Chapter 3
I may be mixing up key facts about our characters, like when Frank became PC. Someone pointed out he would not have been PC when Jamie was in law school. Oops! Well, for this one he is. Aside from the fact this story is now a lot closer to being complete, I liked having the power of the PC to provide some help later on.
p.s. Also, I'm not personally familiar with the region this story takes place in, being from way down south. I did my best with a little research, so let's pretend it's all accurate, lol!
It wasn't long after he settled back in for the remainder of the drive that Jamie caught the time on the dash and frowned. He was way behind schedule after running into traffic accidents and construction delays on his way to Logan International Airport to drop off his roommate and his girlfriend. His passengers had fretted over the possibility of missing their flights, but, luckily for them, air traffic was just as congested as ground traffic and they were able to confirm that their flights were also delayed. It allowed them to breathe easy during the rest of the drive to the airport, one filled with stretches where traffic came to a complete standstill.
Unfortunately for Jamie, he encountered more of the same on the way out of the city and through some of the more populated suburbs of Boston. He called his father before he left his apartment to provide his ETA, but even though traffic was now light at this hour, he would not make it home by the original estimated time. He needed to update the family so they wouldn't worry.
All thoughts of calling home were momentarily forgotten when the interior of the Civic was suddenly illuminated by the blinding high beam lights of the much larger vehicle behind him. Jamie squinted into the rearview mirror and accelerated to distance himself from the rude driver. He was already in the right lane and there was no reason why they couldn't go around him, especially with no one else in their way.
With a bit of space between them now and the other driver remaining a respectful distance behind him, Jamie reached for the cell phone in his pocket to call home. The device came to life as he pulled it free and he found his brother's name on the screen. Jamie switched off the radio and accepted the call, hitting the speaker button. He held the phone out in front of him with his right hand, keeping a firm grip on the steering wheel with the other.
"Hey, Joe!" Jamie rasped as his lips stretched into a smile. Living in Cambridge for most of the year, he missed his family tremendously, but no one more than his middle brother, Joe. The two youngest siblings of the four Reagan children had a tight bond, Jamie considering Joe his best friend. They spoke often when Jamie was away, with Joe often using him as a sounding board when he had problems on the job or minor scuffles with their older brother, Danny.
Jamie loved hearing Joe's cop stories, and when he did, he found himself wondering what his own life would be like if he'd gone straight into the academy after college instead of heading to law school. A part of him craved police work. How could he not with four generations of police officers in his family? But from a young age, his mother had insisted that he was destined for something more. And with his sister, Erin, having graduated from law school and then becoming a rising star in the Manhattan DA's office, both Reagan women had personally groomed him for law. He couldn't deny that it intrigued him as well and, depending on the path he chose, there was a lot of good that could be done with a law degree. But there was just something about police work that called to him.
In the end, he pushed back thoughts of a career in law enforcement to make his mother happy, especially after his acceptance to Harvard Law. He aced the LSATs and had been at the top of his undergrad class, but he still thought Harvard Law was a long shot. The application was submitted after relentless prodding by his mother and sister with 'what have you got to lose' repeated over and over. But how could he turn down a coveted spot at Harvard after learning of his acceptance? Maybe he was destined to be an attorney just as his mother had hoped. He only wished that she was still around to see it happen.
He thought that law school would eventually help him forget about being a cop, but it hadn't so far. It was definitely in his blood.
"Hey, little brother! What's going on?!" Joe exclaimed.
"Not a whole lot, bro," Jamie said, letting go of the steering wheel for a few seconds to adjust his mirror and the glare from the bright lights behind him.
"Pop said you're coming home tonight, that right?" Joe asked.
"Yeah. Already on my way, I'm just not as far as I wanted to be," Jamie lamented. He still had two hours to go and he was starting to think his father had been right about waiting to make the drive in the morning, regardless of the weather.
"Why? Where are you?" Joe inquired through the staticky connection.
"South of Hartford somewhere. It took me over an hour to get Spencer and Sydney to the airport," Jamie began to explain before his brother cut in with his usual jokes.
"Ooooh, so you're still seeing Sydney, huh? Are things getting serious, little brother? Have you said the "L" word yet?" he teased.
Even though Joe was in another state and had no way of seeing him, Jamie still fought to keep the shy smile off his face. He and Sydney had met in the spring, but it had turned more serious in the summer when he returned to Bay Ridge. Instead of going home to Greenwich, Sydney also headed to New York City where they both landed summer law clerk positions at prestigious Wall Street firms. Despite their busy work schedules, being in the same city had allowed for their romance to blossom and no one liked to tease him more about his love life than his brother, Joe. Danny was a close second, but with Joe, it was all done in good fun.
"Shut it," he ordered.
"Come on!" Joe laughed. "Inquiring minds want to know."
"I'm sure you do. And things are going well," he offered vaguely, not willing to go into more detail that would only be used against him later.
"'Well' he says. I bet you a million bucks you'll have a ring on her finger within a year. Oh! I know! You'll propose as you're crossing the stage at graduation...sooo romantic," he drawled with a dreamy sigh. "You can pass the bar together and open your own firm - Reagan and Reagan," Joe laughed.
"Now I know you're crazy," Jamie huffed with mock annoyance.
"Pshhh! Let's see who's calling who crazy in a year," Joe muttered. "So I thought Sydney was from Greenwich. What? She didn't want to catch a ride home in your old jalopy? Did she choose to helicopter home instead?" he questioned, wondering why he was riding solo.
"Not all of us were lucky enough to inherit a classic '71 Chevelle SS431," Jamie grumbled before answering his brother's question, referring to their father's beloved Chevy which Joe had restored with a lot of hard work after it had been handed down to him.
"She is from Greenwich, but her family is spending the holidays in Aspen this year so she flew out of Logan," Jamie advised.
Joe let out a low whistle. "Wow, Aspen...sounds fancy," he remarked.
"I'm sure it is," Jamie agreed, "but I wouldn't know." That was another running joke with Joe. He teased Jamie about dating someone whose name alone oozed class. Despite the fact that Sydney Evelyn Davenport came from a long line of blue bloods, she was also smart, sweet, beautiful and unlike anyone else Jamie had ever met. He introduced her to the family before they both headed back to school in the fall and Joe came up for a weekend visit in October, so he saw how happy she made him. That was all that mattered in the end.
"You sure she knows you're not related to any highfalutin Reagans? Remind her that most of us are just a bunch of gun-toting civil servants."
"She knows," Jamie laughed which prompted a short bout of coughing.
"Well, I guess, dad was right. You are sick," Joe surmised. Word got around fast about everything in their family.
"Just a stupid cold. I'm fine," he stated before letting out a string of curses at the unexpected and sudden approach of the vehicle behind him.
"Jesus!" he hissed while placing the phone in the console. Jamie gripped the steering wheel with both hands and checked his mirror before changing lanes. The jerk was still behind him and on his tail again. It was the same vehicle, Jamie was sure of it, and he began to get a strange feeling about this and the incident back at the gas station.
"What's wrong?" Joe worried.
"Some jerk in a truck or SUV - I'm not sure what it is - riding my tail with high beams. Hold on…just switching lanes," he said as he watched the driver slowly inch up next to him on his right, frowning when he saw that it was a white pickup truck similar to the one from the gas station, but the vehicle did nothing more than ride alongside him with it's driver hidden within the dark confines of the cab. He had no way to see if it had the same mismatched tailgate unless he fell behind.
Jamie didn't care to add any more time to his trip and faced straight ahead hoping that the impatient driver would pass him completely and leave him in the dust. He didn't understand why the guy didn't just go around him to begin with unless it was the troublemaker he'd encountered before.
"Are you driving under the speed limit in the left lane again, grandpa?" Joe joked, knowing his brother was a stickler for speed limits, even on the highway.
"No," Jamie countered with a quick glance to the right. "I was in the right lane and the dummy wouldn't go around me."
"Sure you were," Joe snickered.
"Where are you anyway?" Jamie wondered, hoping to stop his brother's teasing when he heard a clatter of what sounded like pots and pans in the background.
"At dad's. I just came off a double and gramps made Irish stew….mmm mmm mmm," Joe said, having just reheated a large bowl of heaven for himself. He took an exaggerated sniff of the steaming stew for Jamie's benefit.
"Ugh….that sounds so good right now. You're such a leech, man," Jamie commented before letting out a snort of amusement. Joe always came running when their grandfather cooked, which was often. Actually, if there was free food anywhere within a ten mile radius, Joseph Conor Reagan always came running.
His brother was distracting him from his traffic troubles.
"What?! Come on! You know gramps cooks for an army. He had a full pot put away in the fridge when I got here. I gotta do my part to help him out with that," he argued while taking in a spoonful of the savory stew.
"That's good of you, Joe. Not sure what he'd do without you," he deadpanned.
"He even made soup for you, but he told me not to touch it," he pouted around a mouthful of beef which earned him another snort from Jamie. "Sounds like you'll need it. So, how long's your break this time?"
"I'm off until mid January," Jamie said as he got comfortable in his seat. Distracted by the conversation, he failed to notice that his highway companion had not passed him as he hoped he would. In fact, he had quietly fallen behind him once again.
"So we got a month to deal with your sorry butt," Joe joked.
"Yeah, you do," Jamie grinned, glad that he had Joe to talk to during this portion of the trip, while driving through a darkened section of the interstate. The majority of his journey to and from Boston crossed through towns both large and small, but there were stretches that cut through rural or preserved areas as well.
"Good. We got a lot to catch up on. I'm off tomorrow and so is Danny. We got a court reserved at the Y in the afternoon for a pickup game with a bunch of cops and then we're grabbing beers after. We could use a point guard. You think you're up for it, sniffles?" Joe offered, already knowing the answer to his own question despite the cold his little brother was fighting off.
"Yeah, of course," Jamie declared, determined not to let a little bug stop him from joining in on the fun. He had a month off but it would go by fast and he needed to make the most of it. Despite the hectic schedule he had with school and his job, he missed his family when he was in Boston. It would be good to spend his first day off with his brothers, even though Jamie sometimes felt like he and Danny were incapable of seeing eye to eye. But so long as Joe was around, they always managed to get along and have a good time together. He had no idea what things would be like between them if it weren't for their peacemaker, Joe.
"Cool."
Jamie startled when the high beams returned, this time with a jarring blare from a horn. "What is wrong with this guy? They're back behind me again," he complained.
"They giving you trouble, Jay?" Joe asked worriedly as he dropped a spoonful of stew back into his bowl. He was glad he had the kid on the phone with him if there was a problem.
"Nah, just a tailgater. I just went back to the right lane. Looks like he'll pass now," Jamie hoped.
"You sure?"
Jamie watched the driver in his side view mirror and waited until he was sure the nut zoomed ahead of him. "Yeah, he's going by now," he began to say, pausing when he saw the red tailgate.
"What the hell?" he whispered as a strange feeling came over him.
"What's wrong, Jamie?" Joe pressed. He didn't catch his brother's words as the connection began to cut in and out, but he picked up on his tone and he sensed that something was wrong.
"Nothing," Jamie insisted. It was definitely the same guy from the gas station playing games with him. But so long as he kept his distance, which Jamie fully intended to do even if it added time to his drive, everything would be fine.
"Just some guy in a white pickup," he noted more casually despite his furrowed brow.
"You sure?"
Jamie stared at the rear lights of the truck before nodding. "Yeah." He didn't want to make a big deal about it and worry his brother.
"Okay," Joe said, not completely convinced but at least he had him on the phone. "So what time will you be home?" he repeated.
"Considering the delays earlier? Not until after midnight," he said tiredly as static crackled across the line.
"Say again? You cut out," Joe asked at the garbled sound of his brother's voice.
Jamie glanced at his phone to confirm the call was still connected as Joe's voice came through equally distorted; he only had two out of four bars - typical for some of these parts. "Can you hear me, Joe?"
"Yeah. I can now, but it's not great," he replied, hoping he wouldn't lose the kid.
"I'm in Connecticut. Reception sucks out here in the middle of nowhere," Jamie managed to say.
"On the 91?" Joe inquired, knowing his brother's preferred route.
"Yup. I should be home after midnight."
"Lost you for a sec again," Joe said, taking a second to look at the screen of his phone, "but I got the jist of it. Jeez...I may wait up for you and spend the night - gramps mentioned pancakes - so I'll - stay and - - you."
Jamie frowned as it was now his turn to miss part of his brother's message. "Now I'm losing you, Joe. Listen, I'm just gonna let you go, but I'll see you later."
"Alright. Later. Drive -," Joe's garbled voice said before the phone beeped and the connection was completely lost.
Jamie, however, still answered him with a shake of his head as he stared down the dark, cold highway and the glowing tail lights of the troublesome pickup ahead of him. "Yeah….will do," he said as he connected the charger to his phone. Jamie reached for the protein bar he'd bought and settled in for the remainder of the drive.
Doh, out alone on a quiet stretch of highway with a nut in a truck does not bode well for Jamie.