“Let’s let the men run through the house for a moment,” Thorne said. He spoke into his radio, and an agent appeared from Alice’s house with a small black case and disappeared into Laura’s front door.
After the agent had allowed them in from the porch, Laura made a pot of coffee while the three agents and two children watched from the counter. Sean held a wet cloth to his eyes, but he wasn’t damaged much beyond the humiliation.
“Reb, Erin,” she started, “this is Thorne Greer. He’s a DEA agent who…” She thought for a second. “Wait a minute, didn’t you retire? Weren’t you bodyguarding some actor?”
“Arnold Murphy for the last three years.”
“Really?” Erin said. “You know Arnie Murphy? Jesus H. Christ!”
“Erin!” Laura snapped.
“What does he need bodyguards for?” Reb wondered. “He’s tough as rubber snakes.”
Thorne smiled. “Not in real life. He’s as scared as anybody else. People are always wanting to see how tough he really is.” He looked at Laura. “The entire Green Team has been recommissioned.”
“Not… Paul, too?”
Thorne nodded.
“My daddy?” Erin said, disbelief cracking her voice. “He’s in the DEA again? Where is he?”
Reb leaned against the counter. “He couldn’t do that. He never leaves his place in Montana. He’s got brain problems and stuff.”
Thorne smiled at Reb. “Just this one time,” he said. “Temporary assignment.”
“Why?” Reb asked. “How come?”
“Because there is a very, very mean person who is hurting people. Your father has agreed to help find him because we can’t do it without him.”
“The man who shot him?” Reb asked.
Laura straightened. “Reb, the men who shot your father were…” She was reluctant to say “were killed” because Thorne and Joe McLean were among the ones who had killed them. “Darling, Thorne was there. Tell him, Thorne. Tell him why that’s impossible.”
“Actually, Laura, he’s right. Reb, it’s not the men who shot your father, it’s the man who told them to.”
“See,” Erin said. “You don’t have any idea. You were tiny. You don’t even remember Daddy’s being in the hospital.”
Laura turned her back on the agent so her children wouldn’t see the panic in her eyes. We are in danger.
“Is my daddy coming here?” Reb asked, the excitement rising to his eyes.
“Is he?” Erin echoed. “Mother, is Daddy coming?” The excitement was contagious.
“We’ll see… I don’t know… Thorne?” Laura said. In light of what she had run into in Montana, the idea of Paul’s walking through the door of her house seemed no more likely than Wolf’s being invited to sing at the Met. “You kids have homework to do,” she said. “First, Erin, clean the leaves out of the pool.”
“I want to hear-” Erin started.
Laura’s voice cut her off, startling the agents. “The leaves, Erin! Reb, you help her. We can talk about all this later!” The kids didn’t argue. Laura was on the edge, and they knew better than to press.
Laura and Thorne watched them leave. She poured them another cup of coffee and led Thorne to her studio. He sat at the table that held Laura’s paints and brushes and stared at the paintings on the wall.
“Nice work,” Thorne said. “Is that Paul?”
“I’ve only got a few minutes.” She crossed her arms and leaned against the window frame. “Why don’t you cut the crap and tell me exactly what’s going on. Who’re we in danger from?”
Thorne began with the deaths of his divorced wife and their son. Then he told her about Joe’s family. By the time he told her about what had happened to the Lees, she was crying.
“Who? You said the man who set Paul up?” she asked.
“Martin Fletcher,” he said.
“Martin Fletcher! You people haven’t found him yet?”
“He’s back in the country.”
“Oh, dear God,” she said. “So did Paul send you?”
“Not initially. The local DEA has been watching the house for two weeks since the Lee hits. The infrared sensors and the laser listening post went up a week ago. Paul only came in a few days ago. He opened the doors in D.C. to allow us to… work the case.”
“ ‘Us’ as in you and…”
“Rainey and Joe.”
“The very people he has sinned against. That seems a little unusual, Thorne.”
He averted his eyes.
“And you’re watching us from Alice’s house?”
“She gave us permission. She’s extending her vacation a couple of days to accommodate us. We needed to be close. We thought you might be bugged.”
“Am I?”
“Not anymore.”
“How do you know?”
“My man got them all.”
“Bugs? Martin was in here? He was sneaking around in this house?” She covered her mouth for a few seconds, her eyes saucers of horror.
Thorne shifted his weight. “Martin knew all about our families’ personal schedules. He planned George Lee’s hit to the point of intercepting him on a scout trip in the Smokies. He knew where the boys were going to be and when; he was waiting on the trail in a uniform. If he had followed the car with George in it, he couldn’t have been ready with a uniform. He had to have scouted the trail. It was smooth… excuse the term. Somehow he got their confidence… the targets never knew what hit them. Course, none of them knew Martin. He had to have had bugs in the house to know what he had to have known.”
“Why didn’t you warn us?” Her eyes were cold, accusatory.
“It was for your own good.”
“Our own good? We’re bait!” Laura was suddenly angry. “You’re waving my family in front of that psychopath!”
“No. Well, actually, I suppose that’s one interpretation.”
“One interpretation? What’s another?”
“You weren’t in any danger. We’ve been monitoring the house. We’ve been listening to every…” He stopped, realizing what he had said.
“You have your own bugs in my house?” Laura was horrified. “You just swept to see if he did, too? You have a court order?”
“No. We use laser devices aimed at the windows. Like drumheads, windows.”
“This is America, Thorne. We have rights just like everyone else out there. So the government will let people exact revenge on killers and tap the lives of innocent people to further those aims, and it’s okay? Because Paul can pull a few strings?”
“Our devices are strictly to monitor for any unusual activity or panic situations, lasers, cameras watching the perimeters. We aren’t taping except for the loop, which is two hours. Then it records over the last… it’s a… loop.” He realized that he was spinning his finger in a circle and stopped.
She seemed to calm. “How well can you hear what’s going on in here?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“I want to know to what extent… my family is being protected.”
“Well, when it’s quiet, we can pick up your brush strokes. We know Reid snores and there’s a bird that whistles and something that squeaks like a hamster running in a wheel that needs oiling.”
Laura blushed and put her hand to her mouth. “My God, Thorne! My bedroom?”
“The devices pick up the entire house.”
“But he was listening to us? What did you find?”
“Several functioning transmitters. Two in the kitchen area, one in the phone and another in the light fixture,
