chest. “You deal with it and you deal with it now!”
Jack’s voice was deadly serious. “You know I will. Pure E is only doing this to scare us, but believe me, I’ll take care of it.” He glanced toward the kitchen and then his gaze met Natasha’s. “I think I should let them know what happened.”
Natasha, her demeanor calm now, nodded.
“We need to talk,” Jack said as he and Natasha returned to the kitchen and sat down.
“Do you and Mom need privacy?” Mike asked.
His question sounded so mature. Normally Jack might’ve smiled to himself, but the situation was too serious. “No, it’s better if you and Steve know what happened so you don’t start imagining things or worrying.”
“So we don’t need to be afraid?” Steve asked, sitting down.
“No. What happened was that I asked people I work with to help look for a phone that belonged to an informant of mine.”
“How did he lose it?” Mike asked.
“I believe my informant was murdered this morning,” Jack replied. “He was also a bad guy.”
“Did other bad guys find out he was your informant?” Steve asked.
Jack nodded. “His wife was angry with him and told the other bad guys.”
“So she’s a bad guy, too,” Steve said.
“Yes, she certainly is,” Jack replied.
“And the phone showed up here,” Natasha said matter-of-factly.
“Yes.” Jack nodded. “Someone left it in our mailbox.”
“You think it was bad guys who put it there?” Mike asked.
“Bad guys did put it there.”
“Because they were too afraid to knock on the door and give it to you?” Steve questioned.
“Partly,” Jack replied. “They also took pictures of us all.”
“Can we see?” both boys said at once.
Jack showed them the photos and saw the concerned looks on their faces. Natasha stared back at him and her face was very still. He looked at her. “I promise, I’ll deal with it,” he said quietly.
“There was a van on the street when we came home,” Mike offered. “I never saw it before.”
“I saw it, too,” Jack replied.
“Why’d they take our pictures?” Steve asked.
“They want to scare Dad so he won’t try to put them in jail,” Mike stated.
“Exactly,” Jack replied.
“Are you scared, Dad?” Steve asked.
“If they really wanted to hurt us, they wouldn’t have done what they did.”
“So you’re not scared?” Steve persisted.
“No, I’m not scared. I’m angry.”
Mike looked at his brother. “They’re in a lot of trouble,” he said seriously.
You got that right.
Chapter Eight
It was 7:30 a.m. when Jack picked Laura up in front of her house. As she fastened her seat belt she said, “Amazing what twelve hours of sleep can do for a person.”
“Glad you’re feeling better.” Jack pulled away from the curb. “Have you given more thought about asking for a transfer?”
“Wow, you don’t waste any time.”
“Sorry … good morning. Are you putting in for a transfer?”
Laura hesitated, then said, “Jack, I’m sorry.”
Shit. I’m going to miss you something awful. “Don’t be sorry. You have to do what’s right for you. Besides, we’ll always be friends.” He tried to give her a reassuring smile but realized she knew how he felt.
“‘Friends’ isn’t the right word. You’re like family to me, but this thing with Pure E leaving that message on the wall … I think I should stay until —”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jack said, trying to sound casual. “Like I said yesterday, there’s always something.”
“I know, but how about I stay until January? That’s three months away. By then I’ll have a pretty good idea about how you plan on getting Pure E.”
Jack gave her a sideways glance. “You thinking you’ll be able to keep me out of trouble?”
“Someone has to.”
“You sure? I don’t mind if you want to leave before then.”
“I’m sure. Besides, I’m really embarrassed about the meltdown yesterday. It’s not how I want you to remember me. Three months might give me time to redeem myself.”
“You don’t need to redeem yourself. Not after all you and I’ve been through. There’d be something wrong with us if we didn’t have the occasional meltdown.” He paused, then went on, “In our line of work there comes a time when you need to extricate yourself from the stress and be smart enough to realize it. It takes more than hiding out in the women’s washroom and a night’s sleep to fix that. I think a transfer is the right decision.”
“And you?”
“Actually, hiding out in the women’s washroom seems to work for me.”
“Funny man.” Laura paused, then said, “Look at me a sec.”
Jack glanced at her. “What?”
“You look worse than you did when you dropped me off yesterday.”
“It was a long night,” Jack replied. “I doubt I got more than a few hours’ sleep.”
“You upset because of me?”
“No, that wasn’t it.”
“Oh … you told Natasha about the farmhouse. I bet she was upset.”
Jack shook his head. “I better update you on what happened after I dropped you off yesterday. It’s one of those good news, bad news things. The good news is I spoke with John Adams. One of the file boxes he took pertains to Lance Morgan and Whiskey Jake. I’ll know more details within a week or so.”
“Fantastic! That’s great news. You turned Lance once before — think you can do it again?”
“Hope so. If there are enough details to
