“You want me to what?” Joey’s mother, Miriam, stared at Glenn as if he’d lost what few marbles he had left.
“I want you to get sick. So sick you can’t go into work. That way Joey will have to step in since he knows how to run the coffeehouse almost as well as you do. Mary can take days like always, he can take evenings after he gets off his shift.”
“Glenn,” Miriam growled, “pardon my English but what the hell is going on?”
“It has to do with what happened to Nate. You have heard he was found I hope.”
“Yes, Joey called me. Probably right after calling you.”
Glenn chuckled. “Or before.”
“I doubt it. Now, tell me why you want to keep him busy, although I’ve got a feeling I can guess and I don’t like the idea.”
“I want to keep him safe. I think, in fact I’m pretty certain, the man who took Nate is a hired killer. I talked to Harv and he says as far as he knows no one in town has any sort of real grudge against anyone else. Would you agree?”
Miriam didn’t reply immediately. Instead, from the look on her face she was giving his question serious consideration. Finally she nodded. “People are people, they get angry with each other sometimes, but I can’t think of anyone who would go so far as to hire someone to kill the person they’re upset with.”
“I thought as much. And yet the man is here for a reason.”
“Glenn, how would he know where to find you, because I think that’s what you’re saying, or implying?”
“As I told Joey, nothing is written in stone. I’ve done the best that’s humanly possible to keep my presence here a secret from anyone who might be looking for me. Even the people I work for now don’t know, other than the man I report to. And no one knows my real name outside of this town other than him. If I had my way only your family would know but that’s not possible, obviously. To the rest of the world I’m someone else. Several someone else’s actually.”
“But you still think this man is here because of you.”
“I do, which is why I want Joey down here where it’s safe, or at least safer. Harv’s letting it out that I’m interested in finding where the perp got the car he used to kidnap Nate, since I’d be willing to bet he stole it from around here. Again that’s just a supposition but a logical one. I want my name linked to the search for him in a way that makes him able to find out where I live. My guess is all he has is a description and nothing more than that. And he’d have to have gotten that from one of the very few people I used as middle men back when.”
“You guess, you suppose, you think, but you don’t know.”
“No, Miriam, I don’t know. I do know there’s a hitman out there looking for someone and I intend to stop him before he kills them.”
“So whether it’s you or… who knows who, you’re making yourself the target.”
“That’s the plan.”
With a sharp shake of her head she said. “Glenn, if you keep Joey out of this, if you try to protect him, you’re going to do so much damage to your relationship…” She sighed deeply. “He is not a kid any more. He’s a trained peace officer who knows what he’s doing. If you treat him like a kid you’ll be right back to where this all began, with his thinking that you think he’s too young, too naïve to be trusted. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“But damn it, Miriam, if he gets hurt…”
“He could get hurt breaking up a bar fight, or stepping in to stop a robbery. It’s all part of what he is, of what he does. This is no different. A potential killer has to be caught. That’s his job as much as it is yours, if for different reasons. Don’t deny him the right to be by your side when you do this. Not if you really care about him as a person as well as someone you love.”
Glenn scrubbed a hand through his hair then paced across her office to the window, staring out at the blank wall across the alley. She’s right, but… He turned when he felt her hand on his shoulder.
“Two heads are better than one,” she told him softly.
“I know, I know. Alright, I’ll talk to him and tell him what I’m planning and let him make his own decision.”
“You know what it will be.”
“Yeah I do, damn it!”
Miriam chuckled. “He’s stubborn, just like you.”
“Worse than me. He believed in us when I didn’t and made it happen.”
“And you don’t regret one second of it.”
Glenn smiled. “Not even, not ever.”
