MIDNIGHT QUEST: A Short 'Men of Midnight' Novel (10 page)

Ernest Mayer Esquire’s office was guarded by a dragon lady—a middle-aged woman with steel-gray hair and glasses with those chain thingies attached to the temples. She looked like trouble and Jacko braced himself—but she surprised him by smiling warmly. “Go right in, Mr. Jackman. Mr. Mayer is waiting for you.” She pressed a button and a red light went on over the door to Mayer’s office. “I’ll make sure nobody disturbs you.”

Jacko opened the door a little warily, unsure what to expect. The last thing he expected was a hug.

This tiny guy—a hobbit, really, only with shoes instead of hairy feet—was clutching Jacko’s waist, head full of wiry gray hair buried in his chest.

Jacko froze, arms at his sides, afraid to make any kind of move.
What the fuck?

The geezer pulled back, snatched his wireless eyeglasses off his face and wiped his eyes. His hand wasn’t enough so he pulled out a blindingly white handkerchief as big as a sheet, wiped his eyes with that and honked into it.

“Mr. Jackman.” Jacko wasn’t tall but this guy had to tilt his head back to look him in the eyes. “Please forgive me, emotion got the better of me.” He indicated a client chair. “Please, sir, sit down. This is an amazing pleasure.”

Jacko barely kept himself from looking behind him to see who the geezer was referring to. He sat down, gingerly, prepared to get back up fast if Mayer had mistaken him for someone else.

The guy didn’t speak, just beamed at him in silence.

Okay. Jacko would have to get the ball rolling. “Mr. Mayer,” Jacko began.

“Oh!” The geezer jumped in his chair. “How remiss of me! May I offer you something? Coffee? Tea?”

“Coffee. Thank you. Black, no sugar.”

“Indeed.” He pressed a button. “Marsha, could you please bring a cup of coffee and my usual tea? Thank you.”

He folded his hands in front of him and just stared at Jacko, big smile plastered on his face.

This was getting very weird. Jacko tried again. “Mr. Mayer—”

“Your grandfather would have been so proud of you,” Mayer said quietly. Alarmingly, his eyes were wet again. “I checked your records, Mr. Jackman. You have a very distinguished service record, and I suspect there were many brave acts that weren’t in the official records. A SEAL.” He shook his head. “Amazing.”

“Thank you, Mr. Mayer. Now the reason for my visit—”

“Lee had no idea of your existence,” Mayer interrupted. “None. His daughter Sara ran away and he never heard from her again. Broke his heart. Alice never recovered and died of a stroke five years later.”

“I had no idea I had grandparents, either,” Jacko said quietly.

“I did some checking,” Mayer said. “You were in and out of foster homes, while Sara was in and out of rehab and in and out of prison. I want you to know that if your grandfather had had any inkling of your existence, he would never have let you stay one day in foster care. Unthinkable. You had it rough in your childhood.”

Jacko nodded. Yeah, he’d had it rough. But it was a long time ago.

“But you turned into a fine man, a brave soldier. And from what I could see on the website of Alpha Security International, a very successful businessman. Notwithstanding a brutal childhood. Sara has a lot to answer for, besides breaking her parents’ hearts.”

“Had,” Jacko said. “And I guess she paid for her addictions. Her life was short and miserable.”

Mayer nodded. “Cut off from her own family and from her own son. I cannot imagine anything worse. Her parents loved her dearly but after running off, they never heard from her again. They had no idea if she was dead or alive. It broke them.”

“I didn’t know them, I didn’t know they existed. But I’m sorry they went through all that pain.”

“Well.” Mayer looked down at his desk and drew in a deep breath. He looked up and smiled. “A lot of harm has been done, but that’s over now.” He pushed a set of keys across the wide expanse of polished desk to Jacko. “The red keys open the gate, the blue key opens the front door, the green key opens the back door and the garage.”

Jacko hefted the set of keys in his hand. They were like artifacts of a bygone era. Perfectly normal keys for locks that could be picked in a second by a toddler. Security clearly wasn’t a big priority for Lee Garrett. He felt safe in his world. Jacko hadn’t ever felt safe. His house was as protected as high tech could make it.

“Keypad codes?” he asked the lawyer.

Mayer’s eyes went blank. “I beg your pardon?”

“Any keypads to access the property? I’d need the codes.”

“Ah.” The frown lines eased up, leaving only the lines of old age. “No. No keypads, no codes. Everything you need to get into the Garret estate is right there in your hand. I don’t think Lee ever even contemplated keypads.”

Or any other form of security, apparently. “Okay.” Jacko wanted to get going. To get to this place, get a feel for it, find out what he could as fast as he could and then get back to Lauren. “I’ll get these keys back to you when I’m done.”

Mayer smiled. “No, sir, you will not. The keys, the farmhouse, the land and everything on it is now officially yours.” He leaned forward and suddenly he no longer looked like a kindly hobbit, he looked like the worldly man he was. “I’ll tell you a secret, Mr. Jackman.”

“Jacko,” he said steadily.

“Jacko, then. I may have stretched the law a little. Lee’s will was very clear. He left his entire estate to his daughter, Sara. I could have had her declared legally dead. God knows I wanted to. Wanted her dead, actually, may God have mercy on my soul. I hated her because she caused my best friends so much pain. But, the fact is I didn’t have her declared dead because Lee didn’t want that. As long as he lived, he hoped she’d come home and wouldn’t hear of her being declared dead.

“And there’s something else. I am a lawyer, Jacko, and as such, I am legally bound to the facts of any case that crosses my desk. But I had a feeling I can’t explain that something—someone—was out there. That Lee would find justice, even if after death. I think I somehow felt that you would someday show up, and by God, you have. I will expedite all the paperwork and forward it to you. As fast as the law allows, I will make sure the property passes over into your name. Lee deserved that, and you deserve it. I’ll forward the deed to you at your company or your private address, whichever you prefer.”

His words were like arrows piercing his chest. Jacko had never once thought of anything good coming from his mother, and here he found himself with a property. Belonging to his grandfather.

His grandfather. His grandmother. The words sounded strange, like rocks in his mouth. These two people he’d never met, never even imagined could exist. People who looked nothing like him but people who might have loved him had they known he existed. Who knew?

The only person who had ever loved him was Lauren. That was a bedrock fact of his life. But maybe…

Maybe he would have been loved by his grandparents. Who the fuck knew?

Now he was itching with curiosity to see the place, a place tied to him by blood and, if the geezer across the table from him was right, tied to him by tears.

Jacko rose and Mayer rose with him. He reached out a tiny, soft hand and shook his with a surprisingly strong grip. “Mr. Jackman, it’s been a pleasure. Stay at the ranch as long as you like, of course. The deed will arrive in a few days, but I can assure you that the property is yours, free and clear.”

“Thank you, Mr. Mayer. I’ll keep the keys then but if—when I come back, I will be sure to let you know.” He’d come back with Lauren. With his pregnant love. To look at the property his grandfather had left him.

Such crazy notions. Pregnant lover—soon to be his wife. Wife. Kid. Grandfather. Grandmother. For someone who’d been alone all his life, he was accumulating connections like crazy.

The old guy’s eyes were wet as he shook Jacko’s hand. “I’d be very grateful if you could give me a ring when you come back, Mr. —Jacko. It would be an honor to invite you out to dinner. Lee Garrett was like a brother to me. Alice, your grandmother, was one of my wife’s best friends. My wife was devastated when Alice died. So do please let me know.”

“Sure.” The geezer was moved and damned if Jacko wasn’t moved too. He was looking at the lifelong friend of his grandfather. Mayer had loved Lee Garrett like a brother, he said. Which made him practically Jacko’s uncle. Great uncle.

Shit, this family business hurt his head.

“I will definitely call you when I come back,” he said seriously. And he would. He just knew Lauren would love the geezer, whose eyes were getting wet again. Jesus, he had to get out of here fast, his own eyes were burning. Shit.

Jacko got back in his truck and made his way to the ranch. His grandfather’s ranch. God.

Mayer had given him elaborate instructions and he had GPS but in the end it was easy as anything. He just took the main road north out of town, went ten miles, turned left and there it was. The house was on a slight rise so he could see it from outside the gates—big, imposing, abandoned.

One key opened the gate. Amazing. Kindergartens nowadays were better protected. How could people not be security conscious? The whole area was like Trust Central. None of the houses along the road had security cameras. Some didn’t even have gates. You could just walk up to the front door.

It baffled him.

He’d been security conscious his whole life. Even in childhood, with drunk ex-boyfriends trying to batter their way into the trailer he shared with his mother. All the neighbors in the trailer park had been dangerous and he’d learned early and well to keep the place as secure as he could.

Being a SEAL hadn’t done much to convince him the world was a safe place, either.

Must be a whole different mindset to live with no security, he thought as he opened the front door with another simple key. So simple you could open the door by blowing on the lock the right way.

It meant Lee Garrett and his wife had felt themselves protected their whole lives. And who knew? Maybe they were. Maybe growing up in a place where everyone knew your name was its own form of protection.

Though Jacko himself would take motion sensors and security cams over that any day.

The house was dark inside, all the shutters closed, curtains drawn. Someone had cleaned the place thoroughly; there were no smells of something rotten. The place smelled of dust and closed rooms. He entered carefully, boots making no noise at all, just as he’d been trained. He felt unsettled, exactly as if he were entering a possible danger zone.

No danger, though. No danger, no life, no nothing. Dust and silence. Jacko went from room to room, opening the curtains and windows, letting in the bright sunlight, airing the place out.

He felt weird doing it, thinking he had no right, though actually, he did. He had every right. The place was his.

Wasn’t that a kicker?

His.

Jacko had never owned property. Ever. He had a lot of money in the bank and followed Suzanne Huntington’s investment advice religiously and his money just kept growing. Kept making him more.

He lived with Lauren in the house she’d bought with her inheritance. Lately, they’d been talking about buying a bigger house, moving closer to the area where Joe and Isabel and Jack and Summer lived. Metal and Felicity were thinking of moving to the same area. He’d put in his money, too, and they could afford to buy something really nice.

And now that a kid was on the way…

Jacko stumbled and looked down at his boots on the wide, flat hardwood floor. There was nothing to stumble over, except what was in his head. The notion of his kid.

Focus.

Okay.

Jacko started with a big sideboard that was shoulder height. They were called madias. Jacko knew that courtesy of Lauren, who seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of types of furniture and styles going back to the caveman era. It was going to be fun bringing her here. She’d know the name for everything.

He was in an enormous living room that took up almost the entire ground floor, so presumably the bedrooms were on the second floor. The huge room was broken up into sections by the furniture and it was pleasant to look at. You could easily imagine a family in it.

The madia’s top was filled with silver-framed photographs. It was like reading a book. It even went left to right. These were private family photos, unlike the ones he had looked at on Felicity’s monitor.

The first frame on the left was huge and embossed. Lee and Alice’s wedding photo. Mid-sixties, judging from the clothes. Jacko reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the printout of the wedding certificate Felicity had found. Lee Garrett and Alice Hopfer, wed in San Diego in October, 1963, a month before Kennedy was shot.

Jacko studied the photo, angling it so that the bright sunlight streaming in showed up every detail. Lee and Alice looked young and happy. Lee had on an ill-fitting suit, white shirt and bolo tie which must have been really dorky in those days. But Alice was looking up at him as if he were George Clooney and Brad Pitt combined. She had on a flowing white gown, a crown of white flowers around her head, and was holding a bouquet of white roses. There were a lot of photos of the wedding. Lee and Alice cutting the cake, feeding it to each other, dancing outdoors in a pretty garden surrounded by smiling people clapping.

If you could look past the weird clothes, it was really sweet. Jacko didn’t know these people and now never would, but he knew that their marriage had lasted a lifetime, ended only by Alice’s death. Lee mourned her until the day he died.

Exactly the kind of marriage he wanted with Lauren. Forever.

Moving right, he saw a pregnant Alice, and an Alice with a newborn in her arms, Lee looking down at the baby with a smile on his face. From then on, it was all Sara, all the time. From toddler to grade schooler to high schooler.

A visibly happy family.

And then the photos stopped. There were only two others, and only the parents were shown: one of a birthday and the other of what looked like an anniversary. Both Lee and Alice were shockingly aged, bent and unsmiling.

Okay. He’d just seen a happy family turn into a desperately unhappy family, almost overnight.