One Night Stand Ch. 11

"Hey, Stacey, it's me, Jack. Is Reb with you?"

"Yes, so what? That's not his daughter with some traitor willing to sell himself out for a few bucks."

"Please, Missus Reynolds, will you let me explain?"

"Hey, buddy, what shit has hit the fan now?" Another masculine voice came on the line.

Jack laughed, "Hey, Reb, can you keep this one G-rated?"

"Sorry, but something is sure pushing the lady's buttons."

"Okay, things are getting out of control here, folks," Jaycee turned her attention back to the conversation at hand. "I don't know about the rest of you, but where I come from, someone is innocent until proven guilty. So can we please back the f... Back off and let the man have his say?"

"Hello, I'm Jaycee Ranger. I take it that I am now speaking with Agent Williams and Jack's friend Reb?"

"Yeah," Jack's friend could barely be heard over the screaming and crying. Ryan was glad that it was so garbled because he was reasonably sure that Mercy had learned to curse from her mother.

"Yes, Caleb Williams, but I prefer Will."

"Okay, Will, would you continue? And Reb, could you make sure that Missus Reynolds knows what is being said? If you have speakerphone and mute, that would be ideal."

"No problem."

"Ryan, we both know that there's a leak. That Stephen McBride did not kill himself, right?"

"We suspect, Will."

"No, I know. Don't ask me how, because you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"I know, I know, he's a hawk man, and he knows things, doesn't he, Grandfather?" Angel looked up from her drawing again.

The old man nodded, "You may speak plainly, my son. Though I do not know you or your gifts, the child is right. Some of us understand that there are things beyond that which we can touch, see, hear, smell, or taste. It is safe here to speak of such things."

There was a long sigh and silence on the other end of the phone, "Okay, I don't know what it is or how, but I have always just known things. Not like a psychic or anything. I just know what's in people's hearts, good or evil. My Grandmother called it a discerning of spirits. It's how I just sensed which informants I could trust and which I couldn't, Ryan."

Ryan shook his head, "I understand better than you realize, Will. I call it my gut, Grandfather says it is my berserkr heritage. But it's not quite the same. It's more about situations than people, some sense of danger."

"Gees, so everyone here is some Z-men superhero, except me? Oh great," Jack shrugged.

Ryan and Rex laughed, thinking how like the Jack they had always known. Would he ever grow up? How many times had Grandfather counseled him to have patience, to seek the peace, that his time would come? But that was Jack.

"Anyway, I'm not sure how to explain it, but I got close to McBride's kid. Callie is special. I don't know how or what, but I felt something. The old man could see I had a soft spot for his kid. Then... When my Grandmother died, well, I lost it a bit. He must have seen that, or maybe he was just desperate."

"He came to me, offered me money, said he just wanted to get the girl and her mother somewhere safe."

"And you believed him?" Jaycee asked.

"Yeah, I knew he was telling the truth about that. It may be the only decent thing that man ever did. But he wasn't lying about that. I don't know how he ended up dead. Especially in Sebida. That's the thing; almost three years ago, my cousin was kidnapped on her way to school."

"But the Dallas police dismissed the whole...blessed...thing. They told her mother that she had probably just run away. Bebe had never missed a day of school in her life, she was an honor roll student, but because she was black, they couldn't be bothered..."

Grandfather smiled as he held up Angel's stick figure-ish drawing in brown crayon, with black spirals for hair, a blue skirt, and a bright red backpack.