Good Tidings (23 page)

Bradley laid his head on the back of the couch. “I can guarantee that she’s never met anyone like you either.”

Mary turned and smiled at him. “Thanks! Would you be willing to help me with this one?”

Bradley yawned again. “Sure, what do you need?”

“
Well, he’s a military guy and you were a military guy, so I figured you might communicate better with each other. Does that make sense?”

“
Mary, when did things making sense enter into anything we do?”

She lightly punched his arm. “Ouch, you just damaged my wound.”

She snorted. “You are such a baby.”

The she heard the rustling in the kitchen. “Bradley, hold my hand.”

“
You’re getting a little forward,” he quipped, while enveloping her hand in his.

He immediately saw the young soldier going through the cabinets. “Private Kenney, I presume.”

Mary nodded and they both got up and walked to the kitchen.

“
Private Kenney,” Mary said.

“
Ma’am,” Patrick responded. “Yes ma’am.”

“
At ease soldier,” Bradley said. “I apologize for being out of uniform, young man. I’m Master Sergeant Bradley Alden, 75th Regiment.”

“
A Ranger, sir?” Patrick saluted, “I’m honored.”

“
No, I’m the one who’s honored,” Bradley said. “How can we help you?”

Patrick looked around the kitchen in confusion. “I lost a letter…”

Mary placed the two letters she borrowed from Elaine on the counter. “Are these the letters you were looking for?”

Patrick scanned the letters and looked up at Mary with a smile. “Yes, ma’am, these are the letters,” he said. “She needs to know. I wanted to tell her. I meant to tell her. But, then…it was too late.”

“
Linda is my friend. I can tell her if you’d like.”

He nodded. “You got to tell her that I liked her and all,” he shrugged. “But I didn’t love her. Not like I should. But Bob, he loved her and never told her because she was with me.”

“
Bob Sterling?” Bradley asked.

“
Yes sir,” Patrick smiled. “Sterling. He was so crazy about her that he’d write her these letters that he was never going to mail. I found them, tucked under his pillow. I thought they were really great letters, so I started copying them and mailing them to her.”

“
Did Bob find out?”

Patrick nodded. “He was pretty angry at first, but then he liked the idea that she would get to see his words and maybe, when he got back home we could both go and explain to her. But…”

“
But you got shot and by the time Bob got home, Linda was already married.”

“
Yes, ma’am,” he said.

He looked at Bradley. “It’s not too late, is it sir? It’s not too late to tell Linda the truth?”

“
No, you’re right; it’s never too late for a chance at love, Private.”

“
You’ll tell them? Won’t you ma’am? You’ll let them know?”

“
Yes, Patrick, I’ll let them know.”

He yawned. “I’m feeling pretty tired now, like I can finally rest.”

“
Yes, you’ve done what you needed to do,” Mary said.

“
I need to go say good-bye to my mom, she’ll be waiting up,” he said with a smile. “Then I’ll finally get transferred. Thank you.”

He saluted Mary and Bradley and faded away.

Mary wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Bradley caught her chin in his hand and looked down at her. “Hey, isn’t this the happy part because he gets to move on?” he asked, wiping a stray tear away.

She nodded. “But Elaine has to say good-bye to him all over again.”

“
But won’t she be happy?”

“
Sure she will, but that doesn’t make it any easier.”

Bradley put his arms around her shoulders and led her to the stairs. “Come on, you need your sleep.”

He stopped in front of her bedroom door. “Thank you for letting me help you,” he said. “Not only was it an honor to help that young soldier, it helped me understand why what you do is so important.”

He placed a kiss on her forehead. “Good-night, Mary.”

*****

Christmas was one week away and there was no sign of Kevin Brady anywhere. “I think he’s skipped the country,” Mary said. “He’s not coming to Freeport and we are not in danger.”

“
You don’t know that for sure, Mary,” Sean’s voice flowed through the speaker phone into her office. “We still have a BOLO out for him throughout the Chicagoland area.”

“
Sean, even with your Be-On-the-Look-Out, we can’t keep living in a state of alert,” she argued. “Poor Bradley’s been sleeping in my guest room for three weeks.”

“
Hey, wait,” Bradley interrupted. “Don’t pull me into this; I’m fine with the sleeping arrangements.”

“
Yeah, I’ll just bet you are,” Sean said.

“
She makes breakfast for me every morning,” Bradley said. “I don’t think I’ll ever leave.”

“
Listen, I can’t put my life on hold any longer,” she said. “My friends are getting tired of babysitting me and, quite frankly, I think this is all unnecessary at this point.”

I am getting way too used to having Bradley around all the time,
she wanted to scream,
my heart’s in far more danger than my life ever was.

Sean sighed. “Mary, we don’t know where he is. It still might not be safe.”

“
Okay, how about a compromise,” she said. “I get to go to my office and work, by myself. I get to do some Christmas shopping in town, by myself. And I get to sleep, by myself.”

“
She didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” Bradley interjected.

Mary blushed. “I mean, Bradley gets to sleep at his own house. But I will carry my revolver with me wherever I go. I will let someone, probably Bradley, know of my every move and I’ll carry a walkie-talkie so I can have instant communication with whoever you want me to communicate with.”

“
Bradley, how do you feel about her plan?”

“
Well, other than the fact I’m giving up breakfast and living with Mary,” he grinned at her, “I think she’s right. We’ve had no Brady sightings at all. All of the local law enforcement personnel have his photo, as do all of the hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts. He isn’t going to stay in the Freeport area without someone seeing him and reporting it.”

“
I know you could both do whatever you want, without consulting me,” Sean said. “But I appreciate you keeping me in the loop. You’re probably right; Kevin Brady is far away from Illinois by now.”

Sean’s voice echoed from the speaker into the vacant space around Kevin Brady. He sat back and munched another French fry while he listened to the end of the conversation. “Well, Chief Alden, I’m not going to be able to stay in the Freeport area without someone seeing me?” he taunted. “So much for your psychic ability.”

He looked around the large empty building and smiled. He was sitting in the heart of downtown Freeport, in the old Rawleigh Complex, only four blocks away from Mary’s office. The 400,000 square foot brownstone complex consisted of four large buildings that had once housed manufacturing, warehousing, laboratory, and office floor space for the production of infamous Rawleigh medical products.

Abandoned in 1988, the large structure sat unoccupied, like a ghost town waiting for new habitation. Its windows were broken, its brick facade cracked and its floors littered with the forgotten refuse of yesterday. Brochures touting wonder drugs like anti-pain oil, camphor balm, liniments, and cough syrup were still scattered on the floor. Chemical labs still held residues of past experiments. Conveyor systems still threaded their way through the buildings.

Although cold and drafty, the Rawleigh Building had been the perfect place to set up shop. The upper floors in the tallest building had windows that were still intact, yet were far enough up that any noise would be undetected. His generator not only provided heat, it allowed him to run the other electronic devices necessary to his plan.

The tap had been easy enough. Mary had left her office unused for several weeks. No one paid any attention to a service man making some upgrades to the lines behind the building. He looked at the monitor in front of him. The camera he installed right outside Mary’s office allowed him to see whatever went on inside. He had to bide his time until just the right moment.

He opened the plastic container, dabbed his finger in the white powder and rubbed it on his gums. Sitting back, he smiled while the cocaine entered his system. He could feel the heat building between his legs while he watched Mary move around her office. He imagined what it was going to be like once he had her under his control.
Oh, yeah, she is going to enjoy what I have planned for her, but not nearly as much as I am going to enjoy it.

*****

”
It’s Tuesday,” Mary said into the phone, “It’s shop late ‘til eight night and it’s three days until Christmas. Lots of people will be downtown. I’ll be just fine.”

“
I don’t feel good about this Mary,” Bradley responded. “I have to go into Rockford for a meeting tonight and I won’t be back until after ten.”

“
Bradley, I appreciate your concern, but I’m going to be fine. Kevin is not in Freeport. Sean called me this morning and said someone thought they saw him in L.A. He’s a long way from here.”

“
Yeah, Sean called me too, but I still feel uneasy.”

Mary smiled. “Your spidey-sense?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, my spidey-sense.”

“
I’ll tell you what, I’ll call Stanley, he’s going to be downtown late anyway,” she said. “And I’ll have him walk me to my car. Okay?”

“
Okay. Thanks for putting up with my worries.”

“
Hey, it’s nice to be worried about,” she said, “Have a good meeting.”

As soon as she hung up, she placed the call to Stanley. “Hi, I need a favor,” she said. “I need a walk to my car tonight, about eight-thirty. Would that work for you?”

“
Sure, I’ll be closing up here about that time,” he said. “I like having a cute gal on my arm, even if it’s only for half a block.”

“
Thanks, Bradley is still worried.”

“
He’s a good man,” Stanley said. “A girl could do a lot worse.”

Mary sighed. “I know Stanley, but he is married.”

“
What kind of wife up and disappears on her husband for almost nine years, I ask you?”

“
We don’t know what the circumstances were,” Mary said. “And, if Bradley loved her, she has to be pretty special.”

“
Okay, girlie, you’ve got a point,” he said. “I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. So, you want me to give our special knock?”

“
We have a special knock?” Mary asked with a grin.

“
Sure we do, two knocks, a pause and then two more knocks,” he said.

“
Oh…that secret knock,” she said with a grin, “That’d be great. I’m going to close the blinds before it gets dark, so I’ll know it’s you.”

“
Alright, girlie, see you at eight-thirty.”

“
See you then, Stanley. And thanks!”

Several hours later, Stanley turned off the lights at Wagners’ Office Supplies and walked over to the front door. He’d locked it after the last customer, so he could count the cash in the register and put together the deposit for the next day. He had just pulled the keys out of his pocket when he heard a noise in the office furniture section of the store. He glanced up to the clock, it was only eight-twenty-five, he still had a few minutes before he had to go next door and pick up Mary.

The glow from the streetlight was enough light for Stanley to make his way back through the store. He wondered if someone had left a fan running. Careless salespeople were always doing something like that. Did they think electricity was free?

He looked down the aisle that housed sample cubicles. Sure enough, at the end of the aisle was a fan running full force. He stepped into the aisle, shaking his head. Someone would be getting a talking to tomorrow morning.

The sharp pain to the back of his head barely registered before he fell unconscious to the floor. Kevin leaned down and picked up the keys Stanley had dropped. Whistling to himself, he wandered back to the front of the store. Things were going according to plan.

Two knocks, a pause and two more knocks. “I’ll be right there, Stanley,” Mary called, as she picked up her purse and computer case.

She clicked off the lights and stepped out the door, her back to the street as she inserted the key into the lock. “Hello, Mary,” Kevin whispered, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her against him. “Sorry Stanley can’t see you home. He’s been detained.”

She inhaled, ready to scream, when she felt the unmistakable pressure of the barrel of a gun pressed against her side. “Ah, Mary, you don’t want to make a fuss, do you?” he whispered, his mouth next to her ear. “You don’t want any of your friends to die, do you?”

She shook her head. “No, no need to hurt anyone,” she said.