Chapter Thirteen C: Vengeance

After leaving Pol’s office in a huff early Monday morning, Nina went home and pulled herself together. She had amphetamines that she’d kept buried in her underwear drawer just for an emergency like this. She couldn’t stand the thought of sleep. She knew that she would be plagued by nightmares if she closed her eyes. But one thing that she knew was that it was time for the shady characters she had cultivated since coming to Washington D.C. five years ago to start paying off. Pulling out her international phone, she began making calls. By seven o’clock in the morning she had a small caliber handgun that she could handle and ammunition and enough speed to get her through a week of not sleeping if she needed to go that far.

She carefully regulated herself in the office and staff meeting, almost over-compensating on the side of appearing too lethargic. She would use the excuse of attending Marvin’s funeral in Indiana as a way of taking time off. She bought a ticket she knew she would never use, and used on-line check-in to check in for the flight. It would be long before anyone realized she had not actually gotten on the plane. Instead she intended to be camped outside Aaron Case’s hotel, to follow him wherever he went until she got a clear shot.

So it was a shock when Pol said they were flying back to Indiana as soon as they could get to the airport. Her plans changed. Instead of lying in wait, she left the office, got in her car and headed west. A little over 600 miles later she parked her car in a grove of trees near Pol’s house in Wells County and began her wait. It was nearly dawn on Tuesday when arrived and concealed her car. She scouted the grounds and found Aaron’s car in the barn. She would not do anything to his car because he might at any time have Pol in it. Nor would she sully her home or property with her deed. She was patient. She would find Aaron alone and take care of it.

She nearly had her chance when they went up to the church. As she approached through the trees below the church she saw Aaron leave the church and walk into the cemetery. She took aim from the trees, but lowered her gun almost immediately. She had a small caliber pistol. Its accuracy beyond twenty feet would be suspect even if she were an expert marksman, which she was not. She would have to wait. She was surprised after the tolling of the bell at seven o’clock that so many people showed up for Pol’s obscure aunt’s funeral. Her people must be better connected than she thought, she mused. That Uncle Alex is probably some kind of local philanthropist or something as well. She wished, not for the first time, that she had more information about these relatives.

She’d just taken another pill when the funeral director and his assistant left the church. She lay low for another half hour, making sure no one was left but Pol and Aaron. She crept up to the church and gently pushed down on the door latch. Locked. Damn. She had read a lot of books in which spies and others had opened locked doors with anything from a bobby pin to a pocket knife. But even if she had either of those she had no idea how to use them to open a locked door. She began a careful surveillance of the premises, checking for other doors or for windows that she could get in through without luck. At last she came again to Aaron’s car. He’d left it unlocked. Who would be prowling around out here in the country, after all. He obviously hadn’t lived long enough in Washington D.C., she thought. She opened the door and slipped into the passenger seat. She slid down low where she could see the door of the church and still not be readily seen in the vehicle.

The wait was interminable. She used two more of the eye-popping pills as she waited through the night. The lack of sleep for the past two days was definitely catching up with her and she discovered she needed the pills more frequently to stay awake. Her heart was racing, but she forced herself to stay still in the car.

It was just before dawn that her patience was rewarded. Another car came up the country road and pulled to a stop in front of the church. To her surprise, Pol’s Uncle Alex clambered out of the vehicle and approached the church. He tried the door, discovered it was locked and quickly reached up over the sill of the window to the left of the door and brought back a key that he inserted in the lock and opened the door. Damn! If she had only known there was a key, she would have had this job done hours ago. As soon as the door was closed, she slipped out of the car and ran to the door. At least Alex had not re-locked it. She entered the foyer as stealthily as she could.

The inner door to the sanctuary was slightly ajar and she could hear a confusion of voices issuing forth. But she couldn’t really understand what was happening. She lowered herself to the floor and crawled through the door, nudging it as little as she could to get into the sanctuary. She still couldn’t clearly see where Alex and Pol were talking, but she could hear better. What she heard played itself over and over in her head as she tried to grasp who was talking and what it meant. Alex said he had poisoned the Lake. There was an argument of which Nina could only catch a few of the words. Pol seemed to talk to someone else whom she could not hear at all. Probably Aaron standing near her. This was no good. The speed was causing a ringing in her ears that was drowning out most of the conversation. She would have to maneuver herself to where she could see. She raised herself up cautiously above the back pew just in time to see Alex pull his gun from his jacket.

NO! she screamed inside herself, but her mouth stayed resolutely clamped shut. She stood fully and brought her gun to bear on Alex. He could not harm Pol.

What happened next appeared to happen in slow motion to Nina, yet her own movements were caught in that same mire that seemed to slow everything down. She struggled to steady her aim on Alex as he swung the gun nearly at her. Suddenly in front of her another figure rose from the front pew. It had to be Aaron. She suffered a moment of hesitation over which target she could focus on, but when Pol screamed and lunged she swung her pistol firmly on target and squeezed the trigger just as she heard another shot echo through the building.

She turned to her left to move up the aisle as four other figures crashed through the doorway and one knocked her out with a single blow to the head.

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