Wisdom Spring (36 page)

He opened the kit and took out bandages and other items. He worked quickly and talked while he worked.

“I told Ollie to call EMS on his radio and explain that I was here and needed a couple of ambulances and that Jess might need to be airlifted to Anchorage. I haven’t had time to check on Hillstrom. Joe is doing what he can. Jess needs my full attention. I told Ollie to get his guys out of here and get home before the police arrive. As far as I’m concerned, they didn’t exist. They’re going to take the rentals Hillstrom’s men used to get back to the airport.” He looked at me intently, “Jon, Jess is in really bad shape. She’s stopped breathing twice already.”

Chapter 45

“Daddy?”

“Hi Punkin.”

He was in front of her, looking wonderful. There was a calmness about him. A confidence that comforted her. She knew though, that she couldn’t hug him. It had been so long though.…

“I don’t … I don’t … understand. Where am I?”

“I know it’s a little confusing, but I can’t really tell you.”

“Can’t, or won’t?”

“A little bit of each.”

“What happened?”

“You were shot.” There was a sadness in his voice and face that she picked up on.

“Am I dead?”

“That’s up to you.”

It didn’t make sense to her. How could it be up to her?

“Is this heaven?”

“No, but some people mistake it for heaven.”

“Daddy, I’m not understanding any of this.”

“I know, and I’m sorry about that. If you were staying, you would understand, but you are not staying. It’s important that you go back.”

“But I want to be with you. I want to stay.”

“You can’t. You need to go back. It’s not your time yet. And Jon needs you.”

“But you said it’s up to me.”

“Ultimately it is. I’m asking you to go back. Listen to your father.”

He used to say that, and always followed it with a grin. The grin appeared, and she felt a warmth course through her body. Was it a body? It seemed lighter somehow, and brighter. Was that why she knew she couldn’t hug him?

“But before you go back, I wanted to tell you how proud your mom and I are of you. This wasn’t easy, but you fought your way through it.”

“Where is mom?”

“She’s close. But we don’t have a lot of time. Do you have any questions for me?”

He was referring to the Hillstrom affair. She was obviously not going to get any more information about where she was.

“How much did you know?” she asked.

“Not as much as you might think, but in some ways more than you could imagine.”

“A riddle?”

“Sort of. I learned about Ben Fremont when I was in Homer strictly by accident, as you discovered. I found out about the deaths of his co-workers and was able to do a little research, where I learned of his association with Exchange Systems. I wondered if it was a front for something else, but I couldn’t prove anything. I went to a colleague at the
Post
, someone more suited for this kind of research. He died in a car accident a month later. Another death on the heads of this group. Let the authorities know that George Simpson was another murder they should look into. At that point, I didn’t realize he’d been murdered and I kind of dropped it, figuring I’d investigate it here and there in my spare time. That’s when your mom and I went to India. You know what happened then.”

Jess could feel tears streaming down her face.

“Don’t cry, Punkin. We’re really very happy.”

Jess tried to compose herself.

“But how were you able to lead me up to Alaska?”

“That’s a little harder to explain. There are some things that even I don’t fully understand. Instead of moving on, as I normally would and as your mom did, I was given a choice to stay here. I was able to watch you, and the things happening around you.”

“You could see everything?” Was it possible to blush where she was?

“I closed my eyes when I had to.” He had that grin again. “No, it’s not like I was watching you. I didn’t word that right. It’s more like I was with you in spirit. But I was aware of the things you were facing—anything that might affect you. It’s why I was able to keep you from going into your office that morning. It’s why I was able to get you onto that highway in time for Jon to drive by. Jon picking you up was totally his choice. I had nothing to do with that. And yet, I knew he would.”

“Getting you to Vegas so you could meet Mill Colson,” he continued, “directing you to Wisdom Spring, and then to the room in the mine with the bodies, and other things, those were all events surrounding you in some way, so I was able to pick up on them and guide you.”

“It seemed hard for you to communicate,” said Jess.

“Incredibly hard. Much harder than I would have thought. I guess it’s why more souls don’t stick around. I was able to pick up certain ‘tricks,’ shall we say, but it wasn’t easy. And a lot depended on you. There were certain times that were easier for me because of the mental or emotional state you were in.”

“Do you know who’s behind it all?”

“It doesn’t really matter at this point. It’s over. I don’t know any names, but what I do know is that if you dig into Corbin Mays’s past, three names will come out.”

“Do you miss me?”

“I love you, more than you could ever imagine. But you don’t feel the same earthly emotions here. So I don’t ‘miss’ you from the human perspective, but I love you deeply and I will always carry that love with me. Now it’s time for you to go.”

“Will I hear from you again?”

“No. It’s time for me to move on, too. There’s so much ahead for me.”

“Thank you, Daddy. I love you.”

“Just know how proud we are of you. We love you, Punkin. You have a great life ahead of you”

Her father faded from view and she was overcome with a darkness.

Chapter 46

The next few days were a blur for me. Luckily, there was very little need for my involvement. Mill was hard at work, and with Joe’s help with the details, he sorted out the legal entanglements. He sent long emails out to media people he knew and trusted, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the Secret Service, the White House, and others. He had scanned in and attached some of the important documents, as well as attaching some of the pictures I took inside the mine, and the video Joe had taken at the quarry. The FBI was sent the list of politicians, corporate executives, and members of the media who were involved. They were also sent the names of the assassins, along with their victims. Then, Mill released an announcement of a press conference he was giving in two days outside Jess’s hospital. The fact that Mill was still alive caused a furor in of itself.

Corbin Mays was arrested the next day, and Hillstrom was placed under arrest in the hospital, with guards stationed at his door. Hillstrom’s wounds were bad enough that he had also been airlifted to Anchorage. The men Ollie had captured were also arrested. Questions abounded regarding all the dead men at the quarry and who was responsible. Scott and Joe refused to say, and Mill ran interference with the authorities. The current president and his challenger in the presidential race immediately took advantage of Hillstrom no longer being in the hunt and proceeded to attack each other with renewed vigor.

I watched the news from Jess’s bedside at Anchorage Regional Hospital. The government was in turmoil. Dozens of members of Congress had resigned their posts, as had Supreme Court Justice Pecorelli. Indictments would probably follow, but not until sense had been made of it all. Mill hooked up with a local law firm and had all of the files in our possession copied by their assistants. Now that the media had caught on, there was little chance the files would disappear, but Mill was taking no chances.

Wisdom Spring was suddenly bustling again, this time with dozens of federal agents. The mine door was opened and the rest of the files, as well as the bodies, were removed. Nothing was done until the bomb squad had disarmed all of the bombs that had been planted. It turned out that Mays hadn’t been to Wisdom Spring in more than a year. As it was his job to create and update files, a year’s worth of information was found in his office safe, further incriminating him. Based on the files in his safe and the boxes of files recovered by the authorities from the mine, over the next few weeks, scores of arrests were made of the lesser members of the organization—the hired help.

Jess was in a coma, but the doctors were “cautiously optimistic.” Without a doubt, Scott had saved her life. He had taken charge in the ambulance and had been with her until the med flight plane arrived and he could turn her over to them.

Charges against Jess were quickly dropped, although that wasn’t enough for Mill. He planned a lawsuit against the government on her behalf, and was going to talk about her in his press conference. When he was done, she’d be a national hero.

I appreciated Mill and all the details he was taking care of, but I was only concerned with one thing: Jess staying alive. I didn’t leave her bedside except to use the bathroom and to meet with the FBI. But even that I cut short, wanting to be there if Jess woke up. I let Mill deal with their anger. The nurses were fabulous and brought me food and drinks, although much of it went untouched. Sitting with Jess brought all of the memories flooding back of doing the same with Karen. I couldn’t lose another one. Not again.

I watched Mill’s press conference on TV. The official FBI press briefing had come the day before and several updates had followed. There was no new information. I wouldn’t have expected anything new so quickly, considering the authorities were still trying to get their heads around it. My name had finally come out, as had my life history, including the story of Karen. I wasn’t portrayed in a bad light, however, and one report even had Victoria saying kind things about me. It probably wasn’t politically correct for her to slam someone who was holding vigil for an American hero. Mill had also received a lot of publicity, making his briefing a highly sought after event.

The press conference was taking place three stories below Jess’s room, and the streets surrounding the hospital were choked with media vehicles and people.

“Thank you all for coming,”
Mill began.
“Three stories above me lies a very brave young woman with a gunshot wound to her chest. I’m told the bullet missed her heart by less than an inch, and she is now clinging to life. Jessica Norton had been accused of killing four of her co-workers execution-style back in Washington, DC. As you all know by now, the charges have been dropped. But what you don’t know is the story behind her courageous attempt to clear her name. With the help of a stranger, Jon Harper, someone already dealing with his own devastating loss, and later, the help of my lead investigator, Joe Gray, and Jon’s brother, Scott Harper, Jessica entered into a morass of political and financial corruption that goes back more than forty years.”

He went on … and on … from there. I was afraid his talk would go for another forty years, so I turned the TV off. After all, I knew the story.

Epilogue

Jess woke up four days later, then spent the next month recuperating. They had to open her up and go in twice more to fix some internal bleeding, but finally she was steadily healing. She was in a great deal of pain those first couple of weeks, and the doctors informed her that she’d have a pretty visible scar between her breasts. But neither of us cared.

She told me about her experience with her father—an encounter she never would have had if she hadn’t been close to death. I passed on the news about George Simpson and the instructions to check Mays’s past to learn about his present employers. Of course, they wanted to know how I got that information, so I told them the truth. For some reason they didn’t believe me—no imagination, I guess—but they investigated it anyway. Indeed, upon checking the medical examiner’s report from a different perspective, George Simpson’s death was definitely ruled a homicide.

They found the people behind the conspiracy by checking Mays’s employment history. It seems that early in his career—in his mid-twenties—he was a hotshot consultant to some of the largest corporations in America. He was smart and ambitious, with a decided lack of ethics, willing to do whatever was necessary to bring success to his clients. Three CEOs caught a whiff of his true character, combined with his skills, and brought him on board.

One CEO was the head of a gas and electric energy conglomerate, another the head of one of the largest oil companies in the world, and the third in charge of a conglomerate that had bought up water rights all over the country (including that small Colorado town, I learned). Between energy, oil, and water rights, with the appropriate people in Congress, these three men could control America. The plan had been successful and thanks to their influence in Congress and their ability to control some of the media, they possessed much of the power in the country. Two of the three had long since died, and the third was near death, but their empires had been passed on to their sons and daughters, who proved equally as greedy and corrupt. The only thing they didn’t have was the White House, which is why they enacted this part of the plan.