Have significant lead on MH-47 crash in Afg. where Colonel Garrett was killed with 15 others. Garrett has Charlotte-Spartanburg connection. Have good source. Story to follow.
His story would center on the grieving daughter. He could care less what Singlaub was going to do.
Dangurs ran a smooth hand across the dash of his excellent automobile, petting it. He hadn’t relished the thought of eating something in this car, but he laid a towel across his lap as he munched on a buffalo chicken wrap from Smoothie Plus in Sanford. He would have to move quickly once he saw them leave.
Drumming his fingers on the dashboard, he cycled through several thoughts in his mind. First, they had been in the house now for over an hour. Were they taking inventory? Dangurs smiled as he thought to himself that he would have missed the two if good old Nina hadn’t given him the heads-up. He would have eventually gotten the message, but it might have been too late by then. Thankfully they had decided to spend the night and not go straight to the house. I’ve got a day job, you know.
He watched two young female Central Carolina Community College students walk past his car. They were carrying books in their arms and chatting as if they didn’t have a care in the world. One was dark-haired, and the other had what appeared to be naturally red hair. The redhead had on Daisy Duke shorts and a tube top. The other, he could see now, had an Asian look. She was wearing a bikini top and running shorts.
Dangurs licked his lips. He watched them through his windshield as they walked into the Smoothie Plus. The Asian girl held the door for the redhead, who wiggled through the gap. She then turned her head and stared directly at him. Her almond eyes locked onto his. He was an attractive man, he knew, so he understood.
She smiled at him and held the gaze as if to invite him. There was a slight turn of her head toward the inside of the restaurant. At that moment, he considered abandoning his assignment.
Instead, he turned his head to his left, beckoning her toward him. She smiled, held up one finger and disappeared inside for a moment. She re-emerged, and he pushed the down button on his automatic window.
“Nice wheels,” she said with a smile.
“Nice smile.” He stuck out his hand and gave his name. “Del.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Julie Nguyen. Are you going to be around later?”
“I might be. You got a cell number?”
Of course she did. She wrote it on a napkin for him and carefully placed it in his palm. “Call me. Let’s hook up.”
“You got it.” Dangurs pulled a digital camera from the front seat and said, “Give me that world-class smile again.”
She grinned, and he clicked a photo.
Turning, she walked slowly into the store, offering him a protracted view of the olive skin of her naked back. As she disappeared into Smoothie Plus, he checked the photo in the display and grinned. Spring is in the air! This was turning out to be a good trip after all.
Too many distractions, he determined. He needed to move to remain focused on his mission. Then he could enjoy the spoils. So he repositioned his car to a Texaco food mart farther down the road. The new location was just across from the only entrance into Tobacco Road subdivision.
As he waited in the Texaco parking lot, he powered up his Dell Notebook. He began writing the story right there in his front seat, funneling brilliant thoughts onto the screen. Sometimes when he was driving, he would rotate the screen to the vertical position and use the handwriting software and touch pen to scribble digital notes. So many genius moments occurred to him alone on the highway. The cigarette lighter charger was an absolute must for him.
He completed entering his thoughts into the computer and then finished the sandwich. Dangurs tossed the wrapper into a trash can and put his auto in gear. He eased slowly out of the parking lot and crossed the street toward the Tobacco Road neighborhood.
As he made the turn into the subdivision, passing between the rock walls, a dark van closed on his rear end. Paranoid for no reason, he kept telling himself, he made the first turn he could, which was a left.
He watched the van in the rearview mirror as it continued along the primary route.
He remained parked for a few minutes, acting as if he was playing with a radio dial. The Beatles’ “Yesterday” was playing on one station. Because he enjoyed the song, he decided to leave that station tuned.
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…
That’s right, he thought. Today, they seem even further away. This story is my big break. He grinned.
And the young girls would flock to him like bees to honey. Just like Julie Nguyen.
CHAPTER 26
Jake, for his part, wasn’t sure what to think. Amanda’s moods — no, her personalities — were swinging between some pretty wide margins. He pulled the key out of the bag and opened his door, thinking that he truly loved Amanda and wanted her to sort through all of this. He wasn’t planning on being a psych major, but could plainly see that she was about as conflicted as a person could possibly be. Football and baseball were his things, but he was a leader, and he knew that she needed him to be steady for her right now. Oscillating between intense feelings of love for her father and stone-cold hatred, Amanda could explode, depending on what they found in the house.
He lightly let her down from the truck’s passenger side, led her to the breezeway, and inserted the key. “Okay, we’re in.”
He opened the door that led directly into the breakfast nook.
“I always hated that wallpaper. Look how ugly that is.”
Jake remained silent as he looked through the nook windows into the expansive backyard that was covered with the same crawling-style grass, though the blades looked thicker. The dogwoods were in full flowering brilliance, and the azaleas were losing their pink flowers, the tail end of their bloom. He turned his attention to the wallpaper. Nothing unusual, he thought.
“Must have had a woman pick it out.”
“Probably when he was cheating on my mom.”
“C’mon, Amanda, lighten up a bit, will you. This hatred, it’s like a poison just eating you up. Let it go.”
“Sure thing, buddy.”
Jake noticed that the kitchen was clean, as if her father had someone come in to neaten it every month or so while he was away.
“What are we supposed to find? Is this like a treasure hunt?”
“I’m not sure, but if you keep being a smart ass you’re going to be looking for it by yourself.” Jake leaned against the taupe kitchen counter with the sink window behind him.
“What?”
“You’re being a bitch. Lighten up. Last time I’m going to ask you.”
She walked over to him and leaned against him playfully. “C’mon, you lighten up. We’re here.” She threw her hands up in the air. “At least we made it here, so let’s go do whatever it is we’re supposed to do.”
Jake paused a moment. Still leaning against the kitchen sink, he said, “Listen, I am here supporting you in this. I have no selfish motive here and have actually put myself at risk to bring you up here. So, if you can’t do it for your father, then do it for me.”
That was leadership, right there. Get her in the right frame of mind to at least begin the process. Open her mind just a bit.
She softly bounced her forehead on his chest, grabbing his large biceps with each of her hands, pushing against him. “I’m sorry. You’re right. Why don’t we just walk around the house and see what’s here.”
“Good idea.”
She led him by the hand through the kitchen, and they made a right into a hardwood hallway.