Chapter 7

Mark knew that Leonie wouldn’t be so foolish to go to her house after she had committed those abhorrent crimes, but he had no clue where she could have gone. He needed time to reflect without anybody around him, knowing he would be a pain to be with right now. As he drove to the park he recalled the footage of his little brother walking next to an equally beautiful woman as the Princess. He was utterly convinced Gerald had an affair with the brunette especially as he was convinced as he had heard the small tremor in his brother’s voice when he’d profusely denied he had been with the Princess.

But for Mark, it was clear the black haired woman had been with Gerald for quite a while which almost ruled out the possibility that Gerald had slept with the Princess.

As Mark had arrived at the parking area he was surprised and somewhat annoyed there was another car. Knowing he might bump into a couple of horny teens, he got out of the car and concentrated on the noises he heard. The night was sultry and as he undid the top buttons of his shirt he pulled the cigarette hard case out of his pocket.

He opened the case and stared at the perfectly round white sticks, knowing it had been weeks he felt the urge to smoke again. He leaned against his car, contemplating what had happened in the last few hours and as he pulled a cigarette from the case he knew he was about to give in to one of his old bad habits.

He looked at the pristine white paper and he could almost smell the fresh burn of tobacco, the initial sweet smell before it became caustic. As he slowly brought the cigarette to his mouth he was searching the pockets of his jacket for a lighter.

“I thought you’d stopped smoking,” a man spoke who stepped out of the darkness.

Mark spun around and recognized in an instant it was Kim, his eldest son and responded gruffly, “I deliberately chucked all my lighters so I can’t light those damn things anyway.”

Kim scoffed.

“Why are you here?” Mark asked him as he knew his son was supposed to be at the rehab center, “Do they know you’re here?”

“No,” Kim spoke quietly, “They don’t.”

Mark briefly looked at the other car and he instantly knew it didn’t belong to Kim, wondering about what trouble his son was in this time.

“Who’s car is it, Kim?”

“From a good friend,” he answered calmly.

“And he allowed you to drive his expensive car?”

“No,” he said with a huff, “She took the keys with her.”

Suddenly Mark recognized the car and as he walked towards the front of the Cayenne to confirm his fear, he knew his son was involved as well. He sighed deeply as he recognized the license plate and pinched the bridge of his nose, realizing his migraine was getting worse.

“Where the hell is she?” he shouted as he strode, with large steps, towards his son.

Kim shrugged his shoulders as he said flatly, “I don’t know. She said she had to take care of a few things and after that we’d go on a trip together.”

“Together?” asked Mark hoarsely.

His son chuckled as he pulled a rollup from behind his ears and lit the cigarette with a lot of dramatic movements of his arms. As he blew the first puff towards his father he spoke bitterly, “Yes. You know, some people are friendly enough to pay me a visit at the clinic.”

Mark’s blood started to boil, knowing all too well his own son was taunting him with his only weakness. He still felt guilty his son got addicted to cocaine, even though he perfectly well knew it wasn’t his fault.

“Bullshit,” Mark spat, “The last time you made it perfectly clear you didn’t want to see my ‘rotten face’ anymore.”

“You weren’t really helping me by constantly letting me know I was a failure,” Kim replied calmly.

Mark shook his head of disbelief and said dejectedly, “After the third time you ended up in there I might have expressed my concerns, what else would you have expected?”

“Uh huh,” Kim grunted, “As if uncle Gerald is such a perfect person especially since he can’t decide which royal pussy to fuck.”

“She told you,” Mark whispered aghast.

“Yes, he’s a complete failure,” his son continued with a smirk, “At least I limit myself to only one pussy that I put my dick into at a time.”

“You’ve slept with Leonie,” Mark gushed.

“Nobody is perfect,” he replied dryly.

“Are you insane?” Mark hissed, “Are you aware what Leonie has done? You have to stay away from her if you don’t want to end up in jail for the better part of your life. She’s been charged for violation of her security clearance, gross insubordination, and flagrant dereliction of duty. She even might end up being charged for treason to the Crown which means she’ll be in jail for life.”

“People need to know the truth,” Kim said unperturbed, “The sooner their immoral and stuck up lifestyle ends the better and we felt it as our duty to inform the press.”

“You still don’t get it, do you,” Mark spat, “You’ll end up being in jail for the rest of your life!”

“I don’t think so,” Kim said quietly, “You see, I knew you would come to this place and I told Leonie to lure them here.”

Mark shook his head slowly as he understood what his son was telling him and whispered, “You’re trying to put the blame on me.”

“I’d love to see the headlines,” Kim chortled, “Corruption at special forces; senior management involved in a royal scandal. The higher they have climbed the harder they will fall.”

“And you think they’re going to believe a drug addict?” Mark asked bitterly and then continued hoarsely, “Think again Kim. Leonie had left the premises right after she’d leaked to the press and they know exactly where I am and everything you’ve said has been recorded.”

Kim gasped and hollered, “No! You can’t do that to your own son!”

“How much did she get for leaking the information Kim?” Mark asked flatly, ignoring his son’s outburst.

Kim stared at the headlights which were clearly visible as they lit up the foliage of the surrounding trees as he murmured, “Oh I don’t know. Enough to have a nice long holiday.”

Mark didn’t like the sound of the car’s engine which was climbing the last steep bit of the road before it arrived at the parking area, knowing it wasn’t one of the Special Forces’ SUVs. The old beaten up Buick clearly had trouble taking the steep ramp and as soon as it rolled onto the flat the engine almost had choked on the strenuous effort. Mark had trouble seeing who was behind the steering wheel as he was blinded by the headlights although he knew it was Leonie, picking up Kim.

All of a sudden the old car’s engine revved up to a roaring level and the car accelerated, as it was kicking up an enormous amount of dirt, straight at him. The many years of studious training saved him as he jumped away at the very last moment, almost being crushed between the rusty Buick and his own car. With a loud crash the old car rammed its way into the side of the large sedan, skidding sideways into the direction of Kim.

Mark heard a loud scream as both vehicles had stopped moving and as soon as he had gotten onto his feet the whole parking area was lit up by a flood of lights. A row of heavy SUVs drove up the elevated platform bathing the scene in a blanket of white light with their powerful lights.

He sighed deeply as he knew it was too late to get his son out of this mess, knowing his wife would be devastated.

“McCrawl!” a voice boomed from one of the SUVs, “Get your ass away from the vehicles!”

Mark nodded as he slowly moved towards the massive onslaught of lights, hoping both Leonie and Kim survived the crash. As he had passed the lights he was greeted by one of the staff who said, “The medics are checking them out at the moment, sir.”

“Thank you,” he murmured as he fished the hard case out of his jacket and as soon as he had taken a cigarette he asked the man, “You got a light?”

Gerald looked at Lenna who stood meekly next to her parents hoping she would eventually notice him. He wanted to propose to her but with the current discussion with the press he felt he had to wait. Her gaze found him and with his heart in his mouth he moved his hand towards the ring and as soon as she understood his intention her eyes suddenly became bigger. The movement of her head was ever so slightly as she slowly shook her head.

Somewhat disappointed he brought his hand down and focused at a single point just above the reporters.

“Mr. McCrawl,” a female voice asked for his attention, “Can you confirm your brother is involved in this affair as well?”

He smiled and said as he looked her straight in the eyes, “I assume you know that my brother is leading the secretary’s Special Operations.”

“So he is involved,” she said as she pressed the matter.

“Most likely,” Gerald replied patiently, “As he has to be informed when such an event has happened.”

“That means his head will roll as well since you’ve had an affair with Princess Charlene Henrietta,” she stated blatantly.

Gerald chuckled before he asked, “Do you have any siblings?”

The woman paused for a few moments and reluctantly admitted, “I have a brother.”

“If your brother commits a crime, are you going to be punished for it as well?” He asked her, his voice sounding sweet honey.

Her face turned bright red as she spat, “So you admit you had an affair with the Princess.”

“As we have said before,” Lenna’s mother cut in, “And I’m happy to repeat it especially for you, my dear; if that would have been the case we would have canceled the enactment.”

“I think we have answered all the questions,” Hazel’s father said curtly, “There will be a briefing tomorrow at noon. Good evening.”

Fred walked towards Mark, his arms behind his back which is his way when dealing with unpleasant situations. As soon as he stood face to face with his friend he said gruffly, “We need to talk.”

Mark looked up and as he dropped his cigarette on the ground he replied, “I know.”

They walked silently to the large van and as soon as they were securely sealed off the rest of the men Fred sighed, “What a fucking mess.”

“I know,” Mark said meekly.

Fred scoffed and said, “I always advised the board against admitting a royal in a senior role and now we have a serious problem.”

“How so?” Mark asked realizing Fred was beating around the bush, “What the hell are you talking about? Surely Graham can deal with any issues with the press.”

Fred shook his head slowly as he took a deep breath and blew it out again.

“Mark,” he said softly, “Leonie didn’t survive the crash.”

“What?” Mark gushed, getting as white as a sheet, “How’s that possible?”

“The steering wheel had broken off and she got herself impaled onto the steering pillar.”

“Fuck me,” whispered Mark.

“Mark,” Fred said hoarsely, “That rust heap out there almost completely disintegrated the moment it hit your car.”

“How about Kim?” he asked with a tremor in his voice as he suddenly remembered he had heard Kim’s agonizing scream right after the crash.

“He’s fine except for a few cuts and bruises,” Fred said soothingly.

Mark nodded as he didn’t trust his voice at the moment.

“That brings me to what I actually wanted to talk about Mark,” Fred said flatly, “I do hope you have a solid reason but I need to know why you drove straight to this deserted place.”

Mark’s heart skipped a beat as he realized his son’s cunning plan still had a huge potential to become reality. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt the migraine getting worse again and said subdued, “This is the place where I always go so I can think without being disturbed.”

“Sounds interesting Mark,” Fred responded emotionless, “But you know yourself; that is not good enough.”

“I showed Kim this place, hoping it would help him dealing with his addiction but he has used it to put me in this situation.”

Fred stared at him and Mark asked with a tensed voice, “How about the conversation I had with Kim? Surely one of the drones must have picked it up.”

“There were no drones available,” Fred said quietly.

“What the hell?” he hollered, “Why not?”

“The enactment.”

“Fuck,” whispered Mark as he dropped his shoulders but then he sat up straight as he said enthusiastically, “I’m testing the new phone!”

The tension was palpable as Gerald looked at each person in the room, trying to keep his face as neutral as possible.

“Those bloody reporters,” fumed Tom, “They don’t have any respect!”

“They are just doing their job father,” Lenna replied a little annoyed, “We should’ve let Gerald propose to me in the lobby then everything would’ve been okay.”

“Not if there’s still a loose cannon around that can jeopardize the whole situation,” Hazel’s father replied curtly, “I want her secured before anything else is going to happen.”

“He’s right darling,” Lenna’s mother said soothingly as she gently rubbed her daughter’s arm and then as she turned to Gerald she continued, “We appreciate your good intentions my dear Gerald but one shouldn’t rush into such a life altering decision.”

“That is exactly what we’re planning Mrs. Grimaldi,” Gerald spoke with deference, “We were planning to give the press exactly what they were craving for; our ‘good’ intentions to get married but we’d have kept it by that because it’s on us when we’re going to get married.”

Lenna’s father chuckled and at the moment he wanted to comment on Gerald’s remark he was rudely interrupted by the loud ringing of the Lord’s telephone.

“Excuse me,” the man responded irritably as he fished the noisy device out of his pocket, “I have to take this call.”

He looked at the screen for a short moment before he swiped his finger over the screen and as he held the phone at his ear he grumbled, addressing the caller, “It better be worth it.”

Everybody in the room watched Hazel’s father who started to slowly pace around in a tight circle as he was completely wrapped up into the caller’s story.

“Who’s the owner of the crashed car?” he suddenly asked as he stopped pacing around.

He ignored the audible gasp of the people in the room as he continued to ask, “So it’s now contained?”