Parkers Island Ch. 03

"No, Aiden, I won't allow it."

I stood, walking towards Sarah who seemed to match my steps, only backwards. By the time I got to the door Hannah had joined Abby, both preventing me from confronting Sarah.

"My one regret, Sarah, is that I should have stopped you the moment Matt told me he knew. Because of that lapse these two now know."

Sarah was pressed up against the door; it was Hannah that tried to defend her.

"No, Aiden, it wasn't like that. Abby and I were talking about when Em acted weird, and you both up and disappeared. When we realized that Sarah knew something we practically became a second skin on her until she caved and told us."

My answer to her statement became a question. "And who did you tell?"

Both my sisters shook their heads.

"No one, I swear, and besides, Matt already knew you were a spook. Donny said he knew something wasn't right about you all along."

My gaze once again held Sarah as she seemed to shrink against the door.

"One day you will realize what you have done."

I walked back into the room and grabbed my bag, my anger being held barely in check. Both Abby and Hannah knew better than to get in my way, and both stepped aside, allowing me to move between them. Even Sarah moved away from the door, her eyes never leaving me as I opened the door and stood letting the late afternoon breeze wash over me.

"You should have talked to me at the wedding. You have no idea what you have done, or the pain you have caused."

My foot went to move before I realized that I still had my sisters to deal with. When I looked across, their eyes held so much pain of their own.

"The day our grandparents came to our house and you both rushed to pack a bag each should have been the end of it. I have no sisters any more, and I live for the day that Houston will somehow have become nothing more than a distant memory."

Abby rushed to me and held on tight.

"But, Aiden, we just wanted to tell you how proud we are of you."

My hand held her wrist, twisted it, and moved her away from me.

"Don't touch me! Don't come anywhere near me, or make any attempt to talk to anyone connected with me. That includes everyone in this room, and Matt as well."

My head inched towards Sarah, what she saw in my eyes caused her to shake with fear.

"Leave the army; you know I can find out, so leave before JAG makes you."

I left the bedlam I had caused. Tossing my bag back into the rental I drove away, my own thoughts seeming to run though every emotion within me. Finding the airport parking lot was a minor miracle. I was back at the Department the next morning, sitting in front of Shelby while I recounted a conversation I had with Matt, the connection with his sister and the wedding, and on to the conversation with my sisters not even a day ago.

"You know Bingham will want in on this?"

Nodding my head was just the beginning.

"Tell them to look towards Donny. His history with me, and what Madison did to him at Abby's wedding, was probably the start. Hannah dumping him would have just lit the touch paper."

Shelby nodded and reached for the phone on her desk.

"Go rest up in your apartment: you look like shit."

I'm sure I grunted an acceptance of how I looked. Tessa was still on the island, so it was a simple case of dropping my bag on the floor and falling onto the bed. I'm sure that at some point I actually got out of my clothes, since I woke later that day both naked and in bed.

*******

Two days later, the fallout of the meeting with Shelby dragged Matt out of a meeting at his office, with two very intimidating FBI agents sitting him down and reading him the riot act. Matt for his part didn't even lawyer up; he knew something bad had happened. Before leaving, one of the agents slid a sheet of paper across his desk and told him to sign at the bottom.

The lawyer in him wanted to read it all but, after the first paragraph and the third mention of the words "in the interest of national security," he stopped reading and signed. They left right afterwards, while he quickly grabbed his own coat and told his secretary to cancel everything. He made it home in time to see a black SUV outside his house and an agent standing beside it.

As he was getting out of his car his cell rang. He knew he didn't have time for this, but it was his mom phoning. She was hysterical, and wanted to know why two MPs had turned up at the house and taken Sarah away. Sarah had let them in, grabbed a coat, and left with them, with not one word spoken between them despite her own mom wanting to know why they were there.

Matt did his best to calm his mother, and told her he would find out. She extracted a promise before she would even consider putting the phone down. By the time Matt got inside, Hannah and Abby were sitting on a couch in the day room, both looking terrified. Abby spotted him and rushed into his arms.

"He hates us, Matt! We can't see him ever again," she sobbed.

Matt looked at all three agents standing in the room.

"Did they identify themselves before you let them in, Abby?"

He felt her head nod. A cell rang out and one of the agents took a step back to answer it. He looked towards Matt and then went back to his conversation. After a couple of nods and "yes sirs" he closed his cell and had a huddle with the other two. The female agent who appeared to be in charge asked Abby to sit down. When she refused Matt could guess what was going to come next, so he guided his wife to the couch and Abby instantly clung to her sister.

"You're the husband?"

Matt nodded. He watched as the third agent picked up two sheets of paper from the coffee table and placed them into a folder before standing to one side of Matt.

"We would like you to come with us, please."

"Am I under arrest?"

The features on the female agent hardened. "Would you like to be?"

The agent who had taken the call moved closer, diverting Matt's attention to him and the female agent.

"You have my word I will bring you back here. You will be home in time to put your daughter to bed."

Matt nodded and hugged both Abby and Hannah once more, before following the agents out of his house. The FBI building was as nondescript as they could make it, and yet everyone knew it was the FBI building. Matt expected an interrogation room, but he was escorted into a side office. Sarah sat in a seat by the desk looking really nervous. Although she acknowledged his entrance she sat still and said nothing.

Eventually Matt sat next to her and waited. A woman came in and asked if they wanted anything to drink. Sarah asked to use the bathroom, and the woman smiled and nodded. A minute later another woman came in, and escorted Sarah out of the room and back again a few minutes later.

It was still an hour before the door opened once again, and both brother and sister recognized Steven Chadwick. He didn't look like he did when Matt had last seen him; he was serious now. He tried a smile and eventually gave up before walking over to the desk and asking them both to join him, tossing a file onto the table while he waited.

"Before we start I would like to tell you that at this moment I'm chairing a closed meeting in Washington and have nine people willing to testify to that fact."

The Senator looked directly at Sarah.

"I'm telling you this for my own protection since you can't keep your mouth shut."

Sarah winced at the remark and started to wring her hands.

"Lieutenant Colonel Richardson, your career hangs on two things: what you tell me in this room, and me believing you."

The brother in Matt surfaced first, the lawyer not all that far behind. Senator Chadwick saw it, but got in first.

"You're here to keep her calm. If you can't do that, then I will have you removed from this office and sent home. But know this, however: with or without you here, I intend to get to the bottom of this."

He got a nod from both of them before he opened up a file and pulled two pictures out, sliding them across to Sarah. Matt looked and paled. He recognized Madison, the shoulder and head shot clearly showing her dead, and no doubt on some morgue slab somewhere.

"Dead because you told Abby and Hannah about their brother. It was bad enough you talked to your brother here, but at least he can keep a secret, even from his own wife."

The Senator silently read from another sheet he pulled from his file, and then asked Sarah about her time in Afghanistan. Sarah knew what he was referring to, and told him as much as she had told Matt on his wedding day when she had once again seen Aiden. Again Steven Chadwick opened the file and flicked through the pages inside. Sarah spotted one sheet of paper which had "Dishonorable Discharge" as its heading.

Finally finding the sheet he wanted, Steven Chadwick read it and then looked again at Sarah.

"This is Madison's report of the wedding. She noted your anxiety and the way you hovered around Aiden, even instigating a slow dance with him. Did you at any time introduce yourself to him?"

"Yes sir, I did."

"What did you say your name was?"

"Sarah Richardson, sir."

Steven Chadwick looked directly at Sarah; he even placed the sheet of paper face down on the table to give her his full concentration.

"You introduced yourself as Sarah Richardson. Not Lieutenant Colonel Richardson, since you knew what Aiden was?"

Her head lowered, Matt placed his hand on her thigh and she looked up at him. Her lips parted, and she tried so hard to say something. Steven Chadwick asked another question, since it was clear he wasn't about to get an answer to his first one.

"How many dances did you have with Aiden that evening?"

"Three, sir."

"All slow dances?"

"Yes, sir."

Senator Chadwick kept asking about the wedding reception. Once in awhile he would refer to the report from Madison. Matt could see why he was such a good politician; when Sarah froze over a question he would ease off and come at the same question from a different angle, eventually getting the answers he was looking for. When he asked her how Abby and Hannah had found out, Sarah went quiet once again.

"I got mad, sir."

This time the Senator leaned on the table, intrigued. "Explain."

Sarah had gone to Abby's to spend time with her niece. Hannah was there and between them they moaned about the lack of times they ever saw their brother. It was Hannah who called him a clerk; soon Abby joined in, and she wondered aloud what he did in the army, since he never talked about it or had even been seen in a uniform. Hannah mentioned that he didn't even have a haircut of high and tight like all the men she had seen in uniform.

Sarah listened but said nothing as his sisters belittled their own brother, calling him a clerk and a bottle washer. The final straw was when Abby said that he must have a real easy job that kept him here while all the real solders were fighting in Afghanistan. Hell, even Sarah had done a tour there, so she must be braver than their own brother.

"I couldn't take it anymore, sir. These two bitches were belittling a man I had seen pull a gun on me and told me to look after his Marine friend first, knowing how he himself was slowly bleeding to death, and to them he was nothing more than a clerk hiding in an office all safe and sound."

Sarah had made her excuses and left, but not before telling both sisters that they knew nothing about Aiden and, until he told them himself, it would be best if they both minded their own damn business.

Matt listened and knew she was right. He could even name the day that conversation would have been: he had come home that evening, and Abby wanted to know every conversation he had with Aiden at the wedding and what he knew of the blonde he came with. He loved his wife dearly, but he also knew what Aiden was. Matt knew that, in this marriage, that would be one secret he had to keep from her.

*******

As this meeting was going on Donny was walking back to work after lunch with friends. He was annoyed at the black van parked on the curbside blocking his way. Suddenly two men in masks were standing behind him; one held him as the other stuck a needle in his neck. When his body slumped into unconsciousness they dragged him into the black van via the side door.

Those few who witnessed this called the Police. Two even managed to get the license plate number as it sped away. The Police arrived within minutes and started taking statements. Thirty minutes later a report of a black van on fire three miles away came over the radio. When Donny woke later that evening, naked and chained to a metal bed, the first thing he did was wet himself.

A man came into the room and watched Donny cry for a moment before sitting next to him, patting him on the arm. In a tone unexpectedly soft for a man as broad as he was, he told Donny that everything was going to be all right. It may get uncomfortable; it may get to the point when he may even lose control of his bowels; but it would be all right in the end.

Donny screamed: the man simply sat and let him. When Donny could scream no more, the man asked him if he felt better now. When Donny looked at the man he saw two cables in his hands; when they got close together sparks flew all over the place. Donny managed to scream a bit more.

The questions started a few minutes later. Donny talked, and through the evening the man listened. When Donny stopped talking he would ask another question. The sight of those cables in that man's hands urged him onwards. Anonymous tips landed on the desk of Homeland; the FBI got involved, and another cell was unearthed.

Two survived the assault on the house they were renting. The information from the survivors and what was found in the house caused a lot more overtime in Homeland's building, as well as the FBI's.

After being missing for two days, Donny was found by his mother, naked and sleeping in a "no-tell" motel, after she had taken a call from someone who refused to give a name. Donny wasn't a terrorist, which became apparent to the man sitting with him for those two days; just a very insecure boy who had a big mouth to compensate for that fact. When Donny woke in hospital, with the police standing over him on one side of the bed and his mother on the other, he refused to say anything about the kidnapping or the missing two days.

When the hospital discharged him he quickly went home, packed a bag, and left Houston. All that his mother says about him when you ask after Donny is that he is happy in Ohio now; his mother often says that she will come to visit her son and, in return, Donny threatens to leave Ohio if she ever does.

*******

Senator Chadwick listened to Sarah, a part of him feeling for her as she described being ambushed from then onwards by one sister or the other, or both together, wanting to know what she knew about Aiden. In the end she caved and sat both down, explaining her connection with Aiden and how they had met.

"You know there are protocols in place for times like these. Why didn't you instigate them?"

At first Sarah just shrugged her shoulders, but she knew that wasn't going to be enough.

"Over time I got the history of this family. I knew the grandparents well through my mother. Abby spoke with fondness for her brother; Hannah was a little more reserved, but you could see the love they had for him. When both came here, leaving Aiden behind, they quickly realized their mistake, but by then Aiden was gone; he simply vanished off the face of the Earth."

Sarah looked to Matt, her hand seeking his and holding tight as she spoke again of how Abby finally met her brother and knew that the love she had for him was so real. Hannah floundered for a while, but the fact that Matt made her welcome soon eased Hannah's feelings. When the wedding was announced, and the invite sent to Aiden, the insecurities within both girls surfaced once again.

In the six years prior to the wedding both sisters had seen Aiden three times, each only for a weekend. Both wanted so much to reconnect with their brother but, as quickly as he turned, up he left again. The last time Abby had insisted on a contact phone number, rather than just a PO Box.

Abby was over the moon that she was pregnant; even more so when Aiden agreed to come back to Houston for a long weekend, but then things went crazy. Amelia acted all weird and left the girls standing outside the shop while she hopped into a taxi, and Aiden disappeared once again.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm telling this from a woman's perspective, not an officer's. The only time both sisters saw him again was at his own wedding, and it was at your residence. That alone asked more questions than it answered. Aiden had never been in uniform in all the time they had known him. His own wedding was at a Senator's home and the place was crawling with security."

When Sarah came home again on leave Hannah went to see her. Both sisters knew that Sarah knew more than she was letting on, and between them they mounted a campaign to find out what.

"I wanted them to be proud of him, sir. I never imagined this. I'm so sorry; people have died, all because I wanted two sisters to be proud of their brother, and not call him a bottle washer."

Matt handed his sister a tissue, and both men waited her out.

"I accept that I went about it all wrong, and Madison is dead because of me. I can't change that, so please sign the Dishonorable Discharge papers and allow me to go back and say my goodbyes to my friends."

Senator Chadwick heard her out and sat back in his chair. He put the file back together and stood before them, looking at Matt.

"Take her home, son. This has to go on her record, but you have my word that I will seal it once it is. Her career is of her own making from now on."

Matt stood, helping Sarah up as he did.

"I have a question, sir."

Senator Chadwick watched Matt for a moment before nodding his head.

"All this came about because of Aiden's reluctance to get involved with his grandparents. It's out there now, sir; what he is, I mean. All both sisters ever wanted was their brother back. Can this be fixed? I know Abby misses him so much, and Hannah can't be that far behind."

The Senator thought for a moment, before pulling a pen from his pocket and writing something on a piece of paper. He handed it to Matt, and both shook on it. When Matt looked at the slip of paper he read just one name, Martha, and a cell number.

*******

I believed life had turned a corner for Amelia and me. It had been a year since Madison's death, and every week I'm on the island I still go to both Carol's and Madison's graves, and both will always have flowers on them. I keep both up to date on what's going on in our lives. Amelia still has the odd nightmare, but not all that often now.

Martha told me that the couple who owned the house across from us wanted to still have a presence on the island, but to downsize. She found them what they wanted, and the house was sold so quickly it didn't even get a "For Sale" sign put outside it. The decorators spent a month on the house, and the smell of paint on the outside lasted a few days, but it sure looked good.

Going by what Hank told me, the family came once while I was away, and he had been busy doing some cabinets for them. What confused me was that he said I had recommended him for the job. That caused a head-scratching moment but, since it was money to see him over the winter, I wasn't going to argue. The only vacant shop down by the dock got its "To Let" sign taken down. Becky waved when she saw me watching her do it.

The same decorators from across the road trooped in there a day later, and turned the office upstairs into a bed-sit. Even when the "Hannah's Photographic" sign went up I didn't make the connection.

Tessa came home unexpectedly. Not that anything to do with the Department was ever expected, of course, and she still used my office while she was here. Sometimes I had to drag her out to send her home, or she would have been in there all night. I love that girl, but there is no way I'm having her downstairs while I'm busy keeping my wife happy.