"Neeley?" the woman called.
Neeley nodded. "This is Hannah," she added.
"I'm Jesse." She lowered the shotgun and led the way into the house, sliding the shotgun into an umbrella stand as she went by. The three women went into the kitchen where they awkwardly arrayed themselves around the center counter. Hannah looked from Jesse to Neeley and decided that Gant must have been an exceptional man to have had both these women in his life.
"I know Tony is dead," Jesse said by way of opening the conversation. "I assume you have been continuing my payments from him," she added, looking at Neeley.
Neeley nodded. "Where's Bobbie?"
"He's at school." Jesse looked at the clock. "He'll be home in an hour. I'd like you to be gone by then. What are you here for?"
"We need help," Neeley said. "I don't know how much you know about what Gant did for a living but…" Neeley started to stammer.
Jesse gave a sad smile. "You want Nero off your back?"
"You know about the Cellar?" Neeley was surprised. Gant had never hinted that his ex-wife knew.
"I worked for it for a little while," Jesse said. "Then I had Bobbie and the two didn't go together. I had something more important than the Cellar and Nero knew it. He wanted to keep Tony though, so we struck a bargain. Tony stayed, I was allowed to leave."
"Do you know about the tape?" Hannah asked.
Jesse nodded.
"But you don't know where it is?" Hannah continued.
"No." Jesse looked at her, sizing her up. "You do, don't you?"
"We have the cache report," Neeley said, a bit surprised once more at Hannah’s sharp perception and understanding of a situation she herself found confusing. She took the piece of paper out and put it on the counter.
Jesse glanced at it. “Your FRP is the bridge on route 42. Now you need to leave right away. Bringing that report here puts my son and mine life in danger."
"Do you know what's on the tape?" Neeley asked.
"Yes."
The other two women waited, but Jesse didn't say anything else for a little while, then she faced Neeley across the counter. "Did you love Tony?" she asked.
"Yes."
"Do you know what the Cellar is?" Jesse asked both of them.
"I know some of what it does," Neeley said.
"But you don't know its overriding objective, do you?"
“I don’t care,” Neeley said.
That brought a faint smile to Jesse’s lips. “I felt the same way, especially when I saw what happened in Mogadishu.”
Hannah shook her head. “The Cellar was involved to the extent that Gant — Tony — and my husband, tried to recover the videotape. But it was Racine, who fired the RPG that downed that helicopter. It was he who killed those men and initiated the problems that led to all the other deaths there. And Nero didn’t order that. It was Senator Collins.”
Jesse assimilated that information. “Tony never knew?”
Neeley shook her head.
“Stupid question,” Jesse said. “If Tony had known, Racine would be long dead. Gant had all those rules.” Her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God. Jack.”
“Jack?” Neeley asked.
“Tony’s twin brother. Jack was in the Ranger Battalion there in Mogadishu. He never forgave Tony for what happened. For his dead men.”
“Is that why Gant—“ Neeley caught herself—“Tony never spoke to his brother.”
A sad smile played over Jesse’s face. “No. That was because of me.”
“Oh,” Neeley’s sharp intake of breath was audible.
Jesse looked at Hannah. “How are you involved in this?”
"John Masterson was my husband," Hannah said.
“The men in our lives,” Jesse said wonderingly, shaking her head.
"You had Gant," Neeley said, pointing at Jesse, "I had Jean-Philippe and Hannah ended up with John. And here we all are so many years later."
“Do you think it was all chance?” Jesse asked.
Neeley frowned. “What do you mean?”
“There is no such thing as chance when you have Nero involved,” Jesse said.
Hannah was nodding. “I think Mister Nero wanted us all to end up here, the three of us sitting together.”
“Why?” Neeley asked.
“I have an idea,” Hannah said. “But now is not the time. Let's get out of here and get the tape.”
Jesse nodded. "Yes, please go. Your presence here can only mean trouble."
Neeley slowly stood. "Gant — Tony — was a good man."
"I know,” Jesse said. “He—" she paused as the phone rang. Jesse picked it up.
The other two women could immediately tell something was wrong by the way Jesse's face went white as she listened. Then she simply said three words and hung up: "We'll be there."
"Who was that?" Neeley asked.
"That was Racine," Jesse said as she reached under the counter top and her hands came back up, an automatic pistol in her right one. She pulled the slide back, chambering a round. "He has Bobbie. He wants all three of us to meet him. He said he'll give me Bobbie if I give him both of you and you give him the papers from Jean-Philippe and the video." She pointed the gun at the other two women. "You're coming with me."
Hannah held her hands up. "Hey, whoa, take it easy. We'll come freely."
CHAPTER 34
Neeley drove, Hannah was in the passenger seat and Jesse sat in the back, her gun pointed at Neeley's head.
"We'll help you," Neeley said.
"Racine's not stupid," Jesse said. "He's waiting for us and he has Bobbie. I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize my son. You brought Racine here and you brought that damn cache report here. I'm going to give you to him and take my son back."
"He won't give you Bobbie back," Hannah said in a level voice.
Jesse glared at her. "Why do you say that?"
"Cause Racine's nuts. You've met him, right?"
Jesse reluctantly nodded.
“So have we,” Hannah continued. "Listen, I know you're upset, but you've got to think this through. It's us against him. Don't let him split us up against each other."
Neeley continued to drive in the direction Jesse had indicated. Both women in the front seat relaxed slightly as Jesse lowered the weapon. "All right. But no matter what, we get Bobbie out of there. Clear?"
"Clear," Neeley and Hannah said in unison.
“How old is Bobbie?” Hannah asked.
“Twenty-two.”
Realizing that Hannah didn’t understand something, Neeley hastened to explain. “Bobbie is—“ she searched for the right words and Jesse stepped neatly in.
“Bobbie is mentally retarded. He’s up to about a sixth grade level now. After a lot of damn hard work.”
Hannah was nodding as if she understood completely.
“He goes to a special school in town,” Jesse continued and both other women could hear the pride in her voice. “He’s doing good. Real good.”
“We’ll take care of Racine,” Neeley said and Hannah nodded at the blunt words.
"What is this place we're going to?" Hannah asked.
"An abandoned quarry," Jesse said. "We're to meet him on the top, at the back." She pointed. "Turn there."
Neeley took the dirt road indicated and the car rumbled over the bumps.
"Hold on a second right here," Hannah said. "We need to be ready. Stop the car."
Five minutes later, they could see a large open pit to their left, about a quarter mile wide. It was so deep, that twenty feet away, on the road, they couldn't make out the bottom.
The trees gave way and they came to an open space, about forty feet wide, by twenty across on the edge of the pit. There was an old metal crane bolted to the edge and a derelict bulldozer rusting away, twenty feet to the right of the crane.