This Doesn't Happen in the Movies (20 page)

  “You can mock me, Mr. Ferguson, but I assure you our purpose is noble.  And that’s why we couldn’t carry out the assignment Amanda asked of us.  It didn’t warrant our kind of services.”

“I don’t get it,” I said.  “I thought you researched all your cases before you took something on.  Why didn’t you know Amanda was lying before you took her on?”

“Because I broke my own rules.”  A woman stepped out of the shadows behind Georgia.  My jaw dropped.  Amanda gulped air.  And Georgia smiled knowingly.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“I broke my own rules,” Maggie Delacroix repeated, coming forward.  She smiled warmly at us, as if she were inviting us into her home.  “It is a mistake I will not make again.”

“Maggie,” Amanda said breathlessly.  “You said you were helping me.”

“I took pity on you.  A mistake I won’t repeat, I assure you,” Maggie said.  “I believed your petty stories about Peter, how he abused you.  I set the wheels in motion before I checked out what you’d said.”  She clasped her hands together.  “As I said, it’s a mistake I won’t repeat.”

“How can you do this?” Amanda asked.  “You seem so,” she searched for the word, “helpless.”

“With the right resources and the determination, we can achieve anything.”  Maggie sounded like an ad for a Fortune 500 company.  She turned to Georgia.  “That was excellent work at the club.  I could not have asked for a more flawless execution of a plan.”

Georgia beamed.  “You planned well, and your description of the club was perfect.  We had no trouble at all.”

“No one was the wiser,” Maggie said.  “Things were as usual when I left the club.  No one will notice for quite some time that Amanda is gone.”

I recovered from my shock.  “You’re the leader of the X Women?”

“Leader and founder.”  A hint of pride crept into her tone.  “Don’t be so surprised.  I would not have chosen this line of work, but destiny is a funny thing.”

“How can you believe what you’re doing is right?”

“I am aware that many people would disagree,” Maggie said.  “But these women,” she gestured at her minions, “were more than willing to work for the cause.  And so are others.  They have had tragedy in their lives.  They know firsthand that our justice system is far from perfect, so they decided to make a difference.”

“But why did you talk to me about your group?  Weren’t you afraid I would find out about your involvement?”

“I really didn’t give you that much credit,” she said, hurling the insult at me.  “I did believe, however, that you would make good on your threat to go to the police if I didn’t speak with you.  I chose to try and throw you off.”

“But you pointed me right to you.”

“You already knew about the organization, thanks to Amanda.  The matter of Derek Jones was inconsequential in the bigger scheme of our operations, which is why I chose to tell you about it.”

I thought about our conversation at the club.  “You felt that justice wasn’t done for your daughter’s friend, so you took matters into your own hands.  You created the organization to have that boy killed, and you made it look like an accident.  You make all your killings look like accidents.  That fooled law enforcement for a long time.  But are you any better than those you seek to destroy?”

“Our legal system did nothing for me.  Something precious was taken away, and I wanted payment for that.  An eye for an eye.”

 “So you set everything up to kill Derek Jones.  You didn’t hire anyone, did you?  You used your own group.”  My mind was battling against pieces that didn’t fit in the puzzle.  “But that was only five years ago.  The X Women have been around a lot longer than that.  How could you have started it then?”

“The death of Derek Jones was nothing more than an execution of our services.  That incident alone would never have prompted me to start the X Women.  It was merely a favor for a friend.”

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“I had something far greater taken from me.  Eighteen years ago.”

I thought back to our previous conversation.  What had I missed?  “Who was taken from you, besides Elaine Richards?”

“Her daughter,” a male voice, not mine, interjected.  Maggie and the other X Women whirled around.  Amanda and I sat in stunned silence.  A tall man walked around some boxes, edging his way to the outskirts of our little semicircle.

Maggie recovered quickly, hiding her surprise.  “You are correct, Peter.”

Amanda sagged in her chair, her chin resting on her chest.  I stared at Peter Ghering.  He stood tall, but his tense jaw and dark circles under his eyes screamed of exhaustion.  He needed a shave, and his suit could’ve used some serious pressing, but other than that, he generally resembled the picture Amanda had shown me a week ago.

“How did you get here?” Amanda gasped.

Peter glared at Maggie.  “No, let's hear what Maggie has to say.  I'm as curious as you all are.”

I'd been thinking about what Peter said.  I turned to Maggie.  “Your daughter lives on the East Coast.  She works in Washington.”

“Her first daughter,” Peter said.  “Sally.  She was kidnapped and murdered eighteen years ago.  There was never a conviction.”

“You had another daughter?” I stared at Maggie.

“She sure did,” Peter said.  “From her first marriage.  Sally was eight years old, wasn’t she, Maggie?  Little Sally, taken from your front yard while she played.”

“Did you know this?” I spat at Amanda.

She shrugged.  “I think I remember some rumors about it at the club.  I really didn’t think it was important.”

“Not important?” I nearly screeched.

“My wife pays attention to little more than the brand of vodka she’s drinking,” Peter said, turning to Maggie.  “I, on the other hand, have golfed with Maggie’s current husband.  He’s spoken a time or two about her first marriage, and the tragedies from it.”

Maggie faced me, but her eyes focused someplace far away.  “She was just a child, so innocent.”  Her voice cracked.  “She was violated and then murdered, and her frail body thrown in the woods.”  She paused.  “And my husband, her father, couldn’t take it.  He killed himself, leaving me a sizable inheritance.  But my family was destroyed.  Sally’s murderer got away on a technicality.  He roamed free while I lived in a prison.  I tormented myself over what I could’ve done differently.  And then I had a realization that I was letting her murderer kill again.  My grief and anger were killing me, and it was because of Sally’s murderer.”  She fixed her gaze on Peter again, her jaw locked determinedly.  “I decided I wouldn’t let that happen again.  I had brains.  I had money.  And I wanted justice for my husband and daughter.  I hired someone to take care of Sally’s killer.  I felt released.  And I knew that others longed for justice the way I did.  I am fulfilling that need.”

Peter stood with his hands clenched at his sides, shaking.  “You thought I deserved the same as all those others?”

“No, Peter,” Maggie said.  “You don’t understand.  Amanda talked at the club.  She said you were abusive to her, that you beat her, manipulated her, controlled her.  She said she feared for her life.  I had little way of knowing what happened in the privacy of your home.  My husband inferred that you cheated on her, that you didn’t care.”  She shrugged.  “After hearing her complaints for a while, I relented and gave her a number to call.  I took pity on her, and acted before I thought about what I was doing.  But when the organization realized that she was lying, we contacted the women who had taken you.  I ordered them to abort the mission.”

Peter’s nostrils flared and his lips slid back in a snarl.  He looked like a rabid wolf as he listened to Maggie.  “Do you know what I’ve been through these last two weeks?” he yelled.

Amanda slowly raised her head, coming back to reality.  “Peter, what are you doing here?”  She looked completely baffled.

“What does it look like?  I found the people who were trying to kill me.  I didn’t know what to do at first, and I didn’t know who to trust.  I couldn’t trust you,” he said to Amanda with contempt.

“But how did you know I wanted to kill you?” Amanda asked.

“It wasn’t hard to figure out.  I was in an airport restaurant having breakfast, and I began to feel lightheaded.  I started for the bathroom and felt faint.  A lady,” he pointed at Georgia, “offered to help me.  The next thing I know I’m blindfolded, lying on the floor of a car.  I began to fight, and someone hit me over the head.  I lost consciousness again and woke up in a ditch outside of Philadelphia.  After they left me for dead, I found a phone and called you.  Do you remember what you said to me?”  Peter turned on Amanda.  “You said ‘Oh my god, you’re still alive.’  I knew right then you had tried to have me killed.”  Peter took a ragged breath.  “I didn’t know what to think.  I didn’t know who to trust, who was after me.  I didn’t know if I should go to the police, or if I should just show up at home.”  He sucked in a breath and let it out slowly.  “And then I decided to come after you.”

“And here you are,” I murmured.

Amanda shivered.

“This is all fascinating, but we have things to attend to,” Maggie interrupted.

“Don’t you want to know how I ended up here?” Peter taunted her, his face an angry mask.

Maggie studied him cautiously, seeming to sense the danger  in Peter’s coiled fury.  “Please indulge us,” she said politely.

“Your organization isn’t as careful as you might think.  You see all these boxes,” Peter pointed to the shelves around us.  “They’re paper boxes.  Quality Paper Products.  They're an office supply company.  When I was in the car, before they knocked me out, I heard one of the women mention something about paper – quality paper.  At first I didn’t know what they meant: why would they be talking about paper?  Then I realized they were talking about a business that your husband owns.”  He pointed to Maggie.  “I’ve even been here myself.  So I figured this company was a place to start, that it had some connection to the people who kidnapped me.  I didn’t know what or why, but I was going to find out.  I hitchhiked all the way back, staying in cheap motels the whole time.  Do you know what it feels like to bum money off of truckers and women?  That's what I did.  And I bought binoculars and have been down the street from here, watching this place for the past few days, so I could find out what was going on.  Today I’d about given up when, to my surprise, I see a van pull into the garage with Amanda in the back seat.  I had to know what was happening, so I snuck past the secretary out front.  And now I know all about you and your organization.”  He smiled triumphantly.

“I applaud you,” Maggie said.  “In other circumstances we could’ve used your resourcefulness.  As it is, we really must be moving along.  I’m afraid you do know too much now.  How unfortunate, when we tried to spare your life.  Come, ladies.  And bring our friends along.  We have work to do.”

Maggie turned her back on Peter, which was uncharacteristically stupid of her.  Peter, functioning at a near crazed level, roared and lunged at Maggie, dragging her to the ground.  The X Women around her stood frozen, shocked by Peter’s actions.  And then all hell broke loose.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Peter leaped on Maggie, cursing her as he pummeled her with his fists.  The van driver and two of the women jumped into the foray, trying to pull Peter off Maggie, and at the same time avoid coming into contact with his punches.  The driver’s gun, body parts, and curses were flying all over the place.

Georgia seemed mesmerized by the fight.  She stood unmoving, and I chose that second to hurl myself at Amanda, knocking both her and me to the ground.  I felt my chair slide sideways on two legs as I tipped her chair over.  It broke with a crack and we ended up in a heap of arms, legs, and chair parts.  I struggled to get up, my hands still cuffed in front of me, my feet entangled in pieces of the chair and Amanda’s legs.  The commotion of our fall jolted Georgia out of her trance, and she stepped toward us, gun held low.  Amanda crawled to her knees, yelling at me.

“You idiot,” she screamed.  She swung her handcuffed wrists back, clearly intent on maiming me.  And Georgia stepped right into her fists, catching the backward blow in the stomach.

“Oof,” Georgia groaned, buckling over.  I dove at them, laying Amanda flat on the floor, catching Georgia squarely on the knees with my shoulder.  She dropped her gun and yelled in pain as her legs bowed back in an unnatural way.  I finished the tackle, sending her into a fall.  Her head slammed on the hard cement floor with a sickening thud.

“Get off me!”  I heard Amanda shouting from under me.  I scrambled to retrieve Georgia’s gun, clutching at it as I scooted across the floor.  I grabbed the gun with both hands, rolled over into a sitting position, and pointed the gun toward the general melee before me.  I saw two of the X Women piled on the floor, bucking to and fro, Peter’s feet and arms protruding from under the heap.  Maggie stood a few feet away, her dress torn at one shoulder, her lip bleeding and one eye swelling up, her usually perfect hair flying in any number of directions.  Another X Woman used one hand to pull Maggie farther back from the pile.  The X Woman waved the other hand around, her gun pointing randomly at the pile, at Amanda, and at me.

I pointed my gun at her.  “Stop!” I yelled.

What happened next seemed like a movie playing frame by frame.  The van driver turned her head and looked at me, surprise crossing her face when she saw my gun aimed at her.  Maggie’s mouth opened slowly and she yelled “noooo...”.  The other woman raised her gun, her arm wavering slowly.  Then I was looking into that gaping black hole from where a bullet would emerge and kill me.  I gritted my teeth and pulled the trigger of my gun, my eyes closing involuntarily.  I heard an explosion, and at the same time I lurched to my right.  As I tumbled, I heard another explosion, and a stinging sensation on my backside.  I ended up on my elbows and knees, dropping the gun.  It skittered a few feet away.  I heard a third explosion, and screams.  I ducked my head, aware that my elbows and knees hurt.  Then the movie slipped into fast forward.