Nothing Ordinary by M J Marlow (books to read now .TXT) 📖

room. The way the weasel looked at her made her skin crawl. Barney made Annie leave but she hovered outside, worrying about what was happening in there. Then she heard her grandfather’s cry of anger and cracked the door open. “Of course he means it. He wants access to your granddaughter, Mr. Weber,” the man in the suit was saying. “You hand her over and he won’t press charges against you.” “I am not giving him my granddaughter!” Barney snapped at the man. “I will go to jail before I allow such a heinous thing to happen.” “Then you will spend the rest of your life in prison, Mr. Weber,” the man replied. He shut the briefcase and nodded. He turned to see her coming back inside and he could see why his client wanted her. She was the very image of a Boticelli angel. He schooled his features even as he thought he had never seen anything so perfectly beautiful in his life. “Mrs. Owens,” he nodded to her as he shut his briefcase. “Grandfather,” Annie said as she shut the door behind the man and locked it. “You will tell me the truth now. What is going on?” He told her then and she was both proud and very angry at him. “You can’t let them blackmail you into doing something wrong, Grandfather. Of course this information must go to the authorities. You let me worry about staying safe.” “I can’t lose you, too, Anneke!” Barney replied, his eyes misting with tears. “I could go to prison if I knew you were safe.” “But I would be alone then,” Annie shook her head, “and they could do whatever they wanted to me.” She shook her head. “We need to stay together, Grandfather. Tell me where these files are…” He was shaking his head. “Grandfather, you can’t let them frame you for something you did not do!” She looked at him in frustration, her fists clenched. “Vater hat Recht! Sie sind ein störrischer Mann!” “You are not to worry about this, Anneke,” Barney insisted. Barney shook his head and turned away from her and she knew the conversation was over. How could he expect her to accept this decision? She was not going to let her grandfather go to prison! She would find those files and get them to Agent Taylor and he would keep them both safe. That was what the FBI did wasn’t it? They would help them get to General Owens where these men could not touch her grandfather or her. She left the room with the cared the agent had left on the nightstand and went to find a phone to make the call where her grandfather would not hear her. “Mr. Weber,” he said as he slipped into the room. Barney opened his eyes and saw who was standing there. He looked resigned. “You know why I’m here, don’t you?” Barney nodded. “You’re certain she does not know where the information is hidden.” “I would do nothing to endanger Anneke,” Barney assured him. “The files are hidden far too well for anyone to find them without my help.” “I am sorry it had to be this way, Barney,” the man said as he raised the gun. “Don’t worry about Anneke. We will keep an eye on her for you.” He watched Barney close his eyes. “Goodbye, old man.” Annie heard the gunshot from the nurses’ station. She dropped the receiver and ran, knowing that it was her grandfather who was shot. She saw a man moving away from the door dressed all in black and wearing a mask. He entered the stairwell and she saw the predator in his dark blue eyes as the door closed. She entered the room, and stood frozen on the threshold in shock as she saw the blood on his chest. “Grandfather!” she screamed as the darkness rose up and slammed into her mind. Someone pulled her out of the way and she found herself in Pamela’s arms, sobbing. “Why?” she sobbed as Doc Ryan came running. “He was no threat to anyone.” Pamela didn’t say that Annie could very probably have been lying there beside him. Whoever had shot him had just left. Annie felt a lump of ice form in her chest. If she hadn’t gone to make that call, she would have been here and her grandfather would not have been shot! “He is all I have,” Annie said so softly Pamela almost didn’t catch her words. She looked up at the woman in dismay and despair. “Why would anyone hurt my Grandfather? It doesn’t make sense!” Pamela stayed with Annie as more and more people arrived. She refused to leave as the investigators took their shots. Pamela kept an eye on the now silent and statue-like girl as she sat in a chair near the room. She was in shock, the nurse realized. She took off her jacket and wrapped it around the girl and Annie looked up at her with such an expression of loss on her face it was like a physical blow to the soft-hearted woman. Annie was not let into the room while the doctor looked her grandfather over. Barnabas Weber’s condition was grave. Annie started to call her father to let him know that Barney was being taken into surgery and then she burst into tears. Her grandfather was the only family member she had left. There were only three people she could call now and they were all very far away. “Can I get you something, Mrs. Owens?” a volunteer asked as Annie sat in the waiting room with Captain Ryan. She shook her head. “Captain?” “Coffee, black,” Ryan nodded and then ignored the woman. He missed her look of disappointment as he focused on the girl in front of him. She was so composed now it was almost frightening. “Annie?” he said softly and saw her jump. She had forgotten he was here with her. “Do you have anyone at all that we can call for you?” “My godfather or my father and brother-in-law,” Annie said softly. “I came here to be with my grandfather because he is all I have left of my father’s family. My parents never spoke of her family. General Owens agreed with him that it might be better for me to be away from Germany.” He could tell she was worrying about what she should do but she was not voicing that fear. All her concern was for her grandfather now. “He has to make it, Captain. I can’t lose another person I care for.” “Of course he’ll make it,” a deep voice filled with assurance spoke from the doorway. Ryan and Annie both looked up to see the silver-haired Oscar Bayer standing there. He approached Annie and he was the very image of concern. He held his hands out to her and she took them uncertainly. “Your grandfather is a very strong man, Anneke. You have to hold on to that now and not let yourself worry.” He glanced down at her swelling abdomen. “You don’t want to endanger your child.” “I can not help but worry, Uncle,” Annie nodded and bit her lip. “Grandfather is in trouble and now he has been shot! How can I not?” Her grandfather had told her a lot about her mother’s brother and he had not liked him. He said Doctor Bayer was a cold and demanding man. He had also told her not to trust him, despite the fact that he was her uncle. Her mother had refused to speak of him to her and she had always wondered why. Barney said it was because Bayer would promise the world to you with one breath and take it away from you with the next. Ryan brought her his cell phone and she called her godfather. “General Owens, please,” Annie said when the call went through. “Father, it’s Anneke.” She bit her lip to keep the tears from falling. “What?” She smiled briefly. “I’ll be looking for him, sir. Thank you.” She hung up and gave Ryan his phone back. Jeffrey was on his way already. She did not stop to wonder how they had known she needed him. It was enough that they knew and her brother-in-law and closest friend after her beloved husband was coming to her. The two men watched as she went back to the window and looked at the moonlight glistening on the water. Bayer turned to Ryan and his face was stern as he asked the man what was going on. “Do you know what happened, Peter?” Bayer asked Ryan bluntly. Ryan saw his eyes going back to the girl and an expression of pain in his expression. “She looks so much like her mother, it hurts.” “She’s your niece, isn’t she?” Ryan asked. Bayer nodded, and the look on the man’s face warned him away. He changed the subject. “My men are looking into that now,” Ryan replied, guiding the man away so Annie was not disturbed by their conversation. Ryan had forgotten that Anneke’s mother was related to this man. “Barney was shot deliberately, Oscar,” he said once they were out of earshot. “Like an execution.” “Why?” Bayer asked him. “I have never met a more harmless person in my life than Barney Weber. Perhaps his accomplices came back to make certain he remained silent?” He saw Ryan’s expression and he frowned. “You don’t believe he had anything to do with the break in, do you?” “I’m hoping he didn’t, Oscar,” Ryan replied, as he looked over at the silent girl. It was bad enough she was losing her grandfather. To be told he was nothing more than a thief would be more than he thought the girl could handle. “But I’m a cop. We don’t take things at their face value. That’s the way mistakes are made.” “I’d better get back to the Clinic,” Bayer said after a moment of reflection. “Anneke,” he said softly as he went to Annie. “You are welcome to come to my home. You are family.” “I will think about it, Uncle,” Anneke replied. She was polite but not welcoming. So she was a perceptive person, he noted. Anyone who took this man at face value was an idiot. Bayer did not like her answer but he was too much a politician to argue with her. There was something going on here that Ryan did not like. “Mrs. Owens?” the surgeon came out two hours later. Annie turned from the window and the hope on her face was painful. The surgeon was tired and his expression gave nothing away. “Your grandfather came through surgery well. He’s in Recovery now.” He nodded to the surgical nurse. “Miss Roberts will take you to him.” Annie went with the nurse gladly and the surgeon turned to Ryan. “He’s not going to live, Captain. The bullet was too near his heart.” He shook his head. “That poor kid. I understand he was her last living relative.” “Her parents died two months ago in a car accident; Her husband is MIA,” Ryan nodded. “Barney brought her home with him after their estate was settled so she could have some time to think.” He ran his hand through his hair. “She has only her husband’s father and brother and her mother’s brother and daughter as family now.” He frowned as he saw two men in dark suits coming towards him. What was this about? The surgeon excused himself and Ryan faced these people and waited. They had some reason to be here and he knew it was not going to be something this girl should have to face. They whipped out their identification and Ryan was certain. “What does the FBI want with Barney Weber?” he asked as they went into the waiting room for some privacy. “Mr. Weber was our inside man,” Charles Taylor, the lead agent replied. “We have suspected Bayer and Guthrie for some