CHAPTER NINE

Walking into the SOS crew’s favorite restaurant, Billboard looked appreciatively at his teammates and their partners who were seated at a large table. The area just for them had been created by pushing a series of smaller four-tops together, until all twelve of them could fit.

Daire and Brent were the only ones missing, but they’d been working extra hours for their brother, Tuck, on a big municipal excavation job in the city, and had probably crashed early from exhaustion. Billboard wasn’t quite sure how the pair did it. They worked for Devons’ Construction and SOS, both, but were still able to conjure enough energy to enjoy their wives and kids.

To round out the already seated group, Brigid and Sarge were clearly still lurking behind him, no doubt continually smirking from ear-to-ear over what they’d seen in the parking garage, but he’d ignore them for now.

Billboard, stopping just short of the table, realized that O’Shea, even though she knew all his immediate constituents, hadn’t met their wives. He cleared his throat, and with his hand to the small of O’Shea’s back, introduced her.

“For those of you who haven’t met, this is O’Shea. She’s visiting from Louisiana.” The last bit he probably didn’t need to add. He was sure O’Shea had been the topic of all the couple’s gossip since her arrival in Boston.

“O’Shea,” he looked down at her and tried to control the impulse to bend and plant a kiss on her smiling lips.

Billboard gave his head a slight shake. “Uh, you know all the guys, but I’ll acquaint you with the ladies.”

She nodded happily.

“You remember Del,” he began.

“Hi O’Shea,” Del called out. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Hey, Del,” O’Shea returned with a finger-wave.

Billboard went on. “The woman practically sitting on his lap is his wife, Brina.”

Brina rolled her eyes. “Give me a break, BB. This is the first time in ages I’ve been out without the kids, so I’m making the most of date night.” She bussed her husband on his cheek before turning back to regard O’Shea. “It’s very nice to meet you, O’Shea. I’ve heard good things.”

“Thanks,” O’Shea laughed. “I think.”

The two grinned at each other, and Billboard had no doubt they’d soon become fast friends.

“Next to her,” Billboard continued, “is Prez, with his wife Maygan.”

They both gave smiles and hellos as acknowledgement before Billboard moved on.

“Then we have Wiley and Solina.”

“Hi Wiles,” O’Shea greeted. “So, this is the woman you couldn’t shut up about when you were in my neck of the woods?”

Solina playfully punched Wiley in the shoulder. “I hope it wasn’t anything terrible.”

Billboard knew Solina was extremely sensitive about the hoarder tendencies she’d managed to control before she met Wiles.

“On the contrary,” O’Shea answered without a second’s hesitation. “He gushed about how wonderful you were the whole time.”

Solina beamed and leaned her head onto Wiley’s shoulder. He bent down, kissing her temple possessively, and she gave a happy sigh.

While Billboard had been making the introductions, Brigid and Sarge had managed to scoot around them and grab chairs. Unnecessarily, Billboard pointed them out. “You know those two reprobates already.”

O’Shea snorted. “Trouble with a capital T, both of them.”

“I won’t say otherwise,” Billboard chuckled before going on. “And of course next to them are Mizzay and Perk.”

The last-mentioned one of the team leaped to his feet, skirted around the table and approached O’Shea with his arms spread wide. “I was wondering when you were going to take the trip north, O’Shea.” His flirting baby-face was firmly in place. “I thought maybe I hadn’t made the impact I intended, and you’d forgotten all about me.”

Perk’s spider-like appendages—because that’s what they resembled to Billboard right now—went around O’Shea. Then after what Billboard considered an inappropriate hug-length, the encroaching man picked her up and spun her around.

O’Shea threw back her head and laughed. “Impossible that I wouldn’t remember you , Perk,” she chortled as her feet landed back on terra-firma.

“Yeah,” Billboard gruffed, edging between them and draping his own arm proprietarily over O’Shea’s shoulders. “He’s hard to forget. Like a nasty infection.”

Perk’s brows went up, but after a moment’s confusion, he chuckled. “Well. I see now. That’s how it goes, huh? Beaten to the punch,” he sighed. Perk held both palms up toward Billboard. “I get it, BB. Snooze, I lose. And because I clearly waited too long, I’m ceding my claim, which means there’s no need for pistols at dawn.”

Right. Perk was annoying, but pretty damned funny, just the same.

Billboard hadn’t thought to make any statement, overt or otherwise, about his interest in O’Shea, but it seemed like Perk had forced it, and everyone now knew. Rather than clam up as he normally would have in the past, he spoke out.

“Okay. In case you were wondering, O’Shea and I have decided to see where things between us might go,” he revealed.

O’Shea’s pretty face turned pink, and Billboard felt that his own coloring might be lighting up a bit, until—

“Uh, what about…?” Brina’s nose scrunched up as she left her question dangling.

Billboard knew what she was asking, and answered before anyone else could second-guess him, or get a hair across their ass. “For those of you who don’t know already…” He quirked his mouth at Mizzay and Brigid. He figured they would have filled everyone in, but he guessed they’d held their mouths for once. “…Peggy and I called it quits a few weeks ago.”

Sounds of sympathy started up, but Billboard shut them down. “No. There’s no need to feel bad about it. We’ve known for a few months that things were running on fumes. And we parted as friends, so there shouldn’t be any awkwardness when Peggy joins us for any get-togethers.”

Often, their SOS team would hang out with the Devons’ brothers, as well as other mutual acquaintances they’d met through their business connections. He had no doubt Peggy would show up at one of those, sooner, rather than later, and she would have bounced back quite nicely, because that’s who she was.

“It’s all for the best,” Mizzay spoke up, looking around. “Youz all know that situation wasn’t going anywhere, anyway.” Her face turned gleeful. “And FYI, you lozers, I win the pot. My pick was May, and that’s when they officially ended things.”

There were hilarious murmurs of cheating, and hints of Mizzay’s super-powers, before Del deftly took charge, changing the subject.

“Okay. Billboard, if you and O’Shea would take a seat please, we’ll stop yapping like little old ladies and get down to business.”

There were grumbles all around, but only half-hearted ones because SOS ops were like their lifeblood, and they all knew Del never missed a chance to go over current jobs when they were together. Even with the wives present. Mostly , they hid nothing from their spouses, although no delicate intel was commonly shared.

“I need to know how things are going with all your assignments,” Del queried.

One by one, starting at Del’s left, each team-member gave their current sit-rep.

“I’m finished with the missing husband case,” Prez supplied, looking relieved.

Everyone groaned, commiserating with Prez. They all hated those slimy, spouse-gone-rogue jobs.

“He was shacked up with his secretary in a motel north of Boston. When I confronted him, he promised he’d be in touch with his wife to sort things out, whatever that means.” He gave a snort. “The wife was happy to know he wasn’t dead, but once she found out he was cheating on her, she wished him to hell in so many creative ways, I wish I’d written them all down.”

The entire group laughed.

Dell nodded, and pointed to Sarge. “What about your job?”

“It wasn’t easy,” Sarge admitted, running a hand back through his short dark hair.

Billboard knew he’d been hired by the family of a woman with Alzheimer’s who’d recently passed, tasked to find a cache of jewelry that the woman had unwittingly squirreled away in her home before her demise.

“Her son and daughter had already ripped the place apart, and were sure the things were gone; that she’d given the items to some scammer. But my, uh, attention to detail wouldn’t let me give up.”

By that, Billboard knew Sarge meant that his OCD hadn’t allowed him to call it quits until every square inch of the woman’s house had been examined.

“I eventually found the stuff in a plastic bag in the tank of her basement toilet.” He grimaced. “Not the cleanest spot in the home, but I persevered and gamely fished it out. The family was extremely thankful, as apparently there are a lot of history and memories tied up with that jewelry.”

“Nice job, Sarge,” Del smiled, then winked. “I’ll add a little hazard-pay to your next check for your troubles.”

He went on to Perk, next. “What about you, Perkins?” he asked. “Is the swing-set back in place?”

Billboard smothered a laugh. Dealing with missing people and items was always a challenge, but this particular job had made them all scratch their heads. In a suburb north of Boston, a resident’s large piece of playground equipment had disappeared from their yard in the middle of the night. The family was at a loss; saying they didn’t have any enemies. But what they also didn’t have was a ring camera, which meant Perk tracking down the purloined structure wasn’t going to be easy.

“It took a long and very frustrating week of watching and waiting, but our perp finally came out of hiding when he went after another neighbor’s jungle gym. I nabbed him red-handed. I was going to turn him over to the local PD, but…”

Funny . Perk hesitated, looking a bit sheepish.

“Don’t tell me,” Maygan guessed. “It was an old, disgruntled neighbor who didn’t like all the happy noises the kids were making, and you felt his pain and let him off with a slap on the wrist.”

Maygan was a soccer coach, and actually loved the screams and squeals that went along with her job.

“Nope,” Perk grinned. “It was actually a troubled teen who was jealous because his family never had the money to buy him any of that type of apparatus when he was young.”

Damn. That was just…sad.

“So, what did you do if you didn’t turn him in?” Mizzay asked.

“I made a deal with him and his parents. Who were mortified by the way. They all agreed to my terms,” Perk said. “First, the kid has to reassemble what he stole. Then, he has to find a therapist to help him with his anger issues, after which he’ll be going to camp.”

“Camp?” O’Shea questioned with surprise in her voice.

“Yup. Up north. Near Bangor, where I’m from. There’s a camp for kids who are bullied, and/or have self-esteem issues. The woman who runs it, Hilly Duncan-Andera, has agreed to take the young man on, once he’s been vetted by the shrink and been cleared that he poses no threat.”

It was a nice ending to a story that could have landed the kid in juvie.

“Great job, Perk,” Del nodded. “Who else? Wiley?”

“I’m still in the middle of things, boss-man,” he revealed, sighing. “And I’ll tell you, I feel more like a carny-barker than an investigator. When the wife in the household got mad that her husband wasn’t paying her enough attention, she started putting the guy’s stuff up for bid on the internet, and it was like ‘come one, come all’. Compiling a list of everything he’s missing, then tracking all that stuff down has been a challenge. It’s everywhere. Did you know there’s an actual country called Kiribati?”

Sarge didn’t even hesitate. “An island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania, in the central Pacific Ocean,” he rattled off.

“What the hell, Sarge?” Wiley gaped.

Sarge shrugged. “Well, that’s what Wikipedia says,” he revealed with a slight blush.

“And you know this, how?” Brina asked with some amusement.

“Because he spends a lot of his free time reading all that Wiki-shit,” Brigid revealed, grinning. But she patted Sarge’s arm like she was proud of him. “And unlike the rest of us plebians, he remembers everything he reads with that steal trap of his.”

“There’ll be no picking on Sarge, due to his superior brain,” Del interjected. “I’ll have you all remember that his…attention to detail has saved all your asses a time or two.” Despite his solidarity with Sarge, it was clear that Del was trying to keep a laugh contained as he got back to logistics. He turned to Wiley. “Stay at it. I have faith you’ll find it all.” He put his gaze on Billboard. “And what about you?”

Billboard had been waiting, not so patiently, for his turn. He had a lot to impart, and some favors to ask.

“I found Ethan, as everyone probably already knows,” he began.

At the head nods, he knew Mizzay had apprised his teammates of his success.

“But it’s a very interesting case,” he continued. “First of all, the fact that Mrs. Jakes didn’t want the police involved, raises a red flag. As you’re all aware, if a kid goes missing, normally the parent wants all-hands-on-deck, but Mrs. Jakes was adamant about not calling the authorities, and willing to wait for me to get there; having confidence that I would be able to find Ethan.”

“You think she had an inkling of where he’d gone?”

“I think she knows what he’s been doing; her concern was simply that he hadn’t come home last night. If I’m correct, she’s approved that he’s prepping to make himself able to disappear. Which leads me to believe there’s more to this mother and son story than either of them are letting on.”

“Continue,” Del urged, leaning forward to steeple his fingers on the table.

Billboard was interrupted by the waitress who came to take their order. He didn’t need to look at the menu, since it was one of their go-to places, but he wondered if O’Shea had gotten a chance to peruse the offerings.

“The fish and chips can’t be beat,” he suggested in her ear. “That’s if you like fish.”

“Catfish, yeah,” she said. “What kind do they batter-up here?”

“Cod. Schrod. Haddock. Whatever white fish looks good to the chef.” He clarified. “If you like catfish, you’ll like this.”

“Okay.”

When her turn came to order, she went with his suggestion, but added a side of onion rings. A woman after his own heart.

Billboard duplicated her order, then when the waitress left, he got back to business.

“So, we’ve got a mother who was only slightly panicked because Ethan stayed out overnight. And an almost twelve-year-old who could give a few weathered soldiers a lesson in how to disappear and stay under the radar.” He described all the segues and traps the kid had set, reluctantly admitting that he’d fallen into a three-foot-deep pit.

Yeah , he got a bunch of razzing for that, but the team was more interested in the “why” of it all, as was he.

“So, you think this kid has been practicing his disappearing act with the consent of his mother because they are in some kind of trouble,” Del speculated.

“That about sums it up, boss,” Billboard replied. “But get this. With Mrs. Jake’s permission, I’ve been given the green light to mentor Ethan, not only teaching him additional and advanced evading techniques, but also to school him in self-defense.” He turned to his colleagues. “I thought maybe it would be in our best interest to help them, and maybe suss out what they’re scared of.”

Billboard looked around seeing nods. “Sarge, would you mind coming on board and bringing Ethan up to speed with more info on how to avoid being tracked?”

“I’d enjoy it, immensely,” Sarge immediately agreed.

“And Prez, on self-defense, if you’d pitch in, I figure your girls—and maybe even Rory—” he looked at Mizzay, “might like to get in on a few lessons.”

“Consider it done,” Prez stated without a second thought.

After their ready agreement, Billboard relaxed.

Clearly, everyone on his team was as intrigued with the Jake’s family secrets as he was, and if all went according to the way SOS normally operated, they’d have answers to their questions pretty damned quickly.