Bodyguard of Lies

CHAPTER 33

Hannah and Neeley had hidden the car behind a large pile of brush. They had left the main road twenty minutes previously and were on the northern shore of Cheat Lake. The Lake had been formed by a dam on the Monogahela River. The towns that had been in the valley had been flooded, the people moved elsewhere. It was a gloomy place and the town still lay beneath the lake’s gentle swells.

The dirt road they had taken ended at this lush greenery covered shelter. One of the hundreds of old brick furnaces that dotted the state stood to their right. Farther to the left was a small cropping of boulders forming a natural fence. It was from this area that the noises were coming.

Bailey's trailers arrived within ten minutes and only the tires crunching on the graveled rocks announced their arrival. The motor had been silenced farther back and the car allowed to roll the last part of the way. The men left the car cautiously, their guns drawn.

They seemed to hear the faint noises simultaneously because as if synchronized, they moved together toward it. They heard soft laughter and throaty whispers. As the men drew closer it was obvious the men couldn't hear the words but they understood the tone. Their weapons lowered a bit as their anxiety dropped replaced by a baser instinct.

Crawling closer to the rocky stone wall, the men gave in to natural curiosity. Over the wall they could hear moans and whispers.

The younger of the two men put his hands up on the edge of the natural formation to pull himself up. The other man followed suit. Looking over, they both saw the same thing — nothing but the small cassette recorder.

Hannah and Neeley waited for them to turn around. Neeley had a gun pointed at them. Hannah walked up and took their weapons. She even patted them down, noting that their ruse had worked well. She tossed the guns to Neeley.

"OK. What now?"

Neeley braced herself. "Now I shoot them."

Hannah looked at Neeley. "It’s not necessary. They’re only here to slow us down."

“How do you know that?” Neeley demanded in frustration, but Hannah didn’t answer. After a few seconds, Neeley stomped a foot in frustration. "All right, all right. Jeez, you make me crazy. You wanted to kill Racine not long ago."

“Racine is different.”

Neeley motioned for the men to approach and handed Hannah one of the other guns. "We'll put them in the old furnace, but I swear Hannah, if they make any moves, we shoot."

"Agreed."

The walk to the brick furnace was short and uneventful. By squatting, the men managed to squeeze in the front. Neeley stood guard as Hannah backed their car up against the opening, effectively imprisoning them. She left the keys in the ignition. On the way out she spotted a kit bag of gear in the back seat. She pointed it out to Neeley and they took it out of the car and placed it in theirs.

Hannah and Neeley drove toward Morgantown, free of surveillance for the first time in quite a while.

They went the rest of the way in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Neeley knew exactly where to go and she pulled up in front of the small house on the edge of town a little before noon.

Hannah and Neeley got out of the car, just as a tall woman stepped out the front door of the house. She held a sawed off shotgun in her right hand, the comfortable way she handled it indicating she would have no trouble firing it and hitting whatever she pointed it at.

"Neeley?" the woman called.

Neeley nodded. "This is Hannah," she added.

"I'm Jesse." She lowered the shotgun and led the way into the house, sliding the shotgun into an umbrella stand as she went by. The three women went into the kitchen where they awkwardly arrayed themselves around the center counter. Hannah looked from Jesse to Neeley and decided that Gant must have been an exceptional man to have had both these women in his life.

"I know Tony is dead," Jesse said by way of opening the conversation. "I assume you have been continuing my payments from him," she added, looking at Neeley.

Neeley nodded. "Where's Bobbie?"

"He's at school." Jesse looked at the clock. "He'll be home in an hour. I'd like you to be gone by then. What are you here for?"

"We need help," Neeley said. "I don't know how much you know about what Gant did for a living but…" Neeley started to stammer.

Jesse gave a sad smile. "You want Nero off your back?"

"You know about the Cellar?" Neeley was surprised. Gant had never hinted that his ex-wife knew.

"I worked for it for a little while," Jesse said. "Then I had Bobbie and the two didn't go together. I had something more important than the Cellar and Nero knew it. He wanted to keep Tony though, so we struck a bargain. Tony stayed, I was allowed to leave."

"Do you know about the tape?" Hannah asked.

Jesse nodded.

"But you don't know where it is?" Hannah continued.

"No." Jesse looked at her, sizing her up. "You do, don't you?"

"We have the cache report," Neeley said, a bit surprised once more at Hannah’s sharp perception and understanding of a situation she herself found confusing. She took the piece of paper out and put it on the counter.

Jesse glanced at it. “Your FRP is the bridge on route 42. Now you need to leave right away. Bringing that report here puts my son and mine life in danger."

"Do you know what's on the tape?" Neeley asked.

"Yes."

The other two women waited, but Jesse didn't say anything else for a little while, then she faced Neeley across the counter. "Did you love Tony?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Do you know what the Cellar is?" Jesse asked both of them.

"I know some of what it does," Neeley said.

"But you don't know its overriding objective, do you?"

“I don’t care,” Neeley said.

That brought a faint smile to Jesse’s lips. “I felt the same way, especially when I saw what happened in Mogadishu.”

Hannah shook her head. “The Cellar was involved to the extent that Gant — Tony — and my husband, tried to recover the videotape. But it was Racine, who fired the RPG that downed that helicopter. It was he who killed those men and initiated the problems that led to all the other deaths there. And Nero didn’t order that. It was Senator Collins.”

Jesse assimilated that information. “Tony never knew?”

Neeley shook her head.

“Stupid question,” Jesse said. “If Tony had known, Racine would be long dead. Gant had all those rules.” Her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God. Jack.”

“Jack?” Neeley asked.

“Tony’s twin brother. Jack was in the Ranger Battalion there in Mogadishu. He never forgave Tony for what happened. For his dead men.”

“Is that why Gant—“ Neeley caught herself—“Tony never spoke to his brother.”

A sad smile played over Jesse’s face. “No. That was because of me.”

“Oh,” Neeley’s sharp intake of breath was audible.

Jesse looked at Hannah. “How are you involved in this?”

"John Masterson was my husband," Hannah said.

“The men in our lives,” Jesse said wonderingly, shaking her head.

"You had Gant," Neeley said, pointing at Jesse, "I had Jean-Philippe and Hannah ended up with John. And here we all are so many years later."

“Do you think it was all chance?” Jesse asked.

Neeley frowned. “What do you mean?”

“There is no such thing as chance when you have Nero involved,” Jesse said.

Hannah was nodding. “I think Mister Nero wanted us all to end up here, the three of us sitting together.”

“Why?” Neeley asked.

“I have an idea,” Hannah said. “But now is not the time. Let's get out of here and get the tape.”

Jesse nodded. "Yes, please go. Your presence here can only mean trouble."

Neeley slowly stood. "Gant — Tony — was a good man."

"I know,” Jesse said. “He—" she paused as the phone rang. Jesse picked it up.

The other two women could immediately tell something was wrong by the way Jesse's face went white as she listened. Then she simply said three words and hung up: "We'll be there."

"Who was that?" Neeley asked.

"That was Racine," Jesse said as she reached under the counter top and her hands came back up, an automatic pistol in her right one. She pulled the slide back, chambering a round. "He has Bobbie. He wants all three of us to meet him. He said he'll give me Bobbie if I give him both of you and you give him the papers from Jean-Philippe and the video." She pointed the gun at the other two women. "You're coming with me."

Hannah held her hands up. "Hey, whoa, take it easy. We'll come freely."