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#Post#: 2913--------------------------------------------------
Haunted by the Past - Chapter 13 - Blanket Coverage
By: RampageSports Date: February 25, 2016, 10:23 am
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Author's Note: The Spenser, Hawk and Susan Silverman characters
belong to mystery novelist Robert B. Parker. Mr. Parker is one
of my favorite authors, and his work is a major influence on the
the way I write. Whether I even come close to mimicking his
style is open to considerable debate, but I have chosen to use
his characters in this story as something of an homage. My goal
is to handle them as lightly as possible and to maintain them as
Mr. Parker created them. Any failure on that front is
completely my own.
[hr]
Haunted by the Past - Chapter 13 - Blanket Coverage
Hawk followed Danni home that night, with the plan being that he
would keep watch until Spenser arrived in the middle of the
night. Then, Hawk would keep watch again at RSI while Spenser
did his thing.
I wasn't really clear on how or when either of them were
sleeping, but I assumed they had it covered.
I had to assure Spenser numerous times that my situation was
under control. He said he would feel better if he could come
with me and see for himself. But I held firm, explaining that I
had no doubt I was going to be fully secure.
Just how secure, though, even came as a surprise to me.
My neighborhood is small and working class, and it has a certain
scheduled flow to it. I know when my neighbors leave for work,
each day. I know who the stay-at-home moms are. I even know
which husbands stumble their way in late from the bar three or
four nights a week.
Yeah... sometimes I know more than I want to.
Day after day and night after night, almost nothing changes.
So, disturbances in the flow are easy to spot. Among the most
obvious is a car parked where it doesn't belong. Every vehicle
has it's place. Every driveway was full and even those cars
left out on the street were always in the same spot each night.
So the dark blue Ford Crown Victoria parked directly in front of
my door may as well have had a blinking neon sign on top that
said, STATE TROOPER HERE.
I passed the Crown Vic and pulled into my driveway. As I
exited, the trooper got out to greet me.
He was tall and broad, and he really was doing his best not to
stand out. But he just couldn't help it. Though he was dressed
casually in jeans and a plain gray t-shirt, he had the formal,
stiff posture only a cop can manage.
In other words, that blinking neon sign was following him
around.
"Miss Winterfeld?" he asked.
"That's me."
"I'm Trooper Brown, ma'am," he said, extending a handshake I
gratefully returned. "Major O'Rourke has asked me to keep an
eye on you, tonight."
His clean-shaven face and close-cropped hair gave him such a
youthful appearance, I wondered if he'd just graduated from the
academy yesterday.
"You have a first name, Trooper Brown?"
"It's Gavin, ma'am."
"Okay, Gavin. You can knock off that ma'am stuff, and just call
me Richelle."
"Yes, ma'am," he responded.
I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Uh, right," he said hastily. "Okay, sure."
I smiled at him.
"And who do we have over there?" I asked, nodding toward the
gray Dodge Charger that had just rolled up and parked on the
cross street.
"Uhm," he stalled.
"You guys are not hard to spot in a neighborhood like this. But
we can pretend I didn't notice, if you wish. In the meantime,
does he or she have a name?"
"Yes, ma'am," he answered, missing the obvious intention of my
question.
We'd known each other for barely a minute, and poor Trooper
Brown was already significantly rattled. I'm sure he'd intended
on leading this conversation, but I'd gotten ahead of him and he
was scrambling to catch up.
Apparently, Pat hadn't told him much about me, and I found
myself wondering if he was using this as some sort of hazing
ritual.
I stood and waited with a pleasant smile. Eventually Brown
caught on.
"Ah, uh... right. It's Jordan, ma'am. Trooper Vince Jordan."
"Okay," I said, "and it's just the two of you?"
He hesitated, looking like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Gavin," I said sternly, while simultaneously thinking Jesus,
Pat.
Trooper Brown finally gave up the pretense as he blew out a
sigh.
"Detective Meghan Taylor is parked on the block behind, ma'am.
She's covering the rear entrance."
I smiled a little as I tilted my head.
"You're not very good at hiding things."
"Well ma'am, I wasn't really expecting an interrogation."
I laughed softly.
"I don't mean to get you in trouble," I said. "Major O'Rourke
doesn't need to know this conversation ever took place."
"Uh, no ma'am, it's fine," he said. "You're going to need to
meet everyone, anyway."
"Oh?"
"Major O'Rourke has a whole schedule worked out."
My chin fell to my chest as if my head was just too heavy to
hold up any longer.
I sighed heavily and said, "What kind of schedule?"
"Detective Taylor will follow you to work, tomorrow. Let her
know what time you think you'll be returning home, and Trooper
Jordan will be there to escort you back. Detective Taylor and I
will get here earlier and inspect the premises before you
return."
I massaged my temple for a minute as I stewed. Then, I tried to
take the optimistic view.
"Well, I guess I should consider myself lucky he didn't just put
me under house arrest."
"That option was discussed, ma'am," he said. "We were forced to
point out that we're not allowed to arrest people who have not
committed a crime."
"What did he say to that?"
"He didn't respond. But I would avoid jaywalking if I were you,
because he's just looking for an excuse."
"I'll keep it in mind," I said as I began to imagine the
conversation Pat and I were going to have tomorrow.
I took a few steps along the path, then turned back to Brown as
I worked my keys around the ring until I came up with the one
for the front door.
"Now, Gavin... we're friends now," I said, eyeing him seriously.
"That means you'll be sad if anything happens to me, and I'll
be sad if anything happens to you. So, let's make sure neither
of us ends up sad, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am," he said with a smile and a firm nod.
"You're still calling me ma'am."
"Yes, ma'am. I don't think I'm going to be able to stop that,"
he admitted.
"Well, at least you get bonus points for honesty."
[hr]
Character Reference
HTML https://aade768506dacb303a01a361d3dc0d27209a5ec4.googledrive.com/host/0Bz8YsEjMxOhMMXhVcF82aG5SXzA/Richelle_100x120.jpg
Name: Richelle Winterfeld
Nickname(s):
Background: Owner of the RSI stable, former underground fighter
HTML https://aade768506dacb303a01a361d3dc0d27209a5ec4.googledrive.com/host/0Bz8YsEjMxOhMMXhVcF82aG5SXzA/Danni_100x120.jpg
Name: Danneel Harris
Nickname(s): Danni
Background: RSI stable leader, reigning DEF welterweight
champion
[img]
HTML https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=0Bz8YsEjMxOhMTWlVa0RtSHRqdlE[/img]
Name: Patrick O'Rourke
Nickname(s):
Background: Major with the New Jersey State Police, family
friend of Richelle's
[img]
HTML https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=0Bz8YsEjMxOhMUlRZaFhJQjBuQnc[/img]
Name: Gavin Brown
Nickname(s):
Background: New Jersey State Police Trooper, works for Major
O'Rourke
#Post#: 2914--------------------------------------------------
Re: Haunted by the Past - Chapter 13 - Blanket Coverage
By: RampageSports Date: February 25, 2016, 10:54 am
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Turns out this one was even shorter than the last, so I'll go
ahead and post again tomorrow.
I freely admit that I didn't do the greatest job of breaking
down the chapters. When I went back and read over everything,
there were a few points where I split things that should have
been kept together. There are also a few things that probably
should have been split, but weren't. :P
So, there's a chance these every day posts may happen again down
the line. I'll take a break after tomorrow, though. People
tend to be busy on the weekends, anyway.
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