Uncovered

Uncovered

For the past several weeks Faith had felt ill at ease, her sixth sense working overtime, telling her that someone was watching her. She hadn’t had these feelings since Hurricane Katrina had interrupted her undercover stint at the Charity Hospital in New Orleans where she was developing evidence against highly placed hospital officials in a fraud and corruption case involving millions of misdirected stolen dollars. Katrina interrupted that case just as it interrupted the lives of all the inhabitants of New Orleans.

Faith, as did thousands of other New Orleans’ residents, pulled up stakes and relocated after the devastation of Katrina. She missed her duplex in Algiers with its trumpet flowers and marigolds, but she did not miss the extreme heat of summer and the constant threat of hurricanes.

She relocated to northwest Arkansas to the little town of Eureka Springs, where many of her friends had moved over the years and had created an art-friendly conclave amongst what was a conservative right wing community. Somehow the artists and the conservatives had managed to accommodate each other with the result that Eureka Springs was a vibrant thriving town in an area that otherwise relied on the Walton family and the Razorbacks at the University of Arkansas for sustenance and purpose.

Today, in the middle of winter, Faith left the library where she volunteered, and felt especially uneasy as she got into her four-wheel drive Jeep Cherokee parked on a down-hill-cant in the hilly town. She would have been even more uneasy if she had noticed the brown cardboard box wedged in the well behind the driver’s seat.

Needing some think-time to sort out the uninvited nagging mental discomfort she had been feeling, she pulled into the parking area of the State Park where she had a view of the skaters on the frozen pond. Being that it was the middle of a weekday, only a handful of skaters were on the ice.

She sat for several minutes in her Jeep with the heater running, sorting through her thoughts. If anyone were stalking her, it would almost have had to emanate from New Orleans. She had, after all, accumulated a lot of incriminating evidence against some very powerful people, and those people probably felt uncomfortable knowing what she knew, even though she no longer worked for the fraud unit of the State Police. On the other hand, she wasn’t totally sure that the bad guys knew her identity. And why would they follow her to Arkansas? Surely she wasn't that much of a threat.

Needing to stretch her legs, Faith got out of the Jeep and did some knee bends and stretches while watching a skater attempt a twirl. She did not see the unkempt long-haired bundled young man who ran at her from her back, bowled her over, and jumped in her car which was still running with the key in it. Carjackings were rare in Eureka Springs, but not unheard of.

“Come back here, you bastard,” she yelled as her jeep disappeared around a turn leaving the park. Instinctively, she reached for her phone. Not there! It was in the jeep with her wallet and the thief. She caught a ride back into town with one of the skaters whose afternoon she interrupted.

Turns out, Faith was the luckiest woman in Arkansas that day, and the carjacker was the unluckiest thief. The carjacker drove through downtown past the library, and the man from New Orleans who had put the box in the car, but had been taking a restroom break when Faith left, recognized the jeep, saw the long hair of the driver, and assumed Faith was driving. The number for the trigger phone in the box was preprogrammed into the bomber’s phone.

The bomber pressed the “1” key on his phone and the jeep erupted into a ball of fire. The blast instantly killed the driver and disfigured the body beyond recognition. Luckily no bystanders were injured. Satisfied with a job well done, he texted his employer in New Orleans a simple message, “All Done.” He stopped in Berryville to eat, on a circuitous drive back to New Orleans.

Faith’s wallet and remnants of her phone identified Faith’s body, and she was buried. Her sister took care of the arrangements, and closed out Faith’s life in Eureka Springs. The Montgomery County Library in Silver Spring, Maryland, got a new volunteer.

Some powerful figures In New Orleans rested easy. Little did they know the plans that were being laid for them.