Devil’s in the Details (32 page)

I nodded to no one, laying out the case file on my lap as I sat in the black Land Rover a few miles away from my targets house. "I do." I shifted in the driver's seat, looking in the rear-view mirror at the pub entrance I had parked across from. I knew I wouldn’t stand out in a packed pub lot, especially as busy as this one was. "I glanced over the file before I left, but do your thing."

Dani laughed, "I like how you care very little about the old lady's growing paranoia."

"The old lady has gone through worse over the years. This growing paranoia of hers, isn’t very minor if she wants me to hide in one of our safe cars, but again, I don’t really care. You do remember how much she lost it when that one mainframe based in the south of France went tits up?" I shook my head. The old lady was the one boss of mine, who was as fragile as she was heartless and it confused me for a long time until I finally just stopped caring.

She laughed harder, "I do. Even after we all tried to explain to her, it was just the mainframe for the legitimate business cover for Voltaire. A woman's exclusive lingerie company serving the needs of the rich and ultra-famous. All that was lost was catalogue mailing addresses sold off to junk mail companies. And yet, she wanted to burn the Paris office to the ground." Dani took a deep breath to refocus, "Back to the task at hand, Professor."

I rolled my eyes, opening the blue file folder and revealing a clear photograph of a middle aged woman with rosy cheeks and the typical crazy, curly, red hair of an Irish woman. I smirked as I thought of how much the woman looked like that one cartoon character from that movie a few years back. I picked up the sheet as Dani began to speak in her very monotone briefing voice.

"This lovely gal is Maura O'Hara. Forty eight years old and the head of this new Irish liberation movement she created a few years ago. The woman is leading the charge to reinvent the IRA on a level that even the old IRA members are beginning to grow nervous of her intentions."

I heard a soft click and beep in the background, looking up as the touch display in the Land Rover lit up, "Sorry, I hacked into your car. This is so much easier and I cannot stand how slowly you turn pages. The sound is like nails on a chalkboard to me."

I huffed, throwing the now useless case file on top of my black bag, "Your voice often has the same effect one me."

Dani chuckled, "Love you too, Professor." A few more clicks and beeps filled the touch screen with the case file. "The last two years Maura has been nothing but a blip on the radar, but now she is casting out a very wide net. Striking out to the youth of Ireland who are rebelling like the rest of the world's youth against their governments. And like many other nut job terrorist group leaders, she is using them to do her dirty work. Keeping her hands clean so she can be the politically correct face of her new group and movement. Rumor has it, she is eyeing the Prime Minister spot in the next election. Lady O’Hara is using the LOIR, the Liberation of Ireland's Republic, as a front. Much like Voltaire's fancy lingerie front. Hide the truth under dirty laundry." Dani paused, hoping I would get her joke and laugh at it.

I ignored it.

"Anyway, Maura has been driving the tea drinkers mad with her threats to run for political office, let alone the backdoor politics she’s popular for. Making deals with the shit of known terrorist groups in the Middle East to fund and arm her movement. She needs to be eliminated before she follows through on her open threats of linking up with our favorites in the Middle East. Creating a multifaceted terrorist group that may not be able to be contained. The woman is smart, evil, charismatic and has a vengeful mission. Her parents were imprisoned in the eighties due to their membership in the IRA. They died shortly after being release when the IRA disbanded in the early 2000's. Maura was raised with hate towards the world, so she's picked up the torch but not in a fun vigilante superhero way."

I tapped at the screen, scrolling through crime scene and media photos of graphic car bombings, buildings, and schools firebombed to hell and back. The result of the utter bloody violence caused by the LOIR. I sucked in a breath as many of the photographs began to trigger my own memories, "How does the old lady want this one to go down?" I swiped through more of Maura's background, not caring to read anything more about the woman. I knew what Dani meant when she mentioned our favorites, bringing a quick flash of the first day Dani and I met racing to the front of my memory.

"It seems Maura has her own ritual. She downs a bottle of wine every night as she soaks in a bubble bath, reading the day's headlines of what her movement has accomplished, or will accomplish." Dani sighed, "That's why you were requested. You have a gentler hand than all of the others. The tea drinkers want this to look like a pure and simple accident. Something that cannot be pinpointed back to any group or anyone."

I bit my bottom lip, already forming the plan. "Right. How much time?"

"The cleanup crew has eyes on the house. Looks like the red headed she-devil is getting her nightly routine started. Old lady wants you to be done and the house cleaned in three hours, not a minute over. Gives the body plenty of time to go through the start of rigor mortis and have the local coroner sign off without too much interest as to what really happened to the woman."

I reached over to turn the car on when Dani spoke, "Gentle hands Victoria, both the old man and old lady have started to get worried about the amount of force you’ve been using in the last few jobs. They're happy with your work, but are happier when you don't go super hands on."

I leaned my head against the steering wheel, knowing that I had begun to lose control as I dealt with my feelings and everything else that was back home. Mainly thinking I was going to lose Alex out of a dumb decision I had made to let her go. I whispered to Dani, "I know, but I also know that I now have a reason to be careful. I can't go home with my own bruises and cuts. I'm running out of excuses about sailors challenging me to push up contests or whatever."

Dani laughed, "I can't believe blue eyes ever took any of those excuses as legit ones. When is the last time you actually physically did a push up? Professor flabby pants?"

I smirked in the darkness of the car, starting it up. "Dani, I’m turning you off now. I'll click in when I’m at the house."

"Ha! I knew it. Retirement is giving the good Commander Bancroft a belly." Dani hollered a toodle loo as I clicked mute on my earpiece and started to back out of the parking lot.

Maura lived in Maynooth, a small town right outside of Dublin. A smaller town that had the quaint typical feel of Ireland with its older building and homes. The woman's house was set up on a hill, and was a decent sized modern house made to look like the old cottages that dotted the rolling countryside of Ireland.

I found her house with ease using the pre-programmed GPS in the Land Rover. I parked a few houses down and did the usual, covering my head and most of my face with the deep black hood, before I slung a small bag around my shoulders.

Stepping out into the car, I shoved a set of headphones in so I looked like a late night jogger. I ran to Maura’s house and was able to utilize the stone walls that surrounded it, climbing them with ease under the cover of the overgrowing ivy that tangled among the stones.

When I was in the yard I scanned around, un-muting Dani in my ear, "Speak."

"Yes master." Dani half growled the words out. "The only cameras are at her front door, garage and rear entrance. The other ones that covered the perimeter magically went out during last week's thunderstorm. The repair men have to replace all the units, meaning the cleaning crew was able to get you a large span of room to move in. Your best option is the side door that leads into her dining room from the backyard." Dani paused, "And it looks like she is moving into the bathroom to get her wine and bubble on."

I rolled my eyes, tugging the hood over my face, "I’m going to move now. I will keep you in my ear this time, but keep it to a minimum."

"You got it. I will only speak when spoken too. Good luck Professor."

With that, I took a deep breath and ran across the yard. The tall grass keeping my footsteps soft as I rushed to the side door. Dani had already disabled the home's electronic locking system, wasting no time in allowing me to gain entry.

I wiped my feet on the rug and with a kitchen towel that was close by, removing any traces that someone from the outside had been inside after the nightly dew fell. I tossed the towel into a laundry basket off in the mud room as I crept towards the stairs that would lead me to the bathroom and bedroom I was searching for.

Edging around the corner I stopped at the bedroom door and listened. I could hear soft music playing and the hum of a woman's voice trying to sing along. There was the slow slosh of water followed by a clink of glass being set on porcelain. I closed my eyes as I brought up the layout of the bathroom I had studied in my kitchen and again on the flight over. The bathtub would be slightly to the left underneath four large windows that looked out onto the expansive hills that Maura's house backed up against.

I opened my eyes when Dani chirped in my ear softly, "She's on her third full glass of wine. The bottle is pretty much done for, so you're good to go."

I nodded, reaching for the doorknob and opened it slowly. I wanted to catch the woman by surprise and make it look like an accident. That she startled herself as she drunkenly slipped reaching for the last remnants of her wine. Losing balance on wet porcelain from an overfilled bath running over.

I peered in, catching the full view of Maura O'Hara soaking in a massive white claw foot tub. Holding an even larger wine glass filled to the brim with deep red wine. Her head, with her bright orange red hair piled on top of her head pinned in a loose bun, was swaying to the gentle sound of a slow Rod Stewart love song. I could easily see from the blush in her cheeks, the wine was taking hold in her blood and doing so quickly.

Pushing the door open just enough to slip in, I heard in a thick Irish accent, "No need to tip toe, I have been expecting this for a while now." Maura opened her hazel eyes and looked right at me, "Feel free to come in and join me." She waved a pudgy, wobbly hand towards the wine bottle. "Have a drink?"

I said nothing, and continued to walk towards the tub. I already had what was going to happen in the next few minutes planned out. I kept the hood up as I moved closer to the woman who continued to talk to me as if I cared about anything she had to say.

The woman continued to drink and sway to the music, "So. CIA? MI6? NSA? GARDA? Or are you one of those freelancers I often use myself." She raised an eyebrow at me, wholly expecting I would answer her and carry on a conversation.

When I didn't answer she rolled her eyes. "You hit-men types and your strong and silent ways. So cliché." She pointed at me with her half empty wine glass, her words now starting to slur a bit, "It is the twenty first century, traditions are broken every day. Take me for example, a woman in charge of a new terrorist cell that has the first world about to shite their pants." She giggled, slapping at the bubbles sitting around her chest.

I continued moving slowly to the tub, gauging the proper distance I would need to make this quick, and very painful for her.

Maura turned to me, her wine clouded eyes meeting the shadow covering mine, "Before you kill me, can I ask you a question?"

I stood still as I crouched slowly down in front of the tub, eye level away from the woman. Reaching into my pockets for my black gloves with the carbon fiber knuckle guards.

She giggled again, "I see this is going to be a one sided conversation." After taking another large sip from her wine she shifted to rest her chin on her forearm on the edge of the tub. "I started this mission of mine after my parents were taken from me. Mind, body and soul. I watched their spirits broken by the so called “just government” that put them in prison for speaking out on their feelings. I held my mother as she died in my arms, suffering from the side effects of being starved by the harsh political prison she was in. My father died shortly after her, his mind whittled away to nothing from the solitary confinement they kept him in for decades."

She peered down to try to look at my face hoping to see if her words had any effect on me. I felt nothing, and cared nothing for her sob story. I tilted my head down so she wouldn't see my face. I wanted to get this over with and get back to the pub for a pint before I flew home. "Oh dearie, just let me look at your face. Since it appears it will be the last one I'll ever see."

I sucked in a breath. I needed to get this done, and I knew the only way I could distract the rambling drunk was to indulge her rants. I lowered my voice, "Ask your question."

Maura's eyes widened, "A woman? They sent a woman to kill me? How very gender equal of them." She clapped her free hand on the side of her arm on the tub's edge. "I'm rather impressed, to be honest, and a little honored."

She slid back in the tub, her hand moving to rest right next to the large bottle of red wine that had maybe one, or two sips left, "The question. I think your answer might be worth hearing now, since you’re a woman." She tilted her glass to her lips, "Have you ever loved something or someone with everything you had, that no matter what, you would destroy the world and everyone in it, in their name? For them?"

I clenched my jaw when the word loved fell over my ears, sending a clear picture of Alex to settle in my mind. Allowing my mind drift for a split second to the fact I knew she was at home by now, tucked up in her messy bed with the messy purple and pink sheets she loved, and probably wearing one of my shirts as she slept hard from the night’s double shift. I had to squeeze my eyes shut, unconsciously shifting on the balls of my feet as the collision of my human life and my killer life, struck hard.