Wings of Deception (22 page)

He hung up and directly started making phone calls.
He had done favors for some cops and now they could return them.
Within an hour he pulled all the strings he could to protect Sheila and had
the guys
he knew he could trust watch her house around the clock for a few days.
It would give him some time to decide how best to keep her protected.

Sheila wanted to call old friends but was afraid to involve them
,
so she went up to her room where
she changed into an old gown and crawled into her old bed and cried herself to sleep, mourning her father. She slept a deep
dreamless
sleep until the sun awakened her the next morning and she cried again.
Then she prayed.

At first Morgan thought of ways to get her back, then he thought of ways to
punish
her
,
but the thought of just letting her walk out of his li
f
e
forever
,
never
even
crossed his mind. He paced the floor in
their
bedroom,
the scent of her perfume still lingering
.

He cursed her one minute and longed for her the next.

He always had anything he wanted and could buy a million women but
she
was
the
only one he wanted and
now
could not have.

He ranted and raved to Abe and Abe cautioned him to let her go.
He cursed Abe and he cursed the council. For days he called and drove by where he knew she was but neither the phone nor the door was answered.

W
hen he was served
with a
restrain
t
,
h
is fury knew no bounds and he called on all the evil spirits to come to his aid, but they too had abandoned him. He was no good to them in the condition he was in.

One of his
servants
discovered him the third morning after Sheila buried her father. He was
face down
on the floor of his bedroom,
scattered all
around him
were
clothes that
belonged to
Sheila, covered with blood. There were cuts all over his naked body and the object used for the cuts was imbedded in his abdomen. Morgan Belk was no more.

                                                                              FIFTEEN

Everything was quiet for the next two weeks. Sheila did not attend the funeral services for her husband
. There was just the bare mention of it in the paper.

His death was declared a suicide and Sheila inherited all that he left behind. Stunned when Garrett contacted her with the news, she adamantly refused to have any part of the estate worth millions until she thought about Jacks work at the ACAA. If
the money
were truly hers to do with as she pleased,
and
Garrett
assured her it was
,
then she could give it all away to any charity of her choice.

She turned to Jacks, who was still reeling from Morgan’s death, for advice.

It was too much money, he told her, to just dump it into any one charity.
He advised her to set up a nonprofit organization which could oversee the
disbursement
of
monies to several different
children’s
charities.
He would be happy to see
Morgan’s fortune
acquired
by dubious means
,
go to help do
some
good for children. And of course the ACAA would be happy to have a
fair
share too.

He hooked her up with people he knew in New York and in no time the John Herbert Foundation for Children was established. She sold the mansion and all of his assets
adding
them all to the Foundation.
While Sheila mourned her father’s death, she basked in the freedom Morgan’s gave to her.

Abe assured
his master
that Sheila could do them no harm and could prove to be useful at a later time
,
so she was left alone. The
orders to continue to recruit Jacks
disturbed him
,
for h
e sensed trouble in
the man
.
F
or though
Jacks
was not above
b
ending
laws
,
Abe was convinced he would never cross the line he would have to cross
,
in order to be one of them. However, the order was from the
master
himself and not to be disobeyed. Morgan
had
told him that Jacks
wanted
to meet with someone of greater authority
and now
it was up to him to arrange
the
meeting
,
not to question it.
It was exactly what
Asa
wanted.

He called Jacks
himself
and
the
meeting was set
for two weeks later
.
Jacks was
very much looking forward to it.
Even with Morgan dead
,
he was compelled to seek out the person he suspected was behind all that had transpired in the last months.

The weeks Jacks had to wait were filled with his work and helping Sheila
get
the
Herbert
Foundation off to a good start with capable people running it.
When it was done
,
she was free to live her life once again and
while talking on the phone as they often did, she
asked Jacks if he thought she might like
to live in
Mississippi.

“You are not saying…I mean you
are not
having
feeling
s
…”

“Good grief Jacks, no
!
I am not saying it would be to be close to you for any other reason than you are a dear friend
and my hero
. I was
about to ask if
maybe you could find me a job
at the ACAA
,
that
is all. I mean, Daddy is gone now and you know my relatives are scattered everywhere
,
except New York and my old friends try but can’t get past the whole Morgan thing. They act like I have the pla
g
ue or something and I think I make them uncomfortable by
even
being around them
. Jacks, I want to do like you did and just start all over.”

“
I understand that, but it is quite a cultural shock
here
and not like up there at all.
”

“I don’t care
,” She persisted, “I want different and I miss working with you and helping kids like we
used to
. Come on, you know we worked well together as a team!”

“
Okay Sheila,
I will see if I can get Tina moved into someone else’s office. You just paid mine and everyone else’s salary for the next
twenty
years
,
so I do not foresee a problem getting you anything you want
with the ACAA
. Besides that,
I think I could use an assistant I can trust.”

He laughed when she squealed her delight.

“I am going to rent the house out up here and I will store the furniture until…Jacks can I stay with you until I find a place? I don’t want to stay by myself in a
strange  hotel
.”

“
We will figure all that out later, for now just get your stuff done and let me know when you are ready to come…if you don’t change your mind.”

“I don’t think I will, no, I will not change my mind.
I am moving to Mississippi!”

“Bye Sheila.” Jacks folded his phone and put it in his pocket. Now there was something to contemplate
.
W
ho would have
thought
she would even consider a move from New York. Automatically
,
he dialed Honey’s number
. It had been
a couple of
days since he talked to her, and he felt like sharing this with her. He also wanted to see how the little Bowler girl was doing.

After a brief conversation
,
he decided to drive over to see Carol.
It looked bad for her.
The last time he saw her was in the court room
which
seemed eons ago. Honey was going to meet him at the hospital in Philadelphia.

She was waiting for him and t
hey went in together
. S
eeing Jacks worried look
when they came into the room
, Joe
went over and
shook his hand
.
I
n his simple way
he
said, “No room for hard feelings here, you are welcome
.”

His action was impressive and Honey was so proud
of
him.

“Thank
you Joe
, how is she?”
She said quietly
,
as Carol was sleeping.

They looked at the little girl laying there looking so frail and helpless.

“She’s not seeing
at all
now and she sleeps a lot ‘cause of the medicine you know. But every now and then she wakes up and still knows who we are
,
but they say…” Joe choked up, “They are saying any time she sleeps there is a good chance she won’t wake back up. We just keep praying though, it keeps us going.”

Jacks bit back his usual sarcastic reply to such a comment
, thinking,
i
f praying help
s
them, what the hell. Anything for relief would be welcome.

The
y
found chairs and sat down making small talk in low tones. Thirty minutes passed
before
Carol made a noise causing all four of them to jump.

“Carol darling, Momma’s here.” Brenna took her child’s hand in her own.

“Poppa too
?

“I’m here baby. Poppa is here.”

Brenna
rolled
her bed
in
to a sitting position and gave her a drink.

“
T
he stranger is here too
,
and Miss Honey.”

“Yes they are
,
they came to see you.”

“I know.”
She smiled sweetly and Honey’s heart hurt for her as she
reached
over
and rubbed Carol’s arm, “Hi Carol, we thought you might want some visitors. I brought Mr. Jacks with me.”

“I know
,
and his angel is by your angel.”

Honey looked at Brenna
,
“What angels?”

“The big ones over there,” She pointed to behind where Jacks was standing and Jacks took a step back
wards,
startled
and almost falling.

Carol giggled,
“
It
’
s
okay, they are good angels like mine, and they are all friends too.”

Her voice was weak but when her momma would have her rest and not talk
,
she said softly, “
But
I need to tell him,
Momma
.”

“
M
ister
?
”
Carol said
,
and Jacks moved
closer to her.

She
looked
towards
him with eyes that did not see and she reached up
finding his hand and
pull
ed it
down to her
,
holding it
in her own
.