Page 75 of S.O.S. Billboard

“Can I ask about Ethan, then?” O’Shea prevaricated.

Anna gave a chin dip, and O’Shea continued.

“The reason Ethan disappears into the woods,” she pondered. “Was that initially part of your plan in case Barnie got ugly during the divorce? And since then, Ethan’s just been running with it because it’s fun?”

“Yes and no,” Anna revealed. “It’s actually…something we started as more of a game, with him not really understanding the stakes. And yes, he enjoyed it a lot. But in the past year, we’ve ramped it up. But he’s older now, and understands his safety might depend on it.”

Anna sucked in air. “You see, Barnie was furious that I wanted a divorce. He thought it would tarnish his reputation in town, especially if details got out about his abuse. But I usedthat against him.” The strong woman squared her shoulders. “I told him that if he didn’t give me an uncontested divorce, the house, and full custody of Ethan, I’d go to my cousin who’s a Boston journalist, and do a tell-all on just the kind of person my husband really is. There are bones that have been broken…”

“For which he always took you far away to obtain treatment.” O’Shea wanted to punch the asshole.

“Correct.” Anna hesitated before continuing, but O’Shea’s sympathetic ear clearly made her next words spill over. “But it…it isn’t just me he’d been abusing. It’s the town.”

The town? Here’s what O’Shea wanted to hear.

Anna’s throat convulsed with nerves. “Barnie and his town manager have been skimming from the municipal coffers for the last five years, and I have documentation hidden away to prove it. The papers are in a safe in the garage that Barnie doesn’t know about. The safe is small, but guaranteed that someone can’t destroy it to get inside, which is good. My house has actually been broken into several times in the past few months, with things tossed everywhere, so I know he’s been looking for those documents.”

“Wow,” O’Shea marveled. “That sucks. But Anna, you have some balls, girl.” O’Shea would have feared that the man would be out for blood after that.

Which maybe wasn’t so far off.

“Right. Because I thought, at least for the first year after we split, that I was in the clear,” Anna laughed bitterly. “That shows you how naïve I was. In the past ten months, Barnie has ramped up his threats; orchestrating those break-ins, telling me if I don’t sign the houseandEthan over to him and give him those damning documents, that I’ll find serious trouble on my doorstep. He never elucidates, he just says it all with a smile in his voice.”

Yup. O’Shea already wanted tothroat-punch the bastard.

“Since then, there have been other…incidents,” Anna revealed. “Broken lawn furniture, paint splashed on my driveway; things I’ve taken care of myself and tried my best to ignore. But just two weeks ago, in the middle of the night, something a whole lot scarier happened. Our gas/CO2 alarm went off. I evacuated myself and Ethan immediately, then I called the fire department. They found that someone had started my car in the garage, and put holes in the adjoining door to my living room. Luckily, I’d purchased those gas sniffers and had them installed a few weeks earlier, or who knows what would have happened.”

She shivered, and O’Shea once again patted the woman’s arm.

“Getting my door fixed was terribly inconvenient, and not inexpensive. A pretty penny, actually, when money for extras has been tough to come by.”

“Don’t tell me,” O’Shea interjected. “No alimony or child support from good old Barnie.”

“No. None.”

That tracked with the kind of profile O’Shea was pulling together in her head of the major douchebag.

“Now, I’m scared to death over what he’ll do next,” Anna continued. “But as much as I’d give the jerk my house to put an end to his terror campaign, I’ll never let him get his hands on Ethan. Never.” Tears came to Anna’s eyes.

O’Shea saw red. She hated men who used their positions of power to lord themselves over others. She’d seen it first hand with the corrupt officers on her police force back home, and she knew how close those pricks had come to winning. If it hadn’t been for Brigid and SOS, the town’s police chief and his cronies would have owned everything and everyone in their county.

An intervention such as that would be prudent for Anna, right about now. “Would you like the SOS team to have a chatwith Barnie?” O’Shea asked. She knew that the team would enjoy scaring the crap out of the asshole, and as a bonus, they weren’t living or operating under the man’s jurisdiction, so retribution would be harder for Barnie to orchestrate.

“I… I’ve thought about it,” Anna said, rinsing off the final dirty pan. “But I seriously don’t want to ramp things up or get anybody else involved. Barnie could makeseveretrouble happen for anyone who crosses him.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” O’Shea assured her. “Del’s people know how to take care of themselves, and they have a lot of high-powered authority behind them; folks who won’t be scared by Barnie’s penny-ante bullshit.”

O’Shea wasn’t certain, but she’d heard rumors that Mizzay, in particular, had ties to the DOJ and the FBI. That certainly trumped any cronies a select-chairman of a small, rural town could muster.

“I’ll think about it,” Anna told her. “But maybe I’ve just been imagining that he’s behind the things that have happened. It could just be vandals; someone who takes exception to single moms.”

They both knew that wasn’t the case, but O’Shea sensed Anna’s need to ease off the subject, and stepped back a bit. “Okay. Think about it, though. A word in Barnie’s ear, a well-placed phone call. It could all be over with quickly, and you wouldn’t have to worry anymore.”

“Thanks, O’Shea. I’ll take it into consideration. But really?” She forced a smile. “I feel much better just knowing you’re here. If Barnie tries anything, you might be able to catch or stop him and his cronies before things escalate.”

Oh, she’d stop him alright. With a boot to his inflated testicles.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” O’Shea replied. “And I’m glad you told me what’s been going on. It’ll light a fire undermy ass to do some things I’d been dragging my feet on. I’ve been meaning to sign up for a firearms safety course, then I can apply for an FID card as well as a permit to carry in this state.”

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