Chapter 34: Good News, Bad News

I called Rod and explained about the mix up, told him I was on the way back and would be in first thing in the morning. I knew Bob would be in class, so I sent him a text message just before we took off, and then I spent most of the trip back trying to get a grip on what had happened. The good news was that my investigation could move forward without having to worry about what to tell the powers that be. I now had authorization to take whatever steps I felt necessary to keep Jimmy safely anonymous. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something still didn't feel right. Something about Bob's friend Susan was picking at my brain. And I remembered going to a church to speak to the Pastor but I couldn't remember what about. It picked at me all the way back to Long Beach.

After the last twenty-four hours I was really looking forward to spending a night curled up with Bob. I called him as soon as I landed to tell him I was on my way. He asked how my trip had gone, and I explained to him that it was all just a misunderstanding about some stuff I was researching for a case. Apparently, I had accessed some secure files that I shouldn't have been able to and it had flagged my ID, but that they had found out it was a technical problem on their end and my action had actually alerted them to the problem. No harm, no foul, and the really good news was that I would be there in about an hour and a half, give or take.

"That's great, I was going to go over and check on Susan to see how she was doing, you mind tagging along?"

"No, not at all. Has she been sick?"

"Nothing serious but she has been out the last couple days. I just wanted to drop in and check on her, shouldn't take long."

"Okay, sounds good to me, but I have to tell you, I'm a little wrung out with flying back and forth cross country twice in two days. I'd like to get to bed a little early if possible."

"Yeah, that can wear you out."

"I didn't say I was tired ... I said I was wrung out and wanted to get to bed early."

"Ohhh! I see, sorry, misinterpreted what you were saying. I don't see a problem with that at all."

"You better not. Okay, enough fun and games, I'm heading onto the freeway. I'll see you soon."

I made it in an hour and twenty-five minutes. We spent a couple minutes saying hello and expressing how much we had missed each other and then headed over to check on Susan. I was a little surprised to find a pickup parked in her driveway since I knew Susan drove a Camaro. I asked Bob about it and he suggested that maybe one of the other teachers had dropped by as well. My level of concern went up when I found three strangers in the house but I figured they must have been concerned students that had dropped in. The youngest one grinned like an idiot when I asked Susan about why they were there. The oldest one was a boy who looked about sixteen and seemed to be in charge, whispering something to the younger of the two girls. I'm not sure what he said, but she quickly excused herself and went in to the bathroom. When she left, Susan excused herself also, saying she had a phone call to make and she would use the one in her bedroom. As soon as they were gone the boy turned to me and said, "So you're Bob's friend Rebecca? I've heard a lot about you. Did you know the snow level in the Amazon basin is expected to reach twelve feet by Christmas?"

My first reaction was that that didn't make sense; I was still recovering from the statement when a flood of memories crashed in on me like I'd opened the wrong door on a submarine. I staggered under the sudden onslaught and if Bob and Jimmy hadn't both been standing right there, I might have gone down."

"Geez Louise! Don't do that! Next time make sure your victim is sitting down. Man, I'm glad I wasn't driving a car. Bob, I'll never tease you about your qualifications in hypnosis again. Listen you guys, when we get together later I have got a lot to tell you." Then I stopped as something clicked in my brain, "Wait a minute, was that Phoebe?" Jimmy nodded and I went on, "Then Rod got you squared away with her cover?"

"Everything is in place," Allison said. "Her new name is Roxanne Templeton and she is..."

"Yeah, I know," I said, interrupting her, "the daughter of an old friend of Cyndi's that got deployed overseas, yada-yada. What about ID, medical release, paperwork, stuff like that?"

"One thing at a time. ID got here about an hour ago. I'll have her show it to you when she comes back out, and it's not an old friend of my mother's, it's an old friend of Susan's. Since she is already involved, Susan agreed to help out and let her stay here. She took today off just so Phoebe wouldn't be here alone all day, and she's taking tomorrow to get her enrolled in school. Unless it's really pressing you can just give us the highlights from your trip, but before you do that there's something else we need to do," He turned and raised his voice, "Roxy, you can come out now." The little blonde girl with the big smile came back; she was looking wide eyed at me but walked straight to Jimmy. He placed his hand on her shoulder, "Roxanne, I'd like you to meet Special Agent Rebecca Hampton of the FBI. She's the one that's been helping me keep you safe."

The little girl stepped tentatively towards me, based on past experience around Jimmy I was expecting a handshake, but at the last minute she lurched forward and wrapped her arms around my waist, squeezing tightly, and just said, "Thank you." After a few seconds she pulled back and offered me her hand, "Pleased to meet you."

I took her hand and shook, "It's very nice to finally meet you as well ... Roxanne."

"You can call me Roxy. Are you going to catch the people that killed Carly and Regina and their parents?"

"Yes," I said, and for the first time since I had heard of this whole problem, I had absolute confidence that it was true. "It may take a while Ph... Roxy, but yes, I am going to catch them." By now Susan had come back out of the bedroom as well. "Hi, Susan, sorry for dropping you in the middle of all the cloak and dagger stuff, and thank you for agreeing to let Roxy stay with you."

"That's okay, she's a wonderful girl. She needs a place to stay, and this way I know she's safe. If you don't mind though, I really don't want to know any more of the details than I already do, unless it's something that is important for me to know. I'm just happy that she's going to be safe now."

"That will be fine, the fewer people that know the details of what is going on, the better. Roxy, you understand how important it is that no one know who you really are?"

"Yes, Jimmy explained it to me. I won't tell anyone. Allison said I'm going to be going to her school so I can take the bus home with her and stay there until Susan picks me up or Jimmy can bring me home, I mean back here." She didn't see it but Susan actually caught her breath when she referred to this as her home. "She says they have a pool and everything, isn't that cool?"

"Well I haven't actually been in the pool, but it looks nice. I'm sure you will have a lot of fun there with Allison. Well, Bob and I have plans, and then I have to get ready to face my boss in the morning, so if you'll excuse us ... Jimmy, call me if anything comes up, otherwise we'll see you later, probably much later." Roxy didn't get it but everyone else did.

Jimmy

After Rebecca left we had spent much of the rest of the night formulating worst case plans. We quickly discovered that we had no idea what to do or where to go that might actually be safe and away from the eyes of the people currently holding Rebecca. I was seriously hoping that Mr. Rodriguez would be able to help if it came to running.

By Tuesday the news of Mark and Shannon's accident had spread through the school. Fortunately, no one knew about my relationship with Shannon. It was bad enough that they knew that Mark was my best friend. All day people would pass me and avert their eyes. Whispers seemed to follow me wherever I went. A surprising number of people would stop me and either tell me they were sorry or ask me how I was doing. I couldn't imagine how it would have been if they knew about Shannon. I'd probably never get another date if word got out that another girl I was seeing had died. I managed to make it through to lunch okay. I ran into Tim on my way and as soon as he saw me he walked up and hugged me. He didn't say anything, just hugged me, and then stepped back to walk beside me until we ran into Cindy, who kissed me and hugged me and cried on me. I did my best to endure it without tears, although kissing her cheek and thanking her took me really close to the edge. She squeezed my hand and then she and Tim walked off to find lunch.

Bob and Mel were quietly supportive. It seemed so strange to be sitting there at the table without Shannon and Susan, who had taken the day off to stay with Phoebe. We chatted about nothing in particular until time to go back to class. Bob pulled me aside on the way and told me that a courier had come earlier in the day and dropped a package with Phoebe's cover information as well as new identities for me and Allison. Allison and I had taken each other's picture before school. The woman who had done her hair and makeup had taken a couple of Phoebe when she was finished. Bob had given both memory cards to the courier and by the end of the day we would have the rest of our documentation. Allison was even getting a driver's license.

"I guess I better take her out someplace where she can practice, just in case she finds herself needing to do it."

"Probably a good idea. Sometime during the beginning class I'm going to give you a manila envelope with papers for you to correct. Your stuff will be inside; don't worry about grading the papers, I already finished them. You'll get the rest after school; driver's licenses and passports with your pictures on them, even a couple of credit cards in your new names. They're billed to the PO box on your paperwork." I nodded and we continued on to class.

A huge weight got lifted off my shoulders at the beginning of the class when he told me he had gotten a text message from Rebecca saying that she was on her way back. Apparently what I had done the night before had worked. It occurred to me that if it hadn't there probably would have been people at the school looking for me already. We were really going to have to work on this whole running away thing, our current plan sucked.