Under the Marshal's Protection

Jessica opened the sack and was surprised to see a selection of mystery novels by her favorite authors whose books had lined her shelves at home. She was truly touched by his thoughtfulness. There was even a book about drawing technique and a small sketch pad with pencils included in the bag. “I can’t believe you noticed,” she said with a smile. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome, Ms. Blake.” He grinned at her. “I’ve done this enough to know that it takes more than a TV to pass the time.”

So he had noticed that, too. “Please call me Jessica.” She grinned back at him and felt herself actually relaxing for the first time since she had come to the hotel.

Suddenly her cell phone rang, and she jumped, then grabbed it and looked at the caller ID. “I don’t know the number.”

Dominic gently touched her shoulder. “It’s okay. Answer anyway.” They had already established that several of Jessica’s friends called her cell phone number on occasion. The call could be coming from any one of them.

Jessica nodded and pushed the answer button on her phone. “Hello?”

“Jess! Are you all right?”

Jessica sank down to the bed. The speaker was young and frantic, and it was unmistakably the voice of Michael Blake. She nodded to Dominic who had picked up a headset and was listening to the call. Across the room, Jake started to run the trace.

“I’m okay, but, Michael, somebody came to my house and tore it apart. Then they called and threatened me. They said you stole some sort of computer disk. Michael, did you do that?”

“Oh, Jess, I’m so sorry. I had no idea this would come back on you.”

Jessica sighed. “Michael, answer my question. Do you have their disk? What’s all this about?”

A beat passed, then another. “I can’t explain right now. It’s…it’s complicated.”

Jessica noted that Michael’s voice had changed and a wave of dread swept over her. His tone was hesitant, and he was obviously avoiding the truth. It wasn’t the time or place to argue about it, though. Somehow she needed to convince Michael to turn himself in. Then they could sort all of this out together once and for all. She looked over at Dominic who was motioning with his hands to keep the conversation going.

“Michael, I need to see you. Tell me where you are.”

Again there was silence on the other end of the line. Finally, he spoke. “I can’t, Jess.”

“You don’t have a choice,” she answered vehemently. “They said they were going to kill you and me in two more days if you didn’t give them the disk. I need to understand, Michael. I want to try to help you.”

“Oh, Jess…”

“Tell me where you are. I’ll come and get you and we’ll figure this out together.”

Dominic shook his head at this one, but Jessica pushed forward, ignoring him. “Michael, I don’t want you to get killed, and I’m in no hurry to die, either. This is a huge problem you can’t deal with by yourself. Let me help you. Please.”

Silence met her plea for such a long time that she thought he might have hung up. Finally, he spoke. “Are you still at the house?”

“No, I didn’t feel safe there, so I’m in Tallahassee with friends. They tore up my home pretty badly anyway. There’s not much left.”

“Meet me at the bagel shop in two hours. You know which one. Come alone, Jess. Don’t bring your friends.” The phone clicked, and Michael was gone.

Dominic was furious, but doing his best to hide it. He paced a few times, then strode over to Jake. “Did we get him?”

Jake shook his head. “He’s in northern Tallahassee, but I didn’t have enough time to narrow the field any closer than that.”

Dominic paced some more. What was Jessica doing, arranging to meet Michael in person? The last thing he wanted was to include her in the arrest. Involving civilians in arrests was unpredictable at best, and downright dangerous at worst. He rubbed his neck with his hand and rounded on her. “What were you thinking? I told you that you weren’t going to be a part of this and I meant it.”

Jessica stood and put her hands on her hips. “And I told you I’m his sister, and I want to make sure that he doesn’t get hurt.”

“This isn’t the way we do things, Ms. Blake.”

“So we’re back to ‘Ms. Blake’ again, are we?”

Dominic gritted his teeth. “You’re not listening to me.”

“No, you’re not listening to me,” she said forcefully, poking him in his chest with her finger. “He’s my brother, and I’m the one who is being threatened. I’m involved already, and I’m going to stay that way. Especially when it comes to bringing my brother in. You don’t even know what bagel shop to go to without my help. You need me.”

Dominic took a step forward so that he was mere inches away from her. He towered over her in an intimidating stance. “Actually, you need me,” he said in a deceptively soft tone. “I’m the one trying to keep you and Michael from getting killed, remember? A little cooperation here wouldn’t be out of line.”

She had to bend her neck back to meet his eyes, but she did it, her own eyes spitting blue fire. “Yes, I remember. And I’m the one betraying my own brother. Did you remember that?”

He acknowledged that she had a point, but he still didn’t like it. Unfortunately, she had left him with little choice. Two hours was barely enough time to get a plan together for an arrest in such a public location. Finding an agent to be her double just wouldn’t be possible in that time frame. He narrowed his eyes and when he spoke, his voice was deadly serious. “You will obey every command I give you out there, do you understand?”

She nodded, clearly knowing she had won, but wanting to leave his pride intact. “Yes, I understand. I’ll do whatever you ask.”

Dominic straightened, then grimaced. “Okay. To start with, tell me which bagel shop we’re talking about. We need to plan this out.”

They sat down across from Jake and Chris and started talking over their strategy. Chris was assigned the task of going immediately to the bagel shop so he could call them and give them the lay of the land, as well as establish himself as a customer. Jake called and coordinated their efforts with the local police department and made sure they had communication devices so they could all keep in contact. Dominic went over the plan with Jessica until he was sure she was prepared for every contingency. He was still uncomfortable with having her participate with the arrest, but couldn’t convince her to stay at the hotel, even by promising her a chance to talk to Michael after he was taken into custody.

Dominic had no choice but to move forward with the plan, and hope that the sinking feeling in his stomach wasn’t a sign that everything was about to go terribly wrong.

What seemed like only a short time later, a female marshal named Whitney Johnson, dressed in civilian clothing, dropped Jessica off in front of the bagel shop. The two women waved at each other as if they were old friends, then Jessica turned and glanced around the parking lot. The bagel shop was at the end of a busy strip mall that housed several different boutiques and two larger clothing stores. The lunch crowd was starting to come in, and several of the wrought iron tables on the sidewalk outside the store were already filled with customers enjoying their designer café and deli sandwiches. Jessica saw Chris eating alone at one of the tables. He appeared to be engrossed in a magazine and didn’t acknowledge her, nor did she expect him to.

She opened the door and went inside, again noticing that the place was busier than she expected. The shop had about fifteen small tables that each seated either two or four customers, and at least half of the tables were filled with a wide assortment of people. One little girl, approximately four years old, was bouncing around a table next to her mother who was trying to spoon-feed some baby food to a fussy infant. Two older men were playing chess in the corner, and four lively women were having a vibrant conversation about local politics at another table. She studied the faces of the other customers but didn’t see her brother yet. Hopefully he would get here soon, and this whole affair would be over. She dreaded Michael’s arrest, but she had to agree it was definitely better than finding him dead in an alley somewhere.

Customers waited cafeteria-style for their turn in line so they could have their food made to order, and she joined the line, waiting for her turn. Racks of bagels lined the walls behind the counters, and twin refrigerated compartments, containing various beverages for sale as well as fruit and tubs of eight different flavors of cream cheese, met customers before they reached the cash register. Jessica studied the menu that plastered the wall above the bagel racks. Although her stomach was in knots, she wanted to order something so that she would blend in with the other customers. She finally chose a chocolate chip bagel with low-fat cream cheese and a cranberry juice, then paid the cashier and took her snack to a table near the back that faced the front door. She wanted to have a clear view of everyone who went in and out of the restaurant, and this table seemed to have the perfect vantage point.

The little bell over the door rang and caught her attention, and she noticed Dominic come in. He was dressed very casually in jeans and an old polo shirt with a faded Marlins baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. Even in that getup, he was incredibly handsome. She quickly looked away, but not before a whisper of attraction swept through her. She grimaced, unhappy with the direction her thoughts had taken her. Since when was she attracted to pushy law enforcement officers? She shrugged to herself and kept an eye on the door, bringing her thoughts back to the task at hand.

Each time the bell rang she waited expectantly, hoping that she would see her brother’s face come through the door. She didn’t have long to wait. After about ten minutes, a rangy blond man walked in wearing khaki shorts, a long-sleeved navy button-down shirt, a fishing hat and a pair of dark tortoiseshell sunglasses. He was thin, probably a little too thin by Jessica’s estimation, and his face was haggard and covered in a scraggly beard and mustache, but there was no hiding his identity from his sister. He noticed her right away and went directly to her table. Jessica jumped to her feet and gave him a rambunctious hug.

“Michael! Thank God! I was so worried about you.”

“Hey, Jess. Thanks for coming.”

They sat down and in her exuberance, Jessica knocked over her drink. Michael jumped back, missing the spray of cranberry juice, just as the first bullet drilled into the wall behind him.

FIVE

The second bullet nicked Jessica in the arm as the two dove for the ground and pushed the table over to use it as a shield. Utter chaos reigned. People were screaming as another gunshot was heard by the front door, and the shooter went down hard. Jessica felt a heavy weight over her and realized Dominic had crawled over and was protecting her body with his own. Their eyes met—Jessica’s filled with fear and Dominic’s filled with worry.

Jessica looked toward where Michael had landed but saw no sign of her brother. The long-sleeved navy shirt he had been wearing was in a heap on the floor, as well as the sunglasses and hat. She looked around the bagel shop—at least, as much of it as she could see from this angle. Most of the patrons had taken refuge under their tables, but screaming continued and several people had run out of the restaurant through the back emergency exit, which had set off an obnoxiously loud shrieking alarm.

Dominic pulled back, visually checking her for other injuries. “Are you okay?”

She nodded, then winced as she moved her arm. Her entire shoulder was throbbing. “Michael is gone.” She looked down at her wound and for the first time seemed to notice that blood was seeping through her fingers. “Wow. That really hurts.”