Shelly’s day at work finally dragged to a halt at 5:00 p.m. She logged out of the computers at her workstation and left the building, hurrying to her car before anyone else was out of the building. She didn’t want to talk. She didn’t want to listen to music. She just wanted to go home.
About halfway there, traffic began to slow. She groaned.
“Dang it. Not this evening,” she said, guessing it was because of a wreck. They happened daily on the Loop and in varying numbers. Depending on the time of day, and despite the five lanes of traffic, it always snarled.
Sure enough, the traffic finally came to a dead stop, which meant the wreck had just happened somewhere farther up, and they were waiting either for rescue or for wreckers to clear bodies and cars before releasing the traffic.
Less than a hundred yards ahead, she saw an exit ramp, and because she was on the outside lane, she had the freedom to take it. It would add a good half hour to her drive to go this way, but she might sit longer than that on the freeway, so she pulled out of line and drove down the shoulder to the exit ramp, grateful she was moving again.
She was so tired and beat down by the day and the extended drive that she began crying a few miles from home. By the time she pulled into the drive and hit the remote to open the garage door, she was nearly blind with tears. She made it inside the garage and then gathered up her things, disarming the security alarm as she went inside.
The house looked the same, but as Shelly went down the hall to her bedroom, the hair crawled on the back of her neck. Something felt off.
She went into her bedroom and immediately saw the closet door open and the light inside it still on. That was unlike her to do that, but it had happened before. She didn’t think much about it as she changed out of her work clothes into shorts and a T-shirt, then walked barefoot into the living room, picked up the mail from the floor in front of the front door and moved into the kitchen.
She started to toss the mail onto the table as always, when she saw a notepad, a pen and a box of spice from her spice rack. She turned in sudden fear to see if she was alone, and she was, but it was obvious someone had been in her house.
She moved closer to the table, saw the notepad and what was on it, then saw the box of mustard seed and gasped.
The message on the notepad was impossible to mistake. There were no words. Just a drawing of a woman’s lips that had been padlocked shut. She grabbed the mustard seed and clutched it to her heart, trying to remember the verse in the Bible—something about having the faith of a mustard seed, and moving mountains.
“Oh my God, oh my God, Jack! You’re alive!”
Then she thought of the safe. That would be the last bit of proof she needed. She ran down the hall and into the office and could already tell someone had been in here. The books were not in order as she moved them aside to get to the safe, and her suspicion was confirmed when she found it empty.
She was crying again, but this time for joy, and shaking so hard she could barely function. She started looking around to see what else he’d come for, but it took her a few minutes to realize his laptop was missing, too.
This was like something out of a dream. She was overjoyed, and at the same time, beginning to realize the seriousness of his situation. If he’d come back to retrieve money and a new identity, and he’d left her a most explicit message not to tell, then he was in danger and didn’t know who he could trust...except her. He trusted her.
Shelly began putting everything back the way it was supposed to be, then ran into the kitchen, grabbed that notepad and shredded the drawing before putting her mustard seed back in the cabinet. This was why they hadn’t been able to find his body. She couldn’t imagine where he’d been hiding, or how badly he might have been injured, but he was obviously well enough to be on the move.
She stood in the middle of the kitchen and then put both hands over her heart and whispered just loud enough for only God to hear.
“Thank You, Lord, for giving him back.”
* * *
When Adam was growing up in Tokyo, he wanted nothing more than to one day step into his father’s seat at the cartel. The fact that would no longer be possible had eroded his purpose and his plans for the future. In the old days in his culture, a man who has lost face with his peers or shamed his family took his own life. Yuki might be the kind to lean that way, but not him. He was bent on revenge. He needed to make sure Judd Wayne was dead, and then he was going back to Japan to take down the cartel, beginning with his father. And, since he and his brother had come across the border into Laredo, Texas, early this morning under false identities, they were moving on to the next step.
“What are we doing now?” Yuki asked, as they left the café where they’d just eaten breakfast.
“We’re going back to Houston,” Adam said. “And don’t forget...you call me Lee. I’m Lee Tanaka. You are Soshi Yamada. We aren’t related, just traveling together.”
“Yes, I understand,” Yuki said, as they headed North up I-35 to San Antonio.
Adam was taking care not to speed so he wouldn’t give the Highway Patrol a reason to stop him, and it was past noon by the time they reached San Antonio. They stopped to eat again and stretch their legs, then took Interstate 10 and drove straight into Houston.
It was night by the time they arrived. Adam chose a La Quinta Inn for the night. His steps were dragging by the time they got into their room. They washed up, then went down to the restaurant to eat dinner.
When the waitress came to take their orders, she gave the men a quick once-over and then started talking.
“Do you guys know what you want?”
“I’ll have the blackened tilapia and hot tea,” Adam said.
“Y’all want fries with that?”
Adam kept his head down. “No, thank you. I’ll have the rice.”
“And what about you?” she asked, looking at Yuki.
Uncertain about some of the offerings, he chose the safety of his brother’s order.
“I will have the same,” he said.
She wrote it all down and picked up their menus, then walked away.
When their meals finally came, they were anything but an epicurean experience. He tried not to think of all the fine dining he was accustomed to, and ate the food for sustenance, signed the ticket to have it charged to his room, and then they left the dining area and returned to their room.
Because he let Yuki shower first, Yuki was already in bed and snoring by the time Adam emerged from the bathroom. It was the quickest shower he’d ever had, and he was just as tired as his brother. He barely remembered pulling up the covers.
The next time Adam woke it was morning, his brother was in the bathroom and a waiter had just dropped a tray of someone’s breakfast in the hall outside their door. It was after 8:00 a.m. and time to find a better place to stay and then start his search for Judd Wayne.
He wanted a body, or the man’s real identity. If the bastard was still alive and hiding out somewhere, Adam knew the incentive it would take to get him into the open, but first things first. They needed an apartment, and in a part of the city where people could easily lose themselves.
* * *
Adam pocketed the room keys as they walked into their new apartment. He’d just set his bag down on the floor when Yuki gasped, then cursed in Japanese.
At the same time, the smell and the condition of the room hit him.
“Are they serious?” he muttered, staring at the sagging furniture and the dirty carpet.
“I will not stay here,” Yuki said.
“Wait here,” Adam said, and, still carrying his bag, walked into the kitchen. One burner worked. The refrigerator light was on, but it wasn’t cold and it smelled bad.
The bathroom was functional. The shower dripped and must have been doing that for some time to produce a rust stain like the one around the drain.
The linens consisted of five towels and two washcloths. A used bar of soap was on the shelf inside the shower and there was no bath mat.
He turned around and walked into the bedroom across the hall and grunted in shock. The mattress was a good five inches lower in the center than it was on the sides. There was what looked like a bullet hole in the headboard, and when he pulled back the sheets, bedbugs abounded.
“Oh hell no!” he said, and stormed out of the apartment with his brother right behind him, making haste back to the manager’s office.
The door slammed against the wall as he entered, and it slammed again as Yuki followed, but the clerk was already wearing a look of defiance.
Then Adam started shouting. “I wouldn’t stay in this hellhole if it was the last place to live on earth. Give me back my money!”
Obviously this wasn’t the clerk’s first displeased renter. He already had the rejection down pat.
“Hell no! This ain’t no money-back-guarantee place and—”
Adam leaped over the counter. His hands were around the clerk’s neck and squeezing before he saw it coming.
“Either you give it back, or I break your neck and take it,” Adam whispered.
Yuki was stunned. He’d never seen his brother act this way and suddenly realized this had nothing to do with keeping books, and how out of place he was going to be on this side of their business.
The man’s face was turning purple and he was trying to break Adam’s hold.
“Talk or die,” Adam said.
“Okay, okay, okay,” he said.
Adam turned him loose, and when the man turned around to open the cash drawer, Adam took the gun he saw beneath the counter, and then pocketed the money he was given.
“You’re taking my gun?” the clerk cried.
“So you can’t shoot me in the back,” Adam said. “If you want it back, it’ll be in the Dumpster at the end of the parking lot.”
“Shit, man, they don’t pick up trash here no more! There ain’t no tellin’ what’s in there.”
“Matches your accommodations, then, doesn’t it?” Adam vaulted the counter, picked up his bag and looked at his brother. “Get,” he told Yuki, and he didn’t have to say it twice. He stopped in the doorway on his way out and pointed the gun at the clerk, who ducked and ran.
Adam smirked.
The brothers got in the Jeep and started out of the parking lot, pausing long enough for Adam to toss the gun into the Dumpster before he drove away. The incident taught him a lesson. He’d do what he had to do, but he wasn’t going to hide in hell to do it.
By the end of the day they were in a nicer complex in a decent part of the city, with a furnished two-bedroom apartment on the ground floor at the back of the building. He’d had to sign a six-month lease, but at this point, he didn’t care. The place was clean, although meager in accommodations, and the location of the apartment was perfect for staying under the radar. All he had to do was drive up to the door and they’d be inside in ten seconds, calling no attention to themselves.
“I’m starving,” Yuki said.
“So am I,” Adam said. “But I have to shower first. That apartment was so terrible that I feel like bugs are crawling on me.” He knew a shower was the only way he could get the stench from that dump out of his nose. Afterward, he ordered food, and while he was waiting for it to arrive, he called around to see what he could find out about Judd Wayne.
Newton Rhone was the first person Adam called with his burner phone.
“This is Rhone.”
“And you know who this is. Do you know anything more about the subject we discussed?”
“What I do know is they called off the search in the bay. No one’s had a funeral or a memorial service. There’s been no obit in the papers, and no mention of a dead Fed on TV. I can’t say that means anything, but it’s what I know.”
“Interesting,” Adam said. “One other thing, I now know he was in my crew under an assumed name. Is there any word on the streets about who he really was?”
“None of that. Sorry.”
“No need to apologize, and thank you for this.”
“Yeah, sure,” Rhone said.
Adam disconnected, then thought about his inside contact on arms shipments. Right now, he wouldn’t piss him off by calling tonight, but he’d call early tomorrow morning when he was on his way to work, and so he moved down the list of names, but with no success.
Their food arrived, which gave him an excuse for a break. Yuki ate without conversation, which reminded Adam of home, then he was immediately angry with himself. Home did not exist anymore, thanks to their father.
When they finished, he carried their garbage outside to the Dumpster a few yards from the car and then hurried back inside to resume making calls.
By the time he gave it up for the night, he was tired and frustrated, and Yuki had long since fallen asleep in bed with the television on. Before, the power he held over people meant his problems had immediate solutions. Now, it seemed, problems were all he had.
* * *
Jack eventually found a furnished apartment less than ten minutes from his and Shelly’s neighborhood. He could be close enough to keep her safe, while maintaining just enough distance to remain undetected. He would shop for groceries and the like at night, when he knew Shelly wouldn’t. And he didn’t think anyone else in their area knew him well enough to recognize him in this disguise.
He ordered chicken wings, coleslaw, and got a couple of cans of Pepsi from the dispenser in the lobby, then went back to his room to wait for the food delivery.
While he was waiting, he thought of Shelly finding the note and was glad he’d made that decision. At least tonight she would not sleep in grief. He wanted to call her but didn’t trust that the Bureau would not tap their phone, since his body was still missing.
When the knock came at his door, he had cash ready and gave the delivery man a good tip. As soon as he’d eaten, he went to the nearest supermarket and gathered up enough food for a few days, then took the backstreets to his new home.
* * *
Charlie brought Alicia and their son home from the hospital late in the afternoon. They were both excited, but neither one of them had expected the panic they were feeling about how to take care of him.
Alicia knew that, as a newborn, baby Johnny was supposed to sleep a lot, but after two hours of sleep, they both began to panic that he hadn’t woken up. She checked in with the New Mommy group she belonged to on Facebook, and once she realized that was both normal and a blessing, she quit worrying.
And then when Johnny did wake up, new fears arose. How to stop the crying? A change of diapers and a warm bottle solved all that. Charlie was so in love that when she put Johnny back to bed, he just stood over the crib and watched him sleep.
Alicia had to come get him by the hand and lead him out of the nursery.
“Come talk to me.”
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her soundly, then kissed her again.
“The first kiss was because I missed sleeping with you by my side, and the second was for giving me our wonderful son.”
Alicia smiled. “I don’t know how I got so lucky, but you and Johnny are the best things that ever happened to me, and I’m so glad to be home. We’ll get this baby stuff figured out. In the meantime, I’m starving and the baby is asleep.”
Charlie grinned. “I got your back, darlin’. There’s cold fried chicken and potato salad in the fridge.”
Alicia smiled. “My favorites! Thank you!”
Charlie kept his arm around her shoulders all the way into the kitchen, then urged Alicia to sit while he got everything on the table. He didn’t have to say it twice.
They were through with their meal and just finishing up their Rocky Road ice cream when they heard a tiny, high-pitched squeak on the baby monitor. They looked at each other and grinned.
“And so it begins,” Charlie said.
* * *
Shelly was sitting alone in the kitchen eating her evening meal, but tonight she could actually taste it. She did dishes with joy in her step. When she sat down to pay bills later, she pulled up the accounts online and paid them with a happy heart. She tried watching TV but couldn’t concentrate for the overwhelming joy of knowing Jack was not only alive but on the move.
She got ready for bed, and when she pulled back the covers to lie down, she just sat on the side of the bed instead and put both hands over her heart.
“Oh, Jack... I don’t know what’s happening, but I will never complain about you being gone again. Just knowing you’re alive is all I need. And thank You, God, for the blessing.”
* * *
Jack didn’t sleep much. He needed to know if Adam Ito had surfaced anywhere, and only someone in the system—most likely the CIA—would know that.
The agencies almost never worked together, and when they did, it wasn’t always successful. But he needed help, and right now he trusted them more than he did his own people.
As soon as the sun was up, he took the bag he’d gotten out of the safe and removed a small notebook. Names were all in code only he would be able to decipher, and when he found the one he wanted, he reached for his phone.
The number rang and rang, and just as Jack was ready to hang up, a man answered in a breathless voice.
“Whoever this is, how the hell did you get my number?”
“Lamar, don’t talk, just listen. This is Jack McCann.”
Jack could hear Lamar gasp.
“You are shitting me!” he said.
Jack’s voice deepened. “No, I’m not, but I don’t want anyone to know I’m alive.”
“What about the Bureau?”
“Not even them,” Jack said.
“But why not? What happened?”
“One of my snitches just happened to show up with Dumas’s crew on delivery and showed no surprise when he saw me. Only people in the Bureau knew his connection to me. Someone there obviously wants me dead.”
“Dammit,” Lamar said. “So what do you need from me?”
“I’ll never be safe and neither will my family until Adam Ito is behind bars. I need to know if anyone on your team has eyes on him. If he’s out of the country, then I need to know where. If he’s snuck back into the States, I need to know that, too.”
“Give me an hour. I’ll call you back... Is this number good to use?”
“Yes,” Jack said.
“For the record, I am damn glad to know you’re still in the world.”
“Thanks,” Jack said. “I’ll be waiting for your call.”
Jack took the phone into the bathroom with him as he showered, and as he was drying off, he glanced at his new look again. It was one of the few times he was grateful for how fast his whiskers grew. He was sporting a true beard that was as black as his hair.
He ate cereal while waiting for Lamar to call back, and again, he thought of Shelly. The urge to take her and run was strong, but gut instinct told him Ito would find out and they’d be running again, and then again, until someone was dead. He’d considered his own death as a possibility many times in the past year. He wasn’t afraid to die, but he was concerned with protecting Shelly at all costs. But if she was on the run with him, then she’d be in just as much danger.
He finished his cereal and was sitting on the sofa watching TV with the sound on mute when his cell finally rang.
“Hello?”
“It’s me,” Lamar said. “Facial recognition at the Laredo, Texas, border caught Adam Ito reentering under the name Lee Tanaka. He’s with a Japanese guy named Soshi Yamada, but we think it’s his brother, Yuki Ito, although they don’t look anything alike. If you have an email address, I’ll send you the pics.”
Jack gave him the info, then asked, “How long ago?”
“Day before yesterday. He’s had plenty of time to get back to Houston...if that’s his destination.”
“Oh, it’s his destination, alright. In his eyes, I brought him down. He needs to see a body, and there isn’t one, so he’ll be looking for me. Thanks for the info. Now I have to find him, before he finds me.”
“Good luck,” Lamar said, and disconnected.