CHAPTER 12

Silently, Cindy mumbled to herself, “oh my god.” When she heard the front door open she found herself thankful and put away her phone. She wondered if she should say something about what she was seeing on it but, decided it would do no good. Instead, Cindy put a calm, but business like, expression on her face and waited until Trisha O’Rouke came back from the foyer where she had rushed out to meet the new arrivals. The woman was understandably in tears and when she returned with her daughter, that had not changed in the least.

The emotional state was something that Cindy had prepared herself to deal with. The person that came in with Trisha, and her daughter, was not. In many ways the kid looked like your average street hoodlum but, he had an air of familiarity, about him, even if Cindy could not quite place him. She then decided to kill two birds with one stone by finding out who this was and taking control of the scene at the same time. Cindy applied her voice of authority and pointed to the kid, “who are you exactly?”

Trisha was hovering over the young girl and trying to comfort her as she replied to Cindy, “that’s Henna’s uncle. Remember? I told you, I called him last night. He found her for me after she called.”

The boy tipped a couple of fingers at Cindy and said, “just call me Chuck.”

Cindy lost her mask for a second, “O’Rouke?” No wonder he looked familiar! When Trisha had told her about all of that she pictured someone that was a hell of a lot older than this kid. He looked as if he and Henna were the same age. She put that out of her mind for now though. Chuck had just become irrelevant at this point and they now had to get down to business. Cindy recovered her momentum, and her game face, and she told Trisha, “all right. Like I said, we now have two options.”

As Trisha held her sobbing child she snapped at Cindy, “I am NOT calling in the family. Do you have any idea what that means Cindy?”

Cindy pleaded with the woman, “they can protect her Trish!”

“Without Conner here,” Trisha replied in an almost angry way, “that’s the last thing they would do. You know Duncan and his cronies. Do you honestly believe they’d stand up to the Wehrmacht?” Trish answered her own question, “not over this. Those slimy little gutless bastards would hand her over without even batting an eye.”
“Fine Trish!” Cindy threw up her arms and began furiously pacing as she said, “that doesn’t change facts. We have to get her off the island.”

Trish was horrified, “you’re a lawyer? Can’t you do anything?”

Cindy huffed, “the German’s don’t exactly practice the same kind of law that I do. Look Trish, I told you that I would help. I still can, to a point, and I owe you.” Cindy did not bother to mention that when she first got the call, at the time, she had really believed this was going to be a matter that wound up in a Colonial Court of Law. She had never expected the Germans to go on the war path. There was no point in mentioning it now. Cindy could no more change any of that than Henna could change what she had done.

In frustration, Cindy followed her thoughts and asked the sobbing young girl, “why did you do it Henna? You can‘t possibly believe all that Earthsucks crap on that website. You‘re not that stupid.”

Cindy never really expected an answer. Henna surprised her by growling, “to get the bastards that killed my father!” That revelation stunned more than just Cindy. Even Trisha pulled her arms back, stood up from the couch, and then even stepped back some more. Henna didn’t even care about her mothers actions. She lashed out in anger, “it wasn’t supposed to happen like that. I didn’t care about killing the German. That was all Gordon and his little nerd buddies.”

Now Cindy found herself back in lawyer mode. She almost felt like she was questioning a witness on the stand, “Henna, I don’t understand. Are you telling me that you were not the one who blew up that car?”

“I didn’t actually put the bomb there,” Henna replied with a sneer, “if that’s what you mean. I helped though. Gordon needed cash and I could give it to him. He got what he wanted and I got the murdering bastards. I was proud to do it. Nobody else was going too!”

Chuck was horrified to hear his childhood playmate talking like that. Then again, there was a lot of familiarity there too. If anything, he felt saddened by it. He’d seen what his family had done to his brothers and they were both dead now. Sure, neither had met their end in a way that Chuck had ever figured but, that did not change the fact that they both went down paths that the family had ultimately forced on them and they both wound up in a grave that should have stayed empty for years to come.

For all of Chuck’s life he had done everything to hide from all of this. Now, suddenly, he started to think he had no choice but too face it. It made him wonder if stepping on that particular path was going to mean sharing his brother’s fates. He stepped up and with all of the determination that he could muster, he told his niece, “Henna, I told you not to start playing with those action figures! That’s where all this started!”

Only Henna found herself able to respond to that, “you’re kidding, right?”

Chuck was still jumpy, even when he stepped back. He twitched a little and then said, “and bombs too!”

Cindy regained her composure, closed her jaw, and then set about making this situation right. She had no real wish to be here. She simply had no choice. The faster she took care of this situation then the faster she could go hide. That seemed like the safest play at the moment. She suggested to Trisha, “fine, you won’t call Duncan. How about we move her ourselves? There are plenty of islands in the Arch. If we get her to any other then the German’s will never find her.”

Henna’s tears had dried up for the moment. She still felt the anger lingering in her. She directed it at her mother and the lawyer, “I don’t get a say in this?”

Trish snapped back at her daughter, “I think you’ve done enough young lady.”

Henna did not miss a beat, “what are you going to do Mom, ground me?”

Cindy raised her voice to get the control back, “everybody calm down, please.”

Chuck added in a meek voice, “you don’t want to get grounded cuz.”

Everyone ignored Chuck and Trisha pointed out to her lawyer, “there is no way anyone can get off of this island without the family knowing about it.”

“Not entirely true,” Cindy pointed out. When it was obvious that Trisha had no idea, Cindy had to roll her eyes. Had that woman just completely forgotten about what she and her husband were doing all these years? In a way it kind of figured. Cindy had money, sure, but she had worked her ass off for every dime of it. Trish and Conner had way more money and it was obvious to Cindy that their sum total worth had reached the point where they completely took it for granted. They probably never gave it a second thought and, as a consequence, how they got that money as well.

“Hello Trish,” Cindy continued, “I own a marina? You know, the kind that has boats?”

Now it was Trisha’s turn to roll her eyes at Cindy, and then, point out the fatal flaw in her plan, “those dinky little things, at your Marina, hardly qualifies as boats, Cindy. They’re just for skiing and fishing. You couldn’t make it half way to Doris Island in one of those pathetic little things. Let alone get to anywhere safe.”

“Not true,” Cindy shot back, “I know somebody who’s done it before.” She perked up and added, “more than once in fact.”

“Oh my god,” Trisha huffed, “I can’t believe you are even suggesting that. After what you did to that man? Do you honestly believe he‘ll help you?”

Cindy looked to Chuck, “as it so happens. I know somebody he trusts.”

Chuck slowly noticed the eyes that were bearing down on him and he became very self conscious. He stumbled around looking for words and finally just said it, “what? I don’t know how to drive a boat. I think I can fly a chopper though. Would that do?”