“Hello?” I barked into the phone, stretching the handset’s cord almost to its breaking point while I spoke.
The warble of the alarm system’s countdown tone was speeding up as it approached its armed state. I knew if I let it get that far I’d end up setting off a motion detector, and then I’d have cops crawling all over my house yet again. Extending as far as I could I leaned across the chair and quickly stabbed in the master code then punched the off button, sending the raucous electronic beeping into silence.
Unfortunately, as annoying as the tone was, I would have preferred it to what I heard coming back at me across the phone line.
“You bastard!” An angry, heavily accented voice struck my ear with the insult. “What have you done?!”
This was absolutely the last thing I needed at the moment, but I couldn’t say that I hadn’t been expecting it all along. I just wished that I’d checked the caller ID before snatching up the handset with such haste because now I was committed to the call even though this definitely wasn’t the time for it.
My father-in-law Shamus O’Brien had never made a secret of his dislike for me. Ostensibly it was due to my religious beliefs, and given his tirades, I had no reason to doubt they truly were the cause. In fact, he had stated on more than one occasion that he was firmly convinced that it was I who had corrupted his only daughter. The fact that she was already following a Pagan path long before I met her didn’t seem to have any bearing on his conviction either.
With my public identity as a Witch having become even higher profile over the past few years because of my involvement with the police, what had long been at least an outward tolerance of me on his part had slowly and surely waned. Given his staunch, though distorted views, I wasn’t at all shocked that he would blame me for Felicity’s current predicament.
I tried not to let myself react to his immediate attack and instead fought to remain composed, answering with a simple, “Calm down, Shamus. Believe me, I’m just as upset about this as you are.”
“Why should I calm down, then, you bastard?! Felicity is all over the news. They’re callin’ her a murderin’ psychopath.”
“I know they are.”
“And then what do I see? You, you bastard. Just standin’ there chit-chattin’ with the police and smokin’ a cigarette. Standin’ there for the whole world to see, just like it’s another day. Just like nothing’s happened!”
Suddenly my decision to remain on the front porch instead of hiding out on the back deck away from the news cameras didn’t seem very prudent. I had probably known subconsciously that it would come back around to bite me, I just hadn’t given any thought to which set of teeth were going to be sinking into my flesh. Of course, I suppose that mystery was now solved.
My gut reaction was to snap back at him, but I forced myself to offer an explanation instead. “I think you’re misinterpreting what you saw. I had a half dozen crime scene guys tearing this place apart, and I’d just been ejected from my own house for fighting with them. I was trying to calm down before they arrested me too.”
“Cac capaill! They should have arrested you instead of my daughter!”
“No, they shouldn’t have arrested either of us.”
“Damnu ort! What did you do to her?!
The Gaelic curse wishing damnation upon me wasn’t unfamiliar. Felicity was prone to slipping into the old language whenever she was angry, just like her father was doing now. In fact, her personal list of favorite vulgarities mirrored his, so I’d heard most of them before. Of course, the imprecations usually weren’t directed at me as they were in this case.
“I didn’t do anything to her, Shamus. You know that.”
“Aye, I don’t believe it. You and your godless cult did something to my colleen. You brainwashed her and forced her to do some Satanic sacrifice or something, didn’t you!?”
He didn’t even give me a chance to respond to the ludicrous accusation before starting in again.
“ANSWER ME, YOU BASTARD! THAT’S WHAT YOU DID, ISN’T IT?!”
“Listen to me, Shamus,” I interjected sharply. “Number one, she didn’t kill anyone, much less get forced to do anything against her will. Number two, you sure as hell aren’t going to help her situation if you go around telling everyone that she did do it but only because I forced her to.”
There was a brief pause, and I hoped that I had managed to get my point across to him. When he finally spoke again, he was somewhat more reserved, though you could tell the anger was still seething behind his words, just waiting for a chance to escape.
“Why didn’t you call me? Why did I have to hear about this from the television, then?”
“I’ve been just a little busy, believe it not.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my tone. “As you noted, my wife just got arrested.”
“Well, what are you doing about this?” he demanded without actually acknowledging what I had just said.
“I’m trying to find out what’s going on myself. Our lawyer is already at the station…”
He interrupted, “Aye, is he any good, this lawyer of yours?”
“He’s a she and yes, she’s good.”
“Aye, well it doesn’t really matter. I’ll be sendin’ my own then anyway.”
“Shamus, don’t turn this into a bigger circus than it already is. If Jackie doesn’t think she can handle this, she’ll be the first one to say so. Then, if I need to, I’ll hire another attorney.”
“I’ll be sendin’ mine,” he repeated flatly.
I started to object again but decided against it. At least he seemed to have calmed a bit and was apparently trying to be constructive instead of just placing blame and swearing at me.
“Fine,” I told him. “Just tell your attorney to get in touch with Jacquelyn Hunt. She’s got the lead on this, and we don’t need any confusion causing problems.”
“I’ll tell him your girl is there, but I’ll be wanting him to take over.”
“Shamus… Dammit…Can’t you…Sheesh!” I stammered out a halting mish-mash of verbiage as I tried to beat down the desire to climb through the phone line and throttle the man. I knew he wasn’t going to listen to me, and this whole conversation was about as futile as trying to empty an ocean with a teaspoon and a paper cup, so I decided it was time for it to end. “Listen, I’m going to have to get off the line here. When you called I was just heading out the door to go down to the police station myself.”
My bid for a quick exit did nothing more than set fire to his temper once again.
“Don’t you dare!” he snapped. “You stay away from my daughter. You’ve done enough to her already!”
It had become a violent internal struggle for me to keep an even temper during this conversation. I thought I had been more than reasonable with him, even if we had been under the best of circumstances. There was no doubt, however, that the current conditions were a far cry from the best.
I simply couldn’t hold my tongue any longer, and my own anger rose to the surface, “Dammit, Shamus. She may be your daughter, but she’s also my wife!”
“If I have anything to say about it, she won’t be for much longer!”
Confusion filled my voice. “Excuse me?!”
“Don’t play stupid. I’ve figured you out. I know you’ve brainwashed my daughter and turned her against me. I’ve already talked to someone about taking care of it!”
It only took a fraction of a second for his words to sink in. “You’ve got to be fuc… Deprogramming? Is that what you’re talking about, Shamus?! Deprogramming?!”
“They call it exit counseling and thought reform therapy.”
“They call it that when it is done by an ethical, licensed therapist and the subject is willing,” I spat. “If you kidnap her and do it against her will, it’s deprogramming, pure and simple.”
“It doesn’t matter what you call it.”
“It sure as hell matters that she doesn’t need it,” I countered. “Not to mention that it’s also illegal.”
“I don’t care about that. She needs to be rescued.”
“From what? Who? Me?”
“Aye.”
“Have you lost your goddamned mind?”
“No, but apparently you’ve taken my daughter’s from her, and I’m going to get it back. And then once she’s in her right mind, she’ll be getting you out of her life, of that you can be sure.”
