Amateur Hour

Liam

Liam was amazed that it was only five-thirty, when he got back home. He was exhausted, and Nina’s early dinner had made him sleepy. A nap seemed to be in order, if he wanted to make another trip to see Janice, later.

He set his alarm for six-thirty, and stretched out on the bed, with Spike. The dog didn’t usually join him, for naps, but he seemed to sense something was amiss, when Liam had come home, without Janice. Now, he lay with his head pillowed on Liam’s stomach, while the man petted him.

Liam closed his eyes, but the doctor’s words, kept at bay, all afternoon, were now clanging in his head. ‘Misoprostol’; ‘products of conception’; ‘abortion gone awry’. It couldn’t be possible, any of it.

Spontaneous reversal could happen, after a vasectomy, but it was rare. The odds of conceiving a child in such cases was rarer, still. If such a thing had happened, there was no way Jan wouldn’t have told him, undoubtedly in the form of a wry, ironic joke.

A pregnancy, at her age would be high risk. At the same time, he didn’t doubt that Janice would want his child. Ultimately, the decision would have been hers — but they would have discussed it, because that’s the way they rolled. Full disclosure had always been their policy… or, so he’d thought.

He didn’t want to look at the remote possibility that it hadn’t been his child, in question, but he had to. It seemed so unlikely, on the face of it. Their work had virtually joined them at the hip.

This togetherness didn’t seem to chafe at her much, if at all. True, she had been more interested in the second car, after her first trip out, with Nina… But, that was a stupid thought — Of course, she’d want her own wheels. That didn’t necessarily mean that she wanted to get away from him, only that she wanted to be independent.

If she had been using the car to drive to meet a lover, he had the performance of a jackrabbit. Jan had driven a handful of times to the nearest convenience store, been on one day trip, with Nina, in tow, and one trip to the grocery store.

No. It had to be a mistake, on the part of the doctor, or the lab that had performed the blood work. The doctor had said ‘traces’ of the medication had been found. Maybe the sample had somehow been contaminated.

*******

Janice was almost herself, when he entered her room, at eight-thirty. She was sitting up, her color was much better, and she was eating her dinner, while watching TV. Liam was amused, and not surprised that she and her roommate had the curtain open, between them, and seemed to be enjoying the show, together.

“Hi, Sugar!” Jan greeted him, with a smile. “Willa, this is my main squeeze, Liam.”

Willa gave him a shy but friendly wave. “Don’t mind me, if you want to draw the curtain,” she said.

“We’re fine, I think,” Liam smiled at her. “I probably won’t stay long.”

“Well, feel free. I won’t be offended.” She turned her attention back to the TV.

“You look good,” Liam smiled at his wife, and kissed her forehead. “Your dinner, on the other hand…”

“It’s not bad, for hospital food.”

“If you say so,” he looked askance at her rather wrinkled looking peas. “I won’t tell you about the meal Nina fed me.”

“Bet it was good. I’m glad you got something to eat. You missed lunch.”

“So did you. How are you feeling, Jan?”

“So much better! Hardly cramping, at all now.” She paused, then said, “I didn’t take that stuff, Liam.”

She looked him so squarely in the eye, that he knew it had to be the truth. Didn’t it?

“I believe you,” he nodded. “I guess we’ll have to talk about that, later, then.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “We will.”

How could he doubt her, even for an instant, he wondered.

**************

Steph

Steph hadn’t had a moment’s peace, since her last conversation with her partner. She had been consumed with weighing options, if options they were, dodging attempts to ‘medicate’ her, via every beverage that came her way, and since this forenoon, with what had happened to Mrs. Miles.

Something about it bugged her. If the same kind of hemorrhaging had happened to another teacher or staff member, Steph would have sympathized with her, as one woman, with another, but it wouldn’t have made her suspicious. She could see that Guy was troubled by it, too, when she met his eyes, in passing.

She watched the scenery pass by, from the back seat of the Denali that Julio had hired, to carry her from the school to the airport, where she would catch her charter to Atlanta. There was no partition between her and the driver, but he wasn’t the chatty type, and he left her to her thoughts.

Steph was on her way home, but she knew she wouldn’t be allowed to go to her home, this time. Julio would put her up in a three-star motel, for the night, but she would be allowed to call home, at least. She couldn’t wait to hear Galen’s voice, or her Mom’s.

Before that could happen, she would have to be debriefed by Julio, Dr. Abernathy, and Julio’s ever-present assistant. She sighed. After the past week of off and on drugging, by somebody in the school, the last thing she was in the mood for, was an Abernathy Cocktail. Steph had never experienced any difficulty with her recall, and she doubted Abernathy’s concoction enhanced it.

This time, she would refuse. She should have put her foot down, long ago. It had only been her desire to keep her job, a better paying job than she could have expected to get, anywhere else, that had kept her from telling Abernathy to take a hike, with his potion.

For three years, she had operated under the assumption that the stuff was doing her no harm. It wasn’t addictive, certainly, and she felt no ill effects, once she had slept it off, which usually took only an hour. If it was harmless, though, why hadn’t she ever mentioned it, to Guy?

Was it shame, at being manipulated? That was undoubtedly a factor. She had come close to telling him, multiple times, but something had held her back. Something that told her it would be a bad idea.

*******

“Stephanie, come in. How are you?”

Julio’s face was full of concern, and Steph wasn’t buying it; not this time.

“I’ve been better,” she replied, taking her seat, at the table reserved for small conferences. She nodded to Abernathy, who returned the gesture, and to the assistant, who sketched a wave, with her pen.

“Guy says you two have big trouble. Particularly you.”

“Looks that way. We’re going to have to hope something breaks, and move fast, when it does. It would help, if we knew what you guys were looking at, on the outside.”

“We’ve had word that a staff member may have been targeted.”

“Mrs. Miles. I think so, too, and I may know how — but I don’t know why.”

“How?”

“The same way they’re doping me. In my morning coffee. THC, until I cut back on the coffee. I think they’ve switched to LSD, in something else. Acid doesn’t have much of a taste, to it, you know. They use just enough to mess with my perception and give me nightmares. Mrs. Miles takes breakfast and lunch, with everyone else, so…” She let it dangle. Her delivery had been calm and detached.

“Could it have something to do with the boy that got away?”

“No idea. I suppose it’s possible, but why go after her? If revenge is what they want, wouldn’t they go after Mr. Miles? He was the actual driver. Sabotaging his wife smacks more of intimidation, than vengeance.”

“That’s very astute, Steph,” Abernathy remarked.

“I have my moments.” Condescending bastard, her mind added. “The question is, what is he up to now, that they want to stop?”

“Perhaps you should try to get access to his laptop,” Julio suggested.

Steph laughed. She couldn’t help herself. “Portability is the whole point of a laptop, Julio. He never leaves it, on his desk. I’m sure he uses the internet. You pay hackers. Hack it.”

Julio smiled, and leaned forward in his chair. “You’re a thief. Steal it.”

“Sure. I’ll just slip it into my transparent backpack. Use your head, Julio. Do you think he’d be carrying incriminating shit around with him, at work? That’s not the computer you want. You want his home computer.”

“It shouldn’t be too hard to find out who his provider is,” the assistant spoke, for the first time.

“Put someone on it, when we’re through, here,” Julio directed. “Do you think he’s too smart to fall for a virus pop up?” he asked Steph.

“Just a little.” She paused, while the assistant continued to take notes. “Anything else, from the outside world?”

“A source says that Dr. Starkey paid Mr. Miles a visit. An intimidation visit.”

“Starkey. I can tell you, he’s been cleaning the trophies out of his office. Not all at once, but they’re starting to disappear, one by one. I’m sure you have someone on him. Right?”

“We have the house bugged, now, and his car. The plan is to have you carry a bug into his office, as well. Is that a problem?” Julio asked.

She had to watch the micro-expressions, Steph reminded herself. Julio was a good reader, and he must have seen something on her face.

“Depends on where I have to leave it, and how hard it is to set up.”

“It mounts to the underside of any table or desk, and it’s voice activated. No harder than hiding a piece of chewing gum.”

“No problem, then. Hopefully, I can get to it, before he or someone else disposes of me.”

“You are in the hot seat,” Julio acknowledged. “Guy doesn’t think you can handle it.”

This was flagrant bullshit, and Steph knew it. Guy would have never intimated any such thing.

“Guy’s an asshole, then,” she replied, appearing to take it at face value.

“He told you we want to give you a subcutaneous chip?”

“He did, but I can’t do that. It’s against my religious beliefs.”

“I didn’t know you had any,” Julio smirked.

It was on the tip of her tongue to say that he might not know her, as well as he thought he did — but that seemed injudicious.

“I’ve recently embraced Catholicism,” she replied. “St. Michael is my patron,” she stated, with a sincere face. “I’d be happy to use a wearable device, though.”

“Whatever you prefer.” Julio had lost interest, in the topic. “Are you about ready for Cocktail Hour?”

“I think I’ll pass, this time,” she said, stunning everyone in the room. “I don’t sleep well at night, after that stuff, and I’ve been short on sleep, for the past couple of nights.”

“You never reported any ill effects, before,” Abernathy huffed.

“I didn’t want to hurt your feelings, Doc. Women are like that — empathetic. Sometimes, it takes us a while, to put our own interests, first. I really need some rest.”

*******

She found she had no appetite for her sandwich, when she reached her room. Her quandary had ceased to exist. She would be leaving. The sound of Galen’s voice, on the phone had cemented her decision — but it had done nothing to assuage her guilt.

She stared at jumble of small tools she had selected from Julio’s ‘tool crib’ (pen-cam/recorder, non-metallic composite defense knife, and wearable tracker). The tools seemed to stare back, particularly the bug Julio had wanted her to drop on Starkey. She wondered how important it was.

Not very important, she decided. It didn’t seem likely that Starkey would discuss his sins, even in the privacy of his own office. He appeared to be in caution mode, these days.

The listening device, then, could be dismissed. Guy, on the other hand, was another matter. She sighed, twisted the cap off her soda bottle, and took a sip.

Guy needed her, whether he realized it, or not. The man was courageous, and bold. The flip-side of that was that he was also reckless. Without her to consider, he might be more so, than usual.

In many ways, they balanced each other. Guy knew it, too — on some level. He was on such terms with Julio that he was able to pick and choose partners. They had partnered intermittently, in the past, but, the last four assignments they had worked, they had done so, together.

She knew better than to think it was her good looks that were responsible for this. Even without the fake glasses, Steph was only average, in appearance, and Guy had an eye for pretty women. There was no other explanation than that he valued her, as a partner.

Why, then, was he so determined to get rid of her?

Setting her bottle aside, she reached for the prepaid phone she had purchased, for herself, with cash, and called the number she had memorized.

“Hello?” said a feminine voice, on the other end.

“Christina? This is Stephanie Howard, Guy’s partner.”

“Stephanie, hi— I’ve been waiting for you to call.” The voice had lost its cautious edge, and was warmer. “Where do you want to meet up, and when?”

“Is nine pm too late? I’d like to wait until it’s dark.”

“It’s fine. I’m a night-owl, anyway.”

“I’m at the Hyatt Regency, right now. There’s a CVS pharmacy nearby, on northeast Peachtree.”

“I can find that.” Steph could hear Guy’s confidence in the woman’s voice. “I think it’s best, if you wait inside, for me. It’s not exactly a bad part of town, but it’s always safer for a lady, alone, to be in a well lighted area. Guy showed me a photo of you, but what will you be wearing, just in case?”

“Black jeans and a navy Atlanta Braves t-shirt. Red lettering, outlined in white, number 13. Acuna, Jr.,” Steph added. “I’ll have my hair in a ponytail. How about you?”

“I guess I’ll go with the dark green v-neck and blue jeans. Black slip-on walking shoes. I’m kind of lean, like Guy, but short. Dark brown hair. You’ll know me, when you see me — there’s a family resemblance.”

“Sounds good. Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“Absolutely. I’m looking forward to it, in fact. Guy talks about you a lot, when he’s home.”

“Thank you, by the way, for Galen’s birthday gift. He loves it. He told me this afternoon, he’s got half of it put together, already.”

“Happy to do it. I hope I can introduce him to my boys, one day. They’re a bit older, but he must be pretty mature, if he has the patience to put that model together. It looked like a doozy,” Christina chuckled.

“He’s pretty bright. I think I’ll keep him. See you at nine, then?”

“I’ll be there. You just be careful, okay? City traffic is no joke, for a pedestrian.”

“I will.”

After they said their goodbyes, and hung up, Steph suddenly found her appetite. Now that she was committed to her course, it seemed okay to eat. She pulled her sandwich out of the mini fridge, pleased that she had gotten to it, before it had had time for the sub roll to get mushy.

*******

Her plan had been to take a short nap, after she’d finished her lunch. The interview with Julio, and the anguish of indecision had left her exhausted, mentally. Yet, once her head hit the pillow, her mind switched into overdrive.

Logic told her that she was doing the right thing. The surest way to ensure that her son would continue to have a mother to rear him, was to get herself out of the danger she had found herself in. Abandoning Guy felt wrong, but he wasn’t in any immediate peril, and he was better equipped to fend for himself than a ten year-old boy.

Cutting bait had never been her style. Her tempestuous marriage had been proof of that. In the end, it always came down to Galen, and what was best for him. This was the way it should be.

Maybe she could find some way of helping Guy, from the outside, and at a distance. She didn’t see how, at the moment, but she supposed it could be possible. Distance… She would have to leave the state, briefly, but she didn’t want to go too far.

Julio wasn’t going to send assassins for her, after all. Quitting a job, without notice wasn’t a capital offense, even to a man with his tremendous ego. Steph’s main object, in that regard, was to take herself off his radar, and become too inconsequential, to harass. At the same time, she needed to be close to home. And, to Guy.

Alabama seemed like a good choice. Maybe Dothan, or a town nearby… She began to doze.

*******