CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Three days had passed since O’Shea had moved in with the Jakes’.

It had been an easy transition, except for the part about missing Billboard. But she and her big squeeze had actually been out on two very nice dates, since. Both of which had ended up with ardent make-out sessions in the extra-large SUV that Billboard had borrowed.

O’Shea giggled, recalling the major contortions they’d managed and the things they’d done. Which triggered—

Reminder to self : Clean upholstery before the vehicle goes back into the SOS stable.

Tonight, however, she wasn’t going to get a shot at Billboard’s luscious cock. Anna was cooking Mexican, so she wouldn’t be going out. The three of them; Anna, Ethan, and O’Shea, planned to eat a home-cooked meal together.

O’Shea was hoping that after dinner she could get Anna talking about what was bothering her; most likely over the suds in the kitchen sink.

Tacos were always a big hit with O’Shea, and this instance was no exception. After the fixings were placed on the table, she loaded up and devoured five without blinking. That repast, along with Anna’s delicious Spanish rice, had O’Shea leaning back and patting her flat stomach in appreciation.

“I don’t know where you put it,” Anna laughed as they finally got to their feet to clear the table. Ethan had gone off to his room to do the last bit of homework he’d have before the school year wound down. “If I ate that much, I’d be the size of a blimp.”

“I keep moving,” O’Shea told her, “so that nothing catches up with me. At least not yet,” she laughed. “I fear there’ll be a day when my metabolism won’t be so forgiving.”

“Mine’s never been that merciful,” Anna chuckled.

Anna was wrong, She had a pretty, trim figure, and O’Shea wondered if the woman dated. Maybe she and Perk…

Nah. Perkins was too goofy and young for the pretty mom.

O’Shea and Anna loaded the dishwasher companionably, then Anna filled the sink with water and soap to tackle the pans.

“You wash, I’ll dry?” O’Shea asked.

“Sounds good. I rarely have help,” she smiled. “Ethan is willing, but he gets so distracted that if he washes, he leaves food bits behind, and if he dries, the dishes are always wet.”

“I get it.” She rolled her eyes. “Who, at eleven years old, wants to do chores?”

O’Shea knew there was a bite to her voice, but she shook off her sourness. Anna didn’t need to hear that O’Shea and her brother had done all the housework for her parents from the time they’d been able to function as little automatons, until the day they’d fled home.

“Sounds like there’s a story there,” Anna replied wisely.

Nope . O’Shea wasn’t going to open that can of worms, but it was just the comment she needed to begin her own line of questioning.

“There’s always a story,” O’Shea admitted, stabbing Anna with a knowing stare. “And I’m thinking you have one, too.”

Anna bit down on her lip.

O’Shea could see that she was debating with herself whether or not she should talk.

“I… I’m not supposed to say anything to anybody,” she practically whispered.

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not anybody,” O’Shea returned smartly. “I’m just a visitor from out of town who’s not a threat to anyone.”

Anna snorted. “Right. Like I believe that. I see how you’ve been teaching Ethan your self-defense moves, and I can tell you’re damned good at what you do.”

O’Shea shrugged. “It’s just part of the job,” she demurred. “But now, I will admit you’ve got the cop side of me curious. What aren’t you supposed to talk about?”

“I…” Anna looked hesitant for a moment, but all of a sudden, the floodgates opened. “My ex-husband ordered me not to say a word, but… During our twelve-year marriage, he was abusive. To me. But as Ethan got older, Barnie began cuffing him around, and I knew it was only a matter of time before my ex began beating on our son, too.”

Anna hung her head, like she had something to be ashamed of.

O’Shea reached out and clasped the woman’s arm. “That’s not on you, Anna. That’s on your prick of an ex.” Her heart hardened. “Nobody has a right to abuse another person; especially one they’re supposed to love and nurture.” O’Shea knew that from experience, but this wasn’t about her. It was about Anna and Ethan.

“I take it once you saw that the man was escalating, you filed for a simple divorce?”

“It wasn’t that easy, and I had to give up a lot to obtain it, or risk…heaven knows what,” Anna heaved. “You see, Barnie is a big-wig in town; he’s the chairman of the selectboard, and that means he’s basically in charge of the entire town budget. Which means he has the ear of every department, including the police.”

“Ahh,” O’Shea commiserated. “Now I understand why you brought SOS in to find Ethan. If you’d called the cops, they probably would have reported back to your ex, and there would have been consequences.”

“Maybe. Probably,” she gulped. “He would see my ‘negligence’ as grounds to take Ethan, which I believe is his goal. Well, that and the house.” She blinked and brought herself back to her narrative.

“I understand that not all our town cops are in Barnie’s pocket, but I don’t have any idea which ones I can trust, and which ones I can’t, so it’s better that I err on the side of caution.”

“Absolutely,” O’Shea agreed. “So, the two of you divorced?”

“That’s right. Two years ago.”

“Because of the threat your husband posed to your son.”

Anna nodded.

“And he didn’t fight it?”

“He… Can I take a minute to decide what I can and can’t tell you?” She laughed, self-deprecatingly. “Although… It’ll probably all come out, anyway.”

“Take your time,” O’Shea agreed easily, but yes, she’d pry everything out of Anna before this conversation was over.

“Can I ask about Ethan, then?” O’Shea prevaricated.

Anna gave a chin dip, and O’Shea continued.

“The reason Ethan disappears into the woods,” she pondered. “Was that initially part of your plan in case Barnie got ugly during the divorce? And since then, Ethan’s just been running with it because it’s fun?”

“Yes and no,” Anna revealed. “It’s actually…something we started as more of a game, with him not really understanding the stakes. And yes, he enjoyed it a lot. But in the past year, we’ve ramped it up. But he’s older now, and understands his safety might depend on it.”

Anna sucked in air. “You see, Barnie was furious that I wanted a divorce. He thought it would tarnish his reputation in town, especially if details got out about his abuse. But I used that against him.” The strong woman squared her shoulders. “I told him that if he didn’t give me an uncontested divorce, the house, and full custody of Ethan, I’d go to my cousin who’s a Boston journalist, and do a tell-all on just the kind of person my husband really is. There are bones that have been broken…”

“For which he always took you far away to obtain treatment.” O’Shea wanted to punch the asshole.

“Correct.” Anna hesitated before continuing, but O’Shea’s sympathetic ear clearly made her next words spill over. “But it…it isn’t just me he’d been abusing. It’s the town.”

The town ? Here’s what O’Shea wanted to hear.

Anna’s throat convulsed with nerves. “Barnie and his town manager have been skimming from the municipal coffers for the last five years, and I have documentation hidden away to prove it. The papers are in a safe in the garage that Barnie doesn’t know about. The safe is small, but guaranteed that someone can’t destroy it to get inside, which is good. My house has actually been broken into several times in the past few months, with things tossed everywhere, so I know he’s been looking for those documents.”

“Wow,” O’Shea marveled. “That sucks. But Anna, you have some balls, girl.” O’Shea would have feared that the man would be out for blood after that.

Which maybe wasn’t so far off.

“Right. Because I thought, at least for the first year after we split, that I was in the clear,” Anna laughed bitterly. “That shows you how na?ve I was. In the past ten months, Barnie has ramped up his threats; orchestrating those break-ins, telling me if I don’t sign the house and Ethan over to him and give him those damning documents, that I’ll find serious trouble on my doorstep. He never elucidates, he just says it all with a smile in his voice.”

Yup. O’Shea already wanted to throat -punch the bastard.

“Since then, there have been other…incidents,” Anna revealed. “Broken lawn furniture, paint splashed on my driveway; things I’ve taken care of myself and tried my best to ignore. But just two weeks ago, in the middle of the night, something a whole lot scarier happened. Our gas/CO2 alarm went off. I evacuated myself and Ethan immediately, then I called the fire department. They found that someone had started my car in the garage, and put holes in the adjoining door to my living room. Luckily, I’d purchased those gas sniffers and had them installed a few weeks earlier, or who knows what would have happened.”

She shivered, and O’Shea once again patted the woman’s arm.

“Getting my door fixed was terribly inconvenient, and not inexpensive. A pretty penny, actually, when money for extras has been tough to come by.”

“Don’t tell me,” O’Shea interjected. “No alimony or child support from good old Barnie.”

“No. None.”

That tracked with the kind of profile O’Shea was pulling together in her head of the major douchebag.

“Now, I’m scared to death over what he’ll do next,” Anna continued. “But as much as I’d give the jerk my house to put an end to his terror campaign, I’ll never let him get his hands on Ethan. Never.” Tears came to Anna’s eyes.

O’Shea saw red. She hated men who used their positions of power to lord themselves over others. She’d seen it first hand with the corrupt officers on her police force back home, and she knew how close those pricks had come to winning. If it hadn’t been for Brigid and SOS, the town’s police chief and his cronies would have owned everything and everyone in their county.

An intervention such as that would be prudent for Anna, right about now. “Would you like the SOS team to have a chat with Barnie?” O’Shea asked. She knew that the team would enjoy scaring the crap out of the asshole, and as a bonus, they weren’t living or operating under the man’s jurisdiction, so retribution would be harder for Barnie to orchestrate.

“I… I’ve thought about it,” Anna said, rinsing off the final dirty pan. “But I seriously don’t want to ramp things up or get anybody else involved. Barnie could make severe trouble happen for anyone who crosses him.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” O’Shea assured her. “Del’s people know how to take care of themselves, and they have a lot of high-powered authority behind them; folks who won’t be scared by Barnie’s penny-ante bullshit.”

O’Shea wasn’t certain, but she’d heard rumors that Mizzay, in particular, had ties to the DOJ and the FBI. That certainly trumped any cronies a select-chairman of a small, rural town could muster.

“I’ll think about it,” Anna told her. “But maybe I’ve just been imagining that he’s behind the things that have happened. It could just be vandals; someone who takes exception to single moms.”

They both knew that wasn’t the case, but O’Shea sensed Anna’s need to ease off the subject, and stepped back a bit. “Okay. Think about it, though. A word in Barnie’s ear, a well-placed phone call. It could all be over with quickly, and you wouldn’t have to worry anymore.”

“Thanks, O’Shea. I’ll take it into consideration. But really?” She forced a smile. “I feel much better just knowing you’re here. If Barnie tries anything, you might be able to catch or stop him and his cronies before things escalate.”

Oh, she’d stop him alright. With a boot to his inflated testicles.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” O’Shea replied. “And I’m glad you told me what’s been going on. It’ll light a fire under my ass to do some things I’d been dragging my feet on. I’ve been meaning to sign up for a firearms safety course, then I can apply for an FID card as well as a permit to carry in this state.”

The former would allow her to possess a rifle or shotgun, and would take anywhere from two weeks to sixty days to acquire. The permit to carry—her preference—would have her Glock back in her hand, but the waiting period could be as long as three months. Not timely, in any manner of speaking, but O’Shea might as well get the ball rolling.

In the meantime, she’d make sure she got several canisters of pepper-spray. It was the only thing that was legal to carry in this state for protection without a permit or license.

“I hope it doesn’t come down to weapons,” Anna trembled. “It’s why I’ve been trying avoidance. But I also know I should be prepared. I really appreciate you and the team taking time to help Ethan hone his skills. If Barnie does show up here, I want my son, at least, to be able to hide.”

To the detriment of her own safety. That’s what O’Shea knew Anna hadn’t verbalized. But hopefully, with O’Shea’s help, they could navigate this situation without it coming to that.

“So why now?” O’Shea asked the question out loud. “Why not do this shit when you asked for the divorce?”

Even though O’Shea had meant to drop the subject, her brain wouldn’t turn off.

This Barnie asshole had, for some reason, let things ride for a year, and was only now escalating and making demands.

“I think…” Anna shook her head. “I have reason to believe that he’s getting ready to grab more power for himself. There have been rumors… Well, actually not rumors.” She dragged in a deep breath. “One of the women who works in the town offices befriended me during the divorce proceedings, and she gives me…updates.”

“And a certain update has you worried?” O’Shea probed.

“It does. Barnie has called a special town meeting for next Monday evening. He wants to convince the townspeople that they’ll be better off with a mayor than with a board of selectmen.”

“Don’t tell me,” O’Shea groaned. “He’s propping himself up to become mayor.”

“You guessed it,” Anna confirmed. “And he wants to appear like the perfect family man, which is why I think he wants the house and Ethan. It will strengthen his position when the town votes if he looks like a good family man. Especially with me out of the picture.”

Yes. There was no doubt Anna was in grave jeopardy.

“And this documentation you have against him?” O’Shea asked, rounding back to logistics. It was time to see what kind of big-guns Anna had in the wings, that weren’t the actual bang-bang kind.

“It’s not much, but it’s regarding a considerable sum of money that was voted into escrow by the citizenship several years ago. It was to be used as back-up funds in case of a town-wide emergency. Barnie’s handwritten ledger—which I purloined one night off his desk—has that money listed as not being in the same bank as the regular budget funds, but in an account where it’s supposed to sit and earn a higher rate of interest. Since he and the town manager, however, are the only two listed on the account, they’ve since used the money as their own personal stash; not only bribing people to look the other way when they pull something illegal, but for purchasing luxury trips, cars, and who know what else.”

“You don’t have actual bank statements?” O’Shea surmised.

“No. I don’t. Just his hand-written notes, but they’re pretty damning, and he knows it.” She sighed deeply. “The only reason he wasn’t vested in fighting me for them at the time of the divorce, was because a vote was about to come up for him to be reinstated as the chair of the committee. If I’d turned up with black eyes, or I was discovered dead, he was afraid people would look at the acrimonious divorce proceedings, figure out it might be his doing, and his reputation would be tarnished. Now, two years later, I’m sure he figures enough time has gone by that people won’t consider him bitter over our separation anymore, and nobody will be suspicious if something happens to me.”

“Man, this guy sounds like an asshole.”

“He is,” Anna validated.

Wow. O’Shea had thought her deadbeat parents couldn’t be matched, but Barnie was a nasty piece of work.

“Listen,” she told Anna. “I’m going to do some research on him, and I might even attend that town meeting on Monday night, just to rattle his cage a little.”

Anna’s brows drew together. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, O’Shea. If he finds out you’re living with me… Don’t call attention to yourself,” she ended decisively. “I’m not sure what he’ll do.”

“No worries,” O’Shea told Anna, with a gleam in her eye.

This was just what she needed to sink her teeth into while she waited around to hear about a job.

The bigger question was, of course, did she tell Billboard and SOS what she’d discovered?

Not yet.

She’d dig a little deeper, then she’d fill them in.