Mom called her down for more Burt’s burgers. Dr. Harding had supper with them.
“I thought the first time might have been a fluke,” mom said, “but these really are deadly good.”
“Addictive,” Harding said through a huge mouthful.
“We have to stop eating like this or I’m going to end up ten pounds heavier.
“Not a problem for me,” Shana said.
The rest of supper passed with the same inane talk. Mom and Harding were becoming more comfortable with each other. Mom still had more work to do in that regard.
After supper, she returned to her room, laid back down on her bed and thought of the elk. She had seen a movie where a profiler was explaining the psyche behind a series of gruesome murders. The expert described the rage the killer was experiencing and warned that he had made the killings personal. Yeah, like no other serial killer had ever made it personal.
What seemed trite in the movie took on the sinister danger the profiler was trying to convey for the psychopath who had killed at the Harding farm. The person who shot the elk the first time had made it personal. He had been determined to get his trophy even if he had to risk getting caught to do it. Colter’s men had that kind of personality. They all thought they had missions to complete no matter what they were doing. Some of them had the skills needed to shoot the elk from a distance, get in undetected, skin it and take the head as a trophy without giving themselves away. Why couldn’t mom use that profile against them?
Mom probably wanted to, but she’d heard enough conversations between mom and dad about cases that got all botched up because evidence was insufficient, contaminated or went missing. Mom knew she had to have solid evidence before arresting anyone at the Colter farm.
And as both mom and Harding had repeated several times, Colter had his answer down pat: poachers. Poachers hunted when it wasn’t hunting season and took animals that were off limits, his people didn’t.
Mom could charge the perp with hunting illegally, cruelty to animals, trespassing, illegal use of a firearm, stuff like that. They had removed the bullets because they knew the danger of leaving them behind. They knew exactly what they were doing. A poacher wouldn’t bother to do something like that; Colter and his men would.
If she had evidence for both Colter’s militia activities and his poaching, she’d have to reveal how she got the information, but mom could then go into action.
“I’ll ask for forgiveness after.” She sat up and got out her phone but hesitated. She had to tell mom about the wallet and Deputy Strickland’s intervention sooner or later. If she helped mom with the poachers, mom would likely find it easier to forgive both her and Kelly. She called Lily.
“I figured it out,” Lily said.
“What did you figure out?”
“Give me a second.”
She heard some unusual beeps and buzzes through her phone and then heard Donny.
“Hey, cool a conference call. What are we talking about?”
Lily said, “This is your call.”
“Remember creepy Colter?”
“Oh, yeah, that’s what I wanted to tell you. I know what happened Friday. I can get around it now. And, yes, I will use my VPN from now on.”
“What about the counterstrike?”
“I’m still working on that. I have it ready. I’m just putting the final touches on the delivery system.”
“I told you she was good.”
“Yes, I am. What do you need?”
She told them about the Harding farm, her new job there, Caesar and Cleopatra and the other animals, and the elk. She talked so fast both Donny and Lily had to ask her to repeat herself a number of times.
Donny said, “I’m totally down with making them pay.”
She asked Lily, “You can still spy on them, right?”
“Not a problem.”
“They won’t find you, will they?”
“They may be on alert after Friday and have some other things ready to use against me, but they won’t ever detect me until it’s way too late.”
“Sorry about making you break your oath.”
“Told you, more of a guideline; and this is worth it.”
“If you do find anything, can you record it?”
“Of course, but I’ll only get a limited view of what they’re doing unless we get lucky.”
“That’s why we’re also going out into the field. I have a mission for us should we choose to accept it.”
Donny said, “I want to be Ethan Hunt.”
“I’m Ethan.”
“Ethan is a man.”
“Not in my world.”
“You’re too tall to be Ethan.”
“Just keep working on the delivery system. I’ll get back to you with the details once I’ve worked it all out.”
She lay back on her bed and scanned her room. Most of the painting stuff had been removed. She’d take the rest of it downstairs before going to bed.
Mom and Harding were talking and laughing in the kitchen. It was after seven and he was still here.
Mom and dad had been having problems. Mom had needed to reveal that when she’d talked to her about the possibility of leaving him.
“We both love you very much,” she’d said, “it’s just that so many things have changed between us.”
Anger took over her life after that. She fought with mom and dad, with her friends, with teachers. She skipped school and stole anything she could get her hands on until she got caught.
Mom and dad sentenced her to house arrest for six months after she’d completed community service. Dad suggested they go to family counselling. Both the Portland Police Department and the FBI had programs available to them. What dad didn’t know was the relationship between mom and her partner was one of those changes. It was the secret she was forced to keep. Then mom’s partner died at the Crowley farm massacre. Then dad had his accident and ended up in a coma. Then dad died.
More than anyone else around them, she had watched mom go through the anguish of taking on all the blame to the point of becoming paralyzed. Mom felt responsible for losing her whole FBI team and for having failed husband and daughter. Every time she had tried to talk about any of it, she would just start stammering, her voice would catch and she’d quickly change the subject. Mom would spent almost every moment she wasn’t at work just sitting around their unfinished mansion staring at nothing until she finally recognized her daughter once more and promised never to let her down again. She still hadn’t been able to stop her nightly rounds throughout the house, however.
Dominion meant leaving her friends in Portland behind, but it was the fresh start they both needed. She’d found two great new friends in Lily and Donny. Kelly Strickland had helped prevent a major adolescent melodrama disaster and even more pain for mom. She was going to be another great friend, too. Craig Harding could maybe be that for mom if she could just let up on herself and let him in. She had forgiven mom, but mom still needed to forgive mom.