Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 05

The chronological order of my stories is as follows:

Todd & Melina series, Interludes 1-5, Sperm Wars series, Russian Roulette series, Case of the Murdered Lovers series, Case of the Murdered Chessplayer series, The Swap series, Interludes 6-10, The Murdered Football Player Series, Case of the Black Widow series, Teresa's Christmas Story, The Case of the Black Badge series, A Case of Revenge series, Teresa's Summer Race, The Trilogy series, Dark Side Of The Force series, Caught In The Act series, Case of the Murdered Bride series, The Credit Card Caper series, The Hot Wives Investment Club series.

Seriously Inconvenienced, Ch. 1-5.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, extreme language, and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial or racist language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

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Part 19 - The Spark of Vengeance

At dawn on Saturday, November 22d, I left the smoldering remains of the disaster and went to see my family. There were hugs and tears and offers of condolences, but also one moment of happiness: my daughter Carole reached for me when I came through the door and hugged me tightly, refusing to let go as I held her. No matter how bad it was, hearing the word "Da-da" again and again from my healthy, unharmed baby girl was wonderful.

After eating some breakfast (and feeding Carole half of it), I returned to the scene. Fire Marshal Zoe Singer was there. "My arson team is on the way." she said.

"Call 'em off." I said. "It definitely is arson, we'll never catch the perps, and I don't want the BAFTE crawling around my home." I knew that Zoe would be obligated to call in the BAFTE if and when she found remnants of explosives in the cars, so I spared her the trouble by preventing her from finding anything. And, except for the Chiefs of the Police and Fire Departments, I was the only person who could possibly call her and her team off the case.

"If you say so." Zoe replied, then got on the radio and told the arson team to hold off for the time being.

Afterwards, as we looked at the heaps of ashes, I saw tears in Zoe's eyes. "This is where we-" she started, but didn't finish. The death of my home had meaning to more persons than just me. I put my arm around her and she nestled into my side for a moment. Then I showed her where the tunnel to the underground wine cellar was, and admonished her to keep people away from there lest they fall and be injured. Zoe marked it off with crime scene tape and didn't let anyone on her arson teams go there. They may not even have known what was there.

Moments later, the police cordon admitted another person: FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone. I had rarely seen him look so somber as I introduced him to Zoe.

"Commander Singer," said Jack, "I wish I was meeting you under much better circumstances. I also need you to know that I'm going to have my agents take over this case. We consider it an assassination attempt upon our FBI Consultant, Commander Troy." In addition to thinking that he was keeping the BAFTE out of the equation, Muscone was not saying out loud that the FBI also considered this an assassination attempt upon a Deputy Director of the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology, that being my wife.

Zoe acquiesced, actually relieved about it, as I said "Excuse me a moment." I began going around the far side of The Cabin, then into the ashes.

"Don!" Zoe yelled. "Be careful! It's still hot, and you might fall through a weak floor space."

"I'm not going far." I said, then saw what I wanted to see. There had been a wall safe in the upstairs bedroom closet, installed by me to keep a few valuables while I was at The Cabin. I saw a corner of it amongst the collapsed wall of the house. Wrestling it out, I found the safe to be scorched but intact.

"What's that?" Jack asked as he and Zoe came up to me. The combination wheel turned, but the lock handle was jammed, and it took a strong effort to push it back. The safe still wouldn't open.

"There is something very valuable in here." I said. "Here, Jack, hold it steady while I use this here red crowbar for something worthwhile." Jack held the safe and I jimmied it open fairly easily.

Inside, the papers that had been in there were damaged, and the cartridges in the revolver I had in there had exploded, rendering the device inoperable until a gunsmith could repair it. Fortunately, a smaller fireproof box inside had held up, and inside that box were some metal insignia from my ROTC and Army days, and some coins... including the one in particular that I was seeking: the ancient Roman coin that my great-grandmother had left Germany with while escaping the Nazis. "Thank God, it's here." I said. I showed Jack and Zoe the coin, explaining its deeply personal meaning to me.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"I'm absolutely sure that this was an attempted murder." I said. It was 11:00am and I was in the Chief's conference room with the Chief, Laura and Jack Muscone. Cindy was at The Cabin, working with Lt. Tanya Perlman, the Crime Lab, and the Arson team, and had been doing so all morning. I'd told Cindy to keep the Fire Department teams away from both destroyed cars, and Tanya Perlman and Police Auxiliary Officer Barry Oliver were personally working them 'at the request of the FBI', that being Jack Muscone again..

"I just checked with the Power Company people, and they think the transformer was deliberately damaged, which got us out of the Mountain Nest and into The Cabin... right where they wanted us." I said. "Whoever left that message in the book about 'setting fire to our rooms' along with that picture of her with a target on my wife's face... obviously they followed their threat with execution."

"Just two questions." said the Chief. "First, why not just set fire to the Mountain Nest, where you've been living for months now? And second, why warn you of the plot to set your house on fire? Why not just do it?"

"To answer your first question: the Mountain Nest is virtually fireproof." Laura said. "It's concrete and brick, and the other materials inside are fire resistant; it was built to not burn down by a previous resident who was paranoid about fire. The several fire detectors in the home are wired into the alarm system, and The Cabin is not as well protected in that way.

Laura continued, almost getting carried away: "There is much less shrubbery and a lot more lighting at the Mountain Nest, which is gated, and there is also a path down to the University from the back deck of the Mountain Nest, making for an easy escape route. I don't think they expected us to try to go straight down the mountain behind The Cabin, though my husband immediately realized it was our only hope. Last but not least, The Cabin is far more isolated, and was simply a much easier target for what they did... tried to do to us."

"As to warning us," Laura said, "maybe its someone's ego again?... Don... Don? Helloooo, Don..." Needless to say, I had gone into a reverie.

"I hear you." I said, though my voice sounded tiny and far away. "I was just realizing something... several things."

"Do I need to call in Lieutenant Ross for some blue crowbar treatment?" Jack said, trying to be humorous.

"She'd love it if you did." I said. "But I was just realizing... if I'm right, this is so much larger... so much deeper than we thought."

"What do you mean, Crowbar?" asked Chief Griswold, who was peering at me with abnormal intensity.

"Let me demonstrate this way." I said. "Laura, who do you think is behind this?"

"Henry Wargrave." Laura said. "Who else could it be?"

"And you reeeeeealy wanna kill him, don't you?" I asked my wife.

"You bet your ass I do-" Laura said, then stopped. "Why? What are you getting at?"

"Laura, Jack, you've both been tracking Wargrave for some time." I said. "Tell me, is this his modus operandi?"

"I'd say it's not out of the realm of what he might permit himself to do." Jack said. "He's had people killed before, the FBI is sure of it. Mostly in other countries, though."

"He's absolutely ruthless, Don." Laura said. "As much or more than Oldeeds was."

"But he's not this sloppy." I said. "Leaving things to chance that we might get out alive?"

"He had his people rig your cars with explosives." said Jack Muscone. "Perlman has already told me they've found residue of 'plastiques' in the cars. Enough to blow out the bulletproof windows of your Police SUV."

"Which reminds me," said the Chief, "we're already outfitting you a new SUV, even more armored. The insurance plus a little extra, at the insistence of the Town & County Council, is paying for it. Sorry to interrupt, Jack. You were saying?"

"Just that they expected you to get out, go to your cars, then they'd blow the car that you took up, with you inside it." Jack finished.

"Doesn't make sense." I said. As they looked at me, I said, "That would suggest they were watching, but didn't bother to shoot us when we came out of the house. That would be worse than sloppy."

"So what are you suggesting?" the Chief asked. I could tell in his face that he was mentally getting to the crux of the problem, if not the answer.

"Just this." I said. "First, in all the study I have done of Henry R. Wargrave, I have not found a single instance of where he has harmed a child. Not one. Yet our children were definitely put in mortal danger by the fire."

"That's true." Jack Muscone said. "And in addition to that, Wargrave has built orphanages in many places in the world, and full wings of children's hospitals, including at University Hospital here."

"First time for everything." Laura said, meaning the attempt to murder a child.

"Maybe," I replied, "but I seriously am doubting it at the moment. Second, he would know damn well that if either Laura or I survived that fire, his own life would be forfeit if he ever showed himself in public again. Laura said as much to him. And he somewhat backhandedly reassured me he was not after our children in our past verbal sparrings."

"Tie this in a bow for the FBI and CIA people in the room." the Chief astutely said. "I don't need your skills to see that they're not feeling you on this."

"Yes sir." I said. "Guys, what I'm getting at is that Wargrave may not have been behind this. In fact, it could be someone trying to get us to do the dirty work of eliminating Wargrave for them."

"What?!" cried out three voices in unison.

"Think about it." I said. "Laura, you have the equivalent of a license to kill, and you've cleaned up one asshole member of the Corrigan Cell already, to my utter delight. But if they'd gotten one of us and our children, the other would've done whatever it took and damn the consequences to take vengeance for our children's lives. And as such, Wargrave would be dead, another of the Corrigan Cell cleaned up."

"400 years ago..." Jack said, then realized that talking about burnings at the stake would be ill-timed. "Oh, sorry, that's not the right thing to say right now."

"I'll laugh later." I said, understanding Jack's meaning. "After I take care of this bastard and the remnants of his rogue CIA cell." My eyes became jet, and my reverie was not one any decent person wanted to know about.

"What are you going to do, Crowbar?" asked the Chief.

"I am going to finish off the Corrigan Cell, once and for all." I said severely, then said brightly, suddenly changing my mood like Shayla Belle would do while talking, "But first, the four of us are going to the Cop Bar for lunch! We're still alive, and I for one am starving. By the way, Jack, the owner named your favorite item 'Jack's Double Cheeseburger' after you."

"Well, that's nice of him." Muscone said. "What did he name for you?"

"The flatiron steak." Laura said. "It's now 'The Iron Crowbar's Flatiron Steak' on the menu."

"Complete with 'Griswold's Grizzly Fries' and 'Gillem's Firehouse Hot Wings', named after the Police and Fire Chiefs, respectively." I said. The Chief blushed, but his mustaches were twitching with merriment.

"All this talk is making me hungry." said Jack. "Let's go."

"By the way, Laura," I asked as we got up. "President Wellman is having his pre-Thanksgiving parties next week. When are we invited?"

"Monday night." Laura said. "That's when he's having the Council and the Chief and us and some of the Town businesspeople there. Tuesday night is the Faculty reception, and you and I will be doing it all over again."

"Would you do me a favor?" I asked. "Get with him on the guest list for Monday night. I want to make sure certain people are there..."

Part 20 - Plan of Action

After lunch, Laura and I went by Todd and Jeanine's house. Upon my observation and comment, Jeanine showed me a new emerald ring on her finger, gushing that Todd had given it to her the evening before... before all hell had broken loose in the early morning hours.

For himself, Todd was playing some game with Carole, bouncing her on his knee, and he had his little cousin laughing merrily. When she saw me, though, she reached out and I took her into my arms. I got another strong baby hug, and Carole didn't want to let me go.

"She's going to be clingy for a while." Laura said. "She knows that something bad happened last night, and she wants to keep you very close and safe."

I had intended to talk to Todd and move out on my mission quickly; my wife's words changed my suppositions. I spent the next half hour holding my daughter while talking to Todd, Teresa, Jeanine and Laura about anything but fires, and also expressing my gratitude for them keeping Carole and Jim for me and Laura. Jeanine took a picture of me holding Carole; I still have that picture in a frame on my desk in my office.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Todd drove with me to the Crime Lab building, where we found Barry Oliver, Tanya Perlman, J.R. Barnes, Christina Cho and a couple of other techs working. I endured the condolences over the loss of my home, then quickly got down to business.

"Definitely arson." Tanya Perlman said. "Something fast burning, maybe gasoline, on the front walls of the house, definitely all over the door and in the garage. Plastic explosives were injected into the door panels of both cars, maybe some underneath. Those cars were rolling bombs."

"Don," said Barry Oliver, "can I talk to you privately?"

"Sure." I said. Barry, Todd and I went into the main office that was now Dr. Woodrow's.

Barry said "I found the remnants of the device in your wife's car that set off the explosives with a charge to a blasting cap. I'm not discussing this with the rest of the techs unless you tell me to."

"Probably a good idea to keep it quiet." I said. "What did you find out about it?"

Barry replied "The device was rigged so that it would've gone off about one minute after someone sat down in the driver's seat. It also had a type of fuse that set the explosives off when the device got really hot, meaning while it, the car, and the house were all burning. They thought of both contingencies: that you might escape by the car, or that you might not make it out alive, and so the bombs were set off to prevent us from getting more information about them."

"Geez." said Todd.

"And there's an alarm that would go off if they'd gone into the garage of The Cabin." I said. "Meaning that this was done ahead of time. Planned in advance all the way."

"Uncle Don," Todd said, his voice eerie, "can I go up and see it?"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We stood on the driveway before the house. We could now see the Town and the farms to the west of the river. I saw a train coming down the track out of the western horizon.

"Those bastards." Todd said, his eyes looking over the wreck and ashes. The cars had been towed away, only support posts and ashes remained.

I knew he'd rarely been to The Cabin, so this show of feeling was unexpected. As if in answer to my unspoken thoughts, Todd said "Those bastards tried to kill my baby cousins, Uncle Don. Who did this? I want to kill them."

"I know how you feel, Todd." I replied. "I'm calling dibs on killing them. But you can help. Call Barry Oliver and let's meet him at your offices."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Uncle Don, you've met Takaki Taichi, whom we call 'Taro'." Todd said. Takaki bowed formally to me in Japanese style. Perhaps to his surprise, I returned the bow politely.

"Yes, Taro-san." I said. "I've heard great things about the work you are doing for my nephew and Mr. Oliver here. I'm looking forward to working with you on something of vital importance."

"You are too kind, Commander-san." Taro replied in good but accented English. He was a native of Japan. "I am honored to be of service to the Iron Crowbar. How can I help you?"

I discussed the remote control plans that I'd obtained from Alicia Foster and given to Barry before. I told what I wanted done, that I wanted a truck to be rigged to be driven by remote control. I explained my plan further.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Saturday night. The power was back on at The Mountain Nest, so we went back home with the kids. Cindy, Teresa and Todd all volunteered to stay with us, and to my surprise Laura asked Cindy and Teresa, and also Jenna, to stay overnight, while telling Todd to go home and reap his 'reward' for that emerald ring he'd bought his wife. Carole was happy to be getting so much attention, especially from her buddy Cindy. I realized as I watched them that Laura was more nervous than she was letting on.

"I put in the order with Ward Harvester that you wanted, through intermediaries." my wife told me privately. "It'll be ready for pickup Monday afternoon. Also, the guest list will be as you wanted it for Monday night; in fact, it was already that way, so I didn't have to say much."

"Good." I said. "I'll have my guys pick the truck up at Ward Harvester."

Later that night, I found myself dozing off as I talked 'shop' with Teresa and Cindy, solving all of the Police Department's problems in one sitting... or not. Laura was attending to the babies and pretending to talk with us, though she was a million miles away, it seemed.

We all headed to bed. Cindy was sleeping in the baby room, having insisted upon doing so, and Teresa was in the guest room. I headed to the master bedroom to get some sleep.

I did dream about the fire, but not too much. I also dreamed about Zoe, and Molly and baby Ross, and I had a dream about being at the 'Vision' headquarters with voices talking around me as P. Harvey Eckhart looked on and multi-colored lights flashing... then back to the orange light of the fire at The Cabin...

I woke at dawn, realizing that I had gotten some sleep and that I felt refreshed. I looked up to see that Laura was sitting at the window... she had not been able to sleep all night, and she was exhausted.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The back warehouse of Arrowpoint Solutions, Inc. was the only building with lights on. Inside, Taro and Barry were working with the large refrigerated truck.

"We can control it pretty well in a straight line." Barry said. "But I just can't get it to turn fast enough."

"Leave that to me, Barry-san." Taro said. Barry noted that Taro looked exhausted. "I have some additional things I can do. No, I will not say anything about what they are until our mission is complete, but I have been working on a special guidance system for some time."

"Okay, I look forward to seeing it when you have it ready for me." Barry said. He knew that Taro did not like to reveal things until they were worked out and error-free. He left it alone, knowing the measure of Taro's brilliance and successes so far.