“Me too. But we’ll celebrate the next time I’m in town.”
“Christmas? Did you book your flight yet?” she asked.
“No, I’m expecting the exact dates of my leave any day. But I know I’ll have a week off after Christmas. Last I heard, we all have to be in the office on Christmas Eve. A few of us will have to cover for a couple of days to a week after that. If I can get out Christmas morning, I will.”
“And you’re not planning to go see your parents at all?” She honestly didn’t understand how he could claim to be close to them yet not spend any holidays with them.
“No, not this year. My parents are living the retirement dream. They travel constantly. My brother and I haven’t been available most holidays over the last ten years because of our leave cycles. Spending holidays together is just something my family doesn’t do, Donna.”
“I’m glad Laura Lee always made it home around the holidays. It would have killed my mom if she hadn’t.”
Wilson knocked on the windshield from within the car, getting his attention. As all was quiet, Burke stepped outside and leaned against Valerie Butler’s car to make the quick call to Donna. “Hey, sorry, have to go. I’ll call you later.”
“Okay, bye,” she said, and then the line went dead.
Donna’s concern for Rich’s safety spiked due to the abrupt end to the call. She knew what job he did, what job her sister did. Her sister had been shot in front of their mother’s house last Thanksgiving, when the danger they’d been in found her. Laura Lee was forced to kill the man in her mom’s house. Rich had been with her and the kids, and he left suddenly when he got the call that Laura Lee and her boyfriend, Brad, were in trouble. Laura Lee’s wound was just a graze, a flesh wound, both Rich and Laura Lee insisted, like that made it not so bad that her sister had been shot. Both Rich and Laura Lee refused to fully explain their jobs at the time.
When Rich was back for Christmas, just a month later, Donna forced the issue, and they had a very honest conversation about his job. Donna grew up in a police household. She understood service and a job protecting those who could not protect themselves. But she also knew that what Rich and Laura Lee did was on a whole different level than what her police officer father’s job had been. She promised Rich that she could handle it, knowing she could not.
Rich must have sensed it. He pulled back, insisting on the need for them to take any relationship slowly. And it had been agonizingly slow for Donna. They kissed. They snuggled on the couch while they watched television on the few occasions he’d been in town over the last year. But the physical relationship hadn’t progressed much further. Even worse for Donna, he slept on the couch when he was there. How she yearned for him to lie in bed with her and hold her in his arms!
In contrast, emotionally, it was a close relationship. They spoke, video chatted, or text messaged almost daily. He was supportive and encouraged her, be it as a parent, with her fitness journey, or in her education to pursue employment and a better life for herself and her kids. And on the days that they talked, when she was down, he knew right away and drew out of her what was wrong. He offered solid solutions and encouragement to resolve an issue, and he made her laugh which helped get her out of a funky mood.
She especially appreciated that he was a constant presence in the kids’ lives, always asking about them, talking to them, and encouraging them, especially the boys. He’d told her how important he thought it was that he personally maintained a relationship with the boys. They needed to know he cared and that he wasn’t going anywhere. They’d been deserted by too many men in their young lives.
Thinking about what her mom had said, she had to agree. Emotional love and sexual love were two different things. His actions did show emotional love. The problem was, Donna wanted a complete relationship that included physical relations.
Charlie
After disconnecting the call with Donna, Burke opened the car door and slid into the front passenger seat that had been vacated by Rogers, who still surveilled the front doors of the urgent care center. “Any developments?” he asked Wilson.
Wilson turned the engine over and shifted to drive. “Yeah, Rogers reports that our girl just exited the building through the front doors and got into a white SUV driven by her husband.”
“Per her file, he drives a pickup truck,” Burke said.
“Yeah, Rogers called the plates into Ops to run ‘em,” Wilson said.
Wilson circled to the front of the building and momentarily stopped the vehicle as Rogers got into the back seat. “The white Tahoe turned right,” Rogers said, pointing in the direction it hadgone. “We should be able to catch up pretty quickly. They don’t have too much of a lead.”
Wilson pulled out onto the street and stopped behind the white SUV containing Valerie and Tom Butler, as they had gotten stopped at the next stoplight.
“We need a second car,” Burke said.
“Didn’t think we’d need to tail our supposed client,” Wilson said. “But I agree. We’ll get one as soon as we can.”
They were easily able to tail the SUV to the municipal airport where it pulled up to a hangar at the far end of the row of hangars. They drove past it and drove behind another hangar across the paved taxiway between the two rows of identical hangars that faced each other. Then Wilson looped the car around and parked beside one of the hangars so that they could observe.
Several minutes later, a Cessna Citation, which had just landed, pulled up to the hangar beside the white SUV. Burke brought up the airport’s information on his phone, as he’d been surprised by the size of the plane as it landed. He emitted a whistle. “Says here the runway length at this airstrip is thirty-four hundred feet. That landing was tight for that aircraft’s weight and landing requirements; must be a hell of a pilot at the controls.”
“Talented or stupid,” Tessman remarked.
“Or engaging in something illegal and willing to take the risk,” Rogers added.
Wilson had his phone set to camera mode, and he snapped a few magnified pictures of the scene, including the tail number on the plane. “It would be great if that is the case and we can document it.” The agency phones had the best cameras money could buy.
The four men watched as Valerie and Tom Butler rushed to the plane’s cabin door that was just opening. Both still wore scrubs. A man appeared in the open doorway, half-cradling, half-dragging another limp, lifeless looking man. The Butlers took him under his arms from the other man and dragged him to their vehicle where they, along with the man who’d been holding him in the doorway to the plane, helped to lay him across the back seat. Then the Butlers hopped back into the vehicle, and it sped away.
“What the fuck?” Burke voiced for all four men.
