Chapter 3: Sometimes I Get The Feeling, She's Watching Over Me

I decided not to face the music alone, though the trio of secret-blabbers didn't see the wisdom in coming with me to confess all. Unfortunately for them, the adopted alien baby with mutant powers who came to earth in a space radioactive meteor that landed in a vat of Earth radioactive waste was not having it.

Candice did not kill us.

I would have preferred she wet her blood lust with one of my friends. She scared Ahmo out of her morning shows, pointing out that Catherine only needed to get our dad upstairs at the right time for shit to hit the fan. Morgan left Candice's office with a major case of fidelity! Elis was kept busy trying to find out who else might have seen through my cover story at school. I was not happy the fear of Candice put our plans for Erin on hold.

A month later, I followed behind my sister wondering if she planned to stomp all the way home. Talking to her about it wasn't going to work. Morgan got over her desire to be exclusive and spent most of our hanging out time riding me. She hadn't held back the vocals either. Later, I put it together, Morgan was trying to get Ahmo off her game.

Ahmo wanted to back out of punishing Erin for setting Celia up. The girls ran the whole increasing tolerance to contact bullshit up Erin's pole. Her attempts to make me immune to her gave me the rest of the story.

Erin suspected the boys and was terrified to be alone with them. Her jealousy of Ahmo turned out to be fear and an attempt to keep my sister away from them. Billy must have figured it out and intimidated Erin into meeting with him. Desperate, she turned his attention on Celia and set her up in the alley. The fight with Ahmo before my sister's date with Billy had been a last ditch effort to keep Ahmo away from him. My sister thought the circumstances mitigated Erin's involvement. Morgan and Elis disagreed, believing Erin should have come forward. Sacrificing Celia was too much for my friends.

"You shouldn't have picked sides!" Ahmo said. Translation: I should have picked her side.

"She's not going to jail," I said. "And she's not going to pay for the rest of her life, only until we graduate."

"You and Elis are no better than Billy and his assholes!" Ahmo didn't notice me stop. She was up the stairs and into our house before I recovered from her words. Candice said the same thing, but in this case, there was some truth to it.

I didn't really know why Erin had done it. I built my presumptions on an outside view of what she experienced. I learned to recognize when I was seeing through the eyes of a terrified person. I couldn't bring myself to stop the train. We would ask Erin to explain herself. She could mount a stellar defense of her actions, and it wouldn't matter. She sent Celia into the alley believing the worst would happen. When it did, Erin still refused to step forward, instead her best effort was to pick a fight with my sister to try and get her out of harm's way.

Suddenly, I noticed there were too many cars around our house: dad's official vehicle, a couple of deputy cars, and an SUV with government plates.

"Want to join us inside?" Special Agent Diana LaDon said from behind me. The voice suited Agent LaDon: feminine, deep, edgy. If Morgan were a little nicer, she could grow up to be Diana LaDon.

"I'm not going to like why you're here, am I?" I turned around. Agent's LaDon's numerous visits stopped after the Honus City Rape Gang case closed. She fascinated me ever since my dad invited her over for dinner a couple of times during her first sojourn in Honus City. It was more than looks: brown hair with lighter highlights, dark brown eyes, and refined lines. Pretty was an odd word to use for a woman, but I could easily imagine Agent LaDon being pretty for a few more decades.

"I doubt it, Tavi," I couldn't see her eyes through the shades. Her head moved, scanning the street. "Ahmo said you were right behind her. I needed to check out the back door so I came out to get you."

"And to get away from Catherine." She smiled and directed me towards the house. Agent LaDon was always careful not to touch me. I only managed a single contact during her first dinner at the house; a good person unafraid to get dirty.

"What were you looking for?" I asked, checking out the street.

"Inside, Tavi!" she said. I would have fought the tone of voice, but Candice going off the deep end and putting me through a month of celibacy gave Agent LaDon the field. Plus she was hot!

Everyone waited for us in the living room.

"It's okay, Tavi," Agent LaDon said as she stepped around me. "Sit down."

There were three people wearing FBI jackets in the room; Agent LaDon made four. Two deputies stood behind my dad's chair. Catherine and Ahmo took up the love sofa.

"Come in," one of the FBI agents ordered.

"He can stay there." My dad looked at me and nodded. "Tavi's not comfortable with this many people unless there's room to keep them away."

"No," Agent LaDon said as the agent step towards me.

"Ma'am!" The agent's back became rigid.

"If this doesn't go well, our careers are over, Agent Tan."

The agent looked at me before taking his original position, "Yes, Ma'am."

I didn't like it. Four agents and two deputies. My dad's men would hesitate so the agents had to go down first. Two standing together; the other one behind Agent LaDon.

"We have credible information about a threat to Sheriff Smith," Agent LaDon said. She was looking at my dad as were two of the agents. Agent Tan kept his eyes on me. The meeting wasn't about me! I stepped into the room and leaned against the wall. Agent Tan kept looking at me. I met his eyes and held them.

"Walk the perimeter, Tan," Agent LaDon ordered. "We'll discuss your behavior at the field office with the Director."

The agent didn't like it, but he walked out the back door.

"Without getting into too many details," Agent LaDon continued. "There's always been drug pipeline between Honus and Metro City. The Honus City Police Force doesn't have the resources to deal with it, but it's always been small time compared to the drugs coming into Metro from upstate. The Drug Enforcement Agency's efforts have been focused where the most damage could be done."

"They were successful," my dad told us. "Very successful."

"It makes the pipe from Honus City more lucrative," Agent LaDon said.

"Is that why you've stuck around, Special Agent LaDon?" I asked.

"Diana," she said, smiling at me. "Yes. The Honus City rape case concluded fairly quickly after the package was sent to me. I would have gone back to my work in Metro except for the briefings about the DEA operations. We realized Honus City could easily become the leak, which destroys the dam around Metro City. It allowed us to take preventive measures."

"What does that have to with my husband?" Catherine asked.

"He has gone above and beyond," Agent LaDon said. "Without his cooperation and our working relationship, I doubt we could have gotten so much done."

"Nothing's been done yet," my dad said. "But a little more squeezing upstate from the DEA and the axe can fall here."

"We did not foresee competition for the pipeline," Agent LaDon said. "Two organizations are fighting for control. Somehow, both sides received information about our operations and believe removing your father would give them enough time to settle their differences and move enough product into Metro City to make a killing, so to speak."

"There's nothing to worry about," my dad said, which nobody in the room believed.

"How is this different from any other time?" I asked. "I mean we have some prize scumbags coming in from Metro City every weekend. Some of them live here and voted for you."

"The Black Road," Agent LaDon replied. "Part motorcycle gang, part white supremacist group. Mostly a bunch of vicious animals working together. They're a throwback but through some misfortune for the rest of us, the smartest members are also the most vicious and have worked their way to top of their little psychopath's club."

"I'm sorry you've been brought into this," my dad told Ahmo and Catherine. "We need to take some precautions for a couple of months until this blows over."

"We have to take it seriously," Agent LaDon said. "Sheriff Smith is surrounded by cops and agents all day, but his family isn't. That's what I'm here to discuss."