Chapter 35
He was so excited to snag my iPad.
Ya gotta love little kids. It doesn't take much to get them excited.
Hidden Secrets
Leona Palmer Haag
Chapter 35
It was a clear-cut case. Catch a bad guy and make him
pay for his crimes. Except it wasn't that easy. Matt had no idea how to find
Aaron Kipler again. And why should he suddenly be chasing a tax evader instead
of a terrorist? It made him bristle.
Matt felt like a novice as he searched for some clue
where Kipler lived and what his regular haunts were. For two days he'd been
doing nothing but detective work and had come up empty handed. It hadn't paid
off. Not a tip. Not a lead. Nada! It seemed unusual to him. If the man didn't
know someone was looking for him, shouldn't he be sauntering around as if
nothing was wrong? Couldn't he stumble into him by accident again?
Why had Aaron Kipler disappeared?
Matt sipped an orange soda and pretended to scan a
vacation brochure. He felt like he was getting nowhere faster than most people
got somewhere. It was infuriating. And it wasn't a murderer, drug runner or
arms dealer he was hunting down. Just a regular guy who had a nice business in
San Diego who one day decided he wanted to keep all of his money to himself.
Selfish jerk.
He stopped helping pay for road repairs, school
buildings, libraries, jails, elderly care and the local government funded
opera. Kipler was a trivial nuisance, so why was finding him so hard? Matt
wondered if he'd lost his touch. Had he been idle so long he was lousy?
He set the brochure aside and drained the soda. He
played with the camera sitting on the table before him. What had he missed?
Something important? He was sure he'd seen everything. The day slowly passed.
Nothing materialized. Not a clue. He'd be recalled if he didn't produce results
soon. Maybe he'd hit rock-bottom. Was headed for the recycle bin. He'd end up
in the United States of America behind a desk, ordering pencils and pocket
protectors for other agents.
"Hey, what have you heard from my partner?" Matt
asked Kevin that evening.
"He hasn't reported in," Kevin said.
Matt paused. No news? No report? Something was fishy.
"Yeah? What's going down? I could use him here if he can be freed up for a
few days."
Kevin was silent a moment too long.
"Spill the beans," Matt gruffly commanded.
"We've lost him."
Matt sucked in his breath. "What do you mean you
lost him? When? Where? How? What's going on?"
Kevin remained silent.
"Give it to me or I'll be on the next flight home
and when I get my hands around your scrawny little neck I'll wring it out of
you!"
Kevin probably didn't flinch. A guy with a size
twenty-one inch neck made of pure muscle never needed to. "He disappeared
last Friday."
Matt sat down on a chair and watched Monica prepare
for bed. He lowered his voice. "Friday? The day you put Jenn in a safe
house? What happened? I want it straight."
Matt listened to Kevin take a deep breath. "You
didn't hear it from me."
"I know."
"Mr. R showed up at his house around
three-thirty."
Matt slumped down in his chair. His heart stopped
beating. He waited. Kevin took another deep breath, then filled him in. When he
finished Matt growled into the phone, "Next time my partner goes down, I
expect to be notified immediately!" He jumped up and shouted, "You
got that? He has my back and I have his! Where is he?" Matt strung a line
of hot words together that probably burned Kevin's ears.
Monica turned around in shock. "You don't swear, Matt,"
she scolded.
"I do when my partner is killed!" he
bellowed.
Monica grabbed her stomach and gasped. She inched to
the bed and sat down. One hand was pulling off a diamond earring and the other
hand held her dinner inside. A look of horror froze on her face and turned her
eyes into icy pools. "Killed?" she mouthed.
"Missing," Matt heard Kevin say above the
buzzing in his ears.
"Missing," Matt repeated.
After the conversation ended, Matt closed his cell
phone. He sat beside his wife and said, "His body is missing. Presumed
dead. Unverified. But there was too much blood and destruction left to give any
hope."
"If there's no body, then there's some hope."
"Technically, but not really. Mr. R visited the Washington home. Actually,
he probably sent someone else, but that’s almost the same thing. They've
identified blood from four individuals. One sample is Nick's."
Monica closed her eyes and nodded. She lowered her second
hand to her lap and clasped them together. Matt took her cold fingers in his
warm hands and gently rubbed them. "Baby, we're going to find Nick. I
promise."
"And his killer," she whispered.
"And we'll take him down." His voice was
fierce. Determined.
Monica nodded, her eyes now open and angry.
Matt studied her serious expression. "Are you
ready to retire? You don't need to stay in this business if you don't want
to."
Monica shook her head. "No. Never. Not until the
day I die—which won't be before the turn of the next century." She pulled
off her second diamond earring and stared at the pair in the palm of her hand
before she held them out to Nick. "See these diamonds?"
He nodded.
She closed her hands around the sparkling gemstones
and gritted her teeth. "My friends and family are like my diamonds. They
are my real diamonds. My coworkers
too. I hold them as tightly as I can." She placed her hand over her heart.
"I protect them, love them, cherish them. I will fight for them and die for
them. I'll never retire. I'd give my own blood for them. Every last drop."
Matt nodded in understanding.
Monica's eyes blazed. "I once lost a diamond
earring down a sink drain. I called a plumber and together we tore the pipes
apart—down to the last trap in the cement cellar floor. I would have dug up the
foundation, yard and street if I'd needed to. We found it in the most vile
sludge imaginable." Monica uncurled her fingers letting light flash on her
diamonds. "I still have those diamond earrings. They are my most precious
pair because of what I went through to get one of them back."
Matt curled Monica's graceful fingers around the
earrings and pulled her fist to his lips. He kissed her knuckles.
"Matt, so help me, I'll tear the world apart one
soul at a time to get Nick Washington back."
He nodded. Tears spilled from his eyes. He sniffed.
"Yeah. We're partners there, baby. One-hundred percent."
Monica lifted her fist and shook it. "The Red
Devil has unknowingly unleashed his worst enemy." She lowered her hand and
opened it and stared at the diamonds. With her other hand she made a gun and
fired it. "His name is on all of my bullets."
Matt nodded and wiped at his face with the back of his
hand, then kissed the tears coursing down her cheeks.
End Chapter 35
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