To Megan’s abject horror, she saw as he walked down the short stairs towards her, that he was not wearing a balaclava!
This was it, he was finally coming to kill her. What else could it mean that he was going to allow her to see his face after all this time? Tears began to stream down her cheeks and she looked around once more, praying for those same miracles as before. She looked to the walls, the stairs and behind him the open door. Was there a way she could get around him and run through that open door?
“Hello Megan,” he said when he reached the foot of the stairs. “I think it’s time we got to know one another.”
Despite her fear, Megan was somewhat eased by the way he said this. His face was bright and cheery and there was no hint of malice in the eyes that gleamed in the low light. She was surprised to find that he was a handsome man. With chiselled features, the only detraction to his looks, in her mind at least, being that he was completely bald.
“Who are you?” she asked, firstly out of curiosity of the person who had taken her from her life, and then suddenly a new thought came to her. Maybe this wasn’t him! Was this someone here to rescue her? But this thought faded as quickly as it had come.
“My name is Dwight Spalding,” he said and it was a name Megan was sure she had heard before but she couldn’t put her finger on where.
“What do you want from me?” she asked, eyeing the door at the top of the stairs momentarily.
“All of your questions will be answered in due course,” he said and there was an air of sincerity in his tone that was unmistakable. “I’m going to make a deal with you first though, Megan,” he said, “I won’t lie to you, if you promise the same to me. Do we have a deal?” His eyes were more serious now but something in his voice told her he was being completely genuine.
“What do I have to lie about?” she said almost spitting the words out, “I’ve been with you for five months or more!”
“I don’t just mean now,” he replied with the patience of a father explaining something to a young child, “I mean from now on.” He looked at her a moment longer and repeated, “Do we have a deal?”
Megan thought about it a moment, wondering if this was some kind of trap, but if it was she couldn't see it. What the hell, she thought, she didn’t have anything to lose.
“You’ll answer everything I ask you truthfully?” she clarified.
“I will,” he said, “Once the time is right for the particular answer.” Megan looked at him longer, so odd to be seeing his face for the first time. Where had she heard his name before?
“Okay, we have a deal,” she said. Spalding stepped forward with a big grin on his face and extended an ungloved hand for her to shake. Megan flinched a moment as he stepped over and then looked down at the offered hand and then back to his face as she took it and with a single pump sealed their deal.
Chapter 16
AS IF WAITING FOR SARAH’S team at the FBI to decipher the last part of the ‘Agrarian’s’ message was not annoying enough, Tyler had just gotten off one of his secret cell phones to one of his informants. The new was grim and unexpected. Danny Kercheck had somehow managed to kill himself in prison, or wherever it was he was being held.
This was very disappointing for many reasons, not least the death of a young man who’d been clearly manipulated by a much greater and evil mind. On a different path, Danny could have a great life. On a professional level (and he was sure for Sarah too) this was a great loss of information. The things Danny must have known that were now lost forever.
There were other questions about Danny’s death, Tyler also knew would never be answered. How did he manage to kill himself in what must have a very secure place- he was being held on counter -terrorism charges after all, and those guys don’t mess around. The fleeting idea that Spalding could somehow have a way in, a willing participant or even unwilling one to do the deed for him. It was unlikely but not entirely out of the question. Look at what Karl Stanver and Des Roche had done while under Spalding’s control, albeit in a different way than Danny had been.
Tyler wondered if Sarah would hear about this herself through official channels, but he doubted it. He would be the one to tell her, and he supposed the sooner the better. It might go some way towards solidifying the trust between them and make her less likely to hold out on him.
It was frustrating knowing all these snippets of information and half-truths, and even more so the idea the rest of the information could be lost forever. Tyler found he was pacing the room as he had these thoughts and he looked out the window to the river and the trees of the forest beyond. A run in the woods would be just the thing he needed right now.
After changing quickly into his running gear and doing a few warm up stretches at the back door, Tyler set off in the sunny morning in to the dappled route through the trees he often used. The air beneath the canopy was cooler and it felt good for his body to get rid of the pent up energy and tension of the day so far. If there was one thing Tyler could honestly say he really liked, it was being out
