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The Tessarae Inn |
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The Son Also Rises
CHAPTER 22 “Todd, you are going to have to calm down.” Bo turned to his right and spoke to the uniformed officer. “Officer Collins, will you please escort Mr. Manning to the sidewalk over there behind the tape and stay with him.” Bo turned back to Todd. “Todd, I will come over and tell you everything I can as soon as I know something definitive.” “The hell you will. Where is Blair? Where is my wife, damn it?” “Officer Collins.” The police officer grabbed Todd’s arm but he wrenched it out of his grip. Todd rushed forward but Collins clamped his hands firmly on his arms and pulled him back. Bo signaled for three other officers to keep an eye on him. Collins forced Todd’s arms behind his back. “This is a police investigation, Manning," Bo said in a firm voice. "If I have to arrest you to keep you from interfering, I will do that.” “It’s my wife and my…my son. Bo, it’s Blair.” “I know but there is nothing I can tell you right now. Please, let me do my job. It’s the only thing any of us can do right now.” Bo walked away and ignored Todd's pleas for him to reconsider his orders. Collins tightened his grip. “I know who you are, Manning, and you’re not going to give me the slip.” Todd focused his gaze on the Officer Collins. Who was this freckled face, pillow soft, cop wannabe? Did this clown really think he could hold Todd Manning? This was a dream. He was convinced of it now. He relaxed his arms. Maybe he could will himself awake if he stopped participating. No one dreams about just standing still or about being silent. If he stopped everything, then maybe he’d wake up or his mind would switch to another dream. A woman dressed in a lilac suit and breathing rapidly hustled next to the police officer. “What can you tell us, Officer?” It was that toothy reporter from Channel 4. Why would he dream about her of all people? Why not a reporter from The Sun? A large man with a foot long beard and Moses hair pointed a camcorder in the police officer’s face. The officer immediately straightened up and relaxed his grip then shook his hair ever so slightly. “All we can tell you is that there was a car accident and a woman was killed and a child abducted.” Killed? All of the sound around him faded into a white buzz. Enough already. He needed to wake up now. “Has the woman been identified?" Lilac suit asked. "Has the next of kin been notified?” “Well, it appears to be…” The officer released his arms and brushed his shoulders lightly before moving as close to him as human possible. “Well, this is her husband right here. Todd Manning. He’s distraught and all because see…” “Todd Manning!” The cameraman immediately panned right. The reporter shoved the officer away, jumped into the camera shot and then pushed the microphone in Todd’s face. “How does it feel, Mr. Manning, to lose your wife under these tragic circumstances? Do you know if she was wearing her seatbelt? Did she have a history of reckless driving? Does she drink to excess on a regular basis? Who was the kid with her? Was she with another man? Where were you when this tragedy happened? Were you two still having marital problems? Did your wife drive at excess speeds on a regular basis? Did she have a huge insurance policy? Are your businesses still bleeding money because of the downturn in the market? Do you already have someone in mind to ease your heartbreak through this tragedy and mother your children? When is the funeral service? Do you have any words of condolences for the families of those for whom your wife’s recklessness may have proved deadly? …. ” The ground beneath his feet seemed to sway backwards and forward. The questions felt like blows from a naked fist. He couldn’t catch his breath. Did that man say Blair was dead? Bo walked into his line of sight. “Collins, get those cameras away from him. NOW.” Lilac suit shrieked in delight then said, “Commissioner Buchanan, do you have any comments on this tragic event? How fast was Mrs. Manning driving? Did she kill the little boy, too? If she’d lived, would she have been charged with reckless and depraved indifference to human life?” Bo leaned toward the officer. “Collins. NOW.” Pain is orange. It feels like someone is suffocating you. He opened his mouth and tried to find some air. Why were these people asking all of these questions? Where was Blair? Why was he even here? An accident? What kind of accident? Dead? No. Bo put his hand firmly on his upper arm. “Come on, Todd, I need to talk to you. We can go sit in my car.” “It appears that this was a setup, Manning. Do you have any idea why someone would go after Blair this way?” Reality eased in on kitten paws. He was actually sitting in a police car with Bo Buchanan. It felt hot and moist and smelled of cigars. The windshield was dirty. Bo had just said something about Blair but as usual Bo was wrong about everything. He would once again try to explain. “Where is Blair? I have to see her. She’ll come back for me.” Bo exhaled then bit his lower lip for a second. “Manning…Todd, it seems she ran into a car in front of her but the skid marks on the road indicate the car came to an abrupt stop and she probably could not have avoided hitting him. She was then rammed from the rear end as well.” “That car is safe. It can take a ramming. There is no way she is … that she didn’t survive that wreck. Your information is wrong. I need to go to the hospital. I must have just crossed paths with the ambulance because when I went there first they said they didn’t have her. She’s alive, Bo. This is just a misunderstanding.” “It wasn’t the wreck, Todd. The evidence is that she did survive that.” “See, I told you so. I’m going back to the hospital to see her.” Bo grabbed his arm and held him lightly but firmly. “Todd, there were bullet holes in the car. The front seat is covered in blood.” “Not Blair’s blood. No.” “I’m sorry but the forensic analysis will take time but it matches Blair’s blood type.” “No. This wrong. This is a lie.” “The boy is gone too and there was a note.” “A note? What the hell are you talking about?” “It demands money if you want to get your son back and to find out where Blair’s body is buried.” There was no air. There was no sound. He opened the car door and jumped out. He ran. He ran to her. She had to be there. There was no way Blair was not waiting for him. He hurdled over the crime scene tape and moved toward the car. It was lit up as if it was in a scene from a movie. He moved closer. He was calling Blair’s name but the words came out as silence. Something locked onto him. He twisted his body and shoved it away but it held him back. Let me go. She needs me. She’s waiting for me. She’s holding on for me. “Todd, please stop fighting me.” It was Viki. What was she doing here? He stopped thrashing his arms and slowly turned and faced her. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “There’s nothing you can do.” Space collapsed in on itself and he sank to his knees. “Do you have any idea what he’s going through, Bo? How could you hold him here like this and question him?” “Viki, this is a crime scene not just an accident. We need to know everything that is going on. And time is crucial. A child is missing.” “His wife is dead,” hissed Viki. “Show some damn compassion. I’m taking him home. Starr and Jack need their father. When you have something useful, that’s where you can find us.” “Come on, Todd. We need to go now.” Todd couldn’t move. He stared at the Lincoln Navigator that he thought was big enough to be a monster truck. Big enough to mow down people and keep his family safe. Its doors were gaping open and the tail end was spread open. Even from a distance he could see the blood and the bullet holes, the shattered windshield, and the bullet holes, and the blood…. Blair’s blood. Viki yanked at his arm until he finally turned away then put her arm around his waist and moved him forward. “We have to go home. Your children need you.” Need me? They need their mother. “Come on, Todd.” He walked next to Viki but he knew the truth. Blair was alive. There was no way the attackers would have dragged her body away. Why would they do that? They? A chill swept across the entire expanse of his soul. These people were capable of anything. They probably took the body to mail it back to him piece by piece to show him how little even common decency mattered to them. He knew for a fact that they had done worse things in the past. The past? There was no past. Ireland would never be over. The weight of the realization forced his consciousness to slip below the surface of reality again. This had to be a dream. He was sleepwalking. None of this was real. As soon as they crossed over the crime scene tape a young man rushed next to Viki. “I think we have an exclusive, Mrs. Davidson. A woman over there who the police haven’t discovered yet claims she saw the whole thing. There were four or five men all dressed in black. After the accident they jumped out and she swears she saw them open the car door and shoot the woman driving two or three times then drag her body away. They threw the body in the trunk of a third car, grabbed the kid and sped away. Said it took all of five minutes. This was no accident, Mrs. Davidson. Do we run with the story or what?” “We go with the official story from the police and I want you to tell them everything you just said to me including the witnesses name. And I want you to do it now.” Todd felt himself surfacing out of the fog. What did that guy just say? “Todd, we have to go home now.” “No. Who was that guy talking about?” “Starr is home. The Banner is here. The Sun is here. WBCM is here. You have to go home and talk to your daughter. Please. She’s going to need you.”
============= “Starr,” he said softly. “There’s been an accident. I’m afraid your mother…” “What about mommy? Tell me, Daddy. You’re scaring me.” “Shorty, I don’t know how to do this.” “Do what? You know how to do everything, daddy. What don’t you know how to do?” He tried to hold back the tears but he felt them drifting slowly down his cheeks. Starr studied him for a moment then got up and walked away from him. She climbed on her bed and surrounded herself with her stuffed animals. “Starr, there’s been…” “I don’t want to hear this. Go away, daddy, and leave me alone.” He moved next to the bed. “You have to know this.” “No-o-o-o-o, I don’t. I’m a little kid. I don’t have to know anything. You go away now. Just go away.” “Don’t do this, Starr. Please.” She pitched a stuff animal at him. “You heard me. Go away, daddy. I’m not gonna listen to you.” He didn’t really believe in God. Too much had happened for him to have faith but when Cassie walked into the room, he knew without a doubt that she had been sent by God and was as close to being a living angel at that moment as was possible. She walked straight to Starr and climbed onto the bed next to her. She pulled her close and held her tight. “You have to listen to your father, sweetheart. He’s hurting a lot right now and he needs to tell you something.” Todd stared at Cassie then cleared his throat. “Starr, there was a car accident. Your mother is dead.” Starr shrieked so loudly that the sound was like a thousand knives piercing his heart at once. It took all the strength he had to stay upright, walk out of the room and close the door.
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