POCKET CHANGE 3: HIDE and SEEK
by Sharon R.
Chapter Twenty
"Good morning," Sam gave Luka as he came upstairs dressed for the day, but still somewhat wet from his morning shower. "Bagel? Or I think there's still a muffin left."
"Just toast." Luka approached Sam from behind as she put the kids' cereal bowls in the sink and wrapped his arms around her, drawing the back of her head into his chest. "You smell like tropical flowers," he said breathing in the scent of her hair.
"Mmm. I ran out of shampoo. Borrowed Anna's."
"Then I predict that Carter will soon be finding some good lovin'." Somehow his accent didn't do that old saying any justice.
"I think Anna might have something to say about that. Now, how about you answer my question," she giggled quietly, hoping not to draw the attention of the kids sitting at the computer desk. "Do I need to repeat it?"
"Burned." When Sam turned around and gave him a questioning look, he smiled sheepishly. "What can I say? It grew on me."
"Hey, Romeo and Juliet," Alex yelled across the room, "there are kids present. Either get a room or hurry it up with that poison drink."
"Sam, are we going to the lighthouse this morning?" Amanda asked totally ignoring Alex.
"As soon as you two finish up."
"Can my dad come?"
"Let's give him the morning to sleep. I bet he's real tired." Sam was a bit leery of this Bob character. "Luka," she asked her voice subdued to almost a whisper, "I'm not sure of this guy. He gives me the creeps."
"Don't worry. He's all talk sometimes. It's part of the job." Pouring himself a cup of coffee, he could see that he was no comfort at all to Sam. "This is what he does. Come on, Romano was much more of a bastard than Bob has ever tried to be."
Turning around, Sam let her attention wander back to the window over the sink and the little old lady one house inland who had been rocking on her porch all morning just as she had the previous mornings watching Anna's house as though it were an occupation.
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"Where are they?" Bob alarmingly demanded. "Where are the kids?"
"Um, went to the Corolla Lighthouse I think. Bob, what is it?"
"I'm going after them," he said running to the door. "You have to get to Anna. If this is who I think it is, nobody is safe. Nobody."
"Luka is with them."
"Doesn't matter, Frat Boy. They know I'm here, not with them. Shit," he spouted while grabbing his knife that he had put on the hall console and strapping it to his leg, then shoving a gun in the waistband of his pants under his shirt, "I got up late. Been busy and thought they were all down at the beach. I really fucked up."
"They know… how would…" Carter watched as Bob flitted from one door and window to another tinkering with little objects. "Who are they?"
"Let's go," Bob ordered opening the front door. "Come on, come on."
Carter grabbed his shoes and ran out the front door, barefoot, nearly tripping over a potted plant at the top of the stairs. For a moment he thought he was going to end up returning to Chicago racked in injuries again, only this time it would be from torturing himself.
"Bob, why the urgency? It's not like you've been here at all the last couple weeks."
"No, but it's the first time you turkeys have truly been alone. I've had someone watching you all along until our Croatian hero there went and blew the dam up north. He not only trapped in whoever was after you, and now we know who, but kept my guys holed up in the woods while Barney Fife of the North and his band of Inebriated Brothers played A-Team." Standing back from the house, Bob took out what looked like a remote control and pressed a button. "The only reason I'm here is because I was geographically closest to you. I'm the one who's supposed to be watching Amanda and whoever is with her from a distance."
"You knew I'd be bringing them here?"
"Who do you think bugged your phones, Swifty? Not that we were the only ones. We piggy backed off whoever got in there first." Bob led a speechless Carter down the boardwalk to the next house inland and put his arm around the little old lady out watering her flowers. "Good morning dear," he said with a soothing calm in his deep voice.
"Oh my, Bob, did you have fun surprising your niece and nephew?" she said as though she had known him all her life.
"Mrs. Bernard, you're so sweet." Bob put on a good show. "Johnny here was most surprised, weren't you?"
"Oh, most definitely, Uncle Bobby." Carter did his best to imitate a painful smile. He hated being called Johnny. Just hated it.
"Dear, we are working on a special surprise for Anna, and we need to borrow your car."
"You go right ahead, Bob. I only drive it on Sundays so there should be plenty of gas. I filled the tank in March." The thought that the little old lady with enormously thick eyeglasses even drove at all was disconcerting. "Keys are under the flower pot in the car port." Giving her a kiss on her head, Bob whispered something in her ear and gave her a hug before leaving her with her yard work.
"You know her?" Carter asked as they rushed to the driveway.
"Been renting a room from her." Bob sidled up to the black Lincoln Navigator parked behind the lady's car. "Flower pot's over there," he said, unlocking the door and sliding into the driver's seat. "I'm going up to the lighthouse. Get Anna and meet me there."
Left alone as Bob peeled out, Carter looked at his wheels - an orange two-door 1977 Chevy Chevette with a plastic daisy wired to the antenna. Good lord, he thought, a Flintstone mobile.
Flooring the car to get to a decent 45 mph, Carter searched for the small clinic in Corolla Anna had described. His head, still sore from the previous night, bumped up against the roof of the car every time he hit a rut in the road, and he finally ripped down the pine scented air freshener dangling from the rear view mirror after he became nauseas from it swinging in his peripheral vision. Finally passing a tourist area littered with plazas containing rental stores and souvenir shops, he found the small vegetable stand Anna had described on the corner of a private drive leading up to a cottage on the sound side of the island with an actual shingle that read:
Northern Shores Pediatrics
The car angrily sputtered when Carter turned off the ignition, something that made Carter instinctively look on the ground underneath just in case something was leaking or about to make the jalopy explode. Other than the sign out front and wheelchair ramp to the side, nothing screamed medical office at all about the building. As he walked into the empty waiting area, a young woman, kind of doughty he thought, opened a glass window separating her from the clients.
"Can I help you?" she asked in a heavy southern drawl.
"I'm here to see Dr. DelAmico."
"Dr. Rosher." She looked over her glasses and leaned forward, her large body a formidable presence even with the reception desk between them.
"He's here too?"
"No. She still goes by that name here."
"Okay. Well then I need to see Dr. Rosher."
"You a drug rep? If you are, I need post-its and pens. You don't get to see the doctor 'til I see what you got in the trunk of your expensive car," the lady answered not quite sure who the man was in her pediatric office with no kids. "But I don't see no briefcase."
"No, I -"
" -Do you have a child with a problem?"
"No," he said getting irritated.
"Have you been here before?"
Carter's patience was getting short. "I just need to speak to her right away..."
"Why don't you take a seat and I'll see if she's available."
Before he could say anything, she slammed the window shut and left the desk. He didn't take a seat among the parenting magazines and toddler toys, but instead stayed at the window looking through to the other side hoping to catch Anna in the back. His eyes traveled from the samples of baby formula on the shelf behind the window to the coupons for liquid Advil and pamphlets on ADD, ear infections and asthma lining the walls of the waiting room. It seemed like the receptionist had been gone too long so Carter took it upon himself to find Anna himself, opening the door to the hallway holding the exam rooms.
Passing the three empty rooms to his right, Carter followed the hallway around the corner only to quite literally bump into the receptionist who proceeded to beat him over the head with a plastic toy hammer.
"Wait…" he yelled while covering his face with his arms, "I'm not…. Where…"
"Intruder, intruder," the overly zealous woman yelled.
Finally Carter opened his eyes when the beating halted, courtesy of Anna who held the woman's hand, the toy hammer tightly gripped high in the air. "Beth, it's okay. He's a doctor - a friend."
"Why didn't you say so?" she asked quite accusingly.
"Didn't give me a chance," Carter quickly answered, in a begging kind of way.
All three stood silently in the hall, Carter trying to get Anna's attention with his eyes.
"Beth, you need something?" Anna asked the woman whose prying motives were less than hidden.
"No."
"You can go now."
"Oh." As she walked away, the receptionist looked over her shoulder twice with just a hint of paranoia.
"She always like that?" Carter asked.
"Unfortunately. Don't worry, it's not you. She's never traveled much past Elizabeth City. Last year I took her to Richmond for a conference. Thought I'd broaden her horizons. The city creaped her out and now she thinks toddlers are packing guns in their diapers."
"Good work," he gave sarcastically.
"Hmm. What's up?"
"You, us, they - whoever they are."
"Huh?"
"Gotta get you out of here, per Bob's instructions. He thinks whoever is after Amanda is here. Can you leave?"
"Yeah. I only see walk-ins on Fridays and leave at one. I suppose I could close early. John, what's going on?"
"I'm not sure. I need you to drive us to the lighthouse."
Sending Beth home early, Anna turned over the phones to the answering service and locked the door behind her finding Carter leaning against…"
"Is that old Mrs. Bernard's car?" she laughed.
"It's a chick magnet. Yep," he boasted whacking the tinny roof with his hand. "Babes threw themselves at me when they saw me behind the wheel. Bob wanted it, you know, but he's just not man enough to handle it." Carter opened the door and handed the keys to her. "Can your leave your car here? I should get this back to your neighbor. She'll be needing it come Sunday, and my head just isn't into driving any further."
"Sure. Get in, Tom Cruise."
"Yeah? Do I get to sing in my underwear?"
The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply. -Kahlil Gibran 1883-1931, Lebanese Poet, Novelist
It was hard for Bob to keep his speed down on the two lane highway, the only road on the northern end of the barrier islands. Getting pulled over by over zealous, bored mini cops would serve no useful purpose and cause a delay he couldn't afford. Finally he saw the sign for the Currituck Beach Lighthouse at the edge of town and pulled in. They said the Corolla lighthouse. He hoped this was it.
The property was beautifully manicured and simple. A large white stick house - a duplex - stood to the side, a smaller white building with a sign announcing the museum shop was nearby. Looming not as tall as he had expected, was the brick lighthouse, the unpainted surface adding an unusual nakedness to it. Bob stuffed his hands in his pocket and tried to blend in, gazing furtively among the small crowd but not seeing the children or Sam and Luka.
"…The red brick tower of the lighthouse is laid in one-to-three common bond and reaches 158 feet into the air. Connected to the base of the lighthouse is a small one-story brick building through which…"
Passing by a group of tourists intently listening to the guide, Bob stopped and turned around making sure he had a visual count of all of the out-buildings.
"The First Order Fresnel Lens is the most significant and valuable artifact and functioning aid to navigation in the Currituck Beach or any lighthouse."
The lisp was hard to miss.
"The original source of light was a mineral oil lamp consisting of five concentric wicks manned by two keepers, their families housed in the duplex. Today, the beam of a 1000 watt bulb refracted by the lens warns mariners 18 nautical miles out to sea."
The way the man spoke, unnaturally elongating one syllable words as though to bring more meaning to them, grated on Bob's nerves. Inching his way through the group of people, he tried to get a look inside the lighthouse behind the tour guide.
"Approximately one million bricks were used to build the structure. You'll find that the two hundred and fourteen steps up to the top go quite fast on the spiral staircase. From dusk to dawn… hey, can't go up there yet, partner. Got plenty more to tell ya."
"I, ah, was supposed to meet my family here…"
"You'll have to wait. There's only one way up and down. Wouldn't be safe to allow two-way traffic." Even what he said away from the group sounded scripted.
"Can you tell me who's up there now?"
"Small group - tourist season doesn't pick up until end of the month. Couple kids, their mom, and a group of businessmen, I believe. From dusk to dawn this lighthouse is still functional. With a 20-second flash cycle - on for 3 seconds, off for 17 seconds, the light can be seen for 18 nautical miles. The distinctive sequence enables the lighthouse not only to warn mariners but also to help identify their locations while…"
Bob looked far up to the top, shading his eyes from the sun as it finally dipped behind a blanket of thick clouds, where he saw a walkway that encompassed the outside of the tower. Walking backwards he got far enough away so that he could focus a small set of binoculars in that direction without breaking his neck, but saw nobody.
"Bob? What are you doing here?"
"Where you been?" Bob asked without even flinching or needing to turn around to see that the voice belonged to Luka. It was his way, maybe his years of experience, a sixth sense, or ice cold nerves.
"Gift shop. Look," he said holding open a small bag, "I got Maggie Doyle a miniature lighthouse with a motion sensor. It'll light up when I walk near her - warn her that I'm coming. I think… Bob?"
"Where are Sam and the kids?" he asked still looking up into the sky with his binoculars.
"Waiting for me over there." Luka pointed to the crowd standing at the base of the lighthouse still listening to the drivel coming out of the monotoned, dreary guide, but he soon lowered his arm. "She said they'd wait for me. Where'd they go?"
"That's what I'd like to know."
"If I'd known you really wanted to come along I would have woken you up, but -"
" -I've raided my fair share of lighthouses. This is work, Kovac."
"Hi guys," Anna's voice announced from behind.
"Hail, hail the gang's all here," Bob sarcastically muttered in a dead pan.
"Okay…" Luka was getting antsy. "…what's going on?"
"Bob saw someone in the kids' pictures they took at the museum the other day," Carter explained. "he's worried about -"
"Look, there's Alex," Luka announced as he smiled and waved up at the lighthouse tower.
Sam emerged onto the walkway followed by Amanda who spotted her father and waved excitedly along with Alex.
"Hi Daddy," she yelled while waving her hand enthusiastically. "You look tiny."
As the three enjoyed the view, two men appeared behind them and looked down at the ground over the children's shoulders.
"Stay here Carter," Bob yelled, his feet already moving.
Bob and Luka bolted for the lighthouse entrance and barged ahead of the other tourists just beginning their journey up the stairs. They took two steps at a time up the winding rod-iron staircase using the few landings on the turnarounds to get past two older women and then a man who were making their way down, and to skip by the slower ones in the process of reaching the top - those not in a hurry to save a loved one's life. The small enclosure, even though their ascent seemed infinite, concentrated the clanging of their shoes on the suspended metal that made their ears ring, and getting up all of those two hundred and fourteen stairs was not as quick as Dreary-Tour-Guide made it out to be.
Their lungs burning from sucking in the stagnant air, they barged through the entrance to the walkway and inhaled deeply, their bodies exhausted and wobbly from working muscles seldom used at their age. The walkway was narrow and at first they were startled not to see the kids where they'd last been seen, but a few steps around and they found both of them and Sam on the opposite side trying to get a picture of some of the wild Corolla horses grazing down in a field over by the sound.
"Where'd they go?" Luka asked, wanting to take breaths in place of the words.
"Who?" Sam asked.
"The men."
"What men?"
Bob interrupted, taking Amanda's hand and starting back for the door. "Time to go."
Amanda dug her feet in and stopped short of going back in the tower. "I'm not done yet. I have to take more pictures."
In Bob's haste he had initially missed his daughter's striking resemblance to her mother wearing khaki shorts, the over sized utility vest and camera around her neck, but her attitude at that point and screwed up, pissy face stabbed straight though him. He wanted to throw his arms around her right at that moment and hold her tight, but as his eyes wandered back to the ground below and caught Anna being dragged towards the parking lot by a man, instinct automatically switched him from Daddy mode to CIA agent.
"This isn't good," he mumbled, glad that Luka's ear was closer than Amanda's.
Luka saw the same thing. "Where's Carter?"
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"Let go of me," Anna demanded, eventually jerking her elbow free. "Are you following me?"
"Where's your boyfriend?" Max asked, his voice in a controlled but angry whisper.
"What?"
"You heard me. Where is he? I saw him from up there," he said pointing to the top of the lighthouse. "Don't tell me he's not here to get a piece of your ass. I saw the way you put your arm around him."
"He has a concussion, Max. He got dizzy looking straight up." She was searching his face for answers, bewildered not only by his demeanor, but by his shear presence. "Why are you even here?"
Max didn't even seem to hear her as he swiveled his head around in search of someone.
"What are you on this time, Max? Hmm?"
"Shut up. You have no idea… Wha… why do you always have to go there?"
"Anna? What's going on?" Carter stepped up next to her, close to her, with two bottles of water.
"Nothing. Max was doing a little sightseeing of his own."
"Here? Where he lives? Imagine that."
Quite literally between the two men, Anna struggled to keep her anger at bay. "Max, why don't you just go home."
"Candlewyck is my home."
"Not any more," Carter said, butting in. "She wants you to go. Do the right thing, Max," he said in a strong, clear voice, "and leave."
"You have no idea what -"
" -Leave," Carter firmly repeated, not giving Max the opportunity to have the last word.
"Isn't it convenient that you happened to be here at the same time as your ex-wife?" Bob bellowed as he came around from behind the trees with Luka, Sam and the kids close behind.
"How many guys you bedding in that house, Anna?"
With that, Bob pulled his right arm back, balled his hand into a fierce fist and gave Max a right hook he was sure to remember. But Bob wasn't done yet. He bent over a sprawled out Max flat on his back soothing his aching jaw, and spoke with an even and unflustered voice. "In some cultures, disrespecting a woman will get your Johnson cut off. I've lived in those cultures and it's quite something to be a part of." With a condescending pat to Max's head, Bob stood and straightened his shirt.
"Hey… hey," Max whined as he got to his feet, "you kids get away from my Escalade. Go on," he yelled as he made his way to where Amanda and Alex were pawing at his new vehicle and fingerprinting the fancy windows and hubcaps, "get away."
All Bob had to do was clear his throat and Max got in the expensive Escalade and drove out as fast as he could.
"Someone want to tell me what's going on?" Sam asked.
"We're not alone, and you, missy, took off with the kids."
Sam looked puzzled and furrowed her brow at Bob's insinuation.
Anna could feel a confrontation of words and jumped in. "What do you mean, we're not alone?"
"Look around you," Bob said, his eyes directing the group in different directions. "Filter out the obvious tourists and tell me what you see. Carter?"
"Well, there's a guy reading a paper over by the tree."
"Ever stop at a tourist spot to check the financials?" Bob asked. "Luka?"
"At the end of the parking lot there's a black Yukon with two men in the front seat. The engine's been running and they have ear pieces."
"Yep." Bob kept his voice low and looked away from where he was talking about. "There's the woman with no children, by herself at the water fountain. Hasn't moved the entire time we've been here. She's young, athletic and wearing long sleeves in eighty-five degree heat. The sky is overcast but they're all wearing dark glasses, and their eyes have been on our every move. Then there's this Max guy…"
"Hold it," Anna interjected, impressed with Bob's skills, but not with his accusations, "Max is not wrapped up in some spy thing."
"He's got an obvious attachment to you, he's vulnerable, has a reason to get near you, get access to the house and he's expendable."
"Look, Bob," Luka asked very close to his ear so as not to share his question with the kids, "I thought these guys had a mission to kill Amanda and then you. They've had plenty of opportunity, why are they hanging around?"
"That's what I'd like to know."
"No one's at the house," Anna announced with alarm. "They could get in."
"Not to worry Doc," Bob said as he got out his keys and started for his car, "I made certain security precautions to the structure, and besides, Mrs. Bernard has it covered."