Chapter 3

When Barbara walked into the commissary she just stood in the screen door for a moment and looked across the room. She felt almost as if she were really seeing the ghosts of all the men and women who had stood here in the past. She remembered back to the days when the little girl in the corner was not her daughter. That little girl, younger than even Shannon now, was Barbara herself. She remembered how neat everyone was in their uniforms that were not too different from the one she had on currently. Barbara remembered watching her father standing up at the podium, every morning, and briefing his Rangers. She could see it now as clearly as if they were all still there.

Then Calvin, who was sitting at his computer desk, drinking a beer and reading a book, commented without ever getting his nose out of the cover, “close the door. You’re letting those little vermin in. Remember the last one that grew up?”

Barbara let the door slam behind her and suddenly Calvin looked up. He was a bit shocked, “oh hey, Barbara, I didn’t realize you would be back so..” Calvin noticed the uniform, “what are you doing in that get up?”

Barbara completely ignored the question as she walked over to the fridge to grab some fruit juice. As she did she finally caught the notice of Norm Scoggins. The guy had not gotten in yet when Barbara had left for the palace. He had been habitually getting in late these past few weeks. He had also been habitually combing over papers and notebooks that Barbara had decided she did not even want to know about.

Norm did take enough time to look up and ask, “you haven’t seen Jake anywhere about, have you?”

“Oh,” Barbara replied after she finished a swig of the juice and put the bottle back in the fridge, “it’s ‘Jake’ now is it?” Norm did not dignify her little quip with an answer. Barbara just became sour and pointed out past what used to be the kitchen that used to serve a hundred Rangers, three meals a day. Calvin now had his desk in front of what used to be the serving counter. The metal roll down shutter had not been raised in years. It also happened to be in the direction of the driveway, “oh he’s out making a fool of himself. Same as he does every morning.”

Calvin tried to lighten the mood a little by noting, “Shannon got off to school on time.”

As Barbara wandered towards the door that led to the barracks hallway, she mumbled, “small miracles never cease.” Just before she walked out of the room, without ever looking back, and in a commanding tone she growled, “Danni’s out there with him this morning. When she gets back, have her report to me.”

When Barbara vanished, Cal snuck a peek at the paper calendar in his desk drawer. Then he looked over to Norm and shook his head, ‘no.’ Norm only snorted out a ‘whatever’ and went back to his reading. Calvin Brandt still remained a tad curious, “what do you think she wants to see Danni for?”

“Gee Cal,” Norm replied as he read, “why don’t you go ask Barbara?”

“Naaa,” Cal replied and went back to his own book. He did finish off with a mumble, “I’ll catch the second hand stories later.”
Twice in the past ten minutes, Norm found himself confronted with a statement that was not worthy of a response. It was exactly two times that he displayed the appropriate amount of interest and did not reply. He decided that was more banter than he liked so he collected his material and took them up the stairs to operations. Amy was there and currently along with someone that Norm always thought more of as a prolonged house guest.

Kent Gold had a shoulder length mop on his head, was about as skinny as a rail, and talked with some kind of quasi Scottish accent or, at least, Norm guessed it was Scottish. The guy was busy talking or, more likely, flirting with Amy. It never seemed to bother him that the girl was almost young enough to be his daughter. Norm had noticed that Kent seemed to like them that way. Maybe Amy liked it that way too? He was smiling and she was giggling. 

Kent even seemed friendly when said hello to Norm. Norm walked over to one of the counters, cleared off a space for his material, and then began thumping the computer screen. In the mean time he did managed to say to Kent, “you drop over for a visit again. I didn’t realize it was Tuesday.”

“Well,” Kent did not seem to take any offense, “I do work here you know.”

“Oh,” Norm replied in a tone that spelled out exactly how much he did not care, “is that what you do here?” His voice was a bit more animated when he called for Amy to show him how to work a certain computer application.
Amy joined Norman at the computer and they were both busy trying to make it work when Amy looked out the window and saw a silver luxury car sitting in the parking area. It could not have been there long and when a guy got out of it her theory proved correct. When Amy pointed it out to Norm, even Kent joined them in looking down on the guy who was surveying the grounds from behind his sun glasses.

Amy suddenly realized, “is that who I think it is?”

Norm mumbled, “no wonder she’s in a bad mood.”

They watched the man till he vanished from view under the cover of the porch. Amy turned away from the window and her usual pale features were even more ghost like now. When she looked to Norm she did not quite face him. Her meek face was now on and she was looking to Norm out of the corners of her eyes, “what do we do?”

Norm got back to work but, he did give an answer of sorts. He raised his denim jacket to display the gun he strapped under it. Then he asked the red head, “you want to go shoot him?”

“Um,” Amy gulped, “no?”

Norm dropped his jacket side and spoke with his own commanding voice. It might not have been as feared as the one Barbara had but, it certainly always sounded a lot more hostile, “good then get your ass back to work and help me with this.”

Downstairs, in the back of the barracks, Barbara sat at the small desk that she had in the room she shared with her daughter. The room was in stark contrast to the rest of the station in most respects. Since the room had been originally intended for the station commander, it was larger than most. It also boasted it’s own private bathroom although, compared to a real house, it was tiny and barely able to fit one person at a time. The biggest difference though, was simply the state of the room. Despite the fact that it even had a teenager and dog living in it, the room was, hands down, the neatest kept place in the building.

The knock at the door barely got Barbara to look away from her computer. She did yell out, “enter.”
The voice of the person walking in surprised her. It was not who she was expecting. She stood up from her chair and with a great deal of obvious concern she asked, “Conner? What are you doing here?”

The man in the expensive causal suit closed the door behind him and put away his sun glasses. He looked around the room, seemingly noting every detail, and then finally he told Barbara, “this is no place for family to be living doll.”

Barbara’s spine stiffened and her eyes narrowed when she told him, “I think I made this clear, years ago, Conner. I am not your family.”

“Aye,” he nodded to her. He remained relaxed as he went on, “that you did. I suppose you even have a case for making that point. Don’t get me wrong darling, there are those who would argue with you, some just for the sake of arguing but, I’m not one of them.”

Barbara had her radar on full alert. She was detecting an ambush in the making, “so why are you here? I thought I made it clear that you don’t come here,” Barbara made sure that her last word had all of the appropriate force behind it, “ever.”

“I understood you the first time lass,” he told her. Then he added the addendum, “but while you may not be, strictly speaking, family as you say. The fact of the matter remains that young Shannon is.”

There was a gun hooked, in it’s holster, under Barbara’s desk. She seriously thought about getting it now. Conner could see that in her eyes too. He smiled and waived the notion off, “I’m not here to threaten you Barbara darling. I’m here as a friend.”

“Get out Conner,” Barbara replied.

“Certainly if you ask,” Conner reached back for the door handle. Before he opened it he did say, “I heard young Shannon got herself in a bit of a mess, not long ago.”

That caused the hairs to stand up on the back of Barbara’s neck. She took a second to compose herself and it was obvious that every little twitch was noticeable to him. It was equally obvious that he had never intended to leave because, even as the silence went on, Conner just stood there. Finally Barbara said, “so? What Conner? Do you think you can protect her and I can’t?”

As his hand came away from the handle he told her, “as I told my brother, years ago, I never doubted your ability to handle yourself girl. I still don’t.” Conner stepped up to Barbara and he gently put his hands on her shoulders, “but I don’t think you know what it is you’re up against now.”

Barbara was still hostile when she replied, “so why don’t you enlighten me?”

“Believe me,” Conner replied as he stepped back, “I would if I could. I don’t know anything for certain myself. All I know is, the talk.”

Barbara pointed at the door again, “if you’re going to waste my time with…”

Conner held up his hand, “ok. There’s been some mumbling, here and about that somebody has it in for young Shannon. I don’t know why but, I can only guess it has something to do with that mess from a few weeks ago.”

Barbara studied the man and wondered why he would come out here and tell her this. The only reason she could think of was, that it was true. She even wondered if this had something to do with the meeting she had this morning. Was Conner’s people behind the offer to buy this property? They certainly had the resources to do it. Then another thought crossed Barbara’s mind. She was now both shocked and angry, “you’ve known about this for a while, haven’t you Conner?”

The man remained easy, “let’s not get into all of that dear.”

“Oh don’t bullshit me,” Barbara told the man with unrestrained hostility. She wanted to shove his face into the cinder block wall. “How long Conner? How long did you sit on this and let us go about business as usual? Huh?”

“You’re making a mountain out of a mole hill darling,” Conner insisted. “I came here as soon as I could.”

“Yeah I’ll bet,” Barbara replied. “Till, well let me guess, who was it Conner? Was it McCormick? Was it Tolliver? Who told you come out here on this very morning to deliver the warning? Huh?”

“I told you,” Conner insisted, “it’s not a warning. I’m only here for the benefit of the young lass.”
This time, Barbara did pull the gun out. She pointed it right at his head and flipped the safety off, “get out Conner. I’m serious this time.”

He looked reluctant and, unfortunately, not very convinced that Barbara would pull the trigger. Still, Conner took yet another step back, spun on his heels, and politely let himself out.