time to figure that out but when he did he knew this was where they were."

Joey grimaced. "And that's how you knew where to call to find me?"

"Umm hmm. I looked in the phone book at the pay phone at the gas station."

Joey stared at her. "Then you already knew you were close when you called because it wouldn't have been listed in a phone book in any other city."

"I… I was…" Her eyes dropped down to her lap as she twisted her hands together.

Joey's mother, who was seated at the other end of the sofa, slid over beside Mary. She took hold of her hands, gripping them when the girl tried to pull away. "He let you go, didn't he?"

"No!" Mary shook her head wildly. "I escaped when he… he…"

"Mary," Glenn said grimly, "you won't be free of him if you don't tell us the truth."

"I am telling the truth. I got away and found that gas station and… and found the coffee place in the phone book and called."

"Glenn's right, Mary, without our help he'll take you again when he's finished with us," Joey told her. "Do you really think he'll let you go if you're a witness to his killing us?"

"He promised…" Mary clamped her mouth tightly shut when she realized what she'd just said.

"Mary," Joey's mother said softly, "we understand that you believe he'll let you go, Steven can be very manipulative. I should know, I lived with him in spite of how he treated me. But he's lying; he has no intention of letting you go. He thinks he owns you. Is that what you want, to spend the rest of your life being his personal punching bag and plaything?"

"No," Mary whispered.

"I didn't think so. So please, please, tell us how he's going to use you to find us. If you do then we can stop him."

"What if you can't?" Hope and doubt played across Mary's face.

"We can," Glenn told her adamantly. "I know what I'm doing. I just have to know how to find him."

"He'll come here if she tells him we're here," Joey pointed out.

"I want to get to him before that happens." When Joey frowned and seemed ready to protest, Glenn glared at him. "Don't argue with me. I'm the expert here, not you."

Joey glared back. "Now just a second here, I have some training. It is what I'm studying."

"Schoolbook knowledge means shit right now. I'm not going to let him get within miles of this place if I can help it." Glenn turned his attention to Mary. "How are you supposed to get in contact with him?"

She ran her hands through her already tangled hair. "I'm supposed to sneak one of their phones and call him."

"I don't suppose you know where he's gone to ground around here."

"No. He said that was none of my business when I… when I asked him."

Glenn nodded. "All right. I need a few minutes to get some equipment. Joey, if you'll come with me. Miriam, your phone please. Mary, what's the number you're calling?"

Hitman's Creed - 27

 

"I should have gone with them; I have things I have to do at home," Joey's mother said as she watched Harv's car pull down the lane.

"Absolutely not," Glenn told her firmly. "Even though your house is as safe as I could make it, if he doesn't want to be up close and personal and if he has a decent gun he could shoot you through one of the windows."

"So we're not really all that protected after all," she replied with a worried glance at Joey.

"You're safe from him getting into the house, which he did when he beat then shot Miss Nye. I think he likes proving that he has control over the situation that way. However if he finds that he can't get inside I have no doubts that he'll come up with another solution to his 'problem'. And he is going to be furious that Mary managed to escape his clutches."

"Do you think he suspects she got in touch with us?" Joey asked.

"Let's put it this way, he's not a stupid man. He managed to avoid capture for the last seven years, even after he took Mary prisoner. Given how close to here they were when she got away he'll probably at least consider that she might try to find you all."

Joey nodded slowly then frowned as he thought of something. "Isn't it a bit odd that she wasn't able to get away from him until they were almost here? Maybe," his frown deepened, "maybe he let her go. Maybe he's brainwashed her so badly that even though she's free she's still under his control. If he thought that mom would take her in then he'd have a way to get into the house with no problem."

"You're going to make a good cop one day," Glenn replied a bit wryly. "That never even occurred to me."

"I can't believe that child would do such a thing," Joey's mother stated, but her tone of voice said she wasn't all that certain.

"She is young, and vulnerable and obviously terrified," Joey pointed out, "the perfect subject for someone like father to manipulate."

"We have to warn Harv!" She looked panicked as she took her phone from her purse.

"Allow me," Glenn said, holding out his hand for the phone. She hesitated then gave it to him once she had dialed the number. As soon as Harv answered, Glenn told him what they were thinking then said Harv should bring Mary back.

Joey listened to Glenn and when he'd hung up said, "She could let him in here as easily as at our place."

Glenn smiled tightly. "She could if we don't keep a good eye on her, which we will. If that's his scenario then she must have some way to communicate with him so he'll know that she's with you two. Ergo, you all are going to remain here, at least for the next twenty-four hours. We might as well make things as easy as possible for him. Or at least he'll think it's going to be easy."

"And if it isn't the scenario? If she actually did manage to get away from him on her own?" Joey asked.

"Then we all get a good night's sleep, and come up with a plan in the morning," Glenn replied with a brief smile.

Hitman's Creed - 26

 

"He just took me. I was walking home from school, sort of slow 'cause I'd had a fight with my foster mother." Mary smiled weakly. "Well that's not quite true, I wasn't going home. I went to the park. I was going to sit there and make her worry. This man came up and I didn't recognize him at first. He told me he was a cop and that my foster mom had sent him to find me. I was pissed but…" She shrugged. "You don't argue with a cop. We got to his car and no one was around and he opened the door and pushed me in and told me to be quiet or he'd kill me like he killed mama and I was scared he would 'cause then I knew it was him and he jumped in and… and…" She scrubbed away a tear from her cheek. "And then I was… he kept me…" She began to cry. Joey's mother immediately wrapped her arms around her and held her until she stopped.

Once she had, Glenn came over to kneel in front of her. "He kept you prisoner I take it."

"Yes. We traveled around," she whispered. "We would stay at motels and if he left he would tie me to the bed like a dog. He told me if I tried to escape he would find me again and that… that what he had done so far would seem like child's play." A shudder ran through her thin frame. "I knew he meant it."

Glenn nodded. "Why did you finally decide to run from him?"

She dropped her eyes to stare at his feet. "He… he forced me… He said I was legal now and his and…"

"Legal," Joey whispered under his breath as he remembered his first meeting with Glenn and their using that word. "The bastard," he said aloud, angrily.

"No question about that," his mother agreed with equal fervor. "Glenn, we need to find her a safe place to stay until we catch… the bastard."

"She can stay with me and the family," Harv said. "Julia would mother her to death but I don't think you'd mind that, would you, Mary?"

Mary lifted her eyes to look at him. "Do you mean that?"

"Yes, of course. You'd be safe enough because he wouldn't have any reason to think you were there. Besides," Harv chuckled as he glanced at Glenn, "the police chief lives two doors down from me so the neighborhood is very safe."

"Of course he does," Glenn muttered. "It probably would be the best place for her for the moment."

"Then that's settled," Joey's mother said, giving Mary a hug.

"It is, but I need to get more information from her before we disband." Glenn stood again, rubbing his knees. "I'm getting too old to kneel like that for so long."

Joey snorted softly but kept his peace. When Glenn shot him a look, he smiled back innocently. Glenn shook his head before he began quizzing Mary about the make and model of Fairburn's car, what the man looked like now, and for any other details she could give them that might help them find him. Finally satisfied that she'd told him everything she knew, he suggested that Harv take her back to his house.