Revelations

Chapter Eight

Shock…..it was the only word for it.

The four agents on Donovan's regular team stood in stunned silence, an awkward, uncomfortable silence that was nearly deafening. Phil Casey, however, looked more than a little green around the gills. It was one thing to leak a few details about a classified operation, and another entirely to put a man's family in harm's way. As he looked at the two small children now in the room, he was suddenly having trouble breathing and felt very close to becoming physically ill.

The stillness of the moment, however, was broken by a tiny voice……"Daddy?"

Frank looked down at his young son, "Yeah, honey."

Releasing his grandmother's hand, Christopher made his way over to his father's side, and with adoring eyes asked, "Who are all these people?"

Frank couldn't help but smile at the boy. In spite of all the turmoil in his young life, Christopher Donovan looked at all these changes with a sense of adventure. Frank wished that his daughter had half of Christopher's outgoing personality. Alicia was his quiet one, the one who could curl up on his lap for hours on end and be blissfully happy while her older brother was slaying imaginary dragons and conquering kingdoms with his magic sword.

Christopher returned his father's smile and his eyes twinkled. My God….he's so much like his mother. Of course, he knew his wife would dispute that fact, saying that their son had gotten his fearlessness and love of discovery from his father. He liked to believe that this small boy was a unique blend of both of their personalities.

Frank walked over to one of the conference room chairs and sat down, not because he was tired of standing, but because his daughter, now almost three, was getting a little heavy to hold for very long. She still clung to him, her face buried in the crook of his neck, as if in hiding she could make an awkward situation disappear. Alicia was a child of routine. She wanted the same breakfast every morning, she was to be read a story before bedtime every night, her favorite stuffed animal (a lovably ragged bunny named Whiskers) had to be firmly tucked under her arm before she would even consider sleeping or napping, and every morning she needed to be greeted the exact same way…. 'Good morning Princess!'. Any variation from her normal routine upset her greatly, but amazingly she was also one of the most compassionate beings Frank had ever encountered. She immediately sensed when people were angry, upset, hurt or lonely and she would give that person as much love and sympathy that her small body could muster.

Now seated he tried to shift Alicia's body so that she was sitting on his lap instead of wrapping herself around his neck as she been doing for the past several minutes. She wasn't happy about the situation, but she finally complied with her father's gentle nudging. Once he was more comfortable, Frank finally got around to answering his son's question.

"These people are members of my team," he answered simply.

Christopher looked at the adults with a curious expression on his face and finally said, "They don't look like they're on a team."

Frank chuckled to himself, knowing exactly how his son's mind worked. He didn't see uniforms so how could this group of individuals be on a team? "Not that kind of team. These are people that work for me, and this man," Frank added, pointing to Casey, "is a police officer." Christopher turned to glance at the man his father had pointed out to him, and the look in his eyes was one of respect. He had a fair idea of what his father did for a living and he equated this man with his father.

Casey saw the look the little boy was giving him and wanted to crawl into a hole and die. The look of reverence in Christopher's eyes made him feel lower than low. Not being able to hold the child's stare any longer, he quickly looked away, suddenly finding something of major interest to look at on the floor.

Alicia moved on his lap and timidly began to look around at the other people in the room. After a few seconds of inspection, she turned back to her father and stretched so that she could whisper something in his ear. Leaning down he obliged her. A small smile drew up the corners of his mouth.

"She wants to know your names," he explained to those present. "This is Monica," he began, "this is Cody……that's Jake, Phil and Dave….and this is Alex." After introducing his team, she whispered something else to him. Once again smiling, he turned to Alex and said, "She says you have very pretty eyes, but she doesn't understand why you have a boy's name."

Alex couldn't help but smile at the adorable child sitting on her boss' lap. "Well thank you Alicia," she responded, "but Alex is only a nickname."

Alicia was now a little more responsive and spoke directly to Alex this time, "What's a…a…nicked name?"

Alex laughed this time and was now fairly convinced that Alicia Donovan was some sort of angel sent from heaven. "Nickname, sweetheart, not nicked name. It means that someone shortened my real name and started calling me Alex." Seeing the little girl frown at that, she was pretty sure that she already knew the next question. "My real name is Alexis, but my older brother started calling me Alex."

Alicia still looked confused. "Why would he do that?" she inquired now, being a little bolder.

"Because sometimes that what older brothers do, and sometimes they do it just to make us mad."

Alicia understood that. Her eyes lit up, and she said, "Chrissopher (her version of her brother's name) does that," she stated looking at her brother, "sometimes….sometimes he takes my cookies when Mommy's not looking……it makes me mad." Everyone present laughed at the little girl's simple logic. One thing had nothing to do with the other, but she did understand what it was like to be mad at a brother and that was enough of a connection for her.

As much as he would have liked to have spent the entire afternoon with his children, Frank knew that they needed to be on their way. He needed to know they were going to be safe, and only then could he truly get back down to business.

He gathered Alicia back into his arms and rose from his seat. Approaching his mother, he handed his little girl over to her care. He saw the look in his mother's eyes, one of concern and sadness, and he wished he had more time so that he could make her understand fully everything that was going on. But time was not on their side, and he needed her to be safe along with the rest of his family. He'd lost his father at a young age and had desperately held onto his mother as a result of that loss. So many words were on the tip of his tongue, but all he managed to tell her was, "Take care of them?"

"I will, honey….I will. Don't worry about us. We'll be fine," then she graced him with one of her warmest smiles. Leaning down, he kissed her on the cheek and then turned to Lisa.

"I need to talk to you….alone." She nodded and followed him into an adjacent room, closing the door behind them.

Just as Frank and Lisa entered the other room, Casey's pager went off. Glancing at the text read out, he asked to use one of their phones. Cody motioned for the man to use one on the other side of the room.

Sensing that the agents had private things to discuss, Maria asked, "I was wondering if someone could help me out with the children? We can get them strapped in and ready to go for when Frank and Lisa are finished talking."

"I'll help you, Mrs. Donovan," Dave volunteered.

"Thank you very much. And it's been a pleasure to meet all of you," she said to the remaining team members. "Frank speaks so highly of all of you. It's been nice to put faces with names." The four smiled in return, murmuring responses such as 'nice to meet you too'. And with that, Dave escorted Frank's mother and his two children outside.

Now that the four were alone, they huddled close to together and began to speak quietly.

"Can you believe this?" Jake began, with a slight edge to his voice. "He's married?"

"And not only that," Cody added, "but he has two of the cutest kids I've ever seen."

"Yeah…I know," Alex responded, feeling perplexed by the whole situation. "Maybe…" she began looking at the room where there boss was at the moment, "maybe…it's his ex-wife."

"He didn't say ex," Monica pointed out.

"I know, but he certainly wasn't very….I don't know….affectionate toward her. I mean did you see the way he looked at those kids? And his mother? He adores them and the feeling's mutual, you can tell. But he almost totally ignored Lisa. It was almost like she wasn't really here," Alex pointed out.

"You gotta point," Jake stated. Puzzling over the situation some more, he added, "Maybe they're in the middle of a divorce and that's why he didn't say ex." the other three nodded, but all knew that the answers they were looking for wouldn't be forthcoming until they could get the chance to question the man himself.

'Hmmm….." Cody murmured lost in thought.

"What?" Jake prodded.

"Just wondering……what if the circumstances are exactly the way they seem to be?" He saw the puzzled looks on their faces. "What I mean is, here we are trying to come up with some logical scenario for what we've found out so far. What if there is no logic. Maybe he's just a married man having an affair."

The four all looked at each other, knowing that that was a possibility, but it bothered them to think about it. They had no right to be bothered. After all, the man's personal life was his own business and no one else's. But the idea that he'd somehow be capable of cheating when he had a wife and two adorable children at home upset them. In fact it upset them greatly.

Alex glanced up at Franks' office and saw Laura at the window looking down at them, but when she caught Alex' stare she moved away. How long has she been at that window? Did she see everything? Frank with his children? His family?

Jake caught her line of sight and he said, "What is it?"

"That might explain it."

"Explain what?"

Looking back at the other three, she replied, "Why Laura shut herself away in Frank's office when she knew that his family was going to be here soon."

But before they were able to discuss the situation further, Frank opened the door and he and Lisa emerged. Looking around, Frank said, "Are they already outside?"

"Yeah. Dave's helping your mom get the kids settled in," Jake answered.

"Good." Turning to Lisa, "I'll walk you out." Without a glance over a shoulder or anything, the two disappeared out the door.

"Well, she's friendly," Cody couldn't help but comment. "No wonder he…."

"Cody! Stop it! We don't know anything. Maybe she's just preoccupied and worried about her family. Ever think of that?" Jake berated.

"All right……unfair shot. I admit it."

The four heard Casey hang up the phone and pace over to them quickly carrying a pad of paper with lots of writing on it.

"We've got major developments happening." Stopping to look around, Casey asked, "Where's Frank?"

"He's saying goodbye to his family. What's up?" Monica asked for the group.

"Plenty…..and we have a deadline." But before anyone could ask any further questions, Frank reentered the building. Seeing the look on Casey's face , he knew that there'd been some sort of lead.

"What do you have?" he asked the man directly.

"There's been some disturbing developments. The hotline has received numerous calls this morning from people claiming to have seen packages left in unusual places. No one's been hurt so far, and the bomb squad's responding as quickly as possible, but all together….," he paused looking at the notepad before him, "….so far there have been 8 such discoveries. Our squad can't handle that much work alone, so I've asked neighboring districts to lend a hand. The packages that the squad's been able to get to so far have contained explosive material. Like I've said, no one's been hurt so far."

"All right," Frank began, "we'll investigate each of the locations as quickly as….."

Interrupting him before he could finish, Casey added, "There's more." he once again looked at his notes. "There was also a call from a man claiming to be Henry Sumner." Frank's eyes widened in surprise. "Like I said, he claims to be our suspect, and he asked the officer taking the call if all of his 'surprises' had been found yet? He claims there are ten in all, and we're only aware of 8 so far. But the kicker is, he wants to talk to you Frank."

"Is that so?" Frank asked, slightly surprised at the prospect. "Did he say when? And does he want to do this in person or on the phone?"

"The cop taking the call said that he'd call back at 2:00PM today and he wants you to be there."

"Fine. But for the rest of you, we'll have to split up and try to investigate as many of these locations as possible." Pausing briefly, he glanced back up at his office.

"Cody, run up and ask Laura to join us." Nodding, Cody went to retrieve their other profiler.

A few seconds later the two joined the group, "What's going on?" Laura inquired.

Frank quickly filled her in on the situation. "As I said, we'll have to split up to cover more ground. I'll need one person to cover communications between three groups. Dave…..you'll stay here and act as switchboard. Jake…Cody…you'll be on one team. Alex…Laura….you're on another, and Monica…you're with me." Glancing down at his watch, he saw that it was already almost 12:30.

"Dave….contact the police headquarters and get the exact locations of these so-called surprises and then communicate their location to the others. Monica and I will go straight down to headquarters and await the suspect's call." Looking around at the group. "Any questions?" All shook their heads.

"Good. Just a few precautions though……leave your cell phones here. We're only going to be using ear mics. After talking to the bomb squad earlier, they informed me that the mics we have use the wrong frequency to set off charges. Second, I want constant communication between yourselves and Dave, and he'll, in turn, keep all of you informed of any other leads or updates. All clear?" Looking at the faces of his team, he added, "And be careful. No heroics. Just check out the information we've been given and wait until the squad gives you the go ahead, and not a second before. All right….let's head out."

The group then dispersed heading toward their respective vehicles. Once on the road, Dave passed along information to each team, guiding them to their respective destinations.

Frank and Monica arrived at police headquarters and talked briefly with the officer who took the call from their suspect. He informed them that the call only lasted a minute or two, and he was unable to give them any more pertinent information other than the fact that the man seemed to be calling from a cell phone. After asking a few more questions, the two agents were led to an empty office and were told that the operators would forward the man's call to that office's phone when he called in. Frank took the few moments of down time to check in with his other agents.

"Dave?"

"Here boss," came the prompt reply.

"Patch me through to Jake and Cody."

"You got it……..go ahead."

"Jake? Cody? What's your status?"

Jake answered for the two. "We just waiting on the go ahead from the bomb squad. We're near a convenience store on the north end of town. The package that was left is located near the rear entrance of the building. The team here is just finishing their final sweep of the area."

"Did the package contain explosives?"

"Yeah….but from what they said it wouldn't have caused too much damage."

"All right. Check out the area, interview the witnesses and then get on to the next site."

"Got it."

"Dave?"

"Yo!" Frank smiled to himself. I think he's been around Cody too long already.

"Give me Alex and Laura."

"Go ahead."

"Alex? What have you got?

"We're at a dry cleaners on the east side. We've just finished going over the area and from what the people here said, the package was here when they got in at about 5 this morning."

"Laura….can you tell anything from the area?"

"Not really. It's not exactly like seeing where the man worked or anything, but Frank….."

"Yeah?"

"One thing bothers me though……all of the bombs found so far have been small, almost insignificant. It's like he's toying with us. And now he wants to talk to you. Why now? And why send us on wild goose chases? He's either hiding something of more importance, trying to distract us from what's really happening or that newspaper article inflated his ego so much that he now thinks he's invincible and unstoppable and he's testing the waters."

Frank thought about it for the moment before asking, "Which do you think it is?"

He heard her sigh before answering, "I think he's trying to distract us. By sending us in 10 different directions, we're not able to focus on what he's really up to."

"I agree. Maybe we'll be able to tell more after I talk with him. That is if he calls."

"He'll call. I have no doubt of that. Just be careful."

Smiling, he responded, "I'm not the one out in the field playing with bombs, young lady."

"No……you're the one dealing with their designer. That's a whole different ball game."

"Right. I'll check in after I've spoken with him."

"OK….bye."

"Dave….keep me updated if either of the teams checks in with information."

"No problem."

Knowing that she'd heard both exchanges, he asked Monica, "So what's your opinion?"

Without a moment's hesitation she said, "I agree with Laura. He's up to something else, something we're not aware of yet. But this phone call bothers me more than anything."

"Why's that?"

She began to pace through the room, searching for the right words to convey her suspicions. "Why does he want to speak to someone? Yes, serial criminals tend to want some sort of recognition. They want to be able to voice their reasons. What they're doing usually doesn't seem criminal in nature to them. They see themselves as fulfilling some sort of destiny. So what's this guy's story? Is he angry at someone? Something? Was he abused as a child and he's finally channeling all that repressed anger?" She stopped pacing so that she could look at Frank directly, "Why does he want to speak to you directly? And why today when he's apparently been a very busy boy?"

Frank considered her words carefully. "I don't know Monica, but I guess we'll find out soon enough." Nodding her head, she agreed. She knew that neither one of them had the answers. They would just have to wait until Henry Sumner called and filled in all the blanks. Glancing at the clock on the wall, Frank saw that they had nearly fifteen minutes before Sumner was scheduled to call.

The two sat their in silence both lost in their own thoughts. Before long, however, Monica finally spoke up.

"Your kids are adorable," she stated with a smile on her face.

The comment took Frank by surprise. He wasn't used to discussing personal matters with people he worked with, but he saw the look on her face and could tell that she was treading into new territory as well. "Thanks, they can be a handful sometimes though."

"How old are they?"

"Christopher will be seven this November and Alicia will be three next month." Thinking about his children always brought a smile to his face.

Monica saw the look and it warmed her heart a bit. She thought about everything that had been revealed to them over the past few days. Just days before, none of the team could have told you what Frank Donovan did with his free time. They all assumed he did something besides work, but no one had ever stopped to ask him what that something could be. And now……well it certainly did seem that Frank had a personal life and then some. From the looks of it he had a wife, two kids, and a lover on the side. That last part still bothered Monica. It just didn't gel with what she knew about the man. He was hard working, dedicated, honest, brave…..all of those things and yet he was also an adulterer?? Mentally shaking her head, she didn't think. So what could the real story be??

Mulling over the possibilities, she turned to look at the man sitting across from her. It suddenly occurred to her…..all the pieces fit, but how could she find out for sure?? Ah hell……only one way I know of.

"So how long have you and Laura been married?"

Yes….shock…it was the only word to describe the look on his face.

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