Chapter Six "Change of Plans"
Michael pulled his gun from under the seat where he'd left it earlier. He clicked the safety off and gave Charlie one last look.
"Remember, don't move until I come back," Michael said in his no nonsense voice, which sounded a lot like his normal voice.
Charlie only nodded. He looked like he might start crying. If Michael's suspicions were correct, there would be a good reason for that.
He climbed out of the car and hurried to the house, watching for any movement as he went. Up close, Michael could see that the door was open a crack as if someone left in a hurry. He smelled gunpowder and blood. Nudging the door open further with the end of his gun, Michael saw what he had feared. Ruth lay in a growing pool of blood. She had twho gunshot wounds to the head. Her eyes were wide open, fear frozen in her expression.
Michael turned and went back to the car. He couldn't leave Charlie alone when there was a killer on the loose. As he walked down the path to the street, he pulled out his phone. Michael realized with dismay that he wasn't sure who his first call would be. The days when he had to choose between Sam and Fiona seemed like a walk in the park now. He decided on Pearce. She was on good enough terms with Michael to come help him with this, and since he was now officially back in the CIA, it wouldn't look good for him to be calling his old associates for things like this.
The sound of sirens in the distance told Michael that he wouldn't need to call the police. A neighbor must have heard something. Michael realized that for the first time, he had stumbled upon a crime scene and would not instantly be a suspect. So, he put his gun in the trunk and called Dani.
She picked up on the second ring. "Hey, Michael, what's up?"
"I need you to get over to Ruth's house as soon as possible."
"Why? What's going on?"
"She's dead. I was dropping Charlie off when I found her. I can't leave him alone, and I need to find out who did this."
"You got it. I'll be there in ten minutes."
"Make it faster. The police are almost here."
Michael hung up and sighed heavily. Charlie was still waiting in the passenger seat, but he was sitting up on his knees with his hands on the windowsill. He watched with a deer in the headlights expression as Michael move around the car. When Michael reached the door, he opened it and crouched down to Charlie's eye level.
"Look," he said in a low voice. "There's gonna be a bunch of cops here in a minute, but you're safe, okay? I won't let anything hurt you."
"Where's Mommy?" Charlie demanded, close to tears.
Michael broke eye contact. The gravel in the cracks of the sidewalk became fascinating.
Charlie tried to climb out of the car, unsatisfied with Michael's silence, but Michael stopped him.
"You have to stay here, Charlie."
"I don't wanna. Where's Mommy?" His voice rose sharply, and the way his eyebrows scrunched reminded Michael of how Nate used to look when he didn't get something he wanted.
Michael was still holding onto Charlie's arms to keep him from running to the house. "Mommy—Mommy's gone," he said.
Though Charlie was only a child, he knew what Michael meant. The tears in his eyes spilled over and streamed down his face. He wrapped his arms around Michael's neck, and the weight of his wordless cry almost caused Michael to lose his balance. So, he sat down on the sidewalk as the blaring sirens reached them and drowned out the sound of Charlie's cries.
It didn't take long for the police to surround the house, and though they approached Michael and Charlie, they seemed to understand the need for subtlety with a child involved. Michael made eye contact with the officer who seemed to be in charge.
"Anyone inside?" the man asked.
Knowing he meant anyone living, Michael shook his head. He watched as the officers entered the house. He needed to get in there, but he couldn't leave Charlie like this. Wherever Pearce was, she needed to get here fast.
Michael knew he should call his mom. He just didn't know how to talk to her right now. He also couldn't explain what happened without upsetting Charlie more. This was getting to be a problem. On top of that, Michael had left his mom's car at Jesse's place when he borrowed the Charger that morning, so she wouldn't be able to get there on her own anyway.
It was looking more and more like Michael should have called Jesse. That could be fixed at least. As far as Michael could tell, Jesse was still willing to help him. A quick text message should take care of things.
A few seconds after Michael sent the message to bring his mom to Ruth's house, Jesse replied: be there ASAP.
No questions, no hesitation. Michael wondered how he had managed to make such a good friend. He couldn't reasonably take credit for that.
Pearce arrived soon after that and made her way through the police line. Neighbors had started to gather in their doorways by this time, and the cops were getting impatient to question Michael. They would just have to wait until Madeline showed up with Jesse because Michael wasn't leaving Charlie with anyone else, and he wasn't talking about what he saw in front of his nephew.
Pearce reached Michael, and he stood up from the sidewalk, still holding Charlie crying into his shirt. She didn't say anything but put her hand in the middle of Charlie's back and gave Michael a questioning look.
"See if you can get inside," Michael said. "Jesse is bringing my mom over, but they'll be a while still."
Pearce nodded and turned toward the house. As her hand left Charlie, he seemed to notice its absence and watched her go curiously.
Michael turned his body away from the house, trying to shield Charlie as much as he could. Still he couldn't take away the noise of cops barking at each other or the flashing of squad car lights. The sun was still high above the horizon, beating down on all of them, bathing the scene in washed out gold tones.
Michael stood there, unmoving, waiting for the sobs to subside, but doubting they ever would. How could anyone go on after something like this? Charlie was just a kid. He didn't deserve to lose his whole family like that. Michael began to think about what would happen next. Madeline would take Charlie to live with her. Ruth didn't have any family in the area, and from what Michael could tell, she wasn't close to any of them. It wouldn't be so bad for the kid growing up with someone like Michael's mom. He could do a lot worse.
Michael thought about Ruth's rejection of his offer to help earlier that day. He wished he had said something more now, made her realize he did care as hard as that was to believe. Now, Michael would be sure Charlie never had to go without anything he needed. Anything Michael could provide, anyway. But there would be no replacing his parents. No one could ever fill that void.
Charlie was beginning to lose some of his steam by the time Madeline's car pulled up to the curb behind Michael's. Jesse hopped out of the driver's seat with all his usual energy, while Madeline moved more slowly and deliberately toward Michael and Charlie. She knew without asking what must have happened. Jesse seemed more confused, but he didn't ask.
"Pearce is inside," Michael said. "I'm going to see if I can help." He tried to hand Charlie over to Madeline, but the boy didn't want to let go.
"Charlie, Honey, you have to come with me now." Madeline spoke in a soft voice. "Can you get some of his things from the house?" she asked Michael as Charlie allowed himself to change hands.
Michael nodded and turned toward the house. Jesse followed him, and no one tried to stop them. Inside the house, Pearce was talking to the lead detective who perked up when he saw Michael.
"You're Michael Westen?" he asked. "I'm Detective Carrillo."
Michael shook the man's hand. "What have you found so far?"
"Not much. You were the first one to discover the body of your sister-in-law, right?"
"Ex sister-in-law. Yes. I was dropping off my nephew when I saw that someone had broken in."
"And your brother is..."
"Dead. Last year. You should talk to Ruth's friends and see if anyone had something against her. Maybe she owed money or—"
"Thanks. I do know how to do my job. You weren't close with her, obviously?"
"I think I've had two conversations with her. Maybe it was just one. This morning."
"And you've never been in this house before today?"
"No. She moved here after the divorce. I've been—out of town. Look, I don't have much information about Ruth, but I can help you find whoever killed her."
"Your friend here was saying you work for the CIA?" Carrillo gestured at Pearce.
"Yes." Michael's phone rang and he looked at the display. "In fact, that's my boss now. Excuse me."
Michael stepped away from the group and answered the phone. "Raines, now's not a good time."
"It's about to get worse," Raines replied. "Riley's out."
"Out?" Michael lowered his voice. "What do you mean, out?"
"Escaped. Vanished. She must have had help."
"How does that even happen?"
"You should know. You're Michael Westen, after all."
"Where was she being held?"
"A CIA holding facility just outside of Miami. They were getting ready to move her for her trial, and someone attacked the convoy. It was a small team."
"When did this happen?"
"Last night. We just got the go ahead to send you after her."
"Me?"
"She chased you for months. You know her moves. And you're already in Miami. We've sent all the information over to Pearce's office. She'll be working with you on this."
"All right, I've got some things to finish up here, and then we'll get to work."
"Some things? What's more important than this?"
"My ex sister-in-law was just murdered. I'll call you back."
Michael hung up the phone and motioned to Pearce. She excused herself from the detective and moved over to the corner of the room where Michael was standing.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Riley escaped last night. We're on the case."
"You and me? That 'we'?"
"Yes. I need to get things wrapped up here, and then we should head over to your office."
"Okay. I'll get some stuff for Charlie out of his room."
"Good. Hey, grab a couple of the model cars."
Pearce gave Michael a curious look. "Okay." She nodded and turned toward the hallway.
Michael rejoined Jesse and Detective Carrillo. By that time, crime scene technicians had come and begun investigating the house.
"I'm sorry about that, Detective," Michael said. "But we're going to have to cut this short. If you find anything more, I'd appreciate a call."
Carrillo nodded. "And you let me know if you think of anything helpful?"
"Of course." Michael smiled, reflexively.
Jesse followed Michael out of the house. He had been uncharacteristically quiet this whole time, but he seemed to be about to break his silence. "You want to tell me what's going on?" he asked.
Michael looked up and down the street. "I have to go. Riley escaped."
"What?"
"I know. Our worst nightmare. The CIA's sending me and Pearce after her."
"Well, that's good right? So you're gonna be around longer?"
"Yeah. I need you to keep an eye on this investigation if you can. I don't know why this happened, but this seems too convenient to be a coincidence."
"You think Riley had something to do with murdering Ruth?"
"Either she's smart, and she gets out of the country, or she's crazy—which is more likely given what we know—and she sticks around to get her revenge. She promised to hunt me to the ends of the Earth."
"But why kill Ruth?"
"It wouldn't be my first choice either. Maybe she's got nothing to do with it. I just want to be sure."
"Okay, all right. I'll keep tabs on Carrillo and see what he finds out."
"Thanks, Jess. I owe you."
"Yeah, you do, and one of these days, I'll collect." Jesse turned and headed back to where Madeline and Charlie were waiting. Soon, Pearce came out of the house to bring Charlie his overnight bag. In her other hand, she held a model '69 Chevy Camaro. She handed it to Charlie who gave her a weak smile before burying his face in Madeline's shoulder again.
As Jesse drove the last of Michael's family away, Pearce walked slowly up the sidewalk to where Michael was leaning against the trunk of his car.
"Hell of a coincidence," she said. "Maybe."
"That's what I was thinking," Michael replied.
"Let's get to work then."
A/N: In case anyone is wondering, this wasn't the character death I meant by "major character death." There will still be a death of one of the important characters. Just to be clear.