Page 5

Mason shifted in his hospital bed with a groan. Nobody was here to hear him, so it was something he could just let out for the first time in a very long time. It was freeing in a way. When a knock came on his hospital room door, he called out, “Come in.” Markus walked in, a big smile on his face. “Hey, Markus,” Mason greeted him, with a laugh at seeing his old friend. “I’ve got to tell you, being a patient sucks.”

“It does,” Markus agreed, “but do you know what sucks worse?”

“I guess you’re about to tell me,” Mason replied.

“Knowing you might never wake up.”

“Ah, crap. Trust you to put it in perspective.”

“Yeah, trust me is right,” Markus said, with a smile. “Tesla’s been through the wringer and back. Things were ugly for quite a while, and just getting you back alive was the dream. Getting you back whole seemed like too much to even hope for.”

“I know. I was hoping she would go home and have a real nap in a real bed, but chances are she’s probably doing laundry and things like that.”

“I think they’re already on their way back,” Markus noted. “I also heard from Jasper.”

Mason narrowed his gaze at him. “And?”

“So far, the grandson Greg is spilling the beans on all this granddad’s misdeeds for several decades. The old man acted like some mafia boss, killing people or having them killed just because he wanted to. Greg seems to think that’s a fair exchange, now that his grandfather’s in jail and not going anywhere and now that Greg’s not getting the money his grandfather promised him. It will take a fair bit to confirm that Richard, the grandfather, is behind all these shitty murders because he didn’t always pull the trigger himself. Even if so, he’ll get a couple dozen murder charges added on his record. Plus, Greg committed some murders himself.”

Mason stared at him in shock. “Seriously?”

Markus nodded. “Richard and Greg would both say that their victims weren’t even people. Greg tells the story about how his grandfather had an argument with an illegal immigrant who was working for him, and, when the guy wanted to collect his payment for work done, Richard just killed him rather than paying him.”

“Crap,” Mason muttered. “How the hell has Richard gotten away with it?”

“Early on they lived a long way out, while he built up cattle ranches. Then, as he became more interested in politics and running the town, Richard cleaned up his act somewhat and started hiring thugs to pressure everybody to vote for him. If they didn’t,… well, the consequences were severe.”

“Damn,” Mason muttered in a hard tone. “He’s been running amok for a long time.”

“And the funny thing is, he stopped when he got too old. He basically just couldn’t do anything himself anymore, so he wasn’t doing anything that made people afraid of him. The years just went by, and nobody remembered what Richard used to be like. He settled into an anonymity of sorts, where he could do whatever he needed to do on the side. That gave him cover, and, if he was good about it, he got away with it—nothing like he used to when people were around to ask questions. However, when nobody was asking questions, he ran things the way he wanted them.”

“Now, he’d been in that old folks’ home for what? A good six, seven years?”

“No, it was closer to fifteen, I think. He may have ended up there because he acted up where he was living before— something about trouble with the ladies. He was in that home for decades.”

“Of course he would have been difficult with the ladies. That’s how we ended up in this mess, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it would seem so.”

“Have we tracked down any of those ladies?”

“No, not yet,” Markus shared. “We’re working on that right now.”

“I would be interested in that list,” Mason said.

“You think it’s important?”

“All the angles are important, but that one would give us some answers. We need to get to the old-timers, as nobody else even knows or understands what he’s done. So nobody else has any solid clues or anything to offer.”

“Right.” Markus frowned.

“If you go the hassled women route, we should track them down to confirm Richard didn’t have more kids. Plus, we need to gather a list of any missing persons in Richard’s sphere too.”

“I think Jasper has the team on it.”

“Good enough,” Mason said. “Next I need to wrap my head around the idea that somebody in the military may have been behind a sniper shooting me, involving two naval investigators no less—or at least protecting the guy behind it all.”

“Yeah, remember how Granddad Richard was former military, so he had his hooks in here too. Oh, yeah, and the brass is having a heyday with that right now too,” he shared, with a big grin. “Of course it’s also cemented the job Jasper holds now.”

“I wonder if he even wants it though,” Mason muttered, shaking his head, “I tried to convince him to come out west before, and he wouldn’t even consider it.”

“Your accident apparently was enough to convince him now.” Markus gave Mason a big grin.

“I’m not at all sure that is the case. That would probably have been all about Tesla. She’s pretty hard to say no to.”

“That woman does know what she wants and how to get it.”

“She does, indeed,” Mason confirmed, with a gentle smile. “Now the question is, how do we stop whatever the hell is going on right now, so we can all move on with our lives?”

“According to the grandson Greg, he doesn’t know anybody else who could be actively involved in his grandfather’s revenge tour. Greg thought he was the only one left, and he seemed quite miffed at finding out about Steve possibly being a legitimate son of Richard.”

“Of course. How old is this Steve guy?”

“He’s right in-between the two grandsons.”

“Right, and Richard is no saint, and someone told me that his wife died, leaving him two daughters, when Richard wanted sons.”

“Steve confessed—to help reduce the arson and attempted murder charges against him—how he was also promised a fair chunk of change by Richard. Steve’s received some money from Richard over the years, unlike the grandson Greg.”

“So, what did Greg get?”

“Not much. Greg got his expenses covered but nothing more.”

“Granddad was playing the two of them back and forth, huh ?”

“He was. Whether you like it or not, Steve had spunk, and he got away with shit.”

“He got away with too much shit,” Mason declared. “Any chance of his being Richard’s secret son? One that wouldn’t be above squeezing good ole dad for cash in exchange for silence?”

“Considering that Steve’s fortysomething today, then Richard was old even back then to father Steve. Still, forty years ago people could get away with all kinds of stuff that you would like to think they couldn’t get by with now.”

“Maybe they can’t, or maybe they still can, and we just haven’t caught them.”

“I would like to think not,” Markus stated, with a snort. “An awful lot of us are on this right now, making sure we get the last of it wrapped up.”

Mason nodded.

Markus added, “I can get the list of potential women together who could be Steve’s mom, but it’ll only be conjecture for the most part. So far nothing points to anyone working at the hospital—at least not someone with Steve’s last name.” He frowned at that.

“Richard was forced to change nursing homes about fifteen years ago, right?” Mason asked. “That randy old geezer could have plenty of offspring, some which he may not even be aware of. Plus, at this point, we’re working on people’s fading memories and even the gossip from back in the day, whether fifteen years ago or forty. That will make getting any viable information that much harder to confirm with a second source.”

Markus suggested, “If the naval database is up to date, we might find Richard’s DNA. If so, we could compare it to Steve’s. Jasper has got the team checking on that as well.”

Mason shook his head. “But we already have an inkling that those two might be related. How about all the other women Richard may have assaulted? After all, I heard how Grandpa was hitting on women and not in a nice way, even at his current nursing home. What was he like in his youth?… Shit,” Mason muttered. “The old guy was a dirty old man his whole life, it seems.”

Markus chuckled. “It comes down to whether we’re ready to call this a day or if it’ll just be something we still have to keep an eye out for. More offspring out there could mean more to collect on a promise of money later for killing you now.”

“That won’t make Tesla happy.”

“No, it won’t. It won’t make any of us happy,” Markus murmured. “We all want a definitive end to this, so we can feel like it’s done and over with. Otherwise we’re all in limbo.”

Mason muttered, “It never quite works the way we think it should.”

“We can still hope. It will be lunchtime soon. Are you okay to eat lunch here?”

Mason mentioned with a dry expression, “As far as I know, I have no dietary restrictions. So, if you want to bring me a nice rare steak, baked potato with all the trimmings, and a shot of bourbon, I won’t argue.”

Markus gave him a big fat grin. “In that case, just give me a few minutes—minus the whiskey.” Then he stepped back out of the room, leaving Mason feeling even more positive about the future.

If only he could get the doctor to sign off on this, he could head home, then really start getting better. There would be something completely different about being at home as opposed to being here as an invalid—something he had never been very good at.

Still, when Markus stepped back in again, he smiled and announced, “Lunch is coming soon.”

“Good, I hope it’s something decent.”

“Oh, it’ll be decent,” he declared, with a laugh.

Mason grinned at him. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Hey, it’s not a bad thing to see you forced to take a rest like this.”

He winced. “Yeah, there is,” he argued. “It’s terrible and painful as hell.”

“I get it,” he muttered, “but we are getting somewhere.”

“I want to believe you. I do.”

“Yet, you don’t… not quite,” he noted, with a mocking look.

“I do and I don’t. I want this to be over with, completely over with.”

“Yeah?” Markus gave him a challenging look. “I like the idea of looking for more of Richard’s offspring by tracking down the females from Richard’s former nursing home and whatever leads can be gained there, but I’m afraid the information will be incredibly unreliable.”

“So, how do we find a reliable source? How do get a viable sample pool, so to speak?”

“The only birth records we have any documentation on are the ones that we know about.”

“But that would mean we have the mother putting down the father’s name, but what about the births that were not attended or where the fathers weren’t listed on the birth certificate?”

“That is the concern. I wonder how many of those are out there?”

“I would say a lot, considering the kind of guy Richard is. I’m not sure he was as much of a bastard that way as we think he may be, but I do think that, when it comes to children, he may have spurned some or maybe doesn’t even know about others, and that would be a different story.”

“If somebody wants something from him, they must provide proof. Even so, I see Richard as the type to investigate regardless, just to confirm.”

Mason frowned. “Even proving a blood relation may not be all that simple. DNA testing needs something to compare to. If the parent or the child is not in the DNA database, no connection is there to be found.”

“Point taken.” Markus considered that. “Though I wonder…”

“Wonder what?” Mason asked, eyeing him intently.

“Just wondering, what would be the incentive?”

Mason suggested, “The old man didn’t have a son and really wanted one.”

Markus stated, “And we don’t know whether his wife had any more children or not. She predeceased him. I’m not sure how long ago.”

“We need to find out all that,” Mason stated. “Do you want to make some more phone calls?”

“Yeah, I’m on it.” Markus stepped back outside the room again. When he returned, a bright smile lit up his face. “We were right to check on his wife, as she had a hysterectomy after the second daughter was born, so she couldn’t have any more kids.”

“So, that could have started him looking for another sex partner strictly for breeding purposes,” Mason pointed out.

“It’s certainly possible, not that I particularly like that statement.”

“No, and hate it all you like, but I think the old goat would give it a try.”

“There’s also the chance that he wasn’t doing very well in that department.”

“I would agree with that too. He could have had a dozen kids, unless he just wasn’t that fertile himself.”

“Do we even know if the two daughters were confirmed to be his?” Markus frowned.

Mason nodded. “And getting proof of that could be pretty challenging. We can’t just go around asking for DNA samples on a whim.”

“Having a son would be the ultimate victory on Richard’s part. Even if he fathered a boy, the old man would have kept that a secret from his wife,” Markus pointed out, “right up until he didn’t want it to be a secret.”

Mason swore at that. “That’s very true. Richard could just as easily have made sure that nobody would know until time to read his will.”

“And if this secret son—whether it be Steve or twelve other guys—was already getting money from Richard, what was in it for these secret sons to do Richard’s dirty work? Like why do anything for this old man, supposedly your father, who never acknowledged you, until now?” Markus pondered that while just looking around, without even seeing the room. “If Steve is Richard’s son, does Steve know it? Was Steve also promised an inheritance, like Greg, the grandson?… I would like to talk to him myself.”

“You and me both,” Mason declared, his tone deepening in fury. “That old bastard put my life on the line, and he didn’t give a crap who else he hurt in the process.”

“Exactly,” Markus agreed. “ Why is the question that we need to be focusing on. If Richard wanted to take you out, I understand the revenge element. But why wait all this time? This is something Richard could have resolved four years ago, when his grandson Gabe invaded your house and that piece of shit died in the process.”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Mason agreed.

“Who the hell knows? Maybe Grandpa Richard thinks revenge is best served cold. I mean, he’s going up against the US Navy’s finest here. Can somebody that angry wait four years? Has Richard just been biding his time, thinking your guard will be down? But, hell, the sniper was on base, at the base airport no less, where there is bound to be foot traffic, all of the military variety. It seems totally illogical to me to wait, much less to wait to take revenge in an airport on a US Navy base.”

“Or just the kind of revenge on a worldwide stage that the old man wanted.” Mason shrugged.

Markus sighed. “Right. Maybe he’s just that kind of an asshole who’s used his money as a carrot to keep his minions under his thumb, doing his beck and call all this time, all for promises of a big payoff in the future, waiting to run across a skilled sniper.”

“Make some phone calls,” Mason said. “Get Jasper on that secret child theory too.”

Markus nodded. “Let me talk to Jasper. I’ll have him give you a call.” Markus stepped back out again, leaving Mason frustrated and upset that he couldn’t just reach out himself. Yeah, Jasper wanted Mason hands-off, at least a little. Mason had to chuckle at that. No way Mason was hands-off now that he was fully conscious. Also no reason he couldn’t have a laptop.

He looked over and found Tesla’s laptop just sitting there, and he smiled, reaching for it. Just then his cell phone rang. “Jasper,” he greeted him in delight.

“Hey, imagine my surprise when I was told to call you.”

“Yeah, I’m awake, and that makes all the difference. I’m feeling a ton better, and the doctor’s contemplating sending me home, though obviously not to active duty or anything even close. Still, I’ll take going home any day over staying at the hospital.”

“You’re not kidding,” Jasper agreed, sounding thrilled. “That is bound to make Tesla’s day.”

“I think she was more pissed off, thinking I had threatened the doctor or something along that line.”

“Did you?” Jasper asked curiously.

Mason laughed. “No. Didn’t need to. Surprise, surprise, he thought I was doing just fine.”

“And that is the good news.” Jasper chuckled. “I just got off the phone from talking with Markus.”

“Yeah, I’m just wondering if we’ve researched the angle of any illegitimate kids, especially knowing Richard’s desire to have a son.”

“I’ve spoken to Steve about it. He seems to think nobody else is related just because of the way Richard—his father in his mind —treated him. He also told me how the old man referred to Steve as his secret son, almost like a payback.”

“Oh, now that’s interesting,” Mason noted. “Why would he say that?”

“I don’t know, and Steve didn’t know anything about how being Richard’s son was payback. Steve’s already quite pissed off about everything else his father has supposedly done. He appears to be close to Richard, and defensive too.”

Mason asked, “How much of being close to his father was because he could do things his grandfather wanted done?”

“That would be my take on it, and, old coots like that, they’ve always got to be ruling the roost.”

“Have you talked to the old man himself about it?” Mason asked Jasper.

“No, I will go talk to him about it now. Every time I get in there, he’s even less cooperative.”

Mason snorted. “Richard might not be cooperative, but, if he realizes that we now know about Steve and are pushing for more information and asking people about other offspring, Richard might not like the direction we take it.”

“Oh, I hear you. I’ll go talk to him here in a few minutes, and I’ll get back to you.” Jasper ended the call.

Mason felt a whole lot better. Following his own lines of inquiry, he quickly started looking into Tesla’s notes and realized she had similar searches going. “Damn, Tesla. You’re good, aren’t you, gal?”

When she responded with a laugh, he looked up in surprise to see her at the doorway, and right behind her was Evan, followed by Markus bringing in a trolley with real food. Mason smelled it a mile away. He sniffed the air and moaned. “Oh my God. I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.”

“And just think,” Tesla muttered, with a wry look in his direction, “I had a tuna sandwich.”

He stared at her with surprise and pointed. “I’ll share.”

“No, no, no,” she said, with a wave of her hand, “you need to eat. Just the fact that you organized this says an awful lot about the mental condition you’re in.”

“While lots of swelling caused other issues, the doc didn’t find any actual damage to my brain,” he shared, “so I’m thankful for that.”

“You’re not kidding, and, if you can organize something like this meal from your bed”—she shook her head—“obviously you’re doing much better.”

“I’ve been telling you that,” he reminded her, with a bright smile. “I’ve been telling you that the whole time. Now I just need to go home.”

“And you will,” she agreed, “but not until you’re cleared.”

He cut into the steak, and the taste and the aroma just blew him away. He sat here, chewing slowly, absolutely loving every bite, while the men looked on, grinning. “I had no idea how much real food made a difference.” He looked like a kid in a candy store.

“It makes a huge difference,” Evan noted, “and, as long as your stomach can handle it, you’re fine.”

“That would be the test, wouldn’t it?” Mason asked, taking another bite. “I’m already thinking about round two.”

Tesla snorted at that. “First off, you need to digest round one and see if your stomach doesn’t have a conniption fit over your food choices.”

“My stomach will be just fine,” he declared, with a grin. “Have you ever known it to be anything else?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean it won’t throw up some barrier and cause quite the stomachache down the road. You did just wake up from a coma, you know?”

“If there’s trouble down the road, we’ll deal with it then,” he said. “At the moment, this food is way too good to even argue about.” He motioned at her laptop. “What were you researching?”

She shrugged. “It’s probably not of any value, but it occurred to me that anybody with so much pride in family was probably disappointed that he didn’t have more children. It wouldn’t be surprising that a man of that generation would be disappointed by having only two children, daughters at that. What I was setting up a search for,” she explained, as she took up the laptop where it rested at the side of his bed, “was proof of illegitimate children, potentially proof of his own children.”

“What do you mean?” Mason asked, between bites.

Both Evan and Markus looked at her in surprise.

She shrugged. “Being pregnant, it tends to be a topic on my mind, but one of the things I was checking out was whether the two daughters were his or not.”

At that, Mason whistled silently. “Now that would make sense, particularly if he’s changed his will or done anything along those lines.”

“I don’t even know what may have changed in the will,” Tesla replied, “but I can tell you that, based on the two daughters’ blood tests, Richard is not their biological father.”