“Maybe, but not for a long, long time.”
“Will it make them sad?”
“Yes, they’ll miss you a lot, but they have the new baby to love.”
“That’s true,” Carrie said, nodding gravely. “They won’t be all by themselves.” Soon she was asleep again.
Jesse carried the little girl, still sleeping, off the airplane, and Jenny was at the gate to meet them.
“I’ll introduce you to your new daughter,” he said, “if she ever wakes up.”
“Plenty of time for that,” Jenny said. “What have you told her?”
“I’ve told her about you and Carey.”
“What are we going to do about the names? They sound just alike.”
“I haven’t a clue.”
When they had left the airport and were driving toward St. Clair Jesse asked, “What did you tell Carey about us?”
“I’ve told her that you had a daughter by your first marriage. She immediately asked if all your daughters weren’t killed in the car wreck, but I told her one of them wasn’t in the car with you, and she had been living with friends in another town until you were ready to bring her to St. Clair.”
“Do you think she’ll tell anyone at school?”
“I’ve told her it’s a big secret for the time being, and when she asked me why, I told her that was a secret, too. She seemed to accept that.”
“Do you think she’ll turn us in at school?”
“The school has warped some of Carey’s attitudes, and we’re going to have to work to help her get over that. But she and I have a bond that the school hasn’t been able to penetrate, and if she tells me she’ll keep the secret, then she will. You can depend on that.”
Jesse hoped she was right.
They arrived at home in St. Clair after two in the morning, and Jesse carried the luggage into the house first, making sure they were not being watched.
They tucked Carrie into bed, and then Jesse spent another two hours going over the whole house, looking for bugs. It was after four when he finally went to bed.
“Did you find anything?” Jenny asked.
“There were two: one in the living room and one in the kitchen. I’ve disabled the one in the kitchen, so be sure and keep Carrie out of the living room when I’m away from the house.”
Jenny snuggled up close. “She’s a beautiful child. I’m going to love her, I know it.”
“And she’s going to love you,” Jesse said.
Chapter 52
Jesse arrived at the office the following morning to find a fax from Nashua Building Supply waiting, placing a large order for plywood. It was good cover, and he was grateful to Kip for that. He waited until everyone had left for lunch before calling Kip.
“How’s Carrie?” Kip asked immediately, and there was pain in his voice.
“She’s very well. She slept through most of the flight and all of the ride from the airport. She met her new mother and sister this morning, and she seemed very happy with them. But I don’t want to talk about Carrie again.”
Kip was suddenly all business. “All right. What’s up?”
“You remember how you got the Zippo camera to me?”
“Yes.”
“Can the same man deliver another package to me?”
“Sure; what do you want?”
“A list of things; got a pencil?”
“Shoot.”
“I want a pound of plastic explosive and half a dozen detonators and timers, and an explosives mat about four feet square.”
“What are you going to do with all that?”
“You’re just going to have to trust me, Kip.”
“All right, what else?”
“A couple of hand grenades; something incendiary. I also want a light machine gun and half a dozen clips of ammunition. And I want some night goggles, the lightest you can find.”
“When do you need it?”
“Tomorrow night.”
“I think I can do that. Where do you want it delivered?”
“On the road going east from St. Clair, just beyond the Wood Products plant, there’s a bridge over a creek. Have him use duct tape to fix the package in the supports under the bridge. Tell him to make sure it can’t be seen, except from underneath. Tell him after he makes the delivery to fix a twelve-inch strip of duct tape to the northwest end of the bridge, so that it can be easily seen from the road, as a signal that the goods are there.”
“I’ll get right on it. You sure you don’t want to tell me what’s going on?”
“I’m sure; do you have a date for your entry into St. Clair yet?”
“The army delivered a preliminary plan this morning, and we’re still going over it. My best guess would be that the earliest possible time would be seven days; the latest, ten days.”
“I’m going to try to make it easier for them,” Jesse said.
“I’ll tell them.”
“I’ll try to call you every day from now until you go in,” Jesse said. “It’s critically important that I know exactly what the plan is and when it begins. I can’t be of any help to you unless I know that.”
“I’ll see that you’re fully briefed. Do you think you could make a meet with somebody to go over the details?”
Jesse thought for a minute. “I doubt it; it could be too dangerous at this stage of the game. I’ll think about it, though, and let you know.”
“As you wish; I just want you to know everything we know.”
“Thanks, but we’ll probably have to do it on the phone.” He said goodbye and broke the connection, and not a moment too soon. An instant after he had concealed the phone in his lunchbox, Pat Casey appeared in the reception room, carrying a red zippered briefcase.
Jesse left his office and greeted the police chief.
“Hear you’ve been out of town,” Casey said.
“Just overnight; we had a call from a big building supply company in Maryland who’d heard about us, so I went out there and made my pitch. Come on in the office.” He led Casey inside, closed the door and handed him the fax from Nashua. “Here’s the result.”
“Hey, good going,” Casey said. “Jack Gene will be pleased to hear it. You making any progress on getting into Muller’s computer ledgers?”
“Not yet, but I’ve hardly been in the office since we discussed it. I think the best way is for me just to ask Muller if I can see the books.”
“Is there no other way?”
“His computer password is in his head; I don’t know how else to get it.”
“Use your own judgment, then; all he can say is no.”
“The other way is to try to figure out what the password is, but that’s a real long shot.”
“I agree. I’ll leave it in your hands,” Casey replied. He held up the red briefcase. “Oh, here’s why I dropped by; it’s your flight training materials.”
Jesse accepted the case, opened it and shook out its contents on his desk. There were a large red-covered instruction book, a logbook, a book of sample test questions and a manual flight computer. He had seen them all when he had taken his first lessons years before.
“I’d like you to read the first four chapters before our lesson on Sunday,” Casey said. “Since you’ve already been through most of the course once, we should be able to move fast.”
“Okay, I’ll start on it tonight.”
“By the way, you remember the group Jack Gene had visiting last week?”
“That fellow Bottoms and the others?”
“Right; he’s having them back next Wednesday for another meeting, plus a few others representing other groups in the Northwest. He’d like you to be there.”
“What time?”
“There’s a dinner at seven that evening, followed by an important business meeting. Jack Gene’s going to be making a big pitch to sell them some weapons. We’ve got good sources, and we can make an outstanding profit.”