WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN?
by
PiperMerlyn
Chapter 4
The Chapters
2 May 2006
Brighton, England
9:15 a.m.
Ethan stared out the floor-to-ceiling window, a mug of hot coffee in one hand. “The view is amazing.”
The man sprawled in the desk chair behind him sighed. “I’m sure it is.”
Ethan turned around to study his brother-in-law. Chad was dressed in black – his cable-knit sweater, the stiff jeans. “Something’s wrong, isn’t there.”
“Wrong? What the bloody hell could be wrong?” Chad’s words slurred slightly, adding to the evidence of blood-shot eyes and scruffy beard that the man was still drunk from the night before. “I’ve got her, haven’t I? Bloody right bastard I am.”
Ethan didn’t know what to say. He barely knew the man; had met him initially in Romania after the disaster had been over. “Chad.”
Chad shook his head. “You haven’t a clue what it’s like, being the second choice, do you? You and your wife, soul mates, the whole bloody lot.” He began digging through the drawers on his desk, finally finding a bottle of whiskey. “There you are.”
Ethan strode across the man’s study, stopped him from pouring himself another drink. “That won’t change things. Besides it makes for a lousy breakfast.”
Chad let out a shaky sigh and lowered the bottle to the desk blotter. “What do I do, Ethan? I know she mourns for him like it happened yesterday. Was I a blithering idiot to propose to her at all? Should I have just walked away?”
Ethan thought about the first six months after the news had come, shattering Casi’s world. She’d been almost comatose, not eating unless someone made her. She’d stopped living, stopped working.... “No. You were there when she needed someone to pull her through.”
Chad raised his eyes to Ethan. “And now?”
Ethan swallowed hard, seeing tears in the man’s eyes. “I don’t know.”
Chad stared at his empty glass and heaved a soul-weary sigh. “I love her. I loved her from the moment she saved my ass...” He looked back at Ethan. “I’ve seen it, the change. She rarely leaves the estate anymore. She’s content to stay here, day after day, alone for the most part while I go to work in London.”
Ethan felt his own eyes tear up as he remembered a different Casi, stubborn, fighting to the very end. She’d pulled Joe from the brink of despair when Bryce had been killed; she’d fought to convince him that they were meant for each other.... “I know.”
A soft knock sounded on the door of the study and then it swung open. Catherine walked in, a faint smile on her face. “Just wanted to let you know, breakfast is ready.” Her smile faded as she looked at the two men. “Is everything all right?”
Ethan glanced at Chad, saw the man was staring at his empty glass again. He turned to his wife. “We’ll be there in a minute, Cathy.”
She hesitated a moment longer and then backed out of the study, pulling the door shut as she went. “All right.”
Ethan took a deep breath, wondering if things would ever be all right again.
*****
2 May 2006
Washington, D.C
8:27a.m.
Jackson Wilder stared at the television, not really paying attention to the documentary airing on screen. He set his coffee mug on the end table by his recliner and shifted the cell phone from his left ear to his right. “You’re sure....When do you think he will be able to travel?....I wouldn’t have thought you’d be one to get emotional about this...Brogan, maybe....We went through this two years ago.”
He shoved the handle on the side of his recliner, and lowered the footrest with a snap. Wilder got to his feet and walked over to the sliding glass doors that led to his small patio. “That’s enough, Hargrave....There’s always an element of risk on any assignment...” He pulled the phone from his ear and scowled. He hated being hung up on.
Wilder tossed the cell phone on the sofa and shoved the sliding glass door open. Sundays were his own time away from the Agency. He hated getting business calls on his one day off. Jack slumped into a deck chair and sighed.
He watched as a bird flew into his neighbor’s yard, perched on the rim of a small birdbath and proceeded to wash his feathers. Jack had an unsettling hunch as to what had gone wrong two years ago but without proof, he had nothing. And worst of all, the one person he suspected had an airtight alibi.
Five different people saw the woman in her office at the precise time MacKensey had been shot, including Jack himself. Due to the circumstances and her history, he’d placed her on immediate and indefinite suspension. Lily van Buren was back in Salem, working at her shop, seemingly as mousy as her appearance.
Jack stared up at the cloudy sky, his thoughts chaotic. There was only one way the woman could have been in two places at once, and he seriously doubted she had a twin sister running around. So how could it be explained that Lily was believed in Greece at the exact same moment she was in her office?
Faintly, he heard the telephone inside ring. It took Jack a moment to realize it was his land line. His operatives and work only knew his cell phone number and he preferred it that way. Only Steve know this number, thought Jack, getting to his feet. Suddenly, he stopped. “And one other,” he muttered, hurrying inside. “Hello?”
Jack’s grip tightened on the phone receiver. “Not on an unsecured line...Oh?” He perched on a bar stool. “What are you talking about?” The man’s answer surprised a laugh out of him. “What? You’re crazy. That only happens in movies, damn it.”
Jack frowned. “No. That’s impossible....It’s a damn crazy explanation....Just talked to her? She’s there in Salem, isn’t she?” He swiveled the bar stool around and found himself staring at the television screen as it blared out a car commercial. “Jonah...Know what?...My God...”
Jack listened as the man talked for another five minutes and then dazedly hung up the phone. “Impossible. Time travel was damned impossible.” He took a deep breath and stared at the bright, fast images on the television without seeing them. But how else would it explain Jonah talking to his daughter – who’d been dead for over a year?
*****
2 May 2006
Athens, Greece
10:14 a.m.
“I am afraid most people mistake a comatose state as one similar to being very deeply asleep or simply unconscious.” Michael Stefanos shook his head. “It is neither and both. It is a state of mind of being shut away from the world, while still in it.”
The doctor studied the two men across from him. “I am certain not only did he hear your conversations, he understood them, even before it seemed he awoke.” Michael cleared his throat. “This woman...were they close?”
Dan Hargrave cleared his throat. “After this trip, he was going home to be married to her.”
“I see.” Michael took a deep breath. “Then you understand what you did. If for any reason, he was striving to recover for her sake...”
“Oh damn,” muttered Dan, glaring at the floor. “But I told him that she needed him.”
“It is possible though, if he knows now she’s married, he may see no reason she would need him any longer.”
Jake Brogan cleared his throat. “What if we...what if we contacted her. Have her come visit...” His voice trailed off at Dan’s look. “Not a good idea?”
“She thinks he’s dead,” said Hargrave sadly. “It was the way the boss wanted it.”
“I did not ask two years ago simply because it had no bearing on the operation and recovery of the gentleman but now, I must. What’s going on? How did it happen?”
Dan didn’t answer right away. Technically, it had been a simple mission, tracking a terrorist cell on the move. Two years had passed and Dan knew personally that the terrorist cell had broken up, most of the members dead. Whatever intel there was, was outdated. “MacKensey works for the American government. He was on assignment when he was shot.”
Michael gave a single nod. “So the boss felt it necessary to keep it secret...for what reason?”
“To catch the shooter.”
Michael narrowed his hazel eyes. “Gentlemen, that was two years ago. Why the secrecy still?”
“The assassin was never apprehended,” said Jake, hesitantly. “She’s still at large.”
“So there is a risk she could return?”
“I doubt it,” said Dan. “She thinks he’s dead as well.”
“A vicious cycle. Keep it secret and you keep the world away, including the woman he was supposed to wed and the woman who was willing to kill him.” Michael fiddled with a pen. “What would happen if either woman found out the truth?”
Before Dan could answer, his cell phone went off. He snatched it out of his pocket. “Hargrave...She faked her death...Well, that’s impossible...” Dan snorted. “No...he’s lying...Then who the hell—?” After a moment, Dan hung up, still shaking his head.
“What?” asked Jake.
Dan stood up, motioned for Jake to follow him. “If you’ll excuse us, Doctor. We’ll be just a minute.”
Jake followed Hargrave out of the doctor’s office and into an empty supply room. “What?”
“Jack’s gone off the deep end. He says Van Buren’s dead.”
“How long?”
“Over a year. And yet the woman’s father saw her at the cemetery only hours ago.”
“A ghost?”
Dan stared at the man. “You’re joking, right? There’s no such things as ghosts. Especially ones who drive expensive rental cars.”
“Then how—?”
“Time travel. Jack thinks it’s time travel. What a load of crap; time travel doesn’t exist.”
Jake frowned. “What if you’re wrong?” he asked quietly.
Dan snorted again. “You watch too much damn television,” he growled and stalked out of the supply room.
Jake stood there a moment, wondering. Then he made a decision and called a friend who might be able to help locate MacKensey’s almost-bride.
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The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.