Chapter 3
Once again I found myself distracted by the thought of sky blue eyes that seemed to be able to look into my soul. I shook my head to clear my mind. I was getting fucking old if I let a woman that had backed into me distract me from my work. But there had been something about her. Yeah, about twenty years too few to her lifespan, I thought and focused back on the spreadsheet on the screen. The phone rang and I picked it up.
“Hunter Gardner,” I answered.
“Hunter, how are things?” I heard my old navy buddy ask. After we had left the corps he had gone into the police force while I chose to go private. We still kept in touch and helped each other out if we needed to.
“Danny, I’m fine. You know how it is, getting older sucks,” I told him. “What do I owe this call?” He chuckled but got serious as I asked the question. It wasn’t a good sign I thought.
“I’m calling you out of courtesy, just to give you a heads up,” Denny said.
“I appreciate it, what am I getting a heads up on?”
“Simon.” My stomach dropped. What has my son got himself involved in now? “It’s not good, it’s big and it’s bad,” Danny added.
“Can I see the files?” I asked. Knowing it was a lot to ask, but this was for my son.
“I would if I could. But this is seriously big. I have all eyes on me, I can't make any mistakes.”
“I get it,” I told him.
“I sent some of my boys to talk to his wife, I didn’t know he was married,” Danny said.
“Yeah, a couple of years back.” I couldn’t admit to him that I hadn’t been invited. Only reason I knew about it was because his mother tried to stick me with the bill. If I had been invited, or if Simon at least had introduced me to the woman he was marrying, I wouldn’t have objected. Hell, I would have thrown every penny I owned into the thing. And I owned a lot of pennies. But my son had done neither. So I had refused, it was the first time I had ever refused when my ex or our son had asked for money. But it had hurt to know how little I meant to him. In my mind his wife was a copy of my ex, his mother. Someone driven by status and income. Probably a bitch. It had been the start of my refusal to give any more money to my son. He was a grown up and he needed to stand on his own feet. Apparently his feet had led him straight into trouble. “Have you sent people to talk to Simon?” I asked.
“Can’t, he seems to have gone underground.”
“Fuck.” It was bad. Either Simon had predicted the trouble and made a vanishing act, leaving his wife with the trouble. Or his vanishing act wasn’t voluntary. Either way I needed to get hold of him, he was in way over his head. I loved my son, in the kind of way all fathers should love their sons. But even I admitted he was not the sharpest knife in the drawer and he wasn’t the type that knew how to protect himself. He needed me and I would be there. “Thank you, Denny. I appreciate the heads up,” I told my friend.
“What are friends for? Can I trust that you won’t go and screw things up?” Denny asked.
“You know me.”
“I do, that’s why I’m asking,” he told me.
“I’ll be on my very best behaviour and I won’t kill someone because they are coming after my son,” I told him.
“I guess that is as good as I’m going to get. Take care of yourself.” We ended the call and I called Jason, my partner and best friend.
“I need to take a couple of days off, Simon has got into some trouble,” I told him.
“Go. I’ll manage. Is there some clients you have I need to be aware of?” he asked.
“No, I haven’t anything on my table that is due on such short notice.”
“Good. Then sort out things and maybe smack some sense into him,” Jason told me.
“Believe me, I will do my best,” I grumbled. After the call ended, I stood up and grabbed my suit jacket. I put it on as I walked out of my office.
“Claire, I need the address of a Hana Hunting,” I told my assistant as I walked by her desk. “I need it within ten minutes.” I sent an email from my phone in the elevator to the men that reported to me, asking them to talk to Jason for now. As I unlocked my car I got a text.
C: No address for a Hana Hunting, I did some digging, her maiden name was Bishop. There is a current address under that name.
I looked at the address and wondered why on earth Simon would live in that part of town. It wasn’t the slums, but it was not far from it. And why would his apartment be under his wife’s maiden name? I had a lot of questions for my son when I found him. It took me twenty minutes in the downtown traffic to reach the apartment complex. It was an older one and not well maintained. The facade was cracked and faded. The awning over the entrance had a rip in it and a long scrap of it smattered in the wind. I walked through the door and there was no security, not even a god damned lock on the front door. Why the hell would Simon live in a place like this? I took one look at the elevator and decided four flights of stairs were the safer option. To my satisfaction, my breathing barely changed as I reached the fourth floor. I may be getting older, but there was nothing wrong with my physics. I found the door labelled ‘Hana Bishop’ and knocked. There was no reply and I listened to try to hear if someone was home or not. If Denny’s men had been here already it might mean this Hana would be hesitant to open the door to anyone else. I couldn’t hear anything, but knocked again, with a little more force this time.
“Go away.” A female voice sounded from within the apartment. She sounded scared and I wondered how much pressure Denny’s boys had put on her. Just because they were supposed to be the good guys didn’t mean they weren’t heavy-handed sometimes.
“I’m just here to talk to Simon,” I called to her.
“He isn’t here. Go away.” The door behind me opened up and a woman my senior peered out. She glared at me and I sighed.
“Then I would like to talk to you, Hana. Could you please open the door before your lovely neighbour calls the cops on me,” I tried.
“I have nothing to say to you. Mrs Rowinski, everything is fine, no need to call the cops.” I was getting seriously irritated by the situation. I took a deep breath, I really didn’t want my first interaction with my daughter-in-law to be me screaming at her through a closed door.
“I’m not going to harm you, I won’t even insist on coming inside. Could you just please open the door so I won’t have to talk to it.” I tried to use a gentle voice and sound as non-threatening as I could.
“Why should I trust you?” did she really think I was such a bad father I would hurt my own son? Then it hit me. Like the idiot I was, I hadn’t introduced myself. Of course she didn’t trust me.
“Sorry, I should have started out by introducing myself. I’m Hunter Gardner,” I therefore called out, glaring at the nosy neighbour that now knew who I was.
“Is that supposed to mean something to me? Can’t you just go away? I haven’t had the best day.” The last sentence was spoken with a slight wobble to it. I was in the process of making her cry and I felt like shit. But at the same time I was furious that she didn’t know who I was.
“I’m Simon’s father.”
“No, I have met my ex-husband’s father, he is not you,” she called. This conversation was seriously getting out of hand, there were too many things that confused me.
“Open the fucking door or I will break it down!” The last of my patience had gone and I heard a sharp intake of a breath from the other side of the door.
“Fine. But don’t try anything, I’m armed and I will use it,” she called. I wondered if she had a gun or a knife and how adept she was at using it. I heard the locks click as she unlocked them and then the door slowly opened about four inches. Sky blue eyes peeked out at me, stealing by breath and my thoughts from me. “You.” she sounded as surprised as I felt. For the first time in my life I envied my son.