In The Grip of Grace ~ 19
Chapter 19
Bonnie looked from Frank, with a revolver in his hand that was trained on them, to the house.
“How’d you know? I made sure.”
“You probably did but I suspect, since you all are not gone, that you had just turned to leave from the house and that’s when Natalie spotted you from the window as she was getting water from the faucet.”
At that moment, they could hear sirens coming up the street.
Groans from his captives told him they knew where they were headed.
In the distance, watching the scene from another black sedan was the Boss himself, an older gentleman of thinning gray hair and a pencil thin mustache. He looked to be in his late sixties. He wore a ring of silver and gold metal. A symbol of an eye with a Latin inscription engraved on the top. A black cane rested at his side between him and his young cohort. A young man in his late twenties with medium build and dark brown hair.
“I just knew they would flub this up somehow.” the Boss said. “Stay on them. I want that chip found. Gerald Hardy must have hid it very well. Since it wasn‘t at his house it has to be at his son‘s. Find it. That idiot Charlie had all this time to find it and failed. There will be no slip-ups.”
“Yes, Grandfather.” the young man said.
When the cops had taken off with the criminals, Frank, Tony and Phil checked the van over once more and had found the tracking device.
“She hid it quite well. Would have gotten away with it too if it hadn’t been for Natalie spotting her.” Phil praised, and Natalie smiled proudly.
“I probably wouldn’t have thought to be this thorough if not for the fact they’d been seen and caught.” Frank berated himself.
“Maybe, but what with Joe out of commission and you haven’t had any investigations going on for awhile, your bound to get a little rusty. It’s not your fault.” Tony tried to comfort.
Frank winced at the mention of the words ‘out of commission’. He knew that had a lot to do with it. Without his partner, he just did not feel up to doing anything involving detective work.
“You’re right, Tony. But it’s still no excuse. I know this stuff.”
“Everyone makes mistakes. You are not immune to them no more than anyone else is. It’s done and over, so let’s move on.” Phil put in. “I wonder who they were working for.”
“Let’s not think about it tonight. The criminals are caught and it’s a beautiful night for a walk.” Tony smiled at Natalie. “Maybe we could go for one later?”
Before Natalie could answer, Frank walked around to the other side of the van to look around at the neighbor’s yards.
“I think just because these guys were caught doesn’t mean its over. There has to be someone else out there calling the shots. I mean why would they just follow us? Why not kidnap us?”
“Think they’re after something?” asked Phil.
“We must have something they want, but what?” Frank thought. “It’s got to be in our belongings, but they didn’t find it in Michigan because they followed us down here.”
Frank leaned against the van and pinched his upper lip with his thumb and forefinger
“He‘s getting that look again.” Tony whispered to Natalie.
“What look?”
“The one he gets when you can practically see the wheels turning in his head. He‘s in detective mode and he‘s not going to stop now till he solves this.”
“Does that mean you guys aren’t going to Montana?”
“I don’t know what it means yet, but wherever this leads him, we’re staying with him. He can’t investigate and watch Joe at the same time.”
“We’re going to have to go through the house. Do a complete search and see what we come up with.” Frank said at last, as he pushed off from the van with his foot. “For all we know, whatever it is may not even be around the house or they would have found it by now. At least that’s what I’m thinking.”
“You want to start tonight?” asked Phil.
“No, it’s getting late. The alarm system will be on and I need to take care of Joe for the night.” Frank answered. “I’m going in. If you guys are still going for a walk, be careful.”
At Frank’s warning, they both nodded and Tony took Natalie’s hand and headed off down the sidewalk to enjoy one another’s company and to get to know one another better.
Frank started to make Joe his dinner but Gertrude had said she had his prepared for him already.
“I just need to heat it up. If you want to get Joe up in his chair, I’ll feed him while you run his bath and get his night things together.”
“Thank you, Aunty.” Relief at the thought of getting some help, Frank gratefully kissed her on the cheek before he ducked out the back door to get the chair out of the back of Mr. Prito’s van.
Gertrude softly touched her cheek with her fingers, awed at the impulsive act of gratitude from her nephew. It had been awhile since he had shown any kindness towards her and feared she never would again. Then straightened herself up and went about preparing Joe’s dinner.
After Frank had gotten Joe in his chair, Gertrude sat down in her chair and began to feed him some mashed stew. She had taken the meat out but the mashed up stew had the perfect consistency. She was about to ask Frank what Joe drank out of when he showed up with a Gatorade bottle in his hands.
“I’ve been trying to get him to drink out of a cup, but he can get pretty messy with it. If you don’t want to do that, then he’ll drink out of this bottle. It has the open and close twist top. He does pretty well with that. I just couldn’t bring myself to give him a baby bottle. At least this is more normal.”
Gertrude took the bottle and went to put some milk in it. “Why can’t he drink out of a glass?”
Frank shook his head. “He just doesn’t have it figured out yet, I guess. I’m going to go start his bath water.”
“What if he’s not done?”
“I’ll tube feed the rest to him.” Frank answered tiredly. “I just want to get him done and in bed. It’s getting late.”
With that said, Frank made his way to his aunt’s room where there was an extra bathroom.
By the time Frank had gotten his brother to bed an hour later, Joe had fallen asleep almost immediately. Between the long drive, his stomach full and the warm bath, Joe was exhausted. Frank had gotten a pillow and a sheet to cover both of them for the night.
He lay down with Joe and waited for Tony and Natalie to get back. His aunt had gone to bed after he had cleaned up the bathroom.
Frank felt himself dozing off and jerked awake, quickly sitting up. Just then, Tony and Natalie came in through the back door so they wouldn’t wake Joe, in case he was asleep.
“Sorry. We forgot the time.” Tony said apologetically.
“That’s okay. I’ll go set the alarm now.” Frank said as he got up.
“Natalie, you can take Joe’s room and Tony you can take mine. I’m going to stay down here with Joe.”
“Come on, I’ll show you which one is your bed.” Tony took Natalie’s hand and led her up the stairs.
“Good night, Frank.” Tony whispered.
“Night guys.”
HBHBHBHBHBHB
The next day after a big breakfast of fried potatoes, eggs, slices of ham and toast that Gertrude had prepared, they began a thorough search of the house. Even Gertrude was caught up in the search and started in the kitchen and living room, since she just knew that, ‘no one would dare hide anything in her room without her knowledge’.
Frank had smiled at the comment before he and Phil took off to search the rooms upstairs. Tony took the basement and garage areas.
Natalie stayed in the living room to watch Joe since she did not know what they were looking for and felt uncomfortable going through someone else’s things.
Joe was up in his chair and she had turned the TV on for entertainment. He apparently liked the cartoons so she left them on.
It was almost noon and Frank had already been through all the rooms except Joe’s. He saved this room for last on purpose. He did not want to get too emotional before he was done or he probably would have taken a lot longer than necessary.
Once inside Joe’s room a ton of memories came flooding in his mind. The way Joe kept his room, the laughs and rough housing, the smells and the arguments all wafted through his senses like a broken dam. He missed his brother so much it still hurt to think about it. Joe did not deserve this. Anger once more coursed through his heart for his father. He did not understand how he could do such a thing. How could he stand there and shoot Joe as if he didn’t matter? What kind of monster had his dad become?
He stood in the middle of the room with his eyes squeezed shut and his hands on his hips trying to get control of his emotions. He thought of Estelle and the talks he’d had with her about forgiveness. Frank took a deep breath and prayed for strength.
Finally, he could feel himself calming down like a force flowing through him and knew his prayer had been answered. Shakily he let out a breath and slowly opened his eyes and looked around. He rubbed his face with his hands and walked over to the closet. He went through every piece of clothing and boxes of Joe’s memories and sports things in the bottom of the closet. Nothing was out of the ordinary there. He went over to the dresser and went through each drawer. Then he went to the nightstand. He pulled out a few pieces of paper, a comb, a pen, and a Bible.
Frank smiled. He recalled the day Joe had come to his hospital room. His face lit up like never before. Joe wanted to talk to him about God and what he had learned. Frank had basically told him that he didn’t need that kind of life. He shook his head, as the events from that time were so evident that it was apparent that he did need that kind of life. Maybe things would not have gotten so bad.
‘If I’d listened to Joe then, would things have turned out differently? Would Joe still be okay?’ he asked himself as he absently thumbed through the book. Then something slid out between the pages onto the floor. He looked down. It was a silver and gold medallion on a gold chain. A piece of notebook paper was folded and lying on the floor next to the necklace.
Frank, sitting on the edge of the bed, bent down and picked them both up. He fingered the medallion, which had a symbol of an eye on it. The inscription was in a different language but one Frank immediately knew. It was Latin. He knew Latin was the language of the Romans. ‘19In lumen of aspicio91:6, 7, 8’. “19In the eye of the beholder91:6, 7, 8” he said quietly to himself.
He then opened up the paper and knew the handwriting was Joe’s.
Was Grandpa Hardy involved in something bad? Is dad involved in it too? What is the meaning of the eye?
Latin language. Meaning: In the eye of the beholder
But what is 19 91:6, 7, 8?
19th book of the bible? Psalm 91
6, 7, 8 vs.
6) Nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
Nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7) A thousand may fall at your side,
Ten thousand at your right hand,
But it will not come near you.
8) You will only observe with your eyes
And see the punishment of the wicked.
Why did Grandpa give me this medallion? What’s so special about it?
I cannot help but think that something bad is going to happen.
Frank frowned. What was going on? Is this the object that someone was after? If so, he could only think that what ever Joe had found was big. Life and death big. The more he looked at the verses, the more it looked like it was talking about something atomic. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise.
Frank was so absorbed in his thoughts that he did not notice Phil until he sat next to him on the bed.
“What’cha got?” Phil asked, curiously looking at the stuff in Frank’s hands.
Frank ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath.
“I’m not sure. What do you make of this?” he said as Phil took the paper and medallion.
He read the inscription and then Joe’s notes.
“Wow.” Phil whispered. “I wish Joe could enlighten us. He probably knows more than we do, locked up in that head of his.”
An awkward silence fell around them. Then Phil gently cleared his throat.
“I am thinking that this is something of a nuclear disaster?”
“You too?” Frank bit his lip. “Our grandpa had this inscription on here for a reason. Maybe to warn us?”
“Of what?” Phil asked. “Someone has to make something for a nuclear disaster to happen.”
“An old enemy of his?”
“You may be right.” Phil said thoughtfully.
“I’m wondering if dad knew about this. But if so, why did he act the way he did?”
“I don’t know, Frank. I wonder if there was anyone else involved in this with your grandpa.”
“If we knew what he was working on”, Frank looked at Phil and continued,
“Because of him being a scientist, maybe he found something that was good but his enemy wanted it for evil purposes.”
Phil handed the medallion back to Frank.
“I don’t know, Frank. It sounds a little far fetched.”
“I know I’m grasping at straws here, but people are after us and I don’t think it’s just to get a medal back.”
Frank flipped the medal up in the air and missed catching it on the way down and it fell on the floor. He went to pick it up and stopped, as he looked closer. The eye on the medallion had moved just a centimeter, but it was enough to perk up his detective instincts.
“Well, well…what have we here?” Frank said as he picked up the medal. Curious, Phil leaned closer. Frank pushed on the eye, but nothing happened.
“Try turning it.” Phil suggested.
Frank turned it clockwise…still nothing. He turned it counter clockwise and to his surprise, they heard a tiny click. With his fingernails, Frank opened the medallion and was amazed at what he and Phil saw.