All Acts Of Pleasure: A Rowan Gant Investigation (12 page)

However, when my epiphany finally forced my
reticent gaze to loosen its grip on me, I slowly turned back to the
canine using my lap as a pillow and looked into his eyes again.

I shook my head and muttered to him,
“Dammit…What the hell am I doing here? Watch the house. I’ve got to
go.”

I had already shrugged into my coat and
tapped in the code to set the house alarm when the phone began to
ring.

“Hello?” I barked into the phone, stretching
the handset’s cord almost to its breaking point while I spoke.

The warble of the alarm system’s countdown
tone was speeding up as it approached its armed state. I knew if I
let it get that far I’d end up setting off a motion detector, and
then I’d have cops crawling all over my house yet again. Extending
as far as I could I leaned across the chair and quickly stabbed in
the master code then punched the off button, sending the raucous
electronic beeping into silence.

Unfortunately, as annoying as the tone was, I
would have preferred it to what I heard coming back at me across
the phone line.

“You bastard!” An angry, heavily accented
voice struck my ear with the insult. “What have you done?!”

This was absolutely the last thing I needed
at the moment, but I couldn’t say that I hadn’t been expecting it
all along. I just wished that I’d checked the caller ID before
snatching up the handset with such haste because now I was
committed to the call even though this definitely wasn’t the time
for it.

My father-in-law Shamus O’Brien had never
made a secret of his dislike for me. Ostensibly it was due to my
religious beliefs, and given his tirades, I had no reason to doubt
they truly were the cause. In fact, he had stated on more than one
occasion that he was firmly convinced that it was I who had
corrupted his only daughter. The fact that she was already
following a Pagan path long before I met her didn’t seem to have
any bearing on his conviction either.

With my public identity as a Witch having
become even higher profile over the past few years because of my
involvement with the police, what had long been at least an outward
tolerance of me on his part had slowly and surely waned. Given his
staunch, though distorted views, I wasn’t at all shocked that he
would blame me for Felicity’s current predicament.

I tried not to let myself react to his
immediate attack and instead fought to remain composed, answering
with a simple, “Calm down, Shamus. Believe me, I’m just as upset
about this as you are.”

“Why should I calm down, then, you bastard?!
Felicity is all over the news. They’re callin’ her a murderin’
psychopath.”

“I know they are.”

“And then what do I see? You, you bastard.
Just standin’ there chit-chattin’ with the police and smokin’ a
cigarette. Standin’ there for the whole world to see, just like
it’s another day. Just like nothing’s happened!”

Suddenly my decision to remain on the front
porch instead of hiding out on the back deck away from the news
cameras didn’t seem very prudent. I had probably known
subconsciously that it would come back around to bite me, I just
hadn’t given any thought to which set of teeth were going to be
sinking into my flesh. Of course, I suppose that mystery was now
solved.

My gut reaction was to snap back at him, but
I forced myself to offer an explanation instead. “I think you’re
misinterpreting what you saw. I had a half dozen crime scene guys
tearing this place apart, and I’d just been ejected from my own
house for fighting with them. I was trying to calm down before they
arrested me too.”

“Cac capaill
!
They should have arrested you
instead
of my daughter!”

“No, they shouldn’t have arrested either of
us.”

“Damnú ort
!
What did you do to her?!

The Gaelic curse wishing damnation upon
me wasn’t unfamiliar. Felicity was prone to slipping into the old
language whenever she was angry, just like her father was doing
now. In fact, her personal list of favorite vulgarities mirrored
his, so I’d heard most of them before. Of course, the imprecations
usually weren’t directed
at
me
as they were in this case.

“I didn’t do anything to her, Shamus. You
know that.”

“Aye, I don’t believe it. You and your
godless cult did something to my colleen. You brainwashed her and
forced her to do some Satanic sacrifice or something, didn’t
you!?”

He didn’t even give me a chance to respond to
the ludicrous accusation before starting in again.

“ANSWER ME, YOU BASTARD! THAT’S WHAT YOU DID,
ISN’T IT?!”

“Listen to me, Shamus,” I interjected
sharply. “Number one, she didn’t kill anyone, much less get forced
to do anything against her will. Number two, you sure as hell
aren’t going to help her situation if you go around telling
everyone that she did do it but only because I forced her to.”

There was a brief pause, and I hoped that I
had managed to get my point across to him. When he finally spoke
again, he was somewhat more reserved, though you could tell the
anger was still seething behind his words, just waiting for a
chance to escape.

“Why didn’t you call me? Why did I have to
hear about this from the television, then?”

“I’ve been just a little busy, believe it
not.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my tone. “As you noted, my
wife just got arrested.”

“Well, what are you doing about this?” he
demanded without actually acknowledging what I had just said.

“I’m trying to find out what’s going on
myself. Our lawyer is already at the station…”

He interrupted, “Aye, is he any good, this
lawyer of yours?”

“He’s a she and yes, she’s good.”

“Aye, well it doesn’t really matter. I’ll be
sendin’ my own then anyway.”

“Shamus, don’t turn this into a bigger circus
than it already is. If Jackie doesn’t think she can handle this,
she’ll be the first one to say so. Then, if I need to, I’ll hire
another attorney.”

“I’ll be sendin’ mine,” he repeated
flatly.

I started to object again but decided against
it. At least he seemed to have calmed a bit and was apparently
trying to be constructive instead of just placing blame and
swearing at me.

“Fine,” I told him. “Just tell your attorney
to get in touch with Jacquelyn Hunt. She’s got the lead on this,
and we don’t need any confusion causing problems.”

“I’ll tell him your girl is there, but I’ll
be wanting him to take over.”

“Shamus… Dammit…Can’t you…Sheesh!” I
stammered out a halting mish-mash of verbiage as I tried to beat
down the desire to climb through the phone line and throttle the
man. I knew he wasn’t going to listen to me, and this whole
conversation was about as futile as trying to empty an ocean with a
teaspoon and a paper cup, so I decided it was time for it to end.
“Listen, I’m going to have to get off the line here. When you
called I was just heading out the door to go down to the police
station myself.”

My bid for a quick exit did nothing more than
set fire to his temper once again.

“Don’t you dare!” he snapped. “You stay away
from my daughter. You’ve done enough to her already!”

It had become a violent internal struggle for
me to keep an even temper during this conversation. I thought I had
been more than reasonable with him, even if we had been under the
best of circumstances. There was no doubt, however, that the
current conditions were a far cry from the best.

I simply couldn’t hold my tongue any longer,
and my own anger rose to the surface, “Dammit, Shamus. She may be
your daughter, but she’s also my wife!”

“If I have anything to say about it, she
won’t be for much longer!”

Confusion filled my voice. “Excuse me?!”

“Don’t play stupid. I’ve figured you out. I
know you’ve brainwashed my daughter and turned her against me. I’ve
already talked to someone about taking care of it!”

It only took a fraction of a second for his
words to sink in. “You’ve got to be fuc… Deprogramming? Is that
what you’re talking about, Shamus?! Deprogramming?!”

“They call it exit counseling and thought
reform therapy.”

“They call it that when it is done by an
ethical, licensed therapist and the subject is willing,” I spat.
“If you kidnap her and do it against her will, it’s deprogramming,
pure and simple.”

“It doesn’t matter what you call it.”

“It sure as hell matters that she doesn’t
need it,” I countered. “Not to mention that it’s also illegal.”

“I don’t care about that. She needs to be
rescued.”

“From what? Who? Me?”

“Aye.”

“Have you lost your goddamned mind?”

“No, but apparently you’ve taken my
daughter’s from her, and I’m going to get it back. And then once
she’s in her right mind, she’ll be getting you out of her life, of
that you can be sure.”

That was it; I’d had enough. “Listen up you
son-of-a-bitch, don’t you even think about doing this!”

“Go hifrean
leat!
”

“You want me to go to hell, Shamus?” I
returned, quickly translating the epithet he’d just screamed at me.
“Well I’ve got some happy freaking news for you, I’m pretty much
already there, and you just helped with the trip. I’ve got to go.
Bye.”

I could hear his voice screaming from the
handset even as I slammed it back onto the base. What I picked up
of the stream of Gaelic was yet another condemnation I’d heard
before, and it roughly translated into him wishing “scorching and
burning” upon me. Well, I sure wasn’t going to call back to break
the news to him, but he definitely wasn’t the first to offer up
that curse, so he could just stand in line.

I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath,
huffing it back out angrily as I tried to settle myself. Lashing
out, I slammed the heel of my fist against the underside of one of
the empty bookshelves. The impact generated a hollow thud followed
by a resounding crash as the shelf lifted off the adjustable pegs
then slammed back down. For some reason, the wooden rectangle
skewed downward and slid out onto the floor, narrowly missing my
foot. The resulting clatter startled the cats and made them jump,
which in turn caused them to knock a stack of books from the coffee
table and onto the floor. The clamorous chain reaction sent them
skittering throughout the house to their secretive hiding places.
The dogs, however, took the opposite tack and both came to
investigate the small crashes but more or less took it in
stride.

I picked up the shelf and tried to re-install
it, and that’s when I discovered that the reason it had fallen was
that the impact had sheared off one of the forward adjustable pegs
on the uprights. I reached up and slid it onto the empty shelf
above for the time being then shook my head and turned, starting
back toward the alarm keypad on the wall across the room. Before I
could take the first step, however, the peal of the telephone’s
ringer filled the room.

My anger really hadn’t had time to drop off,
and it immediately welled in me once again. I twisted back in a
flash, snatching the handset up and placing it to my ear as I
shouted, “What?! Did you think of some other curse to throw at
me?!”

There was a hollow buzz but no reply came
from the other end. I couldn’t imagine that Shamus would be shut
down by the comment, so I allowed my gaze to fall down to the
caller ID box. I didn’t get a chance to offer up an apology right
away as a confused voice finally broke the relative silence.

“Rowan?” Jackie asked.

“Yeah, sorry,” I returned. “I just got off
the phone with… Screwit…Never mind, what’s going on? Were you able
to get her out?”

“She’s still in processing,” she replied.
“They’re almost done, and then I’ll be able to get into a room with
her.”

“She’s not coming home tonight, is she?”

“No, Rowan, she isn’t. She’s likely not
coming home this weekend at all.”

My voice dropped almost to a mumble as I
closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead, “Dammit, Jackie…”

“I told you to prepare yourself for
this.”

“I know.”

“Look, I called for a couple of reasons.
First, to give you an update, and second, to ask a couple of
questions.”

“About what?”

“I called in a favor and managed to get a
little bit of information about what’s going on. It’s not much, but
it’s a place to start. So, what I need to know is if Felicity does
any traveling alone.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like for her job. Does she ever go out of
town without you?”

“Well, yeah. She’s one of the top freelance
photographers in the country. She gets jobs all over the country.
Why?”

She pressed on, ignoring my query. “Has she
ever been to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina that you know of?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure she has,” I replied
impatiently then demanded again, “Why?”

“Without you?”

“Yeah, I think so. Why?”

“Specifically, about a year ago, maybe?
Somewhere around the beginning of December?”

“Yeah. I don’t remember for sure, but yeah, I
think she took a trip around then, so could be.” My edginess
ratcheted up the scale and I took on a harsh tone. “Jackie, just
what the hell is this…”

I stopped cold with my mouth hanging wide
open. Before I could even consider finishing my sentence, the
conversation with Doctor Rieth’s assistant flashed through my
brain. Two and two joined forces to create four, and that became
the sum of all my fears, which then punched me square between the
eyes.

“Rowan?” Jackie queried. “Are you still
there?”

“Yeah,” I finally replied, my voice barely
above a whisper. “Yeah, I’m here.”