Ring in Mine #3: Nephi and Jerome: Chapter 59
Chapter 59
After dinner Adam and Jerome were feeding each other bites of ice cream with lots of touching.
"We know what you two were up to all afternoon." Zeke announced.
"Ezekiel ..." Sariah began.
"Sariah, don't worry about him. I think I see the green beast of jealousy raising its head." Adam interrupted.
"You're not the only ones that can have silly public displays of affection." Zeke forced a spoon of ice cream into Rafe's mouth.
Phil looked at Ester. Ester responded by feeding Phil a bite of cake. It spread from couple to couple. The funniest was Brock. Oliver and Mike were seeing who could feed Brock the most. Brock didn't even have time to swallow before the next spoonful arrived at his lips.
Not to be outdone the youngest family members fed each other.
"Enough!" Everyone stopped and looked at Sariah. "It looks like I will need to be the adult tonight. Except for Ruth everyone feed yourselves or leave the table."
The cake and ice cream were too good to walk away from, so they fed themselves. Rafe jerked.
"And keep your hands to yourself." Sariah glared at the pair.
The family finished dinner in silence. Everyone helped clear the table. Brock and friends had dish duty. It wasn't so bad. They powered up the Hobart dishwasher and sent the dishes through first and then the pots and pans. Pans required more than one cycle to get clean. With the dishes put away they claimed their reward. Sariah always had something special for those on dish duty. Tonight, it was small berry tarts.
Adam and Jerome were all snuggles watching the TV with the boys. Before prayers. Adam gave Jerome one the anxiety pills Margaret had prescribed. Story and prayer time had grown in length as more of the middle-aged boys were following Simon's and Jeremiah's example of staying for story-time. The little's insisted that if you stayed for stories you had to stay for prayers.
By bedtime, Jerome's eyes drooped. The pill had done its work. Jerome fell asleep on Adam's chest. By midnight Jerome's moans and spasms woke Adam. Adam gathered Jerome in his arms and like a child rocked his man while singing their song. It took five minutes but Jerome relaxed and woke.
"I'm sorry I woke you up." Adam pulled Jerome closer.
"That's part of the job. Do you want to talk about it?" Adam asked.
"No, but Margaret says I should." He talked about the electric shocks. Jerome compared them to the painful shock he got as a child putting a paperclip into an outlet. The worst was raping me with huge metal dildos charged with electricity. Jerome's descriptions became lost in the tears.
"I will never let that happen to you. Stick by your security, they are trained to protect you." They returned to bed with Adam spooned up behind Jerome. Jerome woke Adam twice more during the night.
Jerome would have loved to spend a lazy day with his man but they both had work to do.
While Jerome met with his tutors, Adam was in a conference call with Julio and Tellerson executives going over documents faxed during the night. Julio had kept up on the company for Grace. Most of the time the company ran itself. Adam was to watch for trends that needed Jerome's attention.
"How is project Benny going?" Adam asked. Grace had watchdogs looking out for opportunities to invest in Benny's endeavors.
"His mountain retreat is running over budget. He is looking for another investor."
"Go for it. Concierge services referred Mr. Tellerson to a `Victorian Inn.' It's an exclusive establishment. I was wondering what relationship Tellerson has with the company." Adam would leave it to his team to figure it out. As head of Jerome's staff, Adam often felt out of his depth. Julio reassured him he was doing great.
Jerome looked forward to working with the junior account executives. His two weeks in the janitorial department had insured he wouldn't take the crews that kept the building clean and functioning for granted.
Each night things were better for Jerome. His dreams weren't as graphic and he woke with less effort. The week before the President's Day holiday Jerome's dreams focused on the sales presentation for Friday and everything that could go wrong.
That week also brought cases of the flu to the valley. Jerome felt lucky he wasn't part of the throwing up and diarrhea plaguing about half the family.
Thursday, the illness hit the security team harder than the rest. Jerome was running behind. He didn't want to be late for the final meeting about tomorrow's big presentation. Traffic was awful. Rather than wait for the car to maneuver to the opposite side of the street, Jerome hopped out of the back seat and dashed across the street.
The security guy watched as Jerome made his way through the stopped traffic. A parked blue van obscured the guard's view of Jerome. A wave of nausea hit. With his head out the window, he lost his lunch onto the pavement. When he looked up, Jerome had made it into the building.
Adam hadn't been as lucky as Jerome. He had spent the morning with a garbage can close by.
"Adam, there is a call for you." Sariah's voice came through the intercom on the phone.
"Adam, this is Mick. Jerome had an important meeting. but he never arrived in the office. He was excited to take part in the presentation. It's not like him to blow it off."
"Thanks for letting me know." Adam lost the crackers and broth he had just eaten.
Adam rang Marshall. "Jerome never made it to work. Please look into it."
As sick as they were Marshall knew his staff wasn't up to finding Jerome. Chief Thompson was also sick. Marshall called Tellerson Security.
"We've lost our fearless leader. We are all puking our guts out with the flu and need help." Marshall's identification code Samaria Four triggered an immediate response. He had only hung up before the head of the local Tellerson office security was on the line. Marshall shared what he knew.
It wasn't half an hour before investigators arrived at the compound, and Mick's office building. Mick was more than happy to help. He used inter-office communication channels to find anyone that might have seen Jerome in front of the building.
The bits and pieces of information raised more questions than answers. A coworker saw Jerome stop by a blue van. From the passenger's map and Jerome's hand gestures she assumed he was giving directions. No one saw what happened to Jerome. He never made it to the security desk inside.
An agent spoke with Marshall and then Adam. Adam explained how excited Jerome was about the presentation at work. Adam learned other agents were looking into the whereabouts of Jerome's father and the Johnsons. Someone was even looking into Hugo's evil stepmother.
The police wouldn't accept a missing person's report this soon. Jerome had disappeared before and had always reappeared.
Thursday night Margaret appeared at the compound with an overnight bag in hand. The first person she went looking for was Adam. When she couldn't find him, she tried the radio.
"Are you trying to find my dad?" Jerry asked Margaret.
"No honey, the police are looking for your dad."
Jerry looked at her oddly. "Why are the police looking for Adam?"
"The police aren't looking for Adam. I need to talk to him." Margaret explained.
"Is it important? I can't tell you where he is if it isn't important."
Margaret reassured Jerry it was important. Jerry whispered in her ear. Assuming Jerry knew what he was talking about, she drove back into town.
She found Adam kneeling in Jerome's spot in the Catholic chapel. A single candle flame flickered. Margaret did not want to disturb his prayers, but her religious upbringing kept her from lighting her own candle and joining him in prayer. To her, praying surrounded by the figures of saints and the Madonna felt sacrilegious, like idol worship.
She sat in a pew and waited for Adam to finish. A gentleman knelt next to Adam. He must have lit a candle for now two flames reached heavenward lighting the bowed heads.
The man put his arm around Adam's shoulder. They talked too softly for Margaret to eavesdrop. A door opened. Margaret turned to see the priest genuflect at the altar as he passed. When she turned back to the praying couple, only one candle was lit. Where did he go? She turned to find the man standing behind her.
"I'm sorry I startled you. Young men don't need advice as much as they need a listening ear. The missing one will return sooner than later. Be there for them; they will need you."
"Who are you?" Qayin recognized the real question not asked.
"My name is Qayin. I came in the place of my brother. I am cursed to wander until I have earned the forgiveness he willingly gave."
Margaret heard a rustle as Adam stood and blew out his candle. She turned back in time to see the door close.
"Margaret, it must be an emergency if Jerry or Hugo spilled the beans." "You are the emergency. I needed to see if you are all right. You know God hears your prayers anywhere."
"I know God hears my prayers anywhere, it is easier to hear God's answer someplace peaceful and dedicated to him. Praying at Nephi's place felt too much like praying to Nephi, and well-meaning family members would check on me every few minutes." Adam answered. "I feel so helpless. I can only keep the radio close and wait for others to find my love."
Adam arrived home in time to hear prayers and read to the kids. Hugo let Margaret sleep in his bed. Hugo and Jerry joined Adam in his. Margaret wondered who was supporting who.
As Adam drifted on the edge of slumber the words of Qayin played through his mind over and over. "You can't depend upon God to do everything."
With radio in hand, Adam visited Chief Thompson at the station. The Chief became animated when Adam mentioned the blue van. He interrupted Adam to disappear only to return with a sheet of paper in his hand. "We have three other disappearances linked to a blue van. The incident in Logan had a witness to the abduction. We had another by the U of U campus. It's the only real lead we have. I will report this to the FBI as a possible fourth abduction."
Adam had been around the department long enough, he was part of the team. The officers were taking this personal. He knew they wouldn't stop investigating until they had answers.
The Chief met the assigned FBI agent once and wasn't impressed. He was the type that only concentrated on cases that had plenty of media coverage. Chief Thompson agreed that the Tellerson angle be kept to themselves. They didn't want the self-serving agent parading the Tellerson name through the news. Tellerson security was more than capable of looking into their own affairs.
Saturday morning introduced a new fox in the chicken coop. There had been no news of the helpful housewife since her personal credit card had maxed out in Vegas. With Hugo's blessing the Tellerson security team searched his father's, now his, house. To eliminate any potential gray areas, Hugo unlocked the door and invited the team in.
After an hour of going over the home with a fine-tooth comb, Marshall was glad Chief Thompson had insisted on sending officers with the Tellerson team. Marshall asked Adam to take Hugo home. Twenty minutes later police vehicles arrived and taped off the house. Chief Thompson was grateful the house was in Salt Lake City. Even though he would have to stay out of the investigation, he could make sure all possibilities were investigated.
The neighbors and media watching things unfold wondered why they carried a mid-size chest freezer from the house. Later while interviewing Hugo, the police learned Hugo's family had only owned an upright freezer, a brand she often suggested on her show. Combing through the helpful housewife's credit card records, they found a receipt for a chest freezer purchased a week after her disappearance.
The evening news announced the police had located the bodies of the Helpful Housewife and her son. Showing footage of the freezer being loaded on the truck, the reporter on site assumed the bodies were inside. There wasn't much to report. The police were keeping a tight hold onto the gruesome details.
Their investigation uncovered Yancy had left Salt Lake but had never arrived for his connecting flight to Europe. It also linked the case of a dismembered male body found in New York without its head or hands. The brand burned onto the body and forehead identified the mysterious gang enforcer Mano de la Muerte.
Mano de la Muerte use tourniquets, keeping his victims from bleeding to death as they were dismembered. Inside the helpful housewife's body cavity, the coroner found a cassette tape in a Ziplock baggie. After careful defrosting, the tape, punctuated with groans and the occasional scream, revealed the helpful housewife's role in the death of Detective Smith and those she had paid to kill him.
Finding the body of the helpful housewife and her son's head, hands and genitalia distracted the family from Jerome's disappearance. The Tellerson team continued investigating. The police had a new rabbit to chase.
By late afternoon Adam's pacing and sharp responses were getting on everybody's nerves. The family was worried too. Adam didn't have to make everyone suffer.
"Dad, get your coat!" Hugo loved calling Adam dad. "We need to go for a walk."
Hugo grabbed a ring of keys from the hook by the door. They walked toward the event area. "I don't want to go to Nephi's place."
"We aren't going to Nephi's place. I have another place in mind."
They walked past the path to Nephi's place and stopped in front of the old wooden church. Built of reclaimed wood it appeared to have seen many years of use. Not run down, sort of mature. There were no crosses or anything else that pointed to any denomination.
Hugo took out the ring of keys and unlocked the doors. They walked through the foyer and past the stairs into the choir loft. Four steps inside the chapel Hugo stopped.
A heavy carved table stood on the dais at the front, with a podium on the left and an organ on the right, the building could have belonged to numerous religions for worship. It was all show. If anyone looked too closely, they would have found the impressive display of organ pipes were made of gilded PVC.
Today a heavy scarlet cloth embroidered in gold lay across the table. Two candelabras and a golden chalice were on display. The late winter sun tinted by the windows filled the room with a play of colors. Hugo opened a panel in the rear wall and turned two knobs lighting the pipes and what today was an altar. He pressed the play button and soft instrumental music surrounded them.
Hugo led his dad to a padded rail. He went behind the rail and lit two votive candles in red glass holders on the altar. "If the only thing you can do for Jerome is pray, this is a perfect place."
Hugo knelt at the rail and looked at his dad waiting for Adam to follow suite. Instead Adam held out his hand and took Hugo's drawing him to his feet. "You set all this up for me?" A tear ran down his cheek as Hugo nodded.
Adam led Hugo to the first pew. Sitting side by side, Adam pulled his son close to him. "I'm sorry I've been such a bear. Would you sit on my lap? Jerome says there is nothing better than holding your son."
Hugo climbed onto his dad's lap and leaned against Adam's chest. Adam wrapped his arms around his boy. "Hugo, I should tell you more often how happy you make me. I always wanted a family and I couldn't find a better son. Thank you for choosing me."
"I love you too, dad."
They sat in the peaceful setting Hugo had dressed for his dad and learned more about each other. The candles flickered, almost gone. Adam knelt with head bowed.
"Father, I ask for so many things. I know you will watch over Jerome. Thank you for bringing Hugo into my life, he has given me a greater purpose. Help me be the best father not only for Hugo but for his brother's, Jerry and Neil. Amen."
Hugo wrapped his arms around his kneeling father. As the candles went out the radio crackled. Both men jumped.
"For those deadbeats that skipped chores, dinner is in fifteen minutes." Zeke announced.
"And the lesson had better be short. It's meatloaf." Rafe continued.
Hugo turned off the lights. They exited by the soft glow of the emergency lighting locking the door behind them.
Myles surprised the pair halfway back to the compound. "Adam, I don't like gossip but I heard something that bothers me."
"What has you so disturbed?" Adam asked. Myles seldom shared things he has heard.
"Mary saw me steal a quick kiss from Garrick after chores. `Enjoy your deprived lifestyle while you have a chance. If Jerome comes back things will change.' Mary taunted like a bully on the playground." You could near the sneer in Myles voice as he imitated Jerome's mother. "I think she knows where Jerome is. Garrick agrees."
Adam thanked Myles and allowed him a head start. Adam wanted to think on the way in. He tried sending Hugo ahead.
"Dad, I'm not leaving you. You'll take forever and let this eat at you. If Mary is part of dad's disappearance, I want to go public school. I won't go to her class anymore."
In the simplicity of youth, Hugo helped Adam decide what to do. "At dinner I want Jerry sitting between you and me." Adam made a quick stop at the office.
Adam stood behind Jerome's space at the head of the table. He asked Sariah to leave the hot foods in the kitchen to stay warm.
"Family, I apologize for the delay. Jerome's abduction weighs on everyone. I have heard a few comments I need to clarify." Adam watched the reactions of the family as he reviewed comments said over the last two days. Mary was the only one with a smug look.
"Mary, what did you mean by `things will change if Jerome comes back?' It infers you know something the rest of us don't."
"I may as well tell you so you can find a new place to live. My husband sent Jerome in for the cure. If he comes back, he won't want any part of your sinful lifestyle."
"What part did you play in this?"
"The family was down with the flu, I gave it a little help. All it took was leaving a plate of eclairs with a little extra added to the filling to give Jerome's security food poisoning." Mary didn't care who else got sick. She resented Jerome's frugal ways.
"He has millions. When I asked him for a new car, he said I could drive his." Mary declared.
"You keep saying if Jerome comes back." Adam pointed out.
"Not everybody survives the cure. We are Jerry's grandparents. No court would let a gay man adopt our grandson. With Jerry comes Grace's money."
"Jared once suggested we replace the teacher. I do not have Jerome's overriding vote. I propose we hire a new teacher and banish Mary Tellerson from the compound." Adam turned his glass upside down. "I have voted."
Rafe and Zeke were the first to mirror Adam's actions. Soon the glasses of all the adults at the table were upside down.
"Vote all you want. If Jerome survives, he'll shut down this den of iniquity and take care of his parents the way he should." Mary was shouting.
"Marshall, have security accompany Mrs. Tellerson to her room and help her pack. I have arranged transportation for her." Adam bowed his head.
Once Mary had left the room Adam seemed to speak to no one. "Did you hear enough?"
Answers came from the speakerphone on the wall. Marie was the first to respond.
"I'm so sorry Adam. I guess a leopard can't change its spots. We hoped my daughter had changed, but her true self has peeked through now and then. My son and Paula will need to know."
The judge was next. "I'll work with your lawyers to get the required injunctions in place."
"We would like a long talk with her and her husband. I've already sent cars for them. Make sure she doesn't leave." Chief Thompson announced
"No one is leaving. The compound is on lockdown. She can't even call out."
Adam looked around the table. "I apologize this had to happen on meatloaf night."
Adam asked Clarke pray. The family stopped thinking about Mary. Sariah and Rebecca always made the best meatloaf.
The next morning Adam called Chief Thompson for an update. Mary was cooling her heels in a cell for conspiracy. If Jerome had been a minor it would have been legal for his parents to send him for the cure, but since he was an adult it was kidnapping. Adam thought that was sick.
The other news involved Jerome's dad's disappearance. The Chief sent a car to bring him in for questioning. When the officers arrived, the door was open and the lights on. The place had been ransacked. Everything of value seemed to be missing.
In talking to the neighbors, they learned early that morning a small moving van had backed into the driveway. Two men had escorted an unhappy looking Mr. Tellerson into his truck, which drove off while the crew loaded things into the van.
"I am surprised he didn't tell me he was moving. Maybe the money he was expecting came in." The neighbor across the street offered.
"I was on the back porch waiting for my dog to do her thing. I don't think he left willingly. There was a lot of shouting before he left. Something about owing the men money. One had a gun." The next-door neighbor added.
"They looked like thugs." Another neighbor insisted. "I loaded my gun. I was ready if my house was next."
As the investigators searched through the house, they found a handwritten note demanding payment, a gang symbol at the bottom. The police department didn't need another kidnapping. Were the two related or did the events have unfortunate timing.