It had taken several rings before John realised the noise he’d heard was his cell phone. His face paled as his security told him about the mayhem at the Centre. John threw on his clothes and went to Sir Richard’s bedroom. Sir Richard switched on the bedside lamp, slipped on his robe and opened the door. “What is it, John?”
John’s voice was small. “Sir, there’s been an attack at the Centre. Mildred is dead. They found her body tied to her office chair. She’d been tortured. Part of her little finger… had been cut off. Most likely to solicit information from her. It was Forrest, Sir Richard. We got him on camera, this time. I’m on my way to the Centre. I thought perhaps you might like to join me.”
Sir Richard paused in thought and played with his chin. His eyes widened. “No, John! That’s exactly what he wants. Stay in touch, but let the security at the Centre handle this. It’s a typical Forrest move. He’s trying to flush us out. Have Mildred taken to the complex. Tell Sam to do a post-mortem on her, ASAP. When we know exactly what happened, we’ll notify Mildred’s two children. They’ll most likely want to arrange funeral services for her. I’ll take care of everything that way we can keep this from getting out.”
“What about Ricky and Donna?”
“We’ll tell them in the morning. Mum should be back by then.”
“Did you find out where she went?”
“Amsterdam.”
“Amsterdam!” John echoed. “Why would she be going there, at such short notice?”
“It may not be short notice. Mum just may have chosen not to tell anyone. She has an old friend there in a village called Cruquius. She may have decided to pay him a visit.”
John arched an eyebrow. “Him?”
Sir Richard chuckled. “One of Mum’s acquaintances, after my father. Anyway… inform your men to keep this thing about Mildred quiet. Download the information from the security cameras and get Gary on it. I want to know for sure it’s who we think it is. There have been some strange things happening with Forrest, since before Donna left Shreveport.”
John nodded and left. Sir Richard closed the door. He sat on the side of the bed and shoved his hands through his thinning hair. His eyes glossed. He took a deep breath, and poured a double shot of brandy, from the bottle on his bedside table, Lady Triplet had instructed Jack to put there.
Sir Richard sat, remembering how everyone he’d ever cared for, and loved had been destroyed by this sick individual. He felt old and so very tired. His shoulders had borne a heavy burden. A responsibility he should have walked away from long ago, but people were counting on him. Now he was going to be a grandfather. That thought put a smile on his face, but he wondered how life might have been had he done things differently. Would the outcome have been the same? How would it end? How could he stop Forrest?
The Order had its advantages, but it also had its share of disappointments.
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Although, Sam had to stop for Mildred’s post-mortem, Gary had continued the search. He’d discovered the drugs had been manufactured and processed by Kings Laboratories, a well-known pharmaceutical company, on the East Coast. They had then been transported by air to Bayou State Distribution, a wholesale drug distributor in Shreveport, where they were loaded onto vans and delivered to the various clinics throughout the state.
On the surface, this seemed legitimate; until Gary discovered that a few years ago Bayou State Distribution had gone public, but had kept their name. The controlling shares of their stocks had been bought out, by none other than Forrest Enterprises. Forrest had pulled the same stunt with the owner of BSD that he’d pulled with Ken, Donna’s father, and the sewage works.
Unfortunately, since Richard happened to be in Shreveport when the shipment arrived made it possible and probable that he could have been involved. However, Gary still wasn’t convinced his friend was to blame. It did prove, without a shadow of doubt that Forrest had been involved, but why?
Gary abandoned his search and started working on the security videos from the Centre.
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Jack picked Lady Triplet up at the airport in Newcastle. Before Vera had started setting the table for breakfast, Lady Triplet had changed and was sitting in the parlour drinking a cup of tea. Sir Richard tried to sleep but couldn’t because of what had happened at the Centre. He showered, dressed and headed downstairs. John came out of his room and went down with him. “Mum when did you get back from Amsterdam?”
Lady Triplet looked up from her tea. “Richard, things are worse than we’d anticipated.”
“They certainly are Mum….”
“Last night, I went to a secret meeting of The Order,” she sighed. “Well… I guess you could say I ‘crashed’ a secret meeting of The Order. Some of my sources alerted me, and I decided, under the circumstances that I would see what they were up to. They didn’t know I was there until I stepped out in the middle of their vote.”
“What? They were casting a vote on something in my absence? What were they voting on?”
“Apparently Forrest has managed to corrupt The Order, or at least he had until last night. I think I’ve put a stop to their plans, but it won’t stop Forrest. He’s acting on his own now, and he wants Donna. He’s prepared to do whatever it takes. Richard, we can’t let that happen! She and Ricky are the future and Donna is carrying Richard’s heir. Has he proposed to her yet?”
“I think that’s something you should be asking them. Anyway, I have some….”
“Well, if Ricky hasn’t, he should do so soon,” she interjected. “The baby should be born a Triplet. Ricky needs to understand….”
Richard led Donna into the parlour. “Ricky needs to understand what, Grandma?”
“Welcome back, Lady Triplet,” Donna said and kissed her cheek.
Lady Triplet’s eyes sparkled as she purposely took Donna’s left hand. “I see you’ve already asked her. And she’s accepted?”
“Yes, she has,” Donna smiled and stood next to Richard.
“We’re getting married at St. Nicholas Cathedral in two weeks, Grandma.”
Lady Triplet beamed. “Oh I’m so glad.”
Sir Richard cleared his throat and glanced toward John. “Ricky, Donna, you need to sit down. I’m afraid you can’t get married at the cathedral, and, unfortunately, you can’t go on honeymoon as you’d planned,” he added, turning his attention to Richard.
Richard sat in a chair. Donna sank to his lap; her smiled faded. “Why not, Dad?” Richard asked.
“Mildred is dead. There’s been another attack. This time at the Centre. From what John can find out, it appears Forrest himself carried out the attack.”
Donna gasped. “Mildred – your secretary?”
“Yes, petal.”
“How did they get past security this time?” Richard asked.
“They used Tina Phillips ID,” John spoke up. “Since it was Friday and the office was closed, my men didn’t find Mildred, until two this morning.”
Richard’s eyes glossed; he swallowed hard. “So, you got Forrest on camera?”
“That’s how it seems, at the moment,” Sir Richard replied. “It wouldn’t be safe for you to….”
“No, it wouldn’t be safe for them to get married at the cathedral, but it would be a perfect opportunity to flush Forrest out into the open – the sly fox!”
“You’re not using Ricky and Donna as bait!”
Lady Triplet frowned. “No, of course not. In fact, the wedding would still take place, only here, in my chapel. And… you wouldn’t have to wait two weeks. You could be married by – say – Monday or Tuesday.”
“Grandma, I’m not sure I….”
Donna tightened her jaw and clenched her fist. “…I think it’s a good idea!”
Richard frowned and looked at her. “You do?”
“Yes, I do! He tried to poison Missy. He slaughtered Wilson and his wife and done God only knows what with the baby’s body. Now he’s killed Mildred. He’s hurt enough people, Sir Richard. I want to help you bring him down. If it takes my wedding to do it, then so be it! We’ve got the rest of our lives to go on a honeymoon, Richard.” Besides, I want to get even with that bastard for what he did to me and Jared! The sooner he’s behind bars, the better for everyone. Then, at least I’ll know Jared and Beth are safe.
Sir Richard softly chuckled, shook his head and glanced at John. “Just like her,” John commented.
Donna frowned. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing is funny. It’s just that I’ve seen that look before.”
“Where?”
“From your mother.”
“If we’re going to do this, the first thing we need to do is go public with their wedding announcement,” John interjected. “Personally, I don’t think we should wait two weeks. It wouldn’t make any difference anyway. Ricky and Donna would already be married, and in a… safe place, by the time this goes down.”
“Then we need to get busy,” Sir Richard said. “I’ll speak to the bishop. He’ll need to be in on this, but we can’t tell him what we’re planning on doing to Forrest.”
“I can’t imagine he’d go along with us shooting someone from the church tower,” John said.
Donna stiffened. “Shooting someone? I thought you were going to….”
Sir Richard held up a hand. “Petal, turning Forrest over to the authorities would be a total waste of time. You wouldn’t have to be involved in that part of the operation.”
Lady Triplet watched Donna. Donna’s eyes had widened to two black marbles, and her face was losing its colour.
“As I see it – two shooters, posed as maintenance men, in the church tower,” John said. “One shot to the head, and another one to the chest. He would go out like a light and wouldn’t know what hit him.”
Bile rose fast to the back of Donna’s throat; she put her hand over her mouth and ran for the downstairs toilet. Richard followed her.
“John you should be ashamed of yourself. Talking about killing someone in front of a pregnant woman. She’ll not be able to keep anything down now, thanks to you and your graphic description!”
“Sorry, Lady Triplet,” John growled. “I’m not used to being around pregnant women.”
“Well, keep that part for you and your men. We want to get the story about the wedding in the papers, on TV, every possible form of media. The more exposure the better.”
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Richard wet a flannel and wiped Donna’s face and mouth. “Sorry about that, pet,” he said. “John’s not used to talking shop around a delicate flower like you.”
Donna flushed the toilet and sat on the toilet lid, wiping her face with the flannel. “I’m not a delicate flower. I’m a doctor, and I just conspired to kill a man. That’s a little hard to take before breakfast. You three act as if you do this all the time. I’m not a murderer.”
Richard sighed and crouched in front of her. “This is some of those difficult choices Dad was talking about Donna. Dad doesn’t like killing, but trust me, Forrest deserves this.”
“So you’re not opposed to killing?”
“No. Sometimes it’s necessary.”
“And… you would kill to get what you want?”
“No, but I would kill to keep him from killing someone else, and trust me, Forrest is responsible for the death of thousands. Unless he’s stopped, he’ll kill more. He doesn’t care Donna. How many more do you want to see slaughtered like Kevin and Linda Wilson?”
Donna frowned. “I don’t Richard, but that’s what the authorities are for. That’s why we pay our hard earned tax dollars, so we don’t have to make those difficult choices. Murder is wrong, Richard!”
“Do you want me to tell Dad, to forget about the operation?”
“No, but I don’t want to know about it.”
“Fine, as soon as we’re married, we’ll move to our quarters at the complex, and you can carry on doing what you do best.”
“What’s that?”
“Saving lives,” Richard smiled and bent his head to kiss her.
Donna held up a hand, shook her head and reached for the mouthwash. She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Now, you can kiss me.”
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Sir Richard’s cell phone rang. “Dad it’s me. I’m ringing, because I know you don’t want Grandma to know about the project. Donna wants to help, so we’re taking one of the choppers and going to the complex.”
“Hang on a second. Excuse me a minute, Mum,” Sir Richard said and stepped out of earshot. “You know she doesn’t have to do that.”
“She knows, but that’s not the only reason. Donna wants to test her idea about using the HIC to build an HIV1 vector.”
“Oh, I see. She’s dedicated, isn’t she?”
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Richard smiled. “Yes, she is. Tell Grandma we’ll be back for tea.”
“What about breakfast? The table is already set.”
“We’ll get something at the complex.”
“OK, Ricky, just be careful. John and I will be there after breakfast.”
“See you then,” Richard said and ended the call. He took Donna’s hand and led her to the chopper. As soon as he’d secured her, he got in the other side and went through the pre-flight check. “OK, ready to go?”
Donna swallowed hard and nodded. Richard chuckled. “Still a little nervous about this, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but I’ve learned there are far worst things in this world than flying.”
The chopper slowly rose and levelled off. Richard turned to Donna and smiled. “Here we go. I’m glad we’ve conquered your fear of flying. I love to fly, and I love having you beside me. I wish you would let me teach you.”
Donna glared at him. “Why do I need to learn how to fly? I’ve got you.”
“Because it’s kind of a Triplet tradition, and you never know when it might come in handy.”
Donna swallowed hard. “Are you suggesting Sir Richard can fly?”
“Of course, he can fly. He stopped flying after my mother passed away, but if he needs to he can.”
Donna softly smiled. “I didn’t know,” she sighed. “How long will it take, if I let you teach me? I mean, how long would the lessons last?”
“Well, you’ll need at least 45 hours in the air before you can take your PPL – private pilot’s license test. 25 of those hours need to be with an instructor. I would recommend John, and then you’ve got ten hours of solo time.”
“You couldn’t serve as my instructor?”
“If you want me to, but John has more flight hours than me. So… are you going to let me teach you?”
Donna groaned. “Sure why not. You only live once.”
“When did you want your first lesson?”
“After the baby is born, if we’re done with the project, then you can teach me to fly.” If we’re still together, by then.
“I’m going to hold you to that.” Richard hovered over the complex site. “VICi, open hangar door and raise lift.”